Netherworld, Celestial World.

Yin Long stood up again, the sound of wood cutting through the air reaching his ears almost instantly. He quickly bent his knees and reached for the pieces of the branch that had just shattered, but the fragments were strangely pushed away just as his fingers were about to wrap around them. His smile grew a touch bitter when he realized what this meant, and sure enough, the wooden sword smacked him on the head almost right away, once again knocking him to the ground and earning him a lecture.

"Wrong! A broken blade can never be used again so don't reach for it. Grasp a new one, a better one!"

It didn't matter how much Yin Long felt like grumbling and pouting, he could only stand up and do his best to shake off his grogginess. But just as he expected, the sound of the next attack came straight away, it didn't even wait for him to properly stand up before it came. He quickly stopped standing up and dropped to the ground, rolling to the side and just barely dodging the attack. But just as the first attack missed him, a second one he hadn't noticed hit him, a solid thwack sounding out as the wood hit his head. This time he couldn't help but roll a bit on the ground while clutching the new lump on his head, complaining to Bai Xiang all the while.

"Unfair! Bad Grampa Xiang! You didn't wait for me to stand up and you sent two attacks rather than just one! Bad Grampa. Unfair Grampa!"

They had trained together for about two and a half years now, but this was the first time that Bai Xiang had sent out more than one attack at a time, it was also the first time he had attacked before Yin Long managed to stand up properly. But the only response he got to his complaining was a disdainful scoff and another lecture he was forced to go along with.

"Unfair? Do you think your enemies will care about fairness when they are trying to kill you? In battles, there is no room for mercy. In survival, there is no room for mercy, if you see a chance you have to grasp it. You are the only son in your family, what does that mean you have to do once your parents reach the end of their life?"

Bai Xiang often gave Yin Long lectures, it was practically the only thing he ever did. Yin Long couldn't even remember the last time he was praised for doing something, it had always been lecture after lecture. But this was the first time Bai Xiang had actually asked a question during one of his lectures, Yin Long only needing a short second before responding while gritting his teeth.

"I must protect Big Ru and Little Huo!"

His parents were very transparent to him and his sisters, they were already very old and probably didn't have too many years left in them, probably 20 more at best. As such, Yin Long and the others didn't have too much time on their hands, they had to become strong enough to inherit their parents' heritage. And as the only son in the family, Yin Long considered it his duty to protect his sisters, even if he had yet to find a cultivation manual that he could use. Bai Xiang didn't let up, his voice echoing out again, this time containing a touch more fervor, egging Yin Long on.

"And how exactly do you plan on protecting them? With that broken sword of yours? What do you need to grasp?"

"A bigger sword."

Yin Long's small hands clenched slightly as he responded. His hands were still too small and weak to properly grasp anything, the goal he had to reach was still quite distant to him. But Bai Xiang didn't let up, continuing to talk with Yin Long, pushing him on.

"Is that it?"

Yin Long could hear something cutting through the air as Bai Xiang spoke, an attack was definitely headed for him as they spoke. He spun around onto his back, his voice reaching a higher pitch as he responded.

"A sharper sword, a stronger sword!"

The responses had long since been drilled into Yin Long through the training. He was the blade, his body and soul were the sword, all he had to do was picture it and grasp his weapon. But he had no clue what it was Bai Xiang meant whenever he said this, leaving him utterly stumped. As he laid on his back, he could just faintly see the brown wooden sword move through the air as it headed for him, the voice of Bai Xiang echoing out as if he wasn't sending out an attack.

"Will that be enough?"

Yin Long's gaze focused fully on the incoming wooden sword, his immature eyes slowly lighting up with a faint light. The answer to this question was also drilled into his head, if his sword didn't break, he was immortal.

"A perfect sword, an unbreakable sword!"

Yin Long's hand moved on instinct after he uttered the words in his high-pitched and immature voice, his empty right hand swinging out. But as his hand moved, he felt the faintest trace of movement in his palm, it was as if the wind was gathering there, a tiny and nearly transparent sword covered in a pattern formed from what seemed to be leaves covered in scales forming within his grasp.

The tiny sword collided with the incoming wooden sword and shattered, but the impact diverted the attack enough that the sword missed his head and only hit him in the abdomen. The air was knocked out of his chest, but Yin Long's eyes lit up with tremendous excitement as he hopped up from the ground and excitedly waved his hand around.

"Did you see that, Grampa Xiang? Did you, did you?! That was so cool! So I have an affinity for wind, do I, do I?! Why didn't you just tell me right away, Grampa Xiang, then I could have done something so cool much earlier!"

Yin Long opened and closed his hand a few times, trying to replicate the phenomenon he had just seen. But the tiny sword refused to appear again, and even worse was that another wooden sword came from behind and hit him down to the ground again while Bai Xiang continued to lecture him.

"Wrong, your affinity isn't wind. If you'd just bothered to pay proper attention to yourself or to what just happened just now, you would have realized that. I have told you all I can tell you, you are the blade, your body and soul your sword. If I tell you any more, you'll end up like my last disciple, you'll stray from your own path and fall into depravity. Now get up, we'll continue. Try to remember what you just felt, you should be able to freely replicate it one day."

Yin Long had never heard about Bai Xiang having a previous disciple, but from the tremendous sadness he heard in his voice, it was clear that it was a very sore topic for Bai Xiang. Yin Long didn't question it further, gritting his teeth and standing up, his eyes blazing with a faint light as he readied himself.

Bai Xiang continued to launch attacks and Yin Long did his best to dodge while trying to replicate the sword creation he had just seen. Knowing that he could do it on his own, he stopped trying to reach for the branches as he dodged around, focusing everything on re-creating what he had already achieved once.

But he quickly learned that replicating it was far harder than he could imagine, he hadn't even been able to reform the slightest trace of a sword even after getting hit on the head a further 20 times. At this point, Yin Long was sprawled out on the ground and didn't move an inch, exhaustedly complaining in a slurred and dragged out voice.

"Graaampa Xiang, I can't take it anymore. My head is already lumpier than Aunty Tang's face, any more and I'll end up permanently deformed. Graaampa Xiang, can't we rest?"

Yin Long hadn't been able to replicate the feeling he had when he created the sword and his body was sore all over, his head was especially sore after getting hit so many times. It didn't matter how astute and diligent he could be, he was still only a three-year-old child so it was only natural for him to want some breaks when he was sore and tired. There was a slight silence from the fog before a soft thud, as if the back of someone's head got slapped, rang out, the voice of Wei Ru sounding out.

"Stop tormenting the child like that and just respond properly. Little Yin, don't worry about the old geezer and go rest. But you should hurry after leaving the fog, you might catch a cold if you play in the rain for too long."

Yin Long immediately sprang up from the ground upon being dismissed, his tired expression turning into a grin. He gave a quick bow to the fog and excused himself.

"Thank you, Gramma Ru! I'll be back tomorrow!"

He quickly turned and ran away, ignoring the quiet voice that called him a brat as he escaped from the fog. The moment he left the boundaries of the fog, drops of water splashed against his face, a fierce torrential downpour hammering the land all around him. Compared to the dry calmness of the fog, it was quite a drastic change that left Yin Long marveling at the capabilities of Bai Xiang and Wei Ru.

Yin Long ran barefoot through the rain, a thunderous rumbling occasionally resounding through the area as bolts of lightning lit up the sky. Yin Long ran with pattering steps, occasionally stopping or taking a small detour to splash around in some of the larger puddles that had already formed in the hour that he had spent training. But just as he jumped into another one of the puddles, a particularly loud explosion rocked the sky, a beautiful bolt of azure lightning streaking down from the clouds and crashing into the earth a mere five meters from Yin Long.

The sound was so loud that Yin Long temporarily lost the ability to hear anything, the bolt of lightning so bright that it blinded him. For a short few seconds, he felt as if he had entered a pure white world filled with an incessant ringing, had it not been for the fact that he felt himself jumping in fright, he might have suspected that he died just now.

He immediately stopped playing and ran as fast as he could, still blinded and deafened by the lightning. As a result, he ran face-first into the wall of the mansion and knocked himself down, the taste of blood filling his mouth as his head spun around. He slowly regained his clarity after a handful of seconds, his vision and hearing also returning to him.

He quickly jumped up from the muddy ground and ran for the mansion entrance, ignoring his bleeding nose the entire while. The situation just now had frightened him quite a bit, especially the period of blindness and deafness, it was something he had never experienced before.

He threw open the doors of the mansion and scurried through the hallways, ignoring the maids that wanted to warn him about how dirty he was. All sensibility and astuteness had been thrown aside, right now he was just a frightened child that ran for the comfort of his parents.

He quickly reached the place where his mother should be helping Lang Ru and Lang Huo cultivate, a large and open room on the fourth floor where the family would occasionally gather. The doors were already open when he reached the room, which only contained two bookshelves as well as a rectangular table with a long couch on each side. The table and couches were placed right up against a nearly 15-meter tall window that stretched from the floor all the way to the ceiling, allowing those sitting on the couches to see out across not only the forest surrounding the mansion but also above the distant wall that circled the city.

Lang Meng and Lang Hua were already sitting on the couches, Lang Ru and Lang Huo cuddling up close to their mother while looking out the window. Yin Long ran across the room and jumped forward the moment he got close to the couch, soaring through the air for a bit before being caught by his father, who held him close with a gentle smile as he took out a tissue and wiped Yin Long's face.

"Did Uncle Xiang beat you up too badly again? Or did you fall and hit yourself while playing around in the puddles?"

Lang Meng didn't bother with the mud that stained him or the couch after Yin Long jumped into his embrace, he simply held him close and warmed his wet body. Yin Long didn't answer his questions, only clinging tightly to him while his pupils were flickering and trembling. The azure bolt of lightning had seared itself into his retinas, he could still see it now even with open eyes, he could even hear the rumbling of the thunder that it had unleashed, both aspects had burned themselves into Yin Long's young mind.

Lang Meng held Yin Long a bit closer, softly rubbing his back to ease his fears. He then turned his gaze onto the window, his eyes seemingly piercing through the torrential rain as the started to speak.

"You know, there's a legend that actually speaks about storms like this one? They say that each such storm is the Celestial World and the Netherworld gathering up warriors for the war that takes place every 100 000 years. Each bolt of lightning that strikes the earth is another sinful soul dragged to the netherworld and each rainbow is a virtuous soul ascending to the Celestial World. So whenever you look at a storm like this, the best way to ease your fears is by counting the lightning bolts that strike the earth, each one is one less sinner that walks the earth."

Yin Long raised his head slowly and peeked out through the window, Lang Ru and Lang Huo also looking through the grass. The three children counted the bolts of lightning that they could see hit the earth, and they also peered out across the city walls to the end of the stormclouds, counting the three rainbows they saw in the distance. The three rainbows were dazzlingly bright despite being so far away, but compared to the numerous bolts of lightning they were like grains of sand on a beach, a fact that Yin Long couldn't help but note.

" Papa, there are only three rainbows, but there have already been almost 20 bolts of lightning striking the ground. If it continues like this, won't the Celestial World be overwhelmed?"

His father said that it was just a legend, but there was no way that Yin Long would doubt his father's words, he was definitely speaking the truth. Lang Meng smiled softly at Yin Long, but it was Lang Hua that answered the question, gently stroking the hair of Yin Long's sisters.

"There are indeed more sinners than virtuous souls, that is how it has always been and how it will always be. But the quantity doesn't matter, the quality makes all the difference. Even if 10 000 sinful souls cover the skies, a single virtuous soul will be able to wipe them all away and restore the blue sky. So you don't need to worry about anything, there will always be a virtuous soul to wipe away the dark clouds and reveal the blue sky."

Yin Long and his sisters listened to their mother's explanation with wide eyes. Such a difference in quality was really exaggerated, it was to the point that it was mind-boggling. One of Lang Meng's eyebrows rose slightly as Lang Hua gave her explanation, his gaze lowering slightly to look at the sapphire-encrusted golden ring he wore on his left arm. The sapphire embedded into the ring was glowing very faintly, a bit of mist visible within it. The mist vanished when Lang Meng looked at it, a wide smile forming on his face.

"Tomorrow you'll all have to wake up early, especially you, Little Yin. Our family is getting a new member and I want you all to meet her."