"Boy, are you sure this is such a good idea?"

As Cao Yun had meditated for quite some time, taking the time to grasp the sensations he had felt as much as he could, he was extremely calm. Still, these words stirred his mind. Indeed, he knew that this was a very dangerous endeavor. First of all, even with all the best circumstances, going against an entire battalion of Spirit Warriors was risky. Of course, Cao Yun would be forced to use his asura cultivation to its fullest if he hoped to slaughter them all. Without it, he might be able to survive the fight and escape, but this wasn't his goal.

What truly worried both Dian Mo and Cao Yun though was something different. All of a sudden, Cao Yun had stumbled upon the perfect opportunity to kill the 5th Imperial Brocade Guards. They were quite literally offering themselves up to him. Indeed, according to what Cao Yun learned, they were going in the worst place possible for them, in the Huogu Province. On the other hand, this was Cao Yun's perfect battlefield. There, he would have a tremendous advantage over his enemies. Either this was a trap for Cao Yun, or a trap for the 5th Imperial Brocade Guards. As a matter of fact, Cao Yun had thought about it as well.

He had some doubts, but he simply couldn't pass up this chance. Getting justice for his family was one thing, but there was something even more important. If he could extract their memories, he might finally be able to learn more about his sister and how long she had. Besides, this was very close to his current location so Cao Yun would lose less than a month going there and back. Still, he couldn't chase his doubts out of his mind. And Dian Mo pointed them out directly.

"I do feel like someone is manipulating me somehow. However, I don't know if it's to harm me or harm them. Honestly, there would be much better ways to harm me, so I'll take my chances. Besides, if I can't even vanquish these 5th Imperial Brocade Guards, I'll have no chance against Emperor Weide."

Although he was just a spirit, Dian Mo's sigh echoed loudly in Cao Yun's mind.

"Don't throw away your life, though."

"You shouldn't worry about that. No matter how many advantages I have, I'll always get more prepared than I actually need to be. I already left a few array formations all over the Rengui & Huogu Provinces. Honestly, I hadn't planned to use them in a fight, but I can use them nonetheless. However, I'll need your help when it comes to the seals those Spirit Warriors undoubtedly have. I'm not all that confident about being able to extract their memories alone."

"Fine by me, boy. I won't claim that no seal can elude me, but very few on this Piaolu planet can. While you fight, I'll only focus on those seals. We might lose some of their memories, but we should still be able to get most of it. But, to be honest, as long as I don't analyze them, I can't promise anything..."

"I understand."

Seeing that he couldn't change Cao Yun's mind, Dian Mo decided to plan with the young man. The array formations left behind by Cao Yun had not been meant to fight at all. They had been used during his cultivation sessions so they were few and far between. That being said, they might still be used for other purposes even at a distance. Among those array formations, many were used to protect Cao Yun from his environment during his cultivation, but also to detect any abnormality around him. Maybe they could use Cao Yun's compass and those array formations for some other purpose.

-

While Dian Mo and Cao Yun were discussing, Huang Liyue met with Huang Cixi. The older woman seemed irritated but didn't dare to speak directly to the young acting Matriarch. As the day was soon over and Huang Cixi was done with her tasks, she turned toward Huang Liyue.

"Ask me what you want to know."

"Did you engineer this fight?"

Huang Cixi looked in the distance, she lost herself in the paintings all around the Phoenix Hall.

"Yes. When I learned about Cao Yun's return, I knew exactly what to do. I made sure Emperor Weide got words of this Nine-Headed Bird of Chu. With my contacts, it was easy to guess that he was obsessed with anything that could help in soul cultivation. This 9-core demonic beast is the best ingredient for any pill of any kind regarding soul cultivation. Although he never inquired about anything of the kind himself, it was obvious for someone who controlled the Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall."

"So you've sent the 5th Imperial Brocade Guards on the chase to the Nine-Headed Bird of Chu..."

"Honestly, I didn't think Cao Yun would kill the bird himself. I had a different plan in mind, but it will still work out pretty well in the end. With what I learned recently, I made sure that Fang Shaolong got the information, knowing he would pass it on to his nephew. From there, it was obvious what Cao Yun would do. But..."

"You didn't know about his sister when you made your plans."

There was judgment in Huang Liyue's eyes. She didn't like how Huang Cixi was manipulating Cao Yun, but she didn't object to her plans either. In the end, she wasn't trying to hurt Cao Yun. But she was clearly using him to get to the throne. Since the beginning, it had been Huang Cixi's goal. Honestly, Huang Liyue had no problem with that. But she had grown attached to Cao Yun and she didn't want him to suffer through Huang Cixi's schemes, even though she also knew that this wasn't Huang Cixi's intentions. Despite her intentions, Cao Yun might suffer all the same.

"According to everything I know about the 5th Imperial Brocade Guards, Cao Yun should be able to best them and massacre them all. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how much information he'll get out of them. But I can assure you that he won't suffer much in that fight."

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Acting Matriarch, I have to disagree with you on that. You've grown too confident about your information network. I do agree that it's good, but it's not perfect at all. Almost no one knows what the 5th Imperial Brocade Guards are actually capable of. Indeed, anyone who saw them in action, apart from Emperor Weide obviously, is dead. Just relying on their cultivation to gauge their strength is absurd. Cao Yun is only a 5th-grade Spirit Warrior. Of course, he's more powerful than most 6th-grade Spirit Warriors and he's learned incredible techniques. With his stealth alone, he might be able to assassinate the leader of the battalion before he's even discovered. But all of that is not enough to kill them all."

"I understand and appreciate your concerns. But you're mistaken on Cao Yun's actual strength. I took into consideration everything I learned of him. Although I admit that I can't know the full extent of the prowess of the 5th Imperial Brocade Guards, I trust Cao Yun to protect his own life. He's not so foolish he would simply go toward his death. In fact, now that I know about his sister, I'm even more confident that he'll triumph. Otherwise, he wouldn't engage them at all."

-

The 5th Imperial Brocade Guards were an elite corps even among all the elite corps of the military. In fact, they were the only guards directly under Emperor Weide's command. The reason for that number came from some historical battle. During a siege that lasted more than seven decades, Emperor Nuwa's forces had almost all been obliterated by the demons. She was trapped in a city with thousands of powerful demons all around. Her allies were fighting all over the planet and couldn't help her easily as they would have had to break through the siege. Da Mo was trying to isolate her while he slaughtered the Four Saints. But Nuwa endured. Her soldiers gave their lives one after the other.

After those seven long decades, only one battalion had remained, it was named the 5th Brocade Battalion. At last, they decided that they had to save Emperor Nuwa's life, no matter what. As every other soldier had died and more than a third of their battalion was dead too, they charged outside. They completely disobeyed Emperor Nuwa's orders and gave absolutely everything they had to create an opening for her while Saint Xun Ke had launched an assault to try to get her out of the city. Emperor Nuwa was able to escape with her life but the entire 5th Brocade Battalion was killed in the battle. In the end, she was the only survivor of the siege.

Thanks to that battle, Emperor Nuwa survived and was able to join with Saint Xun Ke. Without the 5th Brocade Battalion, Emperor Nuwa might have died during that siege, despite Saint Xun Ke's best efforts. To this day, this was a very popular story. Honestly, most of the story was now false, as many things had been exaggerated. Some even claimed that the 5th Brocade Battalion had killed millions of demons in a single day. Since fewer than five hundred soldiers remained alive in the 5th Brocade Battalion when they charged outside, it was more than dubious. But humans liked to have great heroes.

The 5th Imperial Brocade Guards were thus elite soldiers sworn to serve the Emperor until death. If the Emperor asked them to die, they would kill themselves on the spot. If he ordered them to torture to death their entire families, they would do so without any protest. Those were the elite of the elite, and completely loyal to the Emperor, to a fault. So it didn't surprise Cao Yun that they were the ones who had carried out his orders against both the Shui family and the Cao family. Other families had probably been eradicated by Emperor Weide.

This battalion was made solely of Spirit Warriors. In total, a thousand Spirit Warriors were forming this battalion. Most of them were early Spirit Warriors of course, but many were middle Spirit Warriors and a handful were late Spirit Warriors. As a matter of fact, their leader was now a 7th-grade Spirit Warrior. Apparently, he had broken through since exterminating Cao Yun's family. From what Fang Shaolong had gathered, this man was clearly the one who killed Cao Beiwen and destroyed his Soul Embryo. Unfortunately, Cao Yun had no idea of his name. To be honest, he didn't care much. This man was dead. He had died more than fifteen years ago the very moment he attacked the Cao family.

Cao Yun used the few array formations all around the desolate provinces to locate the 5th Imperial Brocade Guards. Indeed, with his compass, he was able to discern small variations in the Wandering Qi all around him. Since he had studied the environment to set up his array formations, and that said array formations were also reacting with the environment, Cao Yun was able to use them to probe their surroundings even at a distance. This didn't allow him to get a perfect position, but he was able to guess their destination.

Clearly, they were going toward the Nine-Headed Bird of Chu. In other words, they were going toward the worst possible location in the Hongchen Kingdom. Once again, this was a blessing in disguise. Although this location was even dangerous for Cao Yun, if he attacked them just outside, he would be at his strongest and them at their weakest. Killing a thousand Spirit Warriors was very difficult. Taking into consideration those were elite soldiers who knew how to work together like no one else, killing them all was simply impossible. Even if Emperor Weide, Sect Leader Xuan and Matriarch Huang fought together, some soldiers of the 5th Imperial Brocade Guards would be able to escape with their lives if they really wanted to. Of course, they would probably fight to the death anyway. But if Cao Yun attacked them, they would obviously try to send out a message to Emperor Weide. So Cao Yun had to prevent anyone from escaping.

Thankfully, Cao Yun knew the environment much better than the 5th Imperial Brocade Guards. Besides, they were hunting a 9-core demonic beast. Obviously, they were very careful, so they were slow. Although it gave Cao Yun more time, it also meant that they would be harder to trap. In fact, Cao Yun even abandoned that idea. They wouldn't willingly walk into a trap. But there were other ways...

When he reached the spot where he had fought the Nine-Headed Bird of Chu, Cao Yun could tell that the soldiers would arrive in less than a week. So he had enough time to get ready.

First of all, he took out some bones from the Nine-Headed Bird of Chu and set up an array formation to lure the 5th Imperial Brocade Guards to a specific location. Then, he tried to set up small array formations all over the place. He had given up on the idea of one large array formation that could be more easily detected. Many plans went through Cao Yun's mind. Finally, he decided to literally enter the dead zone.

This was the spot where Ghost Energy was being trapped by Death Energy. Just staying in there was painful to his soul. But Cao Yun walked further and further in. He could also feel some lingering hatred from the Nine-Headed Bird of Chu. At first, Cao Yun could walk naturally, but after a few minutes, he could only step forward once or twice every minute. The pressure over his soul and the intense pain were beyond what he had imagined.

It was as if he was trying to walk with thousands upon thousands of angry people trampling him. He was crawling in a large crowd where everyone wanted to crush him to death. This Ghost Energy was quite literally clawing at his own soul. No stealth could hide him from this as it was the air itself that was cursed by those somber energies. Still, Cao Yun walked forward. He circulated his mind cultivation to preserve himself and protect his Soul Embryo.

Getting exhausted before the fight would be stupid, but Cao Yun had a very clear goal in mind and he needed more strength.

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