Yin Long didn't mind Cui Senju's silence and pulled out his own white sword, angling the tip towards the ground. Cui Senju's body tensed as he prepared to make the first move, but to his surprise, Yin Long charged forward before he got the chance to move.

The stage might be quite large, but the distance between Yin Long and Cui Senju wasn't, shrinking to a mere 10 metres just as Yin Long started moving. And the moment there was only 10 metres separating them, Cui Senju launched his first attack. He swept out his empty left hand, pea-sized marbles of iron appearing in the air around Yin Long and shooting down at him like razor-sharp rain.

For each marble that shot down, another appeared to take its place, Cui Senju himself charging forward to take advantage of Yin Long being tied down by the downpour of continuous attacks. But he realized that he had been a touch too optimistic the moment he raised his foot to move forward.

The iron marbles indeed rained down upon him, but Yin Long's speed was barely impacted by them, his sword continuously slashing out and deflecting them so that they fell to the stage around him. Looking at him moving through the rain of attacks with barely any effort, Park Man's eyes trembled slightly, a trace of emotion surfacing in them.

"Look at that, Brother Meiyu... He'll carry it on for you..."

Not even the people around him could hear Park Man's mutter, so there was even less chance of Yin Long hearing it. But whether or not anyone could hear him didn't matter, because Yin Long launched an attack of his own just as Park Man muttered to himself.

Cui Senju felt a sharp sensation press down on his back, his knees quickly bending as he ducked down and dodged a strand of incredibly sharp Qi that took off some of his hairs. He punched the stage while he was ducked, his Qi travelling along the ground and erupting beneath Yin Long, turning into a large metal pillar that launched him back.

But Cui Senju didn't chase after him, his pupils as thin as pinholes as he straightened his body again. He grabbed onto the strands of hair that were falling to the ground, his middle finger twitching faintly as he moved his gaze from the hair and onto Yin Long.

"1st Immortal Door?"

It wasn't just Cui Senju that had discovered this fact thanks to the Qi that Yin Long had unleashed, the onlookers had noticed it too. The citizens weren't too affected, but the people from the three great organizations were shaken a fair bit by it, especially Xue Qiuling. The moment Yin Long revealed his law of space, what little information they had about him was spread through the three organizations.

20 years of age and only at the 6th Mortal Door, talent that was below average. That was what Yin Long had shown when he first entered the dojo, rising to the 7th Mortal Door a short while later. And then, when he revealed his law of space, he had reached the 9th Mortal Door, rising three small sub-realms in quick succession.

But that alone wasn't enough to shock them, increasing your cultivation in the Mortal Door realm was the easiest after all. But now he had stepped beyond the realm of the Mortal Doors and stepped into the Immortal Doors, a qualitative change that should not be accomplished in such a short amount of time. This was beyond slowly but steadily catching up with those around him, he was practically charging at them like a mad beast.

Yin Long didn't deny it, no one would believe him even if he tried to after all. He tensed his body and charged forward once more, the distance between him and Cui Senju once again reduced to a mere 10 metres. Cui Senju immediately flicked his finger, marbles of iron once again appearing around and raining down on Yin Long. There were far more marbles this time, there were at least 10 marbles raining down on him at each moment.

But Yin Long didn't move to deflect them this time, his left hand clenching as a new sword appeared in his grasp. The blade of the sword was light cyan in colour and curved upwards as you got closer to the tip, making it resemble a very thin sabre. The edge of the sword gleamed with a dangerously sharp light, Yin Long demonstrating the sharpness as he slashed out with the sword.

The surrounding wind immediately tossed and turned as he slashed out with the sword, gusts of wind shaped like leaves starting to dance around his body. The metal marbles were immediately sliced in half when they came in contact with the leaves, losing their momentum and falling harmlessly to the ground.

Cui Senju was aware that Yin Long had a transparent crimson sword which he used to increase his control over the law of blood, or that was at least how he saw it, but he had never seen him use this curved cyan sword, so his vigilance immediately shot up. But he couldn't be blamed for not having seen this sword before, it was one that Yin Long had only just recently created when he went out to break through to the 1st Immortal Door.

As for the shape of the sword, Yin Long wasn't the one who had chosen it, the sword had simply been in that shape when he saw it again after he ended his cultivation. Other than his silver spatial sword and crimson blood sword, the other swords had also changed shape, one of them taking on an appearance that made him question how he was even supposed to use it.

But he had plenty of time to play around with his various swords, plenty of time to figure out what way he could best utilize them in, so he wasn't worried about their shapes. His wind-based sword dealing with the marbles saved Yin Long the trouble of deflecting them, giving him a short opening to cross the final 10 metres.

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He swept out the cyan sword once more as he moved, the wind between him and Cui Senju clumping together and layering into razor-thin edges that shot forward. Cui Senju didn't dodge as the attacks shot at him, a faint layer of metallic Qi covering his sword as he brought it slashing down. The sword smashed directly through the layered wind, scattering it so much that it was unable to leave any marks on his skin, which had already taken on a dark metallic colour.

But Yin Long reached his front just as Cui Senju finished his descending slash, his white sword sweeping out. Cui Senju quickly reacted and sprouted several pillars of metal beneath Yin Long to push him back, but a sweep of his cyan sword cut apart the metal before it could impede him.

But Cui Senju was still someone at the 5th Immortal Door, so some of the metal shards still shot forward and dug into Yin Long's body. But even as his blood spilt forth and stained his robe, Yin Long continued his attack, a glimmer of excitement flashing through his eyes.

His sword reached Cui Senju, but to his surprise, it didn't slash across his chest. The sword clashed with Cui Senju's own sword and batted it aside so that Cui Senju's body was truly left open, the law of blood gushing forth and tainting the cyan leaves dancing around Yin Long a faint crimson.

The law of blood affected Cui Senju, completely halting his movements for half a second, giving Yin Long ample time for his next attack. Both his swords vanished from his grasp, his foot twisting as he spun his body once. Another new sword appeared in his grasp as he spun around, a nearly two-metres long dark brown greatsword.

He completed his spin and gathered all the momentum in the greatsword, slamming it into Cui Senju's waist with all his might. He could feel Cui Senju's metal-covered skin collapse under the sword, Cui Senju's feet losing contact with the stage as he was launched away. He was just tossed away a few metres, he was actually launched nearly half a kilometre, falling to the ground just outside the stage.

But just as his body touched the earthen ground, the earth around him rose up, forming sharp and flexible tendrils that stabbed down at him. This greatsword was formed by earth, and just like his cyan sword could control the wind, this weapon could somewhat control earth. But half a kilometre ended up being too much of a distance, the tendrils lacking the power to pierce through Cui Senju's reinforced skin.

Cui Senju had a very nasty gash on his waist, going nearly four centimetres into his body and spewing out blood. It wasn't a fatal wound for a cultivator, but it would certainly impact his fighting strength by a fair bit. But he had already been launched out of the stone stage, which meant that this battle ended in his loss, Yin Long's voice reaching his ears.

"When we first fought, we used numbers to make you flee. This time I beat you using the rules of the contest so that you couldn't take advantage of your vast reservoir of Qi. Next time? Next time I'll take your life in a 1v1, no tricks or rules."

Confidence bordering on arrogance, that was what Yin Long portrayed right now as he put away his greatsword. But there was no one who dared to comment on that arrogance, because that quick duel just now had proven that he indeed had the capital to be arrogant. He might have won by taking advantage of the rules of the contest, but just having the strength to catch Cui Senju that off guard and then launch him half a kilometre, even giving him such a nasty gash, proved that he was far stronger than most others at his cultivation.

Cui Senju stood up from the ground, a grim expression on his face as a thin thread of metal stitched his wound together. The wound wasn't as bad for him as it would be for most others, so he had plenty of fighting strength left, but he had already lost the fight so he couldn't go up and challenge Yin Long again right away, he would have to wait for the next time Yin Long ascended the stage.

As a result, he could only stand there and watch as Yin Long took on three more challengers, quickly dispatching of them since none of them were even close to as strong as Cui Senju. They knew that they were weaker than Cui Senju, they only stepped onto the stage to either pull out more of Yin Long's secrets or to experience his techniques to see if they could learn anything.

Cui Senju got his hopes up when he saw Yin Long descend the stage after beating his fourth opponent, there was a good chance that he might ascend the stage again after resting for a bit. But to his disappointment, Yin Long met up with Lan Yun and Jin Wang again, bidding Xue Qiuling and Yun Duan farewell and then returning to the dojo.

With how many people were gathered in the streets, Cui Senju could forget about trying to kill Yin Long as he returned to the dojo, and trying to kill him in the dojo would result in him breaking the dojo's rules. The first would result in imprisonment with possible death and the latter would result in execution, meaning that his best choice was still to kill Yin Long the next time he ascended the stage. After all, if you died during a duel you would only have your own weak strength to blame, no one would say anything.

Yin Long didn't bother with any possible thoughts that Cui Senju might have, killing him right now without using his Netherworld energy or parasitic soul was incredibly difficult, but that didn't mean that it would be easy for Cui Senju to kill him. And it was extremely unlikely for Xue Shuiye to try anything against him, he was the main reason that Thousand Blades Hall had come here, she might lose her spot there if she tried to move against him.

But Yin Long still had some faint worries, so he left Jin Wang with Lan Yun when they returned to the dojo. The lion complained with a low growl, but he had already gotten used to Yin Long's worries so he knew that he would have no choice but to obey. The group of three split up, Lan Yun returning to her own dorm and Yin Long returning to his, removing his robes and stepping into the shower.

He had washed himself in the lake after his cultivation, but that was just a quick wash, it couldn't be compared to the comfort that an actual shower brought with it. But he didn't have the chance to enjoy this comfort for more than a few minutes before there was a knock on his door. But the knock hadn't been on the door to his room, it had been on the door leading to the bathroom that he was currently in.

His senses immediately stretched out, but the person on the other side of the door had already pushed it open and stepped into the bathroom. Xue Qiuling appeared in the room, a faint blush on her face as she wore no more than a simple white towel.

"May...May I join you?"