Five seconds, that was how long Yin Long had managed to maintain that little domain of his before his mind became unable to bear the strain. A mere five seconds had left him pale and panting, beads of sweat running down his face. But he was happy, ecstatic even, because now he had grasped another avenue of strength, a new branch he could add on to his own path.
"That takes care of weakness number two, the time you can maintain it is pathetically short but working on weakness number one will also help you get used to the sensation. You should be able to extend the duration once you're used to it, increasing your cultivation, especially soul-based cultivation, can also help you increase the duration."
Hongzai did not give Yin Long the time to rest despite his mental exhaustion. He had shown his talents, he had a gift for the blade that even Hongzai had to admit was terrifying. But that was exactly why they couldn't sit around and waste any time, each second lost was one he wouldn't get back.
What sort of realm could he reach if he didn't waste a second? Would his blade be able to reach the offspring of Province Emperors? What about the Province Emperors themselves? Or could he go all the way and even place his sword against the throat of a Dominion Deity? Could his blade reach the flood and cut it off? She didn't know, the future was something she couldn't see. But she wanted to know.
"Your first weakness is a bit more difficult to work on, detecting the subtle flaws in your opponent's moves and energy flow isn't exactly something you can just teach. It's something you need to feel, experience, and develop on your own, everyone has their own way to do it. So I can't outright teach you, but I can produce an environment where you can easily gain the experience that will help you on the way."
The third weakness was the easiest to cover up, at least from her perspective, just give him a fundamental body-cultivation technique and it was done. The second one she had been able to give him a bit of advice on, pointing him down the right path to smoothen the process. But there weren't really any hints she could give him for the first weakness, it relied solely on Yin Long's senses and abilities, what he could come up with. There was really only a single thing she could do to help him when it came to fixing that first weakness.
"Come with me. You two as well, you'll be the back-up."
Hongzai curved her finger as she turned, gesturing for everyone to follow her back into the cave she called home. They moved through the cave and into the cavern, Yin Long taking this chance to quickly regulate his breathing and give his tired mind a bit of rest. They quickly entered the dome-like cavern that was split down the middle, Hongzai heading for the opening that led to the other section of the cavern.
The faint smell of sulfur and warm steam immediately got stronger after they passed through the opening, a thin mist lingering in the air thanks to the large pool of bubbling water that rested at the rightmost edge of the room. Hongzai moved over to the other end of the room and stopped in front of the wall, her sword landing in her grasp.
"From now on you should always carry your sword on your waist, the longer you leave it in your interspatial ring the more impersonal it will feel. Don't become like me and allow it to become a habit, it's harder to break than you'd expect."
She gave the advice without turning back, her sword slashing out and carving a new cave into the wall. A swordsman needed their weapon to be a part of them, it was a death sentence to let your sword become something impersonal. But how could she know that Yin Long stored his self-made swords inside his soulsea, he couldn't make them more personal even if he tried.
A new addition to her cavern was quickly dug out, but this room didn't have any holes in the ceiling to let in any light. As such, the thing they stepped into was perfect darkness where Yin Long couldn't even see his own hand when he held it in front of his face. Granted, his senses gave him a map of the surroundings, but losing his sight still robbed him of some things he was used to.
"This is where we'll do the training. In here there won't be any disturbances, you can focus fully on your enemy, the way their energy moves, the way they swing their weapon, the way their muscles expand and contract as they move. Observe and learn, find your own way to examine possible weaknesses in your enemy."
A faint light flickered into existence as Hongzai spoke, a palm-sized crystal filling with flames in her palm. She tossed the crystal into the air so that it embedded itself in the ceiling, producing just enough light to barely illuminate a ten-metre area around him and Hongzai. She raised her sword the moment the crystal embedded itself in the ceiling, indicating that rest was not something Yin Long would be allowed as long as they were in the allotted 13 hour period.
"Understood. Here I come."
The one who gave the starting signal of the battle wasn't actually Hongzai, it was Yin Long. He brought out a transparent silver sword the moment Hongzai raised her blade, the corners of his lips curving up as his feet brought him forward.
The start of the battle, taking the initiative, those were things Yin Long considered part of his weaknesses. He was a reactive fighter who countered his enemies and struck them down when their defences opened, he was in a bit of a pickle if they didn't make the first move.
So how could he not work on that weakness now that he was already training to overcome some of his other weaknesses? He would definitely get beaten back, he'd probably get cut a few times and shed a good amount of blood. But he didn't care, he could learn here, he could grow here. What was a bit of pain and blood compared to that?
He pushed his sword forward in a stab, aiming the tip at Hongzai's abdomen. But she simply swatted him aside with a light jab of her own sword, striking his weapon a bit below the halfway point and completely scattering the power he had gathered in it. And then her own sword started to rise, tilting upwards as if she was planning on skewering his head from beneath.
And Yin Long watched. He narrowed his eyes and sharpened his senses, taking in Hongzai's entire body at once. He shrank down the area that his senses perpetually covered and focused solely on that ten-metre area around them, abandoned everything but that tiny area.
It wasn't to the same extent as earlier, there were no small droplets of water-like Qi around him, no reflections. But time still felt as if it slowed somewhat, the speed of the rising blade slowing somewhat so that he could get some more time to observe it. But all he saw was the glinting tip of the blade that was heading straight for his head, Hongzai's body didn't show the slightest opening or difference in energy-usage.
He focused even more, pushing his already exhausted mind to the brink, but in doing so he focused too much on what he was trying to achieve, and not on what was in front of him. His senses suddenly warned him of danger, an imposing sense of death swamping his mind.
His head jerked back as Qi gushed out from his throat, turning into blood that formed a waving blockade in front of Hongzai's weapon. Her sword pierced into the blockade and ran right through it, the defence only buying Yin Long the time to ensure that it was the handle of the weapon that grazed his chin rather than the tip of the blade.
There hadn't been an ounce of mercy there, if he hadn't managed to deflect it then the blade would have run right through his head. The power contained in the weapon still reached him through the handle, knocking him backwards, but it was much better than death.
"Every time you focus on one thing and one thing alone, you lose sight of something else. Make sure that the thing you lose sight of isn't what comes back to kill you. Come, focus."
Hongzai's words were as merciless as her blade, Yin Long's entire head ringing thanks to the hit to his chin. But the smile on his face only grew wider as he corrected his posture, Hongzai's blade already bearing down upon him again.
His senses had scattered and his world had expanded thanks to the hit, but he gathered it all again and focused, the ringing in his head becoming nothing more than a dull sound at the base of his skull. Nothing but that sword and the arm that swung it remained in his mind, his entire world revolved around those two seemingly insignificant things.
And then he heard a sound, a sound so faint he could barely notice it. It was similar to shears sliding through cloth, a hand passing through water, gentle and soft yet grating to the point of pricking his ears. But just as he was going to focus on that sound, another one entered his ears, the first one occupying his right while the new one occupied his left. It was a strange gurgling, like a small stream rushing about, nimbly moving around all obstacles.
But he could tell, neither of the two sounds was uniform. There were small hiccups in both of them, a slight instant where they either grew louder or dimmed to the point of non-existence. But once again his focus grew too great, the eerie sensation of death creeping up on him again. His Qi instinctively burst forth as he threw himself to the side, a thick layer of blood pushing Hongzai's blade aside.
Her blade cut down along his arm, practically skinning it as he dodged to the side. The searing pain shot up his arm and into his mind, the law of Yin taking it in to slowly push his aura upwards. Yin Long's bloodshot eyes burst with light as he spun his head to the side and forced his sideways dodge to halt, his knees bending to just barely duck beneath the blade that soared over his head.
Thick gurgling, a rising knee smashed into his chest. Shears through cloth, a sideways sweep left a shallow gash on his chest. Water being disturbed, a fist broke his nose after he dodged a descending slash. A hand passing through a stream of water, the sharp tip of the blade grazed his throat, mere centimetres away from reaping his life.
His senses scattered and were gathered again, his world expanded only to be shrunk down again. Pain, the body's instinctual warning that something was wrong, wracked every inch of his being but only pushed him towards greater heights. And then there were the sounds.
The dull ringing at the base of his skull was all but thrown aside from his mind, the only thing that existed was the two sounds that occupied separate ears. At times they were a cacophony, a discordant mess that grated his ears until he felt like they were bleeding. At other times they mixed together so well that they became a symphony, a triumphant and gallant orchestra that roused his mind and sped up his blood.
He felt like Hongzai was moving her lips, but her words were already lost on him. He didn't even notice when Hongzai had Xiao Yin Yu switch with her. There was only the music in his ears, the sword and the arm that swung it. The blood that flowed through the arm, the space that the sword moved through, the space occupied by the muscles, the energy contained within the flowing blood.
A world he wasn't even sure he could fully see, one he heard and sensed more than he saw. He felt light-headed, was his mind being strained too much or was it perhaps bloodloss? He couldn't tell, it wasn't part of his world so there was no way for him to check. He delved into the music with his eyes closed, jumped into the unseen world that felt oh-so similar to the myriad of reflections he had seen earlier.
Time didn't matter, pain didn't matter, hunger didn't matter, thirst didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Had it ever mattered? Right now he wasn't sure, he was too entranced in that symphony, that cacophony that pricked his mind. He wanted to grasp that music, to hold it in his hand, to applaud it. He wanted to dance in tune with it, he wanted his sword to flow along with it.
So he did. His sword cut through the air in tune with the symphony, it roared along with the gallant orchestra. He couldn't feel any result from the move, but the sound of his blade had become part of the orchestra, and that was all he needed.
Then came the cacophony, and his sword moved in response. A blade cut through the air, pierced through the dissonance so that it could bring structure to the discordant mess of sounds. And bring structure it did, a metallic clanking sound forcing the cacophony to become a symphony. And this time he saw the result, felt it. Because in this unseen world he embraced, only the sword and arm that swung it mattered. And right now, as he cut through the dissonance, his sword had found the incoming sword, just above the hilt, the clank of their collide bringing structure to the cacophony.
And that new structure, that newborn symphony was like the gospel of the gods, the sword itself whispering to his soul and guiding him onto the right path. Cut the dissonance, erase the grating sound. When it's loud you dodge, when it's dim you strike, but no matter what, ruin the dissonance.
But was that good enough? It wasn't, at least not to Yin Long. The dissonance would have a source, a place it was born. He wanted to eradicate that place, to get rid of the dissonance for all time, only that would be good enough. And as his blade cut through another cacophony, he realized the source of the discordant music, that prickling sensation.
And then his world shrank again. From ten metres to five and from five to two, his world focused squarely on a single spot. When a mind already bordering on collapse and exhaustion reached the very end and tried to jump, what would happen? Yin Long didn't know, but right now he wasn't interested in it either and focused squarely on the task at hand.
He pushed that little world of his forward, he wasn't the centre of it right now, he didn't exist in it right now so there was no need to include him in it. That tiny world swarmed over the sword and the arm holding it, enveloping its wielders entire body in its confines. But this time Yin Long added a bit of his Qi to it, a tiny streak of crimson to that transparent world that knew no colour.
And what was born was a three-dimensional image in his mind. A human body appeared in his mind, hundreds if not thousands of muscles, veins, organs, and bones appearing in his mind. He rejected all the surface things and focused entirely on the space occupied by the insides, the things that carried and moved the power of the body.
And that tiny streak of crimson he sent out was also reflected in his mind, turning into countless streams of blood that filled the seemingly hollow veins. Some veins glowed brightly due to the power saturating them, others were dim due to the lack of energy coursing through them.
The veins in the arm holding the sword were bright, like pure light trapped in liquid form. But the veins in the pinky were a bit dimmer, resulting in a grating cacophony as the blood in the arm didn't flow in a uniform manner. Yin Long's sword swept out sideways and cut through the cacophony, colliding with the tip of the sword, where all the power of the pinky had been gathered.
The dissonance became a symphony as the sword was pushed aside, the orchestra reaching a crescendo as more of the veins inside the image lit up. But before Yin Long could find out what sort of crescendo would be born, the image faded and his little world returned to him.
The sounds vanished and strength left his body, his feet giving out underneath him as he fell to his knees, his eyes opening involuntarily. His mind felt heavy, as if each thought had to wade through mud. Darkness encroached on him from the sides of his vision, but he managed to retain consciousness. He had already had enough of fainting all the time when he pushed himself to the brink. And as he was panting, not noticing the blood that was dripping from his nose, the somewhat stilted voice of Hongzai reached him from behind.
"...Yin Long, what are you really?"
