Yin Long and his group hadn't ventured too far into the forest for this cultivation trip so the return trip was done in a flash. They activated the appropriate array and returned to the city, the lively yet somewhat tense atmosphere so dense here that even the stray animals in the area seemed to be agitated by it. But due to the constant stream of people heading for the centre of the city, these stray animals could do nothing but hide in the dark back alleys.

The sudden appearance of Jin Wang startled the closest civilians for a second, but news of him had long since already spread, so the startled people quickly returned to normal and ignored him. Yin Long and Lan Yun gazed curiously at the stream of people rushing deeper into the city, Yin Long following them with his eyes for a second before he turned to his companions.

"Well? Should we follow them and see what's up?"

There was no need to rush back to the dojo, and looking at how many people were flooding to the centre of the city, there were most definitely people from the dojo there as well. Jin Wang just went along with whatever Yin Long decided, and Lan Yun wouldn't miss this opportunity to tour a lively place with Yin Long so neither of them rejected his proposal.

They joined up with the rest of the crowd and headed for the centre of the city, Jin Wang's presence at first ensuring that they were given plenty of space for themselves. But the crowd only got denser as they got closer to the centre of the city, eventually pushing up so close to them that Jin Wang released a low growl and used his head to gesture towards his back. Yin Long understood what Jin Wang was trying to say, raising his thumb to point at Lan Yun.

"Her too, right?"

Jin Wang moved his head a bit but was eventually forced to nod his head, allowing Lan Yun to also mount his back. Yin Long vaulted onto Jin Wang's back and gestured for Lan Yun to hop on, but she just stretched out her hand, gesturing for Yin Long to help her up. But he could only disappoint her, rolling his eyes and patting Jin Wang's mane, the proud lion immediately continuing to move.

Seeing that he had no intentions of humouring her this time, Lan Yun was forced to hurriedly step forward and hop onto Jin Wang's back. This was an excellent opportunity to press up against Yin Long and show her charms as a woman, how could she possibly miss it? But just as she was going to wrap her arms around his waist, Yin Long leaned forward, resting his chest on Jin Wang's neck and his head on top of Jin Wang's head.

She had to admit that it was a fairly picturesque scene, a proud golden lion moving through the city while a man was just casually resting against his neck and head. But it still meant that she had lost her chance to press up against him so she still had to exhale a puff of air to at least show that she was dissatisfied. Yin Long only smiled softly at her pouting puff, an action that Lan Yun sadly was unable to see since she was sitting behind him.

Since he no longer had to match his pace to Yin Long, Jin Wang was free to speed up somewhat and push a path through the crowd, making sure to not move so fast or act so rudely that Yin Long intervened. And thanks to his speed, it didn't take long for them to reach the end-point of the crowd, the large estate owned by the Jyushi clan.

All the buildings situated directly to the north of the estate had strangely enough vanished, a vast plaza covering the area now. A ten kilometre wide stone stage served as the centre of the plaza, a light blue array stretching out from underneath the stage. The array sent invisible streams of energy high into the sky, powering a polished crystal ball that displayed what was happening on the stone stage.

Thanks to this crystal ball, even the people standing several kilometres away from the stage could see the battle currently taking place on it, the loud cheers from the spectators drowning out almost all other sounds. Looking at the stone stage and the battle taking place, Yin Long and Lan Yun could naturally form some guesses as to what was going on, but it was still best to ascertain the truth.

"The people from the dojo should be over there so Xue Qiuling should be there, she'll probably fill us in."

It wasn't that Yin Long could spot the people from the dojo in this vast sea of people, the only reason he could locate them was due to the pressure he recognized as Park Man's, the leader of the dojo. Yin Long couldn't sense just one such pressure, there were actually two more such pressures coming from different points in the crowd. One of the pressures definitely came from the leader of the Jyushi clan, and Yin Long guessed that the third pressure came from the leader of the Crag's Howl sect, which was supposedly the rival of the Heron's Ascension Dojo.

Jin Wang brought them through the sea of people, Yin Long keeping an eye on the crystal ball so that he could observe the battle going on right now. The fighters had only reached the 9th Mortal Door, but one of them used a rather peculiar sword that looked like a corkscrew while the other one used a sword technique that Yin Long hadn't seen before, leaving him rather interested in them.

But he was forced to shift his attention away when they reached the area where the Heron's Ascension Dojo's people were residing, every single disciple clad in the same dark green robes. Yin Long and Lan Yun had also received the same robes when they entered the dojo, but neither of them had ever actually worn them. This, coupled with Jin Wang's sheer presence, made them stick out like sore thumbs when they reached the area.

Stolen novel; please report.

Of course, it was thanks to the fact that they stuck out like this that Xue Qiuling could instantly spot them. Yin Long saw her quickly move over to them, but contrary to what he expected, she wasn't alone. Another youth not wearing the robes of the dojo was following her, the youth's short blue hair moving softly as he walked.

The two stopped in front of Yin Long's group, the blue-haired youth allowing his gaze to sweep over Lan Yun and Jin Wang with some surprise before he settled his gaze on the still relaxed Yin Long. Xue Qiuling smiled sweetly at Yin Long and greeted him with a nod of her head, giving him a quick explanation about the situation.

"It's good that you've returned, Junior Brother Long. If you had been only a few days slower, you would have missed the entire spectacle, and even lost quite a great chance. Province Emperor Starblood sent down a decree one month ago, the contest we've been preparing for was to be pushed forward, even the Three-Fold Territory Clash has been pushed forward, probably for the first time in the last 100 000 years. About 100 people have already been selected, but they're still looking for the final 150 participants so you might still stand a chance if you show off enough."

Xue Qiuling's words confirmed the guess that Yin Long and Lan Yun had come up with, the fights taking place on the stone stage were performed to decide who would be taking part in the Three-Fold Territory Clash. The clash would involve the strongest and most talented fighters from the entire Starblood Province, people of all cultivation realms would take part to show themselves off to the various organizations, everyone fighting for the grand rewards.

And if you were lucky enough to show off a sufficient amount of strength, you might even be picked out to be part of the team that got sent to the Province Championship, the grand tournament involving every province on the planet. Of course, that tournament was only for the most dazzling stars of each province, so Yin Long didn't think too much about it.

He was more interested in why the clash had been pushed forward, even this competition to decide the participants of the clash shouldn't be held for another eight or so months. And since the last time the clash was pushed forward like this was 100 000 years ago, it was clearly a rather important reason that had made Province Emperor Starblood push the competition forward.

Yin Long was starting to get rather tired of these questions that he had no way of finding an answer for, but that was just how life was, he had no choice but to accept it and move on. And as he moved on, he let his gaze drift onto the blue-haired youth, who was using his silver eyes to curiously inspect Yin Long, a faint smile on his face. Seeing that Yin Long and Xue Qiuling had finished their short chat, he nodded his head to introduce himself, moving straight on to business.

"Greetings, I'm Yun Duan and I come from Thousand Blades Hall. I'd like to take a look at your law of space."

Having gone through so many books in the Heron's Ascension Dojo, there was no way that Yin Long wouldn't know about Thousand Blades Hall. Xue Qiuling had introduced their Swan Queen Hall as the third greatest haven for all sword wielders in the entire Starblood Province, but even they paled in the face of Thousand Blades Hall, which firmly occupied the number one spot.

They were located in Starblood city at the very centre of the province and their founder was the previous Province Emperor, there was no weapon that they didn't have thousands of cultivation manuals for. But Yun Duan didn't even give Yin Long a chance to raise an eyebrow at the fact that he had appeared here, so far away from Starblood city, he swung out his arm the moment he finished talking.

A bit of his Qi surged forward, turning into a sharp blade that rushed straight for Yin Long's face. The attack was quite ferocious, but Yin Long could sense that the sword didn't even contain enough energy to pierce his flesh, it was all form and no substance. Yun Duan only wanted to see his law of space after all, there was no need to be too ruthless for something like that.

Yin Long also wanted to try out something with his law of space, so he would most certainly not back down, his white sword appearing in his grasp as he swept it out. Ever since he absorbed the sword made from pure space into his soulsea and lit up the silver colour on his soul, his sensitivity towards the surrounding space had drastically increased. And with his increase in cultivation and strength, he wanted to see if he could improve on his utilization of the sword technique left behind by the founder of the Lang clan.

He grasped the surrounding space and forced it to fall under his control, once again unleashing the technique known as Ravenous Beast. He previously unleashed it by splitting up the blade of his sword into multiple sections that each appeared in their separate area, but now he used his strengthened Qi and heightened sensitivity to split space around him into two layers.

He managed to form the second layer quite quickly, but he could tell that trying to do too much with it would drain his Qi so rapidly that he wouldn't even be able to launch a single attack. So he only copied his sword over into the second layer and shift it around a bit, resulting in his sword appearing in two places at once, one of them a fair bit fainter than the others, but there nonetheless.

Yin Long's eyes brightened as he looked at the two swords that appeared simultaneously, this was much closer to what he had seen when he studied the sword technique. When the projection of the Lang clan founder had used this technique, hundreds of these copies had appeared around him, it was worlds apart from Yin Long single copy. But it was a start, and it was certainly much better than his previous utilization of the technique.

Yun Duan's attack was halted by the two swords, the fainter copy of Yin Long's sword vanishing as Yin Long removed the second layer of space he had created. That single attack had drained about 20% of his Qi, so he knew that he couldn't launch it too often, but it would serve as an excellent sneak attack. As for Yun Duan, his eyes lit up with a resplendent light as his attack was halted, a burst of happy laughter escaping his lips.

"Haha, it is indeed as the rumours said, you really do have the law of space! Yin Long, on the behalf of Thousand Blades Hall, I formally extend you an invitation! Just say the word and we'll prepare a dorm for you!"