Yin Long was immersing himself in the peculiar sensation brought about by the spatial crack that was bringing him into the cracked space. This was something he had never felt before, and as someone who held the law of space, he wasn't willing to abandon a chance like this. But what an absolute shame it was that short-range spatial movement like this never lasted for long, his mind had just barely sunk into the sensation when it abruptly ended.

A vast frozen expanse appeared around him, a chill hanging in the air as snowflakes fluttered about. He saw something that looked like a massive tower rise up in the distance, its crimson hue making it visible even through the falling snow. What looked like trees also rose up around him, but they were almost perfectly translucent, the descending snow that landed on them quietly merging with them.

Yin Long almost merged into the surroundings as he stood there, his white robe and silver hair joining the snowflakes in their fluttering. On the other hand, Jin Wang stood out like a sore thumb, his golden fur practically drowning out the endless white. But there didn't seem to be anyone around that could appreciate this contrast, Yin Long couldn't see or sense anything that resembled a settlement, nor a living being for that matter.

"This is Wei Jin Dang, I appeared in a murky swamp filled with blackened bones, the closest landmark I can see is a floating landmass that resembles a heart, it even seems to be pulsating slightly."

"This is Kuanyin Sheng, I appeared on a stretch of rolling hills that are constantly moving about, the closest landmark I can see is a trident-like mountain whose middle prong pierces into the clouds."

"This is Sying Situ, I've appeared in a city of natives, I'm surrounded by mountains on all sides so I can't see any defining landmarks."

The light blue leaf covered in orange veins that the warden had provided as a communication treasure buzzed to life as Yin Long observed his surroundings. The others from his province, his team, all took turns in sending out their locations to see if there was a chance for some of them to meet up.

Yin Long sent out his own location, his mind touching upon the leaf that rested inside his soulsea. He inspected the item a bit closer, his eyes lighting up slightly when he discovered the function that he was looking for.

"Lucky, it actually has it."

He sent a bit of his Qi into the leaf, activating one of the orange veins. The vein unleashed a dim light that spread out to cover the entire leaf, sealing it off so that it wouldn't automatically activate whenever he received a message. Meeting up and working together was indeed one of the better ways to ensure that you stood a chance at winning this championship, but Yin Long hadn't come here to win the championship so he would much rather silence the communication treasure so that he wouldn't be disturbed by it.

Once the leaf was silenced, Yin Long drew in a deep breath of the cold air. It really was quite chilly here so he had to constantly use a small amount of Qi to keep himself shielded, but he just considered it a good form of training since it required rather minute control to not needlessly waste Qi.

"Hmm, the fracture is even noticeable from within?"

One of Yin Long's eyebrows couldn't help but rise in surprise as he drew in the cold air. His senses extended in an instinctive manner, and since his senses relied on the surrounding space it was only natural that he discovered how peculiar it was. The space around him didn't feel normal, it was constantly shifting about in an unpredictable manner, it was as if it was cracking and spreading out before suddenly reforming itself. It wasn't as fantastical as the sensation he experienced within the spatial crack that was the entrance, but it was still something rather astounding.

"Sorry, can I ask you to protect me? I've started getting a few ideas, but I wanna get a closer feel for it first. Just wake me up if anyone gets too close."

Yin Long turned his gaze sideways and tilted his head at Jin Wang, this peculiar fracturing of space, as well as the sensation within the earlier spatial crack, were prodding at his mind, birthing embryonic ideas. To further flesh out these ideas and turn them into something useable would require him to focus on sensing the surrounding space so that he could get a better feel for how it acted.

Jin Wang growled lowly to show his agreement, allowing Yin Long to sit down in the snow and cross his legs without worries. He slowed his breathing and honed his senses, diffusing his consciousness throughout the surrounding space along with his senses. The peculiar fracturing, which happened at a level so deep it didn't actually affect the surrounding world, slowly magnified in Yin Long's senses.

But just as he was about to start inspecting it with much greater scrutiny, he discovered another peculiar point about the surrounding space. Other than the normal Qi that drifted about everywhere, there was another underlying sensation, so well-hidden that Yin Long only sensed it due to how attuned he was to it.

"The law of swords? No, not entirely, it feels a bit...broader? Vast? The law of weapons maybe? Or is it the grand law of attack?"

Hidden away within the rest of the space and the energy that filled every inch of this place was a sensation that was very familiar, yet slightly foreign to Yin Long. He didn't know the exact reason behind it, but for the energy to be this subtly fused into the surrounding space and energy, it had definitely played a great part in how this fractured space came to be.

Yin Long swiped his interspatial ring and brought out his sword, resting it on his knees. Energy was reactive, it would resonate with the things that were tied to it in some manner. For example, if you sparked a fire somewhere, any fire-element energy in the immediate area would become a bit more active, the degree of activity increasing in tune with the fire's intensity.

That was why scorched wastelands and volcanoes were excellent places for fire-based cultivators to train. Their laws were simply more active there, the energy there far more compatible and easier to absorb, your cultivation efficiency would increase many times over.

This very same theory applied here, the energy may not be purely the law of swords, but it was definitely closely tied to it. And so, while it was small, the appearance of Yin Long's sword increased the activity of the energy, making it a bit easier for Yin Long to sense it and draw it into his soulsea.

Yin Long did this for two reasons, and neither of them was that he wanted to increase his cultivation efficiency. After all, his main focus would always be his sword, his cultivation realm really didn't matter much to him. Increasing the activity of the energy would allow him to sense it with greater clarity, better sense the sharpness and heaviness, the flexibility and fluidity. And these were all things he could incorporate into both his own law of the sword and techniques, he had a nearly endless variety of swords at his disposal after all.

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The second reason was just as simple as the first, as the energy was fused into the surrounding space, any increase in its activity would also affect the space around it. The peculiar motions of the space sped up a bit as it became more active, which in turn made it easier for Yin Long to sense it and immerse himself in it.

Yin Long relinquished control of all his other senses and focused solely on the surrounding space and the energy that had merged with it. The law of space was special, it was an exalted law that was rare no matter where you looked. It was to the point that it wouldn't be strange if there were only three or so other people in this entire dominion that cultivated it, that was just how it was with all exalted laws.

And when a law reached this level of rarity, how were you supposed to find a teacher? There might be people who could give you small pointers, as Bai Xiang had done in the past, or records left by deceased users, but how much could you really learn from something like that? So users of exalted laws could really only rely on themselves, they had to immerse themselves in an environment suited to their law, to study it from nature itself, and figure out a way that they could best use it.

And right now, Yin Long was doing just that, his mind becoming one with the unnatural space around him. Cracks that spread out like a cobweb, space constantly sliding apart before reforming at one of the points of the cobweb. It was beyond anything Yin Long had seen or experienced before, space had fractured and slid apart, it should by all accounts be considered separate parts. But even so, the fractured space could reform from every single section of the cobweb, space was fractured yet whole at the same time, seamlessly shifting between the two states at a whim.

And Yin Long, who had merged his mind with the surrounding space, experienced this feeling firsthand. It felt as if his own body became the cobweb, sliding apart and reforming, cracking anew in an endless array of patterns. A few drops of blood started to run out from his ears, eyes, and nose, his mind was after all experiencing the sensation of his very being falling apart and reforming.

But Yin Long simply ignored these drops of blood and the exhaustion that was trying to rear its head at the back of his mind. He had touched upon something here, he was perfectly aware of this fact, this was something that could take his sword techniques to a whole new level if he could incorporate it.

He remained seated with his legs crossed, the drifting snow dancing around him as he unconsciously used his visualization technique to form an invisible spatial sword above him. The sword flashed about as he immersed himself, move after move getting tested, improved, and finally discarded when it ended up as unsatisfactory. And all the while, Jin Wang stood straight at his side, his black eyes sweeping the surroundings as he guarded his leader.

Yin Long wanted to immerse himself until he felt like he had fully understood the fractured space around him, but with his mind forced to bear the burden of experiencing a constant breaking, it was only inevitable that his cultivation would be brought to a forceful end. And the way it came about was his senses abruptly retreating into his body, rejecting the notion of even leaving the deepest recesses of his body.

His eyes were forced open, the veins in them so strained that his eyes had turned nearly entirely crimson. The taste of blood hit him almost instantly, his robes and the snow around him stained by the blood that had poured out from his nose, ears, and eyes. It had already formed a small circle around him so he guessed that he had spent a fair amount of time on his immersion, despite it only feeling like a fleeting moment to him.

"Finally awake, are we?"

A soft voice reached Yin Long's ears while he was rubbing his temples to dispel the stabbing pain he felt. He raised his gaze slightly as he tracked down the source of the familiar voice, spotting the blue-eyed and black-haired Xiao Yin Yu. She stood a few handfuls of metres away, evidently just outside the range that Jin Wang had marked as impassable territory.

The snow around her was also dyed red, but looking at the handful of corpses scattered around her it was highly unlikely that it was her own blood. The corpses looked somewhat humanoid, but their bodies were covered in white fur and their arms went all the way down to their knees so it was probably a type of Demonic beast.

"Your friend didn't look like he was planning on getting too far away from you so I took the initiative to handle them before they got close enough to interrupt your cultivation, I'll take some good wine and maybe a bit of training as payment."

Yin Yu casually waved her hand towards the corpses scattered around her, not a single one of them had been able to get within 50 metres of Yin Long. Jin Wang didn't react when Yin Yu's gesture swept past him, but Yin Long could somewhat guess what had happened. He had specifically told Jin Wang to wake him if anyone got too close, neither Yin Yu nor the beasts had gotten too close, so he hadn't seen any reason to wake up Yin Long.

"But really, you had to go and turn off your communication treasure? Are you just trying to avoid everyone else?"

Xiao Yin Yu looked somewhat exasperated as she started to walk closer. Jin Wang had already laid down since his guard duty was over now that Yin Long was awake, but he still kept a sharp eye on both Yin Yu and the surroundings, anyone that dared to make a move against his alpha would have to get through him first. Yin Long had rubbed his temples a few times already, dispelling a bit of the pain he felt, so he muttered out a response.

"I came here to train, constantly getting dinged would have been a pain, a very distracting one at that. How long has it been?"

Yin Yu halted slightly when she heard Yin Long's response, she was so used to dealing with normal cultivators that she occasionally forgot what kind of person Yin Long was. If it was anyone else, she might think that they were lying, but she truly believed that Yin Long didn't care in the slightest about this competition. All that mattered to him was his sword and what heights he could bring it to. It was simplistic, far beneath any of the other grand goals and ambitions she had heard in the past, but it was pure beyond belief.

"About 13 days, I found you about half a day after the championship started. I arrived somewhat close to you so I only needed to take a few spatial arrays to reach this general area, and your friend there makes you stand out quite a bit so finding you was easy."

Yin Long was a bit surprised that he had actually spent so long immersing himself, but thinking about how most of his cultivation was tied to his soul, it only made sense that his mind would be strong enough to endure the pain for quite a while. His mind still stung with pain, as if needles were being stabbed into his brain repeatedly. But even so, he stood up and grasped the sword that had been resting on his knees, not even bothering to clean the blood on his face or clothes.

"Xiao Yin Yu, I want to spar, accompany me."

He had sensed many things he had never experienced before, unconsciously tested many things and come up with new ideas, but he would never know if they worked if he didn't test them out in combat. And now, a perfect sparring partner was standing right in front of him so how could he let go of this chance to strike while the iron was hot?

Yin Yu stopped in her tracks once more, looking at Yin Long with an incredulous gaze. His face and robe were caked in blood, his face was so pale that it looked like he was sick, but he actually wanted to fight? But her lips quickly curved up slightly, this was probably Yin Long's most charming point, that sheer purity and sincerity he showed in his pursuit for a sharper sword.

It was like a light that shone from within his depths, people just couldn't help but be drawn to it. She flipped her hand, her flexible green sword appearing in her grasp. Whatever her reasons were, she sought to improve her strength, and Yin Long had shown that sufficiently trained techniques could easily make up for a gap in cultivation, so she would definitely accompany him whenever he wanted to spar, that way she could learn from his techniques.

The two people faced each other, Jin Wang sauntering away somewhat lazily to give them some space. None of them knew it, but one day this date would be noted down with blood-red letters as the day that the Lord of Fractured Space took his first step.