"Just how long are you going to keep following me?"

Xiao Yin Yu couldn't help but frown slightly as she looked at the person that kept following her, the Yin Long born from her desires. She hadn't accepted the hand he held out earlier and instead started making her way through the forest that seemed to burn, she was only interested in the real Yin Long after all. But he kept following her all the same, sticking close to her side with that oh-so-familiar casual smile.

"What is it you said back then? I'll follow you way down to your deepest low, and then even deeper? It was a good saying, the rest was a bit too lengthy but the message behind it was touching."

Yin Long didn't seem bothered by her almost scathing look, carefully tending to the edge of the wooden blade he had carved earlier. Yin Yu felt like grimacing when he pulled out what she had said to the real Yin Long in the past, it was a pain in the neck to hear things you wanted to hear when you didn't know that you wanted to hear them. But worse perhaps was the slight warmth in her chest when he spoke like that, flashed his smile in her direction like that.

"Tch, disgusting."

She turned her head away while clicking her tongue, exactly who she was cursing known only to her. She sped up slightly but Yin Long matched her pace, continuing to tend to his blade while occasionally raising his head, commenting when the forest around them started to show some small changes.

"Oh, we should be getting closer now. Gotta start being a bit more careful now, if the people here really are driven by their desires then there's no telling what sort of people we'll meet around the city."

Xiao Yin Yu had originally arrived in a forest, untamed nature all around her. But when she had thrown herself above the trees she had spotted signs of civilization in the distance, a gargantuan city hidden away within the wilderness. Granted, civilization was dangerous in the Netherworld, but it was the best way to find traces of Yin Long. And failing that, she could at least spread her own name so that he could find her.

The two kept moving, the trees around them starting to show signs that humans had worked on them in recent times, a few of them carrying markings that seemed to serve as guideposts. Yin Yu breathed slowly as she focused, casting a sideways glance at Yin Long. He maintained a seemingly carefree demeanour, but she could feel the sharpness that hid beneath it, the slight tinge of excitement. It really was annoying how accurate the fake was.

"To the right."

"Ah, there's a few guys to our right."

The two muttered at the same time, turning their heads sharply as they peered through the mess of trees around them. Yin Yu grasped at her waist to prepare for the potential enemies, but this was just her soul and that one extra thing that was tied to her, the weapon she was used to carrying obviously hadn't come down with her.

"Gimme some lightning and wind."

Yin Long's voice came from her side, seemingly having expected her actions as he was already holding out his hand. She looked at him somewhat suspiciously, already having a faint inkling of what he wanted to do. But there was no way, right? Wasn't that supposed to be a unique ability?

She decided to see if it was real, sending out a bit of her Qi and turning it into lightning and wind that gathered around Yin Long's palm. Well, she at least thought she was sending out her Qi, but she had never cultivated her soul so she didn't actually know where she pulled this energy from.

The two differing elements gathered above Yin Long's palm, and as Yin Yu watched with narrowed eyes, they started to twist and change. A bright blue blade formed in his grasp, the sharp edge crackling with electricity. Thin cyan lines ran along the entire length of the blade like bars, ending in sharp ridges that covered the entire spine of the weapon.

"Take it, you'll need a weapon here."

With the blade complete, Yin Long tossed it to Yin Yu, who caught it with her eyes still narrowed. It felt natural in her hand, like an extension of her arm more than anything else. She could also feel its properties, the edge that burned like lightning, the wind that lingered in the cyan lines like threads and allowed the blade to split up and extend like her usual whip-sword.

"You... You shouldn't have this ability. It's not yours."

She was loathe to admit it, but she actually knew preciously little about Yin Long's ability to create swords. But she knew that it was tied to his soul, it was his soul that formed the basis of it all so it wasn't something that you should be able to replicate unless you had his soul.

"Ah, but it is my ability. It's Yin Long's ability so why shouldn't I have it?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Yin Long simply spread his hands with a light shrug. It was his ability so how could he help having it? He acted as if it was entirely natural, but Yin Yu's eyes were still slightly narrowed, she had once again found a strange point in this Yin Long.

"It's too good. Yin Long never made multi-element blades like this, nor did he modify the swords to give them separate abilities."

Yes, the weapon she had been given was too good to have been made by Yin Long. The dual-element nature was strange enough, but the modification to let it split up was also strange, it was something Yin Long had never done. There wasn't really a need to, he could twist his blades as he pleased so every weapon could become a whip-sword or a greatsword in his grasp. Yin Long wasn't put off by Yin Yu pointing out the flaws in his story, he simply smiled widely.

"I told you, didn't I? I am exactly who you think I am. And when you think of me, you think of a swordsman who can turn anything into a sword. So I do just that."

He said what she desired to hear, he did what she thought Yin Long would do, everything he was and did came from her. If she thought, with enough sincerity, that he could turn entire planets into a sword, then he would be able to do just that. The truth didn't matter, reality didn't matter, that was the power of desire, the power of faith.

"They're getting closer, so if you want to observe them first then you'd best make up your mind now."

Yin Long cut off Yin Yu before she could say more, casting a slanted glance towards the woods to their right. Yin Yu could also feel it, the two people she had discovered earlier were slowly heading over. She looked at the familiar smile, the tinge of anticipation that lingered at the corners of his lips, and then she clicked her tongue once again.

"Tch, what a shitty place."

She clutched the blade and then moved, climbing into the swaying crown of the nearest tree while slowing her breath as much as she could. Yin Long followed her, hiding amongst the branches and crimson leaves as they quietly waited for the approaching people to reveal themselves.

"What horrible luck, not even a single critter scurrying about."

A voice cut through the trees as the two people entered Yin Yu's sight. The pair consisted of a middle-aged man and woman who stuck close to each other, matching tattoos carved into their necks. The man's short black hair was dirty, clumped together by the blood that stained it, and one of his blue eyes had a bloody bandage covering it. The woman didn't look much better, her shaved scalp was covered in tight bandages wet with blood and her brown eyes flickered rather weakly.

They were wounded, and looking at the blood, Yin Yu could only come to the conclusion that the wounds should be recent. But they seemed to think so little of them that it was hard to imagine that they were recent, they almost seemed accustomed to them.

"We'll keep looking for a while longer, they can't have all...!"

The man, who was about to respond to the woman's complaint, cut himself off and quickly twisted his head, his gaze landing on Yin Long and Yin Yu's position. His body tensed up and he drew the two daggers at his waist, the woman sensing that things were serious and pulling out the spear that she had folded on her back.

"Yes, that's how people who live in the Netherworld should be, vigilant and sharp."

Yin Long spoke from within the branches, Yin Yu glancing at the small curve on his lips. They didn't wield swords, but she had never seen Yin Long shy away from a fight due to that, he could still learn lots from those using other weapons. She dropped down from her vantage point, Yin Long landing not far from her side, still holding the wooden sword he had carved.

"Newcomers..."

The couple looked at Yin Yu and Yin Long, somehow able to instantly tell that they were newcomers to the Netherworld. The wounded pair tensed up a bit further when they realized this fact, the man's expression hardening. The woman looked at him out of the corner of her eye, gesturing towards their wounds with some uncertainty. But the man remained steadfast, quietly muttering to her.

"Don't you want to return to the city? They're newcomers, filled with desires. If we can bring them to the city for harvest then we'll definitely be allowed to return. We NEED to return."

The man spoke quietly, but Yin Yu was still able to catch what he said. She also saw how the woman's originally hesitant expression quickly hardened, turning so stiff that it bordered on lunacy. Want became need, and need became obsession, that was the slippery slope of any desires born in the Netherworld.

Yin Yu's expression sank quietly at the scene, uncertainty and unwillingness to fight had become a desire to end them just like that. Really, what a twisted place this was. But at the same time, there was something else that had caught her attention.

"They can see you?"

Yin Long, this one was born from her desires. She felt that it was... strange, that others could see him. After all, this still wasn't the real Yin Long, it should be nothing more than an illusion born from her desires. Granted, she had seen him interact with the world around him before, but for all she knew that could be just a small trick of her mind to make it seem real.

But the man had said 'them' so he could definitely see Yin Long. If that was the case, did that mean that there were now multiple Yin Longs in the Netherworld? And what would happen if they ended up meeting, would they have to fight over who got to be the real one if they wanted to leave the Netherworld?

"Of course they can. You're proud of knowing me, of being with me. So of course you want to show me off to the world for all to see."

Yin Long was, as she expected, calm about the entire thing, weighing the wooden sword while sweeping Yin Yu with his gaze. The opposing pair was just fine with the two taking their time talking, quietly inching closer as the fire in their eyes grew. Yin Yu grasped the sword Yin Long had made for her, she wanted to think about other things but doing so during a battle equalled death. But just as she was about to fully immerse herself to finish things faster, Yin Long's voice crept into her ears like a seductive whisper.

"You want to grow stronger, don't you, Dear Yu? Baggage gets left behind so you can't afford to be weak, you can't afford to be surpassed, isn't that right? Want me to teach you then, how to swing a sword? Do you want me to teach you how to scrape the world with your screams?"