Revolt against the Heavens

According to the information they had obtained, Xin Zhe would reach the settlement in over two months. Considering that she had sent a vanguard first, she was clearly being cautious and had only a rough idea where the settlement was. Even with the slaves she had taken from other smaller settlements of the Sand Wolves Tribe, she didn't have a perfect map of the Desolate Dune Desert. Thus, they were only able to indicate the trajectory and couldn't just point at it on a perfect map. In fact, Xin Zhe's forces were probably drawing maps as they were exploring the Desolate Dune Desert.

Until now, there was no real incentive to explore this land. But as City Lord Sihe was trying to expand his business and to beat Boss Gui, it would serve him well. That was also the reason why Xin Zhe had sent out two other vanguard parties. This was a guess, but it made perfect sense.

Taking all of that into account, they probably had somewhere between three to four months. And if they could harass them enough, they might even be able to delay them for half a year. In such a long period of time, Cao Yun was almost certain he could set up his array formation. Besides, he had other ideas to stall Xin Zhe and even injure her directly. Ironically, he might use City Lord Sihe's own plan against his forces.

The array formation he had in mind was called 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin'. This was a 5-star Heaven array formation. In other words, it really was the pinnacle of array formations even in the Hongchen Kingdom where there was a deep culture of array formations. For the Desolate Sepulcher, such an array formation would truly be miraculous. However, only a powerful Spirit Warrior was supposed to be able to set up such an array formation. And since Dian Mo was almost useless as of late, he could barely help Cao Yun.

Despite his weakness, Dian Mo was still able to give a few pointers to Cao Yun here and there while he was getting ready. But the young man had to admit that he wasn't as good as he used to be, especially not when it came to such an array formation. That was such a pity! However, Cao Yun had not counter on his help too much. In fact, he had planned as though Dian Mo would not help at all, so any bit of help was welcomed.

Xixue was also helping Cao Yun coordinate the tribe. Although this wasn't her native tribe, she knew more about their culture than Cao Yun. Thus, she was able to improve their productivity while assisting Cao Yun. Alone, he would never be able to set up such an array formation. Many hunters were sent to gather the materials he needed. As the name suggested, this array formation required several parts from insectoid demonic beasts. In his spatial ring, he already had several of them, such as the carcass of the Tyrant Sun Scarab. But they were not enough at all. Besides, the array formation would need to have a radius of several li. Until now, Cao Yun had never attempted such a thing.

Although he didn't abandon his Qi or blood cultivation altogether, Cao Yun focused on his mind cultivation as it would clearly be the limiting factor in his endeavor. Moreover, a powerful mind and soul would help him a lot against Xin Zhe and her seals. This was the best strategy he had if he wanted to win. His body wouldn't be on par with hers even if he trained every single day until she arrived, unless she took more than a year to get there, maybe even more than two years. Thus, he would focus on the only thing that could really give him an edge.

Since his Flying Poison was complete, he was now working on his Unclean Evil and his Stinking Lungs. Of course, the Unclean Evil was the most advanced one. It was also being engraved in his Drop of Wrath. With every bit of progress, Cao Yun could sense that the Drop of Wrath was getting stronger. In fact, it was actively helping him out. Along with the calligraphy he had bought, his progress was faster than ever. In fact, he would probably be able to complete the third layer of 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks', 'Subdue the Seven Demons' in five to six years now.

Those three aspects of his Po were not Turbid Demons in reality. At the moment, he was still working on their healthy version, but his mind cultivation worked by pushing them at the limit of turning into Turbid Demons to really feel them, and also to get ready when they would be Turbid Demons. Indeed, in the cultivation system used by demons, it was necessary to turn them into Turbid Demons. This was precisely why there were so few Accomplished Demons in the Desolate Sepulcher as they lacked methods to make the process safer.

The real name of Flying Poison was the Po of Jing, Unclean Evil was the Po of Qi and Stinking Lungs the Po of Spirit. Thus, those three aspects of his Po were the foundation for most of his cultivation. After them, there remained Po of Yin, Po of Yang, Po of Heaven and Po of Earth. They were a bit more esoteric in nature. With his understanding of both alchemy and array formations, Cao Yun could understand the Yin and Yang aspects of his Po. Heaven and Earth were a bit more obscure. But considering it probably meant something like being focused on the material needs or the spiritual needs. Just as there was Yin in Yang and Yang in Yin, the Hun and Po were not perfect either.

While the Po was made of the souls responsible for life and death and thus obsessed with material matters, it still contained aspects of the Hun. Indeed, the Hun was composed of the three souls interested in more spiritual needs such as deep link with others or spiritual awakening to the truth of the universe. Cao Yun would get to that in time. But for now, those were concepts he could intellectually understand but not feel in his very soul.

Between the two Po, the Po of Qi or Unclean Evil was the more advanced and the easier one to advance as he had worked on it the longest. In his sea of consciousness, it was starting to take on a corporeal form, just like Flying Poison had. Hopefully, it would be easier to tame. In fact, he might even use Xin Zhe to do so, as he had used Gu Song with the Flying Poison. But his Unclean Evil might not be fully formed by that time. And even Xin Zhe might not be powerful enough to be used as an anvil this time. Most likely, he would have to rely on his own mind cultivation, using his Flying Poison. In fact, his knowledge of seals would probably get in handy.

Even now, Cao Yun was working on his sea of consciousness. He was creating many seals to protect himself as much as possible. He also worked on the seals Xixue had in her bones. Now, he could use a guinea pig. Indeed, he had absolutely no qualms using the prisoner to test his theories. Besides, he also had a very specific objective with him that could help them a lot.

-

As weeks passed by, the Sand Wolves Tribe was now ready to put into practice their strategy to stall Xin Zhe. Thanks to Cao Yun, they had gained access to many incredible pills. Although there were risks associated with gulping down pills, they were clearly inferior to being slaughtered by Xin Zhe's forces. Thus, many didn't care about their far future and were only interested in gaining strength right now. Even if they were impeding their progresses in the future, they were getting strong enough to fight and survive in the present.

Contrary to what he had done with Boss Gui's instructors, he had no time to form anyone though. Thankfully, General Sha Lang Hu and Sha Chai Gan were extremely competent. The General could train a large part of the tribesmen while the Chieftain's daughter knew exactly who was good for each role in the village. After more than a month getting ready, the village had truly turned into a military camp. And hope was back in the hearts of everyone. Cao Yun was almost worshiped by some. First of all, an Accomplished Demon was respected as a living god by many. But the fact that Cao Yun had been able to break the Curse of Blood and Sorrow so easily and claimed he could free thousands of their comrades had brought him even higher in their esteem.

To be fair, Cao Yun didn't know how to feel about that. Although he would need this kind of fervor for his plans, he didn't want the tribesmen to turn into mindless puppets following him without thinking.

For some time, Sha Chai Gan was in fact suspicious of him because of that. Even if she had no more animosity toward him, she was still looking out for the best interest of her people first. Since her dad was not long for this world, she would have to lead in the near future. So the two of them interacted a lot as her father was getting more and more tired. Most of his prenatal Jing had already been depleted and he was now living by consuming his own blood essence day after day. Because of that, Sha Chai Gan came to know Cao Yun. And she decided that he was indeed trustworthy.

Finally, General Sha Lang Hu left with four groups to delay Xin Zhe's advance in the desert. Their mission was simple enough, but it was extremely risky.

They used their knowledge of the Desolate Dune Desert to get to Xin Zhe's forces way faster than they could move around. Not only were they mostly in the dark when it came to this land, but they were also many, which impeded a fast progress. And they were even drawing maps as they were moving around. Since they had lost contact with the vanguard they had sent, they had formed another one. Apparently, they had never found the bodies. After all, the bodies had been either stolen by Cao Yun or devoured entirely by the Gloating Thunder Vultures and the Moon Sheltering Adansonia. There was nothing left to find anywhere.

Sha Lang Hu's men could hide in the sand for days without being harmed at all. In the sand, even Cao Yun had a hard time finding them. And with a few pointers from him, their stealth had improved even further. Even Xin Zhe wouldn't be able to detect them unless she spent hours examining each patch of sand. In other words, this would delay them even longer. Even without that, the soldiers would get more cautious so their advance would slow down anyway.

Sha Lang Hu's plans worked perfectly well. Since they knew what road the army was following, they were able to set up many traps along the road. Some were pure decoy meant to throw them off. Sometimes, they buried parts of demonic beasts in case Xin Zhe was looking carefully. Other times, they literally used demonic beasts by luring them toward the army. And at other times, they buried themselves in the sand to launch some raids. Each time, they were only able to kill one or two soldiers or mercenaries while injuring a handful of them. But Sha Lang Hu's men suffered a few casualties of their own. Each group was made of around ten men. Ten against two thousands were obviously insane odds. But they were only trying to harass them, not win anything.

This harassment tactic worked like a charm. Even Xin Zhe was getting irritated. She was forced to maintain a firm discipline, especially among the mercenaries. Since they were unhappy being the ones attacked by those raids, she was also forced to put the slaves first. After three of four attacks, the slaves were now forming a perimeter all around the group at all times. Thus, they were the ones being attacked first. But this changed Sha Lang Hu's plans. After all, Cao Yun could erase the seals in their minds. So they tried not to kill them. In fact, Sha Lang Hu was able to capture some slaves during his raids.

Unfortunately, he had no way of freeing them of their seals himself, so he sent them back to the village. That reduced his forces of course, but this would both weaken Xin Zhe and strengthen the Sand Wolves Tribe. Having an army composed mainly of slaves was a terrible idea in the end. And the other part of the army was made of mercenaries. They had little to no loyalty as far as they could be paid. In fact, if they were too afraid, they would run away and leave the soldiers and Xin Zhe exposed.

-

In the village, Cao Yun was still working on 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin'. By now, he had decided where he would set it up thanks to the detailed maps from the Sand Wolves Tribe. He had even gone there to get a perfect picture of the place. In his sea of consciousness, he had duplicated the place, even taking in the position of the stars in the sky. Because the array formation was so advanced, he had to make sure to increase his chances of success, no matter how minute the increase was.

At least a thousand times a day, Cao Yun imagined the process of setting up this array formation. With his mind cultivation, it was easy to do so without getting too tired. Time in his mind was much slower than it was outside. Thus, he had in fact a couple years of preparation. Unfortunately, this wasn't something he could use to speed up his mind cultivation. Indeed, he could think much faster than anyone else, to the point that time seemed to slow down, but cultivating his mind was not just a problem of thoughts. Indeed, he had to really feel it. Besides, the Po was the corporeal soul, so it was connected to his body and his physical sensations.

While he was working on that, Cao Yun didn't abandon his martial arts. To the contrary, he was working on integrating 'Three Storms' in his 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars'. He had already used both martial arts jointly, but he was seeking something deeper. By working on the two of them, he could feel that his Spear Aura was slowly turning into something more. The Insight Writings were now being regrouped and seemed to form entire words.

Paradoxically, this was a proof that his understanding was getting deeper, but the words were also harder to understand. So his progress would slow down a little along the way.