Yin Long let out a long and drawn-out breath, the water vapour in his breath condensing into fog and then into ice that fell to the ground. His mind was being assaulted by bursts of pain, so strained that it was teetering on the brink. But in this state, it only became easier for him to discard the useless things.

The earth, the sky, the wind, everything around him vanished from his mind. Even his own body vanished from his senses, all that remained was his sword, Xiao Yin Yu, and the sensation of the fractured space. That was all he needed right now, so what point was there in keeping tabs on his surroundings? He also had Jin Wang with him, so he wasn't worried about getting ambushed.

He let out another breath, the thin layer of Qi he used to keep out the cold sinking back into his body. He had kept it active for 13 days without replenishing his Qi so he was already starting to run on empty, but he needed his Qi to test out his idea. As such, he once again discarded that which was unneeded, he'd much rather suffer from the cold than not test out his idea right now.

The chill immediately started to creep into his marrow, his fingers turning rigid, but right now he only needed them to grasp his weapon so it didn't matter if they became too stiff to move. He tapped into his Qi to check it, but truthfully, the amount he had left was less than satisfactory, and it would take a little bit of time to restore it through pills or Spirit Stones. Once he realized this, it only took him a second to reach a decision.

He drew upon the yellow energy resting in his soulsea, a pulsating vertical crack appearing at the centre of his forehead as he drew upon the strange law that he still didn't quite know what was. But he still wasn't content, so he tapped into his bloodline as well, a sinister aura seeping out from him as power surged out from the depths of his blood.

Two crimson wings covered in yellow veins sprouted from his back and tore through his robe, the deeply coloured feathers standing out thanks to the white land around them. Yin Yu tightened the grasp on her weapon slightly, the light in her eyes magnifying slightly. This was Yin Long in his strongest state, and the sinister aura seeping out from the depths of his being caused even her to feel some trepidation.

Yin Long folded up his wings and bent his knees, gathering up his energy before shooting forward with his fastest speed. This alone was an act that made Xiao Yin Yu's pupils shrink slightly, simply because Yin Long was the first to admit that he was not good at taking the initiative, he wasn't good at performing the opening blow in a battle of equals. But here he was, charging forward with completely bloodshot eyes and a pale face, looking like he was just a single second away from collapsing.

But no matter how strange she found the scene, she wouldn't forget that she was currently engaging in a sparring match. Her hand flashed upwards, her sword angled so that it would carve open Yin Long's stomach if he didn't react to it.

Yin Long's sword flashed downwards in response, arching slightly so that it swatted Yin Yu's blade aside. But as one would expect from a whip-like sword, it simply bent as his sword collided with it, quickly moving to coil around it like a vicious snake. But it was at this moment that the truth was laid bare, Yin Long's black eyes practically exploding with excitement.

His sword vanished, Yin Yu's blade coiling around empty air. As for Yin Long's sword, it had already appeared at Yin Yu's left shoulder, its descending arch warped into a sideways slash. Xiao Yin Yu's pupils shrank until they were barely visible, a violent burst of Qi shooting out from her shoulder and turning the air into a tremendous hammer to smash the blade aside.

But once again, the sword vanished without a trace, it barely even made space ripple, it was as if it had never been there to begin with. It appeared again in the open space between her legs, its previous momentum completely warped in the opposite direction so that it was aiming for the inside of her left thigh.

Xiao Yin Yu's shock only magnified when she saw this, the wind around her picking up and lifting her into the air. Yin Long's sword vanished again when she flew over it, appearing back in the position it was when it had aimed at her shoulder, now heading for her elevated shin. The hammer of wind she had sent out against that earlier attack had already passed by so it couldn't impede Yin Long's sword when it appeared again.

But this time Yin Yu was a bit more prepared, having come to terms with the unpredictability of Yin Long's sword. She drew back her arm, lightning trailing behind it as she pushed her speed closer to her limit. She managed to place her sword between her shin and Yin Long's blade, supporting it with a wall of hardened wind since her arm's position was somewhat awkward.

The tip of her blade started to twist again when Yin Long's sword collided with it, once again aiming to coil around it. But just as she expected, his sword vanished again, returning to its original position and seemingly resuming its descending arching slash. Yin Yu kicked off the air, practically walking across it as she stepped closer to Yin Long and stabbed down at the top of his head.

Yin Long raised his head slightly in response, coincidentally locking eyes with Yin Yu. And as the two locked eyes, she saw it, the gleam of boundless excitement, that light that bordered on insanity. It was said that battling someone was one of the best ways to understand them, it was when they would show their truest selves. And now, Xiao Yin Yu got to see just how deep Yin Long's emotions ran. If this was the purity and madness he used to pursue his sword, then she could wholeheartedly accept his strength, accept that he could use just technique to overpower people with higher cultivation.

Yin Long dug out everything he had except for the Netherworld Energy moving about in his soulsea, he would prefer to avoid using it if he could. But his chest suddenly heaved as he dug out energy from the deepest recesses of his body, blood spurting out from his mouth. The yellow energy he was using wasn't something kind, his body was too weak to bear it so it would continuously fall apart in the presence of the yellow energy. But his bloodline gave him slightly heightened regenerative power, and even the yellow energy aided the healing process somewhat.

But even at the best of moments, a fragile equilibrium was the best he could muster, the regenerative speed only a beat slower than the destructive process. His Qi was already bottomed out yet he was trying to draw out more power, there was no way any sort of balance could be struck in a state like this so the destructive process overpowered everything else.

His body forcibly shut down his mind so that he could no longer try to tap into the yellow energy, his bloodline calming down as the yellow energy retreated back into his soulsea. His vision went dark as the chill of the surroundings overcame him, his body tilting forward. But before his consciousness completely faded, he noticed that he didn't fall directly into the snow and instead landed in a warm embrace, a gentle warmth enveloping his body to expel the invading cold.

Yin Long had no control over anything, he had already pushed his mind to the brink earlier, and now he had pushed his body to that very same state. So it was only natural that it would shut itself down so that it wasn't completely ruined, there was nothing Yin Long could do to stop this, so he simply surrendered himself to that warm embrace and allowed himself to sink into the depths of darkness.

With his consciousness enveloped in darkness, it was only natural that he didn't detect the passage of time. As such, when a cool sensation touched his nose and gently lured his consciousness out from the darkness, he had no idea how much time had passed. His eyelids trembled slightly before he opened his eyes, his gaze locking with Xiao Yin Yu, who was currently looking down at him.

"Don't move. I'm checking the inside of your body to see if the medicine has worked properly, but the lightning element is very volatile so I need a bit of contact to ensure optimal control."

It was only when he heard her words that Yin Long realized that his head was currently resting on Yin Yu's slender legs. Her legs were probably her most charming feature so it was unknown how many men would be willing to kill to change place with him. But what a shame it was that Yin Long's mind was fully focused on the last thing he remembered from the battle, going through various ways he could have tried to deflect the stab that was aimed at the top of his head.

Of course, all of these ways were examined based on the idea that he couldn't perform his newly acquired move, it was important to not become overly reliant on a single technique. The answer he came to was that his options weren't terribly stellar, the flexible nature of Yin Yu's sword made it tricky to deflect using Yin Long's normal style. But he wasn't terribly skilled at normal blocking, and there was also a chance that she could just bend her sword around his defence.

Men would kill to be in his position, but all he could think about was how to find ways to improve his defence against tricky opponents like Xiao Yin Yu. It was exactly this personality and mental fortitude that had brought Lan Yun years of mental pain, but in turn, it was also one of the points that attracted people.

"Alright, seems like the medicine has worked properly, there doesn't seem to be any lingering damage. It seems like your body is far hardier than I originally expected, it healed the damage far faster than expected. Oh, you've been out for about 3 days, you're probably the most relaxed person in this championship."

Xiao Yin Yu said it casually, but in truth, she was beyond shocked by it. She had personally inspected the damage in his body after he collapsed, and to call it severe would be an understatement, his veins had dug through his flesh and contorted in unnatural directions. She had given him some precious medicine, medicine that even she had a hard time acquiring, but she knew that it would take at least half a month to recover to a manageable state.

But it was as if there was a wellspring of restorative energy hidden away within him, it merged with the medicine and washed over the grave injuries. It was less healing and more rebuilding, his body had grown stronger rather than weaker as a result of his injuries. But how could she know about the apocalyptic amount of Netherworld Energy hidden away in his soulsea, this energy that he was so closely attuned to that it healed his injuries rather than inflict new ones?

"3 days... Seems like the medicine you gave me is more than just a little precious. Coupled with the fact that you protected me while I cultivated, and protected me now, it seems like my debt is slowly racking up."

Yin Long sat up as he spoke, he knew his own body as well as the regenerative strength of the Netherworld Energy. He also knew the violent and destructive nature of the yellow energy, so he was perfectly aware of the fact that it should have taken him more than just a measly 3 days to heal from his injuries. For the medicine to speed up the process by that much, it was definitely something quite extraordinary.

He lowered his head after he finished speaking, he was grateful for Xiao Yin Yu's help so this show of gratitude was the least he could do right now. As for repaying that debt, he didn't currently have anything on him that he felt would do the trick so he would just have to do it little by little.

"Don't think about it too much, you've helped me discover a weak spot in my defences, I don't do well with unpredictable patterns. If you don't mind revealing it, can you tell me how you managed to attack like that? It didn't seem like normal spatial movement, the ripples were far too faint."

It was something that may be found ridiculous by other cultivators, who generally looked down on those weaker, but Xiao Yin Yu had indeed learned a few things thanks to Yin Long, despite the relatively short time they had spent together. If a short span of time was enough to teach her two or three things, then she couldn't even begin to guess at what she might learn after spending more time with him, or what she could learn as he got stronger.

There was also the fact that he was very straightforward and exceedingly pure and sincere in his pursuit for a sharper sword, a purity and sincerity that also reared its head in his personality. All together, it made Yin Long into a person that just naturally drew in people, it was as if he exuded light that just made you want to get closer to him. As such, Xiao Yin Yu was more than willing to befriend him. But what she didn't know was that the simple truth was that Yin Long actually already considered her something of a friend, the sincerity she had shown and pure desire to become stronger had assured that.

"It's theoretically quite simple, it takes after the peculiar space around us. It is fractured yet whole, every single crack running through it capable of becoming the point at which the space gathers itself again. My technique takes after that, I create tiny spatial cracks and merge my blade with them, using my sword as the base that keeps it all together. As long as my sword is merged with them, it is simultaneously whole yet also part of the fractured space. As such, every single crack is able to become my sword. That's why the spatial ripples are so faint, my sword is technically already there since it's part of the crack. At the moment I can only form three minute cracks, maintaining it took more than I expected."

Yin Long's gaze slid down to his side, he was still grasping his sword so it seemed like he hadn't let go of it after he fainted. The technique actually took a bit after the technique created by the Lang clan founder, specifically the first move, Ravenous Beast. But where Ravenous Beast focused on multiplying his sword, this technique focused entirely on spreading out his sword's existence while still keeping it as a single whole. Yin Long spoke of it in a casual tone, but Xiao Yin Yu's eyes couldn't help but bulge slightly.

"By the gods... you call something like that simple? I can barely manage to wrap my head around it. But it explains a bit about how you managed to make the sword's momentum warp that easily, you achieved it by tweaking the direction of the spatial crack itself, correct?"

It wasn't strange that she had a hard time wrapping her head around it, she didn't have the law of space so understanding techniques related to it would naturally be harder for her to understand. But while she was surprised at the technique, Yin Long was surprised at the fact that she had managed to figure out one of the tricks behind it. Indeed, by altering the direction of the spatial crack, Yin Long could alter the momentum of his sword, an idea he had formed after seeing Fang Yau's own peculiar swordsmanship.

After all, if the spatial crack travelled sideways, how could the sword that was part of it cut downwards? But it wasn't satisfactory yet, Yin Long wasn't able to alter the direction of the spatial crack once he formed it. As such, once you figured out the number of spatial cracks and their directions, you could easily figure out what ways Yin Long could attack using them and thus counter them.

"Oh, right, sorry, but I ended up gaining your points after you fainted."

Yin Yu spoke up as if she had just remembered something, a slightly awkward smile spreading on her face. Yin Long checked the leech that was still cowering and trembling in his soulsea, and indeed, his points had gone from 4 to 0. But that was only to be expected, a sparring match was still a match, it was only natural for the loser to give up his points.

But Yin Long wasn't really bothered by it, hopping up from his seated position. He brought out a sheath from his interspatial ring and affixed it to his waist, sheathing his sword. Its presence would make the energy merged into the fractured space more active so that he could sense both more easily so he may as well keep it on him at all times. He lowered his gaze slightly to look at Yin Yu as she stood up, the corners of his lips curving up slightly from excitement as he extended his hand in a welcoming gesture.

"I'm gonna head out, this place is massive so there's guaranteed to be countless people I can learn things from. I'm also gonna meet up with someone, you interested in joining me?"

Xiao Yin Yu was strong, there was plenty Yin Long could learn from her and her swordsmanship. Yin Long was also confident in his ability to judge someone's character, and he had judged Yin Yu's to be sincere enough that he could consider her a friend. Travelling with her would certainly be more interesting and helpful than if he were to travel and spar with just Jin Wang.

Jin Wang stood up from his resting position, he had moved much closer after Yin Long fainted, ready to tear into Yin Yu's throat if she made the slightest suspicious movement. Xiao Yin Yu looked at Yin Long's outstretched hand, and it only took her a single second to come to a decision and shake his hand. She wanted to see his growth, she wanted to experience it, she wanted to learn from it. Perhaps, by doing so, she would finally be able to earn her freedom.