Yin Long's face was gloomy as he sat in the forest, his hand swiping out and forming a new sword from the grass in front of him. The verdant sword was quickly formed but Yin Long shattered it just as quickly as he had made it, his face paling once more as part of his soul dissipated. He had already gotten an answer, but he wanted to confirm it at least one more time.
Time quickly passed as he waited, his Netherworld Energy restoring the wounds he had gotten during the previous match. But after a little over an hour and a half, the invisible tendrils once again stretched out from his soul and latched on to the surrounding trees. The last leaves remaining on the two closest trees withered completely, both trees turning into dried husks that looked like they would fall apart at the slightest touch.
His soul had been fully healed again and more of the land around him had died, its purest lifeforce sucked dry for his benefit. Yin Long made one more sword and then shattered it, quietly waiting for his soul to spring into action again. It took a bit longer this time, almost two and a half hours, but his soul eventually sent out more tendrils.
They stretched further this time to latch onto trees that were a bit further away, they also seemed to suck more energy this time as three entire trees were sucked dry to repair his soul. When the tendrils retreated, his soul had once again been fully repaired, Yin Long's eyebrows furrowing slightly in response.
He had been fairly confident about the truth after the first time it happened, the two subsequent times were mainly just to remove any shred of doubt. His soul did without a doubt suck in the surrounding lifeforce to heal itself when it was wounded, which meant that it would be very dangerous if his swords shattered when he was around others.
Looking at how fast his soul had repaired when his swords cracked during the match it was clear that his soul acted much faster when it came to sucking the lifeforce from living beings like humans. But any loss of lifeforce meant a loss of lifespan, so Lan Yun and Jin Wang could be harmed greatly if they were around him when his swords shattered.
As for why it took longer to send out the tendrils in his subsequent experiments, and why it required more lifeforce to heal his soul, he guessed that the draining process itself wasn't easy for the soul. There was also another fact he was quite confident in, learning more about this parasitic function of his soul would be very hard.
Emperor Starblood was clearly rather familiar with the Lord of Everburning Trees, who Yin Long was supposedly the reincarnation of. But even he had no knowledge of Yin Long's parasitic soul that could turn even the myriad existences into swords for him. Since even he didn't know then it was most likely not an ability of the Lord of Everburning Trees, it was Yin Long's own ability.
As such, who was he to ask questions regarding this parasitic aspect of his soul? Bai Xiang had been with him the longest and had tutored him for many years so he might have an idea, but not even Emperor Starblood knew where Bai Xiang was currently. And that in itself was also a point that made Yin Long's mind wander.
Why had Bai Xiang betrayed Emperor Starblood and the others by cutting contact with them and not bringing him to them? Was Bai Xiang part of the reason that he didn't have any memories from the Lord of Everburning Trees, or the ever-burning flames that he was seemingly infamous for? He had gotten a few answers, but each answer he got also paved the path for more questions, annoying Yin Long to no end.
He didn't quite know how long he spent thinking, but he eventually spat out a heavy breath and threw it all to the back of his mind. The current him had no way of getting many of the answers he sought, trying to do so might get him killed should Emperor Starblood learn the truth. So what point was there in thinking and worrying about it right now? The answers would come when he was stronger, he would search them out even if they tried to hide from him.
He raised his head and glanced at the now pitch-black sky, only the light of the stars and the three majestic moons shedding any light on the world. He didn't pay much attention to the passage of time during his experiments or during the following time he spent thinking, but seeing how late it had gotten he couldn't help but click his tongue.
"No wonder stronger cultivators can spend years on a single cultivation session, just a bit of thinking has already made the time fly like this. I should head back before Jin Wang pulls any shit, who knows what he'll do when he's left unsupervised for too long."
Yin Long got up from his seated position and stretched his body, suddenly halting just as he stretched his shoulders. His eyes narrowed faintly as he focused on his own senses, carefully counting just how many metres they were currently observing.
"502, it really is 502."
Yin Long was very familiar with his senses, he knew that he had only been able to observe the surrounding 500 metres when he first sat down here. But now that number had grown, and while it was only by two metres, it was not something that could be disregarded. But he didn't have to spend too long pondering over it, a guess swiftly forming in his mind.
"Does it follow the same principles as the body?"
One of the most basic, and powerful, forms of body cultivation was to destroy the body and then repair it. Like a phoenix rising from the flames, the body grew stronger after it was repaired, the problem was just surviving until you managed to repair the body. Yin Long had broken a piece of his soul three times in quick succession here, repairing the ruined parts using the surrounding lifeforce. And since his senses had grown stronger now, it stood to reason that the soul probably followed the same principle, growing stronger with each destruction.
The corners of his lips turned up slightly, this was a good piece of information to know. Training the soul was one of the hardest things since it served as the very foundation of a person, it was dangerous and difficult. But since it was the foundation of a person, it was also their weakest part, any harm to it could doom a person.
If he could train his soul like this then he would be able to slowly get rid of this weakness, which would help him in the future. There was also the fact that his swords were tied to his soul, and all his cultivation was focused around his soulsea, there was no telling what benefits he would get from training his soul.
But that was a matter he would have to leave for a later time, rushing things would only bring about an adverse effect. He finished stretching his body and left the forest, the only sign of his previous presence there being the circle of lifeless land that had been left in his wake.
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The guards in front of the gate looked at him somewhat strangely since he had been gone for so long but didn't stop him from entering the city. Yin Long casually walked through the streets as he traced his previous steps, hopping from spatial array to spatial array to quicken his pace. But he had just moved a few kilometres away from the fourth spatial array when his steps halted.
His brows furrowed as he turned his head to the side, peering into the darkness that enveloped the city. He seemed to be following something with his shifting pupils, tilting his head slightly. A soft light flashed through his pupils, his shoulders eventually shrugging.
"Can't be helped, he's someone I can consider a friend."
He turned his body after muttering nonchalantly, dashing off into the darkness as he made his way through winding streets and narrow alleys. But his eyes narrowed slightly as he ran, his senses allowed him to easily pick up the actions of his target, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly.
"Trying to run? Sorry, but I'll be damned if I let someone hinder me after I've made up my mind."
His hand made a grabbing motion, his curved cyan sword appearing in his grasp as the usual scaled-leaves spawned and fluttered around him. He sucked in a deep breath, the cyan leaves dancing around him shuddering slightly before they stuck to his body. His body suddenly felt as light as the wind, it was far from the boosting effect a proper wind cultivator would get, but it was good enough for the current situation.
His feet kicked off the ground as he charged forward at an even faster pace, constantly changing direction as he ran through the night. He took advantage of a narrow alley to hop from wall to wall, climbing onto the roof of a building that he could run along. He ran along the roofs of a few buildings before he jumped down, landing in a rather wide street and slashing a line into the ground.
"Sorry, but I can actually consider him, or at least one version of him, a friend, so I'll have to ask you to leave."
Yin Long had landed in-between two groups of people, the dark-haired version of Bai Mu behind him and a group of four black-robed people in front of him. Bai Mu was covered in various injuries, and if Yin Long had to venture a guess then he had probably botched an assassination and was being hunted down as retribution.
But the reasons didn't really matter much to Yin Long, Bai Mu was an interesting fellow and was someone he wasn't against considering a friend, at least the golden-haired version. As such, it was obvious that he would stand against these people as they tried to hunt down Bai Mu. The two groups halted their steps, the four black-robed men eyeing Yin Long with narrowed eyes. Bai Mu spat out some blood, his eyes cold as he opened his mouth, only for Yin Long to wave his hand dismissively.
"They're from the..."
"The Bai clan right? You haven't shown such blatant hostility to anyone else so the truth is rather easy to guess in a situation like this. You appeared quite diligent during the last assassination, I'm amazed that they managed to discover you."
This dark-haired Bai Mu had even gone so far as to sneak in and assassinate a member of the Bai clan on the very day they arrived here, whatever enmity they had seemed to run rather deep. He was a bit curious as to just how Bai Mu got discovered, but now really wasn't the time to ask about it. Bai Mu's expression was a bit dark as he looked at Yin Long's back, but his words were once again quickly interrupted by a wave of Yin Long's hand.
"I dislike ow..."
"You don't owe me shit. I chose to do this, so why would you owe me a damn thing?"
That was just how Yin Long did things. As long as it was something he himself had chosen, he would accomplish it without fail and without bothering what others thought. He had chosen to help Bai Mu so the consequences were obviously something he would bear.
The four men in front of them didn't move to attack immediately, eyeing Yin Long warily. The strongest among them had reached the 6th Immortal Door, but they had probably heard about his exploits and strength so they were most likely calculating which strategy had the highest chance to succeed. This fit Yin Long just fine, as it gave him the chance to look at Bai Mu out of the corner of his eye.
"You might be able to hide and scurry around if you manage to lose them now, but he most certainly can't. And from our first encounter, I'm guessing you can't entirely control when either of you is in charge, can you?"
This dark-haired Bai Mu could probably hide in the darkness and sneak away from the Bai clan's people with time, but there was no way the naive golden-haired Bai Mu could do that. And there was no way that the Bai clan would need a lot of time to figure out that this black-haired Bai Mu and the golden-haired Bai Mu were the same person. At that time they could just kill the golden-haired version to deal with the trouble in an easy manner.
Back when they first met, this dark-haired Bai Mu had suddenly recoiled and started muttering to himself. It was only a guess, but Yin Long was fairly certain that this meant that the golden-haired Bai Mu was about to take over. Bai Mu didn't respond, but his dark expression served as an answer on its own. And since he had gotten his answer, Yin Long shooed Bai Mu away.
"Then you know what to do, right? As I said, I can consider him something of a friend, so I won't forgive anyone who harms him, understood?"
Bai Mu's expression twitched slightly as he looked at Yin Long with sharp eyes. But he couldn't read a single thing from Yin Long's expression, there was no deceit or the like present in his gaze, the only thing that he could see was a carefree light, as if he was just taking a stroll. He didn't hesitate for too long, nodding his head with a strong expression.
"My initial understanding of you wasn't wrong, you're a strange man. As you said, you chose to do it, so I won't thank you."
Bai Mu waved his hand and launched a wave of darkness at Yin Long, turning around and dashing away before the seemingly liquid darkness reached its target. Yin Long stretched out his hand and touched the darkness, his soul surging out and forming a new sword of the darkness that was Bai Mu's departing gift to him.
He clearly had at least a bit of understanding when it came to Yin Long, he might even be able to see everything the golden-haired Bai Mu saw. As such, he knew that a new sword like this was much better than any thanks he could give. Yin Long traced the back of the departing Bai Mu for a second before he turned his head away, muttering to himself.
"I'd say I'm more of a selfish man than a strange one, but whatever. Goodbye, Bai Mu, good luck on your own journey."
This city was no longer a place Bai Mu could stay, the people of the Bai clan could kill him the moment he changed over to the golden-haired version. As such, he had to leave. And looking at how the golden-haired Bai Mu acted, it didn't seem like he knew about the times the black-haired Bai Mu took over. As such, he had to go so far away that not even the golden-haired version would have the opportunity to come back here once he took over, otherwise it would all have been for nought.
It could be a final goodbye or it could not be, but for the moment the crossing of their paths had ended, splitting off in their own separate directions. Yin Long wasn't too bothered by this, it would be easy for them to meet again in the future if either of them got strong enough to spread their names both far and wide. But that was a thought for the future, for now he had to focus on the present, and the four men that were anxiously eyeing the escaping Bai Mu.
"Now then gentlemen. You haven't taken action yet, so can I take that as a sign that you'll be willing to just leave peacefully?"
He really just spoke the words casually, the injuries on Bai Mu's body showed that they had really tried to kill him so they were unlikely willing to just leave that easily. He could see the eyes of the leading man twitch once as he glanced at the escaping Bai Mu, he seemed rather annoyed and uncertain at the unknown variable that Yin Long had tossed into their plans. But orders were still orders, so he flicked his finger as a signal, all four men shooting forward at once, eliciting a small smile from Yin Long as he grasped the sword that seemed to be filled with black smoke.
"Excellent, I was hoping to get a bit more training for battles like this."