Cao Yun had absolutely no doubt about it. That small chick was a Bone Demon. In fact, it was the very first stage of a Bone Demon's development, a Bone Child. In the past, he had encountered those creatures in the Yellow Death World, the dying inner world of Cleansed Asura. Seeing even one of those things in the Hongchen Kingdom was truly shocking. It showed how far the corruption of the war had gone. This land was so full of Evil Qi and Death Energy that it had produced those creatures.

Bone Demons were quite literally made of Death Energy. Instead of using Qi, they used Evil Qi. Slowly, they would gather more and more Death Energy until they truly became a problem. Honestly, it was very unlikely that something stronger than a Bone Child could emerge. Even Bone Warriors would require decades, if not centuries, of this land remaining in such a poor state. But, one way or another, this war would end and then, there would be time to purge this land. Unless the war cost the lives of almost everyone, this wasn't a problem. And if it became a problem, that would be proof of a much bigger issue...

Anyway, once the shock of this discovery had passed, Cao Yun was intrigued. Indeed, Bone Demons were a physical embodiment of Death Energy. As it turned out, this was exactly what Cao Yun was trying to produce with 'Soul Chains'. This verse of 'Death Verses' was about manifesting one's Po in the physical realm. Although the very first manifestation was chains, this wasn't limited to it at all. Thus, if Cao Yun were to study this Bone Child, he might understand this part of the Dao of Death faster. Obviously, he wanted to achieve such a success. Understanding even a tiny part of one Dao was almost impossible for anyone under the Sage realm. Any small improvement Cao Yun could make was a trump card he could use.

Although Cao Yun couldn't fight a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior in the physical realm, he was confident about his soul. His soul attacks might become his most powerful weapons against Emperor Weide. After all, his Qi cultivation wouldn't be able to catch up with him. Just to become a 6th-grade Spirit Warrior would take him half a decade, in the best case.

With all that in mind, Cao Yun did not hesitate. His spiritual senses coalesced around the Bone Child. The tiny chick wasn't even aware of its surroundings. Suddenly, a crushing force pinned it to the ground. The bone creature couldn't do a single thing, it couldn't even screech. Then, Cao Yun arrived closer and towered over the powerless bird. He spread his spiritual senses deeper and deeper into the Bone Demon.

There, the young man was able to sense the Death Energy. Although the bones seemed real, they were not made of matter. Cao Yun could see a very complex and intricate network of Death Energy. Through it all, Evil Qi was coursing in the Bone Demon just like Qi was coursing through Cao Yun's flesh. In a matter of minutes, Cao Yun had a perfect map of the Bone Demon's body. He was even able to sense the outside Bone Energy and Evil Qi going in and out of it, in very tiny quantities. Thanks to his 'See Through the Mud', Cao Yun was especially perceptive. Thus, he was trying to piece together how Death Energy had shaped itself to form a physical bone.

Immediately, Cao Yun tried to duplicate the process. He turned a part of his own Po into Death Energy through 'Living Death' and manipulated it with his 'Death Reeling'. Since it was his own Po turned Death Energy, controlling it was much easier. Try as he might, reproducing what he had just seen in nature was much more complex than he had imagined. To be fair, Cao Yun was trying to understand the Dao of Death. It couldn't be as easy as observing and being able to copy on the spot. Otherwise, many cultivators would have mastered it already.

In a sense, what Cao Yun was doing was like something trying to create a bone by using dust. Putting each grain of dust in the exact same way the bone was wouldn't be enough. Cao Yun was looking at the end result of the Death Energy forming these bones. Unfortunately, he needed to observe the process. But for a Bone Child to evolve into a Bone Warrior would take decades. Moreover, this Bone Child wasn't even fully developed yet. However, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. By observing this tiny Bone Child grow up, this might give Cao Yun some pointers about the Dao of Death.

Since he didn't have the time to study it for years right now, Cao Yun put the Bone Child in his spatial ring after putting several seals all around it, just to be safe. No living thing could be put inside a spatial ring and survive. Thankfully, a Bone Demon wasn't a living thing at all. So Cao Yun could keep it there for a very long time. He had added seals just in case the Death Energy would somehow leak from the Bone Child. Although he wasn't able to physically manifest it, Cao Yun knew how to control it. He wasn't absolutely sure how long the Demon Child could actually remain unaffected within his spatial ring, but it was more than a few decades for sure.

In fact, Cao Yun thought about it some more. He could quite literally build an army of Demon Bones and keep them in his spatial ring. He probably should have tried to take some out of the Yellow Death World. Still, he had obtained a few treasure there, like the world tree seed. And if he truly mastered the Dao of Death, he might be able to create Demon Bones by himself, and even stronger creatures. Honestly, Cao Yun was a bit apprehensive about becoming a master of death itself. It was a bit unsettling. But at the same time, it was also extremely cool...

Once he had made sure that there was no other Bone Demon around, Cao Yun went through his weekly cultivation session. Each time, the session was better than the previous one. However, Cao Yun had reached the limit of his optimizations. Indeed, his session was just slightly better than his previous one. He lasted maybe one or two breaths more and the results were barely perceivable. Of course, Cao Yun and Dian Mo could tell that the results were better for sure, but the improvement was almost nothing. That wasn't a bad thing though. It actually meant that Cao Yun's 'Asura Strengthens Deva, Deva Enlightens Asura' had been thoroughly developed. Even with his best efforts, making this cultivation method even better was almost impossible because it was already of a very high quality.

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After he was done, Cao Yun gazed off into the distance. They were going to cross the worst part of this land. He could feel Ghost Energy becoming denser and denser. Although he was practicing the Dao of Death, Cao Yun was focused on Death Energy and he knew much more about Po than Hun. So this part of the land might be a problem. But at the same time, it was also an opportunity. Besides, it truly was the most direct path toward the Wubei Sect. It wasn't as though he was wasting his time. His schedule was tight if he hoped to save his sister. In fact, he didn't actually know how long he had to get to her. So if he could conciliate his need to go to the Wubei Sect with his soul training, it was perfect.

With more caution, Cao Yun and Hongyu ventured forward. As they were going further and further in, they could feel the temperature dropping, the light dimming and a sense of foreboding growing in them. Ghost Energy was almost as potent as Death Energy in this part of the land.

With Evil Qi, Death Energy was generally the most common form of corrupted soul. Indeed, the Po was naturally drawn to the earth as it was where it was going after death. On the other hand, the Hun was trying to return to the Heavens, and it was going toward the sky for that. So it was natural for Death Energy to linger longer than Ghost Energy. Besides, as Ghost Energy was drawn to the skies, it was purified by the light and heat of the Sun. Ghost Energy was extremely Yin in nature. Both Death Energy and Ghost Energy were Yin of course, as the soul itself was Yin while the flesh was Yang. But Yin wasn't an absolute category, there were different shades of Yin. Among the soul, Po was more Yang and Hun more Yin. Thus, the same held true between Death Energy and Ghost Energy. As a consequence, Death Energy could remain longer even in a Yang environment.

As they were progressing, Cao Yun realized that the high concentration of Death Energy was the reason why Ghost Energy was also abundant. Indeed, Death Energy had formed some kind of cover, but also barrier, around the Ghost Energy. At the same time, it was protecting the Ghost Energy, while simultaneously preventing it from leaving. By keeping it captive, it increased the concentration of Ghost Energy, making it even harder for it to be dispelled. It truly was a vicious circle. However, as Death Energy would disappear, Ghost Energy would then be affected. As soon as it was affected, Ghost Energy would dispel faster and faster, until only Death Energy remained.

Being in this pool of Ghost Energy wasn't very good, even for Cao Yun. Thus, he and Hongyu were flying above the captive Ghost Energy down below. That being said, Cao Yun was spreading his spiritual senses downward in the hope of improving his understanding. Now and then, he had flashes of memories. He could see scenes of battle, but also scenes of random destruction.

Demons attacked villages with only mortals in it. They committed many atrocities, tortured, burned, and did unspeakable things to humans. All that was just like a game for some of them. The Empyrean Asura Theocracy had chosen the most fanatical of its soldiers to be sent into the Hongchen Kingdom. After all, it was probably a one-way mission. All the demons were mostly certain they were going to die for the glory of the Heavenly Demon God. Of course, they were the most zealous and fanatical of all.

Cao Yun also had flashes from the demons themselves. At one point, he was the poor child being slowly crushed to death between two rocks. The next moment he was a demon delighted to cut up a woman into tiny pieces while she was screaming and begging. Those memories were messing up with his mind. Thankfully, his cultivation was good enough and he could clearly tell the difference between reality and memories. A weaker cultivator could become insane, they could lose their identity and their notion of self in such an ocean of Ghost Energy. Even being close to it was a threat to the sanity of an early Spirit Warrior. Besides, no one in the Hongchen Kingdom was used to dealing with this kind of Ghost Energy at such a high concentration. Too much negativity and desolation had permeated this land. Nothing as atrocious had probably happened since the Great War twenty thousand years ago.

Anyway, the young man and his fenghuang kept on going forward. Landing in order to cultivate would be rather difficult in such an environment. Hopefully, they would have crossed this terrible part of the land in less than a week. After all, it couldn't be too vast...

That being said, Cao Yun decided to be much more careful. This time, he didn't play around with his asura cultivation. Before crossing this place, he unsealed it completely in order to strengthen his spiritual senses.

-

As they were trying to cross this place as fast as they could, Hongyu and Cao Yun suddenly felt a terrible cold. The next moment, a huge shadow passed over them in the sky. It was incredibly big. The shadow itself was as vast as two entire li*. Looking high in the sky, they could see the underside of the giant bird casting this shadow. It was smaller of course, but still incredibly huge. Indeed, it had to be 1 li* long.

After seeing its shape, only then did they hear its screech. It was strident and piercing through their flesh, directly into their souls. With his cultivation, Cao Yun was able to resist it rather well. On the other hand, Hongyu could barely control herself. It was as if someone was lacerating her very soul. Overwhelmed by the pain, Hongyu began to fall down toward the ground. Instead of having Hongyu fly him, Cao Yun decided to fly her. He used his spiritual senses to keep her in the sky alongside him. He pushed his soul to its limit to increase the density of his spiritual senses and protect Hongyu. At the very least, he was able to limit her pain, but she was still in a sorry state.

It was a good thing that Cao Yun had not sealed his asura cultivation. Otherwise, he wasn't completely sure how this screech would have affected him. However, he wasn't out of danger yet. Indeed, he had finally recognized the creature. In the sky, he could see nine long tentacles. Now, he knew that those weren't tentacles. Those were necks. That creature was a Nine-Headed Bird of Chu, a terrifying 9-core demonic beast.

Cao Yun had already seen one after leaving the Yellow Death World. At the time, Matriarch Huang Yufeng and Huang Liyue had fought together to kill that creature. Not only was it a powerful demonic beast, it was specialized in devouring souls, in particular Hun. Indeed, it was fond of humans' Hun. Its feathers were darker than Cao Yun remembered. Most likely, Death Energy had affected it a little, but not much. With the concentration of Ghost Energy down there, it wasn't strange for such a demonic beast to come feast here.

As a tail, the gargantuan beast had only three thick feathers almost as long as its own body. They had made its shadow much bigger than its body actually was. In a sense, they were like a peacock wheel. What Cao Yun had recognized as nine long necks was connecting its main neck to its nine heads. Facing such a monster had been difficult for Matriarch Huang Yufeng who was a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior, so Cao Yun wasn't too pleased with the idea of fighting it either. However, Hongyu was too weak to fly by herself so he had no way of escaping.

* Approximately 1 li = 500 m = 500 yd

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