Capítulo 15: Assassins.
Yin Long and the three men faced each other, the three robed men quietly exchanging a few looks, seemingly deciding on the best formation for the upcoming battle. After remaining stationary for a handful of seconds, all three of the men charged forward, the two unknown ones a step ahead of Siu Kong, one on the right and one on the left.
Yin Long started acting the moment they charged forward, his blade twisting downwards and stabbing into the already pierced skull of the bear. He then flicked his sword upward, tearing out a chunk of the beast's skull and launching both the chunk and a large amount of blood at the three attackers.
The two in the front waved their swords slightly to pat away the drops of blood coming at them, Yin Long charging forward the moment they moved their weapons. The distance between them at this point was a mere five meters, crossing such a short distance within the blink of an eye was no problem with both parties charging at each other. The swords of the two men had just risen into a vertical position when Yin Long arrived in front of them, his body practically lowering into a crouch so that his sword could slash out from the left, heading for the thighs of the man on the right.
But they seemed to have expected a situation like this, Siu Kong swiftly stepped forward and stabbed downwards with his own sword, blocking Yin Long before his attack could reach its target. The men finished swatting away the incoming blood just as Yin Long's attack was blocked, allowing both of them to unimpededly stab their swords down at Yin Long's head now that his own sword was blocked.
But Yin Long simply moved his weapon to his left hand and tilted his sword so that the edge was facing upwards and the flat side of it was resting against the blade of Siu Kong's sword. He then put some force into his arm and swung the blade upwards, sliding it along the edge of Siu Kong's blade and then tilting it slightly to slash diagonally at the waist of the man on the left.
He tilted his body in a strange manner at the same time, it almost looked as if his foot slipped out from underneath him and he ended up stumbling forward. But thanks to his twisting and stumbling, the stabs of the two men just barely missed his body, which had stumbled so far forward that he was practically squeezed between the two men, a mere centimeter away from Siu Kong's blade.
Siu Kong's weapon was in an awkward position, it was still stabbed into the ground after blocking Yin Long's attack and thus couldn't be drawn out and used to stab at Yin Long to prevent his attack. But Siu Kong had another way of attacking Yin Long, as did the two other men.
Their Qi burst out and sank into the ground, the fallen leaves and branches that littered the forest floor starting to move under the influx of the Qi. The energy filled them and caused them to rise up, the leaves coiling around each other to form sharp poles while the branches turned into arrows of various sizes.
All the weapons formed in less than two seconds and then rose up from underneath Yin Long, aiming to impale his somewhat exposed chest. There was a slight difference in reaction time between the three people, resulting in the attacks coming at Yin Long in waves, rather than all at once. Yin Long's eyes flashed coldly as he saw the incoming attacks, there was no room for mercy in a battle, not to yourself and not to your enemies, especially not now that the awaited moment had come.
His right palm faced the wooden arrows that were the first wave of attacks, nearly all of Yin Long's power and Qi flooding into the hand and causing the veins on it to bulge and writhe like worms. This was his bet, his bet that his relentless charge made it so that Siu Kong and the others were too rushed in their attacks to properly control them.
He could feel the rainbow-hued sword that was his soul shine with a brilliant light that flooded into and out of his right hand, surrounding the wooden arrows and latching onto them. The arrows trembled faintly, and then, to the shock of Siu Kong who had launched the attack, they broke free of his control. The arrows gathered beneath Yin Long's palm and gathered together into a brown sword brimming with power, Yin Long's hand clenching around the handle.
His soul was a sword, it was a parasite, and now it had latched onto and stolen the power of Siu Kong's attack. Yin Long forcibly stopped his left arm from moving further and then leaned his body to the right, swiping out with the newly created sword at the same time. His sword cut through the left leg of the man to his right, causing him to let out a scream of pain that was only intensified when Yin Long's body collided with his now severed leg.
Yin Long rolled against the man's legs, pushing the severed leg and his own body into the remaining leg of the man, resulting in the man's body becoming so unstable that he tilted and fell over. He fell directly onto the spot where Yin Long had just been, the leaf poles and wooden arrows that constituted the second and third wave of attacks piercing into his torso and throat.
Yin Long's left arm had trailed behind since he had forcibly stopped it while it was attacking the man on the left, but thanks to his senses he was able to position it so that it wasn't pierced and crippled by the attacks, only cut open by a few of them. Yin Long finished his roll just as the screams of the now dead man seized, springing into a standing position and taking off in the forest at full speed.
He had gotten a good sense of his own power and the power of the three others just now, especially the strength of their Qi. And the conclusion he had come to was that he was probably as strong as someone at the 5th Mortal Door, at least when it came to the strength of his Qi. Had it not been for Siu Kong and the others being rushed and caught a bit off guard, Yin Long guessed that it would have been impossible for him to turn their attacks into his sword.
It was a bit disappointing that the strength of his Qi was so low despite so many years having passed, but he was certain that once he created his own cultivation technique and actually started properly cultivating, his strength would increase greatly thanks to his already strong Qi. But while he thought excited him, he had to throw it to the back of his mind and focus on his pursuers.
He killed one of them thanks to his surprise attack, but he was confident that things would only get worse for him if he continued fighting, especially now that Siu Kong and the others had seen his parasitic sword. As such, Yin Long needed another trick to take care of the last two, otherwise, they would hunt him down and finish him off. He was about a three hours march away from the exit of the forest and it was thus highly unlikely that he would be able to reach the end of the forest before they caught him.
He heard a furious shout from behind him as the two remaining men started their pursuit, his white sword vanishing into his interspatial ring. He didn't dissipate the brown sword he had just created, he could feel a tremendous amount of pure energy rush to his wounds from the sword. The law of wood was one of the more vigorous laws in existence, wood itself was filled with an abundant amount of life energy, otherwise, trees wouldn't be able to grow.
And now that his soul had siphoned a bit of the law of wood that Siu Kong used within his attack, the vigorous lifeforce within it was quietly entering his body through the sword. But the process was fairly slow, much slower than when Yin Long absorbed the energy within the sword that had been created from the bear's blood, it was probably slower since Siu Kong was stronger than the bear and thus had stronger energy. But even though it was slow, every little bit helped right now so he was more than a bit joyous.
He swiped his interspatial ring and once again took out the cucumber-size vial filled with paste, using his mouth to remove the cork and spitting it away. He held the vial with his right elbow and crudely poured the paste onto his wounded left arm and then used the wrist of his right arm to spread the paste over all his wounds, forming a thick layer to stop the bleeding. It became a bit troublesome to maneuver his arm once the paste solidified, but it was better than continuously losing blood.
Yin Long fled through the forest as quickly as he could, but the sounds from his two pursuers never vanished, they always stuck close to him. Yin Long would occasionally have to change direction to avoid a Demonic beast, jump to dodge a smaller animal that had gotten in his path, or even dodge some of the arrows that the pursuers fired after him.
But he never once seemed uneasy as he ran, his steps were always sure and confident, he knew exactly where he had to run. And after running at full speed for nearly 20 minutes, Yin Long finally reached the area he was looking for, an area he had passed through a short while before encountering the bear.
The area looked just like any other, rotten branches and fallen leaves covering the floor of the plentiful open space between the tall and thick trees. The area was completely empty except for a single small kitten that was only a bit bigger than a grapefruit, its fur a faded yellow color. The kitten was sniffing at a certain spot on the ground, its head tilting somewhat curiously as it poked at the leaves with its tiny paws.
Yin Long's eyebrows rose slightly when he spotted the cat, mainly due to the fact that it was smack dab in the middle of his path, it was even standing right by his target. Yin Long was forced to duck down to dodge an arrow that shot at him so he could only ignore the cat for now, running the last three steps and then throwing himself down and sliding along the leaves.
The cat jumped in fright as Yin Long barrelled towards it, resulting in it ending up on Yin Long's stomach as he slid onto the leaves that the cat had just sniffed. And as he touched the leaves, they vanished beneath him, his entire body sliding down the nearly one and a half meter wide hole hidden beneath them. Escaping the forest to escape his pursuers was nigh impossible, so he came to the conclusion that this was his best chance, utilizing the entrances to the true Underearth Forest.
He slid through the long and winding tunnel at full speed, the sound of his pursuers arriving at the same area reaching his ears. They had been right behind him and had seen him slide into the entrance to Underearth Forest loudly discussing amongst each other while peering down into the tunnel.
"Geh, he's entered Underearth Forest. Should we return and deliver the news?"
The sound of a slap followed Siu Kong's question, the other person responding with a slight scoff.
"You know the mission. It doesn't matter if he's 99% guaranteed to die, it is our duty to ascertain that he is dead, even if it costs our own lives. Go!"
Following the stern order was the sound of two people jumping into the tunnel, Yin Long's lips curving up slightly. He finally dissipated the brown sword he had created, he would need two hands from now on if he wanted to accomplish his goal. He felt a slight stinging pain on his chest and lowered his head to look at the cat, which had dug its claws into his chest and was yowling while glancing at the place they were heading. Yin Long swiped his interspatial ring and took out a sturdy pickaxe, catching the attention of the cat.
"If you don't want to die then I suggest you hold on tight, otherwise it'll be a long drop."
The cat's eyes opened wide as it stared at Yin Long, its yowling changing into an ear-piercing meow that sounded like it was complaining to him for dragging it into this. He ignored the cat and focused his gaze on the front, on the light that was rapidly getting closer, on the end of the tunnel.
He spun his body so that he was lying face down the moment his feet passed through the end of the tunnel half a minute later, slamming the pickaxe down just as his face passed through the end of the tunnel. The pickaxe pierced into the earth and brought his momentum to an instantaneous stop, his hand sliding down the handle for a bit before he managed to secure his grip.
There was no earth at the end of the tunnel, what followed the tunnel was a freefall of several thousand meters to the true Underearth Forest. He was now on the ceiling of a vast cavern, large green vines hanging down all around him, leading down to the forest beneath him. As for the forest beneath him, it was so massive that it even contained several large lakes and a few mountains, a single massive crystal embedded in the ceiling of the cavern unleashing a bright golden light, serving as the sun. This was the true Underearth Forest, home to countless terrifying beasts.
Yin Long managed to stop his sliding so that he didn't plummet directly to the ground, but all that momentum had to go somewhere. His body ended up swinging while grasping onto the pickaxe that had dug itself into the earth at the very end of the tunnel, he almost looked like a pendulum.
The sounds of his pursuers sliding through the tunnel rapidly approached him so he knew that he had to act quickly, taking advantage of the swinging to get close to the ceiling that was located right at the side of the tunnel. He let out a deep breath and gathered all his remaining Qi on his left hand and then let go of the pickaxe once he was close to the ceiling again.
His left hand shot out towards the ceiling, his fingers practically curling into claws as he grasped at the earthen ceiling. His Qi was tainted by the laws of space and sword so his fingers acted as blades and dug directly into the ceiling, Yin Long clenching his hand once his fingers had pierced into the ceiling.
He removed his Qi while clenching his hand, preventing his fingers from slicing through the earth and resulting in him hanging from the ceiling half a meter away from the end of the tunnel. Yin Long let out a heavy breath, thankful that his thoughts hadn't been wrong. The Lang clan luckily had quite a few texts about this Underearth Forest so he had been prepared for the strange scenery and managed to act quickly. His free left hand grabbed onto the cat, which was clinging desperately to his chest, and placed it within the open neck part of the robe.
"Stay here and don't move, otherwise you'll just fall."
He didn't have to save this cat, but as he was the one who dragged it into this, and since it wouldn't cost him anything to do so, he didn't mind saving it right now. Once the cat was placed and he made sure that it didn't toss and turn, his free hand swiped his interspatial ring and took out his white sword. He then held his breath and quietly waited, the sound of people quickly coming from the tunnel in front of him.
"A pickaxe, so that's what he was planning! He should have lost his grip and fallen, but we can't take any risks in case he grabbed onto a vine, we must find his corpse and make sure that there are no traces of us. There will be a few vines not far from the entrance, aim for those!"
Two pairs of feet shot out from the entrance a handful of seconds after the voice sounded out, the lower bodies and then torsos of the two pursuers following right after. The two looked around the moment their bodies flew out of the tunnels, their eyes immediately locking onto the closest vine, which was in the opposite direction of Yin Long.
Siu Kong felt that something was wrong as he used his Qi to twist a part of the vine closer to them, his head unconsciously turning to look behind them. His gaze landed on Yin Long's merciless expression, as well as on the sword that was already mere centimeters away from his neck. He didn't even have the time to scream or cry, the sword sliced into his neck and severed his head from his body, continuing on without pause and slicing into the skull of the man who was right next to him, cutting his head in half horizontally.
It didn't matter whether or not they were facing him, Yin Long had sliced out with his sword the moment the lower bodies of the two passed through the end of the tunnel, there had never been a chance for them to react. Their bodies turned limp and their Qi stopped affecting the vine, the four pieces that they had become falling to the forest below to become fertilizer.
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