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

“What!?”

****

When everyone heard Long Di’s concession, they were flabbergasted. It was no secret that the sabre was a powerful spiritual artefact.

The way that Long Di had obtained it was no small feat either… well, no small feat for anyone BUT Long Di.

He advised earlier that in the last moments of the rhino’s attack; he detonated his attack first.

The rhino, seeing this despite not having charged its attack to the fullest, fulminated what it could.

Though he didn’t tell them how he survived the attack unscathed, he did inform them that upon the eruption of this energy, the rhino’s body exploded into a bloody mist when a pillar of light shot from the mist before piercing into the heavens!

Within it was the silver sabre that was unsurprisingly the horn that the rhino used to bedevil Long Di!

This was why Long Di was unfamiliar with the horn despite his knowledge of the species through the bestiary he read. It wasn’t a horn at all, but a sabre!

Since Long Di chose to be Long Di, he was able to easily retrieve the sabre from the pillar. Unfortunately, since his spiritual qi was off-limits he couldn’t put a spiritual mark on it since he needed both, rendering it ownerless by cultivator standards.

Nevertheless, Long Di still lugged that thing through a nuke-ish explosion, so it stood to reason that he would want to keep it for himself.

Yet, as seen above, he just allowed Nao Shan to take it for himself.

“You’re serious?” Nao Shan asked Long Di with no small amount of doubt.

Long Di stepped aside and used his free hand to gesture towards the sabre.

Hui Haohan and the others, barring Yaomu Baiyin, kicked themselves at this moment for their lack of proactivity. If they could get their hands on such a powerful spiritual artefact, they would be as shameless as it takes.

Because they missed this opportunity, they could only watch as Nao Shan benefitted.

K-Krrrsh…

Arcs of lightning periodically ran across the length of the sabre, draping the whole thing in a sacred and divine light.

Some of the arcs streaked through ornate engravings that decked the blade. It was more like a work of art than a weapon.

Nao Shan nearly drooled when he saw the spiritual artefact. For something like this to now be his, was something he could never imagine.

He could tell that there was no spiritual mark on the sabre. He had no idea why Long Di would allow him to gain the sabre, but he would think about that later.

Vrrrm!

He quickly gripped the sabre and circulated his somatic essence when a tyrannical aura unfurled from the sabre!

Pu Ci!

“Ah!” suddenly blood sprayed followed by a bloodcurdling scream.

“Nao Shan!” another female who was a part of the group rushed to her companion’s aide.

Everyone looked on in horror as several pulsating veins swarmed his forehead and face. Even more chilling was that several of them burst and had blood running down his face in rivulets.

Numerous of the black spurs that he sported bristled in irregular fashion with some even having their bloodline runes erased!

His current appearance was harrowing!

What just happened!? How had Nao Shan been injured!?

While some kept their eyes on the sabre, some of the other experts kept their eye on Long Di to see if he would try anything.

But he didn’t make a move the entire time. It just seemed like the second Nao Shan grabbed the sabre, he was afflicted by some curse or something.

“What is this!?” Yaomu Baiyin and the others took several steps back from the sabre.

Their current behaviour was akin to superstitious folk encountering a cursed item.

“It’s not cursed.”

As if to dash these thoughts, a calm voice broke through the silence that had just descended upon the group.

They all looked to Long Di for the answer, since it seemed he was the only one who had any idea as to what just happened.

Yaomu Shou didn’t say anything either and just obediently remained held by Long Di like a rich girl’s dog being held by a rich girl.

“He was simply affected by the will within the sabre is all.” Long Di stated.

The demon race experts looked at each other in confusion not understanding what he meant.

Long Di realised this and fixed his gaze on Nao Shan who was by now on the ground, weakened by the blow. His expression was listless, and it was like his ambition had gone from him.

“You all thought you were fighting a mammoth thunder rhino when in fact you were fighting a thunder dragon rhino. Similar but different in the worst of ways.” Long Di’s voice seemed to take on a graver tone though it remained even.

When they all heard the true name of the magical beast they fought, suddenly everything made sense!

“A-A thunder dragon rhino?” another expert asked in a trembling voice.

Long Di nodded and went on. “You all thought you were fighting a snake when you were fighting a dragon. Death would have been a matter of course. You all should know about the dragons and their innately powerful wills, right?”

Not waiting for their answer he continued. “Wills are the embodiment of a being’s perseverance. It is the faculty by which a person decides or initiates action.”

Long Di was using his own understanding of a will along with the dictionary’s definition.

“Dragons are rumoured to want to break the heavens and escape the constraints of the daos. This thunder dragon rhino had a modicum of the bloodline of the Deiform Annihilation Thunder Dragon (which I think should be called Deiform Annihilation Lightning Dragon just to be honest.)” finishing his short Segway he brought it back.

“You really think that this Nao Shan or anyone of you who appear to me to be greenhouse flowers would have been able to subdue the will left by such an existence?”

“T-Then how are you able to…”

“N-Nao Shan!?” The female demon race expert by his side delighted at first hearing his voice but immediately felt despair when she saw his eyes.

There was a hopelessness in them that was beyond anything she had ever seen. Even his voice was low and even with a profound exhaustion to it. Like asking the question had sapped whatever strength he had left.

As if to answer his question Long Di gripped the sabre!

“Gasp!” an audible gasp escaped Yaomu Shou’s lips

Krrrsh!

Lightning crackled in unwavering intensity. They crackled with as much fury as Long Di’s lightning did.

D-D-Dum!

A divine prestige unfolded from Long Di that bombarded the will within the sabre.

K-K-K-Krrsss…

The lightning that was like a wild horse not too long ago was now being forcibly reigned in.

Long Di cultivated a technique that placed tribulation lightning under his control. His will had unknowingly been strengthened by the cultivation technique to a terrifying level.

In contrast, the sabre’s will was from the nearly negligible bloodline of the deiform annihilation thunder dragon. In addition, most of the thunder energy within the sabre had also been exhausted.

With so many disadvantages hindering it, it was no wonder it wasn’t able to stand up to Long Di’s powerful will.

Once the lightning was forced back inside the sabre, Long Di brandished it with ease.

“My will is simply above yours, and my goal is beyond your understanding.”

The group of demon race experts were in awe of Long Di’s words. As if his future accomplishments were to be the stuff of legends.

Saying this, Long Di turned and walked away with his black and grey robe fluttering in the wind.

It would have looked much cooler had he not possessed a living woman clutched securely under his arm.

“I expected more from them,” Yaomu Shou said in disappointment.

Long Di shrugged his shoulders, “As you subtly informed earlier, they’re not your friends?”

Yaomu Shou was slightly shocked before a smile made its way across her face. “You’re getting better. You’re right they’re not my friends. They’re just people who share a common goal with the progressive faction of the Yuan family.”

Long Di nodded in understanding. He was trying to understand how people interact and the deeper intricacies of being friends and not being friends.

He went on in a warning tone, saying, “Keep an eye out for that Nao Shan character.”

“Him? Why? He’s not all that important in the grand scheme of things.”

Yaomu Shou was puzzled by Long Di’s interest in the Gu demon.

“Trust me. If you see him recover from what just happened, and you have the ability to draw him to your side, do it. I was well aware that the sabre’s will wasn’t something he could withstand. The end result, as you see is a backlash on the spiritual level that could have very well wiped out the will of the latter is that of a lifeless husk of a person. Yet… he spoke to me,” Long Di stated.

“Is that so incredible?” Yaomu Shou asked.

“It is…” Long Di said nothing more after this, and Yaomu Shou didn’t either.

Nevertheless, she kept this in her heart and would act accordingly. Long Di was an anomaly in many ways, but his words should be taken seriously when he’s serious enough about it.

Long Di had read enough Xianxia novels and Wuxia novels curiously enough, to know that when a character who has had their will broken miraculously came back with their will unbroken, they came back with a vengeance. He didn’t want Yaomu Shou to have to deal with that issue, so he had forewarned her. To draw him to her side or to stomp him out before he recovered would be left up to her.

“Hey… and just throwing this out there,” Yaomu Shou stated, breaking the silence that had settled over them.

Looking down at where he held Yaomu Shou, he asked, “What is it?"

“How did you survive the attack of that large explosion unscathed?”

Yaomu Shou had a good gauge of Long Di’s strength and knew that even if he wasn’t suppressed by the laws here that it would have been hard for him to make it out of that explosion without losing at least half of his life not to mention coming out of it unscathed.

Long Di’s memory went back to that time. He recalled when the explosion went off; he had summoned the Destiny Scale to block a bulk of the explosion.

He had still expected to incur severe injuries from the blast. However, just before the explosion slammed on the Destiny Scale, a sacred divine light lit up that enveloped both it and Long Di, protecting them completely from the blast.

By the time the explosion died down, the light had disappeared. Long Di called out several times to the Destiny Scale, but it never responded as if it was still in a deep slumber.

He wondered if maybe what took place was a self-defence mechanism of some kind. No matter how much he thought about it, no answer came to him.

“Well?” Yaomu Shou urged after seeing him go quiet.

“I-”

“Hey!” a shout from afar cut him off.

Long Di didn’t look behind him and carried on.

Puzzled by this, Yaomu Shou asked, “Aren’t you gonna look behind you to see who’s calling us?”

“I have an understandable fear of thinking someone is calling me only for me to turn around and wave preceded by them running past me to talk to someone else,” explained Long Di calmly.

“HEY!” The shout came again, this time louder.

“Is that why you refused to acknowledge me when we first met!?” Yaomu Shou remembered how when she called out to Long Di that time, he refused to say anything to her for the longest time.

“I did say it’s an understandable fear,” Long Di tried to justify himself.

“I was right in front of you and described everything about you!” Yaomu Shou argued.

“It’s a VERY understandable fear,” he stressed the word understandable as if that was enough to explain everything.

“HEY!”

“That person calling for you seems to be getting louder,” Yaomu Shou stated with a crafty smile, seemingly amused by the whole thing.

“That person could be calling for anyone.” Long Di didn’t want to take any chances.

“Sir Long Di!” the voice called once again.

Yaomu Shou’s smirk widened.

“That could be any Long Di.” he wasn’t convinced.

“The Sir Long Di that is holding Lady Yaomu Shou!” The voice was desperate to prove that it was him it was calling for.

“You can’t ignore that!” Yaomu Shou was blown away by the fact that Long Di could be so stubborn.

“This happens all the time.” Long Di shook his head. “Do you know how many Long Di’s and Yaomu Shou’s are out there?”

“With one holding the other!?” Yaomu Shou couldn’t believe it.

“Sophistry…”

“That doesn’t apply here!”

“Exactly.”

“You’re just saying random things to throw me off the trail!”

“That’s not inaccurate.”

Long Di stopped walking at this point since on his chest was a small hand with a heavily breathing girl attached to it.

Seeing this, Long Di whispered very audibly to the passenger in his arm. “Yaomu Shou, the girl who is calling out for everyone who is not me is having trouble touching someone else who is not me.”

“Screw you!”