Neither Yin Long nor Yun Duan had unleashed any strong waves of energy when they moved, so the number of people that actually noticed their small exchange was limited to less than 10 people. But of the few people who noticed the exchanged and Yun Duan's offer, only one had an immense reaction to it.
Xue Qiuling had taken a step back when Yun Duan launched his attack, so she was currently mostly shrouded by Yun Duan's frame. As a result, neither Yin Long nor Lan Yun could see her expression morphing violently, actual fear and panic appearing on her face. She hurriedly took a few silent breaths and returned her expression to normal, but her eyes were still flashing with a subdued light by the time Yin Long responded to Yun Duan.
"I'm definitely interested in accepting that invitation, but I've definitely gotta make a few things clear first. One, I hope you aren't expecting me to be completely loyal. I'll tell you what I told the Heron's Ascension Dojo, I'll leave the moment I find a better place or feel that I've learned everything you have to offer. Secondly, unless either of these says anything, they're coming with me, I'll accept no compromise on that. Thirdly, you won't restrict our freedom, we're fine with being forced to take on missions every now and then, but try to be too excessive and we'll just leave. If you're fine with all that, then I'd be more than happy to join Thousand Blades Hall."
Yin Long wanted to sharpen his sword and reach the peak with it, but that didn't mean that he was willing to pay any price to do so. He made these things clear when Xue Qiuling extended her offer and he would most certainly make it clear now that he was given the offer to join an even stronger organization. But faced with his conditions, the silver-eyed Yun Duan only chuckled lightly.
"Hehe, fine? Why wouldn't we be fine with it? Aren't we just asking you to join us because of your exalted law of space? We didn't become the greatest haven for sword cultivators by restricting and holding them down, all we want is to raise some monstrous cultivators that can spread through the land. I can swear an oath here and now that my Thousand Blades Hall is perfectly fine with your conditions, and we'll certainly never force you to go against your bottom line."
Yun Duan was very clear on the standing of his organization, they were only asking Yin Long to join them because they wanted to train a true sword cultivator who used the law of space. Their goal had always been to just train a plethora of strong sword cultivators so that they could see exactly where their limits lay, so their rules were actually far looser than most organizations.
Yun Duan took another step forward after he swore the oath, Jin Wang's eyes narrowing sharply in warning as he bared his teeth. Yun Duan didn't let this bother him and walked closer until he was so close that he could hold his hand out for Yin Long. The oath had been sworn so Yin Long had no problem with stretching out his own arm and shaking Yun Duan's hand, the blue-haired youth laughing contently as he pulled back his arm.
"Excellent, I look forward to studying the sword with you! And relax, you won't be lonely when you come to us, we've recruited three more disciples from your dojo during the last half a month. You're the newest disciples, so you'll all be grouped together when you enter Thousand Blades Hall, but you'll be split up depending on the growth and skills you show, so make sure you don't lag too far behind them."
Yun Duan was truly quite happy with the harvest this time around, a trip would usually only result in one or two good seedlings, but he would be returning with an entire five new disciples. The girl following Yin Long, while truly gorgeous, didn't look like she had the best talent, but a quick look wasn't enough to decide everything so he didn't immediately decide to ignore her. Yin Long's gaze once again landed on Xue Qiuling, who had stepped forward again and could easily guess what he was wondering.
"The three other disciples are Kuan Xiao from Eagle King Hall, Shuang Shen from Swan Queen Hall, and...Xue Shuiye from Heron Lord Hall. The three head disciples have already received the clear signal from Dojo Lord Man so they'll take this Three-Fold Territory Clash as an opportunity to head over there."
As they were the head disciples of their respective halls, there was no way that Kuan Xiao and the others wouldn't be selected for this Three-Fold Territory Clash. And since one of the stops for the clash was Starblood city, they might as well partake in the contest as they normally would until they reached the city. Yin Long could tell that Xue Qiuling had something else she wanted to say to him, so he took this chance to once again make his own stance clear.
"Xue Qiuling, I'll tell you the same thing that I said to your sister. I'm only here to train my sword, I have no interest in your positions or your battles around these positions. I'm not joining her side because she doesn't have anything to teach me, and while you can teach me some things, I don't believe that those things are so great that they can keep me here for more than a year at best. You two can fight for your positions all you like, but I am not going to get involved."
As long as their battles didn't go overboard or target people close to him, he couldn't be bothered to get involved in them. Of course, should he at some point consider either of the two sisters as a friend, then that would change the situation entirely. And it was exactly this fact that worried Xue Qiuling.
Yin Long previously didn't have the chance to interact a lot with Xue Shuiye, they belonged to different halls and Yin Long had yet to reveal enough splendour to make Xue Shuiye lower herself to intentionally get close to him. But now he had shown his true colours and was going to go to a place where they would cultivate in close proximity, Xue Qiuling feared that there was little Yin Long could do to resist her sister's charm.
That was especially the case if Xue Shuiye really decided to go for it, few men would be able to resist that. In time, he would certainly start to at least feel closer to her, and the closer he got to Xue Shuiye, and the stronger he got while doing so, the more dangerous things would become for Xue Qiuling.
Of course, Xue Qiuling couldn't say any of these things out loud and could only smile somewhat bitterly, silently cursing the fact that she hadn't worked harder on getting closer to Yin Long while she still had the chance. Yin Long had said his piece on the matter, and while Xue Qiuling might not like his answer, he didn't care too much about it and just dismounted Jin Wang.
"I'll head over to Thousand Blades Hall sometime in the future, either after this contest or after the clash itself. But for now, there are plenty of people here who I'm sure I can learn a lot from, so please excuse me."
Yin Long pat Jin Wang's fur as he spoke and then stepped past Xue Qiuling and Yun Duan, heading for the large stone stage. The duel on it was nearing its end, the youth with the strange sword technique holding the clear upper hand and forcing his opponent into a corner. When Yin Long reached the edge of the stone stage, the youth only needed a further five moves before his opponent was forced to surrender.
The youth with the corkscrew sword could only leave the stage, Yin Long immediately stepping onto it. The point of this contest was just to show off your strength for all to see, there wasn't really a set schedule on who would fight when, as long as you showed enough strength, you would get chosen.
But to Yin Long's disappointment, the winning youth also descended the stage after securing his win, leaving Yin Long alone on top of the stage. A slight murmur ran through the crowd as Yin Long stood there, news of his law of space had clearly already spread around the town. His law of space getting revealed could be considered both a blessing and a curse, it was such an exalted law that it pushed people into one of three mindsets.
The first one was to just see how things went, the second was to get close to him for when he grew stronger, and the third one was to destroy him before he became too strong to become a threat. A soft commotion from the Heron's Ascension Dojo's disciples caught his attention so he turned his head, immediately realizing that his opponent belonged to the third mindset.
"I was actually hoping to have a re-match with you, it'll give me a clearer picture of how much my strength has increased."
The one who stepped onto the stage after Xue Shuiye had failed in holding him back was the bald and brown-eyed Cui Senju, who had already tried to kill Yin Long once. Cui Senju's expression was exceedingly grim as he stepped forward, the sensation of danger that he got from Yin Long had only grown in intensity since the last time he saw him. So he didn't say anything and simply drew his sword, grasping it tightly as he drew in a deep breath and calmed his mind.
Xue Shuiye, who was standing amidst the Heron's Ascension Dojo disciples, moved her gaze away from Cui Senju when she noticed that Yin Long was fully focusing on him. She had made a show of trying to stop him, so she made her stance clear in such a manner that Yin Long shouldn't hold any grudges against her, at least not for this one incident.
As for any grudges that remained from any previous incidents, she could work on smoothing those out in the future, her beauty and charm gave her that confidence. She also took the chance to turn her head to look at Xue Qiuling, who quickly detected her gaze and turned her gaze over.
Xue Shuiye flashed her a victorious smile, Xue Qiuling's own expression sinking as she quickly turned away and focused on the battle taking place. And for the first time since she met him, she made a silent prayer that Yin Long would die, or at the very least get hurt in this battle. If not, then she would have to do things differently to follow her familial law.
