"It seems like you've picked up a sense of humour in the time I've been gone, at least enough to start tossing around a few jokes."
The first words out of Yin Long's mouth weren't an answer to any of the questions, rhetorical or not, that Tang Fen had asked, the corners of his lips simply curved up slightly as he stated his observation. Tang Fen's personality had been a bit closer to his elder sister than his younger sister, she leaned more towards the serious and comforting side, not the more jovial side that Lang Huo tended to lean towards when in private. But as was the case with most alterations to a person's personality, the root of it was rarely something good.
"Can't be helped, I'm not strong like you or resourceful like Big Sister Ru, my ability to be of help to Sister Huo is...painfully limited. So if I can alleviate some of her pain and fear by putting on a dumb grin and prancing about like a clown then I'll do just that."
Tang Fen's voice carried the same carefree tune as her earlier statements, but the helplessness and pain hidden deep within it couldn't escape Yin Long's notice. He had grown dramatically in the time he had been gone, but he could feel that Tang Fen was still only at the 1st or 2nd Immortal Door. It wasn't bad by any means, but it simply wasn't enough to be of help to someone as talented and monstrous as Lang Huo.
"I'm sorry."
Yin Long knew exactly what sort of pain and fear Tang Fen wanted to help Lang Huo deal with, and he was the root cause of that pain. He wanted to spare them from pain, but in pursuing that goal he had inflicted the worst possible pain on Lang Huo. It was not something that could be forgiven easily, and it was one of the reasons he had abandoned the yellow robes he was so fond of in the past. But the light sound of something rubbing against wood came from the other side of the closed door as Tang Fen shook her head.
"Don't be, you did the best you could in that situation. And in the end, whether or not it was the outcome any of us wanted, it ended up being for the best for both of you. You got your freedom and Sister Huo, who you had coddled too much, got to learn of the pain that can come with being a clan leader, and she's all the stronger for it. But don't you dare put her through anything like that again, I will personally take your life if you do."
The words Tang Fen used to end her sentence didn't carry a single trace of being a joke, she would probably come at him with her rapier drawn the moment he hurt Lang Huo like that again. And that was only to be expected, he hadn't seen the state she was in right after the deed was done, how she crushed her own stomach until she vomited blood, how she cursed even her own hair just because of its colour.
Yin Long didn't have to be told that twice, just the fact that he had to do it once was enough to almost brand him with sin, he would do whatever it took to avoid having to do it again.
Yin Long didn't say anything in response to Tang Fen's words, a bit of silence descending over both of them. This was the first time in what felt like ages that they could sit like these, even if they had a door separating them. But even so, Tang Fen broke the silence after a few minutes, her voice feeling so distant that Yin Long was certain that her gaze was drifting into the distance.
"I still remember that day when we were seven years old and your parents took us out to the top of those four mountains, the touch of the cold wind and the crunch of the snow beneath our feet. Sister Huo bragged so loudly as she tried to make me lean on her, and with an idiotic grin, I obliged her."
She wasn't the only one who remembered that day. To Yin Long, it was the day he smothered his first inklings of love and hardened his determination, the day his path was borne.
"My mouth still hangs agape when I recall the sheer vastness of the land we could see from the peak. From the edge of Bluelord Ocean, all the way to the Skywater Marsh and Underearth Forest, and all of it was the Lang clan's territory, our territory. Even now I'm having a hard time grasping the concept that we rule over that much land, I think Sister Huo is the same. But you know, the more I look back on that day, the more I notice something. "
"Big Sister Ru, Sister Huo, I, your parents, all of us were sweeping our gazes across the territory, taking in its beauty and scope. And then there was you. Your eyes swept the same land as ours, but even back then, your gaze was already going beyond the horizon, out to the wider world. Only when your parents decreed that Lang Huo would be the next clan leader did you retract your gaze, did you stop looking at the distant horizon and focus on this patch of land. But this land isn't big enough for your gaze, it's just a little cell compared to where you're supposed to go."
Yin Long had hardened his determination and accepted his choice, and he did so without any regrets. But did others have to see his actions in the same way as him? In his eyes, he made his choice and accepted it, in the eyes of others he abandoned himself and his dreams. And due to the good fortune Yin Long had in who became his family, those who saw this found it unacceptable.
"It's like I said back when you entrusted your sister to me, you are the sun. You exist so far above others that they can only look up and marvel, or avert their eyes. You are the sun, majestic and grand, and no sun should be confined to a small place like this. So don't you dare feel obligated to shackle yourself here again, you just got your freedom, fly into the highest sky and shine so brightly that all the worlds have no choice but to bask in your light."
Tang Fen did not know why Yin Long, who should be in the Province Championship, had suddenly returned. But she knew that this Territory, so grand that countless others would fight to the death for it, was not a place where he belonged. He was a sun that belonged in the sky, a dragon to blot out everything else, and she would not allow him to chain himself down here once more.
"I'm already working on it. I'm not sure if you've seen it, but I've quite literally acquired a nice pair of wings for myself. Don't worry, I have no plans on stopping, not yet. My sword has yet to reach the peak of existence, and I have yet to drag Mother and Father out of the Celestial World so that they can come and take a look at you and Little Huo's child."
His parents were satisfied and content when they died so he honestly didn't have any thoughts about finding a way to revive them. But he had to drag them out from the Celestial World at least for a little bit, they had always wanted to see their future grandchildren after all. A light chuckle came from beyond the door, a soft tinge of playfulness emerging in Tang Fen's voice.
"Speaking of, Sister Huo and I have already decided on a day for when we want the child. The day you can come back to the clan for a visit with your head raised, that'll be the day. We want you to name it, not as the Prince of Fallen Leaves, not as Lang Yin the traitor, but as Yin Long, the uncle with the sister complex."
Lang Huo and Tang Fen were both women, but that didn't mean that they couldn't have children, they just had to go about it in a more unconventional way. As long as one of them reached the middle stages of the Earthen Door realm, something Lang Huo was well on her way to, they would be able to create children by merging a great deal of their Qi, blood, and a few pieces of their souls.
"That's a risky move, I may have a terrible sense for naming things, you never know."
Yin Long simply smirked softly, returning the playfulness in equal measure. His future nephew or niece, it was something he hadn't really given much thought since he had no idea when he would be able to return to the clan. But he would be lying if he said he wasn't looking forward to it after hearing about it. When he had his own children one day, would the two be able to play together, to laugh and smile without a care in the world?
"Then we'll just have to let them take out their anger on you when that day comes, I'm sure you'll lower your head obediently and take it."
Tang Fen was sure that the man who was even willing to let his own sister slice him in twain would be more than willing to let his nephew or niece whack him a few times. He'd probably laugh dumbly while doing so, that was the type of idiot that she knew Yin Long was.
Silence descended once again, the two people leaning against the door resting their souls against each other. Xiao Yin Yu hadn't moved from where she stopped, quietly watching over Yin Long. The help she could provide after he dug into his deepest memories wasn't much, she simply hadn't gotten enough time to embed herself deeply enough in his heart. As such, it was more appropriate that this job was left to Tang Fen, even if Xiao Yin Yu would be lying if she said that it wasn't a bit vexing.
The silence lasted a bit longer this time around, both participants of the conversation could feel that they didn't have much time left, both of them had other things to do after all. And once again, the one that broke the silence was Tang Fen.
"Do you know what I felt after you and Sister Huo fought, what I felt after you died and the confused emotions got the chance to settle? It was fear. I was shaken by what you could do, the skills and strength you had hidden. I was afraid of you."
Tang Fen's voice was heavy, heavier than it had ever been. This was a truth she had kept to herself, one she hadn't even shared with Lang Huo, one that saw the light of day for the first time.
"I thought about it over and over again, where did this fear come from? After all, you had done everything you could for us, you had literally given your life for us. so why, why was I afraid of you? And in the end, I found the answer."
Yin Long didn't interrupt Tang Fen, the two actually had a lot to say to each other, but since she had chosen this as the final topic of their conversation it wouldn't be right for him to interrupt her. She wanted him to hear this, to understand it, and maybe learn something from it, so he would have to listen.
"Sister Huo, she is a grand mountain. Her power, her deeds, her personality, even her gaze, all of it becomes a grand mountain so tall that you'll hurt your neck from looking up at the peak. I can never hope to truly climb that mountain, but I can see it, I can understand it, I can measure it."
"But you, you are the deep and endless ocean, as still as a mirror. How deep does it go? How deep does your strength go? What are you thinking as you do this and that? What are your reasons for going here and there? I don't know. I can't see it, I can't measure it, I can't understand it. And the bottomless ocean itself is refusing to speak and explain itself, so it becomes even harder to understand."
The first day Yin Long showed an inkling of his strength in a real manner was when he beheaded one of the clan's elders with a single swipe. At that time, Tang Fen had been rather shocked, but she still felt like she could understand it. But after that, everything she thought she understood crumbled as more and more evidence of Yin Long's deeds were uncovered. And finally, the last battle between him and his sister, he pulled out strength she would never have thought possible from him.
"People fear what they can't understand, they hate the unknown because it makes them uncomfortable. And you, you have a habit of not telling others about what you do in hopes of protecting them, at least you did when you were still Lang Yin. I don't know if you've fixed that poor habit yet, but I hope you have. You're not alone, you don't have to hide everything at the bottom of the ocean. There are people around you who are willing to shoulder the truth with you, Lan Yun, me, your sisters, I'm sure that girl you brought with you is the same. So don't become the unknown, don't become something they can't understand. And then, become happy with them. What point is there in freedom if you can't even be happy?"
Tang Fen emptied her heart out to Yin Long, she did not wish for him to gain his freedom only to lapse back into some of the habits he had acquired thanks to his previous work. He could tell people the truth now, he could be honest, he could let them understand him and his thoughts.
The sound of rustling clothes came from beyond the closed door as Tang Fen stood up, this advice was something she had wanted to give him since she understood what she felt after that day, and now she had finally gotten to give it to him. She wanted to keep talking with him, but she had just made such a big spectacle in front of the city, she couldn't stay away for long. And she knew that he too had places to be, he was always like that, scurrying about from place to place. Another light rustling sound came from beyond the door as Tang Fen placed something down in front of it, her voice coming through the door one last time.
"I'll take care of that boy, I'll make sure that he gets to make his own choice so don't worry about that. Sister Huo's sword, it's still stuck on the fourth floor, she hasn't even been able to look at it since that day. Please, take it back to her, she always looked the most valiant when she wielded it. And this, just take it, the two of them had them made especially for you, only you have the right to wear them."
The sound of her footsteps came from beyond the door after she finished giving him the final reminders, all of them were less important than the other things they had talked about so she had saved them for the very end. The sound quickly faded as she left the area, to the very end she had abided by the promise she and Lang Huo made, she hadn't even tried to look at Yin Long, that could wait for the future.
Yin Long leaned against the door for a bit longer, allowing the echo of those footsteps to ring around within his hollow body. His gaze was raised towards the sky, as if he could see through the walls and ceiling of the mansion.
"Honesty and understanding, huh.."
He thought that he was a fairly honest person that was pretty forthcoming about his reasons and thoughts, but Tang Fen's words made him uncertain if that was the case. He knew that when it came to Lan Yun, he hadn't been entirely honest, he hadn't told her anything about Province Emperor Starblood and the like. But was that it, or were there other places where he had hidden things when he probably shouldn't have?
He didn't know, and the problem with him asking himself that question was that he would never get a proper answer. If he hid something he did so because he thought it was right, asking himself if he had hidden the truth when he shouldn't have was not something he could answer truthfully.
He didn't know, at least not right now, so the best he could do was make sure that he paid closer attention to it in the future. After all, if he ended up making Lan Yun, Yin Yu, and Fang Yau fear him, then it would surely be a very regrettable thing.
He stood up from his seated position after he finished organizing his thoughts, Tang Fen had left to take care of her business so now it was time for him to leave to take care of his own. Yin Yu gestured that she was ready whenever so he pushed open the door, his gaze sliding downwards to the thing Tang Fen had left on the doorstep.
"...So even you guys are going to be like that, huh?"
He couldn't help but mutter when he saw what she had left there, it was eerily similar to what Lan Yun had tried to give him before the Province Championship. Folded neatly on top of a paper bag were several sets of robes, shirts, and pants, all of them made from fabric that had been dyed the same light yellow as the standard Lang clan robes. But unlike the Lang clan robes, these articles didn't feature a wolf howling at three moons, they instead featured a serpentine dragon coiling its tail around all three moons while it continued to soar higher.
"Something wrong with them? They look good, the colour seems like it would suit you nicely."
Yin Yu didn't know Yin Long's thoughts around the Lang clan robes, nor did she know that Lan Yun had tried to make him dress in similar robes several times already. He was about to just shake his head and give a casual response, but Tang Fen's words rang in his ears so he changed his answer slightly.
"I haven't worn yellow since I left the clan. I was no longer Lang Yin, and I had done a terrible thing to my sisters so I didn't think that I deserved to wear it. But Lan Yun has tried to push clothes like this on me on multiple occasions, it's just that I rejected them each time."
His gaze remained on the prepared clothes as he spoke, thinking about what to do. He closed his eyes for a few seconds as his thoughts moved, his memories dancing behind his eyelids one by one, each one featuring one of the people dear to him. Their words, their thoughts, their smiles, all of them were as clear as day to him.
His gaze was clear when he opened his eyes again, Yin Yu smiling softly when she saw it. It was a look she had grown very accustomed to. Determination, confidence, the sharp unwavering air of a blade, it was one of the looks that best fit Yin Long. He bent his knees slightly and picked up the package, accepting it as he put it into his interspatial ring.
"Let's go, I'm going to complete the last of the three requirements now."
