Chapter 5 - [Myriad Blades of the Endless Night]!

It didn't take long for Yu Yin to make his way back to Layla, as it seemed his Silver Qilin horns could banish all darkness! Although he didn't find too much on his little exploration other than those pills, he did discover something interesting about the place he was in!

'It seems that this wasteland is not, in fact, endless, but is instead more like a cage! There were multiple times where I had crossed an area that I had definitely been before, even though I was travelling in a straight line! This place is like a forest of illusions, where I would loop back to wherever I had entered, no matter which route I take!'

Having figured out the nature of the pit of darkness, he was still none the wiser as to how to escape. With no obvious clues of an exit, Yu Yin felt a bit useless.

'Let's just get this medicine to that damn woman and take things from there!'

At this point, Layla came into his view. She was still crouched down, leaning against that stone slab and she still looked worse for wear. She had her eyes closed and was murmuring something to herself. Surprisingly, it seemed the words she was speaking had an effect on the energies of heaven and earth around her, as small slithers of white light could be seen flowing from the ground and into her body. Seeing this caused Yu Yin's eyes to widen.

"Soul cultivation…

His words broke Layla's concentration as she opened her eyes in surprise. The small slithers of light started disappearing into the air. She gave Yu Yin a sweet smile which actually made his heart flutter a little! But ONLY a little.

"I thought you were going to be another three hours! What made you come back so early?"

Yu Yin didn't answer and instead tossed over two of the medicinal pills to her which flew across the air to be caught by Layla’s left hand. The other pills he had already stored in his interspatial ring before. She caught them, looking very shocked and confused. After a moment, she gave him another smile. This time though her smile looked different, more genuine as if all the other times she had smiled had just all been an act.

"Looks like you aren't a good-for-nothing after all..."

Yu Yin was happy hearing her words on the inside but didn't show it on his face. He again didn't reply and instead sat down on the bottom of the huge pile of bones next to her. He was slightly pained at the loss of those pill, as he was sure he could sell them for a fairly good amount, but this was fine too. He had three left for himself anyway. Perhaps Layla would reward him later. After a few moments of silence, he spoke.

"What you were doing just now, that was soul cultivation right?"

She blinked a few times, shocked at the question.

"You don't know what soul cultivation looks like?!"

Yu Yin's eyebrow twitched at her question. Before he left the Yu family, he had and no interest in the subject of cultivation so of course he wouldn’t know what it looked like. There wasn’t really an escape to the question, so Yu Yin swallowed his pride and shook his head instead, taking the honest approach. Layla made an expression of understanding and then shook her head.

"That's all right. Lots of people haven't even heard of cultivation, never mind seen it! To answer your question, yes, that was soul cultivation. Although, the energies of heaven and earth are almost non-existent here, so my cultivation wasn't very effective."

"What stage of cultivation are you at?"

She laughed a little.

"I'm actually only at [Rousing Soul] [Stage 4]! My cultivation used to be higher it dropped due to an unforeseen accident."

Un unforeseen accident? As Yu Yin had guessed before, there seemed to be something more to this girl than that which met the eye.

"What level did you used to be?"

She looked Yu Yin in the eye and sighed, not answering his question. At this point, she swallowed the pill he had given her before crossing her legs to meditate. Her body started glowing with a faint yellow light and the cuts and bruises visible on her arms and legs could be seen healing at a slow yet visible rate. After 10 minutes, she looked just as elegant and beautiful as she did before she was swallowed by the coffin. All her injuries had disappeared, both internal and external. Layla opened her eyes and resumed eye contact with Yu Yin.

"Thank you."

She stood up and was about to walk away when she suddenly stopped and turned around. Her eyes brightened up and she had an excited expression on her face. She rushed up to Yu Yin and grabbed his shoulders, startling him completely.

"You're definitely a mortal right?! Right?!"

Yu Yin was lost for words and could only nod his head.

"Hahaha, there is hope for us yet! Who knew that your incompetence would be my saviour! We're saved!!"

Layla's laugh was very loud instead of the graceful and reserved laugh she usually made. From what Yu Yin had seen from her so far, was rather out of character. He had a befuddled look on his face wondering if the pills he fed her had gone off.

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"So what if I'm a mortal! What does that have to do with anything? Woman, how dare you insult me!"

Layla brushed her hand back through the hair on the top of her head, looking very cheerful.

"What does it have to do with anything?! It has everything to do with our situation!"

She sat down right in front of where Yu Yin was sitting, a now solemn expression on her face.

"I'm surprised you don't know this, but I'll explain anyway. As you know, the first realm of soul cultivation is known as the [Rousing Soul] realm. It's common knowledge among cultivators that most living people, mortals, actually live with their souls asleep. Although their conscience is awake, their souls are completely dormant.

The [Rousing Soul] realm is where mortals introspectively look into their own souls and try to awaken them, hence the name, "Rousing Soul". The [Rousing Soul] Realm is split into ten stages, each representing ten percent of soul awakening. Once a person's soul cultivation reaches [Rousing Soul] [Stage 10] or in other words, their soul becomes one-hundred percent awake, they can enter the next realm of cultivation, [Awakened Soul] Realm!

That's beside the point though. The point is, that when a mortal first makes contact with their soul to reach [Rousing Soul] [Stage 1], they experience an utmost clarity of the energies of heaven and earth, becoming to see through all its mysteries if for only a second. Such a clarity is said to be impossible to receive again until one reaches heights in cultivation unknown to even me!"

She stopped to take a breath as she had clearly worked herself up a little bit too much. After a moment, she calmed down and returned her gaze to Yu Yin.

"My plan is to have you enter the [Rousing Soul] Realm, and have you use that clarity to find either an exit or a weakness of this place."

Yu Yin was honestly sceptical that such a plan would work. He had heard a little about this "clarity" Layla was talking about, but not much as he hadn't done hardly any research into cultivation. However, from what he knew about it, he knew this plan was a long shot.

"Even if by some miracle I do find a weakness in this cage, how on earth do you plan to utilise it. It's not like either of us are all powerful and can just bust out of here!"

Layla giggled and patted his shoulders.

"Of course I have a solution to that, I'm a capable person you know!"

With that, she activated her interspatial ring, causing a few objects to appear from nowhere. It was another engraved teleportation spell. Yu Yin had a completely shocked expression on his face before it warped into one of anger.

"You said your ring was broken and you had nothing left, do explain Layla!"

"My ring IS busted! It has a crack in it which causes any items inside to fall out. I was forcefully keeping those things inside all this time with soul power, so after this, my ring is useless. Also, I said that ALMOST everything spilled out, not everything. Do you think I'm so incapable as to lose my most important possessions?"

Yu Yin looked a bit dumbfounded at her retort. Everything she said sounded completely reasonable. Of course, Yu Yin wouldn't apologise for doubting her. Instead, he looked towards the only items Layla had left. There were two pieces of jade, an old looking tome, a flag, an iron shield, and an ancient looking bamboo slip. Although when the bamboo slip had landed on the ground, it started dissipating into motes of light like how Yu Yin's did. He was surprised to find that the four long black scimitars from earlier were nowhere to be seen. Layla picked up one of the pieces of jade which shockingly, was another engraved teleportation spell.

"It seems that this [Solid Soul] cultivator wasn't too proficient in runewriting and was actually too proud to get someone to runewrite anything for them. Thanks to that, teleportation rune spells like this aren't locked down here! That means we can use my teleportation jade to break through this prison at its weakest point!"

The term “runewriter” wasn’t unfamiliar to Yu Yin as he knew fully well what runewriters were, even if he didn't know much about cultivation. Runewriting is a prestigious occupation, that only a few talented people are cut out for. Such people could engrave all kinds of spells on pieces of jade for cultivators to use at a later date and could also create magical items with extraordinary capabilities. Such an occupation ranks even above alchemists, doctors, and beast tamers! Yu Yin had always been interested in learning runewriting, but such a thing required some element of cultivation, so he had never bothered. Layla put down the jade and stared at Yu Yin intently. She picked up the old tome and handed it to him.

"This is the only cultivation technique manual I have on me. It may not suit you completely but there aren't any alternatives right now. If this were a normal situation, I would test your affinity with various elements and pick out a technique to build a foundation for your soul in that element. I'm very sorry if this somehow ruins your future cultivation”.

Yu Yin took the tome from Layla. Honestly, right now he didn't mind any effect on future cultivation that this event would have on him. Perhaps it would have irked him a little in other circumstances, but right now there was not time for complaining. So long as he could escape and live another day, all would be well. He looked at the tome and read its title.

"[Myriad Blades of the Endless Night]"

The tome was dark grey in colour and protruding silver lines could be seen decorating its borders in wavy patterns. When Yu Yin's fingers brushed past the protruding lines, he was surprised to find they were made of silver! At the centre of the tome was an insignia of two crescent blades crossing each other, making an X shape. Yu Yin opened the book and read the words on top of the first page.

'[Myriad Blades of the Endless Night] is the Adamantine Clan's most prized and precious technique. Under no circumstances should this technique be shared to any outsiders! Any persons found guilty of this shall be considered a traitor to the clan, and shall be hunted down punished by death under rules!'

Yu Yin was shocked by this statement and turned his head to look at Layla.

"Oi… Should you really be giving me this? It says you'll get screwed over by your clan if I learn this technique!"

She shrugged, looking as if she really didn't care, which apparently, she didn't.

"It's not like we have any choice, and I'm not planning on seeing my family any time soon anyway!"

With that, she stood up and brushed off her dress, looking towards the light on top of the pile of bones.

"Before you start practising that technique, there's one more thing that is essential for me to do."

She started ascending the giant pile of bones towards the Silver Qilin horn. Yu Yin sat there with a confused expression on his face.

'What the hell is she doing?'

Yu Yin was contemplating with a questioning look on his face as he looked at Layla until she reached the top of the bone pile and picked up his Qilin horn. Yu Yin stood up and was about to open his mouth in complaint when she turned around and threw it at him with all her strength! The Qilin horn sailed over and smashed him in the face, knocking him right back over!

"#@!%&"

He got up and glared at her.

"THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!"

Layla giggled at him.

"That was payback for earlier, so don't you ever, EVER, hit me again ok?"

Yu Yin was about to angrily retort when she started laughing. Her laugh sounded so wonderful, that he was struggling to stay angry at her!

"Don't get angry now darling, with this we can now be considered friends!"

Yu Yin blinked a few times at her angelic smile. She really was one of a kind when it came to beauty! She let out another giggle.

"Stop gawking and start cultivating!"