Then, as if on a mission to derail their already turbulent train of thought, he thrust them into the cultivation world’s equivalent of the Great Train Wreck of 1918 by asking, “has anyone ever had diarrhoea to the point where your butt swells shut thus causing any fart to bounce back in your body?.... Asking for a friend…”

****

Night had by now descended, and the demon race experts were sitting around a fire. They were still licking their wounds from the earlier battle, especially Nao Shan.

A short distance from them was Long Di and Yaomu Shou, the latter of whom was wagging her index finger furiously at the former while he stared back in complete apathy.

This was most likely because of the question he chose to ask right after defeating the thunder dragon rhino.

She was already at it for a few hours if the fact of it already being nighttime wasn’t a big enough indicator.

They also eyed the great silver sabre that was stabbed into the ground around the fire.

Everyone here eyed it with some level of greed, but no one brought it up since the time wasn’t yet ripe.

When Yaomu Shou finished scolding Long Di, she finally brought him over for everyone to get a good look at him.

“Everyone, this is Long Di,” she introduced.

They all took a long look at him in silence before someone finally commented.

“You’re a human?”

Hearing this, Yaomu Shou frowned. Long Di had clearly saved their lives, so a word of thanks should be the first thing that came out of anyone’s mouth.

By confirming his race, this could get real messy real fast. It was no secret that demons and humans didn’t have the best relationship. Small skirmishes regularly took place between the two.

Truthfully, the two sides weren’t that far from a full-scale war, something that Yaomu Shou would love to avoid if possible. However, she decided to stay silent to see how Long Di would handle this. If it devolved any further, she would intervene.

“What is a race?”

“W-What?”

The demon who asked the question regarding Long Di’s race was caught off guard by the latter’s question.

“Allow me to see how the scales tilt in your mental world,” Long Di stated before he went on. “Now what is a race that bade it to be the first and foremost of that which you wish to know of me? Would you say it’s more important than the content of one’s character, or what they believe in?”

The demon race expert that faced the question struggled to look beyond the obviousness of the question before realising that there was only one way to answer the question without sounding like a close-minded, self-righteous turkey.

“I-I… n-no…”

Long Di then placed a hand to his chest in faux surprise stating, “That is quite magnanimous of you. So then my friend, how would you come to peer into the more important of the two, the content of their character and so on? How would one come to know these traits?”

The demon race expert squirmed in the realisation of the corner he had been backed into under Long Di’s intense gaze before finally answering, “Time… time is needed to know if their character is just and ethical. Time is required to form any sort of judgement of a person.”

“So you would need to wait and see what kind of person I am?” Long Di scanned everyone before delivering the coup de grâce of his verbal bout. “Makes sense. Then race holds no weight here, does it? As a stranger to you, I’m sure you would prefer to know first who I am and not some biological identity. However, I leave the ball in your court, ask whatever identity you wish to know, and I shall answer.”

The demon race expert reddened in shame after Long Di was finished, not just him. All the other demon race experts felt ashamed, since they were more or less aligned with the demon race expert who spoke up.

Yaomu Shou was both surprised and pleased with how diplomatic Long Di dealt with the situation.

One of the demon race experts, specifically Yaomu Baiyin stood up and bowed in Long Di’s direction and apologised, “We’re sorry if we offended you. My name is Yaomu Baiyin and I think I speak for everyone here when I say we’re thankful that you saved us from the mammoth thunder rhino, young master…?”

‘They thought that what they were fighting was a mammoth thunder rhino, just like me,’ Yaomu Shou thought. She would correct them on this later.

Long Di shook his head. “You needn’t be so formal with me. My name is Long Di, and it is my pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

Yaomu Baiyin widened her eyes in shock when she heard his name.

“Long Di!?”

The entire group of demon race experts immediately entered battle-ready stances even in their weakened states.

Metallic clangs rang out as weapons were drawn, the sharp ends of which were pointed at, you guessed it, Long Di.

“What the hell do you all think you’re doing!?” an incensed Yaomu Shou erupted in anger.

Nao Shan was the one who chose to speak up at this time, “Lady Yaomu Shou I can only assume you’re not aware, but this Long Di is a heinous criminal who is supposed to be killed on sight!”

Long Di eyed this Nao Shan with little interest save for his appearance.

He had a peculiar appearance that Long Di had to admit he was somewhat familiar with.

He was a Gu demon, just like Commander Da Jun back in Thousand Emo Valley. The only difference was that the disciple here was a pure-blooded Gu demon, and it showed based on how the bone spurs he sported were aligned.

Gu demons, or rather pure-blooded Gu demons and not the ones of mongrel or mixed blood that the Commander was known to be, were a prominent clan of the demon race.

Nao Shan had black bone spurs that ran along the ridge of his back, in addition to smaller bone spurs that took residence where normally hair would have been.

The way they grew made it seem like he had the thickest locks of hair that would make even the most adept of Rastafarians nod in admiration.

If one looked closely, one could see faint runes on each bone spur. These were bloodline runes unique to those of the Gu demon lineage.

It was nothing like Commander Da Jun who was of mixed blood. His bone spurs were far more brittle compared to Nao Shan, and he had little to none of the Gu demons' divine techniques.

Long Di looked at the rabble before him when he raised his hand saying, “Do you really want to do this?”

“W-What are you planning to do!?” Everyone backed off when they saw Long Di raise his hand in preparation for an attack. “You spoke like you’re different from the rest of the humans, but all you do is bully the weak! All you said before is useless sophistry! You’re just like the-”

Nao Shan’s words caught in his throat when he saw that Long Di rose his hand to pick his nose.

“You! You’re making fun of us! Are you taking us for fools!?” Nao Shan roared.

Long Di continued to pick his nose before he responded, “Far be it from me to take the jobs from the professionals,” he said, pointing to everyone.

Not just Nao Shan, everyone present shivered in anger. Long Di didn’t take them seriously at all.

However, could they force him to?

He just single-handedly wiped out an overlord class rank 4 magical beast. No, even more than that, he used it for training material.

Could they even count as training material? Would they even be enough for him to break a sweat?

“You dare to ignore me! Sheathe your weapons and stand down all of you!” barked Yaomu Shou.

Shing!

Her sword was unsheathed in an instant.

D-D-Dum!

Her cauldrons exploded in being much like her fury as they spun in a furious tempo!

Five cauldrons housed a core that shone with brilliance. They continuously flashed as if emulating her wrath!

Nao Shan, Yaomu Baiyin, Hui Haohan, and the others trembled under her fury. Her aura ground them down and forced them to take continuous steps back.

Her face was an even deeper shade of purple as rage dominated her features. This was a level of disrespect that she had never experienced!

Don’t let her easygoing nature around Long Di and the others fool you. Yaomu Shou was an existence of overbearing arrogance that oozed a domineering prestige!

She didn’t allow others to question or deny the nobility of her presence. Even within the Yuan family, she was an existence to be feared.

Very few could speak with her as an equal because of this. They were either subservient to her demands as is required, or couldn’t compare to her regal bearing and bowed their heads in defeat.

Nao Shan and the others were used to this by now but had let their guards down when they saw her laid-back mannerism with Long Di thinking this was the norm.

They realised much too late that they were sorely wrong. Her eyes flashed fire with gnashing teeth of thunder!

Hui Haohan swallowed loudly as he spoke in a trembling voice, “L-L-Lady Yaomu S-S-Shou, h-he is a c-c-crimin-”

“So you can stand while speaking to me now! Impressive!” she sneered at them in disdain.

They all fell to their knees, Yaomu Baiyin included. Instantly, the pressure they suffered lessened greatly though it was still there.

“Heed my words!” she hissed before giving any of them a chance to speak. “Long Di is my friend and as such you WILL-”

Before she could say anything more, Long Di dragged her back by the arm, putting her behind him.

When the others saw this, their heart nearly stopped.

Was this human mad!? They could see the scene of their lady cutting Long Di into ribbons for this transgression!

Who could touch her in such a way!? A newly appointed dead man, that’s who.

“What did I do!?” cried Yaomu Shou in an unwilling tone as she pouted angrily at Long Di.

“Shush…” Long Di placed a finger at his lips to signify silence.

Nao Shan and the others stared at the scene before them in disbelief.

What the hell was going on!? This was Yaomu Shou, right!? Not some half-off, buy-one-get-two-free knock-off, right!?

“You shouldn’t have to waste your words on them since it doesn’t matter,” he stated. “You’re forcing them to submit to you or the sentence passed down by the King. That’s unfair in more ways than one.”

Crossing her arms in a huff, Yaomu Shou was not resigned to this. “Then what do we d-”

“Leave,” he answered before she could finish.

“I got a good harvest anyway.” he eyed the silver sabre he stabbed in the ground a few hours back.

Hearing this, Nao Shan nearly tripped over himself before stumbling over to Long Di. He was much taller than the latter and looked down at him with ire overflowing from him.

Whether his sudden bravery was because he forgot Yaomu Shou or somehow found Long Di was a question not even he knew the answer to.

“You’re not leaving with that sabre! We all fought against the mammoth thunder rhino!”

Shameless!

The shamelessness required to utter these lines was something that Long Di had to respect.

He thought his shame tree had been burned down, but no, compared to Nao Shan, his shame tree was a sprawling woodland complete with fairies, rainbows and every 5-year-old girl’s inner fantasy.

“Argh!”

Yaomu Shou lunged at Nao Shan, causing him to fall flat on his butt in fear before Long Di caught her mid-flight and kept her safely ensconced in his arm.

“Let me go, Long Di! I’ll only kill him a little bit! His heart will only completely stop I swear!” she snarled like a mad dog compelling Long Di to tighten his hold.

However, Long Di made an offer that stumped everyone!

“Go ahead, take it. I won’t stop you,” he shrugged.

“What!?”