Yin Long didn't pay too much attention to the passage of time as he engrossed himself in his reading, only keeping a sliver of his attention on the surrounding world. He would be contacted the moment the seven days were up, he would also be kicked out of this training ground by the Thousand Blades Hall, there was no way they would allow him to continuously occupy one of their better training grounds for free. After all, every person present inside the training ground placed a greater strain on the array that altered the flow of time.

The books in this martial library were different from the ones in the martial library Yin Long had visited in the Heron's Ascension Dojo. Back there the books hadn't been fully focused on weapon techniques and the like, there had also been plenty autobiographies and seemingly unrelated tales depicting events that had been experienced or seen by seniors of the dojo.

But here, every book was about some technique or manual for some weapon, it even contained depictions of some ritual dances that involved weapons. The martial library didn't state exactly where it got all these books from, but Yin Long was completely certain that these books weren't gathered from this planet alone. Members of the Thousand Blades Hall had definitely left the planet and scoured the wider universe, bringing back anything they could find.

Reading through the books, Yin Long couldn't help but feel just how old and strong the Thousand Blades Hall really was. Even if he ignored the sheer number of books, their contents were also something that caught him off guard. This was only the first floor of an unknown number of martial libraries and floors, but despite this, it contained a book that spoke about what should have been a massive event.

It spoke of an ancient planet known as Thunderlight's Heart, a living planet that supposedly used to be the largest planet in the entire universe. Yin Long couldn't even guess at how strong a living planet could be, but that planet was supposedly split in half by a single man and his glaive, vanishing from the universe forever.

Due to the universe-rocking nature of this event it probably wasn't uncommon to find information about this event, but the details provided by this book made it quite clear that the author had been extremely close when it happened, probably even seen it firsthand. One glaive to split a gargantuan planet, Yin Long was more than just a bit eager to learn exactly what sort of technique had been used to achieve that.

But sadly, the book didn't say anything about any possible techniques that might have been used, nor did it go into any details about the man who had done. It was ultimately a dead-end that he couldn't pursue further, but it certainly showed him some of the greatest deeds that had been performed in this universe, it was akin to putting a ceiling on the world he knew. One day he would bump into that ceiling, and then it was only a matter of breaking through it.

Yin Long ravenously devoured the books around him, ten turning into a hundred and then into a thousand, he was practically reading several tens of books every hour. But as the last bits of energy from the Wings of the Divine Soul Pill started to fade, he decided to bring his reading to a halt for the moment. He put away the curved cyan sword, the scaled leaves that had been floating around him and controlling the various books all vanishing at once.

He let out a long breath and opened his eyes again for the first time in what felt like several months, his pupils swimming around in a slightly unfocused manner. It had been a while since he used his eyes rather than his senses so he felt quite unaccustomed to using them, quickly rubbing them a few times to properly wake them up. He compared his current position to his starting position, clicking his tongue when he saw how far he had moved.

"They really are pills bordering on the divine, shame I only have six of them. Well, five now I guess."

He had already moved through half of the martial library without noticing it, he didn't even want to begin to count just how many books that distance entailed. Had he not used one of the pills he guessed that he wouldn't have been able to read even 1/50th of these books in the same amount of time. He stood up from his seated position and gave his slightly stiff body a few stretches, directing his senses inwards to take a look at his soulsea.

And what he saw left him quite surprised, a second scaled leaf had appeared on the hilt of the sword that was his soul, seven silvery-yellow orbs of Qi revolving around it. Yin Long knew what this second leaf signalled, it meant that he had stepped into the 2nd Immortal Door without even noticing it. And since there were seven orbs floating around it, he wasn't far from reaching the 3rd Immortal Door, as such he couldn't help but click his tongue once again.

"Cultivation really is easier if you have proper resources, that saved me a fair bit of time."

The Wings of the Divine Soul pills were resources that targeted the soul, and with how Yin Long's cultivation focused entirely on his soul and soulsea, it was only to be expected that there were some unexpected bonuses. But he hadn't expected the energy from the pill to directly push him to the later stages of the 2nd Immortal Door, it wasn't the greatest boost but it was certainly a welcome one that would speed things up. Of course, having just read an unimaginable number of books and discovering that his cultivation had increased, there really was only one thing for Yin Long to do.

"Alright, let's go and see if we can't find a good opponent."

Theoretical knowledge was all well and good, but it meant nothing if you couldn't apply it in actual life. Yin Long dusted off his robe and left the library, the building shimmering and vanishing after he closed the door behind him. But the emblem that had embedded itself in his chest released a soft light, the mechanic voice he had heard earlier informing him that he could make the library appear again by just inserting a bit of his Qi into the emblem.

He stretched his body once more after leaving the building, allowing the pouring rain to drench his body as he raised his face to the sky. He remained standing with closed eyes for a few moments, allowing the cool water to cleanse his body of the filth that had accumulated while he was busy reading.

Once he felt he was sufficiently clean, he raised his feet and started to walk deeper into the forest, making sure to keep his senses spread out at all times. Now that he actually focused on his senses he discovered that the increase to his cultivation had extended their range once more, pushing it up to 520 metres all around him. Each increase to the range of his senses was good news as no one wanted to be ambushed or miss something useful because they couldn't detect it.

He maintained a somewhat slow yet calm pace as he moved through the forest, his hands hanging at his side so that he could lash out at a moment's notice. And after he had walked mostly aimlessly for nearly half an hour, his eyes flashed with a sharp light.

A scarlet sword appeared in his right hand and was slashed upwards, bringing with it a small wave of fire that evaporated the rain above him. But strangely enough, some of the raindrops were able to penetrate the wave of fire and reach his body, leaving gashes in his robe and bloody cuts on his body.

His eyes gleamed faintly, his right arm continuously moving as he slashed out with his fiery sword again and again, waves and leaves of fire dancing around him. When Meiyu used his self-created technique, Buddha dances in the rain, he could wield his sword with such speed and fluidity that he could remain dry even in the strongest rainfall.

Yin Long was obviously far from his level of skill, even using a flaming sword to aid him wasn't enough to stop some of the rain from hitting him. And each drop that hit him carved a new wound into his body, quickly staining his robes and the earth around him with blood. He kept swinging his sword in a defensive manner for half a minute before he was forced to click his tongue, slightly disappointed.

"Tch, not even a crutch is good enough to help me yet, now that's just sad."

He knew what he was facing right now, and not even one crutch being enough to help him block its attack was truly something that slightly irked him. But it also showed him that he still had plenty of room for improvement in the aspect of defence, especially when it came to defending with just a single sword against a rain of attacks. But of course, Yin Long wasn't out of options just because one sword wasn't enough. After all, he wasn't limited to just one weapon, was he?

His left arm swept out, a curved cyan sword shooting out from his hand and embedding itself in the closest tree to his left, the wind in the area around the weapon turning chaotic. His left hand shot out once more, to his front this time, a black sword that unleashed a constant swallowing force leaving his hand and embedding itself in another tree, the constant swallowing force drawing in everything around it. His hand then flashed out a third time, an icy blue sword leaving his hand and embedding itself in a tree to his right, the cold energy unleashed by the weapon freezing the tree and the surrounding rain.

The three surrounding swords halted the pouring rain of attacks by either freezing them or drawing them away, the remaining attacks getting dealt with by his flaming sword. The rain increased in intensity after Yin Long threw out the three swords, but it was still unable to penetrate his defences further. As a result, the creator of the dangerous rain had no choice but to reveal itself.

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The water that covered the earth around Yin Long's feet gathered together quietly, taking on a serpentine form as it launched itself at his head. But Yin Long had already taken a step back by the time the water launched itself upwards, his fiery sword swinging down in a diagonal manner.

The serpentine water quickly changed its direction to the side to avoid the descending blade, but Yin Long twisted his wrist in a strange manner that instantly altered the direction of his slash. But the blade missed the serpentine water by a few centimetres, causing Yin Long to frown. He had only made a small mistake in the application of the technique, but that was enough to make his attack miss its mark.

He twisted his wrist again to make up for the deviation, but the initial miss had given the water enough time to branch out into several rods that carried a fierce piercing power. His blade cut through the main body of the water and sliced it in half, but the two parts simply fell to the ground while the rods continue to pierce for his throat. Yin Long looked at the incoming rods, which were already only a few centimetres from his face, and sighed softly, so it still wasn't enough.

A burst of Qi erupted from his body, the handful of rods getting cut into countless tiny droplets that scattered throughout the air harmlessly. The blood running down his body and the blood that had scattered on the ground all rose up at once, dancing around him like a small vortex. The vortex exploded outwards into several hundred blood droplets that shot through the air and the surrounding trees, a shrill screech echoing out from a few tens of metres to his left.

Yin Long fought mainly with his sword, that was an undeniable fact. Even during this Three-Fold Territory Clash, he had basically only fought with his sword and his techniques. But was that all Yin Long had to offer? No, he still had his different laws, the law of blood, the law of space, and the law of swords, all of which he could use just as proficiently as his swords. If he wanted to create several hundred sharp blades with his Qi and decimate his surroundings then he didn't even need to think about it, it could be done in an instant. But he wouldn't learn more about the weaknesses in his swordplay if he fought like that, so he hadn't done so yet.

After unleashing his attacks, he turned his head in the direction from which the shrill screech had come. A puddle of water on the ground over there was quivering somewhat, a few tens of the blood droplets having pierced directly through it and digging into the earth beneath it. Yin Long simply looked at it, replacing his fiery sword with his normal white one.

"Come, keep attacking."

The puddle quivered fiercely after he spoke, his words no doubt nothing more than a barefaced insult. And the attacker obliged him, the torrential rain increasing in intensity while several more serpentine water shapes rose up in the area to assault Yin Long.

Yin Long used the aid of the three swords embedded in the trees around him to block most of the rain, simply recalling the weapons and bringing them out again whenever the surrounding water tried to attack them. He didn't use his flaming sword this time, using only his normal sword and the silver sword made from space to engage the water.

He had many things he wanted to test out, many weak points he needed to prod at and experiment with. As such, an enemy that could launch as many attacks as the one he was currently facing was invaluable, it could come at him from all angles and unleash a myriad of attacks that he would have to deal with. He was unwilling to just end the battle that easily, so he continued to engage it for as long as he could, pushing it back a total of five times, simply telling it to charge at him once more whenever he pushed it back.

But sooner or later, all battles would have to come to an end. And this battle would come to an end 15 minutes after it started, when Yin Long felt that he had exhausted everything his enemy had. He pulled back all his swords, his robe so in tatters that even his underwear was completely shredded.

A transparent sword tinted with a faint yellow appeared in his grasp after the other swords vanished, Yin Long kicking off the ground and shooting to the side. He quickly reached a fist-sized puddle a few tens of metres behind him, stabbing the transparent blade directly into the water. A horrible screech rang out as his blade sank into the water, even the rain in the immediate area quivering.

But the screech fell silent before long, the quivering halting as the rain returned to normal. Yin Long pulled back his weapon and stuck his hand into the puddle, pulling out a rice-sized blue crystal. The being he had just fought was an elemental, an element that had gained sentience thanks to the immense amount of Qi it had absorbed. This particular elemental had only reached the 4th Immortal Door so its Demon Core, the crystal Yin Long had just picked up, wasn't too large.

This elemental could be considered rather unlucky, having encountered Yin Long. It didn't really have a true body, only a soul and its Demon Core, only by destroying either of the two could the elemental be killed. And with how well it could hide here, there was little chance that its Demon Core would be destroyed.

Sadly, Yin Long specialized in attacking the soul, the weapon he had used to extinguish and absorb its soul was even a sword formed exclusively from souls. With the elemental dying, a faint light rose up from the Demon Core, turning into a glowing '1-2' that sank into Yin Long's chest. With the emblem sinking into his chest, the mechanic voice echoed in his head again, but this time there was an unnoticeable difference in the voice.

"Strong soul but a weak body, specializing in the law of swords. Access to Resource Depot 1 granted and 2 items awarded to the disciple, one body-based and one cultivation based."

Yin Long wasn't surprised that the voice could detect his weaknesses and strength that easily, it had after all been able to even pinpoint exactly which sword techniques he had used earlier. He touched upon the new emblem that had sunk into his chest, a building that was a fair bit smaller than the martial library shimmering into existence in front of him.

He swept his interspatial ring and brought out a fresh white robe, quickly switching into it before he pushed open the door to the new building. He was immediately hit by a gust of Qi and stale air, a large hall filled with several thousand pedestals carrying a jade box each appearing in front of him. The emblem in his chest released another burst of light and caused two of the jade boxes to light up in response, those were definitely the rewards he had earned from his battle.

He drew in a light breath, the blood that remained on the ground outside rising into the air and shooting over to him. He gathered it into a ball in his palm and then allowed it to sink into his hand, returning to his body and clogging up the wounds that still covered his body. At the same time, he also swallowed a crimson pill to accelerate his healing, turning his gaze onto the closest of the glowing jade boxes.

He walked over to it, steering clear of the other jade boxes since he could feel that they were all surrounded by their own arrays. There was no telling what might happen if he accidentally activated those arrays so it was best to not mess with them needlessly. The emblem in his chest flashed out, half of it sinking into the array around the jade box in front of him and disabling the array.

Opening the box revealed a stalk of grass that was completely rigid and was covered in a sharp sheen. He didn't even have to touch the grass to detect the sharp Qi that filled it, this was definitely a grass filled with extremely potent Qi that was tinged with the law of swords. Using this for cultivation would certainly bring about great effects, it might actually push him all the way to the 3rd Immortal Door.

He closed the box again and stored the entire thing into his interspatial ring, this wasn't the best place to absorb a thing like this, and he still had another treasure to inspect. He swiftly made his way over to the second box, the remaining light in the emblem vanishing as it disabled the array around the box.

He opened the box and was immediately hit by a strong bloody stench, a watermelon-sized heart lying in the centre of the box. Yin Long didn't know what sort of beast this heart came from, but he could sense an exceedingly pure bloodline residing within the veins of the heart. He quickly realized what the purpose of the heart was, a light flashing through his pupils.

"A bloodline bestowal, and the bloodline seems so pure that even non-cultivators should be able to absorb it. The eyes of this array's spirit, or its controller, really are sharp."

The heart and the blood within it had definitely been prepared to help the weaker disciples acquire a bloodline and strengthen their bodies. And looking at how pure the bloodline seemed to be, the creator had even taken into account the disciple's ambitions to improve the bloodline in the future. And to the current Yin Long, it really was a good gift and something he needed.

He had a soul that was much stronger than others of his level, partly due to how special it was and partly due to the fact that all his cultivation took part in his soulsea. His Qi was constantly floating around his soul and would thus unconsciously strengthen it, like rocks that slowly grew denser thanks to the surrounding pressure.

This was both an advantage and a disadvantage, the disadvantage coming in the fact that his body itself didn't have any Qi in it. All his Qi was stored in his soulsea and only briefly coursed through his body, meaning that his body didn't get the same unconscious strengthening that other cultivators would get from having their Qi be constantly present in their bodies.

His body had gotten a slight amount of refining thanks to the times his Netherworld Energy or the unknown yellow law coursed through his body and broke it down, rebuilding it slightly stronger in the process. But that was far from comparable to other cultivators at his realm, so the toughness and strength of his body remained a weak point for him.

But this bloodline would be able to make up for that, it would at least put him on the same level as his equals, or at least those of his equals that didn't have bloodlines of their own. After all, Demonic beasts were famed for their tough bodies, just having their blood flowing through your veins would slowly strengthen your body. And depending on the beast that the bloodline came from, you would also get additional benefits.

Yin Long couldn't tell which Demonic beast this heart came from, but it didn't really matter. If the additional benefit it brought wasn't of use to him then he could take it in a different direction when he improved the bloodline in the future, improving it would also enhance the unconscious strengthening it brought about. Of course, finding a body cultivation manual he could actually cultivate would be for the best, but he hadn't had any such luck yet so he could only take what he could.

He closed the box and put it into his interspatial ring, the building around him shimmering out of existence and returning him to the rain-covered forest. He didn't look for any more battles straight away, touching upon the emblem that remained in his chest and causing the martial library to shimmer into existence again. He stepped into the library and closed the door behind him, this was a much safer place to integrate the bloodline and use the other resource he had gotten.