A deep sense a peace spread throughout Cao Yun, both in his body and even in his soul. All of the tension and pressure had dissipated. Along with the negative emotions within the array formation, Cao Yun's emotions had disappeared too. For a few moments his mind and soul were completely silent. He didn't feel anything at all. This experience was very intense but also absolutely fleeting.

  As he was regaining his focus, the young man heard Dian Mo's voice and immediately shifted his intent on 'Ashen Feather Seal'. Only minor variations occurred around his spiritual senses. Consequently, Cao Yun stayed perfectly immobile and waited for several minutes that felt like hours. Once he was confident that it had either not been detected or disregarded, he began to move again.

  Thankfully, since the Temple of Grace and Submission had been quite literally carved within a mountain, his spiritual senses could rather easily go through the walls. As long as Cao Yun avoided the array formations and seals all over the place, he could navigate this temple as though it was transparent. Here and there, he could sense the presence of Void Nurtured Platinum. It was the best material to protect any chamber from invading spiritual senses. Indeed, it could absorb them so getting through it required much more energy that would be dissipated through the material itself.

  Paradoxically, the presence of Void Nurtured Platinum indicated where the important rooms were. Cao Yun moved through the corridor and mapped the entire Temple of Grace and Submission in his mind. Until now, he had not found anyone who had the full map of this place in their memories.

  From time to time, he saw several priests walking by. They were all wearing the same robes and their skin was almost as red as a full-blooded asura. Some were a bit weaker and Cao Yun could clearly see that they were treated differently. It was subtle but clear enough. From what Cao Yun had understood, they were monks that were confined within the Temple of Grace and Submission until they reached a good enough level in 'Burning Wheel of Expiation'. But Cao Yun had not absorbed the memories of someone proficient enough to know all the secrets of this blood cultivation technique. That being said, he had a good understanding of this technique already. He just lacked the highest layers.

  In several rooms, he saw the priests and monks training in 'Burning Wheel of Expiation'. The training was always extremely painful. In a sense, it really was expiation for sin of having human blood in their veins. And, drop by drop, they were getting rid of what they perceived as a weakness to replace it with stronger blood. In several training rooms, there were small pools of blood. Some were meant to collect the blood lost by the practitioners while others were there so they could draw blood from it. The priests referred to this blood as the Minor Burning Blood.

  Within those pools of blood, Cao Yun could feel the presence of Demon God Da Mo but it was very faint and diluted. Most likely, they were doing just like the Sisters of the Abyss and cultivating the blood of their so-called god. Then, that meant that there could be some of Demon God Da Mo's blood right in this temple... Obviously, Dian Mo was interested, but so was Cao Yun. Absorbing the blood of the Weaver of Souls had been beneficial. Thus Cao Yun wouldn't shy away from stealing some of Demon God Da Mo's blood. Thinking about that, Cao Yun realized that he probably had the best source of his blood, deep under the Devil's Jail. With his current strength, he could easily get in there and draw some of his blood without releasing him. Maybe he should do so later.

  Right now, his main goal wasn't to take anything. Cao Yun wanted information. In fact, he hoped to find someone who knew about the array formation as it would make his life easier. But he would settle for someone who knew enough about both the Supplicant Tyrants and the Empyrean Asura Theocracy. All that would be extremely useful both in his future plans and to help the Hongchen Kingdom.

  Finally, Cao Yun noticed other demons. They were neither priests nor monks. Although he didn't recognize their faces, he recognized their origins. All of those demons were slaves from the nomadic tribes. Cao Yun recognized the Lotus Tribe from where the Hanqu sisters had originated, but also the Sand Wolves Tribe, the Moonshadow Clan and the Crimson Mirage Tribe. There might be other tribes and a few demons were part of minor tribes Cao Yun could not recognize. In fact, it was even possible that some of them had been enslaved within the Nalupu Kingdom itself. This wouldn't have been beneath City Lord Sihe. None of those slaves were warriors though, so it was clear that Boss Gui was not responsible for that.

  Looking more closely, Cao Yun did feel the Slavery Brand. Thankfully, there was nothing more. In other words, Cao Yun could easily free them all just by getting rid of the Slavery Brand. He had become extremely proficient in that. But now wasn't the time. Freeing them with nowhere to go would just mean killing them. Once again, he was forced to turn a blind eye to slavery. But he didn't forget them. He would free them, and they could join the rebellion or simply try and disappear. Soon the Empyrean Asura Theocracy would fall, Cao Yun was certain of it. Both tyrants on the continent would get what was coming for them, Empyrean Asura and Emperor Weide.

  For an instant, Cao Yun hesitated but unfortunately those slaves were just too weak. Not a single one was above the Blood Child realm. Otherwise, he might have been able to use them to instigate some revolt within the temple and cause chaos. There were other ways to use them, but it felt even more dangerous. While Cao Yun didn't want to put them in any unnecessary danger, he also thought about himself. If they failed and were found out, so would he. If the array formations were all fully activated, Cao Yun would have even more problems.

  Carefully, Cao Yun explorer everything he could. He kept his spiritual senses compact so as to improve his stealth but it made moving around slower. At last, he found a room with Void Nurtured Platinum but whose door was open. Cao Yun had been lucky as an older priest was just getting inside the room, alone. Immediately, Cao Yun entered with him. The old man was bald and had very long mustaches but a very short white beard. As soon as he entered the room, the old priest activated at least seven array formations both to protect himself but also to optimize his cultivation. He was a 9th-grade Golden Blood Child and was probably four or five hundred years old. In other words, he wasn't a genius. Most likely, he had been stuck in this stage for a very long time.

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  On the other hand, he did look like a full-blooded asura. Looking at his bloodline, Cao Yun saw that he had purged most of the human blood within himself. Even his organs and tissues had been cleaned. When he took off his robe, the old man showed many scars all over his body. Even with his cultivation, those scars were remaining as they had been caused by his 'Burning Wheel of Expiation' training. They weren't simple wounds. And he made them worse almost every single day in order to push his cultivation forward.

  Right now, the old man was trying to guide his Golden Blood and marrow through his spine directly into his head and brain. If he succeeded, he could finally step into the Accomplished Demon realm. Compared with Cao Yun, this old man was almost powerless. The young man could do anything to him without him being able to resist at all. But Cao Yun waited.

  When all the array formations were activated, the room was completely isolated. Even Cao Yun's spiritual senses would have a hard time getting out. Then, he waited for the old man to begin his cultivation. From a spatial ring, the old priest took out a whip with small metallic pieces. All over the whip, he applied some mixture. With his knowledge of alchemy, Cao Yun could tell that it was an amalgamation of poison and demonic beast blood. Finally, the old priest took a tiny porcelain bottle. From it, he extracted only a single drop of blood. When it got exposed, the blood gave off a powerful killing intent and aura. Cao Yun could distinctly feel the presence of Demon God Da Mo in it. That bottle had to be what the priests called the Burning Blood.

  Once ha had covered the metallic whip with poison and blood, the old man began to whip himself in the back. Each strike was expertly targeting his spine. The wounds all over his back began to open again and the old man even started to sweat some dark blood. His strikes were getting higher and higher, following his own flow of Golden Blood. Looking at it, Cao Yun waited and waited. Although the old man was weak compared to him, Cao Yun wanted to make sure that no one would disturb him.

  Being isolated in this room with the old priest was a good opportunity. But at the same time, Cao Yun couldn't sense anything outside of the room. After all the effort he had already gone through, he didn't want to fail stupidly so close to his goal.

  For several hours, the old priest struck his own back, particularly his spine. In fact, his strikes were so violent that some of his bones became visible under his torn muscles. With his cultivation, the old priest should be able to heal those deep wounds in a matter of hours, but he wasn't working on them at all. He was basking in the pain. Most likely, he was using the pain as a form of guide for his Golden Blood. Indeed, this intense pain was lightning the path in a sense.

  At last, the old priest put down his whip with enormous respect. The blood of his god was on it after all. Immediately after that, he began to perform the routine of 'Burning Wheel of Expiation'. That routine was putting a lot of emphasis on the back thus it tore apart his flesh even more. With his blood flowing over his back, his bones were hidden once more. All the blood gushing out of his wounds was incredibly dark though. It was a good thing to get rid of it to allow his Golden Blood to expand even more in his veins.

  Cao Yun could see the signs of pain and fatigue on the old priest's face. He waited for the perfect moment. And when he saw it, he seized it without any hesitation.

  Suddenly, Cao Yun's spiritual senses invaded the old priest's back. Cao Yun literally used the wounds on his back and the flow of his Golden Blood to go directly into his skull. For an instant, the old priest was elated, he was convinced that finally he had achieved his goal. But then, he suffered intense pain in his very soul. All of his intent was forced inward and his body simply fell on the ground as though a puppet whose strings had been cut.

  Invading the old man's sea of consciousness, Cao Yun saw a world of red. The ocean was made of blood and the sky was radiating an ominous red light as well. This red light came from a literal burning wheel that was rotating high in the sky. Its flames had extinguished everything else in the skies and had even vaporized part of the red ocean. Consequently, there was a faint red mist everywhere in this sea of consciousness.

  As soon as he got into it, Cao Yun felt assaulted by this red mist, but he didn't mind much. This wasn't enough to injure him and after his trip through Death Energy and Ghost Energy, the pain was absolutely nothing. Cao Yun's spiritual senses had taken the form of Axiu Qian, a full-blooded asura with six arms and three heads. Seeing that pure asura in front of him, within his own soul, the old priest was quite shocked. For an instant, he even thought that he was seeing his god. Maybe the Burning Blood had activated something in him. Maybe he was actually being rewarded by the Heavenly Demon God.

  Cao Yun had absolutely no reason to contradict him. Although he could resist Cao Yun very long, it was even better if the old priest didn't resist at all. Using 'Weeping Demons', Cao Yun unleashed a powerful killing intent all around him, trying to mimic what he knew of Demon God Da Mo. Since the old priest was in awe, he didn't see through this subterfuge.

  "This unworthy one bows before the Heavenly Demon God. This insignificant one is the Heavenly Demon God's servant."

  "What is your name?"

  Having his god asking his name, the old priest couldn't contain his joy, but he tried as best as he could to keep his composure and show as much respect as possible.

  "This unworthy one is called Hong Yin, Heavenly Demon God."

  Hong Yin was speaking in a mix of Moshenhua and broken Antique Sixian. Even for Cao Yun, this was hard to hear. On the other hand, Cao Yun could perfectly speak both languages. In a sense, it strengthened Hong Yin's impression that he actually was Demon God Da Mo.

  "You've been practicing my arts and honoring my name for a long time, young priest. I know that your road has been long and painful. But you can be proud of your meager achievements."

  "This insignificant one doesn't deserve such praise."

  "Indeed, you don't. Not yet. But if your devotion doesn't fail, you will be deserving of even more praises."

  "Heavenly Demon God... This unworthy one doesn't dare to accept such kind words."

  "I'm going to impart some knowledge into your soul. Open your soul fully or I might damage it."

  For the first time, the old priest hesitated. If his god was talking to him, he didn't need him to open his soul, he could simply enter it. Besides, it wasn't necessary to open one's soul to receive knowledge. But Cao Yun's 'Weeping Demon' technique was still affecting his mind. Thus, Hong Yin ended up completely opening his soul.