Yin Long looked at the lightning lotus that crackled in the air above the stage, the back of his neck prickling in slight discomfort. He wasn't too fond of lightning, with the main reason being the unreasonable fear he got towards it after he was nearly struck by lightning as a child. Of course, the fact that the sky was covered in lightning on the day his parents died didn't help either.

The lotus luckily didn't last for too long, a tense atmosphere descending over all the competitors gathered around the stone stage. The first battles would be among the most important ones, as almost any team could end up facing each other. Of course, it wasn't entirely random, two of the territories were picked out at random and would then decide on which of their teams they would send out.

Generally, each territory would send out their strongest team first, with the only exception being if they didn't feel confident in their chances to win against the other territory's strongest team. Should that be the case, then they could only send out a sacrificial lamb first so that their ace team didn't start with a disadvantage. And right now, all the weaker teams were praying that they didn't end up as sacrificial lambs. Jie Yue knew the tension and anxiety that swam beneath the competitors around her, and she made sure that they were enveloped by it for a few instances before she finally spoke up.

"Alright, no more letting you poor fellows stew in your fears. I'd like to invite Team 1 from the Starsong Territory and Team 4 from the Bloodgrass Territory onto the stage to kick things off with a bang!"

Several sighs of relief were instantly heard from the weaker competitors, they had avoided becoming the sacrificial lamb. At the same time, they also understood that there was one team that had become the sacrificial lamb. There was no way the Bloodgrass Territory had enough strong people to form 4 ace teams, so the fourth team sent out to deal with Starsong's first team was most definitely tossed aside, fully expected to lose.

And as the team from the Starsong Territory jumped onto the stage, everyone knew exactly why the Bloodgrass Territory wasn't willing to send out their ace teams. They were only 10 people, just like all the other teams, and just like the other ace teams, their weakest cultivator had reached the 9th Immortal Door. But while the Bloodgrass Territory had found two people under the age of 100 that had reached the Earthen Door realm, just this team alone had four of them. And the leader of the team had even reached the 4th Earthen Door, it was a team that could strike fear into just about any other ace team thanks to the sheer quality it contained.

Fighting against such a team was bound to end in a terrible loss, you might even end up so wounded that the future fights would be heavily impacted. And because all the onlookers knew this, countless gazes were directed towards the seating area where the Bloodgrass Territory was sitting. And under the pressure from all these eyes, Yin Long stood up from his seat, stepping over the lying Jin Wang before realizing something and turning around.

"Not coming?"

Team four, the strongest team that wasn't an ace team, how could Yin Long not end up in this team after his performance? But he was the only person from team four to have stood up to head to the stage, the others remained seated in trepidation. Lan Yun and Bai Mu had halfway stood up before they stopped and looked sideways at the other team members, who could only shake their heads with expressions varying from grave to fearful.

Why would they bother going up to fight a battle where they were doomed to get trounced and probably hurt so badly that their future battles would be ten times harder? Yin Long was different from them, but he still understood their thoughts so he waved his hand casually at Lan Yun and Bai Mu.

"A shame. In that case, you two can also just sit back down. We've got different goals here after all, no need for you two to mess around."

Yin Long turned away and hopped over the small barricade that separated their seating area from the two-kilometre wide open area between the seats and the edge of the stage. He walked with casual steps, as if he wasn't currently the focal point of so many pairs of eyes that he'd fail to count them all. He jumped onto the stage and focused his gaze on the opponents ahead of him.

And as he looked at them, they also looked at him, sweeping his body multiple times with sharp eyes. But they didn't attack him even though him stepping onto the stage technically signalled the start of the battle, Jie Yue had even retreated from the stage already. The strongest among them and thus their leader, a yellow-eyed youth with brown hair flowing down to just beneath his shoulders frowned slightly, his gaze sliding past Yin Long.

"The rest of your team is unwilling to follow you?"

The lean youth's voice didn't sound the slightest bit happy about this, he even sounded like he was disappointed, to the point where his voice was almost tinged with disdain. The rest of his team remained standing a step behind him, clearly waiting for his decision on how to proceed. As for Yin Long, he simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Can you really blame them? Entering the stage against you is tantamount to signing up for a hospital visit, they'd have to be idiots to do that and harm their own chances at getting a good standing in this competition."

His team members weren't wrong in how they handled this situation, they had taken the most logical and sensible option, doing anything else would be dumb. And yet, there he stood, all alone on the stage like an utter idiot. And it was a fact that the other side couldn't possibly miss, smirking somewhat amusedly as he retracted his gaze from Yin Long's non-present team members.

"You say that, yet you jumped onto the stage while knowing you'd lose, didn't you?"

Calling something idiotic but then doing that exact same thing, one would either be lying to gain something or be a magnificent fool to do something like that. And standing right there, the corners of his lips turning up in an excited yet sharp curve, Yin Long proved that he was undoubtedly the latter.

"We have different goals. I don't really have an interest in what sort of position we'll reach at the end, I only want to fight and train my sword techniques. Yeah, I'll lose this battle, 100%. But whatever I learn here will help me win future battles, help me fight more losing battles for longer so that I can learn more. It's worth it."

His words left everyone around the stage utterly dumbfounded, he risked grievous wounds just for something like that? But while they were all dumbfounded, Lan Yun simply smiled softly. They couldn't understand him, they lacked that special thing that made Yin Long who he was. And since they lacked that thing, they would never be able to understand him, nor would they ever have the chance or right to ascend to truly great heights. The youth also stood there in a dumbfounded state for a second but then quickly broke out into an uproarious laugh.

"You...hehehe...HAHAHA, you're a bit wonky in the head I see. But that's fine, that's a good attitude, a strong heart worthy of respect! I'm Fang Yau, future ruler of the Starsong Territory's Fang clan, my given title is The Hydra's Fangs! I'll face you, so please do me the honour of introducing yourself!"

Fang Yau cupped his hands and bent his waist slightly, a respectful gesture that very few people at the Earthly Door realm would do willingly to someone at the Immortal Door realm. He lowered both arms after cupping his fists, a short sword appearing in each hand as he looked at Yin Long, a sliver of excitement surfacing in his yellow pupils. And since he showed proper respect, Yin Long had no reason to not do the same.

"I'm Yin Long, no title or affiliation, you can just consider me a wanderer moving from one training ground to the next."

He was technically a member of Thousand Blades Hall, but he had already told them that he would move on when he felt that he had learned what he could, so the term wanderer was indeed more suited for him. His Qi started to surge as he lowered his arms and brought out one of his swords, the transparent crimson one formed from blood.

And whether or not it was because his Qi reacted to his excitement or some other reason, the presence of his sword caused his Qi to form small crimson leaves covered in scales. The Qi-formed leaves danced around his body as if they had just fallen from a tree and were blowing in the wind, the faint scent of blood accompanying them as the two people prepared to start their incredibly lopsided battle.