As Yu Xiangling was losing her nerves, Cao Yun had amassed a substantial amount of Death Energy. By sending his own spiritual senses throughout the room while keeping pressure on the aura surrounding Yu Xiangling, he had weaved an intricate net. His main goal was obviously to conceal it as well as he could. Although Yu Xiangling had no form of spiritual senses herself, Cao Yun was still cautious. There were seals and array formations all over the place. Indeed, since she was researching the soul and using Death Energy herself, she could only rely on those in the absence of spiritual senses.
Manipulating the Death Energy in this room was just as difficult as crossing through the 'Embrace of the Loving God' array formation. Indeed, this Death Energy was literally coming from souls trapped in rotting corpses. One could only begin to imagine what it was like. When he sent parts of his soul into this mix, Cao Yun was immediately assaulted by their resentment, their fear, their agony, their confusion. It was as if he had jumped into a pool of drowning mortals. All of them were trying to catch any lifeline they could, risking drowning anyone who even got near them, but not out of malice, out of fear and confusion.
Cao Yun could clearly feel all those emotions go through it, intensifying his hatred toward Yu Xiangling and Holy Cardinal Ling Weisheng. Thankfully, he could control his soul well enough to protect himself. Those emotions stayed at the surface of his mind without disturbing his deeper thoughts. In fact, he also directed some of those visions and emotions toward his Devouring Robber. At the time, Dian Mo was still crushing it with the Palace of Supreme Wisdom but it was getting stronger and stronger, ever closer to a breakthrough. To say the truth, Cao Yun would probably be able to break through right now, but he was actively suppressing it until he was in a safer place.
Unlike his Soul Embryo, it wasn't much of danger to suppress it. Indeed, suppressing his Devouring Robber would make it only marginally stronger. The only danger would be for the breakthrough to be caused by the Devouring Robber instead of Cao Yun. But even without Dian Mo to help him, Cao Yun was very confident in his ability to keep it down. After all, he literally could use his Drop of Wrath and his six other Turbid Demons. Moreover, the Devouring Robber was much more closely related to the Dao of Death since it was the Po of Death so his knowledge of 'Death Verses' would help him as well. In other words, Cao Yun could keep it suppressed and even push it further and further, ensuring that his breakthrough was much more powerful. He would probably be among the strongest 8th-grade Accomplished Demons afterward, or even higher.
Anyway, Yu Xiangling devolved into vulgarity. Seeing her work be treated in such a way had really affected her. In her defense, she was used to such high deference that it was a huge shock. All of her intelligence didn't serve her in such a state. Besides, she had not yet learned to control her Turbid Demons or even her seven Po. Seeing her at the moment, Cao Yun could understand why she had failed to become an Accomplished Demon despite her knowledge and intelligence. Usually she was cold and emotionless only thinking about her work. But when it came to her work, she acted like a spoiled brat with no control over herself. In both cases, she was in excess. As a matter of fact, the inability to control one's emotions was a real problem for many demons. It was why this was such an important, although difficult, step of their cultivation system.
Humans weren't exempt from the flaw either, but it was usually much easier to manage. Considering how some human had a hard time with it, it showed how difficult it could be for demons. Besides, as they worked on their blood, it would heighten their emotions even more, making things harder and harder as their cultivation would get closer to the Accomplished Demon stage. But having powerful emotions was also ironically useful to get good sensations during the cultivation process of their own Po. Attempting to control one's souls too early would most likely fail. But the Weaver of Souls had found the way thanks to his 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks'.
When finally Cao Yun was ready, he did not hesitate at all.
"Girl, surrender now or die in agony. Despite all your disgusting and devious monstrosities, I have no inclination toward torturing anyone, let alone women or girls."
Pinned to the wall with Cao Yun's swords, Holy Cardinal Ling Weisheng would have probably objected if she had been conscious enough to hear those words. But honestly, Cao Yun sincerely didn't like torturing anyone. However, it didn't mean he had any problem inflicting pain to people who had committed such heinous acts. As much as he was trying to act virtuous and do the right thing, he was no saint, of that he was certain. In fact, the simple act of pondering over the morality of his actions showed that he was worlds apart from people like Holy Cardinal Ling Weisheng or Yu Xiangling.
"You bastard! You think you can intimidate me?! Heavenly Demon God Da Mo himself protects me. The Empyrean Asura gave me this protection. Not even he could easily go through it. And you think your pathetic attempts would achieve anything except ridiculing you?! You miserable dog!"
Yu Xiangling had really lost it. But to be fair, she was quite right about her protection. Cao Yun himself knew he couldn't easily go through it. In fact, it might be as difficult to go through as it was hard to take down the 'Embrace of the Loving God' array formation. Thankfully, Cao Yun had found a way around that. Just as it had not been necessary to take down the array formation to sneak in, it was not necessary to overcome the immense pressure from Demon God Da Mo to get to Yu Xiangling. But she seemed to have completely rejected reason at the moment.
"Too bad... It would have been better for you to admit defeat and surrender. One way or another, your victims will get their justice. Remember that you sowed what you're going to reap."
"Pathetic moron! I'll cut your souls apart and feed it to the vilest creatures I can think of. But I'll make sure you retain enough self-awareness so you beg me for death. And I'll laugh as you writhe in agony. Then, I'll make sure to find anyone you've ever cared about and torture them in even worse fashions right in front of you while making sure they know it was all because of your arrogance. If you had not disrespected my work, you could have had such a better death. We might even have been able to make a deal of sorts. But you chose disrespect so you also chose agony and..."
At that moment, Yu Xiangling's eyes bulged. Then, her screeching scream echoed throughout the room. With all her strength she tried to keep the black orb in her hand. But her muscles were convulsing in spasms of pain.
Cao Yun was still trying to achieve 'Soul Chains' from the 'Death Verses'. Although he could control Death Energy just like Qi, he wasn't able to fully materialize it as was the point of this technique. In fact, 'Death Verses' talked about this technique after 'Living Death' which was supposedly easier but seemed more difficult to Cao Yun. Indeed, 'Living Death' was about turning parts of someone's own Po into Death Energy and then back into Po. Maybe after fully taming his Po of Death, Cao Yun might succeed. But since he could control Death Energy, he felt he was much closer to mastering 'Soul Chains'.
After finding out Yu Xiangling's work, he had discovered that she had achieved such a level through her Supplicant Tyrants. Indeed, they were able to materialize their Death Energy in the midst of combat. And Yu Xiangling had clearly not mastered 'Living Death' at all. In fact, she probably hadn't even mastered 'See Through the Mud' or even 'Death Reeling', relying on array formations and seals to both sense and control Death Energy. But through her seals, she had been able to materialize Death Energy so Cao Yun wanted to know where that knowledge came from, and get it for himself.
With all that being said, even without the ability to physically manifest Death Energy, simply controlling it could allow him to turn it into various shapes. For example, he could make seals with Death Energy. And with all the Death Energy he had gathered in this room, he had fashioned a specific shape, a very simple yet effective shape.
All this Death Energy was full of hatred and resentment toward Yu Xiangling. So shaping it to attack her was even more easily than usual as Cao Yun didn't have to fight against it. By focusing on the desire to hurt Yu Xiangling, the Death Energy around him followed him with more compliance. Since his own soul couldn't pierce the aura surrounding Yu Xiangling, he decided to add to it the souls of all her current victims.
Invisible to the naked eye but Cao Yun's, the young man created a long javelin. Merging it with his Spear Heart, it became even more dangerous. But Cao Yun refrained from manifesting his martial arts, even using parts of his 'Ashen Feather Seal' to conceal his intents and the Death Energy javelin. Suddenly, after distracting Yu Xiangling with his words, he threw it directly toward her very heart without any hesitation.
The aura surrounding her resisted of course. But this time it wasn't able to destroy all of the momentum behind the attack. The Death Energy javelin was surrounded by the corrosive Evil Qi and as it moved toward its target, some of the Ghost Energy was also pulled in its wake like a small whirlwind created by the rotation of the javelin. The pain and confusion of the victims literally became material. This was a strange sensation as though it was tangible, as if one could physically touch it. But it still hadn't reached the level of 'Soul Chains'.
As the javelin tore through the aura of Demon God Da Mo, it was too fast for Yu Xiangling to even react to it. All of a sudden, she was pierced through the flank. Unfortunately, the aura of Demon God Da Mo had indeed altered the trajectory of the attack.
Seeing Yu Xiangling in so much pain, Cao Yun didn't relent. Before the aura could fully close itself once more, the sword that had been skewering Holy Cardinal Ling Weisheng's wrist erupted from the wall. Since the Holy Cardinal had tore apart her own wrist to free herself, this sword wasn't useful at all. However, it was much closer to Yu Xiangling and the opening in the aura than Cao Yun was. Thus, this sword flew right toward the howling woman. Once again, the aura pressured it but Cao Yun forced through, pouring all of his spiritual senses into the attack.
The trajectory was sending the sword more and more toward the ground. Everything was happening so fast that no mortal would have been able to even see the sword move. But with his mind cultivation and senses, Cao Yun could feel every fraction of the instant as though it was lasting for entire minutes. And he was controlling the sword as minutely as possible, trying to find the path of least resistance through the aura. His goal wasn't even to kill Yu Xiangling at this point, he simply needed an opening. The aura of Demon God Da Mo wasn't something he could surpass, but he could take down the origin of it, the orb in Yu Xiangling's hand.
In the end, the sword was thrown to the ground and embedded itself right behind Yu Xiangling's feet. Cao Yun's attack had failed.
Suddenly, the sword exploded into thousands of fragments. Most of them wasn't fast enough to penetrate Yu Xiangling's skin, but some did pierce her skin just enough to make her bleed a little.
Then, Yu Xiangling's muscles that were convulsing already tensed and contracted as though they were about to break her own bones. In her agony, she almost didn't understand what was going on. She wasn't aware of what had pierced her from behind. But she could tell that some form of poison had entered her bloodstream. This wasn't much. Unlike the demons of the Desolate Sepulcher, demons in the Empyrean Asura Theocracy knew about poison. Although they had some distaste for it, this wasn't such a taboo that no one would know about it. After all, they had to be able to fight poison.
The poison used by Cao Yun was a strange mixture meant to hide the real poisonous part, the Rictus of the Shattered Orchid. This poison had a very pleasant fragrance and was unfortunately easy to spot and even to detoxify for someone like Yu Xiangling. But Cao Yun had hidden it well enough that some of the effects would appear before Yu Xiangling could do anything. This poison was meant to contract all the muscles in the body. Some of those muscles would contract so much that they would tear tendons and even snap bones. Against a powerful cultivator during a fight, this would simply cause a short inconvenience, but it could be enough to create an opening.
Combined with Yu Xiangling's current pain from the Death Energy invading her body, she couldn't take care of the poison in time. Her blood was flowing very fast in her body and the Rictus of the Shattered Orchid made her limbs tense with great intensity. Unfortunately for Yu Xiangling, it also meant that her arm holding the black orb tensed. Her fist clenched in an instant and she dropped the orb.
The very moment she lost the connection, the aura of Demon God Da Mo began to slowly dissipate. Cao Yun didn't wait for one second and went directly for Yu Xiangling both physically and spiritually. He had never stopped his 'Weeping Demon' so it assaulted Yu Xiangling before anything else, almost paralyzing her.