Long Di simply raised his sabre in a challenging posture as he asked, “got another one in ya?”

****

As if answering his questions, the rhino took off in a dead run toward Long Di, and he did the same.

Long Di wasn’t in the best shape at the moment. That earlier attack had nearly gored him through.

The defence his sabre, the robes and his meagre peak cauldron forging somatic essence empowered body brought was only just barely able to help him keep his life.

Even though the part where the thunder dragon rhino had hit had already been covered up courtesy of the regenerative abilities of the shadow silk, he amassed several startling internal injuries all the same!

Blood seeped from the side of his mouth and the violent qi of this rank 4 overlord class magical beast made healing a taxing undertaking.

Shing! Shing! Shing!

An oscillating ring rang out as the thunder dragon rhino’s horn flashed a bright light!

When Yaomu Baiyin saw this, she nearly passed out from fright. That attack the thunder dragon rhino unleashed earlier nearly killed them!

Yaomu Baiyin turned to Yaomu Shou and, seeing the latter not taking the current undertaking seriously thought that she didn’t witness the rhino’s power earlier.

“L-Lady-”

“Yaomu Baiyin…” Yaomu Shou called out to her and started off towards the severely injured Nao Shan.

She looked over her shoulder at the frightened young yuan demon and said with a smile. “Trust your big sister and go do what I tell you to do.”

Seeing the utmost calm her elder sister possessed, Yaomu Baiyin also felt embarrassed and wondered if she overreacted. Without her even realising it, she eventually calmed down as well. Whatever it was, it seemed that her lady Yaomu Shou knew this mysterious flaming existence and had absolute confidence in it.

If it was something that Yaomu Shou had confidence in, then the same could be expected of her as well.

She ran off to distribute the medicinal pills to everyone in a bid to help them recover.

Even if that mysterious existence was able to kill the rhino, it could very well be a fierce battle and they might get caught up in the crossfire if they weren’t careful and distanced themselves.

The thunder dragon rhino was just about to unleash another lightning strike against Long Di, when the latter leapt high, causing the rhino to momentarily lose sight of its target.

Its head swivelled from side to side in wonder regarding where its prey had gone.

Whoosh!

Hearing the rush of wind above, it swiftly shot its gaze skyward, only to see Long Di’s sabre right before it!

There was no chance for it to react before…

Bam!

“Whoa nelly that smarts.”

The sabre crashed into it with a shocking force that almost caused Long Di to lose hold of it. The countershock was too strong, and it took him a moment to recover.

The thunder dragon rhino, on the other hand, suffered none of the drawbacks absent a short disorientation.

Seeing this Long Di couldn’t help from grumbling in his mind, ‘For Pete's sake, is a concussion too much to ask for?’

Following this, it quickly regained its bearing and now that it had Long Di square in its sight, it pointed its horn at the latter.

“Tch!” Long Di snorted. ‘This thing’s hide is too hard. Even if I had a proper sabre, it would be too hard to leave a critical wound on it. My somatic essence is only at the peak cauldron forging realm. The gap in strength between us is too big to overco… wait a minute.’

An idea came to mind during Long Di’s musing, but it had to wait since a dangerous crackling echoed out.

Krrsssh!!

Boom!

Another deafening bolt erupted from the horn and headed straight for Long Di.

Simply enough, he ducked…

-_-

Yep… that was all it took. He ducked and was able to dodge the terrifying strike.

Normally, such a powerful attack brought with it a corresponding level of spatial or spiritual lock to ensure the attack landed. However, Long Di’s spiritual force was so strong that it rendered such a lock ineffective.

Seeing how lightning continued to spew from the horn, Long Di saw that the thunder dragon rhino couldn’t stop its attack for a short while and the dimming nature of its body signalled its continually weakening state. At this time, a sinister thought crept its way into Long Di’s mind.

A dark chill gripped the rhino as it eyed Long Di who was below the range of its attack.

‘What was this human planning to do!?’

Even though its power dwarfed this human, it didn’t know why it felt such danger from him.

Vrrrm!

The sabre shuddered, and an aura of destruction unfurled.

Sabre intent!

This was what Long Di remembered during his internal monologuing. It wasn’t his fault; he had been lacking a proper sabre for so long that it was only natural that it wasn’t the first thing that came to mind upon his re-acquirement of a sabre-ish replacement.

The thunder dragon rhino immediately grew uneasy about the sabre Long Di now wielded. Sabre intent was just that terrifying.

However, Long Di discovered something unsettling about the implementation of sabre intent with the sabre-ish replacement he was using it with.

It seemed the sabre intent was eating away at the flames of the sabre!

Sabre intent was and is an inherently destructive force and though most earth flames shared that trait, they were innately derived from very different sources. One was a concept brought to reality, whilst the other was a matter of fact.

Normally, sabre intent at the level of Long Di’s could never hope to damage any of the high-level earth flames like the Crimson Horizon earth flame, however, because he was holding back a great deal of the flame’s power with the spiritual force until he could properly mould it onto a proper blade, this allowed the sabre intent to eat away at it.

Of course, the better he got at it, the more of the flame’s power he would release. Until then, the sabre intent couldn’t fully accept this sabre-ish replacement due to its lacking.

Luckily, Long Di was able to keep up with the expenditure of the destroyed flames due to the insane amount of spiritual force at his disposal.

Crackle…

Seeing the lightning dying out, Long Di didn’t waste any more time and plunged the sabre-ish replacement into the nose of the thunder dragon rhino.

The sabre easily ate its way through the hole before making direct contact with the horn that sat atop it.

Pu Ci!

Blood spurted out followed by a blood-curdling roar of pain!

The remaining lightning that had yet to exit the horn back-surged into the horn itself before lightning exploded in all directions.

Lightning also discharged itself from the thunder dragon rhino’s orifices, bringing blood and flesh with it. The sight was jarring and shocked those present.

This was the effect that Long Di was going for.

He had read that while the thunder dragon rhino had a powerful attack in the form of a lightning strike, this could be countered by landing a powerful counterattack on the horn itself during the attack.

Doing this would allow the energy within to run berserk and damage the rhino instead.

Sure, this thunder dragon rhino’s horn might be unusual among most thunder dragon rhinos, but he was glad to see that the same weakness still applied.

Now that he effectively took out one of its most troublesome attacks as well as weakened it in the interim, he could go to town on this bastard!

Long Di pulled hard on the sabre he wielded and following a sharp grunt, yanked it free from one of the thunder dragon rhino’s nostrils, causing another fountain of blood to erupt.

This, of course, elicited another roar of pain from the thunder dragon rhino.

Every one of the demon race experts, who by now had more or less recovered, felt a little sorry for the magical beast.

“W-Who is this person?” the one called Nao Shan asked.

Though he was injured and greatly weakened, the pill Yaomu Shou gave him allowed him to regain consciousness..

He lay against the tree that so softly stopped his earlier flight courtesy of the thunder dragon rhino’s blow. Of course, he only had to pay the small fee of a few broken bones, loss of consciousness and an unholy level of pain. He was pretty sure that the incoming headache he felt was the income tax.

“He’s… a friend of mine,” Yaomu Shou finally advised.

Friend!?

They all looked at her in surprise. They expected some level of collaboration between them, maybe on the level of a favour owed being paid.

After all, such a powerful existence wouldn’t inject himself in such a battle to save those who he doesn’t know, but… friends?

They were acquainted enough with Yaomu Shou to know that she didn’t easily make friends. Her position pressured her to be frugal in her spending of trust. Since things like friends were held too close and could destroy not just her but the operation of the demon race, this word held much weight when coming from her.

This person was powerful… too powerful to be some nobody. So then who? Who could be so powerful while being trustworthy enough for her to call them a friend?

“A-Are they from the Iron Body Forge Sect?” one of the other experts asked, putting a frown on Yaomu Shou’s face.

“Did you hit your head!? Senior apprentice sister Yaomu Shou would never partner with anyone from the Iron Body Forge Sect!” another answered before Yaomu Shou had a chance to.

Bam!

Long Di landed another blow that sent another shockwave their way.

“Such power!” Nao Shan commented when he felt the powerful fluctuations being flung their way.

Yaomu Shou nodded with a touch of pride. She could only hope that Long Di would be able to get along somewhat with these demons.

Boom!

Long Di was still unable to inflict critical damage on the thunder dragon rhino. Every blow inflicted more damage on the surroundings than the rhino itself.

Bam!

The last blow Long Di levied against the thunder dragon rhino caused the sabre to blast apart!

Whoosh!

Not wasting any time, a surge of flames billowed from Long Di’s flame-wreathed body before forming it into a new sabre. This one was much more concrete and solid than the last one.

‘About right…’ Long Di thought before he…

Vrrrm!

Not just the demon race experts, but even Yaomu Shou opened her eyes wide in shock.

“Wait, is this sabre intent!?”