No one raised any objections to Jin Wang's presence on the stage, he hadn't jumped out from a Ten Thousand Beast Pocket but he had still made his stance towards Yin Long clear over the days they had spent in the city. The aura of power he radiated was a fair bit below that of the hawk, but there was no way the small hawk could compare when it came to imposing presence and sheer regal majesty.
Jie Yue had already left the stage by the time Jin Wang jumped onto it, signifying the start of the battle. The two teams immediately sprung into their formations, Yin Long's team leaving four defensive cultivators in front, four offensive cultivators in the middle, and two speed or control-oriented cultivators in the back.
The opposing team was quite similar, five in front, three in the middle, and one in the back, with the hawk hovering overhead. The leader of Yin Long's team swiped her interspatial ring and brought out a circular shield and a somewhat short spear, glancing sideways at Yin Long for a quick second before she moved forward.
"Give us the signal if things go awry."
Yin Long simply nodded his head in response, the rest of the team quickly mimicking the movements of the team leader. The two defensive lines quickly collided, the offensive-oriented cultivators launching attacks from the back while the speed or control-oriented cultivators focused on disrupting the enemy team's attackers. Yin Long had lagged a bit behind, placing his hand on Jin Wang's head and giving it a few rubs while he whispered quietly.
"You go for number 2 to start with, I'll send over number 3 sooner or later. After that, you can join us against number 4 and 5, we'll also deal with that hawk if it tries to approach."
Jin Wang let out a low growl in response, clearly anticipating what would be his first battle in a while. Yin Long didn't give him any more orders and simply dashed forward, his normal white sword appearing in his grasp. Jin Wang let out a thunderous roar at the same time and charged straight at the enemy's defensive line, aiming for the cultivator who had only reached the 2nd Immortal Door.
His frame crashed directly into the defensive line with full force, breaking open the cultivator's defence in a single slam and leaving a small opening in the line. And Yin Long's team took advantage of this opening, intensifying their assaults so that the opening didn't immediately close up again.
Yin Long also took advantage of this opening, lowering his body while Lan Yun used her axe to obscure him by launching out loose chunks of earth that were falling apart as they flew. Yin Long reached the defensive line and threw himself to the ground, sliding through the opening left between two of the cultivators there and practically diving head-first into the enemy team's offensive line.
An attack was launched at him the moment he passed through the defensive line, several tens of glacial spikes raining down on him. This team was a bit different from most others, their leader was actually situated in the back and focused on using her ice to control the enemy team. But the glacial spikes didn't get to reach Yin Long, a scorching burst of fire shooting over the defensive line and tearing through the spikes.
Yin Long's eyes flashed faintly as he looked at the last of the spikes, that was in the process of melting, quickly stretching out his hand and grabbing onto it. His soul surged out and transformed the weakened attack into a new sword, the weapon vanishing into his soulsea the moment it finished forming. He had already formed a fiery sword using this fire during their previous practice sessions, so he had it available for later.
Yin Long sprung up from the ground the moment the glacial spikes were fully blocked, arriving in front of the bow-wielding cultivator who had reached the 3rd Immortal Door. Yin Long sent a sideways sweep at the girl's thighs, the opponent clearly caught off-guard by his sudden appearance.
She quickly removed the arrow she had just nocked and brought it down in a hasty manner, actually missing Yin Long's sword so that it was her wrist that hit the flat of his blade rather than the tip of the arrow. She managed to push his sword down so that it didn't cut her open, but she was clearly flustered and uncertain when it came to how she should proceed. These emotions were clearly reflected in Yin Long's eyes, a slightly disappointed look flashing through them.
"How disappointing. Jin Wang!"
Yin Long stretched out his arm as he called out, Jin Wang immediately ignoring the enemy in front of him and opening his mouth to a 90-degree angle. A strong swallowing force immediately acted upon Yin Long, who had his soul surge out and seize control of the swallowing force, transparent scaled-leaves quickly spawning around him and turning black. A black sword covered in the usual leaf pattern and filled with faintly visible swirls immediately formed in his grasp, Yin Long slashing the new weapon upwards.
The girl hastily stepped backwards and dodged, but the sword unleashed a strong attractive swallowing force the moment it reached the top of her head, pulling her arms and bow upwards. Yin Long put away his white sword at the same time, his large earthen greatsword appearing in his grasp and getting swept sideways.
It smashed into the girl's side and knocked the wind out of her, launching her to the side. Jin Wang sprung into action the moment he saw this, his head jerking to the side. His still wide open maw chomped down on the 2nd Immortal Door cultivator who had used the small opening to land several attacks on him. His teeth sank into the man's left arm and shoulder, the sound of bones breaking only overshadowed by the man's own scream.
Jin Wang flung his head to the side and tossed the man away, charging directly at the girl that was still being launched sideways. He raised his paw and swatted at her chest, caving in her ribs and launching her all the way down from the stage, where she rolled across the ground a few times before falling still.
Yin Long lowered his body the moment he launched the girl to the side, but a few small and stealthy glacial blades still managed to graze his still raised arm and chest. He heard the sound of something cutting through the air and quickly rolled to the side, but the sharp talons of the hawk still tore out a gash in his waist.
He let go of his earthen sword and allowed it to drop to the ground but he didn't return it to his soulsea, the sound of more attacks approaching his body echoing in his ears. But he didn't panic, he rolled to the side once more as he put away the black sword made from Jin Wang's swallowing force. He called out in a loud voice while still rolling, springing up from the ground the moment he finished his roll.
"Cui Ye! Bai Mu!"
Both his team members sprung into action, the man known as Cui Ye waving his arm and sending a thick cloud of sand directly at Yin Long. He didn't know what Yin Long was planning, but he had already notified them that him calling out their names simply meant that they should launch an attack in his direction.
Yin Long stretched out his left arm and grasped the cloud of sand, his soul surging out and forming a murky yellow sword from the small crystals. A fiery red scimitar that had a flame-like pattern running down its back appeared in his other grasp, Yin Long smashing both weapons downward and unleashing the element stored within them.
A cloud of sand shot out and was quickly swallowed by the searing flames, the minuscule crystals melting into a strangely solid liquid. He put away both swords and brought out his new icy-blue sword, the glacial air from it cooling down the liquid, forming somewhat murky glass. Yin Long grabbed the glass and seized control of it with his soul, forming an almost perfectly transparent sword.
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It was at this moment that Bai Mu's beam of light reached him, he had launched his attack a short second later since he was called after Cui Ye. Yin Long raised the sword of glass and placed it in front of the beam of light, which passed directly through it as it intensified slightly. He also placed the icy-blue sword in front of his chest, the polished ice serving as a reflective surface that the intensified light bounced off of.
He turned his body just before the light hit the frozen sword, redirecting the beam of light directly towards the two other offensive-based cultivators. They were forced to pull back the energy they had put into their own attacks, quickly raising their defences to block the beam of light.
Several glacial spikes shot at Yin Long in the same moment, ice even rising from the stage to ensnare him, but a timely burst of fire from his team restricted the ice. This gave Yin Long time to move back, safely retreating from the enemy lines and returning to his own team along with Jin Wang, who had gotten a few more cuts as he had been dealing with the hawk so that he didn't attack Yin Long again.
Yin Long returned to his own team, the dumbfounded gazes of the audience lingering on him, Even Fang Yau and Xiao Yin Yu looked at him with wide-open eyes. Rumours had, of course, spread already, but all those rumours had been drowned out by the fact that Yin Long had the law of space.
As such, this was the first encounter most of these people had with Yin Long's strange ability to turn just about anything into swords. And he had put that ability to great use here, catching both enemies and audience alike off-guard.
And thanks to that, his team had managed to quickly dispatch of four people from the enemy team. Yin Long and Jin Wang had brutally tossed aside the cultivators at the 2nd and 3rd Immortal Door and the rest of his team had taken advantage of the resulting shock to knock out two more cultivators from the defensive line, the two at the 7th and 6th Immortal Door.
The team that had originally been at a slight disadvantage was immediately pushed further into a corner, the only healthy members they had left were at the 4th, 5th, 8th and 9th Immortal Door, with a beast companion at the 6th Immortal Door. But thanks to the fact that their 8th and 9th Immortal Door cultivators were well suited for defending, the opposing team was able to still hold on somewhat, but they were slowly forced backwards more and more. Yin Long narrowed his eyes slightly as he observed the enemy team, a light flashing through his pupils as he whispered to Gui Kong Lie, their team leader.
"Kong Lie. Jin Wang, Lan Yun, and I can deal with the two at the 4th and 5th Immortal Door. You just focus on taking down the hawk and the two others, bursting forth the moment I give the signal would be for the best."
Kong Lie glanced sideways at Yin Long, unable to hide the shock surfacing in her green pupils. She had trained with Yin Long for a bit before the start of the contest, and she had even fought against his team once while their territory was sparring to decide the teams. But even so, she couldn't help but get surprised time and time again, Yin Long always seemed to have something, and he always had the confidence to pull it through.
He had the second-lowest cultivation in the team, only Bai Mu had lower cultivation than him. But even so, just the things he had shown so far made it impossible for people to disregard him, the weight of his words was practically on par with her's at this point. But he didn't have any interest in leading or the like, so he had never questioned her position as leader, nor had he made a move for it.
She nodded her head and signalled the rest of the team, which continued to slowly push the opposing team further back. In truth, they would definitely win if they kept going like this, the enemies would get exhausted and would have to surrender. But Yin Long didn't want that, he wanted to test out new skills and techniques, he wanted to see what sort of resistance the enemy could offer, wanted to see what weaknesses in his skills they would dig out.
He counted the steps back the opposing team took, a sharp light flashing through his eyes when they reached the proper position. Jin Wang and Lan Yun understood the meaning of the light and prepared themselves, charging forward alongside him. Their team charged forward along with them, Yin Long's foot landing on a specific spot as he called out.
"5F, 3R."
He didn't need to say more, that alone was enough for Lan Yun to understand what he wanted. His foot had landed squarely on the earthen greatsword he had left behind earlier, Lan Yun interacting with the earth that constituted the weapon. A solid earthen pillar rose up beneath his feet and launched him into the air, propelling him five metres forward and five metres to the right.
The hawk immediately screeched and shot towards him, the enemy's leader and the two offensive-oriented cultivators also attacking him now that he was hanging in the air. But Jin Wang opened his maw wide and surrounded the hawk with his swallowing force, slowing and diverting its movements. The rest of Yin Long's team also sprung into action at the same time, barreling into the final defensive cultivator and forcing the enemy's leader to abandon her attack so that she could support him.
Two swords appeared in Yin Long's hands at the same time, the black sword of swallowing and the curved cyan sword of wind. The leaves dancing around him took on the two colours of his weapons as he swept out with them, still moving through the air as he shot towards the two last offensive-oriented cultivators. And as he soared through the air, the mouths of Fang Yau and Xiao Yin Yun twitched slightly, both of them muttering rather similar comments.
"Really... What a scary kid."
"Now that's a creepy kid, no wonder he was so confident."
The scene that appeared before them as Yin Long swung his swords was quite familiar to the two of them, it was the same scene that had appeared during their own battle earlier. Yin Long's black sword drew in all the surrounding air and wind thanks to the swallowing force in it and the cyan sword took hold of the wind, a small and sharp tornado forming around Yin Long as he descended on the two people.
Cuts were already starting to appear on their robes before he even touched the ground, most of the power in their attacks depleted by the time they managed to penetrate the tornado. But just as they gathered their energy to raise their defences, a third sword appeared from behind Yin Long. His bladeless but pointy wooden sword dropped out of the air and fell to the ground, Lan Yun's pupils flickering for a short moment before the wooden sword exploded forth with branches.
The branches shot at the two people, each one carrying with it a tearing and crushing force that turned their hearts heavy. They now had to choose whether or not they wanted to block the descending Yin Long or the wooden attacks coming from below. And the choice they made was that they had to block both, one focusing on Yin Long while the other focused on the branches.
But just as they raised their defences, a stone wall above them and a solid screen of water in front of them, a thunderous roar shook their eardrums. Jin Wang had charged up to their side, leaving the hawk to another team member, his golden fur stained by a few patches of blood. He crashed directly into the man controlling the screen of water, the force of the slam shattering the man's elbow and lifting his feet up from the ground.
But Jin Wang opened his mouth and chomped down on the man's waist before he could be launched away, shaking his head a few times before opening his mouth and tossing the man aside with several new holes in his body. The man that had raised the stone wall shook when he saw the sight, forgetting the branches that were coming straight at him.
They pierced into his body and dug through his flesh, the stone wall collapsing as he screeched in pain. And that was when Yin Long descended, the sharp tornado around him shredding the man's robes and lacerating his flesh. He was launched down from the stage, cuts covering his entire body.
There were already people from his territory present around the stage, they had rushed out to perform emergency aid by the time Yin Long and Jin Wang decimated the two first people. Their lives wouldn't be in any danger thanks to the rapid aid, but whether or not they could continue fighting was questionable at best.
Two more people had been forced to leave the stage in brutal fashion, leaving only two people and one Demonic beast on the enemy team. Their disadvantageous position had become a tragic and horrible one, and no matter how much they didn't want to admit it, the team leader knew that this was a lost battle. She threw in the towel before their last members suffered any grievous wounds, directing an indignant expression towards Yin Long.
But Yin Long simply didn't seem to even notice her gaze, putting away his two weapons and bringing out the transparent crimson sword. The weapon sucked in all the blood that had stained the stage, the crimson colour turning a bit darker now that the sword got to absorb some blood again.
The enemy had surrendered so the battle was obviously over, Yin Long completely ignoring the dumbfounded audience as he walked over to Lan Yun, the two leaving the stage with Bai Mu and Jin Wang following. The rest of the team stayed a bit longer on the stage, relishing in the stares of the audience before they too stepped down so that the next teams could start their battle.