Yin Long didn't stop as he left the city with Xiao Yin Yu and Jin Wang, he had gone through all the memories he had here, he had given himself time to reminisce and immerse himself in the olden days. But that time was over now, he wouldn't allow himself to spend more time here for no good reason now, all of that could be done in the future when he could move about unhindered.
They left the city before long and returned to the forest that served as the upper layer of Underearth Forest, the various holes dotting the ground serving as entrances. Jin Wang had returned to his original size the second they left the city, but there were luckily more than a few holes that were large enough to accommodate his size so it didn't take too long before they found an appropriate one.
"Alright, descending is a bit easier than ascending since I only have to control the speed at which we fall. But there's a chance that we'll attract some attention since I can't use my stealth technique while we're in the air."
Yin Yu gave the warning quite casually as she looked at the hole, mainly doing it so that Yin Long would be ready for the fact that they may be attacked as they reached the ground. Yin Long nodded his head and the three hopped into the hole, sliding along it for a bit before they were flung out into freefall, the vast Underearth Forest spreading out beneath them.
The wind around them immediately started to act according to Yin Yu's command, wrapping around them and producing a gentle updraft that slowed their descent. Yin Long's gaze roamed over the land beneath them, his heart thumping quietly in his chest. Something felt different. He could feel the auras of beasts swirl about along with the wind, each one tinged with the faint flavour of hunger, polluted by its madness.
And as if humming in tune with those hungry auras, the hollow pain that wracked his body thrummed. He was hungry, starved, but not just for food. He wanted to fight, he wanted to wield his sword, he wanted to see how much he had improved, how much he had changed after stepping into the realm of swordsmen.
"Alright, I don't sense too many beasts in the area so it seems like our luck is rather good. You got beaten pretty badly earlier, what do you think, are you confid...?"
Yin Yu started speaking as they got closer to the ground, but her words were cut short when she saw Yin Long step forward out of the corner of her eyes. He moved out of the range of her wind before she got the chance to react, his speed instantly quadrupling as he hurtled towards the ground below. He had sensed it, an appropriately strong beast close by, a target for the hunt.
The back of his white robe was torn open as two large wings burst out from his back, crimson feathers covered in yellow veins that pulsated with sinister power. Black marks resembling scaled leaves popped up on his right arm, spreading up to the right side of his face and inside his eye, the power of the Netherworld coursing through him in a frenzy. A vertical crack opened on his forehead, pulsating with the same yellow colour as his feathers, his aura instantly shooting to its highest peak.
The yellow energy pushed his aura and strength higher than ever before, it resonated with the painful hunger in his body and brought out more power than ever before, as if it was urging him towards a successful hunt. The raging wind from his descent swirled around his right hand as he stretched it out, his fingers carving faint marks into space as he scooped it up and formed a transparent silver sword. The marks lingered for several seconds before they finally started to slowly stitch up, with his strength at the highest point it had ever been, the effects of his parasitic soul were also more pronounced than ever.
His wings flapped a few times before he breached the top of the trees, the crimson colour from them seemingly seeping into the air like a mist and even polluting the transparent silver leaves that were dancing around him. He couldn't tell since it came from him, but that fine crimson mist infected the surroundings with the very same hunger that plagued him, inflicting pain on all the living beings that it touched.
He tore a hole through the dense layer of leaves that covered the forest, his knees bending slightly as he landed only a few steps away from the beast that his senses had locked onto. A limbless serpentine body that was nearly 30 metres long, murky brown scales that blended in with the trees and dirt, and two large reptilian heads that were currently tearing a gorilla-like beast apart.
In a sense, it was similar to the fabled Hydra, a beast that now practically only existed in ancient legends and myth. A Hydra was a beast that could grow and evolve without end, the more heads and markings it had the stronger it would be. But due to this trait, they had already been hunted to what was likely their extinction, it was a being that no one wanted to risk leaving alive, it posed more of a threat than even Divine Beasts. As such, even if this snake-like monster had a bit of Hydra bloodline, the aeons since the last one was killed would mean that the bloodline was so diluted that it couldn't even be called Hydra blood anymore.
"You were hungry, huh? Yeah, I can understand that feeling."
The beast in front of him had reached the 1st Earthen Door, it would be among the two strongest beings he had ever engaged in actual combat, Tao Tiankong didn't count since they didn't fight. But even so, the corners of Yin Long's mouth twisted upwards, like a predator observing his prey, his multi-faceted hunger worse than ever before.
The two-headed serpent responded with a vicious hiss, the two pieces of the gorilla sliding down its maws. It had reached the Earthen Doors but still couldn't talk, most Demonic beasts would have to reach the Skyborne Doors before they could mimic voices or alter their vocal cords. But it didn't need words to convey its meaning, a threat and a warning, with faint undertones of unease and worry. Yin Long's realm was lower than its, but that sense of unease couldn't be erased, eating away at its mind like a poison.
Yin Long waited for the beast to properly swallow the torn up flesh, resisting the urging hunger that assailed him. Only when the meat had properly settled in the beast's stomach did his feet kick off from the ground, his body hurtling forward. The beast opened its maws and hissed once more, but its voice was cut off when Yin Long's sword cut down towards one of its heads.
It had done its best to warn him, but he kept going so now it would be left with no choice but to retaliate, to punish him for stepping out of line. Its tail whipped out to crush his sword, but his blade vanished just before the two attacks made contact. It reappeared half a metre beneath the tail, its descending trajectory morphed into a forward stab. The beast's attention was fully focused on the new position of the blade so it didn't notice a very thin line that lingered in the air where Yin long's sword had just been.
The beast's scale bristled somewhat, protruding and catching the tip of the blade. Both its heads descended at the same time to tear Yin Long apart, but Yin Long's blade changed the moment its heads moved. The shape morphed into a thin rapier, the tip slightly curved like a drill. He twisted his wrist and pushed the weapon forward, slipping between the bristling scales and burrowing the tip into the beast's body.
A violent scream erupted from the beast as Yin Long's blade stabbed into it, its body thrashing backwards while pain wracked its body. It had just swallowed a gorilla, but its stomach suddenly felt entirely empty, as if it hadn't gotten to eat for weeks. Every cell in its body was howling from hunger and pain, its brain sending out an emergency signal to convert its own muscles into nourishment.
Yin Long had a proper style for Esi, the style that would bring out the most from the emotions and memories that were imbued into the blade. But that didn't mean that he could only use it in that manner, every swing of his blade could call forth the emotions, the howl of pain. And this serpent was the one graced with the glory of being the first to experience it.
But truthfully, the effect was far greater than what Yin Long had expected, the serpent screamed as if it was experiencing the worst pain it had ever felt, as if it was about to fall apart from hunger. This was at a level beyond what Esi should be capable of, even the confident him realized that. The yellow law in his soul had thrummed and resonated with his hunger so he had an inkling that the increased efficiency was tied to that law, but since he had yet to figure out what the law was he couldn't come to a proper conclusion and instead focused on the battle ahead of him.
The thrashing of the beast pulled it backwards, Yin Long's blade slipping out from its body and sending out a torrent of blood that shot into the sky. The crimson rain fell down around Yin Long, tainting his silver hair and running down the already tainted leaves that danced around him. His tongue stretched out unconsciously, lapping up some of the falling blood and sending it down his throat.
A strong copper taste filled his mouth as he took in the blood, but to the parched him that taste was like the sweetest of wines, the nectar of life itself. The serpent's rage drowned out its pain when it saw Yin Long drinking its blood like that, this was the greatest shame it had ever experienced in its life.
Its tail shot out again, the air creaking as the tail approached the speed of sound. It had yet to utilize any elements so Yin Long guessed that this was a property-less Demonic beast, it gave up on the laws in favour of heightened strength and speed. It would be good in the early stages, but once it reached higher realms this would become a great handicap.
Yin Long didn't allow himself to get drunk on the rain of blood, no matter how ravenous his hunger got, no matter how urging his pain became, he made sure to keep a clear head so that he could raise his head high and say that it was he who fought. He flicked his wrist, throwing the rapier over to his other hand as it morphed back into a standard sword. His right hand stretched out towards the incoming tail, the curved cyan sword of wind leaving his soulsea and landing in his grasp.
Some of the tainted silver leaves around him changed as the second sword came out and swung upwards, turning a mixture of cyan and crimson. The wind around the cyan blade spun and pushed upwards, assisting the attack so that he would be able to push the incoming tail up over him.
But the second the two attacks came into contact, the serpent's tail stretched and bent. The tip curved over Yin Long's blade like a whip, and the weapon in his left hand was slicing sideways towards the serpent's body so he wasn't in the best position to move it over to block. He also hadn't connected any fractures in space to that particular location so he wouldn't be able to instantly send one of his blades over.
There was in truth one way he would be able to reliably block the attack, or at least greatly diminish its power, he could use his Qi to form a defensive barrier of blood around him. But that was something that had nothing to do with his sword skills so he elected to discard that option, it had nothing to do with a battle like this.
He twisted his body slightly and unleashed the first move of the ancestral Lang clan's style, Ravenous Beast. An exact replica of the transparent silver sword in his grasp appeared right by the tail, the law of space duplicating Yin Long's sword over into a newly created dimension. But this wasn't just a replica but also one made extremely hastily so it couldn't compare to the actual strength and toughness of the sword.
Just as he expected, the sword crumbled as the tail struck it, but Yin Long used his control over it to flick the weapon at the very same moment, diverting the path of the attack slightly. Coupled with the twisting of his body, he managed to avoid having the tail pierce his chest and instead just had it carve a gash into his solar plexus.
The pain wracked his body, but all of it simply became another part of the hollow hunger that roared within Yin Long's body. The crack in his forehead and the veins on his wings pulsated in tune with that pain, flaring up with greater intensity as if they were trying to push Yin Long up to a whole new level.
