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

****

“Earth Flame ranking, so that’s a thing here too, huh?” Long Di nodded in understanding.

“You know what it is!?” Yaomu Shou asked in surprise.

“More or less,” Long Di shrugged. “You kind of get plot synopsis when you give something a name that’s basically its meaning. Hold on.”

As he said this, the powerful ripple that was making its way over arrived and crashed into the qi shield.

Bam!

It crashed into a mysterious rune-covered shield of sorts that was at the mouth of the tunnel. However, immediately after this, a shockwave of flame that was much weaker than the ripple passed through the shield and continued towards them.

Long Di’s brows trembled, and he quickly erected his multi-layered qi shield.

Pling!

The same shattering of the qi shield took place, but Long Di was well aware of the durability of his shield and the destructive nature of the flame.

“Where did this shield come from?” asked calmly, with zero apprehension in his voice of their current situation.

“Why are you asking that!? Do you not see the flames eating away at your qi shield!?” Yaomu Shou said as the flames surrounded them on all sides. Their only protection was Long Di, who apparently sounded like he couldn’t care less.

“I’m asking because I’m curious. Why else would I ask something? As for the flames, yes, I see them eating away at the qi shield. You should be safe with your protector here, right?” Long Di pointed out.

“Yeah, but that condition doesn’t extend to these two!” she said, pointing to Shen Ling and Xiannu Liang. “They’ll die if you don’t take this seriously!”

She wasn’t lying either. Her protector would ONLY save her and leave the others for dead.

“Question,” Long Di said, pouring out even more spiritual qi into the multi-layered shield he constructed. “If the shield didn’t fail me before when we were in the tunnel earlier, what pestilence could have crawled in your brain to make you think it would fail me now?”

“Oh! I… uh…” Yaomu Shou was taken off guard by his question, not even registering the insult Long Di hid in his words.

“Answer,” he firsted her on this by choosing to respond himself. “It won’t. Granted, me being much nearer to the mouth of the tunnel has gifted me a more powerful wall of flame to endure. However, it is not so much that I can’t handle it. Back to my previous question.”

Pling!

The second layer was now gone, a single layer was all that stood between them and incineration.

“Stay close to Shen Ling,” he directed this to both Xiannu Liang and Yaomu Shou just in case untoward were to happen to him and the qi shield. He was confident it would hold, but fortune favours the prepared.

Yaomu Shou looked behind her to see Xiannu Liang white-knuckle clutching onto Shen Ling’s robes. The fear was evident on her face, but Shen Ling was oddly stoic.

Yaomu Shou was about to comment but Long Di asked a question, this time to Shen Ling, “How long can you keep them with you?”

“Not long, and I don’t have experience doing this with other people,” she answered.

Long Di did a quick calculation in his head before responding, “Well, I would advise you to do so only when absolutely necessary.”

She nodded to indicate she would do her best.

Pwhish!

The wall of flames has now passed over the qi shield, allowing the group to sigh in relief.

Long Di then sat cross-legged on the ground to return himself to his best condition.

D-D-D-Dum!

His cauldrons burst into existence, but before they released their natural pressure, he consciously retracted it so they could breathe easy. There were few cauldrons that released an extreme pressure by nature as Long Di’s did, and virtually none that released it in such an overbearing manner.

Even for Long Di, to consciously keep it in, felt like someone who was fat trying to achieve beach bod status by depriving themselves of oxygen.

“I’m still listening to you,” he said, referring to Yaomu Shou and his question about the shield keeping them from the Earth Flame.

“Oh, right… that.”

Yaomu Shou looked at the translucent shield before them with an odd expression. “There is a myth in the Demon region.”

“Oh?” Though Long Di’s eyes were closed, he was paying close attention to what was going on around them.

Yaomu Shou nodded and went on, “hundreds, maybe thousands of years ago, there was a hero of the demon race known as Dark Flame Tian. He was known as an unstoppable force of nature. His strength was the stuff and still is the stuff of legends. At one point in his life, it was rumoured that he travelled across the land and changed the terrain so that cultivators, mostly body cultivators, could train.”

Dark Flame Tian was more than a rising star in the Demon region back in his days. His strength allowed him to walk unhindered wherever he willed. It was even said that his countenance and demeanour had slain the hearts of countless women within the demon race.

“And this shield?” Long Di dazedly asked.

“Cavern Flame Mountain never existed before him,” Yaomu Shou said, getting closer to inspect the runes that covered the shield. “So many of the old generation experts believe ‌it was him who created the phenomenon that allowed the Mountain to have caverns that aid in cultivation by fire.”

“Which sect was he from?” Long Di asked.

Yaomu Shou’s expression darkened when this question came up. “… W-We don’t know,” she said after a moment of hesitation.

Long Di finally opened his eyes and retracted his cauldrons and stood up to look at her. He found her not making eye contact with him and looking elsewhere.

“… The Iron Body Forge Sect,” Long Di said after a while.

“Those shameless morons are the ones who said he was from their sect! My head canon is that Dark Flame Tian is sect-less at best! I would rather believe that than the Iron Body Sect any day!”

“Is this why they cordoned the Mountain off to say that they owned it?” he asked finally.

“Yeah,” Yaomu Shou answered, feeling a bit embarrassed by her earlier outburst and Long Di’s relative calm.

“Got it,” Long Di then looked to Shen Ling. “Take them now and disappear.”

Yaomu Shou was taken aback by this, “Wait, wha-”

Shen Ling didn’t hesitate before grabbing both Xiannu Liang and Yaomu Shou’s hands. The stars in her eyes continuously flickered before she dragged them to a corner of the tunnel within the qi shield where the light cast a shadow.

The second the trio entered the shadows, it was as if they had entered another world. As the shadows engulfed their figures, their entire presence, aura, and bodies were swallowed up into nothing.

Even if Long Di entered the shadows, he would see nothing more than rocks and the faint scattering of light.

Long Di nodded in satisfaction before a formless pressure weighed on him. He quickly stated, “She’s fine. I’m sure you can tell why I did what I did.”

After he said this, the formless pressure disappeared, and he dispelled the qi shield. A terrifying heat bombarded and sweat already started to bead on his forehead.

He placed his hand on the rune-covered shield, and he was surprised to find that its consistency was like rubber. It was soft, but no matter how much he pushed, he couldn’t break through.

Of course, he had an idea of how to get through. He just didn’t want to do it yet.

Ti ta, ti ta, ti ta…

The pitter-patter of several footsteps could be heard coming down the tunnel Long Di was in.

However, Long Di didn’t appear surprised. He kept his back to the rune-covered shield to face whoever it was.

It wasn’t long before a small group emerged before him. It was a group consisting of two middle-aged demons, a man and a woman, along with four disciples. Three female demons and one male demon comprised the disciple’s group.

One female, in particular, walked ahead of the group of disciples. In fact, she walked ahead of the middle-aged demons that accompanied them.

Long Di didn’t know what demons they were, but he could smell the arrogance they were giving off and it bored him.

The female in the lead looked at the space behind and saw the soft glow and felt the flame fluctuations in the air.

“An Earth Flame,” her voice shuddered a bit when she realised what this was. Not just the disciples behind her, but even the middle-aged demons were moved by this and immediately grew restless.

“You’ve been following me.” This was no question. This was an observation that Long Di had made and had been aware of for quite some time.

“For years, Cavern Flame Mountain’s flame energy had been shrouded in mystery. It seems the Caverns were being powered by an Earth flame,” the male middle-aged demon pointed out.

The female middle-aged demon followed up by saying, “Dark Flame Tian was even able to make an Earth Flame bend to his will.”

The new arrivals weren’t paying attention to Long Di. They were conversing among themselves regarding ‘their’ discovery of the Earth Flame.

“It is only right we bring it to the sect. There is no need for this to remain out here where any and everyone can take advantage of it,” the young female disciple advised.

The other disciples behind her nodded in agreement.

Long Di said nothing and did nothing and simply listened to their conversation while wondering what he wanted for dinner. They haven’t had a decent meal since leaving Blackstone City and eating rations wasn’t necessarily fulfilling. Sure, he was a Martial Master and could survive for months without food, but eating was one of the few enjoyable practices he could employ and he wasn’t about to give it up.

“I should really cook something when we get out of here,” Long Di said to himself.

Though this was said to himself, it was successful in drawing the attention of the new arrivals.

Their only action, though, was a collective narrowing of the eyes.

Seeing this, Long Di nodded and spoke with a finger to his chest, “Hello, due to matters beyond my control, I cannot disclose my name. How are you all doing today?”

Silence pervaded the area, not long enough for the tumbleweed to make its legendary reappearance, but enough to make it awkward.

The female at the front disdained to speak with a human, much less a child who appeared to be no more than eleven. Seeing this, a disciple from the back chose to do so.

“A silver body disciple and a few o-”

Long Di raised a hand and immediately admitted, “I killed them.”

They were all caught off guard by the sudden admission and didn’t know how to continue for a while until another disciple chose to speak.

“I-If you think telling the truth is gonna save you, then you’ve got ano-”

Long Di raised another hand and said, “never thought that. Killed em in cold blood.”

Their eyes widened in shock at Long Di’s brazenness.

Another disciple took up the chance to speak, “You dared to offe-”

“So I’m gonna stop you right there.”

‘Damn you!’

Long Di’s interjection was infuriating! They would say something and he would respond in a way that made it seem like it was the most tiring thing to do!

Were they boring people? Why was he acting like he saw this scenario countless times!?

He then went on, “Let’s be honest, you were never gonna let me go. One,” he put up a finger.

“I’m a human and your racist and/or specist tendencies want me dead. Second, I discovered the Earth Flame, and you want no one else to know. Third, I could smell the haughty coming from you all a mile away. A new perfume is recommended. At this stage, whether I killed the guy above, yes or no wouldn’t have mattered, you would have wanted to kill me. Now that we got that out of the way.”

After saying what was on their mind, Long Di did a couple of stretches and declared. “I need to move fast, so let’s get this over with. You’re gonna say that I’m offending you, then I’m supposed to say something witty in return. You’ll get angry and send out side-character number three behind you to fight me because the two middle-aged demons will deem it below them to fight me because of my apparent age.

“I will kill side-character number three and you will all gasp in surprise because I killed one of you and you’ll all ask me if I know what I’ve done, like I don’t know what murder is. You’ll either send out side characters four through six to come at me all once, or one of your middle-aged nannies will do so. I kill some but not all, because of plot, and I then subdue the Earth flame. We all clear on our roles here…? I’ll take your silence as consent… aaand ACTION.”

The minute he said this, no one made a move. It wasn’t that they couldn’t; it was because what they wanted to say and do lined up perfectly with what Long Di said they would.

It was as if they were dancing in the palm of his hands, and it was uncomfortable. They were the Iron Body Forge Sect. How could they act according to the whims of a child?

But then… what were they to do? Just stand there ominously? They didn’t know how to break this deadlock. Were they that lacking in originality that they didn’t know how to act otherwise!?

Long Di waited, and it wasn’t long before one of the female disciples from the back couldn’t bear it stepped forward and drew out a club.

It was a jarring juxtaposition to see the petite looking girl with such a massive club, but Long Di was pretty progressive and encouraged free choice.

D-D-D-Dum!

Nine cauldrons burst into existence and a formless pressure surged forward, bearing down on Long Di.

She said nothing and charged toward Long Di with the club before leaping high with the club overhead.

Long Di coldly raised his hand with his palm outstretched. Without warning, a lightning spear quickly took form and fired off in her direction!

“Junior si-”

Before one of her colleagues could finish his sentence, the spear pierced her stomach before coming out the other end and, without losing power, continued towards the group behind her.

One of the middle-aged demons felt the power of the spear and made a move to parry it!

Clang!

Bam!

The spear was deflected and flew into the wall to the side before disappearing from sight!

The demon that made a move to deflect the spear could feel his hands trembling from the force and the strange energy within.

He stared at Long Di in shock and horror, ‘Could that energy have been!? N-No… it couldn’t be!’

Thud!

The body only now dropped to the ground with a thump, and Long Di impassively stared at them as if he did nothing wrong.

They stared at him in shock and wanted very much to ask a question, but they didn’t dare to because it meant that Long Di would have been right AGAIN!

“Would you like to ask me if I know what I’ve done?” Long Di asked them.

When Long Di asked them this, their expressions darkened, and the female in front was particularly enraged.

“Screw you! Auntie Metal, Uncle Metal kill him!”