Yin Long remained seated beneath the 11 strung up people, calmly watching as bird constantly pecked at them and opened their wounds, ensuring that they kept bleeding and attracting more birds. After all, if they got to eat enough of this cultivator meat, then there was a chance that they could either mutate or evolve into Demonic beasts, beings belonging to a higher state of existence.

The yellow energy still coursed around within him by the time the strung up people got to see their first dawn, but he was forced to push the energy back by the time evening rolled around again. The energy was undeniably powerful, but it was also too rampant and violent for his weak body, it was tearing him apart at a slow pace.

And the only reason it was only at a slow pace was thanks to the fact that the energy was also helping his body rebuild itself after it was destroyed. The rebuilt parts were slightly stronger than before, but the speed at which his body was destroyed trumped the speed at which it was being rebuilt, so allowing the energy to keep on moving through his body was not an option at the moment.

Despite its vicious and rampant nature, the energy was quite docile when Yin Long gave it an order, obediently retreating into his soulsea. It flashed over to his soul and sank into the yellow section of the blade, gleaming with a cruel and cold light as it waited for the day it would be called up again. Yin Long also took this chance to check out the state of his soulsea, but things luckily hadn't changed too much.

The yellow-black sky of Netherworld energy had become a fair bit more yellow than before, the energy that was constantly descending into his stored up swords becoming somewhat strengthened as a result. But other than that, there weren't any changes other than the yellow section on his soul now glowing with the same light as the silver and red section.

He allowed his gaze to sweep over his soulsea for a few moments before he heaved a sigh, there really were far too many things about himself that he didn't understand. It was fine at first, but the stronger he got and the further he walked his own path, the more strange things popped up to confuse him.

But in the end, all he could do was toss all his questions to the back of his mind. He had far too few ways to actually get an answer to any of his questions, constantly occupying himself by thinking about them would just be a waste of his time. He had chosen his path, he had made up his mind, all that remained was to move forward step by step until his body gave out on him. That was the conclusion he had come to, that was how he had decided to live his life, so he opened his eyes and stopped observing the small changes in his soulsea.

The first thing that Yin Long's gaze landed on when he opened his eyes was Lan Yun, who was still nestling against Jin Wang. But the green colour that had washed over her eyes was receding, her shivering coming to a halt as she regained her mind. Yin Long didn't know anything about the yellow energy, but he could assume that it likely had some ties to the Netherworld.

After all, it was him using too much Netherworld energy previously that caused this green colour to wash over Lan Yun's eyes. Of course, back then the green colour seemed to brainwash her into killing him, it was quite different from how it had shivered in overwhelming fear this time around.

The confusion in her eyes seemed to be even greater this time around compared to last time, she didn't even seem to realize where she was right now. But she was a woman with a strong heart, so she immediately calmed down and took in the surroundings. She was covered in one of Yin Long's white robes, and seeing that she was leaning against Jin Wang in an open area, it was clear that Yin Long had rescued them.

Her eyes instinctually flickered to her right hand, a relieved breath slipping out when she saw that her two rings had been returned to their proper place. They were given as a gift by Lang Hua, and then given a new meaning by Yin Long, they were her dearest possessions. The sound of dripping blood and low moans of anguish caught her attention, her eyes rising and landing on the 11 people hanging a good distance above her.

She easily recognized all of them, she had spent a bit of time in the underground room after all so she got a good chance to remember all their faces. The thing that surprised her the most was Xue Qiuling's current wretched state, which showed signs of certain unsavoury acts she had seen many a time in her previous occupation.

Her gaze slid down onto Yin Long, it didn't take a genius to figure out who had acted to produce such an end-result. She leaned on Jin Wang as she stood up, her head tilted slightly as she pointed at the 11 people, a faint smile hanging on her face.

"The Reverse Scarecrow? Last time you employed this was because someone sent assassins after you and made it so that you almost missed your parents' final moments. It seems like just calling you angry at them taking me isn't quite enough. And that Xue Qiuling..."

No matter what was said, it couldn't be denied that Yin Long had previously been somewhat friendly with Xue Qiuling, even placing a bit of trust in her. But even so, the moment Xue Qiuling moved against her, Yin Long had retaliated in such a vicious manner. The acts were more than just brutal and vicious, but they caused a warmth to spread through Lan Yun's chest, each and every one of those acts was a sign of how deep Yin Long's care for her was. Yin Long didn't say too much about the topic, it wasn't worth his time.

"An eye for an eye."

As he spoke, Yin Long also swiped his interspatial ring and took out one of his remaining four Heart-Root Tulips, tossing it into his mouth and squishing the roots so that the cool juice flowed down his throat and the vast lifeforce inside it helped heal his wounds. The yellow energy had helped rebuild his body after destroying it, but since the speed of the destruction was greater than the rebuilding speed, there were still several ruined muscles and veins lingering within his body.

Since he had stopped using the yellow energy, the vertical crack in his forehead had vanished, as had the bladeless handle that he unconsciously formed while his rage was at its peak. Of course, while Yin Long knew about the bladeless handle, he had wielded it after all, he didn't actually know about the crack that appeared at the centre of his forehead.

Yin Long stood up from his seat as the lifeforce within the Heart-Root Tulip started to restore his wounds, a somewhat weary sensation washing over his muscles now that the yellow energy was no longer boosting him. He rolled his shoulders and shook his limbs for a moment to expel the weary sensation, walking towards Lan Yun with determined steps after a few seconds. Lan Yun saw his gait and strong eyes as he approached her, smiling in her usually flirty manner.

"Oh, you're approaching me like that, Young Master? If you look at me like that, you're going to give me the wro...?!"

Yin Long reached her before she could finish her words, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a tight embrace. She may have been taller than him when they first met, but his growth over the subsequent years made it so that he was currently a bit over a head taller than her, resulting in her head getting buried in his chest when he embraced her.

This wasn't the first time Yin Long had given Lan Yun a hug, but it was the first time he had ever done it so forcefully, so warmly and caringly. And while she couldn't see his expression, she could hear the sheer depths of his determination from his voice.

"I was weak and allowed the peace to dull my edge, resulting in you getting beaten and kidnapped. I don't make a habit out of swearing promises, but I'll give you this one, never again."

His words contained an unviolable sharpness, promising only a single end to all who tried to make him break his words. And that sharpness stabbed directly into the deepest recesses of Lan Yun's heart, because she knew that it was a sharpness reserved for only those closest to Yin Long, previously only shown to his two sisters.

He had called her his closest friend multiple times in the past, but she felt that it was only now that she was truly moved up to that position. It was still only in the realm of friends, but at least she had taken a step forward, raising her head with a faint smile as she moved along with her usual coquettish words.

"Hehe, it really is as I say, Young Master, there'll be no end to my rivals if you keep acting like this. But you keep giving me hope, so I'll just have to keep fluttering forward until I finally burn, just you mark my wor...?!"

Yin Long once again caught her so off-guard that her words were cut off. But this time he didn't do it by pulling her into a warm embrace, he did it by directly sealing her lips with his own. Lan Yun had been extremely forward with her advances and had long since gotten used to Yin Long's carefree dismissal of her, so him taking the initiative like this left her mind completely blank. Yin Long didn't maintain the kiss for too long before he pulled his head back, laying it out in simple terms.

"I now understand what you felt when I died back then. I have resolved to never feel like that again, what about you?"

Regret from his hesitation, sorrow from her disappearance, pain from the loss, all of it culminating in furious anger at his own weakness that allowed others to move against her. Those were the emotions he had felt when Xue Qiuling told him that Lan Yun had been dealt with, and it was exactly what Lan Yun felt when she met Yin Long for the last time and knew that there would be no second meeting.

Having felt all those emotions, Yin Long abandoned his hesitation and decided to embrace the emotions deep within his heart. Life was too short to hesitate and worry about the depths of other peoples emotions, doing so would just lead to regret when the end finally came.

Her emotions towards him were true and pure, so it didn't matter what their source was. He had already seen what sort of result those thoughts brought with them when the end arrived, and it was a result he rejected with all his heart. If there was one complaint he had towards himself then it would be that it took such a grim event for him to realize it, things had almost reached an abysmal conclusion.

Lan Yun had thought about various scenarios in which she finally managed to charm Yin Long, she had gone over the possibilities and her own advantages many times in the past. But never once had she expected an outcome like this, an outcome where she seemingly didn't have to do a single thing.

Of course, the main reasons behind this outcome were the years that accumulated themselves in Yin Long's heart and slowly formed a reverse scale, one that reacted violently when it was prodded. But since Yin Long had made his stance and thoughts exceedingly clear, there was no way that she would hesitate, she had already been chasing for that hand of his ever since he first swung his fist around for her.

"Ha, I wasn't wrong, Young Master. The moment that the moth touches the flame, its life is brighter and more glorious than ever before. There's not a trace of regret born from chasing incandescent fire."

She buried her head against his chest again as she spoke, her heart thumping so loudly in her chest that Yin Long could feel it while embracing her. She knew that she had only been kidnapped due to how close she was to Yin Long, getting rid of her would possibly be a huge blow to Yin Long.

But even so, she didn't regret chasing the flame that was Yin Long, she wouldn't regret it even if it resulted in her death in the future. Because as she touched the flame right now, she felt that all the suffering the world could produce wouldn't be enough to bring her mood down. Death could come for them this very instance, and she would still be able to smile, because she had managed to grasp that which she desired the most.

Yin Long lowered his head and rested his face against Lan Yun's amber hair, the rosy atmosphere around them not hindered in the slightest by the blood that was constantly dripping onto the ground around them. And as he rested his face on her head, he made a simple proclamation, not just to her, but to the city around them, to the Netherworld, to the Celestial World, to the universe itself should it be listening.

"I will allow many things in my life, but I will never allow the moth to burn up, I will only allow it to rise up into the stars."