Budding fear.

Yin Long was more than familiar with the sensation of spatial travel, he was probably one of the few people who found it relaxing, it was like taking a warm bath to him. It was also only within this twisting vortex of space that he could find some freedom from the countless gazes that were locked onto him thanks to Lang Huo's schemes.

He allowed a bit of blood to escape his mouth, using his law of space to forcibly increase the time needed to reach the third arena. The final technique he had used against Shao Lin wasn't an easy one, but frankly, what sort of powerful technique was easy to launch? If they were easy then they weren't powerful, and if they were powerful then they weren't easy, that was the delicate balance one needed to keep in mind when it came to techniques, you couldn't have your cake and eat it too.

"Haah... I really couldn't complete it in the end... It's still far too murky and muddled."

Yin Long wiped away the blood that had run down from his mouth, tidying up his appearance so that nothing looked amiss as he muttered to himself. The technique had undoubtedly shown a great effect, but it was still far away from the goal that he had in mind, both in effect and in how it actually worked. But one of the problems he faced with the technique was that he couldn't be sure that the fault was in his utilization of the laws or in the strength he used to fuel said laws.

"Ah, end of the road, huh."

He wanted to keep pondering over how to improve on the technique, but a faint quivering of the surrounding space drew his attention. He had reached the limits of what his law of space could manage, he would get jettisoned out of the twisting space soon whether he wanted it or not. And that meant appearing in front of the collective gazes again so he hardened his expression, blazing curiosity replaced by cold and collected calm.

The vortex around him faded as he loosened his grip on space, the all-encompassing light vanishing along with it as Yin Long's feet once again touched stone. Another coliseum-like arena, this one a touch more decorated than the previous one to set them apart.

Unlike the two previous arenas, the stage serving as the centrepiece here was empty, it didn't even look like a battle had taken place within the last handful of hours, possibly even days. This arena served as the halfway point, the battles would only get harder and harder from here on out. There was no room to rashly challenge someone, no room to go into a battle without doing some research on your enemies.

As if to reflect this, there wasn't anyone present within the open seating area around the stage, everyone had probably retreated to the private booths for some privacy. Yin Long could feel more gazes land on him when he appeared, the contestants present sizing up the new adversary that had shown up.

Yin Long felt the gazes roam across his body, each one attempting to peer into his depths, it was much the same as the gazes he received from across the dominion. Yin Long didn't even bother glancing at the sky anymore, merely giving the surroundings a slow sweeping gaze before he muttered and stepped forward.

"Gawk all you like, gawk and fear."

He hopped over the small railing and dropped down to the small stretch of land in front of the stage, moving towards it with an unhurried gait. He slowly made his way onto the stone stage, still the only visible sign of life in the arena.

He stopped at the centre of the stage and brought out a sword, slashing at the stage to leave a small gash in it. He then brought out a somewhat crude wooden sign and stabbed the handle into the gash so that it would stay standing on its own. The sign still only held those three simple words, 'Accepting all Challengers', saying it better than Yin Long ever could.

He didn't bother checking who was present in this arena, he didn't bother trying to send out any challenges like you normally would. No, he simply erected his sign and then sat down, crossing his legs and bringing out the azure sword he had made from Xiao Yin Yu's lightning, polishing it as if he couldn't even feel the gazes piercing into him.

It wasn't something he needed to do, his self-made sword didn't need any maintenance to be kept in top shape, they just needed his energy. But he did it nonetheless, it was something akin to how he used to swing his sword in the past to cultivate, an action to affect his subconscious in a certain manner, a form of meditation.

He wasn't rushed or nervous, he simply kept polishing the blade as time passed. He didn't move even after the first day passed without anyone stepping forward, his eyebrows didn't even twitch. Someone would eventually make the first move, someone would become impatient and break the quiet stalemate that had swallowed this place. They'd be a bit nervous about making a move without having all the information, but they would feel that this was a chance they couldn't let go, they would still move in the end. And that would be their downfall.

And sure enough, that small spark of impatience reared its head before long, just as the second day was about to tick over into its second half. You only had three days to fight, after that you'd get thrown all the way back to the start, and very few people were willing to lose all their hard-earned points. So someone stepped out from their private booth, quickly rushing down to the stage so that someone else didn't end up stealing a march on them.

"Duo Zegong from the 33 Heavens Pagoda, I accept your challenge!"

The bronze-haired man hurriedly spoke out as he landed on the stage, the slight shifting of his black pupils as he checked the surroundings showing a hidden measure of desperation. He was probably only hours or so away from being kicked out and sent back to the start, his challenges had probably been rejected every time so far.

Yin Long's gaze landed on the tanned man, perhaps it was fitting from someone who came from a place known as the 33 Heavens Pagoda, he had reached the 3rd Earthen Door. As for the organization he came from, Yin Long had read a bit about it in the past, but it had all just been passing glances included in old memoirs so he couldn't be said to have any concrete information on it. But there was one thing he knew, and that was that it wasn't one of the organizations that were keeping a close eye on the growth of his sister.

"Yin Long, wanderer. Come, show me something enlightening."

Yin Long stood up as he spoke, the azure sword getting replaced by a transparent silver one that seemed to be covered in faint cracks. His words would sound like nothing more than extreme arrogance when they reached others, but that had never been something he cared about, they could interpret them however they liked as long as they could show him something new he could learn from.

Duo Zegong's face scrunched up slightly when Yin Long stood up, there was a faint feeling of foreboding and unease that was starting to build up in his heart. It was as if his instincts were telling him that he had to act right now, he had to rush out and crush the opponent in a single blow, otherwise, he would perish and become just another pile of bones in the wilderness.

That unease nagged at his mind, prodding his consciousness from the back until it became an itching he couldn't ignore, a budding fear that drove him to act. His feet lightly kicked off the ground and he charged forward, his muscular body lifting off the ground as he ran through the air, supported by the wind.

He moved quicker than his large frame would suggest, swiftly arriving above Yin Long as he straightened his leg and slammed it downwards, a gust of wind assisting his movements as he tried to drop his heel onto Yin Long's skull. But faced with the incoming attack, Yin Long's head only rose slightly, a twinkle of disappointment visible in his gaze.

"In combat, it's important that you are the one who decides when to move, not your fear and worries."

He raised his weapon as he spoke, giving a piece of advice to Duo Zegong. Yin Long had the law of Yin, the source of evil as some called it. It encompassed pain, hatred, lust, gluttony, fear, emotional laws geared towards the negative. And this man's downfall came from the fact that he failed to notice just when Yin Long's law of Yin had infected him and tugged on his instincts.

Yin Long's sword swept upwards, phasing through the man's descending leg and continuing upwards along the rest of his body. It was just a tiny bit away from actually reaching his flesh, only when it brushed past his face and passed through the tip of his nose did it actually leave a mark on his body.

But the mark it left was one that almost made the man's heart stop beating. Only the very tip of his nose had been severed, but tiny cracks immediately started to spread across the rest of his nose, stopping just shy of his eyes. His nose then suddenly seemed to multiply, several tens of it appearing all around him as if the world wanted him to see just what had become of his nose.

But then those copies started to fade one by one, dissipating into the surrounding space as if they had never existed to begin with. And his actual nose vanished along with them, sliding apart and drifting away from existence until only a hole remained above his mouth and between his eyes, a grim scar and reminder of what he once had.

A violent gust of wind pushed against his body, hastily forcing him away from Yin Long so that he could put some distance between them. He spun backwards before correcting his position, staggering back a few steps when he finally touched down on the ground. His hand hastily clutched his face, a few pangs of pain spreading out as he touched the wound that remained where his nose had been.

"Space... Space... You disintegrated the space that my nose occupied?!"

The man reached a swift conclusion when he came to terms with the fact that his nose was gone. He couldn't quite explain why his nose seemed to have multiplied at first, but he could easily explain why his nose had vanished like that, its space had simply disintegrated.

"If that is what you choose to believe."

Yin Long gave a vague answer, showing off his technique was fine, but explaining it was not. And in truth, what he didn't couldn't be described so simply. He wished it could, he really wanted the technique to just fracture space and make it slide apart, drifting away into a different dimension that then ceased to exist.

But he couldn't, he wasn't skilled enough to make the technique that simple. No, he had to rely on multiple laws and skills to pull off the technique, he had to muddle it up with unnecessary things. First, he had to use his law of swords, or at least one of the underlying laws, mainly the law of severing.

He first severed the opponent's body part from the rest of the space that their body occupied, decreasing the size of the space he had to affect to accomplish the technique. He then fractured that space to spread it out even further while also weakening each of those fractured segments, that was the only way he could weaken the target to an appropriate level.

And then he finally had to rely on the unique aspect of his own soul, the parasitic ability. His soul would surge out and form a sword using the fractured space that encompassed the target, but he'd dissipate it before the sword could fully form. This way, rather than having the fractured space go back to its original position and just repair the target, it would just fade away and dissipate since it would have lost all connection with the original space it belonged to.

Some might say that creating a technique that relied on two different laws and an innate ability was amazing, but it was far from enough for Yin Long. He knew that it should be possible to do it by just relying on the law of space, he wanted to accomplish it while relying solely on the law of space. But the current him couldn't, he was too weak, far from skilled enough.

His gaze didn't show any of his thoughts as he locked eyes with Duo Zegong, who couldn't help but shrink back from the cold calm they displayed. The slight burning pain from his face told him everything he needed, a bitter and unresigned expression on his face as he raised his hands.

"You're right, I let my emotions control me, and that made me predictable. This is my loss, thank you for showing mercy."

Duo Zegong was unresigned, but that didn't mean that he was a fool. Yin Long's sword had phased through his leg and only touched his nose, but did that mean that the ability could only affect his nose? Had Yin Long not showed mercy, at best he would have lost his leg, at worst he may truly have died right then and there, all because he allowed his emotions to dictate how he moved.

His surrender declared the end of the battle, one that was even easier than the battle in the second arena since Yin Long had made Duo Zegong walk right into a trap. Space around Yin Long started to twist and warp again as he was sent away to the fourth arena, which would be the last one he could reach with the points he currently had.

He knew that Fang Yau would be waiting for him in the fourth arena so he was a bit eager to get there, it had been a while since he last sparred with him so he wanted to see what more he could learn now. But Yin Long sensed a familiar aura as the twisting of space started to subside, one he hadn't expected to sense this quickly again. Without a doubt, it wasn't just Fang Yau that was at the fourth arena, Tao Tiankong was also present.