Yin Long's pupils darted sideways and landed on Cui Mu Lan and her incoming attack, the light in his eyes turning slightly gloomy. His law of space and his law of blood had been exposed, but that was something he had been prepared for since his battle with Cui Senju. He had been unable to kill him back then, judging the odds to be too low even if he pulled out everything he had, so it was inevitable that some of his secrets would end up getting spilt.
He was fine with it, others learning about his law of blood and his law of space wasn't among the things he considered bad, he just hadn't used those laws up until now because he rarely engaged in battles. Most of his secrets didn't matter too much, he kept them hidden because he had no reason to show them off. Only the Netherworld Energy was different, it was the one secret he wanted to keep hidden for as long as it was possible.
No, it wasn't the exposing of some of his secrets that annoyed him, what annoyed him was what Cui Mu Lan and Xue Shuiye had turned his training area into. He just wanted to train his sword skills, he wanted to test out the various techniques he had read about and see which parts would be useful to him. If he had to use his laws to test them, so be it, that was just how life was.
But Cui Mu Lan had no interest in letting him test out any techniques or the like, nor was she trying to train her own skills, she just wanted to force Yin Long to show off as many of his own secrets as possible. It was all about forcing him to a point where they could learn everything about him and had nothing to do with training, it had nothing to do with what he wanted to achieve here. And that irked him quite a bit, especially since he had the feeling that they wouldn't limit it to once or twice.
All these thoughts flashed through his mind as he looked at the sickle coming directly for his throat, Cui Mu Lan's blazing eyes focused intently on his face. He flipped his sword into an upright position and stabbed at the incoming sickle, pushing it up and above him when the two weapons collided.
Cui Mu Lan originally took this chance to stab at his solar plexus with her other sickle, but a trace of wariness flashed across her brows the moment her weapon made contact with Yin Long's. The amount of force he unleashed in that moment of contact was clearly supported by his Qi, it would have to be to push away her attack, she could even feel him channel some of it into his weapon. Yet, his sword didn't actually unleash even the faintest trace of Qi after the collision, it felt so completely empty that she couldn't help but be caught off guard and turn confused and curious.
And it was exactly when people were caught off guard, or became curious and dropped their guard, that their odds of winning against Yin Long started plummeting. And in the second where Cui Mu Lan stopped her secondary attack due to her confusion, a sharp pain exploded forth from her left leg.
A translucent blade made from Qi had pierced directly through her thigh and splashed blood onto the surrounding stage, her expression quickly distorting. She could clearly feel that the Qi was a perfect match for Yin Long's, but other than the Qi he channelled into his sword to deflect her attack, she hadn't sensed him use any other Qi.
She wasn't an idiot, she immediately understood the truth, Cui Senju had indeed been telling the truth. If her guess was correct then Yin Long had probably used his law of space to instantly shift the location of his Qi the moment he deflected her attack. Whatever the case was, she knew that she had to act before the situation left her hands even further than it already had.
She flung out her hand and threw away one of her sickles, Yin Long altering his upward stab into a sideways slash while Cui Mu Lan made a few quick moves with her finger. Yin Long's sword cut through empty air and Cui Mu Lan vanished from her position, appearing directly by her sickle, a few tens of metres away.
But just as her hand grasped her sickle again, a sharp slash appeared in front of her and cut a gash into her chest, spewing forth more blood. If the first attack could be signed up to trickery or a trick of the eye, then the second attack removed any and all doubt.
Anyone who used the law of the sword could attack at a range by using that law to sharpen their Qi. But the attack just now had clearly not been that, Yin Long had attacked one spot, but the attack itself had appeared in a different location. And such an act was reserved for the exalted law of space, confirming to the spectators that Cui Mu Lan had not been lying.
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Yin Long's gaze hadn't left Cui Mu Lan when she teleported away, he had no intention of abandoning this chance that his stab had created. They wanted to see his law of space and his law of blood? Fine, have a good look at how dangerous they are and then leave me alone so that I can keep training.
Cui Mu Lan's way of teleporting might be strange, but since it followed the simple pattern of her appearing by her sickle, it wasn't even a question of calculating where she would appear. Her chest and leg were both now gushing forth blood, Yin Long clenching his empty right hand and interacting with all the blood covering her.
The blood coiled around her while she was reeling from shock and pain, small and sharp needles forming from it and stabbing into her body so that it truly latched onto her. It then constricted itself violently, like a snake trying to crush its prey, pressing her legs together so strongly that she was unable to maintain her footing.
She fell down onto her side, Yin Long stabbing his sword down while she was falling. A sharp stab appeared directly beside her head, leaving a small cut on her neck just as she fully fell onto the stage. Blood pipped out from the small cut, running down the translucent sword made from Qi, which dissipated into leaf-like shapes that fell down around Cui Mu Lan.
Silence reigned over the stage and the area around it, no one really sure what to say. Cui Mu Lan hadn't voiced her surrender, nor had she been kicked down from the stage, but the victor was painfully obvious. She had been caught off guard once and things had only gone downhill from there, Yin Long hadn't even given her the chance to show off her full strength.
But while no one was quite certain what to say, they were all aware of a single fact, the disciple that had holed himself up in the martial library for his entire stay in the dojo was far from just a bookworm. He was an utter monster wielding an exalted law, quickly and sharply dispatching of a cultivator several stages above him. But Yin Long didn't care about their thoughts or the looks they were shooting at him, turning his gaze onto the distant Xue Shuiye.
"I've already told you before, I'm only here to train. I just want to train my sword skills, I have no interest in your positions, your battles for positions, your personal rivalries, none of it. I will train my sword skills until there is nothing more to learn, and then I'll move on, so don't waste my time like this, it's pointless."
His words were directed at Xue Shuiye, but they also served as a statement to the onlookers. He just wanted to sharpen his skills, he didn't want to use his laws in the sparring matches unless necessary, it was the sword and his skills in it that he focused on. There was quite a bit of distance between him and Xue Shuiye, but Yin Long was confident that she could hear him. And she proved his confidence correct when she stepped forward, crossing the several kilometres between them in just a few steps.
"You say you have no interest in our positions or the like, but do you think that your interest matters? You see, the thing about strong people is that their interest or the like doesn't matter. They move, and the world around them changes accordingly. Even if you have no interest in our positions or rivalries, in only a year or two, just you getting close to someone could be enough to alter other people's positions. At that time, even just a casual word from you can remove someone's position, that is how much weight every single action of a strong person carries."
Xue Shuiye flicked her finger and evaporated the blood coiling around Cui Mu Lan, blocking her wounds with her Qi while she flicked her finger once more and sent a scarlet pill into her mouth. Yin Long didn't stop her, he had successfully shown off what they wanted so he should have bought himself some peace. But he also knew that continuing the sparring matches now would be quite hard, there probably weren't many in the area who were willing to step onto the stage to face him despite his earlier statement.
"You can blabber on all you want, but the truth of the matter won't change. You guys focus on your rivalries and squabbles, I'll focus on my sword. Our paths are not ones that are meant to cross for long, so we're better off just leaving each other alone."
He left Xue Shuiye with this simple statement before he turned around and stepped off of the stone stage, walking over to Jin Wang and Lan Yun, who was smiling dazzlingly. Her sun had started to reveal itself, but even this blinding splendour wasn't enough to fully show his true shine, that was a sight reserved only for her.
The three walked away from the stage, Yin Long grabbing onto Lan Yun's wrist and checking up on the state of her arm while they walked. It luckily seemed to have healed without any complications, allowing him to heave a sigh of relief. He joined Lan Yun to the mission central while she delivered the mission she had quickly finished while they were out in Four-Kings Valley, abiding by her request to venture out into the city once she was done.
He contacted them regularly, but he hadn't seen them for a bit of time so he spent the rest of the day with the two of them. He also spent the next two days accompanying Lan Yun, the group of three moving around in the city in a leisure manner that served as a small break for Yin Long. But on the fourth day, the news that Yin Long had been expecting any day now spread through the sect, Instructor Meiyu had passed away.