Cao Yun was in a paradoxical state. His body was brimming with life as the world tree within himself was spreading its vitality. At the same time, though, his soul was almost entirely dead. His necrotic fingers began to heal as if nothing had happened. This time, it wasn't thanks to his rich blood, but thanks to the roots of the world tree spreading throughout his meridians and blood vessels.
Most of Cao Yun's Po was turned into Death Energy. Deep within his soul, Cao Yun kept on chanting the mantra of 'Death Verses'. He wasn't trying to use Death Energy against the dead root. No, he was trying to push his understanding of the Dao of Death itself. Time had frozen. Because everything was happening within Cao Yun's soul, he was able to use his mind to accelerate his comprehension and perception. In other words, the physical realm around him seemed to have come to a stop. The roots were moving, but they genuinely appeared still to Cao Yun's increased senses.
With his dead Po, Cao Yun also sent a large part of his Hun. In fact, more than half his Soul Embryo was inside the dead root. Slowly, a brand new inner world opened to Cao Yun's senses.
Dian Mo himself was incredibly shocked. They were in a putrid swamp. The muddy water reached Cao Yun's knees and spread as far as the eye could see. Gray and reddish vines were hanging from dead trees. They looked like veins as they pulsated from time to time. But they also slithered around like snakes, while looking like shed skin. Bubbles rose to the surface of the swamp and burst, releasing foul gas. The smell itself was horrendous, but it also caused Cao Yun's soul to shiver as visions of rot and decay came to his mind. He could quite literally sense his soul rotting.
In the physical realm, Cao Yun's body was rotting from within. Only his rich blood and, above all else, the world tree were regenerating him. But it wouldn't last very long. This rot was unnatural, and it caused Cao Yun incredible pain even though time appeared to be stopped for him.
Cao Yun kept on chanting the mantra of 'Death Verses'. From his soul, hymns could be heard like whispers, barely audible but absolutely there. Slowly, he walked forward. The muddy water was pushing against his legs, and any movement was difficult. His feet were also sinking more and more into the mud at the bottom of the swamp. Disregarding it all, Cao Yun kept on walking and walking.
A day went by. Cao Yun had barely moved forward. He had quite literally been able to take thirteen steps, not one more. His entire soul was exhausted. He only desired to lie down and let the swamp devour him whole. He had never been so tired in all his life. For more than an hour, he actually contemplated lying down, but his will pushed him further.
A week went by. The human lost in this realm of pure death and decay could barely remember why he was here and why he was trying so hard to walk forward. He should just accept death. Death was sweet. Death was freedom. Death was peace. Life was torture, torment, and chaos. Becoming one with the swamp would free him from all his pains and sorrows. He didn't even need to lie down, he could just stop moving, and the mud would slowly devour him completely. He could find peace and solace being a rotten carcass at the bottom of this huge swamp.
Cao Yun didn't even know how far he had gotten. He couldn't count all the steps he had taken. It felt like he was barely able to make one step a day anymore. But something within himself told him that he had to walk forward. Forward! Forward! The voice was faint. He could barely hear it, but he recognized it. It was his own inner voice. Clinging to it, Cao Yun pushed through his fatigue and kept on walking.
A month went by. The water now reached Cao Yun's hips. Even his hands fell in the water if he didn't keep them above it. Half his legs were in the mud. In order to take a step, he had to literally push through the mud while walking. This required an incredible effort. Each step was taking a terrible toll on him, and he wanted to rest. Everything in him screamed to stop, to rest, to lie down. He could hear a new voice within his mind that wasn't his. Rest. Sleep. Peace.
Cao Yun had forgotten his own name. He didn't know why he was here. He had no reason to move forward. He wasn't even able to tell the difference between the muddy water and his own flesh anymore. He was already one with the swamp. But that tiny voice in the back of his mind kept on telling him that he had to move forward. Death wasn't an option. He had to embrace Death, but he couldn't die. He had to keep walking while experiencing these sensations. He had to let them wash over him. No matter what, he shouldn't resist them. He shouldn't let them have any hold on him. Resisting was giving those sensations something to fight. They had to meet no enemy, no obstacle, and just move on.
A year. A decade. A century. A millennium.
Everything had lost its meaning to Cao Yun. Time itself had been eroded. In an instant, millions of years would go by, but in a million breaths, only a second would pass.
Despite his spiritual state, Cao Yun kept on moving forward. He couldn't hear any voice now. Thankfully, he couldn't hear the swamp, but he couldn't even hear himself. His soul was completely empty, void of anything. There was only one will, to keep on moving forward, for no reason other than to move forward for its own sake.
With each step, Cao Yun was sinking deeper and deeper into the muddy water and into the mud itself. The sensations of death were now everywhere within his soul. He and Death were indistinguishable from one another.
For untold eons, Cao Yun was a shadowy figure that kept on walking in an infinite swamp. Nothing had any hold on him. Strangely, his legs began to rise above the mud. Then, they rose above the muddy water. At some point, Cao Yun was walking on the muddy water as if it were solid ground. He was walking more and more slowly. His senses were taking in everything, but none of it had any impact on him. Even his own life and death had no meaning to him. They were the same.
Sometimes, a thousand steps didn't make him move at all. Other times, a single step made him change the scenery around him. He couldn't tell whether he had simply forgotten that he had moved and could only remember one step, or if the scenery itself changed on its own. It didn't matter at all. Cao Yun kept on walking and walking with no goal in mind, with no mind at all.
Hymns were getting louder and louder around Cao Yun. The 'Death Verses' were being chanted by his own voice, but he couldn't even recognize it in the least.
Another step took Cao Yun toward a gigantic tree. It was dead and completely torn apart. Branches as long as the sky and as large as the biggest stars had fallen everywhere around it. The swamp was an immense cosmos of death, plague, and decay. It had come from the sap of the titanic tree.
Seeing this tree in front of him, Cao Yun felt something. Memories came back to him. Slowly, he felt as though he was waking up from a long dream. He had slumbered for longer than his entire life, much longer than even his own lifespan. Although his eyes had been open, he couldn't see. Now, his eyelids felt heavy. He closed them with all his strength. When he finally opened them again, he saw the world with new eyes.
He could remember his name. He could remember his goal.
He had experienced the Dao of Death directly. He had merged with the death of that part of the Withering Fusang Tree. And he had triumphed over it. Death had touched him, engulfed him, swallowed him entirely. Yet, he had stayed alive, he had pushed forward, and he had reached his enemy.
It would take Cao Yun a lot of time to fully digest all of his experiences in this dead world. This was similar to Cleansed Asura's Yellow Death World while being completely different. After all, the tree was absolutely foreign to a human being, or even an asura or a deva. Such an existence had rules that others couldn't comprehend. As such, Cao Yun had experienced a different facet of death. Even death could be different. Cao Yun suspected that death was actually different for everyone. Only when one was fully dead might it be the same. But then, what did it mean to be fully dead? What was the exact boundary between life and death?
Suddenly, Cao Yun had an irresistible desire. Somehow, he decided not to go against it. He knelt and scooped some water with his hands. When he looked at his hands forming a bowl of water, he could see an entire ocean in his hands. The black water was almost infinite, to the point where Cao Yun couldn't even see his own hands anymore. Slowly, he brought his hands to his mouth. Then, he began to drink.
The muddy water was difficult to swallow as it tasted like decay and rot. Fighting his disgust, Cao Yun kept on drinking and drinking. The muddy water never seemed to stop. Apparently, he did have an entire ocean in his hands. As he kept on drinking, he could feel the Dao of Death more and more. Everything became clearer.
Cao Yun felt his own flesh rot. Everywhere in his body, he could sense death and life intertwined. Some parts of his body were dying and being revived. There was rot and fermentation here and there, but they had a purpose. Death was essential to his own life. Death wasn't the enemy of life, nor was life the opponent of death. Both life and death existed at several levels and could be comprehended at different stages. Life without death within Cao Yun's body would lead to the death of the entire body. Without death, a herd would eventually exhaust the resources sustaining it. Life unchecked could become the instrument of its own destruction.
Life was a fight against death, but death wasn't the enemy. Ironically, death was essential to life. Life and death were in a perpetual dance that only made sense if both of them kept on dancing. Even becoming immortal didn't mean getting rid of death. Parts of Cao Yun would always need to die so that his body as a whole could stay alive.
As his comprehension was growing, Cao Yun was swallowing an entire ocean of black and putrid water. His appearance changed. Where there was skin, there was now rotten bark. In front of him, the large dead root was now as small as a twig. Indeed, Cao Yun's soul was now larger than the massive branches scattered around him. And his growth didn't seem to be stopping any time soon. He was still drinking and still growing.
As he was drinking, the swamp started to dwindle. Slowly, Cao Yun was drinking all the water of the dead swamp. At some point, he was done. Cao Yun had actually swallowed the entire swamp. He was now standing in a vast plain covered in mud, and only mud. Nothing else remained. The entire swamp was now within his stomach, swallowed. The pressure was intense, but he didn't seem to mind. In fact, he had to admit that it felt rather good.
Cao Yun took some time to digest this swamp water. Slowly, he felt it make its way through his stomach into the rest of his body. The water was seeping into his other organs and flesh. But that wasn't flesh, and they weren't organs. Cao Yun was made of wood. In fact, Cao Yun was now a giant tree in the shape of a man. As the water seeped into his wooden body, his shape changed, and he became more and more like a tree.
His legs turned into roots that spread into the mud below. His arms and head turned into branches and leaves. He was even more gigantic than the previous tree. His shadow covered the entire world, the infinite world.
Then, Cao Yun woke up.
Around him, the roots had stopped moving. They slowly retreated and disappeared into the walls and the ground. Cao Yun was now connected with the dead tree. He was the dead tree. Their souls had become entangled, and Cao Yun had come out on top. If he had failed, his soul would have been devoured by the dead tree. Instead, Cao Yun had devoured the dead soul of the root. Now, he could tell that he would be able to break the dead root if he wanted to. It wasn't because he was stronger but because he could command the tree. It was part of him as he was part of the tree.
In a way, it was similar to the Bone Demon Cao Yun had tried to control. This was a form of 'Macabre Dance', but not yet complete.
Cao Yun wanted to sit down and actually rest. Besides, he had also gained invaluable insights into the Dao of Death. There was no way of knowing how far he could actually push it. He had understood a more fundamental notion of death. In fact, this might help him understand the Dao of Fire better as well. Although the various Daos were different, they were all parts of the larger Dao, the actual Dao. As such, understanding one Dao would help him approach other Daos as well, even though the gains wouldn't be the same at all.
Unfortunately, Cao Yun had no time at all. Indeed, he had to find Yanzhen and the twins. Since he had told them to escape, he genuinely had no idea how much time had passed. Clearly, his perception of time had been faulty. Most likely, only a few minutes had gone by, but he wasn't completely sure either. The roots had stopped moving at some point before Cao Yun came out of his trance. So he had no idea how long it had been.
Hopefully, Yanzhen and the twins had not tried to come save him and had just fled. Not seeing any corpses around him was a good sign, but he couldn't sense any living being around him either. There was great danger in this place, and Yanzhen and the twins might not be able to fully defend themselves against it all. As the one who had brought them here, he had to help them.