Xue Qiuling's question was completely logical and reasonable, once someone else learned the truth about Yin Long, the reason she found herself worthy to be at his side would become moot. The question stabbed straight into the weakest point of Lan Yun's words, aiming to tear both them and her thoughts to pieces. But logic and reason could only go so far when they encountered something beyond their scope, so the question only made Lan Yun's lips curl up in a scornful manner.

"That's a moot question, partly due to the fact that he doesn't reflect, he glows all on his own, but mainly due to the fact that there will never be anyone else learning everything about him. He is far too fond of hiding himself deeply, so there will never be a third person who gets to know the true glory of the wolf's dark blade, both the truth and the tale are doomed to be buried forever."

Being one of the only two people who knew about Yin Long's abilities and true strength was a source of pride for Lan Yun, she was the only person besides him who knew it all. But while it filled her with pride, her voice contained a faint tinge of sadness as she spoke, her eyes somewhat distant as she looked at Yin Long.

His sisters and Jiu Meiyu knew about Yin Long's time as an assassin, but they would never tell anyone else, and even they didn't know the full extent of Yin Long's abilities. So the story of his past would die with all of them, never again would anyone hear about the dark blade of the Lang clan, who brought down and terrified countless elders and other people bearing the wolf's mark.

The way Lan Yun saw it, Xue Qiuling had gotten too cocky after just learning a little bit, she underestimated the true depth of Yin Long's secret. Lan Yun was confident that Xue Qiuling would feel far more than just some desire for Yin Long if she knew how deep he truly went, if she knew how terrifying he and his worth actually was.

Xue Qiuling narrowed her eyes faintly at Lan Yun's self-assured statement, Jin Wang not bothering to interfere with both of them as he maintained his vigilant guard in front of Yin Long. Lan Yun took her eyes off of Xue Qiuling, proceeding to ignore her while she continued to keep an eye on Yin Long, a very faint trace of worry occasionally flitting through her eyes.

Since she was being ignored, there was nothing that Xue Qiuling could do but remain silent, her aura constantly fluctuating as the repercussions of her secret technique got closer and closer. But there didn't end up being a need for her to interrupt Yin Long's recuperation, the last traces of his wounds vanished after a mere two hours. He opened his eyes again and stretched his body, Xue Qiuling sweeping her gaze across his body for a bit before commenting.

"Only two hours, that's a fair bit faster than I thought it would take, your body must be stronger than it looks and feels. But that's good, like this I can at least say a proper farewell before I head out."

She stepped forward while still talking, taking advantage of her swift movements to step away from Jin Wang and Lan Yun. She quickly wrapped her arms around Yin Long's neck and pulled him into a friendly hug, glancing behind her as she bid him farewell.

"I'll be seeing you again when you return to the dojo and I've finished recuperating, don't linger around here for too long and end up losing your lives."

She ended the hug before it could drag on for too long, taking a step back while playfully sticking out her tongue and radiating an enchanting aura. Clearly, with his worth increasing after she learned about more of his strength, she had decided that it was worth putting in a bit more effort to drag him closer.

But she still had her dignity and reputation to maintain so she didn't push too hard, stopping it at the friendly hug and somewhat intimate farewell. She then bowed politely at Lan Yun before finally swiping her interspatial ring and pulling out a teleportation scroll similar to the one that Yin Long and his group had used as they left the territory of his clan.

She flashed the two of them one final smile and then tore the scroll in half, space around her bending and distorting as she was teleported away, likely directly back to her own family. Lan Yun was more than fine with Xue Qiuling taking her leave, letting out a quick snort before addressing Yin Long.

"Good riddance. So, now that the hindrance is no longer around, what are you planning?"

With Xue Qiuling leaving, the number of things they could do increased somewhat as Yin Long would no longer have to worry about some of his secrets leaking out, meaning that there was likely going to be a change to their plans. But while Ying Long indeed made additions to their plans, the actual main-portion of the plans didn't change, something he conveyed while moving his pointing finger between Lan Yun and Jin Wang.

"First I wanna see how you and Jin Wang do, then I'll do a bit of sparring myself, I still need a bit more training. After that, there are two things I want to test out since we're alone now."

Although they were going to test out some new things, the main reason behind this trip was still to see how Jin Wang and Lan Yun had improved, also taking the chance to let Jin Wang run a bit wild. And now that his wounds had completely healed, he proceeded to go through with just those plans.

The group of three moved through the Blood Caldera in a somewhat vigilant and cautious fashion, Yin Long constantly keeping his senses as stretched out as he could. And just as Xue Qiuling had told them, this area was a true hotbed of cultivators and Demonic beasts, the group not lacking for enemies to hone their skills on.

And after the group had spent a day travelling around, each of them going through 10 or more battles, Yin Long could somewhat accurately gauge their strengths. Lan Yun, if she brought out every last one of her abilities and fought as if her life depended on it, would have a 50-60% chance of winning against a normal beast or cultivator who had reached the 3rd Immortal Door.

Jin Wang was a bit worse off but that was mainly due to the fact that he didn't have access to as many abilities as Lan Yun. But even so, Yin Long guessed that he should be able to overwhelm most cultivators or beasts at the 2nd Immortal Door. Of course, all this was under the assumption that it was a 1-on-1 battle where they could give it their all.

Yin Long's own strength was a bit harder to gauge due to the uniqueness of his parasitic soul, but he felt confident that he should be able to deal with most cultivators at the 2nd Immortal Door even if he just relied on his sword skills and laws. All the corpses were handed to Jin Wang, who promptly swallowed them and seemed to be storing up the energy he got from them.

It took the group a day to reach these conclusions about each other's strengths, but now that the conclusions had been reached it meant that it was time to move on to the two things that Yin Long wanted to test out. They found a somewhat quiet place at the very edge of the Blood Caldera, Yin Long pointing at a patch of earth right beneath a cluster of the large ferns that filled the area.

"Could you bring us down here and cover us up?"

Lan Yun understood what he meant so she immediately got to work and used her law of earth to dig out an underground cavern as well as a tunnel they could use to reach it. She closed up the tunnel after they reached the cavern, creating several small holes up to the surface so that they had fresh air to breathe. And finally, she used her law of wood to move around the roots of the ferns above them, creating a dense net of roots above the cavern to serve as a defensive shield.

Yin Long and Lan Yun spread some glowing crystals throughout the 300-metre wide cavern to illuminate it, Yin Long sitting down and crossing his legs once the entire cavern was lit up. He swiped his ring and took out an item that hadn't seen the light of day for quite some time, a half-metre long box that looked like it was made from a single boon, a chilly aura radiating from it and cooling down the surroundings.

This was a box that Lan Yun was fairly familiar with, it had been present within the interspatial ring she had given to Yin Long after he had come back to life. As such, she wasn't surprised when he opened the box and revealed a crimson jade slip resting on a bed of silk, but she was a bit surprised that he chose to take it out now, Yin Long explaining with a faint smile.

"I've had it for a while, so it's about time I give it a true and proper look. After that, I'll be trying something with my cultivation so I'll have to leave my defences to the two of you."

This jade slip contained the greatest treasure of the Lang clan, the sword technique left behind by its founder, it was the thing that he had used to carve his name into the world. He gave it a quick look when he first got it, but it was only now that he had enough time and privacy to properly study it. Lan Yun nodded her head seriously at Yin Long, but a charming and slightly teasing light couldn't help but flit through her pupils as her gaze swept over his seated body.

"Don't worry, I'll only grope you a little while you're focused, nothing new."

Yin Long rolled his eyes heavily at what he hoped was one of her jokes, closing them and sinking his mind into the jade slip. When he first got it, he only sank his mind into it enough to read about the general outline and basics of the technique, but now he sank his mind as deep as he could into the technique to learn everything.

And as he sank his mind into the depths of the jade slip, the scenery around him appeared to change. A vast and seemingly endless plain appeared around him, the waist-high yellow-speckled grass swaying softly in the wind while mountains rose up in the distance. Other than him, the only other being on the plain was a skinny middle-aged man who stood a short distance away from him. The man had brown hair that hung freely down to his waist, his eyes opening to reveal a pair of yellow pupils that looked at Yin Long in a tranquil manner.

"If you are seeing this then that means you are one of my descendants and have been granted the privilege to study my technique. Or my descendants have already turned to dust on the wind and you have acquired this manual by a stroke of luck, in which case our fates can be said to have some affinity."

There was only one person this man could possibly be, only one man who could show up in this jade slip, and that would be its creator. And just as Yin Long suspected, the man confirmed his identity as the founder of the Lang clan as he continued talking.

"This technique is my personal one, I created it after engaging and besting a Void Wolf in single combat. I used two of the wolf's fangs to forge my weapons and created this technique based on its abilities and how it fought, I have dubbed it Twin Fangs of the Wolf. Watch closely."

The man calmly stretched out both arms, a sword appearing in each of his hands, one that was a metre and a half in length and one that was a little less than half a metre long. The swords were pure white in colour and their surface looked rather rough, but both of them emitted a horrifying aura that felt like it could shatter a person's soul.

The man tightly grasped both swords and then started to move, the sharp edges of both blades dancing through the sky, countless after-images that seemed corporeal forming all around him. Yin Long was left breathless as he observed the technique, each move of the man seemed to carry the strength to bring down the stars themselves, not a single blade of grass on this endless plain outside of his reach.

But the man's display of his techniques ended far too swiftly, his ferocious yet dance-like movements halting and the two swords vanishing. The entire plain had been ruined by his actions, every blade of grass cut down and even the mountains reduced to mere rubble. Even the clouds high above them had been scattered, cut up into tiny white dots that were in the process of dissipating. And with the display finished, the brown-haired man left Yin Long with a vital reminder.

"Those are the six moves belonging to this technique, Ravenous Beast, Horizon-reaching Bite, Grey-Clad Dance, Hundred Fangs, Thousand Deaths, and Void Wolf. You can come in here and observe and experience them as much as you like, but it will be up to you to understand them. Also, Fated One, the strength of these techniques is highly reliant on the innate law of space contained within the two fangs, make sure you keep the weapons in good shape to unleash the full might of my legacy."

Hearing about the innate law contained within the fangs, Yin Long understood exactly what the countless after-images he had seen were. They weren't after-images, they were actual swords, either ones that had been created by the law of space or ones that had been created by rapidly teleporting the swords around so that they practically appeared in multiple places at once.

Yin Long wasn't quite sure on which one of the two options it was, or whether or not it even was one of the two options, he would have to study the technique longer before he could be sure. But before he could do any of that, he gave the brown-haired man a respectful bow.

"Sorry, Ancestor, but your fangs have already turned to dust on the wind. But don't worry, I'll make sure that your legacy is still able to display its full might for all to see."

The technique might rely on the law of space contained within the fangs left behind by the Void Wolf and was thus reliant on the weapons, but Yin Long had the law of space. So even though he didn't have the two swords, he was still confident that he could unleash the full might of the technique.

The brown-haired man didn't move in the face of Yin Long's bow, he was probably just a wisp of spirit that the founder of the Lang clan had left behind to display his technique for anyone who acquired the jade slip. But even so, Yin Long felt that it was only right that he show some respect to the man who had managed to create such an astounding set of sword techniques.

Yin Long moved his mind and left the illusory space created by the jade slip, his vision sinking into his own soulsea, where both his rainbow-coloured soul and the murky crimson sword were hovering. His gaze was firmly locked on the crimson sword, which was still slowly drawing upon the energy contained within the Netherworld energy that covered the entire sky.

"Alright then, let's see if you can't be nice and helpful to me."

The sword contained the combined energy of two people at the 2nd Immortal Door and four people at the 9th Mortal Door, it was needless to say that it contained a fair bit of energy. This was especially the case now, where it had gotten to absorb some of the Netherworld energy in the sky. If he could draw upon all the energy within the sword right here and now, then it wouldn't be impossible to have another breakthrough or two.

He could bring out the sword and keep it in his hand, but he calculated that to actually drain all the energy in the sword by just relying on the natural siphoning that his soul did would take at least a month. As such, if he could find a faster way to do it right here, it would not only benefit him now but also in the future when he gathered up more swords.

He focused his full attention on the crimson sword, connecting his mind to the sword and the energy that swam around within it. The weapon started to hum softly as Yin Long connected himself to it, the energy within it starting to surge and roil in excitement. But even though it surged like that, the energy didn't just leave the weapon straight away, Yin Long had to spend nearly six hours before a small strand of energy seeped out from the sword.

But as the first strand of energy seeped out and sank into the silvery-yellow ocean within his soulsea, the following strands of energy came out far smoother. A slightly strange scene also took place as the energy seeped out from the crimson sword, some of the energy actually sank into the rainbow-coloured sword that was his soul.

Other than the black tint that the tip of the rainbow-coloured sword had acquired when Yin Long first absorbed the Netherworld energy, six other colours swam around in his soul. The colours were yellow, red, blue, green, purple, and silver, and the red colour was currently turning deeper as it sucked up the energy from the murky sword.

The scene was unexpected, but it didn't feel harmful to Yin Long, he could actually feel that his soul was getting faintly stronger while a new stream of energy started to surge out from the depths of the silvery-yellow ocean. A faint crimson colour reminiscent of blood started to slowly appear on the ocean beneath Yin Long's soul, the colour also rising into the sky and very slowly merging into the 7 orbs that were revolving around his soul.

Yin Long calmly observed the changes taking place, a somewhat strange sensation starting to fill his mind. As the crimson colour merged into the ocean and seven orbs, he started to become acutely aware of the blood within his body, practically able to feel how every drop of it flowed through his veins.

The strange sensation wasn't constant, it appeared and vanished as the crimson colour in the ocean, in the orbs, and in his soul became all the more pronounced. The murky sword that had been created by the blood didn't vanish or shrink as Yin Long drew upon the energy within it, it just started to become more and more hollow and transparent. As a result, Yin Long guessed that even though he drew out the power of the sword right now, he could power it up again in the future by just using it and his soul to suck more cultivators into it.

Ideas and thoughts started to bounce around in Yin Long's head, he was practically unable to restrain himself and hold back from just testing out everything he thought of right now. But he forced himself to remain calm and focus on drawing out the energy from the sword, the 8th orb already starting to reveal itself from the ocean.

The sky-covering Netherworld energy seemed to detect the commotion, large amounts of energy starting to descend without Yin Long telling it to. Yin Long vigilantly inspected this energy, but it just gave off the feeling of a child trying its hardest to be of help to its parent, it didn't pose the slightest of threat and became perfectly obedient the moment Yin Long as much as thought about it.

"You're trying to help, huh? Well, then you'd best behave, got it?"

They weren't in the dojo right now, and Yin Long had gotten a bit more experience with the Netherworld energy, so he didn't stop it after giving it a thorough inspection. Most people might not be willing to admit it due to what the energy was connected to, but it was already becoming very clear to Yin Long that the Netherworld energy wasn't going to harm him, it even seemed to adore him.

So he drew upon it and increased the speed at which the 8th orb rose from the ocean, the amount of energy he was using slowly increasing. And even though the increase was slow, he inevitably reached a point where he drew upon more Netherworld energy than he had ever done in the past. But even then, when he drew upon more Netherworld energy than ever before, not a single change happened, it stayed obedient and eager to please him.

But while nothing happened inside his soulsea, an unexpected change happened in the outside world. Lan Yun had joked earlier, but she was vigilantly watching over Yin Long, making sure that no one interrupted him or that anything unexpected happened to him.

Her gaze hadn't left him for even one second during the hours he had spent cultivating, remaining sharp and focused. But then, as he drew upon more Netherworld energy than ever before, a shiver ran throughout her entire body, a verdant and vivid green filling up her previously amber eyes.

And as this green colour filled her eyes, her finger automatically traced her interspatial ring and pulled out a sharp dagger. She stepped towards Yin Long and stabbed the dagger forward without any hesitation, fresh blood immediately flying through the air and splattering the cavern around them.