Her lips trembled as she forced herself to ask a question she could only hope he would answer.

“W-What are you?”

****

Whoosh!

Long Di’s aura began to rise as he ignored Wei Yun’s question before making a few comments of his own.

“You’ve insulted me… I can’t say I care. You turned away my offer for a meal so we could sit and talk like civilised beings, and again… I don’t care. You’ve attacked me… see, now on that, I would like to say I don’t care to sound cool, but I’m not gonna lie that was a dick move. So I’m gonna attack you, so heed my advice…” as he spoke up to here, Long Di’s fist around the barb-covered rope that bonded with his hand tightened.

“Steady yourself… erect your defences…” Long Di’s words lacked any inflexion, but the weight they bore was great to Wei Yun.

She sensed no killing intent from the young boy before her, but she felt great danger from him all the same.

In addition, the form he assumed escaped her comprehension. He was like a star-filled sky. His hands, face, and even his hair that fluttered in the wind were like the embodiment of a moonless night.

The gaze he levied upon her made her feel small. She was nought but a speck to him. His eyes were the eyes of heaven, and beneath the heavenly daos, who could she possibly count as?

His eyes shone like gemstones. They were in the shape of eyes, yes, but their radiance was blinding like two suns that came too close to the planet it illuminated. Yet, they were unfeeling and emotionless. He bore no anger towards her, for she was unworthy of it.

That’s how Long Di made her feel, and she hated it.

Her heart clenched as she circulated her spiritual qi to take action at a moment’s notice. The nine cauldrons behind her spun to allow this. There was no need to say that her senses were drawn taut.

When would he act? This was the question she asked herself.

D-D-Dum!

Long Di’s cauldrons broke into being behind as somatic essence filled his body in an instant!

Shu!

He grabbed the rope with a violent tug, thus pulling Wei Yun towards him.

“Ah!”

Despite preparing herself, she was still caught off guard at his speed! From the time he summoned his cauldrons to the time he acted was way too short!

This was one advantage of a somatic essence cultivator. Their bodies were powerful enough to handle the sudden influx of their own power. Because of this, the current series of events threw her off.

Also, Long Di’s lack of killing or murderous intent flustered her. Experts at her level fought using not just their eyes, but their sixth sense. Killing or murderous intent was a good indicator of when to act.

She had no idea why Long Di didn’t release any killing intent. She trained to use her senses for years and they never failed her. So fighting someone that lacked this inherent characteristic would naturally dull her movements.

This wasn’t the case for just her. Anyone else who fought Long Di would find the same thing happening to them.

Whoosh!

The Crimson Horizon Flame roared along Long Di’s arm. This was what allowed him to break the ice from her weapon so easily.

As she flew towards him, she had only just enough time to erect her qi armour before Long Di’s fist smashed into it!

Bam!

Pssshh!

The qi armour shattered before the fist landed on her jaw, burning it and causing her neck to snap to the side!

Smash!

The blow caused her to fly a few feet before she landed on the ground with a crash.

Qi armours were only effective on cultivators who were weaker than the ones who used them. After all, which spiritual energy cultivator would take an attack from someone who is stronger or equal to them with their body?

Of course, Wei Yun wasn’t aware of Long Di’s power to fight across realms. Sure, Long Di was weaker than her cultivation-wise since he is currently a peak cauldron forging realm expert… well, at least for somatic essence.

However, one must note that Long Di’s somatic essence and constitution received further strengthening after being baptised by tribulation lightning. He further corroborated this by wreathing his fist in an earth flame present on the earth flame ranking.

It would actually be strange if he didn’t break through Wei Yun’s hastily put-together qi armour.

Long Di took the rope that pierced his hand and unceremoniously tore it out, causing a geyser of blood to spill.

His eyes showed no fluctuation, nor did any pain register on his face. After taking the barb-covered rope out, he walked toward the rubble that now covered Wei Yun and stared at it for a while.

Rumble!

The rocks shook before they blasted apart with a bang.

“Ugh! Y-You’ll pay for that!” There was a burn mark on Wei Yun’s cheek in the shape of a fist, along with a very noticeable crick in her neck.

“You’ll die trying.” Long Di responded calmly.

In response to this, Wei Yun executed a set of hand seals quickly, causing the ambient temperature to drop.

Vrrrm!

Long Di’s cauldrons shuddered before an invisible pressure descended on Wei Yun, causing her spiritual qi circulation to drastically slow down.

“Huh!!??”

This shocked her as based on Long Di’s cauldron, he should be a ninth duan cauldron forging expert at the most!

The disparity in their realms alone should disallow him to ‌affect her spiritual qi circulation at all. Even if he had cauldrons of an absurdly high level, the effect shouldn’t be this potent right!?

‘What’s going on!? What kind of cauldrons are those!?’’

Asking herself this gave her no answer, so she could only focus and try her best to execute her martial technique.

“Crystal Perforation!”

Frost gave form to Long Di’s breath as ice shards formed above Wei Yun.

This was the first time Long Di saw this kind of technique and he was honestly in awe of it… though it didn’t show.

Then, without warning, they shot toward Long Di!

Shu! Shu! Shu!

He dodged a portion of the shards while the few that managed to reach him only broke the skin, drawing blood and nothing more.

“Tch!”

The strength of the shards was a fraction of their true potential due to Long Di hindering her from driving her spiritual qi the way she wanted to power her technique.

Long Di took advantage of the momentary opening after she executed the technique to close the gap!

Shu!

Bam!

He rushed her once more and fired off a punch that landed in her gut, forcefully bending her body into the shape of a drawn bow before he let loose another punch, this time in her sternum, which resulted in her chest collapsing!

“Ack!”

She threw up a mouthful of blood before she smashed into the ground, knocking the air from her lungs.

Long Di stared with an apathetic look as he stood over her.

He immediately reached for her when the hair on the back of his neck stood up.

‘Danger!’

His senses screamed at him, which he took heed of by quickly dodging to the side to see a dagger that came out of nowhere, nearly taking his head off!

Looking back, he saw a skinny figure wrapped in all black where he just was. This person’s entire body was wrapped in a black cloth and a dagger that shone with a purple glint was in his hand.