Long Di chose to utter the three holy words for his opening statement.

“I can explain.”

****

Yaomu Shou looked at the knife, then the boy, then the girl. This process underwent a rigorous rinse and repeat. At the end of the day, it didn’t look good for Long Di.

At this point, Yaomu Shou found it impressive how Long Di managed to find himself in some rather dubious situations.

She eventually sighed and wondered how to best pose her questions… yes, questions, as in plural. One was nowhere near enough to ask what the heck was going on here.

“Where is she from?” she finally asked.

Long Di then directed his gaze to Wei Yun, prompting the latter to answer.

“O-Oh, I-Ice Phoenix Hall.”

“The hall?” Yaomu Shou asked in an inquiring tone.

When Wei Yun heard Yaomu Shou’s specific question, her eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”

“I’m the one asking the questions here,” Yaomu Shou smiled.

She then looked back to Long Di, “What is she doing here?”

“She came here for my meat and then sh-”

“Lies! I never came here for his meat! I have my own meat!”

Long Di then looked at her questioningly, “You have your own meat?”

“Can’t you tell!?” Wei Yun yelled.

“You don’t look it.” Long Di shrugged.

“Well, I do!”

“Can you show m-”

“Hold on!” Yaomu Shou interjected. She didn’t know why, but she felt that this conversation took a weird turn somewhere and she didn’t want to be here for it.

“Let’s bring this back please and stop talking about… meat,” Yaomu was feeling really uncomfortable about that word for some reason and she blamed it on Long Di.

“I came here concerning a friend of mine! I came here for the Divine Daughter!” Wei Yun chose to answer of her own accord. Long Di was way too unreliable.

Yaomu Shou’s expression changed, “Divine Daughter Qin Ling!? The one blessed with the Cold Heart True Ice Physique!?”

A smug expression took over Wei Yun’s expression, “You’re well-learned. Yes, the Divine Daughter with the physique .”

Yaomu Shou then looked to Long Di in shock once more.

“You know the Divine Daughter!?”

“What do you want?” Long Di didn’t answer Yaomu Shou’s question and instead questioned Wei Yun.

“You don’t want me dead… I think. You even warned me about the assassin. After that, you-”

Yaomu Shou thought she heard wrong, “There was an assassin!? When!? What assassi-”

“Give me a minute here Shou,” Long Di cut her off before continuing with Wei Yun.

“After that, you expressed concern he would be able to kill me. Why? What do you want from me? Why did you ask about this Divine Daughter?”

Wei Yun was more or less sure that this Long Di was the Long Di she was searching for, so there was no need to hide the details of her mission from him. The last part of it could come later.

“The cultivation technique you gave her. It’s incomplete. I was sent to retrieve the missing parts of it! Just tell me where you found it, and I’ll head over to retrieve it myself.”

She didn’t believe that Long Di created the cultivation technique. It was far too profound and ingenious. Though it was incomplete, it was able to rival the cultivation speed of most of their own advanced cultivation techniques.

As the Divine Daughter, Qin Ling had access to all the levels found within the Ice Phoenix Hall. Yet, none of their techniques came close to what she was already cultivating, though it was nearing its usefulness.

“So, you want to help her?” Long Di wished to confirm this once more.

Yaomu Shou chimed in at this point. “You shouldn’t have to worry, Long Di. The Ice Phoenix Hall has neither the right nor the authority to deny the Divine Daughter.”

Wei Yun became warier of Yaomu Shou’s identity when she said this. She knew too much about the Ice Phoenix Hall to be a normal cultivator.

After listening to Yaomu Shou, Long Di then looked back to Wei Yun and saw her nod at him, indicating the former was correct in her assessment.

Long Di sighed before commenting, “Why can’t people have a civil conversation? Things would be so easy if we could do that. Fine, I created her cultivation technique, and it was more an experiment than anything else.”

Wei Yun became irritated at his explanation and stated through gritted teeth, “If she’s your friend, then tell me the truth! I don’t want to use it for myself. It’s for the Divine Daughter, I swear!”

She thought that Long Di was distrusting of her to the point where he thought she wanted to keep the cultivation technique for herself.

“I’m not lying,” Long Di replied calmly. “I did create it. I didn’t put much thought into it, sure, but it’s my work.”

Anger took over Wei Yun’s features because as far as she was concerned Long Di was being unreasonable!

Yaomu Shou sat quietly at the side and took in the conversation with a fair bit of thought.

Naturally, her gaze was on Long Di the entire time. This was because she believed him. She believed every word. So it was because of this that, though she appeared calm on the surface, her thoughts were in turmoil.

But who could blame her!?

Sure, she was there in the room with Long Di and Feng Yu when the former said he could create a cultivation technique for the latter back at the Nether Immolation War Temple. And sure, she got confirmation from him when he said he was responsible for the creation of his own cultivation technique.

However, one had to know that it took even the wise sages from ancient times almost their entire life to create ONE cultivation technique. Even then, they weren’t perfect and underwent several revisions across several lifetimes for them to reach a sufficient level.

This was why sects did everything in their power to keep their defining cultivation techniques and methods protected. Only the most promising disciples would be allowed to learn them. This only grew more extreme the higher the grade of the cultivation technique.

She was able to accept Long Di being able to create his own cultivation technique, but now she had to accept that he created the cultivation technique of the Divine Daughter of the Ice Phoenix Hall!?

Not just that, not even the Ice Phoenix Hall’s cultivation methods were able to enter her eyes!?

This meant that Long Di could off-handedly create cultivation methods better than what one of the ten great sects had!

What kind of existence was Long Di!? What kind of freak did she partner up with!?

She had to stop him from answering Wei Yun.

“Long Di!”

Hearing her shout, Long Di looked over to Yaomu Shou, wondering why she was trying to frighten him.

She shook her head and said nothing more.

He didn’t need to see more than this to know what she meant. She had told Long Di a few weeks ago that he shouldn’t tell anyone that he was responsible for the creation of his own cultivation technique.

Though he wasn’t talking about HIS cultivation technique, this wasn’t much better. It didn’t take an idiot to know that she was telling him to shut up about this. On the off-chance he managed to convince Wei Yun, it certainly wouldn’t end up well for him.

Yaomu Shou then took the initiative to answer Wei Yun. “I know where he got the cultivation technique from.”

“You do?” Wei Wun asked.

“You do?” Long Di asked with a raised brow.

“Yes!” she shot a glare at Long Di telling him to shut it.

“Then where did he get it? I swear on my dao that I speak the truth of only collecting it for the Divine Daughter’s use,” Wei Yun stated gravely.

When Yaomu Shou heard how a genius like Wei Yun dared to swear on her dao path what she meant to do with the cultivation technique, she was inwardly shocked once more.

What kind of cultivation method did Long Di create that would have a disciple from the Ice Phoenix Hall act in such a way!?

Was the dao of a top disciple from one of the ten great sects something so trivial that a dao oath could be made any day of the week!?

Of course not!

Whatever it was Long Di gave to them, Yaomu Shou had to make sure that Long Di was protected.

“Uhm, Wei Yun was it?” Yaomu Shou wanted to make sure of Wei Yun’s name.

The latter nodded once more to indicate Yaomu Shou was correct.

“Let me talk with Long Di for a bit.”

Wei Yun stared at her in silence for a few seconds before nodding in agreement. She was doing a lot of that today.

When Long Di and Yaomu Shou were a few feet from Wei Yun, the former propped up a shield composed of a shield of spiritual force.

This was much better than spiritual qi when it came to isolating their presence in addition to soundproofing.

Plus, they would be able to keep an eye on her if she tried anything funny.

Yaomu Shou didn’t waste any time and got right to business. “Alright Long Di, please let me lie to her.”

“You’re out the door, guns blazing with that demand, aren’t you?” commented Long Di.

“Trust me on this! The last thing you want to do is to have the top ten great sects, or worse, hanging over your head like a floating obese disappointment.”

“Why is that the first thing that came to your mind?”

“Listen to me!” Yaomu Shou couldn’t be bothered to explain to Long Di her thought process.

She was nine parts sure this was due to him‌. That last part is just a margin of error.

She continued after regaining his attention, “You said you were attacked by an assassin. Can you tell me more about that?”

Long Di recounted his experience with the assassin that attacked him and he could see how overwhelmed her expression became.

When he was done, she put a hand to her head in exasperation.

“Oh god, I can’t believe those fanatics are after you,” remarked Yaomu Shou.

Long Di could more or less extrapolate what was happening here based on that comment alone.

“I’m guessing this isn’t the last time I’ll be hearing about these people, huh?” he asked. It was more than a question, but he ‘asked,’ it all the same.

Yaomu Shou released a weak yeah in response.

A sarcastic “great…” was all he could manage.

“Someone powerful and wealthy must have commissioned them,” stated Yaomu Shou.

She then revealed all that she knew about An Shalu Sanctorum.

Based on Yaomu Shou’s explanation, An Shalu Sanctorum was one of the top ten great sects, but was the one mostly shrouded in a veil of mystery.

Very little was known besides what they allowed to be known to others. What was known was they were a sect who walked the unorthodox path of the assassination dao.

They also differed from other sects in that they could be hired to attack specific targets.

When Long di told her that the assassin who attacked him was much weaker than he was, Yaomu Shou wasn’t surprised. In fact, she expected this and told him that this was how the assassins from An Shalu Sanctorum operated.

Assassination was the art of killing the target with one calculated strike from the shadows. This strike was pointed at the target’s weak spot. Whether this weak spot was newly created or natural, didn’t matter.

This allowed those who were weaker to assassinate those who were stronger than them. To bring their assassination arts to the peak, they never assassinated someone who was weaker than they were cultivation-wise.

When Long Di learned this, he finally understood that particular sect a bit more.

“How do you know so much about this?” Long Di finally asked. “Did someone try to assassinate you at some point?”

“No,” Yaomu Shou shook her head. “Actually, a bunch of powerful sects came together and requested An Shalu Sanctorum to kill the newly born heir of the Dragon race.”

Long Di didn’t even want to get too deep into that, but he’d be lying if he said it didn’t pique his interest. “Two questions… Why? And did it work?”

“His coming heralded a calamity and An Shalu Sanctorum declined the offer since it violated their rules, but that isn’t important right now,” stated Yaomu Shou.

Long Di raised a hand. “I beg to differ.”

“No need to differ. We’ll talk about that later,” she replied.

His hand slowly fell. “I… don’t see that happening.”

“Not with that attitude,” Yaomu Shou retorted. “Anyway, let me talk to her and just keep quiet.”

Long Di responded. “I only promise to try.”