Cao Yun remained alone in Emperor Weide's room. Sun Liao was too busy, so Cao Yun didn't ask him to set up any sophisticated array formation. Of course, Cao Yun could have tried to set one up himself. It wouldn't have been perfect, but it would still have been good. Instead, he took out an array formation plate and merely used it. As a result, the isolation around him was very poor. Any late or even middle Spirit Warrior could easily see through it. However, no one would dare do so. In fact, only his friends and companions might try to do so in order to check on him. If they were to see his asura cultivation, it wasn't a problem at all, so Cao Yun didn't care.
After setting up everything and sitting cross-legged, Cao Yun's mind was entirely focused within his sea of consciousness. He paid no attention to the outside world. Although that could have proven how much he trusted his friends, it really only proved how out of it he was. Indeed, Cao Yun had just realized that several hours had disappeared. One instant, he was watching Feng Yingyue get dressed, the next moment, he was already ready to cultivate. All this time had simply vanished from his mind. For a cultivator like Cao Yun, this truly was a big deal. Even though such a parallel could be bold, it was as if a mortal had lost several months of his life because he was in a daze. In other circumstances, it would be a cause for alarm. Unfortunately, Cao Yun clearly knew why he was so lost.
The young man was completely numb by this point. Feng Yingyue's embrace had soothed his rage and sorrow. However, it had not filled him with any other emotion. Right now, he was just going through the motions. Some powerful will and intent were driving him forward. Most of it was his little sister's last words. Even now, they echoed deep in the back of Cao Yun's mind. Those were thoughts she had focused on so that they might get to Cao Yun when she gave him her Soul Embryo. Since he had failed her in life, he wouldn't fail her in death. He wouldn't fail his family once more.
As he thought like that, he realized that this was silly. His family was already extinct. There was no one else to fail. But he remembered his uncle Fang Shaolong. Of course, he belonged to the Shui family, his mother's family, but he was Cao Yun's family nonetheless. Cao Yun would have to tell him what had happened, and he dreaded this shame. However, he refused to run away from it. Obviously, Fang Shaolong would hear the news as everyone would talk about Emperor Weide's story. That being said, Cao Yun still felt responsible. He had to tell his uncle himself. Maybe he was looking for support, or maybe he was looking for blame. Honestly, he couldn't tell for sure.
Anyway, Cao Yun's mind stopped wandering, and he focused on his current task. He wasn't actually trying to cultivate right now. For the time being, he wanted to know what had changed within himself. First of all, he had to examine the damage. Afterward, he would have to assess his new strength as an Exalted Demon. Despite the books and manuals he had read, he had no actual living expert to guide him. Moreover, no human had ever cultivated a Demon Soul. As such, Cao Yun couldn't be sure of anything.
The first thing he should have done was look at his Soul Embryo, but he shied away from it. Instead, he focused on his body. Despite the regenerative ability of his Golden Blood, his body was in a disastrous state. Any mortal would be unable to move or barely even breathe. Some of his bones had shattered but were slowly reforming. Unfortunately, shards of his own bones were still embedded in a few places throughout his body, he would have to take them out himself. Such a process would obviously be painful. Several organs were still scarred. Even if his skin had recovered fast, everything within required a bit more time. It was difficult to assess, but it would probably take two to three months for Cao Yun to fully recover.
He didn't waste any time. Cao Yun found every piece of bone embedded in his body, he found everything that needed to be extracted and focused on it all at once. With a powerful jerk, his spiritual senses extracted them all through safe routes. As Cao Yun completely controlled the flow of his blood, and as it was extremely heavy, not a single drop of blood left his body while more than three dozen pieces of bone left his skin. Cao Yun gathered them all and put them in his spatial ring, just in case. To be fair, his bones were extremely precious.
Now that his wounds were healing properly, Cao Yun focused on his meridians and vessels. Thankfully, they were perfectly functional. His Dantian were also safe. Indeed, his Qi and Golden Blood had protected them like crazy. In other words, Cao Yun could still practice his Qi cultivation. His only weak spot there was his Soul Embryo.
Finally, he looked at his Soul Embryo. It was still damaged with faint traces of gold everywhere. Slowly but surely, the golden traces were dimming. This meant that his Soul Embryo was healing, absorbing the energy given to him by his sister's death. Instead of dwelling on the past, Cao Yun studied his own Soul Embryo. Honestly, it was very strange. Now, he had a perception both from within and from outside. His perception was much better, and Cao Yun could tell that his Soul Embryo couldn't be pushed too far without damaging it or slowing down the healing. In effect, his Soul Embryo was probably as strong as that of a 6th-grade Spirit Warrior, maybe a 7th-grade Spirit Warrior, but on the weaker side. Thankfully, this didn't affect his physical prowess. His flesh would be fully healed long before his soul was. Most likely, it would indeed take a century, maybe a bit more, depending on what would happen in the months to come.
Now that he was done with his injuries, Cao Yun looked at what he had obtained. Anyone in the Hongchen Kingdom, no, on the Piaolu planet, would have been excited at the prospect. However, Cao Yun remained numb. It was as if he were still studying a book that had no relationship with him. He was just trying to understand the change. But anything he would discover wouldn't alter his state of mind.
His sea of consciousness hadn't really changed. What had truly changed was his Demon Soul within the Drop of Wrath. Now, Cao Yun could see the figure of Axiu Qian even without mobilizing his Drop of Wrath. The red asura was right above his Soul Embryo, almost like a protector guarding it with his body. Axiu Qian had his six arms wrapped around the small, silvery Cao Yun without touching him. His three faces were all looking around for any possible threat, with golden light deep within them. On all his limbs, Cao Yun could see broken golden chains. Those were the chains of the Dao he had broken during his breakthrough.
Despite being broken, it felt as if those chains were still attached to something that wasn't there. It was a very strange sensation. Besides, Cao Yun had a very vivid impression. The very last memory of Axiu Qian had been of his death. His enemy had trapped him in golden chains just before eradicating him. Only one drop of blood had been able to survive this catastrophic battle. In Cao Yun's eyes, it was as if Axiu Qian had finally been able to break free from his enemy, as he, in some way, had done.
The aura of the Demon Soul wasn't clashing with Cao Yun's Soul Embryo. Instead, it was protecting it. Unless Cao Yun pushed his Soul Embryo, it would be safe. Cao Yun's strange perception came precisely from this Demon Soul. Cao Yun could feel himself both in the Soul Embryo and in the Demon Soul.
While his Soul Embryo was akin to his Hun, his Demon Soul was his Po. Even now, Cao Yun hoped to be able to unite them one day. For now, though, they were separate. And Cao Yun's Po was much stronger because his Demon Soul was both strong and healthy. In a sense, Cao Yun was much closer to a demon at the moment. It was hard to tell if his strong emotions were the cause or the consequence. Most likely, it was a bit of both.
All of his seven Turbid Demons were now perfectly merged within his Demon Soul, his Drop of Wrath. As an Accomplished Demon, he had had to break the chains of the Dao and replace them with his own so that he could now feel and perceive the Dao through his own flesh. The Po was the perfect medium for an asura to feel and study the Dao. Through that process, his seven Turbid Demons had been bound and were now trapped in his Demon Soul. As a matter of fact, his Demon Soul was physically in his heart, exactly where his Drop of Wrath was. On the other hand, his Soul Embryo was physically in his Upper Dantian.
Cao Yun focused on the chains keeping his Turbid Demons in check. They could be better, but he had to study the Dao of Death a bit more before attempting to improve them. However, he certainly planned to do so.
What truly mattered, though, was his change as an Exalted Demon. Once an asura had formed a full Demon Soul and had gone through the tribulation, they could enter the Exalted Demon realm, also known as the True Fire Realm. Just like for humans, the fourth cultivation realm and the fifth cultivation realm wouldn't provide any extension of one's lifespan. Exalted Demons and Reborn Demons, Sages and Monarchs, could only live two millennia on average. Only by breaking through to the sixth cultivation realm, Immortal or Immortal Demon, could a cultivator extend their lifespan. It would immediately double or more. In fact, a 1st-grade Immortal could probably live to be five thousand years old, while a late Immortal might be able to live ten times as long. For mortals, such lifespans were true immortality, but they were nothing when compared with the eighth cultivation realm or above. According to legends, some cultivators could literally outlive an entire universe.
In this True Fire Realm, an asura had to focus on the Three Bodily Fires. Those were three types of heat produced by the body and were essential for the transformation of specific fluids. Understanding the Dao of Fire would help the process tremendously. Thankfully, Cao Yun had the seed of the Solar-Orchid Flame. At the moment, it had turned into an actual Dao Seed and was within his Lower Dantian. It had fully merged with his Rune of Fire. With great care and strenuous work, Cao Yun could develop this Dao Seed in order to help himself get better at controlling fire. For an alchemist, it was vital. As a cultivator, it would speed up the process. Going through a single stage as an Exalted Demon could take anywhere from twenty years to fifty years. Of course, some people could simply get stuck for various reasons.
Hopefully, Cao Yun could go through a stage in fifteen to twenty-five years, if his understanding of the Dao of Fire followed suit. In other words, he might be able to become a Reborn Demon in two centuries. To be honest, this was in the best-case scenario. Considering that his Soul Embryo was damaged, he would also need to spend some time on it. Thus, it might take him three to four centuries. Still, he wasn't even a century old at the moment. Although it might seem fast in comparison with other cultivators, it both felt soon and far at the same time.
When Cao Yun compared himself to others, he felt as if time would fly by and he would become a Reborn Demon. But in actuality, it would take maybe ten times as long as he had been alive, so it wasn't fast at all...
With each stage, he would develop his True Fire. This True Fire would then be essential as a Reborn Demon because it would be used to temper his body so that it could become an Immortal Demon body. So he couldn't slack off, each stage needed to be as perfect as possible. One could know when it was time to move on based on the color of the True Fire. For now, his True Fire was barely even qualified to be called True Fire, as it was limited to his Kidney Fire.
The first of the actual Three Bodily Fires was the Bladder Fire, also known as Common People's Fire. It emerged from the lower back and was thus very close to the Lower Dantian. This first fire would begin invisible and would slowly take on a violet-reddish hue. After forming it, Cao Yun would have to carefully spread it before joining with his Kidney Fire in order to push it to the next level as the Body's Ministerial Fire. Once again, this new fire would have to be spread higher and higher until it could merge with the Heart Fire, also known as the Imperial Fire. Only when all Three Bodily Fires were fully merged and encompassed the entire body could one claim to have successfully cultivated the True Fire. By this point, the True Fire would be gold and crimson.
Afterward, it would be used to burn every aspect of one's body in order to completely transform it into an Immortal Demon body. Honestly, this made Cao Yun pause and think. Indeed, this was very similar to what an Immortal would do in the very last stage of his cultivation. Human and demon cultivation systems had a lot in common, but they might also clash. Humans would get rid of their flesh to obtain an Immortal body, but asura would simply temper their flesh to the extreme. Although the processes were similar, they were still incompatible. Cao Yun would have to figure it out at some point.
For the time being, Cao Yun decided to begin his study of the Dao. There were mainly two Dao he wanted to focus on at the moment, the Dao of Fire for his cultivation and alchemy, and the Dao of Death, for his understanding of the soul. Although the Dao of Wind and the Dao of Space were enticing, he had to prioritize and those were the two Dao he already understood the most and could most easily progress in. Thus, he began with the Dao of Fire and with the Dao Seed of the Solar-Orchid Flame.