Cao Yun had used the chaos of the fight to fully circulate his 'Ashen Feather Seal'. Now, he was invisible to all. Demon God Da Mo's soul was probably powerful enough to detect him under any other circumstances, but he was quite busy at the moment. Indeed, the three Sages had caused considerable damage. His heart was severely injured, with his chest literally caved in. Although no one could tell for sure, it was more than likely that at least some pieces of his own ribs had perforated his most vital organ. After all, his very killing intent had diminished a lot. In turn, it would help everyone else fight even more effectively.
Moreover, Matriarch Huang had just cut off his arm. Empyrean Asura was in a very precarious situation, more than he had ever imagined. The mere fact that he had only unleashed his Supplicant Tyrants now proved it to all. As such, it galvanized mankind.
Unfortunately, the Hongchen Kingdom had paid dearly for injuring, not even killing, Demon God Da Mo's borrowed body. Cao Yun could see his own master about to expire. Indeed, Sect Leader Xuan's throat would not stop bleeding. By almost choking himself, the old man had slowed down the bleeding, but it wasn't stopping. Even Cao Yun couldn't tell what exactly was going on. It was certainly Demon God Da Mo's Dao of Blood in action. Maybe it was something in his very martial art, but no wound inflicted by him would stop bleeding naturally. Still, Cao Yun hoped that the alchemists they had at the Wubei Sect could help. They just had to get rid of Empyrean Asura as fast as possible.
As he was telling himself those lies, Cao Yun's eyes went to Matriarch Huang. Her Lower Dantian had been pierced through. The only reason why she wasn't bleeding to death was that she had fully cauterized the wound with her own flames. The old woman literally had a hole in her lower abdomen the size of a human arm. Moreover, Cao Yun wasn't certain whether or not she still had internal bleeding. Hopefully, she had burned shut every vein. Anyway, she would never fully recover from such a wound, even with the best alchemists, especially considering her age.
Cao Yun tried to keep thinking about their future treatments, their potential recovery. Dian Mo knew that the young man was lying to himself. But worse than that, Dian Mo knew that Cao Yun was fully aware that those were lies. Right now, he wanted to just rush into the fight. Empyrean Asura was so weak that Cao Yun knew he could crush him. However, the main concern wasn't Empyrean Asura. Empyrean Asura was a flesh puppet used by Demon God Da Mo. They definitely couldn't let Demon God Da Mo get out of this alive. They had to finish what Emperor Nuwa had started.
Before trying to fight the Demon Soul of a Reborn Demon, they had to destroy his body. No matter how powerful a soul was, it was always weaker outside of the body. In fact, the only exception would be for an Immortal or an Immortal Demon. But the difference between an Immortal Body and a soul was, in fact, nonexistent, so the concept didn't even make much sense anyway.
Among the three Sages, Emperor Weide was the one whose injuries seemed the least. Ironically, Cao Yun had the most information about his condition. After all, Cao Yun had seals within Emperor Weide's soul. He could tell that Emperor Weide's sea of consciousness was in utter chaos. His Turbid Demons were acting up, and he had a hard time controlling them. Although he seemed physically fine, compared with the others, he was also in a very difficult situation. However, he was still the most likely to survive this fight. The irony wasn't lost on Cao Yun, considering that he was the only man whose fate was already decided before the fight. Cao Yun would kill him, no matter what happened. Although Emperor Weide was fighting, sincerely, to save the Hongchen Kingdom and was ready to give his life for his people, it didn't change a thing. Each time Cao Yun looked at Emperor Weide, he didn't see the nobility of his sacrifice, the determination in his eyes. No, he only saw his dead family calling for justice, for vengeance. Nothing would ever stop Cao Yun from giving it to them, nothing!
As though to answer him, Emperor Weide tightened the grip on his sword. He had the most stamina and strength left, but he had to fight through all of his Turbid Demons just to use an ounce of it. Frustration was eating him up. He couldn't let this stop him. He had the chance to save his Hongchen Kingdom. Everything he had done, everyone he had sacrificed and tormented, all of it had been for this very moment. If he couldn't take down mankind's enemy, his entire existence would have been a pointless, sinister joke. No matter what, it couldn't happen. If he needed to sacrifice his very soul and reject any chance of reincarnation, he would go that far. Emperor Weide had been sincere, he didn't care about the price, whether others paid it or he paid it himself. Even now, he was absolutely certain that all his choices had been correct.
If Emperor Weide had not slaughtered the Cao family and abducted Cao Huiying, Cao Yun would not have been the man he was today. Without Cao Yun, Emperor Weide was sure that there wouldn't be three Sages among mankind. In fact, even with Cao Huiying's Soul Embryo, Emperor Weide might have failed, and he certainly wouldn't have found the Withering Fusang Tree branch since he wouldn't have thought of looking for it in the first place. Despite what everyone else thought of those decisions, Emperor Weide was at peace with himself. He had been right, and once again, he would be proven right. Cao Yun would be the one to finish this fight. Emperor Weide didn't have to see it through until the end to be sure of it.
While the three Sages were thinking about their next move, Empyrean Asura was already flying down toward the Devil's Jail. He wanted to get his blood and leave as fast as possible. As such, his twelve Supplicant Tyrants were protecting him. Sun Liao led his forces into battle. Twelve squads were facing the Supplicant Tyrants. Each squad was led by a Chief Elder, but Sun Liao was in charge of the overall battle formation.
Sun Liao was holding his 'Heavenly Mirror Longbow', a spiritual weapon. Now that he was a Sage, his 'Heavenly Mirror Longbow' had also gotten stronger. Unlike a conventional weapon, a spiritual weapon would grow more and more powerful alongside the soul of its owner. Besides, the connection between the weapon and the owner would get increasingly more intimate. In a sense, it was a part of the owner's soul. As such, it also made it easier to practice and develop new martial states. As a matter of fact, Sun Liao had already entered the Bow Spirit state. To be fair, his 'Heavenly Mirror Longbow' served as the basis of this spirit in the first place.
'Houyi's Nine Suns'!
As he began circulating his martial art, several cultivators, both among the Spirit Warriors from the twelve squads and Mortal Warriors down below, all drew their bows. Array formations were activated all over the place. From the very sky, rays of bright light descended and became arrows of pure fire. The Sun itself was powering their bows. The Mortal Warriors simply poured their Qi into their bow, while Spirit Warriors could even channel some of their soul.
Sun Liao went all out and chanted the entire mantra of his 'Houyi's Nine Suns'. With each line, more and more array formations got activated. Besides, his words lingered.
"One Sun from Tang valley
From the East, the Vault rises
Three Lights in Its Claws
The winged Longma pulls
Xihe with veiled eyes
Diri and Chunsheng
Seven points passed
To the West, Ruomu lies
Nine back at Fusang
If ten, the green turns yellow!"
A small Sun appeared from behind the mountains in the distance. Although it seemed very high in the sky, it was under the clouds. Or maybe it was visible while still being behind the clouds. No one could really tell. No one could actually pinpoint where it was. Just like a rainbow, if one tried to find where it came from, they simply couldn't. Another Sun appeared, then another and yet another one.
The screech of a crow could be heard throughout Heidai Peak. It was a joyous scream, like a rooster in the morning. The heat was increasing with each new Sun as they were moving through the skies. People heard horses and chariots but couldn't see anything at all. However, when they turned to Sun Liao, they saw a miraculous scene.
His 'Heavenly Mirror Longbow' had turned into two gigantic trees, melded into one another. A tree was pure white, while the other was pitch black. Those were the legendary Fusang and Ruomu trees where the Sun respectively rose from and rested, according to old myths. No one had seen when his bow had changed, but it had. As a Spirit Warrior, Sun Liao could fully use all ten verses of his mantra. Besides, he was increasing his power by using array formations, and all the Mortal Warriors and Spirit Warriors were helping him.
There were ten large branches on each of those trees. Every branch was meant for a Sun to land. Indeed, according to legends, the Suns were in fact three-legged golden crows.
Besides the actual Sun, nine other Suns had appeared. All ten Suns sent rays to Sun Liao's bow. Each pair of branches from the combined Fusang-Ruomu bow received a ray of light that turned into a massive arrow.
At last, Sun Liao let go of the string. All ten arrows flew directly toward the Supplicant Tyrants. As they flew through the air, they turned into actual three-legged golden crows. Each crow screeched. Where they passed, the air sizzled and rippled. They could scorch the entire planet and annihilate all life. All of their destruction was aimed directly at the Supplicant Tyrants. The other two Supplicant Tyrants, not targeted directly, turned toward a wall of arrows shot in their direction by many other archers. Although each arrow was much weaker, the sheer number was a big issue even for powerful cultivators like they were.
The armor of the Supplicant Tyrants began to literally melt before the arrows touched them. Fire was a very effective weapon, considering that Supplicant Tyrants were quite literally made of Death Energy. Fire would burn everything. Cao Yun had helped Sun Liao and the others by giving them all the information he had. After all, he had the very words of their creator, Yu Xiangling.
The Supplicant Tyrants flew straight toward the arrows shot at them. Chains emerged from their armor. For Cao Yun, those chains were obviously made of Death Energy. With his 'Death Verses', his perception of the Supplicant Tyrants was much stronger. In fact, he might probably be able to easily beat them all since they didn't really have any will of their own. According to Yu Xiangling herself, they were failed products. And Cao Yun had killed her before she achieved her ultimate goal. Her death had been a very good thing for everyone.
The chains melted as they tried to grab the arrows. Still, they seemed to reduce the speed of the arrows. One Supplicant Tyrant received the arrows directly into his head, the flames spread throughout the armor and obliterated everything. Other Supplicant Tyrants were able to avoid a fatal injury. Since they were corpses, the word wasn't very appropriate, but they avoided obliteration like their comrade. More than half of them were heavily damaged, and not a single one came out unscathed from this attack.
Before the Supplicant Tyrants could do anything else, all the Spirit Warriors were already on them. They used Sun Liao's attack as a cover and attacked from various points. Every Supplicant Tyrant was too busy dealing with those squads to interfere with the three Sages. Despite the damage caused by Sun Liao's most powerful technique, the Supplicant Tyrants could still fight. Thankfully, a couple of squads destroyed their target quickly and went to help the others. Several Spirit Warriors were injured, and a few were sadly killed.
The fight was extremely intense. Now that the Spirit Warriors were directly engaged, it was harder for archers to strike. Unfortunately, they couldn't let the Supplicant Tyrants protect Empyrean Asura. The goal was to keep them busy and as separated from each other as possible. Indeed, they couldn't risk them forming an actual battle formation. Twelve of them, with their cultivation, could really become an issue. Well, nine of them remained now.
It was total war in the sky over the Wubei Sect. Cao Yun was observing everything without helping anyone. It was more than frustrating. However, he wasn't just waiting while doing nothing. Most of his focus was on Empyrean Asura. He was looking for the perfect opportunity. Unfortunately, it had not come yet. If he saw any opening, any opportunity to destroy Demon God Da Mo's Demon Soul, he would take it, but it was impossible. Clearly, they would have to use Mo Tian. Sadly, Cao Yun didn't see any other way.
Even if they had to use Mo Tian, there were still several possible outcomes. Some were better than others. Cao Yun was hoping that they wouldn't have to go through all of his plans. But then again, if they won, that might not be such a bad thing. However, losing would become more and more likely after each contingency plan failed. So Cao Yun would rather all his preparation go to waste, to be honest.
Empyrean Asura was finally getting to the Devil's Jail. Thanks to the seal, he still wasn't able to sense that his blood had literally given birth to a fully new body. It was good, or it would have driven him even further. As Cao Yun observed Empyrean Asura, he was shocked to suddenly see Emperor Weide. The Emperor was right behind the old demon.