30 seconds of life and death.

Yin Long didn't hesitate or waste another second, chucking his ruined sword into his interspatial ring before picking up the duo and bursting into a desperate sprint. 30 seconds, that was all he would need, if he could survive for 30 seconds without his feet stopping then this would be counted as his victory. That was the only thought he allowed himself to have, there was no room for hesitation or uncertainty, all he allowed was complete confidence.

He felt a horrible tremble run through the earth beneath him practically the moment he sprung forward, a furious roar erupting from Tao Tiankong's throat. Wounds to the soul were exceedingly dangerous, they were also amongst the hardest to heal. After all, not everyone was like Yin Long, whose soul could heal by sucking in the surrounding lifeforce.

Yin Long's feet gave the ground a gentle kick, his body shooting diagonally forward. The earth where he had just been running exploded upwards just as his feet left it, a several tens of metres deep and several hundreds of metres long gorge appearing. He hadn't seen Tiankong's attack, but he had felt the waves his spear left as it cut through the air, the horrifying power it unleashed as it tore open the land.

But as could be expected from such a violent attack, just hopping diagonally wasn't enough to truly evade it. Several jagged shards of earth had shot into his leg, two of them finding his waist and digging into his side. Fresh blood splattered the land, but Yin Long's steps didn't even falter for a single second. He was all too familiar with pain, pain had been his closest companion when he trained, it was far from enough to hinder him.

But that attack was just the signal flare of Tiankong's pursuit, all the hairs on Yin Long's neck suddenly standing on edge as he felt the shadow of death loom over him. He was carrying Jin Wang and Yin Yu with his right arm so it was his left arm that swung out, a quiet apology flashing through his heart as a wavy blue sword that looked like it was composed of water appeared in his grasp.

He didn't even look behind him, nor did he bother trying to figure out exactly which angle the attack was coming from. He simply detonated all the energy in the sword, a screen of water appearing behind him for a second before it erupted with a sound similar to a crashing tidal wave. Streams and drops of water were shot in every direction, reaching such speeds that they pierced directly through the trees without stopping.

Yin Long had maintained a semblance of control this time, at least steering the direction of the eruption, but three drops still ran right through his back. He twisted his body slightly so that his lungs or vital organs weren't pierced, but this meant that more blood was now pouring out from his body. His Netherworld energy was healing him, but it had its limits when he just piled on injury after injury, even it would need time.

But the looming shadow of death faded slightly as the curtain of water exploded, Tiankong's pursuit had definitely been forced to slow down somewhat. But Yin Long wasn't content yet, because the shadow of death had only faded slightly, not vanished. His left hand was still pointed backwards in an awkward angle, his dull but sharp-tipped wooden sword appeared in front of his palm and was launched towards the now detectable Tiankong.

But the moment his energy flared to eradicate the weapon, it too exploded in a magnificent eruption of elements. It was as if a beating wooden heart appeared in the middle of the air, spike-like branches scattering throughout the air like a spider's web. But Tiankong was no fool, he had been caught off-guard twice already, but that would be the last of it.

The branches pierced towards him, but each of them vanished before they managed to even touch his robe, the jagged edges that remained looked as if something had bitten down on them. Tiankpng's eyes were dark as he looked at the fleeing Yin Long, whose steps hadn't slowed in the slightest. His body started to blur as he chased, but it was at this exact moment that a soft mutter from Yin Long reached his ears.

"Ahh, today really is a day of loss. Forgive me, all of you."

It didn't seem as if he was addressing Yin Yu or even Tiankong, more as if he was muttering quietly to himself and Tiankong had only picked it up thanks to his enhanced hearing. But the moment the mutter dropped, Tiankong's pupils shrank slightly.

Three more swords appeared in front of Yin Long's hand, an earthen brown greatsword, a greyish Jiang, and a translucent greatsword. His hand was pushed back once again, all three swords flying out at the same time.

They didn't follow the same path since he couldn't detect Tiankong properly once he actually moved, but it was fine as long as they moved in his general direction. And do so they did, the earthen sword and greyish sword piercing into the earth a few steps behind Tiankong while the translucent sword stopped in the air a few metres in front of him.

All three swords exploded at the same time, the two behind Tiankong sending a plume of earth and stone hurtling towards the sky while the one in front of him unleashed a crushing sensation that flattened the nearest trees. One rose skyward while the other pushed downward, and Tiankong just so happened to be trapped in the middle, forced to resist both forces.

His aura flared up, turning into something reminiscent of dark smoke as it erased all traces of even the descending pressure. His eyes peered gloomily through the ascending geyser of earth and stone, piercing directly into Yin Long's fleeing back.

"You! I'll admit that you are tri...!"

He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence, Yin Long had no intentions of giving him that chance. By the time the geyser of earth shot up, three more swords had already shot out. And the time they reached Tiankong was exactly as he was growling darkly.

A brilliant light erupted in front of Tiankong as the swords detonated, a wave of fire washing towards him from the front while a wave of blood and a downpour of ice rained down on him from above. Yin Long had thrown out sword after sword in quick succession, his face pallid as he didn't even turn to look at the carnage he caused.

Each sword was him, each contained a piece of his soul, detonating them was painful on both his soul and his mind. But he luckily had Jin Wang and Yin Yu right by his side so his soul could drain some life force from them to repair itself, otherwise, it would already be on the brink of collapse, and that would be the death of Yin Long.

All sound suddenly vanished from the world, even the creaking of the trees and the gentle whisper of the wind vanishing. The sun seemed to vanish as darkness washed over the land, the air turning so sickeningly sticky and heavy that it felt like he was trying to breathe in mud. He could feel his strength dissipating at an alarming rate, the surroundings seemingly eating away at him.

"I don't know what sort of strange skill you use to create weapons with such destructive power, but no more. This ends here. You may be a denizen of the Netherworld that is trying to steal my fiancee, but I have acknowledged you as dangerous, so I will at least honour you with letting you waste away in my domain."

The cold voice of Tiankong came from behind, the sound of his soft footsteps the only other sound in this dark world. Domain, one of the greatest abilities of mighty cultivators, it took over control of a part of the world and turned it into one tuned solely for you. If you could not pierce your opponent's domain then you would simply lose, they would be empowered while you would be weakened, each second spent in it was another second closer to death.

"This domain is but a pale shade of the real deal, but its core law is the law of devouring, a part of the exalted Void King's Prime Law. I won't ask you to feel pride in it, but you should at least know what it is that took your life."

Tiankong wasn't shy about explaining the core of his domain, his main law and greatest source of strength. Yin Long had never heard of a Prime Law or someone known as the Void King, the Lang clan at its peak may have records of them, but it was inevitable that a good portion of their archives would vanish after their decline.

And Yin Long could clearly feel why Tiankong was this confident, the domain was devouring his strength so quickly that he would run dry in another three seconds. And once he ran out of energy, it would be his body and soul that were devoured next, that was the viciousness of devouring.

But he didn't give up, nor did he allow his feet to stop for even a single second. 20 seconds had already passed, it had cost him a lot, but he had cleared 2/3rds of the way, only a measly 10 seconds remained. But with just his strength alone, he knew that breaking the domain was impossible, it was just a pipe dream.

That was, unless he brought out something truly special, something truly out of the ordinary. And so, as he continued to run with all his might, Tiankong following him with vigilant ease, three more swords appeared at his side, hovering around him like brilliant stars orbiting their sun.

A golden sword that looked like a small sun, a pitch-black sword that looked like it was filled with smoke, and a brilliant silver sword whose keen resonated with the space around it. One sword was formed from the law of space and the two other swords were formed from the laws that Bai Mu used. Yin Long had yet to figure out exactly what sort of law of light and law of darkness Bai Mu had used, but they had exhibited properties that the laws of light and darkness shouldn't have.

So he made his bet, he gambled on the fact that three swords containing exalted or strange laws would be enough to at least tear a gash in the domain. His heart felt a slight twinge of pain, but he showed no hesitation and had all three swords fly backwards, detonating them all at once.

Everything vanished as the three swords exploded, all their surroundings, all sensations, all traces of what sparse sounds remained. The only thing that remained was a pure white space where Yin Long felt like he was floating, as if space itself had ceased to exist in the area around him.

But he could feel it, something smoke-like washing over him, he could even see the gashes it left on both his and the bodies of the others. But he couldn't feel anything, not even as he looked at his own blood poured out. And still, his feet didn't stop, carrying him forward on desperate instinct even in this world where space itself seemed to have disappeared.

And then, as if a new dawn was rising, the all-encompassing whiteness started to fade away, like snow melting. And accompanying that melting snow was an ear-piercing growl of pain, one that even trumped the earlier growl Tiankong had unleashed when Yin Long stabbed directly at his soul.

Yin Long didn't turn to look, but Tiankong was standing still so he could see him using his law of space. He was standing in the small area that remained of his domain, his hand clutching his face. The smoke-like darkness still had traces lingering on his legs, it had seemingly dissolved the lower part of his robe and left acid-like blotches on his skin, revealing raw flesh.

But his face was in an even worse state, it seemed like Bai Mu's strangely searing law of light had passed over his head when the sword exploded. The left half of his face was melting, the skin there was running down to his chin and dripping off, landing on his chest before it continued to slide down. Blood mixed with the molten skin, faint motes of light dancing on Tiankong's face and cauterizing the red flesh that had appeared.

"You!"

His voice was hoarse and slightly bubbly, a bit of foamy blood leaking out from the corners of his mouth as he growled after Yin Long. But Yin Long did not pay him any mind and pushed his hand back once more, a sword that looked like it was filled with sand flying back and exploding right in front of Tiankong.

A wave of sand washed over him and the area, as if they had suddenly stepped into a desert. Just like with the water earlier, each grain of sand was launched at such speed that they carved through the trees. Tiankong was already embroiled in the throes of pain, so the assault of the sand and the obscuring of his vision came at the perfect time. All the sand that got too close was eaten up by the small domain, but just halting him was good enough.

Yin Long continued to run, his target finally entering his vision. Standing only a handful of metres in front of him was a large crack in space, what looked like a verdant forest spreading out within the forest. It wasn't like this lush and humid jungle, it was a far more traditional forest, reminiscent of the ones you could find around Yin Long's hometown. Yin Yu looked at the spatial crack, blood streaming down her face from some of the new wounds she had acquired.

"...Is that what you've been running for all this time? How are you so confident that it'll work?"

With how desperate Yin Long's flight had been, and how single-mindedly he had been going in the same direction, it was easy to tell that he had a specific goal in mind. But even so, looking at that spatial rift in front of her, she couldn't help but question. How was he so confident that a spatial rift would help them?

"The warden said it, didn't he? The scale acts as a tether that can drag us back if we reach one of the special areas. He said we'd know it the moment we can see them. Think about it, if it can draw us back then it means that there is a way for us to leave this land. And if we can leave then it'll be easier to escape Tiankong, trust me."

The last item the Warden of the Waste had brought out before he sent them into this land, that silver scale. It was their tether to this world, they could use it to draw themselves back here. And for them to come back, they would first have to be able to leave. Even so, now, at the precipe of escape and between despair and joy, Yin Yu couldn't help but become somewhat pessimistic.

"But what if it doesn't work?"

Tiankong still had control over the array engraved into her, he could find her and catch her, he had done so several times in the past, always catching her just when she felt like she was closer to freedom. The only reason he had yet to do anything overboard was the fact that he had to maintain his face and honesty, he would hold himself back properly until they were married. But Yin Long simpy deflected her pessimism with a simple, almost naive, smile.

"But what if it does?"

There was no room for doubt or hesitation, once he allowed those thoughts to enter his mind it would already be over. His steps would slow and he would be caught, so there was no room for pessimism in his mind. So he charged forward with all his might as he aimed for that spatial crack.

But Tiankong was still behind him, Yin Long could feel the waves passing through the surrounding space, a clear sign that Tiankong was on the move. He may have luckily been wounded a few times, but he was still so fast that Yin Long couldn't properly track him. But that was fine, he just had to wait for that one specific moment.

And before long, the desired moment came. The shadow of death washed over him as Tiankong's spear moved, an attack that would take Yin Long's life the moment it connected. Yin Long let out all the air in his lungs, the final moment had come. From the very start, survival in this situation depended entirely on how long he could maintain his cards. And now, now it was time for him to bring out his last card.

His hand pushed out as another sword appeared in front of his palm, a black sword covered in the usual leaf patterns as well as faintly visible swirls. The last sword he had in his armoury, the sword made from Jin Wang's swallowing force. Once he pushed out his hand, he would have given everything he had, both his self-made swords and the sword he was gifted, all of them would have been broken.

But even so, he pushed out his hand without an ounce of hesitation, the sword piercing through the air as it shot away. It didn't head for the direction where the shadow of death came from, it instead shot a bit to the side, eventually imploding into a large black hole.

The hole acted the same as Jin Wang's maw, a horrifying amount of swallowing force gushing out and drawing in everything in the surroundings. It was just like a black hole, indiscriminately eating up everything around it. Not even Yin Long and his group were exempt, the strong force tugging at their bodies.

And just as it tugged at them, it also tugged at Tiankong. The shadow of death slid over Yin Long's body as the swallowing force acted on Tiankong's spear, diverting its path due to how unexpected this particular type of force had been. And so, Tiankong's attack missed, giving Yin Long's group a chance to jump into the spatial rift.

And the moment they entered it, Yin Long emptied out every ounce of Qi he had in his body, forcing all of it to act upon the turbulent law of space around him. The spatial rift wiggled as the law acted upon it, Yin Long was far too weak to close it, but interfering with the entrance so that it changed direction temporarily was something that he was still capable of.

They fell through the spatial tunnel beyond the rift, the entrance shifting behind them so that Tiankong couldn't just enter it and end up in the same place as them. It had cost him all his weapons, every last hidden card he had, but Yin Long had succeeded in buying the 30 seconds they needed.