Long Di looked at all of them and said, “No.”

****

Well, that was an easy mess to resolve. Long Di had mastered the profound skill of not giving a damn.

Hence, he just refused to give up his sabre OR swear on his dao path. It wasn’t that he couldn’t, he just wanted to p**s off the junior adjudication committee by refusing. Doing so filled him up with something new inside. Happiness.

What were they gonna do if he refused? Insult him? Dunk on his self-confidence? Shatter his self-esteem?

Joke’s on them. He had none of those things.

“Y-You’re a cheater!” The expert pointed a trembling finger at Long Di in rage. “You can only rely on that sabre of yours to fight! You’re useless without it! You’re nothing but a fraud!”

“Got that right,” Long Di agreed with zero hesitation, throwing that expert even more off guard.

“You…!” the expert didn’t know how to respond. What kind of peak expert was this!?

Did he have no pride in his reputation? Where was the bearing of a peak expert!?

The Noble Attendant saw this and smiled. This Long Di was an interesting creature.

“Well?” Long Di turned his attention to Yaomu Qiang who was still reeling back from the earlier conversation.

“Hmph!” he snorted, as he still had confidence in his skills. “Let’s go.”

What Long Di didn’t know was that Yaomu Qiang was one of, if not the best hand-to-hand combatant in the royal family.

This was why his spiritual artefact was a pair of gloves. The only thing that made him curious was why Yaomu Shou didn’t warn Long Di like he expected her to. Not that he was going to complain.

D-D-D-Dum

Shu!

The second Long Di put away his sabre, several detonations rang out before Yaomu Qiang appeared in front of him and unleashed a powerful punch with somatic essence rumbling through his fist!

Long Di pulled a ‘Neo dodges bullet scene,’ from the Matrix, and evaded the punch before putting his hand to the ground to pivot his body to pull off a sweep kick to upset Yaomu Qiang’s balance.

The latter, although surprised by Long Di’s quick reaction time, jumped to avoid the kick before he came back down with a crushing force to smash Long Di into a pulp!

Bam!

Long used his free hand to deflect the stomp to the side, causing it to slam into the ground with a resounding crash.

Yaomu Qiang didn’t let up and unleashed punch after punch that Long Di either dodged or deflected with little effort.

“What’s wrong!? Huh!? You’re better than this aren’t you!?” Yaomu Qiang grew unbridled when he saw that he had Long Di on the defensive.

Long Di remained silent as he evaded Yaomu Qiang’s attacks. No one knew what he was thinking at the moment, but he just continued to do what he was doing.

Yaomu Qiang sneered in the face of Long Di’s silence, saying, “Where’s that strength you used to blow up those disciples from the Iron Body Forge Sect!? Can’t do it can you!?”

This was when everyone realised that Long Di was able to body the disciples from the Iron Body Forge Sect like he was their alcoholic stepfather but Yaomu Qiang was able to hold his own.

What was going on?

In truth, even Long Di was unaware of why he was so powerful against those plebeians. Sure, his cauldrons played a huge part in that beat down no doubt, but something else was at play there.

This was something that warranted looking into, but as of now, he had to deal with this glorified Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robot.

Speaking of, he could end this pretty easily if he used his cauldrons, but he wanted to grasp the fighting style of this idiot before he rained down fists of fury upon him, which was gonna happen soon by the way.

“C’mon on, Long Di! Hit me! Punch me!” Yaomu Qiang taunted the impassive Long Di.

He wanted to disturb the latter’s mental state so that he could take advantage of any opening this would create. This was a good plan against anyone else but Long Di whose mental state was disturbed by default.

“Well!? Can you not hit me!? Hahaha!” Yaomu Qiang laughed maniacally as he rained down punches, kicks and all else on Long Di.

“How about I fight you with one hand behind my ba-”

Bam!

Suddenly, a right cross slammed into his jaw with an unnatural vengeance behind it!

“Heavens!” The experts watching couldn’t help but exclaim when they saw the punch.

Dazed.

He was dazed by the punch since he didn’t see it coming. Plus, it made sure he had trouble seeing anything after that.

He became unsteady as he swayed from left to right as he struggled to regain his bearings.

“Here, let me help you,” an apathetic voice rang when a pair of soft hands touched his cheeks.

Long Di gently held his head straight to focus his gaze on him. Yaomu Qiang saw two Long Di’s at the moment and squinted his eyes to correct this as best as he could.

“Better?” Long Di asked him.

Yaomu Qiang dazedly nodded before a vicious uppercut crashed into his lower jaw, sending him flying upwards!

“Hot damn!” the other members of the adjudication committee blurted out when they saw this.

A crushing pressure radiated from Long Di’s cauldrons, which caused the somatic essence in Yaomu Qiang’s body to slow down. This, in turn, caused the grogginess to overwhelm Yaomu Qiang.

Unexpectedly, the pressure receded, allowing the somatic essence to rage throughout his body once more wiping away his grogginess and allowing clarity to return to him in an instant.

Dum!

The cauldronic pressure descended once more, slowing down the flow of somatic essence again, which lowered Yaomu Qiang’s defences.

Shu!

A leg tore through the air towards Yaomu Qiang, which he managed to dodge in advance only for the kick to turn at a bizarre angle mid-kick before burying itself into his lower abdomen, eliciting a wet sickening crack!

“Ack!”

Blood erupted from his mouth as he flew back!

Yaomu Qiang stood up on unsteady legs to face Long Di who was now walking towards him as if he was taking a walk in the park.

Long Di had a reason for doing what he was doing with his cauldron suppression. He wanted Yaomu Qiang to feel everything he was gonna do to him and for him to be perfectly aware while he did it. He was petty as hell and he knew it.

Shu!

Long Di suddenly disappeared and appeared behind him, forcing Yaomu Qiang to wheel around in a hurry only for a small hand to grab the front of his robes and pull it down with a powerful force.

The grab caused his head to fly into an ascending knee that crashed into his nose. Another sickening wet crack rang out that caused everyone’s nose to feel sour.

Tears, snot and blood painted Yaomu Qiang’s face as he threw a few punches in retaliation only for Long Di to deflect them all, before inflicting a devastating headbutt into the yuan demon’s face that caused more fluid to drain.

Everything that he threw at Long Di, he had the perfect counter for it and was able to levy more damage on him in return.

It was totally unlike before when he had the ropes.

Bam!

Another blow sent him flying before he crashed into a nearby boulder.

“You know,” Long Di caught up to him in an instant and grabbed his head with an iron grip.

“It’s hard for me to take you as a threat when your danger level equates to the discomfort of pee struggling to vacate my bladder in my waking hour against its eternal rival, the comfort of staying in bed,” Long Di commented offhandedly.

Yaomu Qiang grit his teeth in anger and humiliation. Was this Long Di comparing him to pee!?

That was too much, wasn’t it!?

He tried his best to pry his head free from Long Di’s grip, but the boy’s grip was like iron claws digging into his skull. It was painful!

Shu!

A leg swung to the right of the Long Di’s temple before the latter caught it with little effort before through a quick movement of his, he brought his elbow down with a crushing force on the knee joint, shattering it.

Yaomu Qiang screamed in pain when his leg fell limply to the side. It was a task and a half to heal since Long Di’s somatic essence felt like hot liquid metal in his body inflicting indescribable pain.

“Nevertheless,” Long Di continued. “It’s a danger that crawls into your head and commands annoyance on a level hitherto undreamt of. I heard that from somewhere and I think it matches here.”

“L-Long Di!” Yaomu Qiang spat his name out with venom and indignation.

“You’ve lost this hand-to-hand combat?” Long Di asked.

“No! I-”

Bam!

A savage punch landed in his gut, which caused his eyes to bulge out.

“How about now?” he asked once again.

“I-I will never give u-”

Bang!

“Now?”

“I-I can think abo-”

Bam!

“How are we feeling now?”

“Regretting my life’s actions!”

Bam!

“Why’d you hit me that time!?”

“Your face looked nasty. Who did that to you?”

Bam!

“You demon! Okay, I give!” Yaomu Qiang didn’t even give Long Di the chance to ask him another question. It seemed like no matter what Long Di asked him, it would end up with him getting punched.

Yaomu Qiang looked to his colleagues and ordered them to let the hostages go.

Following his orders, his team released Shen Ling and the others.

“Let me go!” Zi Yu snarled as she twisted her wrists free of her captor.

Luckily, Zi Yu remained unharmed for the most part and was able to tend to them as best she could.

It seemed her status as the young miss of the Yu family granted her mercy in their obviously heavy-handed apprehension.

Long Di then looked back to Yaomu Qiang and was about to finish him when the senses of the cultivation technique blared in his head ‘DANGER!.’

In a rush, he threw Yaomu Qiang from him and backed off in an instant!

“Too late!” Yaomu Qiang was shocked that Long Di was able to sense what he was about to do, but it was inconsequential at this point.

In his hand, he held a purple scroll with a golden seal on it.

Not just the regular disciples, even the Noble Attendant was frightened by this and went back to her team before she brought them far away.

The seal was broken, and the scroll unfurled itself in an instant.

“Imperial Divine Edict!”