Yin Long's entire body was fraught with injuries, his soul had been sheared away piece by piece thanks to the repeated detonations of his weapons. It was a state where it wouldn't be wrong to say that he was closer to a corpse than a living being, a truly pitiful state. But even so, falling through the spatial rift still made him feel as if he was floating in a gently heated pond, it was so comfortable that he could fall asleep to it.

But perhaps it was precisely due to it being this comfortable, when it ended it felt like only a mere instant had passed. A rather cool and pleasant breeze brushed against Yin Long as the comfortable sensation vanished, an earthen scent mixed with slight undertones of something bestial entering his nose along with the breeze.

Yin Long's feet touched the damp earth beneath him, but he seemed to retain his momentum from when he threw himself into the spatial rift so his body immediately tilted forward. He didn't miss this chance and flung his arm out, tossing Xiao Yin Yu and Jin Wang to the side, his senses had spread out on their own the moment they arrived here so he knew that there was no danger in the direction he was tossing them.

But he hadn't notified them so the two of them were caught a bit off-guard as they were tossed aside, landing and sliding for a bit. As for Yin Long, he finished his tilt forward and rolled forward for a bit, his tumble coming to an abrupt halt as he slammed into a tree that was blocking his path.

He smashed into it just as he was finishing one roll so he hit it head first, adding another needle to the acupuncture of pain he was already experiencing. But he didn't allow himself to let that pain cloud his mind, his head instantly turning around to look at the spatial tear behind him. But rather than call it a spatial tear, calling it a faint flicker in the air would be more apt, on this side it was barely visible. And if his guess was correct, only the silver scale that had embedded itself into his and Yin Yu's chest could be used to actually enter this flickering space.

His eyes, which had all their blood vessels popped, were focused squarely on that flickering space, trawling the space around it for even the smallest trace of movement. If Tiankong was going to follow them then he would be here in a handful of seconds or less, and that would most likely be the end of them unless Yin Long managed to draw the luck of god out of his back pocket.

But it seemed like fortune smiled on him this once, the interfering he had done with the spatial rift's entrance seem to have been enough. As such, he turned around so that he was leaning against the tree, his robes nothing more than rags that covered his nether regions. And for the first time in what felt like a year, he allowed himself to let out a heavy breath.

30 seconds. It had only been a 30-second chase, but it had been the most intense experience he had ever gone through, his closest brush with death since the time he actually died. And it had cost him every single card he had hidden up his sleeve, and even then it had only been barely enough.

All the pain coursing through his body started to surge towards his mind now that his tense nerves were starting to loosen up, but to the current him it just felt like the joy of being alive so he couldn't even bring himself to let out a groan. His gaze was still mostly focused on the flickering portion of space, but his senses picked up some movement so he raised his hand and waved somewhat dismissively.

"Don't get any closer, it's not safe. That goes for you too, Goldie."

Jin Wang stopped obediently when Yin Long waved his hand, he knew what Yin Long's soul did as a self-reparation mechanism so he knew that Yin Long stopped him to protect him. And since he was also mentally present enough to stop Jin Wang, it also meant that he wasn't in any immediate risk of dying, allowing Jin Wang to plop down and lick his own wounds. Yin Yu also stopped, but only long enough to send him a question he hadn't expected.

"Is it because you seem to absorb life force from your surroundings?"

She continued walking after she questioned, her pale expression looking as if she hadn't said anything big. She too had sustained injuries in the escape, and coupled with the injuries she had suffered before they started fleeing it was sufficient to say that her state was far from good. The number of people willing to walk closer to something that absorbed life force while they were in a state like that was exceedingly small, because it was an act that was the same as dancing with death.

"You realized?"

Yin Long couldn't help but be somewhat caught off-guard, but it was only due to his lack of experience. Not counting his detonations now, his soul-formed swords had only broken three times, and each time they did there had never been someone around that got to live long enough to speak about what they felt. As such, he didn't actually have any way of knowing if people could sense when their lifeforce was drained like that. But now he got confirmation on that, Yin Yu giving a slight nod of her head while making it a bit clearer.

"Weaker people may not, but anyone above the Earthen Door realm will realize the moment their lifeforce is drawn out like that. It started right after you detonated the first sword so I'm thinking that it's either tied to them or to the degree of injury you've suffered."

Tiankong's array completely immobilized Yin Yu, but it didn't seal her senses so she had noticed the moment Yin Long's soul started to selfishly draw in any lifeforce it could sense. Of course, Tiankong himself had also been able to sense it, but he was confident that Yin Long was about to die so he didn't feel the need to mention it. Xiao Yin Yu plopped down somewhat heavily in front of Yin Long, only an arm's reach away, well within the range of his parasitic soul.

"But so what? They're injuries you suffered while protecting me, the least I can do is hand over as much lifeforce as you need to recuperate. And on that note, thank you, truly."

Yin Yu lowered her head and upper body deeply as she finished her sentence, her fists resting on her crossed legs in a respectful manner. There was no other way around it, Yin Long had made a horrible enemy for her, the Hungering Heaven sect was not a behemoth that could be belittled, and neither was Tao Tiankong. It had suddenly become several hundreds of times harder for Yin Long to live a peaceful and proper life in this Dominion. But faced with this simple and suffocating fact, Yin Long didn't look the least bit bothered.

"Everything I did, I did by my own choice. So there's no need to thank me, you just need to make your own choice."

Just like he had told her before they started to flee from Tiankong, he wanted his friends to only bear what they themselves had chosen to bear. So he would get her out of there so that she could selfishly decide how she wanted to live and what she wanted to bear, only then would he not interfere.

He was bloodied and tattered, the massive scar that seemed to split him in half diagonally was especially eye-catching as blood ran down over the old wound. But as he spoke he seemed to be filled with such boundless confidence all the wounds and blood just looked like part of his clothing, a robe to adorn the proud and unyielding king.

Not even being chased by Tao Tiankong had been enough to shatter his confidence and cool, only the sacrifice of his own weapons had been enough to lower his expression somewhat. And Yin Yu had seen it all, the perfect representation of who Yin Long was and how he lived, the perfect representation of his heart, so with a smile so charming that it overshadowed even the blood from her wounds, she nodded her head.

"I already have."