Yin Long vomited another mouthful of blood, his muscles twitching due to the pain wracking his body. His affinity with the Netherworld energy was ceaselessly increasing, but Yin Long did not for one second believe that this meant that he could drag things out. His soul was constantly sucking in more energy from the small black gate so there was no telling if the Netherworld energy would end up overwhelming his soul, nor was there any telling at what point his body would become unable to bear the tremendous energy and simply collapse. He had to finish this fight, and he had to do so fast.
He tightly grasped the murky silver-black sword, the sinister energy within it feeling rather strange as it flowed through his veins. It felt like liquid fire, but the increasing affinity between the two also caused it to bring with it a somewhat comfortable and refreshing feeling. He let out a heavy breath, a bloody mist spreading from his mouth as the black tattoo that spread up his right arm radiated with a faint murky yellow light. As the light reached Yin Long's right eye, the world in front of him changed slightly.
The black energy gushing forth from the Netherworld gate turned a deep yellow and he could suddenly see a small flame flickering around within Tao Enlai's chest. Most of the flame was a light yellow, a small speck of green hidden deep within the core, but that green was quickly being overtaken by the yellow color. Yin Long could easily guess that the change was produced due to the tattoo covering his arm and eye, but as he had no idea what it meant he could only elect to ignore it for now.
He gathered all his power in his legs and lunged forward, the light radiating from his tattoo leaving a small trail behind him as he shot straight at Tao Enlai. Yin Long slashed upward in a diagonal manner while lunging, Tao Enlai hurriedly raising his sword to block the faint beam of light that shot out from Yin Long's sword and reached him before even the sword did.
The light clashed with Tao Enlai's sword and caused his arms to tremble faintly, his pupils shrinking slightly. But before he could move his arms again, Yin Long's sword arrived and clashed with the jagged edge of Tao Enlai's greatsword. The force contained within the sword was incomparable to earlier thanks to the Netherworld energy, the bones within the fingers of Tao Enlai's right-hand fracturing due to the tremendous vibration that was a result of the clash.
His right hand became unable to hold onto the hilt of the sword and his left hand alone was unable to bear all the force alone, his sword ending up leaving his grasp and flying into the air, stabbing into the ceiling of the room. Yin Long took note of the fact that the sword stabbed itself into the ceiling, as it hadn't done so to the ground when Tao Enlai's sword crashed into it, meaning that the ceiling was likely weaker than the rest of the room.
With the greatsword no longer in place to block Yin Long's attack, his sword sliced a gash into the side of Tao Enlai's chest and severed his right arm just above the elbow. Tao Enlai was forced back several steps and spat out a large mouthful of blood, his eyes turning bloodshot as his remaining hand grabbed onto the stump of his arm. The veins on his severed arm started to bulge further, several of them even exploding and spurting out blood as he forced the Netherworld energy to flood his arm to heal it.
But when the energy flooded into his arm and reached the stump, it simply flowed out of the wound and left Tai Enlai's minuscule control, floating over to Yin Long like a faint mist. All light practically vanished from Tao Enlai's eyes as he saw the Netherworld energy float over and sink into Yin Long, his left hand letting go of his right arm and powerlessly hanging at his side. Tao Enlai stumbled back weakly, a burst of humorless laughter slipping out as he fell into a sitting position.
"So in the end... it chose you...Haha, all the sacrifices we made, all the lives we took, all of it just to be abandoned. What a fate, what a fate."
Tao Enlai's gaze landed on Yin Long, whose every vein was contorting as if they were about to explode. The speed at which his soul greedily drew in Netherworld energy was only increasing with each second, it almost felt as if it wanted to suck out all the energy of the Netherworld through that small gate. Tao Enlai let out another short burst of humorless and defeated laughter when he saw this scene, sticking his remaining arm into one of his pant legs and pulling out a small blue arrowhead.
"Lang Yin... No, you fellow nameless shadow, you sword of the Netherworld, it is my loss, the loss of the Tao clan and the entire planet. I will go on ahead to the Netherworld, but I am certain we will meet at the yellow springs, the Netherworld will always claim those who dare touch it. At that time, perhaps we could even become friends over a drink."
Tao Enlai threw the blue arrowhead towards the small black hole once he finished his words, Yin Long frowning and sending a slash at the item. But a burst of explosive fire erupted beneath Tao Enlai's bottom just as Yin Long slashed out, sending his large frame directly into the path of the attack and blocking it with his abdomen. The attack cut straight through the arm that Tao Enlai placed in front of his stomach and then cut through almost 90% of his stomach before it dissipated, Tao Enlai falling to the ground with blood gushing out from his wounds. And just as he fell to the ground, the blue arrowhead fell into the Netherworld Gate and vanished.
The gate suddenly burst forth with a tremendous amount of energy and started to slowly expand. The energy bursting out liquified the corpses in the room and sucked them all in, Tao Enlai's body also getting sucked in, the small flame flickering in his chest turning completely yellow as it vanished into the black hole. Yin Long's soul greedily started to draw in the energy that burst out, but Yin Long didn't have the time to think about how much energy he was sucking in, a snow-white finger was starting to rise up from the expanding hole, a somewhat coarse and cut off voice leaking out at the same time.
"Free... Free... Lord... Free..."
Yin Long felt a horrible sense of dread wash over him as he looked at the finger, another one starting to rise up as the hole got bigger. It was clear that the gate to the Netherworld would only grow larger and larger, allowing whatever being was on the other end to step into this world. At that point, there was no telling what sort of mayhem and bloodshed would come about. Yin Long sucked in a deep breath with solemn eyes, the yellow Netherworld energy filling his vision also getting sucked into his body as he uttered a low order to himself.
"Give me everything."
The order was delivered directly to his soul, and it moved to fulfill it straight away. It threw all caution to the wind and wantonly sucked in and absorbed the surrounding Netherworld energy, the color of Yin Long's tattoo getting deeper and deeper as his murky silver-black sword started to tremble with power. The veins in his eyes exploded and dyed them both red, only the black scaled leaves within his right eye visible within the crimson color. This was within the Lang clan territory, the thing beyond that gate could not be allowed to step out, he would not allow it.
He swiped his interspatial ring and took out two talismans, one blue and one green. These were the talismans that his parents gave to all of them when he was seven, his greatest trump card. He first crumbled the blue one, a wave of darkness surging forth and covering his body and the ceiling in a defensive shield. He then crumbled the green one, arcs of thick violet lightning pouring forth and gathering around his body.
One talisman for defense and one for attack, now Yin Long would utilize them both. The sword in his hand unleashed a low keening sound, a part of his soul pouring forth and latching onto the ownerless energy that was the violet lightning, sucking all of it directly into his sword. When the lightning entered his sword, all the veins in Yin Long's right arm exploded, sending fountains of blood spurting out through his skin. A groan of pain escaped Yin Long's throat, as did a large mouthful of blood.
The tremendous amount of Netherworld energy that he had already absorbed automatically started to heal his wounds, but the energy contained within his body was now so vast that the wounds simply exploded open again the moment they were healed. Yin Long didn't have the time to care about the pain or his wounds, raising his sword with a soft mutter.
"Father, Mother, pray that I don't fail now."
He swung down his sword as he finished his words, the entire world turning silent as his sword exploded into a bolt of murky silver lightning. The roar of the lightning had shattered his eardrums the moment his sword exploded, which was why the world turned silent for him. The defensive shield that covered him and the ceiling trembled fiercely under the arcs that scattered from the lightning, but the shield managed to hold in the end and prevented the lightning from shooting upwards and obliterating the entire pagoda.
But the same couldn't be said for the rest of the room. The walls to the left, right, and front of Yin Long disintegrated under the might of the attack, the only thing preventing the water outside the room to rush at him being the tremendous heat from the lightning. The lightning collided with the expanding Netherworld gate and unleashed a blinding flash of light that swallowed everything else. Yin Long didn't get to see the end result of his attack, his consciousness fading to black as the brilliant flash of light swallowed everything else.
The lightning bolt that used to be his sword contained a few fragments of his soul, it was his soul that was used to construct the sword after all. As such, fragments of his soul came into direct contact with the gate to the Netherworld. Normally these fragments would just dissipate and vanish, but now his soul had sucked up so much Netherworld energy that the two had a close affinity. Just as the attack landed, the fragments sucked up all the energy that the gate gushed forth, actually causing it to shrink down to the size of a pea.
The fragments were then sucked directly back into Yin Long's body by his soul, which was sucking in all the Netherworld energy it could find to keep Yin Long's body alive. As such, the wayward fragments of Yin Long's soul, filled with an unearthly amount of sinister energy, were sucked directly back into his soulsea, an act he failed to see due to his unconscious state.
Nice