Yin Long left the Lang clan estate and started to walk through the city in a carefree manner, his feet bare and his white sword strapped to his waist. Just like in the past, he was greeted by both guards and citizens alike, all of them happily chatting with him. He was handsome, calm, and dignified as he walked, so more than a few young girls ended stopping to have a chat with him while smiling as sweetly as they could.
Yin Long conversed with anyone who came up to him, but he didn't stay with anyone for more than a minute or two before he moved on, quickly arriving in front of a three-storied building decorated with blue and red silk bands, the brothel known as the Ten Flowers Pavilion. He pushed open the door and stepped into the purple-carpeted entrance room, his gaze landing on the raven-haired proprietress as he stated what he came for.
"Pleasures of the flesh, give me the usual, that isolated room on the bottom floor. Lan Yun should be available so I'll take her."
Compared to the first time he was here with Jiu Meiyu, the necessary introduction had been cut down heavily, largely thanks to the fact that Yin Long came here quite often. The proprietress bowed respectfully and pushed open the door to the waiting area.
"Certainly, please take your time and enjoy yourself, Young Master."
Yin Long entered the waiting area, the amber-haired Lan Yun descending one of the staircases that led to the upper floors at the same time. She bowed respectfully in front of Yin Long, her brown eyes looking deeply at him.
"Thank you for choosing me, Young Master. Please follow me."
Lan Yun led Yin Long down to the bottom floor and repeated what she had done the first time he came here, entering the wrong room and picking up a small gray stone before heading to the proper room. She smiled charmingly at Yin Long after they entered the correct room, fiddling slightly with the straps of the light green dress that she wore.
"Have you finally come to take this Young Miss' first time, or is it business as usual."
She added on to the charming display by winking seductively at Yin Long but he only responded by using his knuckles to rap her on the forehead, pointing at the tub.
"Business as usual, a big one this time."
"Boo, you're no fun at all."
Lan Yun pouted playfully but still went over to the tub and activated the array using the small gray stone. Yin Long entered the opening in the floor on his own, Lan Yun biting her lower lip as she looked at his descending figure, whispering quietly to herself.
"One day... one day, finally..."
She didn't say anything else and removed the gray stone from the array within the tub, closing the hidden staircase behind Yin Long before heading over to the bed and laying down on it with a long sigh, kicking her feet slightly in annoyance.
Yin Long made his way through the underground hallway without paying attention to what was going on above him, quickly arriving within the large open room. He didn't linger around in the room and headed straight for one of the doors on the right, entering an elongated room filled with shelves that were lined with finger-sized rods of jade.
Cultivators could store a large amount of information in jade slips like these, one just had to insert a bit of their Qi and consciousness into them and would then be able to read the contents. But even though there were nearly 5000 jade slips within this room, Yin Long knew that all but one of them were actually empty. They would only be filled up with information when there was a need to and would then be replaced by an empty one once someone came and picked up the one filled with information.
Yin Long once again took out the apple-sized chunk of crystal and held it up to the jade slips, walking along the shelves until the crystal unleashed a soft white light. Yin Long picked up the jade slip that was resting in front of the crystal, taking out an empty jade slip from his interspatial ring and replacing the one he took now.
He then left the room and sat down at one of the seating areas within the large hub-room, sinking his consciousness into the jade slip to go over the contents. As he read through the information that Jiu Meiyu had placed in the jade slip, his expression slowly turned cold. The information stated that one of the oldest elders of the clan, an old man at the 8th Mortal Door, was sending funds and information to various rebellious groups within the four villages.
The groups would launch attacks on targets he had picked out, not just removing people loyal to Lang Huo but also getting rid of some people who were rivals to his children and grandchildren so that he could further their own positions. Yin Long wiped the jade slip clean after reading through all the information, storing it into his interspatial ring while maintaining a chilly expression.
"Another one. What a shame."
Yin Long stood up from his seated position and walked up one of the staircases that led to one of the elevated doors, pushing it open and entering a long hallway. He walked along the hallway until he reached a dead-end, storing his white sword and robes into his interspatial robe. He then put on a clean orange robe and donned a head-covering red mask shaped like a glaring demon. He then put on a wide-brimmed straw hat that had beads on strings hanging down at the front, obscuring his face so that others couldn't see that he was wearing a mask.
He traced the wall to his right with his finger, softly injecting a bit of Qi into several inconspicuous places until the wall in front of him slid to the side and revealed an ascending staircase. He ascended the staircase and arrived within a storage room filled with dry food, the stone wall and floor on top of the stairs sliding close behind him. Yin Long walked out of the storage room and made his way through the restaurant, the servers and cooks pretending like they hadn't seen him as he left.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He casually walked through the streets, his hat only drawing a slight amount of attention before people stopped bothering paying attention to him. He moved through several smaller back alleys and streets until he three hours later reached a three-kilometer wide wooden mansion surrounded by a half-kilometer wide garden that was then surrounded by a 15 meter high stone wall.
Yin Long moved along the wall until he reached the side of the mansion, a somewhat narrower alley squeezed between the wall and the building next to it. Yin Long took out a few bags filled with rubbish and placed them at the entrance of the alley, blocking it and obscuring him from vision. He then extended his senses as far as he could, nearly 100 meters at this point, and inspected the area behind the wall. There was no one within the area covered by his senses, only a somewhat dense forest filled with twisting trees.
Seeing that the coast was clear, Yin Long stretched out his arm and placed his right palm on the wall in front of him, focusing his mind and moving his Qi. His energy coursed through his veins and spread through his body, the law of space starting to vibrate throughout his entire body and spreading into the wall in front of him. A few seconds after he mobilized his Qi, his hand slipped through the wall, his entire body following as he stepped through the wall without leaving the slightest trace.
This was one of the techniques that Bai Xiang had taught Yin Long, he said that it worked using the same principles as a hidden realm, a separate space existing on top of normal space. The easiest way he had been able to explain it to Yin Long was by saying that it was basically splitting one particular area of space into multiple different layers that all existed in the same spot but didn't interact with each other. He would be one layer and the target would be another layer, both passing through each other without being able to interact.
It was a supremely useful technique, but it required not only a great deal of energy but also a lot of focus and concentration, rendering it currently useless in combat. But it was more than enough for something like this, Yin Long stepping into the grove of trees located right behind the wall.
The grove of trees extended in the three other directions, seemingly encircling the entire mansion and only leaving about 50 meters of the garden empty. The jade slip contained not just information about the crimes of the elder but also about the layout of the mansion and the routines of the people working there so Yin Long wouldn't have any problem finding his way.
Jiu Meiyu was exceedingly thorough in his work, he would find out everything that he could before striking. Due to this, it was only last year that Yin Long and Jiu Meiyu got to kill Bao Dang, the person who sent assassins after Yin Long when he entered the Underearth Forest. Another reason behind this was that they couldn't leave behind any evidence that could incriminate the Lang clan. It was fine if people suspected the Lang clan of doing it, but as long as they didn't have any evidence then they couldn't use it against Lang Huo in any form.
Yin Long started to quietly make his way through the grove of trees, going over the information he had read within the jade slips and making sure to always keep his senses stretched out as far as they would go. The entire mansion was surrounded by a terrace where one could sit and gaze upon the dense grove of trees, a few servants occasionally walking along the terrace as they were going about their duties.
Yin Long took advantage of a moment where there were no servants on the terrace and entered the mansion by stepping through the wall, arriving within a study room used by the elder's grandchildren. Their studies had finished for the day so the room was empty, Yin Long swallowing a pill to restore his lost energy and then continuing to move through the mansion.
His extended senses made it easy to discover people and allowed him to know when it was best to continue moving, occasionally moving through the hallways and other times moving through the walls when it was necessary. He moved a bit slow to not get discovered but still managed to reach the depths of the mansion after a quarter of an hour.
There were nearly no servants within the depths of the mansion, it was the same as the fourth floor of the Lang clan mansion, only open to a select few people. Yin Long regulated his breathing as he quietly moved through the hallway that would lead him to the room where his target was currently cultivating quietly. He had already entered the range of Yin Long's senses so he was certain that the elder was in the spot detailed within the report.
Yin Long stopped in front of the wooden sliding door that blocked his path, pulling a normal sword out of his interspatial ring and holding it ready in his left hand. He focused his gaze on the door and lowered his body slightly by sliding his left leg back and bending his torso forward, almost as if he was preparing to slash the door in half. He sucked in a quiet breath after a few seconds and then swiftly stepped forward, passing directly through the door and arriving within the cultivation room.
The room only contained a single mat on the floor and an incense burner, the gray-haired and slightly hunch-backed elder sitting crosslegged on the mat with his back turned to the door. Yin Long hopped forward and slashed out with the sword in his left hand, the elder suddenly springing up and turning around.
"NAIVE!"
Flames burst forth from the elder's hand as he spun around, Yin Long's sword melting and turning into a puddle on the floor. The elder glared mercilessly at Yin Long as the flames pressed onwards towards him, but Yin Long's black eyes remained calm and cold, this was the moment he had been waiting for all along.
His right hand shot out and actually grabbed onto the flames, his soul and Qi surging forth and subduing the flames, turning them into a crimson sword in his grasp. He swung the sword in a backhanded slash, all the flames gathered in it unleashing as a torrential inferno that swallowed the shocked and caught off guard elder. He unleashed a shrill screech as the flames scorched his robes and charred his skin, which started to crack and sizzle under the heat.
He flew back and crashed into the wall of the room, sliding down to the floor while the flames started to dissipate. This was the increase in strength Yin Long had experienced after he properly started to cultivate, not even a person at the 8th Mortal Door could hold up for long in front of him if he really used his skills. The elder's skin was charred black and cracked, nearly boiling blood spurting forth each time he coughed, looking despairingly at the masked assassin in front of him. Yin Long looked at him coldly, a translucent sword forming in his grasp as he stepped up to the elder.
"You shouldn't have tried to undermine Little Huo's authority."
Yin Long stabbed the sword into the elder's throat as he spoke, the light of realization flashing through the eyes of the elder as he heard Yin Long's statement. Only two people could call the clan leader Little Huo, and only one of them used a sword, the highly skilled swordmaster who sadly couldn't cultivate.
But the elder never got to say those words or spread the news, life vanished from his eyes as Yin Long's sword stabbed into his throat. But no blood poured forth from the man's throat after Yin Long stabbed him, the sword didn't even leave behind a wound.
Yin Long's sword was his soul and his soul was his sword, it would usually be formed out of the surrounding space or other items, but the very base of his sword would always be his soul. And as such, the thing his sword excelled at cutting the most was other souls, especially when he formed a sword entirely out of the energy of his soul, something known as Anima Essence.
His sword had plunged into the throat of the man but didn't sever his windpipe, it pierced through his soul, the very essence of every living being. With the deed done and the traitorous elder dead, Yin Long stepped through the wall again and swiftly left the mansion, he could already hear people rushing into the depths of the mansion to check why the elder had shouted out so loudly.