The serpent's tail reached him, but the two swords he was holding didn't stop their own attacks. The curved cyan sword he had tried to block the tail with was still touching the base of the serpent's tail, only the tip had bent over it to attack him. But he didn't think that he would be able to produce enough power to pierce the scales if he just pulled his sword back in a normal manner so he changed his approach slightly.
The wind contained in the blade seeped out and formed jagged tips along the edge of the sword. He put strength into his arm and drew the sword back, the edges sawing into the scales of the beast and tearing them out as they weakened and loosened, spilling more blood that rained down on Yin Long. At the same time, the pain of hunger also spilt into the beast again, its pained voice ringing out once more.
But the second of Yin Long's swords was entirely different, it had already been mid-slice when the serpent hit him. The attack continued unabated despite the wound he suffered, the pain only fueled his strength. He had been interrupted last time he tried this, when he fought against the elder of the Swordsoul Guardians, but this time there would be nothing to stop him.
Space around his blade spun and folded, layering on the edge of his sword and shrinking, the process seemingly repeating infinitely. The scales of the serpent bristled and rose to block the blade, but his sword simply cut through the scales without the slightest hint of resistance. Flesh, muscles, bones, everything was cut through in such a clean manner that it seemed like he had moved his blade through the air rather than the tough body of an Earthen Door beast.
the ancestral style of the Lang clan patriarch, Twin Fangs of the Wolf, consisted of six different moves. The first move, Ravenous Beast, was an omnidirectional attack that relied on the law of space to duplicate your sword and spread it out all around you. But the second move, Horizon-Reaching Bite, was an attack focused entirely on one direction, decimating everything between you and the horizon if you could fuel it.
Space itself would become the edge of your blade, and relying on the edge of folded space, your blade would pass through the space between the cells, the empty space between the atoms. It would pierce through every defence, every weapon, every shield, every body, provided that you could control it and maintain its ability to pass through those unseen spaces.
The serpent howled in pain as Yin Long's sword passed through it, that particular section he had cut now had a nearly one-metre deep gash opened in it. The four eyes of the beast were bloodshot as it thrashed around, the pain of being cut was agonizing, but the pain of starvation that invaded it was almost driving it mad, it could not understand what was happening to it. But how could it know that it was fighting against a newborn swordsman, one born for the blade?
It pulled back while thrashing, putting a bit of distance between itself and Yin Long. He had gotten a nasty gash on his solar plexus, but he had sliced the serpent open in three different places so it wasn't faring much better even if it had a tough and large body. Even worse, the serpent could feel the sinister aura radiating from Yin Long flaring, throbbing in tune with his aching flesh as it rose time and time again. It could tell that strength was welling up from within him, it felt as if he would just grow stronger the longer the battle dragged on.
Whether or not it was its instincts telling it to end him before the battle dragged on, or if it was the horrifying starvation halting its usual train of thought, the serpent didn't even consider just turning around and escaping. It pulled its tail back and curled it up beneath its body, turning itself into a spring before it unfurled and shot forward like a blinding blur.
Yin Long was quick to react, raising both his blades and bringing them down in a diagonal manner. His weapons collided with the beast's two heads, his arms and wrists rolling subtly as he mimicked the style of the Swordsoul Guardians to erode the strength within the charge. But with how big the beast was, and how much strength its body contained, there was no way this move of his could truly erode all the strength of the attack.
As such, he quickly took half a step to the side and twisted his body, spinning around as the beast shot past him and he rolled along the length of its body. His body ached from doing so, the sheer strength contained within the charge meant that some of it would be transmitted into him as long as he touched the serpent.
The serpent spun around mid-air, flipping its body and landing on its tail as it curled up into a spring again. The cut he had sawed into the base of its tail tore upon slightly as a result of this, but the serpent ignored that and launched itself out again, slightly faster this time.
Yin Long repeated his actions, slashing his sword upwards diagonally this time and rolling his wrists before doing his best to dodge to the side. Both of them were doing the same thing, repeating the same attacks as they gathered strength.
The scene looked rather strange to Xiao Yin Yu as she and Jin Wang landed, a massive serpent was bouncing about at increasingly high speed while Yin Long stood at the centre of its attacks, halfway blocking and dodging every time. There was no doubt that he would lose if it continued like this, the beast would grow faster and stronger as it gathered its own momentum, it would eventually reach a point where he would be unable to react and he would get crushed.
But even so, she didn't say anything nor did she try to interfere. Yin Long had shown himself to be a man with a plan, if he was allowing the serpent to keep attacking like this then he was clearly going for something. As such, her job at this time was to trust in that thought and watch over it, only when he was on the verge of death would it be her job to interfere.
Yin Long rolled his wrists without pause, eroding the strength in the beast's charge while storing up the power inside his own blades. This was the style of the Swordsoul Guardians, it first focused on defence and then unleashed the enemy's strength back on them. And that was exactly what Yin Long was doing right now, his eyes burning with hunger but still frighteningly calm as he observed the blur that was the serpent.
His swords moved time and time again, carving faint marks into the air they passed through. His bones felt like they were filled with cracks, and the gash on his solar plexus was healing rather slowly thanks to the continuous strenuous movements that tore it open before it could properly heal. He could pour out more Netherworld energy to quickly heal this wound, but just this one activation already drained one of the three usages he had left of it, he didn't want to risk draining any more unless he had to.
"Here we go."
Yin Long couldn't help but mutter to himself when he saw the serpent spin around and curl up again, its entire body seemed to be roaring with power. This would be the height of its momentum, the greatest power it could muster. The wound on its tail had been torn open viciously due to the repeated strain on its tail, it looked as if the last 5 metres of its body could fall off at a moment's notice. But the serpent was like him, it was fine with bearing some wounds to win the battle.
The four eyes of the serpent were locked on Yin Long, its sharp fangs gleaming as it prepared to put an end to the maddening pain that wracked its body and caused its mind to eat away at its own muscles. Yin Long faced the beast, moving his transparent silver sword over to his right arm while dissipating the cyan sword, making sure he didn't lose any of the power he had stored up so far.
The serpent finished coiling up and Yin Long raised his sword high, the tip pointing at the sky while he locked eyes with the beast, as if he was declaring that its descent would mark the end of the serpent's execution. The beast cared not and unfurled its body, unleashing all the strength it had gathered so that it could finally end this battle.
But the second it tried to unleash all that force, it faltered slightly. It didn't unfurl smoothly, its coiled tail slipping slightly as it didn't control all the power properly. It still shot forward, but it moved slower than any of its previous charges, it also didn't move as straight or with as much force. Its bloodshot eyes flashed confusedly, the corners of Yin Long's mouth turning up ever so slightly.
"I wonder, Serpent, have you ever starved before? Have you ever fought with a stomach so empty that your mind tells you to eat yourself? The mind slows and the body fails to listen, the orders don't come across quite as you want them to. Difficult, isn't it?"
Yin Long had personally experienced it when he first got the three requirements from Hongzai, he hadn't even been able to fight beasts at his own cultivation level since he kept making mistakes, his body not listening. But now he had harnessed hunger, starvation had become his blade, and the pain from back then was forced onto his opponents. If you weren't used to it, fighting in such a state would become hard before you even noticed it.
The serpent shot towards Yin Long in its unsteady manner, and he brought down his sword without mercy. The air was cut apart and all wind in the area ceased, even space rippling slightly. This was a sword that screamed of loss, a sword that rejected the world, a hollow sword filled with nothing but pain and hunger.
The serpent sensed intense danger from that descending sword, it really would be able to reap its life if it was allowed to connect properly. It wasn't touching the ground so it couldn't exactly exert its force and freely dodge, it would have to take extreme measures if it wanted to dodge.
It slammed its tail down onto the ground, the gash in it worsening until the tail was finally fully severed. But the smash slowed it a bit more and at least gave it the chance to smash its leftmost head into the other head. It could feel its skull cracking from the force it used, but the power pushed it sideways in a helpless manner, ensuring that the sword would cut down next to it rather than on its head.
But just like a powerless arm that fell down and then swung against the side of a bed, the descending slash suddenly changed into a sideways sweep. The serpent had done everything it could to dodge, but Yin Long's sword still cut into the side of its leftmost head, as if all its efforts had been for nought. Esi, the sword of starvation, claimed its first victim.
Each of its heads was larger than Yin Long's entire body, but his sword carved through the beast's head without any issue. The power that gushed out of his sword even travelled down along the neck of the serpent, both the leftmost head and the first three metres of the beast's body getting cut in half down the middle.
But while the death of the leftmost head was a severe loss to the beast, it still had a second head so it wasn't a complete death sentence. Its remaining head quickly lowered, Yin Long's sideways sweep only managing to scalp the second head, revealing its cracked skull.
The pain of hunger was worse than ever before now, if the previous attacks had made the beast feel like it hadn't eaten for weeks then it now felt like it had been years since it last got to eat even a single morsel. But it was still alive, flying past Yin Long as it finished its charge. And now, now not even its starved madness could silence the screams of its will to live.
Its remaining head bit down on the head that had been cut in two, tearing off the lower part and quickly swallowing it to still its growling stomach. It tried to slither away at the same time, the fear of death practically overtaking it. But it was prey, and Yin Long was not a predator that allowed his prey to escape.
His head turned slightly to look at the fleeing beast, his skin having become somewhat pale thanks to the exertion. He didn't even have to raise his sword, he only had to move his Qi a little bit to seal the fate of the serpent.
All the marks that his swords had left in the air shimmered as his Qi moved, tens of marks rushing towards the serpent. The marks landed on the beast and cut into it, surrounded it and descended on it like a cage of swords, tearing the last signs of life from its body.
Yin Long used the law of swords, and he used it for far more than just creating swords or sharp attacks. The law existed in his weapons, carved itself into the world with each swing of his blade. He was Yin Long, and his attacks were an eternal scar on the world.
