章 43: Another gate.
The weightless sensation that accompanied the soft blue light of the spatial array lasted quite a bit longer than Yin Long was used to, he felt like he was floating within a warm pool of water for nearly five minutes before the light around him started to fade. When the light and the weightless sensation fully vanished, Yin Long and Lan Yun finally arrived in what could be called unfamiliar territory.
True, they had a map that actually showed the eight surrounding provinces, but having a map and actually knowing much about where you were was two different concepts. He was slightly familiar with the Deshi clan territory due to his previous profession, but the Lang clan had degraded so much that it was already impossible for them to have any spies or the like within Bluelord City.
As such, the only information he had about their current location was what the map told them, as well as what was common knowledge. But even that common knowledge wasn't something Yin Long was too familiar with, gathering information had always been Lan Yun's forte, killing his sisters' enemies was his forte.
The first thing that struck Yin Long when they arrived within the city wasn't the sights or sounds of the city, it was a salty breeze that brought with it the scent of the sea. The spatial array had brought them to a circular plaza that seemed to be rather close to the edge of the city, peering through some of the openings between the buildings allowed him to just barely see the edge of the island that the city was built on.
Bluelord Ocean, the border of the Sunsong Province, stretched out beyond the edge of the island, furious waves tossing and turning as the entire sea seethed. Yin Long took his eyes off of the small sliver of the ocean he could see and took a look at his surroundings, inspecting the lime-green or white buildings that were scattered rather loosely around him.
The buildings were located in a far less orderly manner than what Yin Long was used to seeing due to living in Wolfsoul city, they seemed to have been placed without rhyme or reason. Their sizes and shapes also varied greatly, some were one-room octagons while others were starting to approach palaces and mansions, he could even see some spires that looked like they belonged on a castle. Lan Yun spoke up from beside him while Yin Long moved his gaze onto the veritable sea of people around them.
"The presence of Territory Lord Bluelord has turned this city into one of the safest places within the province so a lot of people come here either for vacation purposes or in hopes of moving here. Back when the city was first founded, Bluelord stated that anyone who managed to build a house using the materials found on the island could settle down here, that's why everything looks so disorderly. He's since rescinded that statement and prevented new people from settling so easily, but he hasn't kicked out those who built their homes early on."
Lan Yun dug through the information she had gathered on the city while she was still working for the Lang clan, relaying it to the man she knew was more murder-focused than information-focused. She swept her brown eyes through the surroundings while talking, her gaze eventually settling on a tipi-shaped building that had a symbol resembling a winged staff engraved above the door.
"That's the symbol of Bluelord, only establishments connected to him can wear it. No matter what sort of establishment it is, we can ask them if the spatial array to Sunsong Captial is still in the same place as the map says. We can also ask them how much it will cost to use it, we might have to sell a few thi... Is it enemies?"
Lan Yun's voice trailed off and went from a more casual explaining tone to a solemn vigilance when she noticed that Yin Long's faintly narrowed eyes were looking down one of the smaller alleys leading to the edge of the city. Yin Long didn't respond straight away, tilting his head slightly and closing his eyes as if he was sensing something. When he opened his eyes again and shook his head, a faint yellow light flashed through his pupils.
"Can't say for certain if there are any enemies there, but there's something down that alley that resonates strongly with my Netherworld energy. It's not impossible that there is another gate in the process of opening there, that or one of the sinners from the Netherworld may have escaped and is seeking refuge here."
Yin Long started softly tapping his temple while he continued to peer down the alley, eventually turning his gaze onto Jin Wang and Lan Yun. Jin Wang had nothing to say, he just sent a very faint and slightly disdaining sneer at some of the surrounding people while deferring to Yin Long's judgement. Lan Yun knew what he was thinking, a soft smile sneaking up on her lip when she realized that Yin Long may have become free, but he hadn't changed in the slightest.
"Well, lead the way then, we've got a job to do."
Yin Long flashed a slight gratified smile, his gaze turning back onto the alley as a sharp light flashed through his pupils. He made his way through the sea of people within the plaza in a somewhat careful manner, avoiding bumping into people as he moved. Lan Yun copied him, but Jin Wang couldn't be bothered to do so, the way he saw it, people weaker than him should be the ones moving aside for him, not the other way around. It luckily seemed like the people within the plaza were used to it being crowded and pushy, only very few people actually turning their eyes onto Jin Wang when he bumped into them.
Seeing that it was a Demonic beast that had bumped into them, the people frowned slightly while looking at Yin Long, who seemed to be the owner of the beast, but a quick and low growl from Jin Wang ensured that they remained silent and didn't bother Yin Long. The group quickly passed through the sea of people and entered the alley, Yin Long's steps slowing slightly as he started to focus on the resonating feeling to discover where it came from.
They quietly moved through the alley, occasionally turning and heading down other side alleys until it felt like they were almost moving in a zig-zag pattern. But Yin Long's feet eventually stopped, his gaze drifting to the earth beneath him as he crouched down and placed his palm on the ground, which was covered in thin bricks.
"It's here. About 70 or so metres down there's a hidden room that indeed houses a gate that's slightly larger than the one the Tao clan tried to create. There are currently seven people in there but none of them are a threat, I don't think the person responsible for creating the gate wanted to use strong cultivators due to fear that they might alert others just by their strong presence. There is however a spatial array within the room, that seems to be how people get in and out. The array has to be taken care of first before any reinforcements can arrive, then we have to kill the seven people so that they can't alert others about us, dealing with the gate should be saved for last. Can I borrow one of yours and leave Jin Wang to you?"
Yin Long spoke in a hushed tone about what he discovered beneath him, simultaneously using his senses to inspect the room and the seven people within it. With Yin Long entering what could be called his professional mode, Lan Yun did the same and swiftly nodded her head, removing two blue masks shaped like grinning demons from her interspatial ring.
Yin Long slid on the mask, which still smelled of Lan Yun so he guessed that it was likely that this was the mask she herself used most of the time. He started moving his Qi, even drawing upon the energy contained within the apocalyptic cloud of Netherworld energy gathered up within his soulsea. His hand vanished into the earth, his body quickly following it as he phased into the ground, giving Lan Yun one last quick order.
"The three on the far right by the armless woman's corpse, 15 seconds."
Yin Long fully vanished into the earth after he gave the cold order, fully utilizing his law of space to phase through the earth until he arrived just above the underground room. Lan Yun quickly followed him, placing her hands on the ground and using the law of earth that her cultivation manual focused on to move the earth beneath her. Jin Wang heard the earlier order so he stuck close to Lan Yun as the earth beneath them sank down, covering up the ground of the alley where they had just been standing when they sank deep enough.
10 seconds later, she reached the same depth as Yin Long and sent a tiny sliver of her energy through the ground, using it to recreate a simple form of echolocation to check the inside of the room beneath her. She locked on to the three enemies appointed to her and Jin Wang, mentally counting down the seconds.
She ruptured the earth beneath her when the appointed 15th second was reached, solid and heavy shrapnel raining down on three people she was targetting. She and Jin Wang fell into the room along with the shrapnel, Jin Wang immediately opening his mouth and clamping down on the head of a person clad in a simple green robe. The woman didn't even have the time to scream before her head was crushed like an overly ripe melon, the chunks and bits quickly ending up in Jin Wang's stomach.
Yin Long also entered the room at the same time, dropping into it in a much quieter fashion as he stretched out his right arm. He immediately drew in the Netherworld energy around him and formed a blackish-yellow sword, the mark that looked like oval-shaped leaves covered in minute scales starting to appear on his right arm and within his right eye.
He didn't hesitate in the slightest, slashing out with his weapon before his feet even touched the ground. Yin Long's slash contained his law of swords so a blackish-yellow slash of energy left his blade and cut through the air, bisecting one of the people within the room and cutting the spatial array in half. Arrays were very powerful things that could be used by anyone who had the knowledge and the resources, but the drawback was that they could easily be disrupted. With the array slashed in half like this, there was no way for it to function properly, no one could enter or leave the room through it anymore.
Once the array was dealt with, Yin Long slashed out three more times and sent three more slashes cutting through the air, the last three people that were his targets getting sliced in half. The blackish-yellow slashes broke apart and scattered after cutting through the three people, each of them turning into murky motes of light that fell to the ground around Yin Long like dancing leaves.
By the time he finished the last person, he managed to catch a glimpse of Lan Yun finishing her last person as well. Her greataxe moved in an unexpectedly fluid and graceful manner, slicing through the last man four times and causing bloody chunks to fall to the ground with dull thuds. There would be some merit to keeping at least one person alive for questioning, but Yin Long and Lan Yun knew that this was a job that had to be completed and evacuated swiftly.
The more time they spent here the greater the risk of being found was, the person responsible for creating the gate might even put all the blame on them. And looking at how much effort it was to create and nurture such a gate, it was clearly not a small figure behind this. As such, they didn't waste much time on words, Yin Long just pointed at the wall closest to Lan Yun and gave another short order.
"500 metres to the right and 58 metres up."
Lan Yun gave a simple nod and hopped to the wall, placing her hands against it and once again started moving the earth in front of her. Jin Wang quickly swallowed down the three corpses closest to him and then followed Lan Yun, the wall returning to normal behind them as they moved through the earth.
With them leaving, Yin Long turned his gaze onto the Netherworld gate, gathering more of the Netherworld energy into his blade. His soul did the same that it had done every other time he came into contact with Netherworld energy, it greedily swallowed as much as it could and drew it into the apocalyptic cloud within his soulsea.
This gate was larger than the previous one he had seen, he also didn't have the talisman his parents gave him so he wasn't sure if he could close it with his own power. But he wasn't planning on closing it with his own power, he was planning on forcing someone else to move into action to deal with it. Netherworld energy was a vile thing that was almost universally despised, if a Netherworld gate was discovered here it wouldn't matter who created it, Bluelord would have to work to close it.
If he didn't, Province Emperor Sunsong would likely move to kill him. And even on the off chance that it was Sunsong himself that ordered this gate to be made, once news spread about the gate, other Province Emperors would start paying attention to this area, leaving him with no choice but to close the gate.
Yin Long finished gathering energy within his blade and then slashed out, aiming at the ceiling above him as he unleashed as much energy as he could. A half-metre wide slash moved through the air and cut into the ceiling, rushing upward until it broke through the surface and then exploded with a thunderous bang as the Netherworld energy gathered in the attack spread out.
Yin Long moved to the same wall as Lan Yun the moment he unleashed his attack, spending a second to gather his energy before he phased through the earth and escaped the room. More and more people gathered around the large opening torn into the ground of the alley, curiously peering down the tunnel and into the hole. Someone quickly recognized the Netherworld energy and called out in alarm, guards swiftly arriving on the scene.
But none of this mattered to Yin Long or Lan Yun, who met up in the place he had told her about. They removed their masks and changed robes just to be on the safe side, quickly asking about the location of the spatial array that led to the Sunsong Capital.
They luckily didn't have to sell anything, but after paying for the fees of using the array they were down to only 10% of their starting wealth, about 100 low-grade Spirit Stones. And as they stepped into the spatial array, news of the Netherworld Gate reached the ruler of the city, Bluelord.
Bluelord sat within a lime-green gazebo while an armoured soldier kneeled and conveyed the news. Bluelord had gleaming blue eyes and a bald head that seemed to even be polished slightly, a few wrinkles faintly visible around his eyes. He quietly listened to the news and then dismissed the soldier with a grave face, remaining seated within the gazebo. Once the soldier left, Bluelord clenched his hand and pulverized the crystal cup he was holding, even the boiling hot tea within the cup turning into steam that blew away.
"Fuck...fuck...fuck. Did someone discover it, or was it an explosion from the gate itself? No, the report said that the tunnel was elongated and only half a metre wide, if the gate had unleashed a blast of energy it would have torn a much larger hole. A saber cultivator? Maybe a greatsword or a greataxe cultivator?"
Bluelord tapped the polished stone table in front of him with his finger while he murmured to himself, each tap of his finger leaving a small indent in the table. After continuing this for a few seconds, he released a heavy breath from his nose and stood up, his crimson robe flowing almost like water as he left the gazebo with a serious expression.
"Damnit, it's not easy nurturing these gates but now I'll have to close one without gaining anything. I'll have to report this to Lionfang and Starblood so that they'll be a bit more careful, I should probably also report it to Lord Floodlight."
Bluelord grumbled and complained while continuing to ponder just who might have discovered his work, but he had no idea that the person responsible was already leaving his city in a slightly hasty manner to avoid being discovered.
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