Fitting for hell.

It didn't take Yin Long's group long to reach Four-Kings Valley, a several hundred-kilometre long craggy valley that connected two of the seven massive valleys that stretched away from Starfall city. While the seven massive valleys looked natural, as if the land itself had just split apart, this valley looked more man-made. The very centre of the valley was wider and had a winding pattern that gave the entire valley such an appearance that Yin Long could only guess that someone had actually punched the earth here, the impact of their fist tearing open the land to form this valley.

The bottom of this valley was covered in the same type of mixed forest as the land around it, albeit the forest within the valley was a bit less dense and the air a fair bit moister. Actually getting down into the valley was fairly easy, some of the craggier parts of it had been carved to form rudimentary stairs that one could use to freely enter and leave the valley.

Once they stood at the bottom, the bloody scent that had once been faint grew far more intense. It mixed with the humid air to produce a nearly sticky feeling in the throat when Yin Long breathed it in, it was a rather strange sensation that he hadn't experienced before. The walls of the valley helped bounce around all the sounds from within the valley, producing a nearly constant symphony of screams, roars, subdued explosions, and the faint sounds of weapons colliding.

Yin Long had been to the Netherworld before, the realm where the sinners of the world went. But compared to the Netherworld, this small valley seemed far more fitting to bear the name of hell. Yin Long didn't know if the valley was always like this or if it was just like this now because the various organizations had sent so many of their disciples here, but it didn't really matter. But while it didn't matter to him, Lan Yun seemed to have already found the answer, softly tracing the dark-brown bark of the nearest tree.

"Look, the bark is slightly soft and covered in small barbs, some of the barbs have even grown into thorns already. The thorns can absorb blood so this valley definitely sees a great amount of bloodshed, to the point where it has started altering the land itself like this. If it goes on for a few tens thousands more years then all the trees here might become demonic trees and make this a place unsuitable for other living beings."

Lan Yun pricked her finger on one of the thorns while speaking, showing Yin Long how the drop of blood seeping out from her finger was sucked up by the thorn. Yin Long couldn't help but take a closer look at the surrounding trees after Lan Yun stated her observation, and all the surrounding trees did indeed have the same barbed bark.

Taking an even closer look he could see that some of the trees actually had roots that were pulsating faintly, something he could only see by using his control over space to peer directly at the roots. The slightly macabre scene caused him to involuntarily tap his temple in a soft rhythm, his gaze eventually drifting to the side.

"No wonder the organizations send their disciples here, either they live and return stronger than before or they die and become stepping stones for others, it certainly is the most traditional way. But rather than care about that, it seems like its time to see how much you've managed to learn after sticking close to me for so long."

Lan Yun stopped inspecting the trees and followed Yin Long's eyes, her gaze landing on a few pairs of deeply crimson eyes staring hungrily at their group. Five somewhat strange wolves with patches of thorned-bark growing on their heads stepped forward with their bodies tensed and lowered, ready to pounce at any time.

The five wolves had reached the 9th Mortal Door, so even if Lan Yun ended up unable to finish them then Yin Long or Jin Wang could still clear them out with relative ease. Lan Yun exhaled a long breath and then grinned cheekily at Yin Long, giving him a charming wink.

"Just you watch, I'll show you something that'll make you swoon for sure."

Lan Yun kicked off of the ground and shot forward without even drawing her greatsaxe, her short amber hair fluttering while her brown eyes were fully focused on the five enemies. Both her hands were open, her fingers bent slightly as if she was trying to mimic claws to replace the weapon she had yet to pull out.

The five wolves growled lowly at that audacity of their prey and then charged forward as one to overwhelm her. But just as they got close to her, three of the five wolves suddenly started to lag behind, resulting in the two others at the front to turn for a split second to check the cause of the abnormality. But that split second would prove to be the last mistake they ever made.

They turned and saw that the roots of the closest trees had actually broken through the earth and wrapped around the hindlegs of three of the wolves, which was what caused them to lag behind. The wolves didn't have the chance to turn their heads forward again, Lan Yun's hands landed on their heads a mere blink after they turned to check up on their companions.

She clenched her hands and exerted some force, her Qi bursting forth and resulting in two drastically different ends for the two wolves. The head of the one on the left seemed to implode in on itself, a few jagged bone fragments sticking out of the squeezed remains of its head. As for the head of the one on the right, it practically exploded open, chunks of brain and bone flying everywhere, it was as if its entire head had been torn open by a violent force.

Lan Yun flicked her right wrist after slaying the two wolves, her greataxe appearing in her grasp as she swung out and upwards with her weapon. The two-headed axe cut straight through the waist of one of the remaining wolves, the front side of the beast collapsing in on itself as if it was squeezed by two massive hands. Lan Yun twisted her wrist slightly to change the direction of her attack while retaining her momentum, slicing horizontally through the skull of another wolf.

She then flicked her wrist once more to angle her axe upwards, bringing it up and then twisting her wrist to have the axe perform an upside U. The axe was brought down, carrying with it all the momentum it had gathered up and unleashed it upon the neck of the final wolf, cleanly cleaving through it and beheading the beast.

The battle had only lasted for a few seconds but she had perfectly made it so that she could catch the beasts off-guard and use the chance to easily kill them. She was only at the 8th Mortal Door, but the difference between the 8th and 9th Mortal Door wasn't too large, that was between humans at least, beasts were generally a bit stronger than cultivators at the same realm. But coupled with the fact that she studied an excellent cultivation technique that gave her strong laws as well as the fact that she had great talent, she could easily deal with beasts that should be a bit stronger than her.

Lan Yun swept her axe through the air once more to clean away the blood that lingered on it before throwing the axe back into her interspatial ring. She looked at the five corpses she had created and then her own hands, her lips involuntarily curling up as she turned around and grinned at Yin Long.

"Well, how's that? Did it make you swoon? Get you a bit riled up down there? I'll welcome you at any time if you want to jump me."

She knew that Yin Long was stronger, he could have done it with more ease and quicker. But that didn't matter to her right now, she had gotten stronger and shown her talent by quickly grasping a rudimentary use of three new laws, she wanted to show off to the man she adored. And Yin Long didn't disappoint her, giving her a genuine applause as Jin Wang went over to sample the corpses.

"I'm impressed, amazed even. Some people can spend years just studying one law without luck but you managed to pick up on three new ones within a day, even utilizing them in a sneak attack. Really, I'm incredibly impressed, you are far more talented than you give yourself credit for."

Yin Long's words were heartfelt and genuine, he truly hadn't expected that Lan Yun would actually be able to utilize the laws straight away. Her talent should have been classified as a bit above average, but looking at the scene in front of him it was clear that calling her talent just above average was an insult.

When she put her mind to it she could learn exceedingly quickly, she was definitely extremely talented, she was the type of talent that would be highly sought after no matter where you went. Of course, he forgot to account for motivation and desire when he made his judgment. If it wasn't for her fervent desire to chase after Yin Long then her progress would definitely be a fair bit slower.

But she chased and ran with all her might, so her progress was astounding enough to leave Yin Long astonished. Lan Yun had boasted and fished for compliments, but she hadn't actually expected Yin Long to respond so positively, so genuinely and heartfelt. It formed such a stark contrast to the cold and calculative side she had gotten used to seeing when they worked together before that she couldn't help but blush slightly, firmly sealing the image of his astonished face into her mind.

She was caught off-guard by Yin Long's genuine praise, but he too was caught off-guard by her sudden blush. This was the same woman who had freely offered herself to him in the nude on more than one occasion, yet she was blushing now from just a bit of praise? The gap between the two was quite extreme, but Yin Long had to admit that it was exceedingly cute. But he couldn't really pay too much attention to it now, his gaze drifting past Lan Yun and down the path that the wolves had come from.

"Sorry, but they are ours. I don't care if you chased them or for how long you might have done so, she killed them in fair combat so they are hers."

Lan Yun's blush instantly vanished as her face turned serious, her body spinning around and lowering somewhat, resembling a tiger preparing to pounce. A group of 20 people clad in leather armour that was dyed a dark colour to fit the surroundings stepped forth, looking at the corpses that Jin Wang was indulging in with somewhat sour expressions. The one who seemed to be the leader, a burly woman with a scar going from her lower lip all the way down to her chest, turned her gaze onto Yin Long.

"Which clan or sect are you from? If you're going to steal prey from someone you should at least leave behind your name and school so that we don't just have to carry this fucking resentment all the time without having anyone to aim it at."

The black-haired woman spoke with an aggrieved expression, Yin Long's eyes narrowing slightly while his pupils flickered about for a short second. In the end, he waved Lan Yun and Jin Wang back, Jin Wang quickly swallowing up the last two corpses before lazily sauntering over, not bothering with the group of people at all. It was only after Lan Yun and Jin Wang reached his side that he gave a casual response to the woman, shrugging his shoulders.

"We don't belong to any sect or school. We came here to spar with the disciples of the various schools to see which one we'll join. Are you part of any school? If so, I'll gladly spar with you to see if your organization is worth joining."

The corner of Yin Long's lips curved up into a faint challenging smile as he spoke, the woman and the people behind her not the least affected by it. The burly woman gave a slight nod of her head and then raised her right arm, flicking her fingers forward while looking at Yin Long with a chilly and somewhat greedy expression. The people behind her immediately smiled and dashed forward while drawing their weapons, Yin Long muttering to himself without any change to his expression.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

The woman and her men didn't look like they belonged to any organization, they looked more like a band of marauders. And by attacking Yin Long's group the moment they discovered that they didn't belong to any organization that might chase them, they had simply proven this point to Yin Long.

They were probably bandits or pillagers who wanted to take advantage of all the disciples roaming around in the valley right now, killing or scavenging those that they could to earn a pretty penny. The 20 people were brimming with unrestrained killing intent as they charged over so Yin Long had no intention of showing mercy, his hand stretching out as he drew a sword out from his interspatial ring. But Lan Yun's hand landed on his shoulder as he prepared to launch his attack, all seriousness had vanished from her as she grinned at him in her usual cheeky and seductive manner.

"I gave you a great show earlier so now it's your turn. Put on a show that can make me swoon and I'll give you a great reward."

She raised her thumb at him while she spoke, resulting in Yin Long rolling his eyes in slight exasperation. But he didn't reject her, not because he wanted the reward but because he felt like it would be a nice challenge. He stepped forward and placed his left hand on his neck, giving it a light crack while muttering to himself.

"Been a while since I focused on just you, it'll be a nice change of pace. Let's see, is it something like this?"

He removed his hand from his neck after he finished cracking it, stepping forward once more and arriving directly in front of the charging marauders. The closest one immediately smashed at his head with a club but Yin Long simply raised his sword and tilted it to the side, the club sliding along the blade of the weapon and sliding down past him. His sword then flashed to the side, cutting through the neck of the raider and severing his head.

Yin Long's sword collided with an axe just after he finished beheading the first man, his wrist bending back so that the axe could slide along his blade and cut through the air in front of his chest. His wrist then immediately flicked forward, his blade slicing through the neck of the man whose axe he had just blocked.

Yin Long bent forward at the same time, three swords cutting through the air just above his back. His body twisted slightly and his left hand shot out, grabbing onto the hand of one of the men that had just tried to slash him. He crushed the man's wrist and stole his sword, immediately using it to behead the man. Yin Long then spun around further and jumped up off the ground, ending up in a horizontal position mid-air with his back facing the ground, each hand holding a sword that had just beheaded a person.

Several attacks moved past where his legs had just been, Yin Long finishing his spin and landing on top of the weapons, pushing them into the ground. The swords that he was now dual-wielding flashed out several times, the heads of the four people that had just attacked plus the heads of the two people remaining from the previous attack leaving their bodies.

Yin Long's body bent again to dodge more attacks, his swords slashing out as he twisted around to dodge attack after attack. Each slash of his swords reached a neck, severed a head and reaped a life. And then, a mere 40 seconds after he clashed with the group of marauders, his blade cut through the neck of the burly woman, the final head falling to the ground.

Yin Long stood alone on the bloody earth, headless corpses surrounding him while he looked like he had barely broken a sweat. The blood running down his two swords produced a soft dripping sound as it mixed with the rest of the blood on the ground, his slightly gloating gaze landing on Lan Yun.

"That good enough for you? But you can keep the reward for yourself, knowing you it's guaranteed to be something indecent."

Lan Yun couldn't help but suck in a few quick breaths when Yin Long looked at her, her face and her entire body felt like they were on fire. The heartfelt and genuine Yin Long was a sight she quite enjoyed, but this was Yin Long at his greatest, a sharp and peerless sword that could cut down even the brightest stars.

Lan Yun didn't get the chance to respond, but she guessed that her expression was probably the best answer she could give. Yin Long turned his gaze onto a slightly denser part of the forest to their side, one of his eyebrows rising as if he was waiting for something. Lan Yun quickly understood and followed his eyes, a clapping sound coming from the direction that Yin Long was looking.

"Marvelous, utterly marvellous. Not a single ounce of Qi used, just the weight of the sword and the gathered momentum, that alone carried enough force to cleave through their necks. And since you had the force, you just had to use your skills to ensure that your blade reached their necks. Tell me, when you cracked your neck at the start, was it to determine where the bones were so that you knew where it was best to place your cut? Marvellous, truly marvellous and stunning, I am in awe."

The one who clapped and spoke stepped forward, a group of five people stepping forward. The group were all clad in the same dark green robes embroidered with a soaring heron, the one who clapped seemingly being the leader, a youthful girl with yellow eyes and flowing brown hair tied into a ponytail. The girl stopped clapping and grabbed the hems of her robe, giving Yin Long and Lan Yun a polite bow.

"Greetings, I am Xue Qiuling from the Heron's Ascension Dojo. We are always looking for talent so I would be honoured if you would like to spar with me to test out the skills of our Dojo."