Yin Long's group stepped towards the city gates with a confident stride, it wasn't long since the sun set but there were still quite a few people gathered up in front of the gates. They all poured into the city as a steady stream, night and day mattered little when it came to a city as big as this one, it would always be awake.
It didn't take long for Yin Long's group to be among those that poured into the city, the guard closest to them only casting an additional stealthy glance at Xiao Yin Yu. It was to be expected with how large the city was and how many people entered it each day, but Yin Long still let out a soft breath after they entered. He had at the very least managed to avoid creating a scene right from the get-go, now he just had to keep that going until he finished his business here.
"But really...how nostalgic. This was the gate I always used when I left the city to train. I generally brought along drinks made by my elder sister, but that stall over there was where I bought food most of the time, the rice he uses to make his rice flour gives his wrappings a nice and spicy aftertaste."
Yin Long couldn't stop himself from talking as he walked through the streets, his gaze swimming about. Sometimes, you wouldn't realize how much something meant until you lost and found them again. Yin Long hadn't thought much about his life in the city after he left, most of the time he was just thinking about family and occasionally his work. But now that he had returned and saw everything again, the memories came flooding back, bringing a gentle warmth and comfort with them.
The taste of the food he ate, the guards that greeted him, the shopkeepers that called out to him, even the somewhat cold sensation of his bare feet against the stone floor. Time had passed and what felt like ages had flown by, but all of those things were still part of him, tucked away deep within his mind for the day he would need them and their comfort.
His feet moved as if he was retracing the path laid out within his memories, occasionally dipping away from the larger main street to sneak through some side alleys. It wasn't an obvious path, but each of the alleys cut down the time needed to reach the spatial array by a handful of seconds, counting them all up he would end up saving about five or so minutes.
Even the guards around the spatial array were the same ones he was used to, the only difference was that they had straightened their backs a bit more than they used to in the past. But that was to be expected, the matriarch of their clan was so talented that she could rank in the top 5 of this Province Championship, at least before everyone ventured into the fractured space.
"To the transmission station closest to the 4th Market."
The soldiers acted quickly and professionally, guiding Yin Long's group onto the appropriate spatial array and sending them off. Space twisted for a bit before returning to normal, Yin Long's gaze drifting towards the gathering of stalls and shops that made up the 4th market. He had stopped by here on the day he left for the outskirts of Underearth Forest, just before he learned about the parasitic nature of his soul.
"I once spied on my younger sister and her girlfriend as they scurried about here. Tang Fen bought my sister an emerald bracelet as a gift, you should have seen the smile that bloomed on her face when the gift was handed to her. She was already chosen to become the next matriarch and was giving her all to become worthy of that title, those small breaks probably meant the world to her, probably saved her from breaking down."
The stall he hid behind, the shop that Tang Fen bought the bracelet from, all of it appeared in Yin Long's mind as if it had just happened yesterday. He always played the part of the lazy young master that had no interest in how to rule a clan, it was only when he forced Lang Huo to kill him that she got to see the truth.
As such, up until that awful day, it was probably only Tang Fen and Lang Ru that she could lean on somewhat to properly ease her worries and fears. Yin Long may have been her brother, but he was weak cultivation-wise so she definitely thought that it was her duty to be strong and protect him, she could not lean on him too often.
Yin Yu didn't say anything and simply watched Yin Long as he moved, following him closely. She had no memories here, no actual knowledge about the inside of the city. This was not a place for her to cut in, it was a place for Yin Long to relive his memories and for her to see the past that helped shape the man she decided to follow.
"Coincidentally, it was also in this market that we were attacked when we were just kids. We pestered our parents until they let us scurry about and explore on our own, we just ran around like absolute idiots, checking out everything shiny that caught our fancy. But then Tang Fen spotted a thief, and he decided that the quickest way to get out was to just go straight through her. You should have seen how he flew when my sister smashed into him, she was just a child, but in that charge, she looked more like a fierce beast than a human. She even stepped in front of Tang Fen to protect her when the thief pulled out a weapon in anger, she truly was Tang Fen's knight in shining armour."
Yin Long's feet unconsciously brought him into the market instead of towards one of the entrances to the underground lair, his pupils slowly sliding from stall to stall. He didn't mention what he had done back on that day, to him, it didn't matter nearly as much as the memories of his sister.
He spent a while walking through the market and the surrounding areas, this was the market closest to the Lang clan's estate so he and his sisters had spent their fair share of time here when they were younger. But after a little over four hours had passed, his feet once again started to pull him towards the closest entrance to the underground lair. The memories here were dear and warm to him, but none of them felt right, none of them were what he was looking for right now.
"Don't look at them, just hold your chin up and follow me."
Yin Long spoke to Yin Yu as they approached a seemingly normal restaurant, there were even customers eating and drinking as they sat on the terrace in front of the small building. Yin Long and Yin Yu entered the restaurant and just kept walking straight without looking at anyone, passing through the dining room and the kitchen without anyone even glancing at them.
They reach the fully stocked storage room and Yin Long activated the small arrays that had been hidden throughout the room, a section of the floor sliding to the side to reveal a set of descending stairs. They headed down the stairs, Yin Long sliding a finger across the wall to his left and making the entrance behind them slide shut.
They moved through the familiar hallway, the only sound present being the echoing of their footsteps. They reached the main room of the underground lair before long, that main hub that led to all the other rooms. The familiar items were all still hung up on the wall, the wooden plates beneath them giving a quick description. But since the time he had last been here, there was a new addition to the collection of items.
"So they hung it up, huh? Erased by the clan, but remembered by the darkness, is it?"
The item that caused Yin Long's mind to drift was a very simple chestnut-coloured robe that was tattered and worn. It had several scorch marks and a massive gash that practically tore it in half, it was barely fit to be described as a robe. But Yin Long knew what it was, it was the robe he wore on the day he died, on the day he gave his life to his sister. And as if to give credence to his statement, the words carved into the wooden plate beneath the robe had clearly been carved by Jiu Meiyu himself.
'The final attire of the Silver Wolf, who gave his life and name for the stability of the clan.'
Yin Long had lost the Throne Seekers Rite, meaning that his name was to be stricken from the clan records, never again would it be allowed to be mentioned or written down. Lang Yin had died amidst the pouring rain, all that remained was the Silver Wolf and the duty he fought for.
Yin Long swept his gaze across the room, slowly moving through it while also checking out some of the other rooms that were connected to it. This was where he spent a fair bit of his time after becoming the dark blade of the Lang clan, this was where he received his missions or found information about his next targets.
But as he walked about, he realized that he didn't actually have that many impactful memories here, there was nothing that stood out or drew his mind back to the past. It was terribly luke-warm, as if the memories didn't matter and the time spent down here was wasted, an exceptionally strange sensation.
Time quickly continued flowing as he went through the rooms one by one, he even went to the record room where Jiu Meiyu usually delivered new missions. He gave the handful of missions that had been prepared a look-over, a glimmer of an idea flashing past his mind and making him bring along two of the jade slips that contained a mission.
No one else had entered the underground lair during the three hours that they had spent down there, it seemed like they were still as short-handed as they had been when he still worked here. But something like that was only to be expected, Yin Long had caused such a commotion back then that it was important for Jiu Meiyu and the others to lay a bit low now, they couldn't risk revealing themselves at this time since they would likely get associated with Yin Long. And once that happened, there was no way that any of them could escape death since they would be tied to one of the Lang clan's traitors.
Yin Long had finished checking everything within the underground lair, it was a bit disappointing that he hadn't found any strong memories here, but he at least still had one main area to check that was guaranteed to have strong memories. But he had changed his mind slightly and wouldn't head there straight away, playing with the two jade slips he had picked out.
"You're one of the leaders of the Lang clan now, Tang Fen, you're the one responsible for supporting my sister now. You'll be able to handle this appropriately, won't you?"
