Xiao Yin Yu was understandably rather caught off-guard by the change, she honestly didn't expect that Yin Long had more cards up his sleeve after he had already brought out so many different things. Once again she found herself curious about this man she had decided to tag along with, he said that he was just another wanderer, but what was his actual story? Where had he been born and how had he been raised, what events shaped him into the box of terrifying surprises that he was?

Yin Long didn't care one whit about Yin Yu's shock, his eyes were already focused squarely on the pale green-eyed elder with swept-back faded black hair. The elder felt an insidious chill fill his body as he locked eyes with Yin Long, especially that right eye filled with scaled leaves. His face was dyed in excitement at the approaching battle, but when the expression fell into the elder's eyes it simply looked like the excitement of a beast that found a new toy to torment.

Yin Long's knees bent slightly before he shot forward, taking the initiative as he charged directly at the elder, who already held his sword. Yin Long brought the sword up in a diagonal manner, the elder's pupils contracted slightly as he looked down upon the attack, the energy he felt in it was not something that a youth at Yin Long's cultivation realm could unleash.

His sword swept out to block the attack, his other hand shooting towards Yin Long's throat at the same time. But just as his and Yin Long's swords collided, Yin Long's sword vanished in a strange manner before suddenly appearing by his throat. His pupils hardened thanks to the unexpected change, but he still quickly reacted, a burst of pure Qi gushing out from his throat.

But the gush failed to reach its target, Yin Long's sword once again vanishing and appearing above the elder's outstretched hand, descending upon his wrist. The elder was someone at the 1st Earthen Door, he was not an enemy that Yin Long could afford to go easy on. Yet conversely, Yin Long looked like an enemy that the elder should be able to handle with ease, so there was a real chance that he might not bother bringing out his all.

And if the elder didn't bring out his all and thus prevented Yin Long from properly studying his sword technique, then it would all have been for nought. So Yin Long was going to show that he couldn't be underestimated, he would push the elder so far that he would have no choice but to bring out every single drop of skill he had.

The elder quickly flipped his hand, a repulsive force rushing out from his palm and pushing away Yin Long's sword. His own sword was stabbed forward at the same time, but it carried a strange amount of force when you considered that it had been hurriedly changed from a sideways sweep into a forward stab.

But what a shame, even though he repulsed Yin Long's sword, it simply vanished and appeared again in its original position, diagonally ascending towards the elder's abdomen. Three fractures in space was the best that Yin Long could do right now, but as long as he maintained those three fractures, his sword could appear within each of them at any given time.

The man hurriedly adjusted his stab, just barely blocking Yin Long's slash. His wrist immediately started to move in that strange wavy manner, shaving away the strength within Yin Long's attack. The pace at which he shaved away the strength was leagues about Tue Shuiye, it barely took him two seconds to remove every trace of power from Yin Long's attack.

He flicked his wrist and pushed aside Yin Long's weapon, flicking his wrist again to send a slash towards Yin Long's thigh. Yin Long abandoned the three earlier spatial fractures he had created and set up new ones, his sword vanishing and appearing in front of the incoming slash to block it.

He instantly felt his wrist tremble, the attack contained far more power than it should have. But Yin Long was quite diligent about training his wrists, they were an important part of how he used his sword after all, so with a bit of support from the law of space he was able to resist it. But the elder moved his wrist again while the two swords touched, the wavy motions of the sword eating away at the power contained in Yin Long's defence.

His hand shot forward again at the same time, his open palm pointed at Yin Long's face and unleashing an attractive force that tugged at his body. He involuntarily took a step forward, the elder using this chance to angle his sword upwards so that he could drive it into Yin Long's abdomen and up through his chest.

But Yin Long flicked his wrist with all his might, his sword jumping forward and pushing against the sharp edge of the elder's blade. Its upwards-pointed tip was pushed backward, the edge of Yin Long's blade preventing it from correcting itself back into the intended path. But the elder simply rolled his wrist again, the strength within Yin Long's weapon and wrist getting shaved away almost instantly.

Even so, Yin Long's expression didn't falter, not even as the elder's hand reached for this throat, the attractive force it unleashed tugging at him with rapidly increasing force. His blade vanished and appeared again at the side of the man's head, heading directly for his skull, but still leaving enough room for him to block. Yin Long was after all trying to learn his skill, it was important to give him some leeway to lure him into using his technique.

And indeed, the man quickly took advantage of the fact that Yin Long had altered the direction of his ascending stab to push his weapon up to block Yin Long's incoming slash. His hand clenched down on Yin Long's throat at the same time as Yin Long's slash collided with the man's sword, but a strange scene followed the clash.

The man's wrist rolled again, but the strength within Yin Long's slash wasn't eaten away this time. No, the man's sword exploded with impossible power the moment he rolled his wrist, it unleashed such might that it blew the white sword out of Yin Long's grasp and sent it flying through the air.

The man tightened his grasp on Yin Long's throat, but Yin Long's gaze wasn't even focused on him, his pupils followed the soaring sword. The light in his eyes was flickering violently as he was enlightened, the corners of his lips trembling slightly.

"That's it... That's it! Steal and accumulate, take it for yourself and then unleash it all at once!"

Thanks to that final burst of power, he finally managed to connect the ideas he had after clashing with both the elder and Tue Shuiye. Why bother shaving away at the enemy's power in such a roundabout way when you could just block or deflect? Why bother to keep the sword constantly moving in that wavy pattern?

It was simple, you did it to absorb the power within the enemy's attack, and the constant wavy motion was designed to keep the power gathered within your weapon. That was how he could stab out with more power than he should be able to, that was how he was able to explode forth with strength that his position shouldn't allow. They stole the enemy's power and sent it right back at them, it was honestly a bit similar to Yin Long's own parasitic soul.

The elder's expression turned somewhat gloomy when he realized that Yin Long had gleaned the secrets of their sword technique from him. He hadn't expected him to discover it this quickly and concisely, but how could he know that Yin Long wasn't just a prodigy with the sword, but he also had a soul that worked on rather similar principles.

The secrets of his clan's sword technique had been revealed to this youth, which honestly just became another reason that he had to kill him. But as he moved to put more force into his hand, Yin Long's free left hand rose and grabbed hold of the elder's elbow. He didn't put any force into his grip, nor could the elder feel an ounce of Qi gathering within his palm.

But a burst of searing pain assaulted his mind the moment he decided to remain vigilant. A golden sword suddenly poked through his elbow, the same scaled leaves that covered the right side of Yin Long's face spread across the surface of the blade while light seemed to dance within it. No blood spilt from the wound, the man could feel that the blade carried such heat that the cut had already been cauterized, the heat spreading throughout the rest of the veins in his arm.

He couldn't help but let go of Yin Long's throat due to the pain, his arm barely listening to his orders. But he also retaliated at the same time, his still raised sword slashing down at full speed and unleashing the remaining energy he had gathered up with his wavy motions. The tip of the weapon cut into Yin Long's shoulder and went down his body in a diagonal manner, leaving a gash that went from his right shoulder to his left thigh.

The two people separated as a result of the exchange, the man's left hand hanging down limply, a bit of smoke seeping out from his skin. Meanwhile, Yin Long was bleeding heavily from his torso, his left hand grasping the golden sword of light that he had formed after snatching up a bit of Bai Mu's strange law of light.

Yin Long's free right hand moved slightly, the golden leaves that had appeared around him along with the sword shooting out. They reached the still falling white sword almost instantly, carrying it back to his grasp before it could touch the ground. This was the last gift he had gotten from his parents, just the fact that he had allowed himself to lose hold of it was something he wasn't pleased with.

His gaze was focused on the elder, but part of his senses paid attention to Xiao Yun Yu's fight, checking out the thing she wanted to show him. And the thing he saw was something he hadn't expected in the slightest. Yin Yu was holding back the other eight elders with quite a lot of leeway, it wouldn't be wrong to say that she was cornering them slowly but steadily.

But that wasn't the amazing part, no, the thing that caught Yin Long's attention was the number of combatants. There were the eight elders and Yin Yu herself, but there were actually more 'people' present and fighting at the same time. Yin Yu had used her law of wind to form multiple humanoid shells, each one wielding a sword made from pure lightning.

He had no idea how she actually controlled these elemental doppelgangers, but the techniques they used were things he had seen Yin Yu use so it was clear that she was extremely proficient with this skill of hers. Now he understood why she said that it had some similarities with his law of space, if he could learn to use his law like this then it would be the same as having multiple Yin Long's assaulting the enemy. It was quite similar to the principle of the Ravenous Beast technique, but Yin Long wasn't quite certain how to even start implementing it in actual combat.

"So you actually had another sword... I'll admit, that caught me off-guard."

The elder spoke while glancing at Yin Long's golden sword, Yin Long didn't have an interspatial ring on his left hand so he hadn't expected a new weapon to suddenly appear. And as a result, he had lost most of the use of his left arm, it really was quite shameful for an elder. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Yin Long cut him off before he could get the words out.

"Ahh, don't bother trying to say anything about how this is the end or the like, I'm not done yet."

The elder quickly learned the meaning behind Yin Long's words, his pupils shrinking until they were barely visible when he saw that the flesh around the gash in Yin Long's torso was wriggling. The cut was rapidly closing up, a sickly looking blackish-yellow energy coursing around it and fueling the regrowth.

The two strange energies in Yin Long's body, the yellow energy and the Netherworld Energy, both were extremely destructive and tore up Yin Long's body as they coursed through him. But strangely enough, they also repaired his body at the same time, Yin Long was already very familiar with the regenerative properties that the Netherworld Energy showed in his body.

But he didn't even bother waiting for the wound to finish healing, raising his white sword as high as he could while maintaining his excited grin. He had learned the principle behind this clan's unique sword technique but it would take a lot of practice and some study to figure how he could incorporate it into his own technique.

But he still had other things he wanted to try, and there was one technique he was very interested in trying now that he was bursting with energy. He was already quite familiar with Ravenous Beast, the first of the six moves belonging to the Twin Fangs of the Wolf, the technique created by the founder of the Lang clan. But he had yet to test out the second technique, Horizon-reaching Bite.

"Well then, do put your all into blocking, let me see if it will make any diff...!"

Yin Long didn't get to finish the sentence, a violent tremor running through the ground beneath them. The entire estate seemed to tremble fiercely, but worse than that, Yin Long could both hear and feel something burrowing through the ground, rushing for the surface. And from what he felt, he was standing right where it would burst out.

He immediately jumped back with all his might, but it was all for nought, the earth tore open as something flew out. But strangely enough, the thing that made the entire estate tremble and tore a several metres wide hole into the ground when it burst out was barely the size of his pinky's nail.

The item looked like it had been carved from the purest jade, its green colour unblemished yet looking like it carried the weight of aeons. The item in question looked like a simple intertwined loop that had a very small cylindrical outgrowth that looked like it should continue on, but it was broken almost at the base. Yin Long knew that this clan was guarding a piece of a key, could this be that very part?

But he didn't get the chance to think about this question any further, the small item shot directly towards him, spinning around the golden sword he held a few times. It seemed like he was inspecting it, he could even feel the part of his soul that held the sword together tremble, the small fragment seemingly delving into even that ethereal thing.

And then, seemingly having found something it searched for, the fragment trembled in apparent joy. Once it finished trembling, it shot directly into Yin Long's body, phasing through his flesh as it burrowed directly into his soulsea, ignoring all of his attempts to stop it.

Its intrusion into his soulsea assaulted his mind with immense pain, but it didn't feel like any pain he had felt before. It was a bit like his soul was trying to split itself apart, but it also felt like a warning signal gone wild, as if the depths of his soul was going crazy trying to prevent something.

The small fragment rushed directly for his soul, sinking into the dim purple section of it. The section didn't light up after the fragment melted into it, it didn't actually feel like there was any change at all. But then, with a droning and mind-grating creaking sound, what looked like a deep and weary eye opened on the handle of the sword that was Yin Long's soul. And then, as if to protect his mind, his consciousness shut down on its own.