In their clutches was a small group of five. They were an unconscious and bloodied mixed-blood demon, a pure-blooded demon from the Zi family, a deeply injured Nymph, and a girl, who even with bloodstained eyes, bore a beauty of an irrational kind.

****

It didn’t take long for this group of yuan demons and gu demons to arrive. After surveying the scene for a brief moment and spotting Long Di, one yuan demon stepped forward from this group.

“Yaomu Qiang, what is the meaning of this!?” Yaomu Shou roared after seeing what happened.

Yaomu Qiang was slightly surprised when he saw Yaomu Shou before he executed a slight bow in her presence.

“Greetings, milady Yaomu Shou,” he greeted her in neither a servile nor overbearing manner.

“Never mind that!” Yaomu Shou yelled. “What are you doing with those kids!? Release them this instant!”

Yaomu Qiang who was now exiting his bow shook his head apologetically, “I’m sorry milady, but we are unable to comply.”

Yaomu Shou’s eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”

Whoosh!

A regal and domineering aura erupted from her. Her posture, stance and air underwent a complete change. Lu Pei who stood by their side recognised this as the same thing she used on him back in the tunnel.

This was no technique or skill. Instead, it was Yaomu Shou’s pedigree as an exceptionally pure-blooded yuan demon. Her species were meant to rule, and it sunk deep into her bones to exude a royal bearing.

In fact, this was something all yuan demons were able to exude, but Yaomu Shou’s in particular was extremely powerful and was second only to the king and matched by only one other.

Yaomu Qiang took a step back under her pressure before he quickly took out a purple scroll with a golden seal on it.

Not just Yaomu Shou, even Er Jinshu and the other experts present opened their eyes in shock when they saw the scroll!

“This is…”

“That’s right,” Yaomu Qiang nodded, knowing what Yaomu Shou’s question would be. “This is an Imperial Divine Edict created by her majesty the King!”

Yaomu Shou paled upon hearing what she thought this was.

“No…” she whispered, not thinking that the situation had gone so far.

“I don’t care for whatever Imperial Divine Edict,” Long Di interjected. “You will release those people in your hands and only then will you be able to walk away from here.”

“L-Long Di, be carefu-” Yaomu Shou was warning Long Di to be alert of the Edict when a hand from him told her she didn’t need to worry.

Yaomu Qiang sneered at Long Di’s words, “You dare to look down on the Imperial Divine Edict!? This is a proclamation created by an existence on the level of the King! Submit now!”

“Submit to what?” Long Di asked.

Straightening his posture before looking at Long Di with his nose, he announced, “By order of her majesty the King, I Yaomu Qiang of the Junior Adjudication Committee charged by Grand Commandant Gu Siling sentence you to expedient execution!”

Er Jinshu and the rest of the demons weren’t surprised as they had long heard of the King’s order. However, everyone else was taken aback by this.

Though it wasn’t anything strange for a human to be hated by the demons, what could this Long Di have done to incur the wrath of an entire race’s king!?

“Junior Adjudicator Yaomu Qiang.” Er Jinshu called out.

Yaomu Qiang turned his attention to Iron Body Forge Sect’s number one disciple. “Is there a problem?” he asked.

“I have business with this Long Di. You can do what you will with him after I’m done,” stated Er Jinshu.

Long Di had expressed his stance to not join him, so there was no need to create any further problems for himself.

“You dare to stand in the way of the Imperial Divine Edict!?” another member of the junior Adjudicator Committee yelled at Er Jinshu.

Curiously, however, Yaomu Qiang raised his hand to stop this colleague of his.

“Senior apprentice-brother Yaomu Qian?”

Yaomu Qiang didn’t say anything and simply stood there, gesturing for Er Jinshu to carry out his business.

Er Jinshu seemed to have expected this, but asked Yaomu Qiang one final question, “Ah, what if his life is lost in this business of mine?”

“It’s all the same,” Yaomu Qiang declared. “Execution by your hand or mine, or any demon, for that matter is all the same. As long as his life ceases to be.”

Er Jinshu smiled at this and turned his attention back to Long Di, “Hand over the spiritual vein root.”

Long Di didn’t pay attention to him and instead kept his gaze locked on Yaomu Qiang, “You’re not going to release them?”

“Hmph!”

Er Jinshu scoffed at being ignored by Long Di and gestured for Xue Zi to take action.

Xue Zi was over the moon with this and immediately spring into action.

Yaomu Shou, Lu Pei, and Yaomu Baiyin circulated their energy to stop Xue Zi.

“I’ve long been curious about the Yaomu family’s cultivation technique. How about I accompany you?” asked Er Jinshu as he descended towards Yaomu Shou.

“Er Jinshu!” Yaomu Shou spat through gritted teeth.

The former only smiled at Yaomu Shou’s expression before he turned to Chen Jie, “Where did Savage Taitan go?”

“He ran off to fight a magical beast that appeared shortly after your fight concluded,” the nitu demon replied.

Er Jinshu frowned at this. That oaf really was a battle junkie. He then asked Chen Jie, “can you block the other yuan demon?”

Clearly, he didn’t take into consideration Lu Pei’s presence, which caused the latter to curse his own lack of strength.

“Long Di, I’m so-” Yaomu Shou was sorry about her family’s interference in this matter.

“It’s fine,” Long Di replied. “Just keep them off my back. I’m going back for my friends.”

Yaomu Shou smiled, “You got it!”

She wasn’t concerned about Long Di’s safety. Even with his spiritual cultivation sealed, there was no one here who was capable of matching him.

And so, Yaomu Shou faced Er Jinshu and Yaomu Baiyin and Lu Pei squared off against Chen Jie.

They didn’t engage in battle, only keeping each locked down here so that they couldn’t interfere in the battle between Long Di and Xue Zi.

“Long Di, come and face your death!”

Xue Zi was now at the bottom of the basin created by the lightning sphere’s explosion and faced Long Di.

Suddenly, another expert fell in line right beside causing him to sneer.

“What are you doing here Zhen Song?”

That’s right, it was Zhen Song, the young master of the Zhen family.

“You might not care, but I do have a feud with Long Di as well,” Zhen Song replied.

Zhen Song still recalled how Long Di beat the living daylight out of him back in Blackstone City. Not only that, but the latter also made off with Zi Yu who he was courting. Was there a greater humiliation than that?

“Well then, you can just stand back while I take care of him for you,” Xue Zi stated.

Apparently, he was confident in taking on Long Di on his own.

Zhen Song's brow furrowed at this, not believing this was a good idea. “Xue Zi, you-”

“Listen, you might be afraid of him, but I’m not! Even if he has a device or treasure, or whatever that can help him to increase his strength can he use it in a place where the cap maxes out at the Core Formation Realm!?”

Zhen Song never thought about this and had to admit that Xue Zi made sense. With this in mind, he took a step back and adopted an observer’s stance instead.

Xue Zi was pleased with this and turned back to Long Di, “Take out your cauldrons! I don’t want others to say I’m bullying you!”

However, Long Di didn’t even look at him. His gaze was fully set on Yaomu Qiang, “This is the third time I’ve asked you to release them.”

“Die!”

Xue Zi, incensed at being ignored, charged towards Long Di with a blood-coloured spear in hand!

Powerful blood qi swirled around his spear like a vortex as he pierced it towards Long Di’s chest!

Shung!

Krrrssh!

Xue Zi’s eyes widened in shock and trepidation!

Without warning, a sabre’s ring echoed out before it was compounded by cracks of lightning!

Long Di swung sideways without even looking at his assailant.

Bam!