There was no time at all. Director Hua could not delay bringing the Nine-Souls Calamity Ascension Pill to Emperor Weide. In other words, the road to sedition and revolt was right in front of her. As soon as they reached the Imperial City, there was no doubt in her mind that Emperor Weide would be ready. Thus, Cao Yun's plans would have to be put into effect immediately. The only thing she could do was to prolong the journey. Indeed, she could easily argue that their mission was incredibly sensitive. As such, they had to be extremely careful. Thankfully, Sun Liao's guards agreed with it.
Of course, Sun Liao himself agreed with it as it was playing into Cao Yun's hands. Any second they could offer Cao Yun was good. As time passed, his cultivation became increasingly stable. Hopefully, it would be sturdy by the time they reached Emperor Weide.
Director Hua had to carefully choose whom she would take on the journey. Obviously, she selected her sister Xiao Xuefeng as she would be very useful when it came to souls. But she hid her disciple Song Guixiang. However, she had doubts about Mei Hua and Feng Yingyue. Both women were absolutely adamant, they couldn't be left behind. They knew what the real stakes were, and they wouldn't abandon Cao Yun.
In fact, Cao Yun himself was faced with the same problem. His brothers and sister would never accept letting him go alone. Even Ren Chao, who knew that he probably couldn't do a thing, wouldn't let his brother go without him. Although Cao Yun could have disregarded their wishes, he didn't. Mei Hua and Ren Chao joined the expedition as Sun Liao's brother and sister. Finally, Feng Yingyue joined as Director Hua's direct disciple. A few other alchemists handpicked by Hua Fenfei and Xiao Xuefeng accompanied them on the journey. There were only half a dozen in total. The truth was that they were only there to offer a cover for Cao Yun.
None of the alchemists knew the exact nature of the trip, but they were all loyal to Director Hua as Spirit Master Hua Fenfei, not as the Director of the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute. Thus, she could trust them with her life and knew for a fact that they would rather betray Emperor Weide than herself, even without knowing all the facts. Before leaving, she made sure that the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute could survive without her. If she fell, Emperor Weide wouldn't slaughter the alchemists as they were essential. But he might purge the institute nonetheless. So Director Hua prepared everything to cover most people, putting all the blame on herself and Xiao Xuefeng. Unfortunately, she could only hope that it would be sufficient. Moreover, she left hidden instructions to Song Guixiang. The plump man still didn't know what was really going on, the thought of his extreme privations was still rattling him.
Anyway, the group went to the Imperial City with huge trepidation. For different reasons, they could all feel that the fate of the Hongchen Kingdom was hanging in the balance.
-
In the Wang Province, where the Imperial City was, people were relatively spared from the atrocities of war. However, many cultivators had been sent to the front lines and on various battlefields. Although they tended not to speak about what they had seen, it was obvious that they had witnessed horrific scenes. Some of those cultivators had fought the intruding demons throughout the desolate provinces, the Huogo Province, the Kai Province, and the Rengui Province. Even if Governor Gang Suo's sacrifice was worthy of praise, no one who had actually gone to the battlefield could sing its praises. They had witnessed the fate of those provinces and their inhabitants. More than that, they could feel the same fate hanging above them and those they loved and cared for.
The Imperial City was almost deserted. Few people were roaming the streets even during the day. At night, martial law simply forbade people from going outside without the proper permission. Several shops had closed, but a few had survived thanks to the Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall. In fact, Huang Cixi had invested in them in secret. More than half of the economy in the Imperial City was in the hands of Huang Cixi, and most of the economy was surviving thanks to her involvement, directly or not. Even Emperor Weide wasn't aware of that. To be fair, he was more concerned with other matters.
Emperor Weide was sitting cross-legged in front of his daughter, Yong Ke. She was only wearing a thin, white tunic. Her slender arms were exposed. On her body, one could see many scars. In particular, Cao Yun would have recognized a deep laceration on her arm. When she was still Cao Huiying, she had lost this arm, it was what had been buried with the fake corpse by her family's side. Emperor Weide had found physicians and alchemists to graft a new arm on his daughter. Most of her injuries had healed.
One could imagine how much she had fought against her captors if she had been injured this much. The truth was that she had mainly fought against Emperor Weide himself. Indeed, he had entered her very soul in order to destroy her memories.
For weeks, if not months, she had tried to hold on to them. But they disappeared one by one. Will alone wasn't enough to fend off a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior. She screamed, cried, and agonized. But Emperor Weide didn't relent. He blamed her blood for these torments. Indeed, as a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior, he could have wiped out her memories in an instant, but he had to be extremely careful not to damage her soul at all. Because of this, he had to take much longer. As such, the poor girl literally saw her memories fade away.
After several weeks, she couldn't remember her family at all. She still remembered that she had a family and had lost them, but nothing more. As she was in more and more despair, it became easier for Emperor Weide to erode her other memories. In fact, she ended up welcoming the torture as it was approaching her total annihilation. Unfortunately, she would never be released. When he was done, Emperor Weide played the role of a savior.
He was her dad. Some demonic cultivators working for the Empyrean Asura Theocracy had attacked her and her mom. Emperor Weide had tried to hide them, far away from the Imperial City, but they had been found. Jian Zhenli had been able to save her in the nick of time, but she had suffered deep injuries and extreme soul wounds. She would never remember her past, nor her mother's embrace. The ultimate perversion was to make Jian Zhenli out to be her savior, the man who had ripped her away from her brother's arms and had slain her parents.
Each time Emperor Weide looked at those scars, he was reminded of his cruelty. But he wasn't cruel for the sake of cruelty or because he enjoyed it. Truth be told, he sincerely hated every moment of it. However, his ambitions were too important. He had to save mankind, no matter what. As such, he regarded Cao Huiying as nothing more than a pig for the slaughter. Although he might show affection and even sincere care, he knew what her fate would be. Moreover, she should even be proud of it. At this very moment, many cultivators were laying down their lives for the sake of the Hongchen Kingdom.
Emperor Weide knew that his daughter, Yong Ke, would gladly give her life for mankind. He was just going to give her the opportunity to do so. Besides, her sacrifice would help so many, it was absolutely worth it. That being said, it would be too cruel to tell her. There was no need to alarm her or to scare her. Thinking about her fate might even alter her cultivation. Emperor Weide needed her cultivation to be perfect. For that purpose, he had been guiding her for months now.
Unfortunately, it was almost impossible to speed up the 2nd-grade Spirit Warrior stage, Awaken the Embryo. Indeed, it simply consisted of slowly awakening the slumbering Soul Embryo. Emperor Weide could tell that it was perfect. Honestly, he could barely wait to rip it out of Cao Huiying. Strangely enough, he surprised himself by calling her by both names. She wasn't his daughter, Yong Ke, she was his sacrifice, Cao Huiying. Something deep within himself felt extremely familiar to the young girl, so she trusted him. On the other hand, Emperor Weide could also feel this sensation, as though they were actually a family. Unlike Cao Huiying, he knew the origin of this feeling.
This time, Emperor Weide would succeed, he could almost taste it in the air. With the Nine-Souls Calamity Ascension Pill, there was no way he would fail. At last, he would step into the Sage realm. He would tear apart the veil concealing the Dao. He would pierce the secrets of the jealous Dao, and he would crush mankind's eternal enemy. Emperor Weide would make mankind soar higher than what Emperor Nuwa ever achieved. History would remember him for untold eons. All the sacrifice and suffering would be worth it. Maybe he would finally stop being plagued by those horrendous thoughts...
Suddenly, a powerful silver light spread throughout Yong Ke's sea of consciousness. Yes, she had awakened her Soul Embryo. It vibrated and seemed to echo Emperor Weide's own Soul Embryo. A deep connection was felt by the two of them. Where Yong Ke felt her father's love, and maybe even her mother's love, Emperor Weide only felt power. He could visualize himself on top of the world. The Empyrean Asura Theocracy would be crushed, and mankind's future would be brighter than anything else anyone could possibly imagine.
Yong Ke was now officially a 3rd-grade Spirit Warrior. Everything was ready. Honestly, it took Emperor Weide great restraint not to rip her Soul Embryo out of her Huang Ting, the Yellow Court. Instead of making her cultivate to become a 4th-grade Spirit Warrior, Emperor Weide led her astray.
For years now, she had cultivated the 'Black Stone of Royal Embers' cultivation method. This was a manual meant to help one develop a very powerful Soul Embryo. And she could clearly feel that her Soul Embryo was much stronger than anyone she had ever felt before. Instead of being pure silver, it was literally obsidian with silver light emanating from it, like embers. However, the manual abruptly ended after the awakening of one's Soul Embryo. After that, it diverged from the 'Universal Law of Immortality'.
Sadly, Yong Ke wasn't well-versed enough to understand the point of this cultivation method. Cao Yun and Xiao Xuefeng would have understood. Her Soul Embryo was simply too powerful for her own flesh. Even if Emperor Weide didn't rip it out of her right now, it would slowly poison her flesh. As a 3rd-grade Spirit Warrior, she should be able to live for 1,500 years naturally. However, she would barely reach five hundred years old. Of course, for a mortal, this was exceptional, but it was a third of her natural life expectancy. Moreover, it was simply impossible for her to improve her cultivation. Indeed, her Upper Dantian would simply never be able to harbor her Soul Embryo, no matter how much she tried to strengthen it. As such, it was useless to practice Strengthen the Upper Dantian.
Since Yong Ke lacked the experience to know all this, she was convinced that her father's method was exceptional. She felt as powerful as a middle or even late Spirit Warrior. Even if she couldn't fully use all this strength, she could still feel it in her Soul Embryo.
Of course, the point of 'Black Stone of Royal Embers' wasn't to create a powerful Soul Embryo for the cultivator, but for their master. Emperor Weide had been raising Cao Huiying as a human crucible. That was indubitably a demonic cultivation method. For all intents and purposes, Emperor Weide was a demonic cultivator, no matter what he tried to tell himself to justify his actions. Now, there was no going back. Cao Huiying's future cultivation was destroyed. It was impossible for anyone to form another Soul Embryo, or Saint Xun Ke would have been able to do so after sacrificing his. But it wasn't important, as Cao Huiying's life would soon come to an end.
Now, Emperor Weide helped Cao Huiying practice the next level of 'Black Stone of Royal Embers', 'Sharpening Rock to Purify Soul'. Cao Huiying was convinced that this technique was about slowly breaking apart the obsidian concealing her Soul Embryo in order to purify her soul. The truth was that the point was to prepare her Soul Embryo for the sacrifice. The one who would shatter the obsidian in order to absorb her Soul Embryo was Emperor Weide. By killing her, he would turn her Po into Death Energy that would completely break apart the obsidian. But this layer would protect her Soul Embryo long enough for him to absorb it. Besides, the energies unleashed by the destruction of this layer over her Soul Embryo would help him fully merge with it and break through. Combined with the Nine-Souls Calamity Ascension Pill, he knew that he would succeed.
Only the Shui bloodline within very specific women could allow for one to form this strange layer of obsidian over their Soul Embryo. It was the key to the 'Black Stone of Royal Embers' cultivation method. It was unfortunate that he didn't have more of this bloodline. Honestly, Emperor Weide had even thought about making Cao Huiying have daughters of her own, but he was short on time. Thus, he would risk it all with only one candidate. Apparently, his bet had paid off.
In two to three months, Director Hua would arrive with the Nine-Souls Calamity Ascension Pill. So Emperor Weide would spend all this time cultivating with his fake daughter so that they could harmonize as much as possible and improve his chances of success. He didn't know that another man was coming with Director Hua, the fates of those two men would soon be decided.