Yin Long's gaze drooped down slightly, observing the fragment floating in front of him. Truthfully, the fragment just looked like a small jade cylinder, the weight of aeons coating its unblemished exterior. But Yin Long had a good eye so he could tell that one end of the cylinder would fit perfectly into the previous fragment he had acquired, it was no doubt the second part of the key.
The small fragment flew up slightly, coated by a bit of the law of Yin so that it didn't rush into Yin Long's body and merge with his soul. It came to a stop a bit above his head, illuminated by the bright gleam of the golden sword he held. It was visible to all even in this dark night, peoples eyes couldn't help but be drawn to it as it hovered there.
But even so, no one made a move. Those hidden in the surroundings didn't rush out to grab it, nor did the sect members rush forward to reclaim it. They were all just watching, waiting, calculating the best way to move. Yin Long wasn't terribly surprised by this approach, you could even say that he understood it well. But that didn't mean that he would allow them to use it right now.
"Not gonna make a move? I get it, I really do. It's scary to make the first move, scary to jump into something you don't quite understand. The fear seeps into your body like water, it lodges in your joints and locks them up, every stilted and stiff move is a sign of that fear. But come on now, you came all the way here, you rushed into a thing like this for your chance at glory, isn't that equally scary? So just deal with the fear in the same manner, rush in to conquer it, have confidence in your own skills, believe that you'll come out on top. If you don't, you'll just end up losing the things that are right in front of you."
Arrogant words, a word of warning, helpful advice, there were a number of ways to take Yin Long's words, but there were preciously few who would ever even consider that last option as a proper one. Yin Long personally did not care about how the others would take his words, all he wanted was for them to finally take action.
But just his words didn't seem to be quite enough to break the wary silence that had descended on them. It was a bit out of Yin Long's expectations, but he was quick to adapt so he simply shrugged his shoulders. The small fragment started to descend again, the energy that coated it fading again, resulting in the fragment growing a bit more fervent in its attempt to merge with Yin Long.
The expressions of Li Zen and the other people from the sect sank quite heavily thanks to the sight, but the hidden onlookers had yet to make a move so he decided to take it one step further. The fragment descended all the way until it finally touched his hair, the energy holding it in check now so thin that the item was vibrating with such force that it could be heard in the surroundings.
The golden sword he was holding suddenly unleashed an almost blinding light, pulsing softly in tune with the ear-piercing humming produced by the vibrations. And sure enough, with a scene as eye-catching as that one, most fears were thrown away, greed and desire finally winning out.
A screeching sound cut through the noise as Li Zen drew a line through the air with her blade, a pale white line rushing forward as it cut through the night. The disciples and elders also sprung into action, taking the attack of their leader as the signal. As was to be expected from a sect centred on the sword, they weren't terribly proficient at ranged attacks so most of them rushed after the pale white line. Some of the elders launched similar attacks, a net of pale white lines racing directly towards Yin Long.
The onlookers also couldn't remain hidden any longer, another moment of hesitation might cost them a valuable item after all. Six attacks were launched from around Yin Long, the closest one was only a few steps behind him. A dark blue trident shot up from his own shadow, a grey-haired youth with a horizontal scar over his right eye following along with the weapon.
"There you go, wasn't that hard was it? Here, let me give you a reward for your bravery."
Yin Long hadn't discovered the youth that had been hiding in his own shadow, but he was already past the point where he would allow himself to get excessively shocked by unexpected situations. He turned his head slightly as he spoke, glancing at the youth out of the corner of his eyes as he smirked.
The fragment that had just touched his hair immediately quieted down as the energy around it was reinforced, the light of his blade dying down as if it had never been there. The fragment was then tossed away by the energy around it, soaring towards the approaching trident while Yin Long swept his gaze back towards the approaching sect members.
"You can run as wild as you please, just make sure to get out of it alive."
He gave Jin Wang a short reminder before stepping forward, his feet sinking into the stone as he phased into the ground. The pale lines cut through the air where he had just been, redirecting to clash with the trident-wielding youth who had now drawn all the attention. The five other attacks also moved about to corner the youth instead, the target of all these people was the fragment after all, not Yin Long himself.
As for the man who started the spectacle, he rose from the ground in front of an elder who had reached the 2nd Earthen Door. His sword was already rising as he appeared from the ground, cutting upwards as if he wanted to bisect the elderly man's head. He heard a soft crunching sound and a scream coming from behind him, Jin Wang had probably clamped his jaws down on some unfortunate disciple so that he could tear a path directly to Yin Long.
The man hurriedly reacted to counter Yin Long's attack, the heat emanating from the blade curling some of the hairs in his thin moustache. He interrupted his previous horizontal slash by swinging his sword down diagonally, but strangely enough, the white line it had drawn through the air followed along with it.
The attack came from the right so it was easy enough for Yin Long to slightly tilt his wrist to change the direction of his ascending slash. The two blades collided, flickers of golden flames scattering from Yin Long's blade. Some of the fire floated towards the man, but a strange scene happened before they could reach him.
The pale white line his blade had drawn in the air, which had gotten longer thanks to him redirecting his attack, suddenly started to move on its own. It wiggled around like a whip, the tip piercing through two of the flickers while the rest of the line placed itself in front of the remaining fire, blocking it.
"Oh? Now that's something intere...Oops, you shouldn't hog that gift all to yourself. There, share it with the others."
Yin Long was just about to comment on the man's peculiar skill when the actions of the people behind him caught his attention. The trident-wielding youth was about to sink into a shadow, his body flickering as if it had already become part of the darkness. He was still holding the small fragment so it didn't seem like he had managed to throw it into his interspatial ring, but getting it back from him would be hard if he got to vanish like that.
The law of Yin acted up again under Yin Long's command, the fragment breaking free of the youth's grip and shooting towards Yin Long again. But he didn't even allow the item to do much more than break out of the youth's grasp before he sent it away again, pushing it towards a girl that was using a halberd.
"And now, back to you."
Yin Long turned his eyes back onto the elder in front of him, his crimson robe fluttering slightly as a bit of it stretched out to block two attacks that had found their way towards him. The appearance of the parts that stretched out was a bit different from the jagged appearance it took when Yin Long first used his bloodline like this. Be it through his own influence or the influence of his laws, the parts that stretched out looked eerily similar to jagged blades, each one without a hilt.
The two thin lines that had stabbed towards him were cut clean through, his own blade cutting sideways to intercept the sword that came from his left. But as he blocked the incoming slash, his legs couldn't help but stumble a few steps to the right, his balance of power was a bit messed up due to the fact that his left arm couldn't move freely.
The elder immediately capitalized on this, chasing after Yin Long while swinging his sword freely to greatly extend the pale white line he drew through the air. Yin Long also saw that a handful of the closest disciples had switched their target to him after seeing how freely he moved around their prized fragment.
But Yin Long didn't even bother with these disciples, he knew there was no need to. And sure enough, the moment they turned their gazes towards Yin Long, disaster struck them. The weapons they had just raised were suddenly pulled out of their hands, their bodies sliding sideways as if someone was pulling on them.
Standing a short distance away from them was a large golden lion smeared with blood, his maw opened to a full 90 degrees. A torn-off arm that was still holding a sword was hanging on one of his teeth, he fully showcased the brutality of a beast king in battle.
Of the five disciples, four were drawn directly towards him without any chance to resist. Of the four, two were turned into a jumbled mess of limbs by the time they reached his maw, crushed by the swallowing force. Be it good or bad luck, the other two were still alive when they reached him, one got to die by having his upper torso torn in half by Jin Wang's sharp fangs while the other got to have his head crushed by a violent swipe of the paws.
As for the last one, he managed to escape the grip by erupting a great deal of energy from beneath his feet, a burst of fire launching him towards Yin Long. His sword had also been pulled from his grip so he formed a make-shift sword out of flames, drawing a pale red line through the air as he flew somewhat uncontrollably towards Yin Long.
The elder's expression scrunched up slightly as he watched the four disciples get torn apart like that, he also didn't look too happy that this fifth disciple was going to interfere, he had probably judged that he would be of no assistance. And sure enough, the only thing the youth managed to achieve with his actions was launching himself directly into the jaws of death.
Yin Long's cloak fluttered slightly as the youth approached, parts of it splitting off into jagged blades that rose up. The youth managed to block two of them, but the remaining seven proved too much for him so he was run clean through. Some of his blood splashed towards the dark sky, but not even a single drop was allowed to fall to the ground, the crimson cloak sucking it all up in a grim display.
But while all this took place, the elder was still launching his own attack. Pale white lines surrounded Yin Long on all sides, twisting around each other so that they could form a ball to trap him. They looked almost like harmless threads of yarn, but they carried with them such a heavy scent of blades that Yin Long had no doubt that they were as sharp as any blade.
He could even sense that a few of the lines, or a part of the line seeing as it was all just one long line, had been hidden under the earth should he try to phase away as he did previously. But it would just end up being a waste preparation, his plan was far more straightforward.
His sword was raised high, space twirling and folding around the edge of the blade as he launched the second of the Lang clan's ancient techniques, Horizon-Reaching Bite. But he didn't stop there, layering the first of the ancient techniques, Ravenous Beast, on top of it. Eight replicas of his sword appeared around him, space around their edges also twirling and folding to replicate the second technique.
But launching both of the techniques at once turned out to be a bit too much for the current Yin Long, there was simply too much he had to focus on to maintain them all at once. Of the eight replicas, six of them collapsed and faded back into space, leaving only two successful copies. But two would be enough, he was confident of that.
His own blade was brought down in a straight line, the two replicas descending in different directions. Horizon-Reaching Bite was a technique that focused on a single overwhelming attack, a blade that could reach the horizon and sever it if you gave it enough power. It slipped through the folds of space, the empty space between atoms, there was no defence that could withstand it.
The approaching threads were cut apart, minced and torn up before dissipating. Yin Long was starting to understand how these lines worked, or at least how they were formed, he wasn't entirely sure on how they were controlled so nimbly.
As for the elder, he hadn't expected his attack to get shredded so easily, this was an attack Yin Long had yet to showcase in this competition after all. He managed to take half a step to the side to protect his face, but Yin Long's blade still cut into his shoulder. And from there, it drew a clean line down the length of his body.
The line went straight through his right nipple, everything besides it severed from the rest of the elder's body. His arm and sword fell to the ground along with everything else that had been cut off, the man's face contorting violently for a bit before he collapsed to the ground.
"Ahh, I failed to pull back due to the imbalance, sorry. And you, no running off."
Yin Long muttered a few quiet words to the deceased man before turning his head, using the law of Yin to once again pull back the fragment from the woman that was now trying to escape with it. He sent it towards one of the sect elders this time, the six onlookers attempting to steal it from him while the rest of the sect tried to defend him.
As for Yin Long, his gaze landed on two of the elders, marking them as his new targets. But, having gotten a feel for their technique, he decided to take things one step further. A bit of his soul surged out, forming an extremely tiny sword of wind, a sword he then stabbed into his own finger and lodged in the empty space of one of his joints.
"Alright then, let's see if we can't get this whole body cultivation thing to work."
