Revolt against the Heavens

The forces of the Sand Wolves Tribe were ready for battle. They had no real army but the men led by Xin Zhe were no real army either, they were a band of mercenaries and slaves held together by but a few. In the Desolate Dune Desert, they had not come with large siege engines, but Cao Yun could imagine that there were more destructive weapons in their spatial rings. But those spatial rings were few and they probably had a rather small capacity. Still, they would probably be enough for the battle they had had in mind.

Everyone trapped into the 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin' array formation was fighting to get out, except for the slaves. First of all, they had no reason to try and escape knowing that they would simply meet their masters back. Moreover, they knew about Tie Po and they had seen how he had played Xin Zhe again and again with her own specialty, seals. Thus, they were convinced that the rumors they had heard about a man who would break the shackles of the Cruse of Blood and Sorrow were true. Finally, the array formation was preventing anyone else from activating the Slavery Brand implanted in most of them. As a result, they could not be compelled through pain to do anything.

If they had tried to help, the array formation would have probably crumbled sooner. But at the current rate, Cao Yun was confident he could keep it up at least three double hours. His main concern was whether he would be able to free all the slaves before then or not. However, he put his worries aside and got to work. His Flying Poison fully manifested in his sea of consciousness. Cao Yun had altered the place a little. In the eight directions he had created large pillars that pierced the eternal sky and dove into the infinite ocean. Those pillars always seemed to be at an unreachable distance. Even if someone were to travel toward them all their life, they would not touch them.

On each pillar were several inscriptions to protect his sea of consciousness from intruders and from external attacks. But those pillars were also meant to protect his sea of consciousness from himself and his very soul. For now, it wasn't necessary, but if the Turbid Demons escaped his control, he might them. And since he was about to push his mind and soul to the limit today, he had prepared those pillars as a precaution. Of course, he would keep them around after that, if they survived the day...

In the vast expanse, the Flying Poison had a complete body with three long tails of bones, blood and green hair. He floated toward Cao Yun's Po and grabbed the other two characters from Unclean Evil and Stinking Lungs in his hands. Smoke rose as they burned his palms. When he released them, he had the two characters visible in the bloody palms of his hands. At last, he was fully prepared to do his task.

Flying Poison flew toward the center of Nine Soul Peaks now covered in bright green vines from the world tree. Without any delay, he dove into the Drop of Wrath and disappeared. Flying Poison had left Cao Yun's sea of consciousness completely. As it wasn't Cao Yun's full soul, he could do so. Indeed, it was the Drop of Wrath's Flying Poison. Cao Yun's Turbid Demon had not reached this level yet, but when it did, it would merge with this one as his soul and the Drop of Wrath were forever connected now.

Upon leaving Cao Yun's body, Flying Poison became his spiritual senses. As such, he was bodiless and shapeless. Because of his extraordinary focus, a few tribesmen were able to see a vague smoke around Cao Yun, but nothing more. Xin Zhe would have been able to sense something stronger, but she was busy with the array formation and couldn't spread her own spiritual senses outside.

Cao Yun's Flying Poison flew into the shedding of the golden cicada and easily found his path within. Based on the position of everyone when the array formation got activated, he knew where they were in the 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin'. There were thirty-six layers in total. So there were between fifty and a hundred men by layer. Each layer was in fact a fold of the golden cicada's shed skin. Even a late Accomplished Demon would have not been able to get out of this array formation in less than an hour. Besides, it was easier to set up than a killing formation as it was completely passive once activated.

Most likely, powerful 9th-grade, or even 8th-grade, Spirit Warriors would have been able to get out of there in the time of an incense stick. But thankfully, the Desolate Sepulcher was isolated and the demons there knew close to nothing when it came to array formations, not even a seal expert like Xin Zhe.

-

Speaking of Xin Zhe, she had finally found the perfect opportunity to let out her frustration and rage. After finding out that her spiritual senses could not pierce through the golden membranes around her, she had no hesitation at all. She pushed her blood cultivation to the limit. Instead of turning darker or redder, her skin became pale as porcelain. But all over her skin, marks appeared. They were stylized seals and marks. Her clothes were rather revealing and they were in fact specifically revealing those marks. Mixing gold and blood, they were a physical manifestation of her Golden Blood.

Her cultivation technique was 'White Bone, Gold Blood'. As she had gotten it from her direct master along with a drop of blood essence, she was extremely proud of this technique. Thus, she liked to have clothes that would show every mark on her skin. And to be honest, those marks were extremely beautiful. Right now, she looked like a precious sculpture made of porcelain and painted by a grand master. But her beauty soon showed it had thorns.

From some of the marks, golden disks covered in blood appeared.

'Seven Vertebrae Carry the Golden Palace'!

Seven of those disks grew larger. The biggest of them disappeared with a strident sound. The next instant, it was spinning insanely fast while trying to pierce through the golden membrane in front of Xin Zhe. As it was still spinning, another disk that was a bit smaller with large blades on its circumference joined it. The two of them rotated one against the other, increasing the pressure against the membrane. One by one, each of those seven disks collided against each other, further amplifying the tension on the membrane.

As she was pushing her cultivation and her technique to the limit, Xin Zhe was fully realized that she had indeed been injured by the earlier explosion. Even now, she wasn't able to produce all of her strength despite her rage. In her sea of consciousness, she was also mobilizing her formed Flying Poison. Unlike Cao Yun, Xin Zhe had no real mind cultivation. She was simply following the blood cultivation method known to all demons in the Desolate Sepulcher. As such, there was a large disgusting beast in her sea of consciousness.

If Cao Yun had seen within her mind, he would have thought it looked like the Yellow Death World. The water was dark and there were bones everywhere. But most bones had golden or bloody seals in them. Some bones were carved so much that the marrow was visible inside. In the center of her sea of consciousness, there were ribs sticking out of the water, forming a form of cage, just like Cao Yun's Nine Soul Peaks, like a hand with many fingers trying to grab something on the surface of the ocean. At the base of those ribs, there wasn't any spine. Instead, there was the summit of a skull with many small fissures within.

Inside this rib cage, this was where her Flying Poison was. That large disgusting beast was literally impaled on one of the ribs. Many smaller bones were sticking out of it. And all around the Turbid Demon, there were chains made out of blood. Each link in the chain had a peculiar form, probably designed by Xin Zhe herself following both her 'White Bone, Gold Blood' method and her knowledge of seals deepened by City Lord Sihe.

At the Flying Poison's sides, there was her Unclean Evil. For now, it wasn't fully formed. In fact, there was only a trunk with deformed limbs and holes in its flesh. Such a spectacle was truly disturbing. Even knowing that this creature wasn't made of real flesh and was just a mental representation, this was appalling. After all, they were not the aspects of her Po, they were truly Turbid Demons. Without this kind of control imposed on them, they would wreak havoc and probably destroy Xin Zhe from within, like any inner demon would.

Because she was using her spiritual senses to amplify her technique, the Flying Poison mainly and the Unclean Evil a little were both being drained of their strength. Thus, their influence on Xin Zhe was growing stronger and she had to use her own will to keep them trapped. This was why being an Accomplished Demon was so difficult without the right technique. If Xin Zhe knew about Cao Yun's 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks', she would do absolutely anything to get it. In fact, any demon would. No sacrifice was big enough to get such a refined art.

'Sifting Through Ten Thousand Ivory Shards'!

After her initial attack, Xin Zhe did not let up. Hundreds of smaller disks joined the seven big ones to try and pierce through the golden membrane. For the moment, it was being distended. As long as there was some kind of effect, Xin Zhe would not abandon.

-

In another part of the golden cicada, there were around eighty slaves all trapped together without any soldier or mercenary. They were not panicking at all. In fact, they were rather comfortable. Then, they heard a voice in their head.

"I am Tie Po. Whoever wants the Curse of Blood and Sorrow purged from their Blood, announce yourselves."

With this statement, Flying Poison had nothing to add. All the slaves kowtowed in the general direction of the voice.

"This unworthy one pleads for Lord Tie Po's benefaction."

Then Flying Poison entered the sea of consciousness of the closest slave. Although he could have forced his way through their souls, it was much easier to have them drop all defenses. Considering how many slaves he had to free, he couldn't waste his energy at all. He made quick work of the seal. But even if he spent only a minute on each slave, he would still need much more time than what the 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin' array formation could offer him. That was why he had to be strategic. With the time he had, he knew he could probably free, at best a third of them, at worst, only a quarter. Instead of worrying about that, he stayed focused on his work.

Cao Yun had already trained a lot. And unfortunately, he could barely improve his speed. If Dian Mo had been able to help, he might have been able to do so, but it wasn't the case considering his weakened state. However, he had found a way around that problem. Even though the 'Golden Cicada Sheds Its Skin' array formation could not stay up too long, he could further optimize it by breaking the layers one by one.

Each layer broken would naturally send more energy to the remaining layers. If Cao Yun had been more powerful, if he had been a real Spirit Warrior or Accomplished Demon with full spiritual senses, he might have even been able to control precisely the amount of energy in each layer. Right now, each layer was as resistant as all the others, no matter who was within. So after breaking some layers, it would strengthen the rest of the array formation. Like that, he might be able to add one hour, maybe a double hour, but he wasn't too confident as a lot of damage would have already been inflicted upon it.

Moreover, during the process, he would obviously unleash soldiers and mercenaries. That was why the tribesmen were waiting outside of the golden skin. With his Flying Poison, he might have tried to attack their seas of consciousness, but this would have slowed him down much more. And he wanted to put all the chances on his side. Thus, he only focused on the slaves.

Since the first layer was only trapping slaves, Cao Yun broke apart this layer first. Then, he spent almost the entire first double hour freeing them from their Slavery Brands. After that, he worked on another layer where there were also mercenaries. After this one, another layer would be broken, and another one, and another one, ...

As soon as the second layer was broken, mercenaries were freed from the array formation. Immediately, they were attacked by the forces of the Sand Wolves Tribe. The battle was extremely fierce. However, without the guidance of a real soldier, the mercenaries were completely disorganized. Because they had kept their formation when the array formation had been activated, they had been trapped together with other fighters they knew. So they were still able to use battle formations.

Unfortunately for them, the tribesmen were just too many for them to handle. Besides, the freed slaves had also turned on them almost immediately. While they were fighting, Cao Yun was getting rid of the Slavery Brands in the new slaves from the broken layer.

With such a strategy, the battle became rather simple. But, alas, this array formation wouldn't last forever. For now, the tribesmen had only fought easy battles. When they were faced with a real challenge, things would be different. Despite Cao Yun's presence, they knew he was too busy to help them. Besides, he wasn't even a 1st-grade Accomplished Demon so he wouldn't have been as useful as they would think.

Thankfully, the first mercenaries' battle formations were not good enough against the combined strength of the tribesmen. However, they were resisting long enough for another layer to be broken before they were all killed. Like that, there would be more fighters entering the battlefield than those leaving it.