Not having a choice, Long Di just shrugged his shoulders and sat down with the hand in his mouth all the same and quadruple-layered his qi shield to await the wall of flame.

****

The wall of flames crashed into the qi shield, causing powerful tremors that rocked the underground space they were in.

The first layer of the qi shield immediately shattered and the second layer was being eaten away at a pace visible to the naked eye!

With a hand that was not his in his mouth, Long Di could see that everyone here was still paying attention to him with less than accepted cognitive function.

‘I’m really gonna start keeping these things to myself going forward,’ he thought to himself.

Pling!

The second layer shattered and Long Di poured even more of his spiritual qi into the qi shield.

The deterioration slowed down at the third layer. However, its burning could still be seen.

Thankfully, however, the flames petered out until the tunnel became clear once more. Darkness filled the area ahead and what had happened earlier seemed like an illusion.

“Mmph…” He was trying to say something when the hand in his mouth made him realise his current predicament.

Long Di took out Yaomu Shou’s hand out of his mouth. After this, he quickly retrieved a cup of water and used it to rinse his mouth clean. He could do it with spiritual qi, but using water made him feel like it was more effective.

“Is it that unusual?” Long Di said, feeling tired.

When Yaomu Shou heard Long Di’s question and saw his expression, a feeling of anger welled up within her. “Of course it is, you dead-faced child human thing!”

She gripped Long Di’s neck and started throttling him, “Do you know what you just said!?”

“That sounds like a rhetorical question, so imma wait till the appropriate amount of time has passed and you continue of your own volition,” Long Di said, despite being choked out.

“L-L-Long Di, i-i-is what you said true?” Shen Ling, who won her game of hide-and-seek, found the ability to speak once more.

Long Di stared at her for a while before asking, “Have you never realised this?”

She slowly shook her head, still slightly in a daze.

“Huh,” Long Di replayed his memories and finally realised that apart from Uncle Tian Lu, everyone else who’s experienced his dual-wielding of somatic essence and spiritual qi had either died, been killed, or is no longer alive.

In addition, the rest who fought with him when he used somatic essence, thinks that he’s a human who’s practising body cultivation, which isn’t all that much of a rarity.

“Would you look at that. I never told you,” Long Di said to the young girl. “Hey Shen Ling, I’m dual cultivating somatic essence and spiritual qi.”

When Shen Ling heard this, she couldn’t help her expression from turning dark. There were moments when Long Di was truly insufferable and this was one of those moments.

“By the way,” Long Di turned his attention back to Yaomu Shou. “Could you take your man hands from around my neck?” he asked politely.

A deep blush flushed Yaomu Shou’s face, “W-W-Who did you say have man hands!?”

She released Long Di’s neck in a hurry as she inspected her hands over and over again, wondering if this was maybe true.

“I don’t know why that made you blush,” Long Di said, rubbing his neck. “You had your hand in my mouth a few minutes ago. That’s the kind of thing that deviants want to see on Only Fans.”

When Long Di brought this up, her blush deepened, and she glared at Long Di.

Seeing his lack of reaction, she sighed and gave up. She composed her thoughts and finally asked, “How are you able to do this? Why are you not dead?”

Hearing this question, he got up and took up the map that fell on the ground, following his daily violent bloodletting.

He got to walking and led the small ground through numerous twists and turns.

“Are you referring to the somatic essence and spiritual qi inside my body?” he asked, just to be sure.

“Yeah!” she nodded like a chicken deprived of its feed for far too long.

“It’s my physique,” he sighed. He was arriving at his limit for social connections for the day, but he powered through. “My physique allows me to contain everything in a way.”

“Isn’t that a bit too vague?” Yaomu Shou frowned.

He got to a fork in the road and referenced the map, and quickly made his choice. Shen Ling and Xiannu Liang just followed behind the two quietly.

“I can’t help it, not even I know my limit with this thing.” Long Di shrugged his shoulders. “I’m sure you’ve seen its power somewhat. Not gonna lie when I say I’m still groping around in the dark myself.”

Yaomu Shou had to agree that the power of his physique was blatantly slapping the face of their world’s known cultivation laws.

“Long Di, until you're strong enough, strong enough to look down on this entire world, don’t reveal that you’re able to dual cultivate.” Yaomu Shou stated in a solemn tone.

His brows furrowed when he heard her words, “I thought that dual cultivation was where you and your partner had s-”

A blush more intense than any other covered Yaomu Shou’s face in an instant, “Screw you!”

“Exactly,” Long Di agreed calmly.

When Yaomu Shou saw what happened with her lashing out, the blush only deepened.

“Son of a…”

She took a deep breath and, with no small amount of effort on her part, pushed her embarrassment aside and calmly explained to Long Di, “Dual cultivation can mean many things. In this case, I am referring to the cultivation of different energies or cultivation techniques.”

“Noted. By the way, we’re here.” Long Di announced.

“What are you talking ab…” Yaomu Shou’s words were cut short by the scene before her.

They came to an opening in the tunnel they were in and a few metres below, floating in mid-air, was a gently burning red flame.

“Is this it?” Long Di asked, a bit disappointed.

“That’s it alright,” Yaomu Shou said with apprehension.

“It looks kind of… cute,” Xiannu Liang said from the back.

Shen Ling nodded to confirm she agreed with that as well.

“Long Di, you need to approach this at your best!” Yaomu Shou could see that he was treating this with the level of caution that it required.

She went on, “Honestly, no Martial Master has ever been able to subdue an Earth Flame with their own power before.”

“Come on,” Long Di looked at her. “You’re just saying that because no one ever has.”

“I’m being serious here!” Yaomu Shou stomped her foot to bring her point across.

“If anything, it’s hilariously underwhelming,” he advised.

Vrrrm…

Suddenly, the Earth Flame trembled before powerful ripples spread out, bringing with them a destructive intent that yearned to burn everything to ashes!

There was even a faint rune within that Yaomu Shou was able to make out. Utilising her knowledge as a member of the Yaomu family, a sense of excitement arose.

“That’s an Earth Flame on the Earth Flame ranking, the Crimson Horizon Flame!”