The lost memento.

Yin Long's hand felt clammy as he held his sword and observed Tao Tiankong, the sound of his heart hammering in his chest reverberating throughout his skull. He knew, a single look was all it took for him to realize. Tao Tiankong was a black hole, a dead-end, a fight that couldn't be won. This wasn't his first time looking at someone much stronger than him, but it was the first time he had been in a situation where the other person was showing clear hostility and battle intent.

And so, his instincts flared to life as a result. There was nothing to be gained from this fight, no experience to be earned, no shortcomings to learn. The only thing he could gain from this encounter was death, a final end that left no room for further improvement. And Tao Tiankong seemed to be aware of this fact, the difference in strength couldn't be disparaged after all, so his crimson eyes narrowed gently.

"I'd love to ask what you think you're doing, but you don't look muddle-headed and arrogant. So, can I take it as you being fully aware of what this means?"

The natural pressure he exuded rose sharply as his eyes narrowed, it was as if it was trying to drown out the surroundings. This was the split in the road, there would be no way back once Yin Long stepped onto either of the two paths in front of him. But even so, he didn't lower his sword, markings resembling black leaves appearing on the back of his right hand and spreading all the way up to his face.

"Of course, I'm the one who made the choice after all."

Yin Long's aura turned sinister and ferocious as he drew upon the Netherworld Energy and the yellow law in his soulsea, the yellow crack that appeared on his forehead perfectly separating the black marks from the left half of his face. This was not a situation where he could afford to hold anything back, survival depended on how long he could maintain his cards.

His senses were already spreading out, prodding the surrounding space as he searched for the disturbance that one of his plans relied on. And luckily, he located one that couldn't be considered too far away. If he had to convert the distance to time then he felt confident that he could reach it in 30 seconds. But of course, getting those 30 seconds was easier said than done, especially when Tao Tiankong's face sank heavily.

"This...Netherworld Energy? You're a denizen of the Netherworld who managed to slip out?"

Tiankong's aura fluctuated slightly as he spoke, quietly growing darker as it gained a shade of bloodthirst. Xiao Yin Yu's expression also fluctuated slightly, she came from a large clan so she was more aware of how dangerous the Netherworld and its denizens were to this universe. Yin Long was also caught rather off-guard, but not to the point of losing himself. Tiankong was the young master of one of the largest organizations in this Dominion, it wasn't too far-fetched for him to recognize Netherworld Energy.

"No, I'm not someone who crawled out of that place. But you won't believe that, won't you? After all, there are very few other explanations that can be used to explain why I can use this energy."

Yin Long wasn't so naive as to think that the truth would be enough to convince Tiankong. People needed evidence to support claims, and the higher their positions were the more proof they would need. After all, trust was extremely precious to them, they couldn't just hand it out for free to everyone they met. But Yin Long could not prove that he wasn't from the Netherworld, and if he couldn't prove his innocence then it was better to assume his guilt.

"So another filthy maggot managed to crawl its ugly head up here... I'll remove you before you can stain our world with your taint."

Tiankong's voice was deathly low as he brought out a long black spear from his interspatial ring, its crimson head lightly touching the ground. The difference in strength between the two of them was immense, Tiankong bringing out his weapon showed exactly how serious he was about removing Yin Long, the filth of the Netherworld.

And then, unlike what you'd expect from a situation like this where it should be disgraceful for Tiankong to initiate the fight, he actually made the first move. His body blurred as he vanished from his previous position, moving too fast for Yin Long to actually see his moves. Even tracking him was hard, despite Yin Long's senses being tied to the surrounding space. He couldn't catch his proper location, the best he could do was catch a few faint 'waves' moving through the surrounding space.

The waves weren't enough for him to properly determined what Tiankong was going to do, but where his senses failed his instincts would fill the gap. His right arm shot up, his wrist slightly bent so that it could be flicked at a moment's notice. His sword arrived just beneath Tiankong's spearhead as it appeared, sweeping at Yin Long's chest from the side.

The timing was impeccable, Tiankong was a step and a half away from him to accommodate for the long reach of the spear. So in essence, once Yin Long managed to deflect this one attack, he would have bought himself a second or so as Tiankong would be forced to observe Yin Long's direction and move to adjust his position for the next strike. And that second would be plenty for Yin Long to grab Jin Wang and Yin Yu and start his escape.

But all of that hinged on whether or not he could actually deflect Tiankong's spear. But whether or not it was because he trusted his weapon too much or if he had grown a tad arrogant unnoticeably, he had forgotten the lesson he had drilled into his younger sister's mind. If your opponent tried to redirect your attack then you just needed to use your overwhelming power to shatter their weapon.

The spearhead touched Yin Long's white sword, and without much fanfare or drama, cut right through it. The top half of Yin Long's sword slowly fell to the ground, his pupils trembling quietly as they followed it. But strangely enough, the falling piece never got to hit the ground, it dissolved as if it was being gnawed at by thousands of tiny maws, vanishing in less than a second. But before Yin Long could even wrap his head around the loss of this memento, his body was forced to move, the danger had yet to pass.

It was too late to properly dodge so the most important thing now was to dodge while taking the least damage possibly. As such, he forced himself to take half a step forward so that the shaft of the spear crashed into his chest. Had he tried to take half a step back it would just end with the tip of the spear carving a deep gash in his chest.

He raised one of his legs as the spear smashed into him, tilting his body in the direction that the weapon was sweeping. As a result, the attack knocking him off his feet and spun him to the side, flipping him so that his head was facing the earth. He quickly reached out with his hand and gave the earth a light push, forcing his body to complete the spin so that he could land on his feet again.

The spear was now on his other side, but he could feel that several of his ribs had shattered thanks to the attack. Even his Netherworld energy would need a fair amount of time to heal them with how badly they were wounded, and he felt that he was likely to get several more such wounds over the course of the following seconds.

But on the upside, Tiankong's pupils had shrunk slightly when he saw Yin Long crouch, the simple fact that he had managed to survive that attack was something he could be proud of. But Yin Long didn't have the heart to be proud, his gaze lowering to look at the broken sword in his grasp.

That white sword was the last gift his father had ever given him, and it was this sword he had been wielding when his father gave him the duty of protecting his sisters. And now he had failed to take care of the sword, it had broken because he had been foolish. Now, all he had left of his parents was the interspatial ring on his hand, that ring with the twin dragons coiling around an eye.

GRRR!

A loud roar suddenly rocked the jungle, Jin Wang's swift reaction dragging Yin Long's thoughts back to reality. This was no time to be sentimental and focus on what he had lost, if he couldn't get out of this then he would lose more than just this final present. His pupils slid upward, Tiankong's spear was already descending towards his skull like the hammer of judgment.

Dodging would be tricky since he would be able to make minute adjustments to track Yin Long, meaning that blocking was the best choice. But his main weapon had already broken so it was clear that he could forget about blocking normally, it would just break more of his weapons. And as this thought struck him, a sliver of sadness passed through Yin Long's pupils.

"Ah, thank you for following me, I'm sorry that it had to end like this."

His left hand shot upwards, the curved cyan sword made from wind appearing in his grasp as he drew it out from his soulsea. The weapon collided with the descending spear, and then, before the spear had the chance to cut through it, Yin Long detonated the weapon.

Each of his swords were made by having his soul take over an element or some energy, they were in essence just a bunch of energy held together by his soul. He could dissipate that bit of his soul to shatter the sword, and while this would weaken his soul since it lost a bit of itself, that wound would quickly heal as his parasitic sword drew in the surrounding lifeforce to restore itself.

But this wasn't the same as the shattering he had done when he tried this out, he was detonating both the small fragment of his soul and all the energy in the sword itself. And whenever the swords rested in his soulsea, they would be nourished by the Netherworld energy, meaning that each sword contained a great amount of energy. And right now, all that wild and untamed energy was directed straight at Tiankong.

The spear was pushed aside thanks to the unexpectedly wild energy, Yin Long's chest stinging from both the loss of a piece of his soul and the rampant waves of energy that came from the detonation. The wind whistled wildly, dark cyan waves of energy washing over the surroundings and temporarily drowning out everything else.

But Yin Long didn't allow himself the luxury of spending a second to gather his thoughts, his left hand pushing forward again. An invisible sword filled with a faint tint of yellow appeared in his hand, stabbing directly for Tiankong's waist. He didn't even seem to see the weapon as it pierced through his waist, but his face suddenly distorted violently as he let out a growl of pain.

"Gah! What did you do?!"

Yin Long didn't answer, a slight sense of comfort filling his chest as his parasitic soul drew on the nearest source of abundant lifeforce to restore the loss it had just experienced. And of course, that source was Tiankong. As for the invisible sword that made Tiankong growl in pain, it was the one Yin Long had created in the past, a weapon made purely out of souls. It didn't leave a wound on Tiankong's body and instead stabbed directly into his soul, an excruciating experience for those that managed to survive it.

But once again, Yin Long did not have the luxury of comfort, he knew that this would at best buy him a second or two. So he put all his strength into his legs and shot to the side, rolling once as he reached Xiao Yin Yu and Jin Wang's side.

"Sorry, just bear with it for now. I'll try to answer your questions later."

He didn't give Jin Wang or Yin Yu any chance to complain, tossing Yin Yu onto Jin Wang's back and then picking up Jin Wang's body in a rough manner. Jin Wang was quite large, he was a lion after all, but Yin Long was luckily strong enough to lift him without much problem. Jin Wang had been wounded by the energy bursting out from Yin Long while he was unconscious, that was the only reason Yin Long decided on this way of doing things, it would be faster than having Jin Wang run on his own.

"Alright, time to struggle for our 30 seconds."