With an energy born of despair, the Nine-Headed Bird of Chu let out all the air in its lungs. A piercing screech echoed throughout the land. Even in the far distance, some demonic beasts cowered in fear. Everything was bathed in Ghost Energy. The despair and hatred of the ghosts spread far, but most of it was focused around the 9-core demonic beasts. Of course, Cao Yun received all of that directly. His already weakened soul shook.

Now that the chains had exploded, his body was fully revealed. Cao Yun was covered in his own blood and he almost had no strength left. His injuries were physical yes, but his exhaustion didn't stem from those. Instead, his exhaustion was caused by his soul. Even now, he was fighting the soul attacks of the Nine-Headed Bird of Chu. But with its last attack, it pushed Cao Yun further.

Cao Yun's spear collided with the seven necks. In an instant, they all snapped. When this sound echoed, it added a layer to its previous howling. For an instant, Cao Yun was paralyzed, maybe because of that screech, or maybe because of exhaustion. No matter what, the result was the same. The massive body of the Nine-Headed Bird of Chu fell straight toward the young man. It crushed him and threw him directly toward the ground below.

Before he could regain his composure, Cao Yun found himself encased in pure Death Energy. There was a thick layer of Death Energy over the area where they had been fighting for some time. Honestly, it barely affected the young man. In fact, it even helped him soothe his own soul. His Drop of Wrath could absorb the Death Energy and convert it into strength even though it couldn't turn it back into actual soul. However, Cao Yun was aware of the real problem. He had analyzed this area and he knew what was beneath this layer of Death Energy. Thus, he tried to mobilize his spiritual senses to fly out of the way. Even with the corpse of the Nine-Headed Bird of Chu above him, he could simply fly away. Unfortunately, he realized that he had misjudged his consumption of energy. He now lacked the fortitude to do so.

Suddenly, a terrible cold spread throughout his entire body. He was colder than he had ever been before. His thoughts also turned cold. In his sea of consciousness, the infinite ocean turned into ice while the sky became white with condensation, small icy crystals appeared all over the place. Soon, the air itself might turn into ice as well. There were only two fires fighting against this blizzard. His Drop of Wrath and the hellish storm created by his Shen, the Fire Spirit, were burning as hot as they could. For now, they could keep the cold away but they couldn't get rid of it. Even beneath the tornado of flames, the ocean was now pure ice.

Finally, Cao Yun collided with the ground. On top of him was the massive corpse of the Nine-Headed Bird of Chu. Instantly, Cao Yun's first idea was to send it into his spatial ring. Indeed, now that it was dead, it wouldn't be able to resist it at all. However, Cao Yun could barely control his own Qi, not even his blood. There was nothing wrong with either of those. In fact, the problem stemmed from his own soul. Cao Yun had a terrible time trying to focus and send commands to his own body. Everything required him to break through the ice using his already faltering fire.

From all around him, Cao Yun could feel more and more cold getting inside him. This entire area was saturated with Ghost Energy. It was both trapped and protected by the layer of Death Energy above and in the ground. Thus, it had condensed to an unimaginable degree. Worse than that, Cao Yun was aware that the Hun of the Nine-Headed Bird of Chu was leaving its body very soon. But with this layer of Death Energy, it would get trapped and probably turn into Ghost Energy. Along with the Ghost Energy already within the dead beast that was getting released, this area would become much worse in a matter of minutes.

Many voices resounded in Cao Yun's mind.

"Save us!"

"Please, spare me!"

"Please, just... just kill me..."

"Not the children!"

"No...!"

"I hate them!"

"Die! All of you should die!"

Among those screams, Cao Yun could see scenes of destruction and despair. Those were intertwined voices of both victims and tormentors. All their emotions and broken Hun were mingled into a big mess. Now it simply latched unto any living being it could find. Considering the utter chaos, not even ghosts could be formed here. There were just fragments of memories mixed together with contradicting emotions. Cao Yun's own mind was getting affected by it. In order to keep his sanity, he only focused on the two fires burning bright in his sea of consciousness.

Staying in that situation for too long would ultimately lead to his insanity and death. Then, he began to feel it. His own soul was getting sucked out of his body. Spiritual senses were in fact one's soul outside of their body. But it was controlled. Right now, his entire soul was being sucked out. Worse than that, even his Soul Embryo was slowly being sucked outside. Even though its mental representation was in the center of the fire tornado, it was getting fainter and fainter, dimmer and dimmer. Soon, Cao Yun's Soul Embryo would be completely out.

If one's soul completely exited one's body, the person would just die. The body couldn't survive that process. Immediately, his Po would turn into Death Energy and his body would die. Even if Cao Yun was somehow able to get his soul back in after that, it would still be too late, he would only be able to delay the inevitable for a few minutes or hours at most. Only a true Immortal could survive the complete separation of their soul and flesh.

"Boy! Focus on my voice, boy!"

Dian Mo's voice stayed as calm as possible. Obviously, he was desperate too, but he wanted his voice to stand out over the chorus of the Ghost Energy.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"You can get out of this. Just stay calm and focus."

His words helped Cao Yun's mind. It stopped wandering all over the place. And indeed, Cao Yun could get out of this. In fact, he already had a good idea on how to do so. But there was a difference between a mere idea and actual execution. Hopefully, his idea was right. What he planned to do was simply imitate nature. This Ghost Energy was kept confined by Death Energy. Thus, he might be able to push back against it with his own Death Energy. However, the risk was real as he needed to expose his own Po beforehand.

Knowing that he had very little time, Cao Yun took the risk. The heat from the Drop of Wrath subsided. The very drop of blood started to freeze just as Cao Yun was circulating his 'Death Verses'. 'Living Death' helped him turn a huge part of his own Po into Death Energy before it could be frozen completely. Most of his emotions were dissipating. In fact, for a moment, Cao Yun didn't care whether he lived or died. Then, the images of his friends, of his uncle, of his sister, and even his slain family, appeared to him. This was faint but it kept the fire going for a little while.

Thankfully, his idea paid off. The Ghost Energy invading his sea of consciousness was pushed back by his Death Energy. Quickly, Cao Yun spread this Death Energy around his Drop of Wrath. The Ghost Energy fled from it. Thus, Cao Yun turned more and more of his own Po into Death Energy. During death, Death Energy was supposed to help separate the Hun from the body. So it didn't surprise Cao Yun much that Death Energy could push back against Ghost Energy. One was Yang and the other Yin, they were like water and oil even though their interaction was essential.

From his Drop of Wrath, Cao Yun unleashed his seven Turbid Demons. He engulfed each one of them in Death Energy and they flew toward the ocean below. They all struck the ice, breaking it over and over again. It kept on reforming but each time, Cao Yun was sending surges of Death Energy into the icy water so less and less ice formed. Most of his Po had now turned into Death Energy. Honestly, Cao Yun wasn't sure how long he could keep it up. After all, he didn't know how much of his Po he could actually turn into Death Energy before he couldn't go back.

If all of his Po was Death Energy, then Cao Yun would basically be dead. But if he didn't turn enough of it, he couldn't fight back the Ghost Energy that was sucking his soul out of his Upper Dantian.

Cao Yun's body was shivering. Paradoxically, it was a good sign. Indeed, his body was actually moving even if it was not voluntary. From the maelstrom of fire around his Nine Soul Peaks, the young man sent surges of Black Heart Flame. He created seals with them and was trying to set up some kind of array formation in his own sea of consciousness in order to chase the Ghost Energy away. Dian Mo started to help him with the process.

As the Black Heart Flame traveled in his sea of consciousness, it melted some ice crystals in the air. Thus, it began to rain in his own mind and soul. The rain was cold but it was not ice, so there was some improvement...

Pinned down by the massive corpse, Cao Yun had to get rid of the Nine-Headed Bird of Chu. Upon its death, its Hun had left its body and a large chunk of it was now trapped in this area. Even now, it was strengthening the Ghost Energy all around this place. One way or another Cao Yun had to leave before it turned into Ghost Energy. In such an environment, there was no way its Hun wouldn't be damaged and corrupted into Ghost Energy. So Cao Yun focused a lot of his soul to give commands to his Qi. Finally, he was able to focus just enough to activate his spatial ring. Using Evil Qi in the air, Cao Yun's spatial ring sent surges of energy around the vast corpse. Now that it was dead, it didn't resist at all and was sucked into the small ring on Cao Yun's finger. Now, nothing was physically keeping him down.

Pushing once more with all his will, Cao Yun covered his own bloody body with Black Heart Flame. Immediately, he felt the Ghost Energy cower away from him. Some of it was even consumed by the flame. Without any hesitation, Cao Yun jumped toward the sky, he didn't even try to fly. Indeed, he wanted to leave as soon as he could and using his spiritual senses to fly would be harder as they would be attacked by the Ghost Energy instantly.

Thanks to his powerful legs, Cao Yun jumped high enough to go through the Death Energy layer once more. However, when he reached the skies above, he realized that he was even more exhausted than he had thought. He actually didn't have the strength to use his spiritual senses. His soul was too exhausted. If he kept on pushing, it would simply break apart. Thus, Cao Yun began to fall back toward the ground. This time, he wouldn't be able to muster the strength to escape. Slowly but surely, his soul would be sucked out of his body. Racking his brains as much as he could, he didn't see a way out of this.

Suddenly, his body stopped in midair. Hongyu had just caught him. She was weak and a bit out of it, but she had been close enough to catch her brother. Although she didn't know everything, she could clearly tell that the area down below was bad news. If she had fallen in it, she probably would have died. This wasn't a place where living beings could dwell for very long, unless they had exceptional souls. With enough time, the layer of Death Energy would collapse under the natural effects of the Sun. Once it was gone, the Ghost Energy would dissipate rather quickly. But until then, this zone was pure death.

Cao Yun could tell that he was losing consciousness. Before it happened, he took out two pills from his spatial ring. Those were Celestial Autumn Leaf pills, 4-star Heaven pills meant to soothe the mind and appease anxiety while replenishing Qi and blood. Such a pill was usually used before or after accomplishing a draining task to keep one's mind as clear as possible. Although it had no direct effect on one's soul, it could still be used to help when one's soul was strained. But it couldn't heal any injury to one's soul. Thankfully, Cao Yun's soul had only been exhausted completely. At least, he didn't think it was injured. Hopefully, it wasn't...

Hongyu regained some strength, just like Cao Yun. Then, the young man gave her one last pill, a Molten Feather Soothing pill. Hongyu immediately felt its effects and started to recover slightly. As she was slowly getting better, she felt the body of her brother relax completely and go limp. He had lost consciousness. Thus, she flew into the distance, as far away from this place as she could. She tried to fly as high as possible to get closer to the heat of the Sun. It helped her resist faster. But she also had to rest.

-

When Cao Yun opened his eyes, he found himself on the roof of a large and tall building. By his side, Hongyu was also resting, her body close to his. Cao Yun didn't even stand up. In fact, he couldn't even lift his head up. He simply lay there and rested. Despite what had happened, he didn't try to enter his sea of consciousness, focus on his soul, or anything at all. He was thoroughly spent. There was not an ounce of energy left in his body at the moment.

For a few days, Cao Yun and Hongyu simply slept. They had absolutely no idea how much time was passing. All around them was the broken carcass of a large city. Most likely, it had been the capital of the Huogu Province. And the building on which they were sleeping was the tallest of the city. The farther they were from the ground, the less Death Energy and Evil Qi there were, allowing them to rest better.

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