When the captain saw who it was that stopped him, his expression quickly changed.

“Captain Zhang, who gave you the order to act!?”

****

“Commander!” Captain Zhang and all his men that surrounded Long Di, and the others executed a quick salute to their superior.

“Captain Zhang, who gave you the order to exit the valley and engage the…” he took a long look at Long Di and others and struggled to find a word to describe them.

“Uhm… people?” was the best thing he could find to say at the moment.

“No tension in your tightrope, huh?” Long Di chimed in.

He gave Long Di a dubious look before turning his attention back to his subordinate, “Well? What’s your reason!?”

“Sir, I ascertained that the newcomers were hostile and so made the call to ask for their surrender!” Captain Zhang did his best to explain his action to the commander.

“Fool! Do the lives of your men mean nothing!? What if your rash actions resulted in their deaths!?” The commander was livid!

“But sir, I-”

“You’re relieved of your duties!” The commander didn’t want to hear any excuses and dismissed his subordinate.

Captain Zhang was unwilling but gave a salute all the same before leaving in shame.

It didn’t take long for captain Zhang to disappear from view. The commander then ordered the men that surrounded Long Di and his group to retire. After all, their presence wouldn’t change the outcome of whatever it is that Long Di and his group wanted to do.

“Greetings, I’m Da Jun, the commander of the Thousand Emo Valley battalion.” the commander gave a cursory introduction before getting to the meat of the matter. “I won’t mince words with you. What purpose do you have for visiting Thousand Emo Valley?”

“We’ll just be passing through. A mere refilling of supplies and a plate of food is all we seek before we move on. Probably clothes now that I think about it,” Long Di replied after getting a good look at himself.

The commander took a good look at Long Di before his eyes stopped on Yaomu Shou, at which point his expression took a drastic change. “Men!” He called the company to attention, “K-”

“A learned military man aren’t you? That’s attractive, but none of that,” Yaomu Shou’s nonchalant response caught him off guard and brought him to a stop.

“But, you-”

“Would like to pass right on through… and nothing else,” Yaomu Shou didn’t give him a chance to finish what he wanted to say where she was concerned.

Seeing that she didn’t want him to harp on the issue, though he felt uncomfortable about it, he acquiesced to her whims.

Turning his attention back to Long Di, he only spared the Shidashi Mao a quick glance before he asked, “Are you able to leave your… uh steed outside?”

Long Di shrugged his shoulders at this, “Sure, no problem.”

The commander was surprised that Long Di was so accommodating. However, he soon learned that whenever this happened, the universe would very quickly explain why.

The minute Long Di disembarked the Shidashi Mao and walked a certain distance from it, a dense sea of bloodlust washed over everyone. The killing intent the Shidashi Mao radiated was beyond frightening as even the seasoned soldiers that made up the company of the commander began shivering in their armours.

Before anyone could say anything (not that they could), Long Di immediately reached beside the Shidashi Mao and dug his hand into the dense fluff of fur.

Not long after, the killing intent disappeared, followed by a deep purr that reverberated through everyone’s bodies.

“Want me to do that again?” Long Di asked once more.

“N-NO!”

But it was too late. Long Di already took his hands away from the Shidashi Mao and took a few steps away from the magical beast, compelling the same phenomenon to take place!

This was pettiness at its finest.

“P-Pl-Please!” the commander was the only one able to formulate a word, thus causing Long Di to resume his former actions.

Once the now-familiar purr came around, a collective sigh resounded in front of Thousand Emo Valley.

Commander Da Jun finally managed to stand up followed by everyone else.

After managing to regain his bearings, he glared at Long Di and was about to remark when the dreaded words left the young boy’s lips.

“Want me to do that again?”

Not just the commander, but everyone’s eyes widened whilst their sphincter contracted in shock.

If one ever wanted to know what it was like for numerous sphincters to contract in shock all at once, one only needs to stand amongst those present here. For it is here that such a miracle took place.

“N-NO! Take it with you!” Commander Da Jun practically stumbled all over himself to say these words to Long Di.

“Hmph.”

Long Di’s nose twitched when a certain odour assaulted him. This caused him to give Da Jun a peculiar look.

“What?”

Long Di covered his nose before asking, “D-Did you pee yourself?”

“What!?” Commander Da Jun was caught off guard by the question before the subsequent humiliation caused him to fly up into a fit of rage.

“What did you just-” his own tirade was cut off as the smell made its way to him as well.

“What the…” he looked all around and saw that several of the men in his company were looking off to the side with an embarrassed look.

The flustered commander felt his face burn up with shame for his men.

“Return to the barracks those of you affected by the Shidashi Mao’s aura earlier! Now!”

“Sir!” A few men (we needn’t say who) saluted their commander and marched back into the valley.

“Haaa…” Commander Da Jun massaged his nose bridge, wondering if he committed some kind of sin in a past life to deserve this.

The remaining soldiers were unaware of this, but Yaomu Shou, Shen Ling, and the others sympathised with him.

As if meeting Long Di for the first wasn’t rough enough, the man also suffered from prolonged exposure. That couldn’t be healthy for anyone.

Nevertheless, they couldn’t waste any more time on this so Yaomu Shou decided to move this along.

“I’m sure you’re more than willing to let my acquaintance enter the city with his magical beast. Of course, if anything were to go wrong, I would more than be willing to accept responsibility for his actions and the actions of his…” she sized up the Shidashi Mao with a wary eye as she said this, “pet.”

“You are?” The commander didn’t imagine that someone with the type of status as lofty as Yaomu Shou’s would be willing to shoulder the burden for this.

Hearing commander Da Jun’s question caused Shen Ling, Feng Yu and Jia Yan to look at her in shock. Just how far did her influence reach that it would cause the commander of an entire battalion to station his responsibilities upon her shoulders?

“Very well p-”

“None of that. Let’s go Long Di,” Yaomu Shou ushered Long Di and everyone else in Thousand Emo Valley, leaving commander Da Jun and the rest at a loss.

Seeing them disappear into the valley with nary a care made him wonder if the world changed without his knowledge in the last few days.

Seeing as how there was nothing that required his immediate attention, he dismissed all his men, sending them back to their previous stations before the emergency call was made.

As he was sending out these commands, it dawned on him that he still needed to confront captain Zhang Ping about his insubordination of mobilising his squadron against Long Di and the others.

It was as he was walking back into the valley that he happened upon Zhang Ping a fair distance.

Not wasting any more time, he approached his subordinate with many questions on his mind.

“Captain Zhang Ping!”

“Commander Da!” Zhang Ping saluted his superior upon hearing his name called out.

“Who ordered you to exit the valley to engage the ene… erhm, I mean visitors,” Da Jun didn’t care much for Long Di if the Shidashi Mao was taken out of the equation, however, he didn’t want to insult Yaomu Shou, so he chose something to neutral to describe them.

“Sir, I only meant to protect the valley from what I assumed to be hostiles,” Zhang Ping replied.

“That’s not your call, Captain Zhang!”

“Come now, commander, your subordinate was just doing what he thought best.”

A voice dripping with arrogance filled the air. Both the commander and his captain looked to the side to see a burly, rustic-grey skinned demon approaching.

Runes could be seen all over whatever parts of his body were exposed. They were dull in colour, appearing faded and unimpressive, but they invoked a palpitating feeling in whoever stared at them for a prolonged period.

The faint wrinkles on his face betrayed his advanced age, but this did little to diminish his intimidating demeanour.

Behind him were two demons of similar characteristics, the only difference being their age.

Their robes had a symbol of a temple-like structure with battle flags waving in the wind before a war-torn land on the chest.

Both youngsters had three battle flags whilst the elder before them had four battle flags.

When Commander Da Jun saw who it was, his figure visibly stiffened in response.

Quickly regaining his composure, he performed a swift bow, “Greetings elder Huise Chongtu.”

Elder Huise Chongtu’s expression grew unsightly. “Is that how you pay your respects to your superiors?”

Commander Da Jun grit his teeth during the bow and went on to answer, “This humble one doesn’t understand. I was appointed commander of the Thousand Emo Valley Battalion. I was advised by the Nether Immolation War Temple’s sect master that I am only required to pay the minimu-”

Bam!

“Gah!”

A mouthful of blood erupted as a powerful blow landed in Da Jun’s gut, causing him to double over in pain.

One of the younger experts who accompanied Elder Huise Chongtu stared at Da Jun with undisguised disgust as the latter fell to his knees.

Da Jun wasn’t considered a true cultivator. He was only a tan’tien saturation realm expert at the late stage of the complete immersion level. As a result, this blow caused an immense amount of damage. The only reason he didn’t die was because he was a demon, and as such possessed a stronger body than normal spiritual cultivators of the same realm.

His current position caused his helmet to fall off, revealing his face, which was nothing short of grotesque.

His face had several black bone-spurs protruding from it in no set pattern. One jutted from his cheek, another stuck out from his chin before curving upwards, whilst another poked out from the side of his forehead, leading into a backwards bend.

The bone spurs were the unique characteristics of a Gu demon, a powerful clan of demons within the demon region.

However, it was these bone spurs that induced even further disdain from all four personnel, Zhang Ping included.

“To think that a Gu demon sought a partner outside her kind to give birth to a mongrel like you,” the young expert that attacked Da Jun spat as he spoke.

…

Long Di stared from a distance watching everything play out with an apathetic gaze, “So what are we watching here?”

Yaomu Shou who stood beside him could feel her blood rising when she saw this, “Something that’s becoming a real problem.”