“You might need to prepare for my arrival,” Long Di responded while offering her a goodbye wave.

Wei Yun would have wished that she took Long Di’s words to heart this day.

“We’ll meet again,” was the last thing she said before she offered them her back.

****

It wasn’t long before this disciple from the Ice Phoenix Hall disappeared from view.

“Good riddance!” Yaomu Shou spat.

Long Di’s eyes slowly slid into a side view before he commented, “You don’t like humans, do you?”

Yaomu Shou scoffed despite herself. “Can you even blame me!? You saw how one of them acted, right?”

Long Di didn’t know how to react to this. Was he not a human?

Then again, since he came to the world, he’s been called a LOT of things. Thinking back on it now, human hasn’t been that far up there in the rankings. How the heck did that come to pass?

As far as he was confirmed, he hasn’t been anything but humane compared to everything else. Between the Pandas, the arm fetishes, the borderline religious masochism and the racism, he was a treat.

“Hm…” he thought about this for a bit as he looked up to the sky in a daze. It was then that he realised that the time was moving along far faster than expected.

The darkness that draped the sky was beginning to recede bit by bit, letting both Long Di and Yaomu Shou know that day was rapidly approaching.

“Snort!”

A breathy grunt stole their attention. They looked over to see the Overly Bombastic Brawler Rabbit hopping back in their direction with a look of anger on its face.

There was neither hide nor hair of the monk. The latter identifying factor may not be accurate, but much like Long Di’s lack of mercy for the chronically moronic, it is here to stay.

When it arrived a few feet from Long Di and Yaomu Shou, it scanned the scene for the vertical spit roast. However, its desired wish was nowhere to be found.

Burgundy-coloured veins stretched across its red eyes while rage madly deformed its fluffy face.

“Squeak!”

A furious squeak echoed out in the early morning as the overly bombastic brawler rabbit charged Long Di once more.

Yaomu Shou shot Long Di a quick glance and, seeing the boy’s stance, knew what he intended to do.

She only sighed and drifted off to the side. Giving him the time he needed to hone this self-made craft of his.

…

“Young master Zhen Song!” a young demon cultivator came running up to another with pale yellow skin.

It was Zhen Song, who Long Di defeated in spectacular fashion back in Blackstone City.

“What is it?” He asked with a snap. Apparently, he wasn’t in the best of moods.

He and his group appeared to be part of a much larger group of demons.

“We found him!” The young cultivator stated.

Zhen Song’s expression changed, and he tightened his fist in an instant. At the same time, a bit of fear could be seen as well.

When he fully recovered back at the clan, he recounted all he had experienced during the fight.

After Long Di manhandled him, the former fought against Protector Gang. The boy was a two star core martial master despite being so young, whilst the protector was only a one star core martial master.

There were moments during the fight that Zhen Song swore he could feel somatic essence from Long Di. However, he was obviously a lightning element cultivator, so that didn’t make sense.

When he told his father about the two types of energy he felt radiating from Long Di’s body during the fight, Zhen Yong didn’t bother listening anymore. Even Zhen Song, after saying it, felt himself to be going crazy. How in the world could one person hold both spiritual qi AND somatic essence?

The obvious answer here was that Long Di was using one or two types of devices that allowed him to utilise these two conflicting energies somehow. In addition, it wasn’t too far-fetched for Long Di to be using some sort of drug or device that allowed for his strength to reach the realms that it did during his fight with the protector.

These thoughts were further reinforced when representatives from the Blood Crypt Sect explained their own experience with Long Di.

The latter advised that Long Di was in possession of some sort of treasure that could increase his strength. This was also the explanation for the Heavenly Levyance Tribulation Lightning he wielded as well.

There was no other way to think about it. Long Di was way too young, and too many things didn’t make sense.

What was sure of was that Long Di’s true cultivation base was that of a cauldron-forging realm expert. This was seen when he exposed his cultivation base before he and the others entered the Spiritual Bingqi realm.

When he saw this, much of his fear was alleviated. There were many medicines that could forcibly elevate one’s cultivation base for a short time. However, these were all accompanied by a copious amount of sequelae.

However, this was the best thing he had to go off of.

What he needed to know though, was whether he really a spiritual qi cultivator or a somatic essence cultivator.

“Zhen Song!” A shout roused Zhen Song from his rumination.

He looked up to see a massive shelled segmented tail bearing down on him.

“T-Together!” In a fluster, he gathered the disciples of his family to resist the blow!

The air twisted as the energy released by the disciples of the Zhen family coalesced and crashed into the incoming attack.

Bam!

A giant blast erupted from the point of impact, creating a scene of destruction.

Within the dust that was kicked up were the people from the Zhen family, who were scattered all over with the debris from the fallout.

Broken bones, numerous bloody injuries and several moans were the proof of their loss in the exchange just now.

Even Zhen Song was in a sorry state at the moment. Though he was still standing, one arm fell limp at his side, totally unusable at the moment. His legs were a trembling mess as well, whether it was from the pain or the shadow of death that covered him a while ago remained to be seen.

However, what he was facing off against was a viable reason to be afraid. Before him was a mammoth centipede that was more than 50 metres long.

It was an unsightly thing to behold. Its segmented hard shell was black, and countless legs ran the length of its body.

Its mandibles were black, just like the rest of its body, and a foul-smelling liquid dripped from them. Even an idiot could tell that this was a terrifying poison.

“Cl-cl-cl-cl-cl…”

A spine-tingling clicking noise was its only audible note, but it was enough to inspire fear into even hardened warriors.

“Darn it!” Zhen Song cursed at the beast.

Rumble!

The ground shook and before anyone could react, countless spikes shot up from the ground, slamming into the body of the large centipede!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Though its underbody was weaker than the shell on its back, the underbelly was still slightly armoured and many of the spikes broke as they smashed into the body of the centipede.

This allowed one to see its high defensive power. A group of demons charged toward it, seeing that it was stuck in between the spikes and had trouble moving.

Seeing this chance, another group composed of all kinds of demons made a move to attack the centipede. As they got closer, strange markings erupted on their bodies while others underwent strange transformations.

They were going to whittle down the defences of the centipede while they had the chance to.

They closed the distance fairly quickly and were about to let loose their attacks on the beast.

“Aaaah!”

Their planned attack was interrupted when the wild thrashing of the centipede caused some of the poison that wetted its mandibles to sprinkle all over.

Some had inadvertently splashed on some of the attacking cultivators. Their bodies turned black from where the liquid splashed, which quickly spread to the rest of their bodies.

Screams erupted as those affected by the poison fell to the ground in a mad flailing of sorts.

Eventually, those same cultivators stiffened, and their breaths left them. Seeing this, those charging cultivators’ expressions changed and their earlier bravery was nowhere to be found.

“Useless!” A single ridicule was flung their way, and they all turned around to see another group of demons appearing to the side of the giant centipede.

Just like the charging experts, they were not consisting of a single type of demon, but a wide variety instead. The difference here was they were all wearing the same red robes with even redder lines running all over.

It appeared like veins running over a sea of blood.

“You fellows from the Blood Crypt Sect, can you do any better!?”

These earlier experts were chagrined at being called useless by what appeared to be experts from the Blood Crypt Sect.

The Blood Crypt Sect didn’t respond to the cultivators from below and instead charged toward the centipede.

“Blood Condensation palm!”

Over ten of the disciples yelled at once and blood-coloured veins covered their palms before they landed on the immobile centipede.

B-B-B-Boom!

Several blows bombarded a single spot on the centipede’s body before a group of twenty followed closely behind.

“Scarlet Claw!”

Scores of blood-coloured claws dug at the same spot!

“Cl-Cl-Cl-Cl-Cl!!!”

Boom!

The centipede’s thrashing grew to the point where the spikes that held it in place exploded!

“Hold it down!”

A shout came from nowhere, and instantly one Nitu demon, in particular, came forward and slammed his palm on the ground.

“It’s Shi Zun!!”

Shi Zun was a genius of the Infernal Myriad Ground Clan. he was also the second most powerful of the entire clan, surpassed only by Chen Jie.

Boom!

Another set of brown spikes erupted from the ground and entangled the giant magical beast!

The number of spikes rivalled the group of disciples who worked together to summon the same attack before. This alone painted this disciple in a different light.

Shu!

Just then, a lone red-robed figure jumped out from the group of Blood Crypt Sect.

“Young master Xue Zi!”

Surprisingly, it was young master Xue Zi who Long Di manhandled back in the forest during the aftermath of the Scarlet Flame Long-Tailed Hawk incident.

He deftly landed on the spot where the earlier attacks were focused on before.

A faint mark was all that could be seen. It could be seen from this alone how tough the shell of this thing was.

“It’s too tough! We’re getting nowhere with this!” Xue Zi hissed under his breath.

Thinking of something, he whipped around and saw the gaps in the segments of the shell-like covering. These gaps were necessary so the centipede could turn and manoeuvre the way it did.

Wasting no time, Xue Zi brandished a red spear and thrust it into the gap until it found purchase in what appeared to be soft flesh.

“Blood Qi Discharge!”

Suddenly, blood-coloured lines ran along the length of the spear and into the gaps of the centipede!

Boom!

A muffled bang echoed out before a shower of greyish-green blood erupted from between the gaps. The figure smirked when they saw this, and they quickly retreated to avoid the blood splashing on them.

“Not bad.”

Xue Zi turned around in complete surprise when they heard this, only to see a demon standing behind him.

He didn’t even see when this demon arrived. However, when Xue Zi saw who it was, his expression changed before he hurriedly cupped a fist in respect.

The new arrival accepted the gesture as a matter of fact before he walked past the Xue Zi without another word.

He spared the lone Nitu demon who was providing the spikes with endless energy a nod of the head before he leapt up to land on the section that was injured courtesy of the Xue Zi.

He then grabbed the shell-like segment with a powerful grip before an intense rumbling took place.

D-D-Dum!

Veeeeee!!!

Without warning, nine orange cauldrons broke into existence behind him, rapidly spinning at extreme speeds.

Yet even with this, the segment only slightly budged, and nothing else.

“Hmph!” An audible scoff came from the figure and the pressure radiating from him magnified.

His veined hand that gripped the shell-like segment trembled, and immediately, his hand shone with a bright gold lustre!

It was like his hand was cast entirely of gold, and the pressure that emanated from him pressed down on even Xue Zi who was far stronger than he fought Long Di!

Psssh!

The shell-like segment was ripped from where it was seated and a geyser of greyish-green blood exploded from the tear!