Yin Long stood as he spoke, his knees quivered softly and his breathing was ragged, but he stood nonetheless, he hadn't allowed his knees to touch the ground. He couldn't beat Tao Tiankong in a proper fight, he was simply too weak at the moment. But if he relied on the fact that this was a competition with rules then he could win the fight without having to actually beat his opponent.
It wasn't really his style to do things this way, but right now he wasn't in a situation where he could do things his way. No, right now he had to delve into his past and act as the dark blade of the Lang clan again, only this time he wouldn't don a mask.
His gaze slid down slightly, drifting across the arm that felt like it had been turned inside out. The blood didn't get to spill to the ground yet, but he was acutely aware of the fact that he had spilt an immense amount of blood. He had also stopped tapping into his Netherworld energy, he wanted to keep enough for at least one good use in reserve, so he could forget about the wound regenerating as quickly as the previous ones. But for now, he ignored that fact, turning his attention to the blade he was holding, its thrumming similar to a sunny song.
Thank you. And I'm sorry, but I don't think I can keep using you right now.
Oki Oki! Please take me out for many trips, I want to see if the whole funny world is blocky like this!
The sword's response was as sunny as the song it seemed to hum, the emotions it sent out dancing around inside Yin Long like fluttering flowers. It was hard to imagine that this was a sword formed from a fusion of water and pain, a sword based solely on death by dehydration, the pain of thirst.
The sword returned to his soulsea without a sound, Yin Long almost stumbling from how light his body suddenly felt when he finally let go of the sword. The rampant energy that coursed through his body also vanished as he put away the sword, blood immediately rushing up his throat now that it was no longer being repressed by the energy.
He quickly clamped his mouth shut and swallowed down the blood, only lowing a paltry few drops to slip out from between his clenched lips. The newly formed crimson robe and cloak started to melt at this moment, the battle was over so his bloodline was starting to calm down naturally. A bit of the dark red material merged back into his body, but the blood it had drawn in when his wings first altered their form dropped to the ground. It had only been drawn in temporarily thanks to the law of blood, he wasn't actually able to absorb it.
"Number of points required to reach Rank 5 Arena acquired, not enough contestants available with the required points, departure temporarily postponed. Fourth to reach the Rank 5 Arena reward: Point collection will not be halted during postponed departure."
Yin Long heard a somewhat stocky voice resound throughout his soulsea from the leech that had been put there to keep track of his points. He had expected that he would get sent directly to the 5th arena if he won this battle, he would have beaten two people who had reached the top 50 after all. But it seemed like not enough people had acquired the needed 20 000 points, there was no one available for him to fight.
They obviously couldn't just send him to the 5th arena and force him to wait three days, eventually losing all his points and getting sent back to the start. He was one of the first to reach the required number of points, they wanted to reward strength like this, not punish it. As such, he got the reward that he could still gather points while he waited, so he could theoretically gather enough points to reach the final stage before he even completed the 5th.
But quite frankly, not getting sent directly to the 5th arena suited him quite nicely, it gave him time to check out the other Swordsoul sects and their styles. While he was hearing the message stating that he got the required points, he saw space around Tiankong start to twist. A pair of crimson eyes once again met a pair of black ones, a mixture of respect and resentment floating within Tiankong's pupils. But there was no room to say anything, no time for it, space around him continued to twist and sent him away, returning him to his starting point.
"...You really go above and beyond when you want to show off, don't you?"
A familiar voice reached Yin Long as Tiankong was sent away. His crumbled world started to restore itself to normal, expanding and allowing him to see that Xiao Yin Yu was coming over, Jin Wang and Fang Yau in tow. But he didn't allow them to get any closer, staggering back two steps while raising his bloody arm.
"Stop. You can't get any closer. Right now would be quite dangerous for both your bodies and your reputations. Think about it carefully."
Two of his swords had shattered to restart his brain when he died, tearing away small parts of his soul in the process. Tiankong had been quite close so Yin Long had managed to absorb some of his lifeforce before he was launched away, but it wasn't to the point of completely restoring the loss. As such, his soul was still in the process of searching for lifeforce to restore what it had lost, if they got much closer then that lifeforce would be taken from them.
And that was just the physical danger of getting close to him right now, the reputational damage was even worse. He had just used Netherworld energy in front of the entire Dominion, they would quickly realize what it was even if they weren't able to feel it. At that point, Yin Long would become a public enemy, hunted by just about everyone not associated with the Netherworld.
In a situation like that, it wouldn't be strange if everyone he knew cut ties with him to protect themselves. To associate with him now would be a foolish move, you'd end up hunted just like him, that was just how hated the Netherworld was. Xiao Yin Yu already knew about him having Netherworld energy, but it hadn't been revealed to the world at that point so the risks were relatively minor. As for Fang Yau, this was the first he heard about it.
So it was indeed as Yin Long said, this was the time for them to think about it carefully. A fork had appeared in their path, a major one that could lead to them walking down a route that came to an abrupt end. But the thing about forks in the road was that some people would never see them as such, not when they had already thrown away one of the paths long before they reached it.
"Now that's a wasted statement if I've ever heard one. I already told you, didn't I? I've made my choice, I made it all the way back when you stepped forward and tossed aside all your blades for me, all so that I could make my own choice for once. I will follow you way down, wherever you may go. I'll follow you way down to your deepest low, and then even deeper. Wherever life takes you, that's where I'll be. So don't say something so stupid, just be as selfish as you taught me to be."
Xiao Yin Yu hadn't even needed to think about the answer, she didn't even stop walking when he raised his hand. She walked right up to him and grabbed the bloody arm that hung slightly at his side, swiping her interspatial ring to bring out some medicine. She knew that the entire Dominion could see her, but that wasn't something she cared about. He granted her the freedom of choice, and she would use that freedom to follow him to the deepest pits.
Jin Wang had also walked up to him alongside Yin Yu, both of them knew about his soul's life-draining effect when it was wounded like this, but that wasn't something they bothered with. Yin Yu quickly finished smearing medicinal paste on Yin Long's arm, wrapping it in a thick layer of bandage while also forming a sling he could rest the arm in while it healed.
"...Thank you."
There wasn't much else Yin Long could say other than those two simple words. To follow him was to choose doom, yet they did so without hesitation. He felt warm, from his chest all the way to his head. Whatever position Yin Yu had in her sect had been thrown away just like that, there was no way she would ever be able to return there.
All that glory, all that wealth, all of it had been snuffed out in an instant with a single choice. It was an action Yin Long understood very well, it was one he had done himself in the past when he first donned the mask of the Lang clan's dark blade. It was also thanks to this that he understood the emotions Yin Yu imbued in that action, that choice she had made.
And it was because he understood this emotion that he was conflicted. He would be lying if he said that he didn't have any emotions for Yin Yu, it was inevitable that some things would slowly bloom after going through as much hardship as the two of them had, constantly relying on each other and supporting each other. But he had Lan Yun, she may not be here right now, but that didn't mean that he could just betray her like that. So he was conflicted on how to act and treat her, he almost found it funny that he could still feel conflicted over such things.
"Harumph! Should I leave, give you two a bit of time together? I mean, the whole Dominion is watching so I wouldn't recommend getting intimate, but that doesn't mean that I'll judge."
The voice of Fang Yau cut through the air as Yin Yu finished the sling, he had purposefully cleared his throat so loudly that it echoed around the stage. Contrary to his playful words, his expression was solemn, his gait heavy and stern as he walked over.
He walked right up to Yin Long and tilted his head slightly downwards, his yellow eyes peering deep into Yin Long's black pupils. Neither of them said anything for a bit, Fang Yau was searching for something within Yin Long, and Yin Long wasn't going to tell Fang Yau anything about what he should do. This was his choice and his alone, it would not be right for Yin Long to interfere in it. In the end, Fang Yau spent nearly three minutes looking into Yin Long's eyes before he took a step back.
"I have read the records, I've heard about the horrors of the Netherworld, the Calamity they unleashed the previous times they reached our world. Their nature, their desires, their unbound cruelty, my clan has records of all of them, I've studied all of them."
The Netherworld wasn't the enemy of the world for no reason, they had spread nothing but chaos the few times they managed to reach this world. There were even multiple times where they almost brought the world to its knees, only through the interference of the Celestial World had they managed to stave off the complete destruction of even entire Dominions.
Even those who grew up in minor clans would be schooled in this history, it was information that every living human needed to know so it wasn't strange for Fang Yau to know it. Yin Long also knew this information, his eyes still returning Fang Yau's gaze in silence. Fang Yau looked upon his expression for a handful of seconds, his own expression eventually softening somewhat.
"But those are all just records and accounts of the distant past. In the end, I will choose to trust what I can see with my own eyes, what I can touch with my own hands. And what I have seen is that you are not like those beings in the records, you're way too much of a training nut to be like them. And there's still much I can learn from you, and much you can learn from me if that previous fight was anything to go by, so don't think about pushing me away just yet. And if that choice leads to my end? Well shit, at least it's an end I picked with my own two hands, headed for with my own two feet, there's gotta be some satisfaction I can find in that fact, no?"
A fork in the road, a diverging path. Even if you ended up walking down the wrong path and falling into its abrupt end, can you not be satisfied with just the fact that you got to walk there on your own, that you got to choose the path on your own?
On this day, three people reached a fork in the road, two blurry and dark paths spreading out before them. And in the end, all three of them chose to step onto the same path as they headed into the indistinct unknown. Thus, the gears of fate once again started to spin, pushing the world down that same dark and unclear path.
