Cao Yun had stolen this blood essence from the pool of blood managed by Yu Xiangling. It had traces of Demon God Da Mo's intent inside of it as it was most likely some blood essence from the asura conqueror himself. Although it had come from the Empyrean Asura, Cao Yun was confident, and so was Dian Mo, that it came directly from Demon God Da Mo.
Even Demon God Da Mo's blood essence couldn't compare to Axiu Qian's last remnant. After all, Axiu Qian had largely transcended the Immortal Demon realm. On the other hand, Demon God Da Mo had failed to even reach this sixth realm of asura cultivation. That being said, it didn't mean that his blood essence was weak. What it meant was that Axiu Qian was an overwhelming being to almost all. In fact, Cao Yun had never even met a cultivator who could measure to Axiu Qian.
In all the memories he had seen, both from Axiu Qian and Cleansed Asura, Cao Yun had only ever seen one being who could be compared with Axiu Qian at the end of his cultivation path. And that being was the one who had actually killed him. Even this monstrous existence had failed to thoroughly annihilate Axiu Qian and a single drop of his blood survived with remnants of his Flying Poison.
Now, this Drop of Wrath was inhabited by Cao Yun's seven Turbid Demons. In other words, the Drop of Wrath was a perfect replica of Cao Yun's Po.
While the Drop of Wrath was evolving into a true Demon Soul, it had stopped suppressing the blood essence. Using some medicinal essence from the Golden Blood Essence pill Cao Yun had gulped down earlier, this drop of blood rebelled. In its very first assault, it tried to pierce Cao Yun's heart.
As the young man was fully immersed in the mystical process happening in his own sea of consciousness, he was suddenly torn away from it, brought back to harsh reality. He felt as though his heart was exploding inside his own chest. Although he could heal from most injuries, a lethal stab to his heart would be a real problem. Besides, this drop of blood essence would probably not stop there.
The moment Cao Yun felt it, so did Dian Mo. The palace spirit was in awe of the spectacle given by the Drop of Wrath and was pulled away from this dream by an ominous sensation. He could once more feel his former master. And this master was assaulting his current master, a young man he might even call his friend. However, Dian Mo stayed silent and immobile. He could have helped Cao Yun. Indeed, Dian Mo was a master of seals and blood runes. There were many things he could have told Cao Yun to protect himself from this threat. Deep down, he even wanted to. But something stopped him. Dian Mo was completely frozen.
Cao Yun wasn't even aware of the dilemma that was seizing Dian Mo. No, he was too busy trying to fight off this internal attack. He had just officially stepped into the 8th-grade Accomplished Demon realm. There was no way he was going to let a mere drop of blood kill him. A small injury to his heart was almost nothing. But if this drop began to rip apart his organs, even Cao Yun would have a hard time healing. He was no immortal, yet...
Thankfully, Cao Yun had already created many seals and blood runes within his own body, both in his flesh and in his soul. Indeed, he had to be ready for any attack against him, just in case. And now that his soul had mostly recovered, he could use them how he saw fit.
Breaking through earlier had required some effort. But after achieving his breakthrough, he now had all seven Turbid Demons under his command. At least, he should have had them all. Unfortunately, they were currently being used to form his Demon Soul. In other words, even if his soul wasn't as exhausted, it was extremely busy. That being said, it only concerned his Po. Thus, his Hun but also his Soul Embryo were fully available and rested.
Cao Yun used his Soul Embryo to spread spiritual senses through his own flesh. In no time at all, he had already activated hundreds of small seals that were now forming a complete array formation around his own heart. As it was closing around Da Mo's intent, Cao Yun could feel it assault his very soul. It was weakened but it was also desperate. In its despair, the drop of blood was using all of its strength.
Unfortunately, it was smart enough to sense the opportunity and seize it. Thankfully though, it didn't have any form of advanced thoughts or intents. It was just like a wild animal who had seen the door of its cage open. It couldn't not try to leap out of it and devour its jailer. But it was doing so through sheer brute force. In response, Cao Yun's tactic was very effective.
Within Cao Yun's sea of consciousness, a dark red shadow appeared. It had a gigantic frame and huge talons coming out of its ethereal hands. With those, the shadow was trying to claw its way into Cao Yun's Soul Embryo. Instinctively, Cao Yun's Soul Embryo let out a powerful wave of spiritual energy. The claws shattered against it before they could reach Cao Yun's Soul Embryo.
At the same time, the Drop of Wrath was slowly absorbing Cao Yun's seven Turbid Demons brought together by the bright light of the Nine Soul Peaks. This light was also bathing both Cao Yun's Soul Embryo and the giant shadow. Under those circumstances, the shadow had lost most of its power. Injuring Cao Yun's Soul Embryo was nearly impossible at this point, but it didn't stop it from trying. In fact, Cao Yun's main problem was that he couldn't really fight back effectively.
Right now, Cao Yun was just buying time for his Drop of Wrath to be done. But while this was happening, the shadow became more and more violent. Even if it lacked the sheer power to injure his Soul Embryo, Cao Yun still felt it vividly. Thus, he was in a very paradoxical position. On one side, he could feel intense joy and excitement from his Po. On the other side, his Soul Embryo and his Hun were under a constant barrage of vicious attacks.
With each passing moment, Cao Yun could feel the anger and fury within the blood essence of Demon God Da Mo. Although it was only a fragment of its intent, it was still extremely powerful. It was almost as if Yu Xiangling had activated her dark orb right into his soul. Of course, the pain was severe, but completely eclipsed by the elation of his current breakthrough. Having those two sensations at the same time was incredibly strange.
The one who was most affected was in fact Dian Mo. Indeed, he didn't feel the joy of the breakthrough, although he had been overjoyed by Cao Yun's success. Fear had completely overwhelmed him. Even without feeling Cao Yun's pain, he could imagine it. Seeing his former master Demon God Da Mo, albeit only a shadowy figure of it, terrorized him beyond belief. Dian Mo was fighting himself. He wanted to help. He could help. But he didn't do a thing.
For several hours, Dian Mo cursed himself. He was just a pathetic coward. After all, the reason why he wanted to stay within Cao Yun's sea of consciousness was because he was afraid of the outside world.
Of course, Cao Yun would have responded that Dian Mo had already almost given his life for him. In fact, Dian Mo had given his life, since he had no way of knowing that he could survive against Demon King Mo Wang. He wasn't a coward, but he was undoubtedly traumatized.
After those hours had passed, finally something changed.
In an instant, the light from the Nine Soul Peaks disappeared. And along with it, all seven Turbid Demons. Even the chains holding them had completely gone away. In the center of the Nine Soul Peaks only remained the Drop of Wrath. It was a perfect sphere of blood. On its surface, one could see seven strange runes which seemed to be made out of pure white bones. They didn't look like they had been carved. No, they appeared to be naturally formed bones in the shape of very complex characters.
Obviously, Cao Yun recognized them all. They were the Insight Writings used in the Weaver of Souls' 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks'. Each one of those characters was one of the seven aspects of Cao Yun's Po. Suddenly, a powerful wave of pure spiritual energy spread all around. It obviously emanated from the Drop of Wrath.
At this very moment, Cao Yun felt as though the Drop of Wrath was himself. Although he had already tamed it and put it under his control, now he felt as though he was the Drop of Wrath itself. Indeed, for all intents and purposes, the Drop of Wrath had become his Po, one half of his soul.
Until now, Cao Yun had tried to duplicate his own Po into the Drop of Wrath to both repair it and put it under his influence. But now, it wasn't a mere replica, it was his very Po. However, it was also more than that, it wasn't a mere Po any longer, it was clearly a Demon Soul.
As this spiritual energy spread, Cao Yun felt all the emotions from the seven Turbid Demons at once. But this time, they weren't just the negative aspects of those emotions.
Flying Poison was rage, but the Po of Jing was love.
Unclean Evil was shame, but the Po of Qi was honor.
Stinking Lungs was corruption, but the Po of Spirit was integrity.
Corpse Dog was fear, but the Po of Yin was wisdom.
Fallen Arrow was aimlessness, but the Po of Yang was order.
Yin Bird was anguish, but the Po of Life was joy.
Devouring Robber was resentment, but the Po of Death was compassion.
All those emotions stormed within Cao Yun. He could feel his blood speed through his veins, seeping directly into his flesh. On the outside, his skin turned bright red and Cao Yun truly looked like a full-blooded asura. All of his bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, every organ, each cell, everything was being nourished by this flow of blood. Inside this powerful blood, full of vitality, were Cao Yun's emotions. They even engulfed his vessels, his meridians, his Dantian. His Golden Fate was also immersed in it. All of Cao Yun's being was being baptized by this wave of spiritual energy.
Obviously, the drop of Demon God Da Mo's blood essence could not measure up to it in the least. It was washed away and got completely crushed by this powerful tidal wave. This time, the Drop of Wrath didn't even do a thing. The sheer potency of this new Golden Blood was enough to obliterate the shreds of Demon God Da Mo's intent. They were devoured by Cao Yun's blood and literally merged with it. Of course, it was little compared to Cao Yun's breakthrough, but this blood essence did improve Cao Yun's Golden Blood and Golden Fate alike.
At that very moment, Cao Yun was officially a 9th-grade Accomplished Demon, the highest level of cultivation for demons in the current Forsaken Dao Era. Cao Yun wasn't thinking about that though. Instead, he was simply basking in this glorious moment. His own emotions were laid bare in front of him, all at the same time. But strangely enough, he wasn't being taken over by the flows. Most likely, it was thanks to the Weaver of Souls' mind and soul cultivation technique. Indeed, he had tamed every aspect of his Po without fully turning them into Turbid Demons.
This gave Cao Yun new insight into his own soul, into how his Po and his Hun could interact and how what he perceived to be his self emerged from all those interactions. It wasn't perfect, but he could somewhat perceive it, as a giant web of interacting parts. But he wasn't the web, he wasn't any part itself, what he perceived to be his self when everything else had been removed still remained, and it remained a mystery for the time being. Learning more about his Hun and then the Dao might help him. But it was also possible that he would never find any answer, or rather any satisfying answer.
After all, Cao Yun had already read extensively and experienced a lot. And yet, he had found no answer. This feeling of being, even with everything else stripped away, was so elusive, that no one could tell exactly what it was, where it originated from, or if it was actually real or a mere illusion. Honestly, Cao Yun was often leaning on one side of the argument just to realize that he was suddenly more convinced by the other side...
Anyway, it wasn't the moment for doubts, it was the moment for celebration.
All around Cao Yun, his blood sent waves of energy all around him, mixing both Qi and spiritual senses at the same time. Thankfully, his array formations were strong enough and nothing spilled out. But if there had been no array formation, the entire Yanbei Region would have felt it. Some would have perceived it more than others of course, but everyone would have definitely sensed this enormous wave of pure vitality, especially considering that they were demons.
After several hours, it finally stopped. Slowly, Cao Yun's skin turned back to normal. In his sea of consciousness, nothing had changed apart from the bone characters on the surface of his Drop of Wrath. And the Drop of Wrath was right above his Soul Embryo. Already, Cao Yun could tell that it was nourishing it as well. Indeed, his own Po was slowly helping raise his Soul Embryo. Clearly, it would speed up his Qi cultivation as well.
Now that he was a 9th-grade Accomplished Demon, his last step was to fully form blood chains in order to trap his Po directly within his heart. Indeed, in the higher realms of cultivation, asura would incorporate their Po directly into every drop of their blood. As such, their soul could survive so long as a single drop of blood remained, exactly what Axiu Qian had tried to achieve in the end.
In other words, this last step toward the Exalted Demon realm consisted more or less of mastering 'Soul Chains'. It was very different as it was using one's blood to interact physically with one's Po. But it still reminded Cao Yun of this technique from 'Death Verses'.