Sandra’s smile disappeared as she said solemnly, “Although he is the first one to get this reaction out of the Guardian Fruit, it makes me wonder. He was born as a Dragon, whose sense of Pride is second to none. For someone like him to get the Guardian Fruit of Pride...”

The old man’s face also turned solemn as he heard the young girl. He nodded his head as he said, “Greed, Pride, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, Wrath, Sloth. Each of the Guardian Fruit holds one of the seven. The one who holds Greed has holed up inside a mountain with mountain of Qi Jade. Envy is still going around stealing nearly everything she takes a fancy to.” He sighed as he continued remembering, “Lust only fools around with the young masters before pumping them dry. As for Gluttony, he goes around eating the best and rarest foods. He isn’t that bad because he pays for the food and doesn’t create trouble but the rest are all trouble makers.”

As the old man shook his head, he suddenly felt a chill run down her spine as Sandra smiled towards him sinisterly, “And what about me Sloth?” Beads of sweat started flowing down the old man’s forehead as he said, “And you, Wrath, are the most loveable and pretty little princess in the whole 7 Sins Realm.” Hearing this the little girl just nodded her head and smiled sweetly, “And do not forget that.”

Saying so, she turned around to leave. When she had left the old man finally let out a sigh as he said, “I nearly brought an apocalypse on myself. The last time Wrath got pissed off...” As he remembered the carnage that had happened, he just shuddered. He closed his eyes and quickly entered meditation again.

***

As Zhi kept familiarizing himself with the Flame Seed, his understanding of the true meaning of a solid Foundation grew. The basic principle of all these techniques that allowed a person to accumulate Qi into one point to use at another time all had high requirements in terms of the body. The body had to be strong enough to withstand the Qi. If his body was tempered by the mediocre standards, then he probably couldn’t even put a strand of Qi in to the Flame Seed. This technique was extremely good because it could be used in both cultivation and in combat.

As Zhi immersed himself in the profound mysteries of the technique, suddenly he felt the Command Medallion vibrate. The Command Medallion he had was linked to the four Island Lords so that they could contact him if they needed. As he took the Medallion out, he poured some Qi into it and then a message entered his head. It was from Feng and he said that some Long Clan had arrived and some of them were making quite a fuss. Hearing this Zhi just sighed as he sent back a message that he would be right there.

When he arrived at the place that Feng told him about, he suddenly heard a big commotion as he saw a big crowd. Having a bad feeling, he immediately headed towards there. He was greeted by a sight that thoroughly enraged him. A young man with long black hair was currently stomping Zhishi under his foot. The young man wore azure robes with a golden dragon imprint so Zhi knew exactly where the young man was from.

As he arrived at the scene he could hear the young man mockingly say, “I am from the Long Clan. The Island Master is my Clan’s member. What right do you have to block my path and refute me from doing what I want?” This sentence thoroughly enraged Zhi because of two things: First, this was his Island and the young man wasn’t following his rules. Second he so blatantly used Zhi’s name to do what he wanted. When Zhi had allowed the Ancestor to relocate his faithful clan members here, he had explicitly said that they had to follow his rules and that the four Island Lords were the people in charge here.

Behind the young man were several other young and old from the Long Clan who sneered and looked down on everyone in disdain. Zhishi just spat a mouthful of blood as he said through grit teeth, “Senior’s orders are absolute. He left me in charge here and I will protect the rules here even if I have to die.” The surrounding people all felt that Zhishi was an idiot but Zhi felt a bit proud. He felt as though he had chosen a right person for the position.

The young man tilted his head mockingly and raised his sword saying, “Well then, go die then.” As his sword fell, all of the people looking at the spectacle were visibly shocked. It was one thing to demonstrate strength but to outright kill someone like this was not a good idea at all. Since nobody had the cultivation to intervene, they just closed their eyes but when the sound of sword cutting flesh didn’t echo out, they slowly opened their eyes.

They all saw that a young man dressed in black had caught the sword between his index finger and thumb. The young man was Zhi and his face was beyond ugly at the moment. Before the young man could say anything he was greeted by a fist straight in the stomach. The young man spat out blood as he flew back and was caught by one of the Long Clan members. Before anyone could even register what had happened an enraged roar echoed out over the entire Island from Zhi, “LONG CLAN ANCESTOR, GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE NOW!” This one sentence made everyone’s eyes as wide as carriage wheels.

One of the Long Clan member’s, that had the cultivation of an Empyrean Immortal, said, “Who do you think-” Before he could even finish his sentence a drop kick landed on his head from Zhi. When everyone saw that the drop kick from Zhi had nailed the man into the ground, no one knew what to say any more. Zhi’s murderous aura spread out and suffocated all of the observes except for Zhishi and Feng. His aura didn’t touch the girls behind Feng either. As the area was engulfed in silence a white flame manifested on Zhi’s hand as he walked towards Zhishi.

Although his injuries weren’t life threatening, they would hinder his road on cultivation if they weren’t treated immediately. He gently submerged Zhishi in the Flames and there was confusion on his face when it didn’t hurt. He didn’t dare to move but was soon dumbfounded when he realized that all of his wounds were healing at an astonishing pace. Just as the flame completely engulfed Zhishi, two beams of light arrived. From one came Fanghong and from the other the Long Clan Ancestor. Both of their faces were ugly as they saw the situation. The Ancestor turned to Zhi and asked in a grim tone, “What happened here?”

Fanghong stood behind Zhi as if to protect him and Zhi looked the Ancestor straight in the eye as he said, “I told you my conditions for allowing the Long Clan to come to Dragon Cross. I do not know what happened before I arrived here but when I arrived one of the arrogant little pricks was about to kill one of the Island Lords. Would you like to explain yourself old bastard?” The anger in his tone was very evident but everyone’s mind blanked out when they processed what Zhi had said.

Everyone felt their scalp numb when they realized that Zhi was the Island Master. Hearing this the Ancestor’s face blanked for a second before turning towards the Long Clan members who had been at the scene. When the Ancestor and Fanghong had first arrived they all had thought that they would deal with Zhi but when they heard Zhi’s words, they realized what kind of a steel board they had hit this time.

The Ancestor went and picked up one of the Long Clan members by the collar as he shouted in the young mans face, “WHAT THE FUCKING HELL HAPPENED HERE?” The young man was nearly scared to death as he quickly explained what had happened. He didn’t dare to twist the truth or leave anything. When he was done, the Ancestor was fuming with anger as he slapped the young man so hard he literally flew through one of the stone buildings in the surroundings. He then went and picked that fellow up and just as he was about to slap him again, Zhi stopped him, “Don’t. Take him and Father you take that fellow over there.”

Saying to he pointed towards the youth who had got punched in the stomach. He himself picked up the fellow that got the drop kick and then he turned towards the Long Clan members, “In 15 minutes everyone of the Long Clan is to assemble in the assigned location of the Clan. Anyone who is even a second late will get punished.” Hearing this, the Ancestor nodded and transmitted it to all of the Long Clan members. As Zhi, Fanghong and Ancestor were flying towards the Long Clan Compound, the Ancestor sighed, “I am sorry Little Zhi. I would have never thought that my repeated warnings to the Clan would have been in from the one ear and out of the other one.” Zhi knew that this wasn’t the Ancestors fault. He had done everything he could to make sure the Long Clan didn’t cause trouble like this but he couldn’t just put a collar around everyone’s neck and chain them to the compound walls.

Zhi just sighed as he said, “Well, I expected that the Long Clan wouldn’t be able to adapt to my rules so easily.” After Zhi said that, they had arrived at the Long Clan compound and when they arrived they threw the three people in front of them as they waited for the Clan to gather. Only 10 minutes had passed since the order to gather was given but everyone from the Long Clan was present already.

It was evident that the incident that had transpired only 15 minutes ago was already known to everyone. As Zhi glanced over the people present, the Ancestor said, “I believe all of you have already heard about what had happened at the Main Square?” Hearing this everyone nodded and the Ancestor looked towards Zhi. Understanding the look Zhi stepped up and said, “I am the Island Master of Dragon Cross. Although I am also from the Long Clan, I do not plan to give you people any special treatment.” This statement enraged a few of the older people as one of them snorted, “Junior, blood is thicker than water.” Hearing this sentence both the Ancestor and Fanghong released their killing intent.

They understood the meaning behind the words very clearly and just as they wanted to go and give that old man a good beating, Zhi’s voice echoed out, “True that but where were you when I was stuck in the Ancient Battlefield? Where were you guys when I was fighting for my life day in and day out?” As these cold words sounded out, everyone felt a chill run down their spine. The old man who opened his mouth before just gulped.

Zhi took another step forward as a dominating cold aura spread out, “The only thing this Clan has brought me is grief and pain but considering our blood ties I took you in on the Ancestors request. If it weren’t that the Clan had offered kindness to my Father when he was young, I would not even taken you retarded lizards in.” These cold words pierced through the hearts of every person present but no one could say anything.

Some even took a step back as Zhi’s cold words sounded out. Zhi swept his glance over everyone and said, “All the Arts, Artefacts and Pills are provided by me alone. This place is also provided by me and if you ungrateful shit heads can’t even follow my rules under my roof…. I don’t give damn if you are a child or a person with one foot in the grave, you will be thoroughly punished. So I advise you to learn the rules by heart and if anyone else pulls off a stunt like today in the future, they might not live long enough to be thrown out of Dragon Cross.” After saying so Zhi turned around and left.

Fanghong and the Ancestor looked at his departing figure with a complicated gaze. Seeing Zhi leave, everyone felt the suffocating pressure vanish, one of the people from the younger generation said haughtily, “What a prick, what happened to him wasn’t even our fault. Why does he need to make our lives harder?” As the words echoed out, both the Ancestor and Fanghong glanced at the young woman coldly. Fanghong just said, “Do you believe me if if I say I will slap you death if you continue opening that worthless mouth of yours?” These cold words made everyone of the younger generation shrink back.

All of the elderly had a complicated face on. The words Zhi said had made them thoroughly rethink their attitude. Currently, they were basically homeless and as Zhi said, the Long Clan had brought him nothing but grief and pain. To be able to live here and actually have equal conditions as the others was already a heaven sent gift. Also, none of them could say that the Arts, Artefacts and Pills provided by Zhi were bad, they were of the Highest Grade and there was a lot of them. The Qi was already 5 times thicker on this Island that it had been in their Clan’s cultivation grounds in the past. Also there were various tempering formations and cultivation formations as well, this place was like a Holy Ground of cultivating.

Although, the Ancestor had said to follow Zhi’s rules, they had brushed it off before. This time hearing Zhi’s cold words and seeing the actions he took, they all had to reconsider their attitude. Also, it was already known that Zhi had spent ten years in the Ancient Battlefield. The people from the Senior generation knew very well what kind of a place that was. After thinking about everything with a new look, they felt embarrassed about their previous attitude. Silently in their hearts they made a vow to thoroughly beat this new found attitude into their descendants as well. Like this the next week in the Long Clan compound was filled with miserable screams.

All of the Elders were thoroughly beating humility into their juniors. As far as the rules went, they were extremely fair. With contribution points you could get everything and there were countless ways to earn the contribution points. They also understood that they had doted on their descendants a bit too much in the past. They were too used to asking their mommies and daddies for Arts and Pills. They hadn’t worked for the resources themselves so they didn’t know the difficulty of obtaining these things.

After Zhi had left the Long Compound, he went over to find Zhishi and Feng. After seeing that they were all right and that the little Nymph Girls who Zhishi and Feng had protected were fine as well, he was relieved. He talked to them a bit about their total number of people and how things were going lately. When Feng happily said that they have already made an army and also had their Refinement Hall make special armours and weapons for them. Hearing that he now had an army, Zhi asked, “How long was I in the secluded meditation?” Feng thought for a second and said, “For 3 months.”

Zhi’s eyes widened and then he sighed as he shook his head saying, “Time truly passes fast in cultivation.” Feng and Zhishi could only bitterly smile to that. Due to having to take care of everything, their own cultivation had not progressed much. Also thinking about their situation, Zhi suddenly remembered something as he gave the four of them some precious Pills and passed a few Arts to them. He said, “These are to help you advance by leaps and bounds. After familiarizing yourself with this cultivation art, take one pill per day and after one month of continuously taking the pills, take 6 months off and go into secluded meditation and take this pill.” He said so as he pointed out each of the pills in the correct order. Finally, he held up a pill that was pure white. On it were a few golden engravings.

Zhi looked at them seriously as he said, “The pills from before will remove the impurities from your body while at the same time tempering your body. If you use it in synchronization with the Art, the result will be double with half the effort. Also when you take the last pill, take it in a place with the Qi Gathering Formation.” These items were all of the highest grade he had. The reason he gave them to them was because he had thrown all of the responsibilities and duties on their shoulders. Their own cultivation advanced at a snail pace even with all the things they currently had.

This was his way of thanking them for the good work they had done. The four looked at each other and then at Zhi. They respectfully cupped their hands as they said, “We thank the Island Master for his generosity.” Hearing this Zhi just laughed as he said, “You have done a superb job with managing everything. This is the least I could do to help you catch up with your cultivation to the others.”

With that, he stood up and headed back towards the Mansion. When he was halfway there, he felt that someone was flying to the Island. Actually, there were 7 people there and two of them had a very familiar aura to him. He smiled as he looked towards the direction as he made a guiding path to the mansion through the Formations.