A familiar voice rang out that caused everyone’s expression to change.

“You’re lying, you glorified eggplant!”

****

The person went on, “think about it, can this Long Di, who you all see as a peak cauldron forging expert take on people from the Iron Body whatchamacallit and Blood Brits sect!? Then somehow went on to steal the spiritual vein root and if that wasn’t farfetched enough, that he was able to beat back the Imperial Edict!?”

The one who was bashing all the experts here was none other than Mina Tempesta. Unexpectedly, she had also exited the Spiritual Bingqi realm before even Yaomu Qiang.

In truth, she had also gone to look for some spiritual herbs and/or spiritual artefacts, so as to not be totally useless. She did find some herbs too, but she also suffered from an acute lack of direction and was soon lost.

After walking around aimlessly for a while, the sky shook, nearly scaring the living crap out of her. Not long after that, a portal appeared. Thinking that she was now able to leave, she did.

Of course, she ended up walking into the company of a bunch of old men and then later on this Yaomu Qiang. She was almost 100% sure that what this person said Long Di did; he did do.

They didn’t know that though, and with zero hesitation she decided to lie through her teeth to throw them off Long Di’s trail.

When Yaomu Qiang heard what she called him, he immediately bristled in anger, “Who are you calling a glorified eggplant, you! You!”

“Can’t even think of a decent comeback!” Mina scoffed at Yaomu Qiang. “You bring shame to all eggplants! At least in other places, they mean something else and own up to it! You can’t even do that!”

She then looked to the elders and deacons of the other powers and asked them, “Can a person who can’t even admit to being a dic… I mean can eggplant really be trusted? I mean really?”

“Don’t trust her!” Yaomu Qiang pointed at Mina. “She and Long Di are acquaintances. She’s probably trying to protect him.”

“Alright calm down!” Ban Yan stepped forward to stop these juniors from arguing.

He then turned to the rest of the elders, deacons, and leaders of their respective forces. “I say we wait until the rest of the disciples exit the Spiritual Bingqi realm. That way, we can find out exactly what happened from them.”

“Ban Yan, if what the Junior Adjudication Committee leader said is true, can your Yaomu family bear the responsibility!?” An arrogant voice rang out. Everyone looked over to see a cultivator wearing a bronze mask.

Fear immediately appeared in most of the cultivators present. The one who spoke was the new bronze seat from the Iron Body Forge Sect, Bronze Seat Heng.

There were no traditional elders in the Iron Body Forge Sect. Instead, that position was called Metal Seats of which there were several. This was their way of appearing different or unique among the ten great sects.

This one was much more powerful than the previous seat holder, putting prestige to this normally laughed upon position within the sect. As soon as he joined the inner sect from the outer sect, he announced that he would rise to the top of the Metal Seats.

Of course, this was filled with scorn and ridicule. How could a newcomer, lower than even a deacon at that, ever become a Metal Seat? Not to mention he was far past the prime of his life.

However, as soon as he began his climb, all the scorn and ridicule disappeared only to be replaced with fear and terror.

Any sort of mockery or insult towards him was met with immediate retribution. He was incomparably bloodthirsty and savage.

Even his path of ascension was filled with carnage and unreasonable levels of butchery.

Even when it came time for him to become a deacon, the opponent he fought to prove himself was left without a complete corpse.

He had been punished by the sect master several times, but this didn’t stop him. In fact, it was like it had gotten worse.

It wasn’t long before he had left the rank of deacon to become the Bronze Seat of the Iron Body Forge Sect. Though the Bronze Seat was the weakest among the seats, the other Metal Seats didn’t needlessly offend him. This madman was someone who would fight to the death at the slightest provocation!

“Bronze Seat Heng, one can eat sh*t but can’t spew it!” Wan Li admonished the Bronze Seat, not liking any of the people from the Iron Body Forge Sect.

Bronze Seat Heng sneered upon hearing this. “Hmph! The mixed bloods are truly getting full of themselves!”

Wan Li and Ban Yan, being demons of mixed blood, were not looked upon highly by most of the forces here.

Normally, mixed-blood demons weren’t qualified to speak in such a setting. However, due to their strength and position as Imperial Protectors, they were qualified to speak here from a relative position of power.

Still, hearing Bronze Seat Heng speak of mixed bloods in such a way caused both Wan Li and Ban Yan’s expressions to darken.

However, they tried their best to rein themselves in. Getting into a conflict with the Iron Body Forge Sect wasn’t the wisest move at the moment. Especially with someone as infamous as Bronze Seat Heng.

Moreover, since Wan Li and Ban Yan were currently the only representatives from the Yaomu family, they had to address the entire demon race collective.

“Everyone, please know that as we are affiliated with the Yaomu family, this also means that we take the words of the Junior Adjudication Committee very seriously.”

This was another thing to take into consideration. Though the junior adjudication committee may not seem impressive when facing off against Long Di, their position was actually quite high.

Their position rivalled high-ranking members of the Yaomu family. As they were the ones set to inherit the position of the senior adjudicators, who were existences charged with carrying the sword of the King, they were not to be underestimated.

This was one of the reasons why Yaomu Qiang was so hesitant to use the Imperial Divine Edict. If he was able to carry out Long Di’s sentence without the Edict, then it would be a guarantee for him to become a senior adjudicator in time.

After all, what the King wanted was someone who was able to carry her sword but not someone who was quick to use it.

Still, this didn’t mean that he couldn’t be a senior adjudicator, just that he would need to put in more work to assume the position.

“Imperial protector Ban Yan,” another demon stepped forward with his fist cupped, speaking in a respective tone. After all, not everyone was as brave and arrogant as the Iron Body Forge Sect members. “We did see the young miss with long Di. It is hard for us to believe your words when the main family says he is to be eliminated, but the young miss is doing another.”

Ban Yan was speechless at this point. He truly didn’t know how to tackle this particular point.

“Hmph!” Bronze Seat Heng scoffed. “It seems that placing mixed-bloods in charge of the young miss is a slight on the royal family’s side. I wonder if such a management style is adequate.”

Whoosh

A powerful pressure spread out from Ban Yan when he heard this. Though he did have the royal family’s interest at heart, that didn’t mean that he was a weak fence for others to lean on.

“Bronze Seat Heng, You go too far!” Ban Yan was just about to call on his cauldrons when the portal quivered, signalling that someone was about to exit.

They all waited with bated breath. If it was someone with whom they were affiliated, they would question them on the state of affairs within the Spiritual Bingqi Realm. However, if it wasn’t, well, they would deal with it by ear.

Shu!

Suddenly, a cultivator came barrelling out of the Spiritual Bingqi Realm like a bat out of hell!

As soon as he came out, a massive explosion went off that caused enormous ripples to run the entire surface of the Spiritual Bingqi Realm’s portal!

Not just the demon race experts, but the other experts and powers present through the spatial displacement saw this and looked at the figure in shock.

This was an apt reaction, as the Spiritual Bingqi Realm was a unique realm. Meaning that nothing from the other side should be able to transmit through to where they were.

However, an explosion was powerful enough to be heard through the portal.

The person who came out was present in the Demon region, but he was visible to everyone else all over and he realised this.

The figure, however, looked at everyone else with an apathetic gaze as if what just happened had nothing to do with him.

There was a palpable silence that held the scene.

Not wanting a certain tumbleweed to make its reappearance, the person searched through their head for the perfect words to explain what just happened.

“So anyway, I just started blasting…”