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

“So anyway, I just started blasting…”

****

No one knew why, but they became incomparably furious when Long Di uttered these words.

It was as if he was making fun of them somehow.

The other experts watching him through the spatial displacement obviously couldn’t hear him, but reading his lips wasn’t a problem for them, so they became angry too.

“You’re Long Di!?”

An elder from the Blood Crypt Sect blurted out!

Long Di looked at him and recognising the blood qi fluctuations was reminded of Xue Zi.

‘Oh, crap. I don’t want to open that can of worms right now. I got it! Execute plan; Ignore it till it goes away.’

“Hey Mina,” Long Di waved to the goddess after seeing her here.

When that expert from the Blood Crypt Sect realised that Long Di was ignoring him, his expression darkened even more.

“You!”

“What in the?” Long Di, on the other hand, wasn’t paying that person any mind since his attention was focused squarely on Mina who was giving him the most out-of-pocket hand gestures ever as she frantically tried to tell him something.

There was the cutthroat gesture, the get-your-ass-out-of-here gesture, and other gestures that he reckoned only otaku loli goddesses were qualified to make.

Did she think he was divine like her? Tsk, tsk, tsk, goddesses these days.

It was impressive that no one even noticed her erratic movements.

However, Long Di wasn’t stupid. Out of the 261 gestures that Mina demonstrated, the aforementioned cutthroat gesture and the get-your-ass-out-of-here gesture stood out most to him. Mostly because they were the only ones he could understand.

This told him one of two things. One, he needed to kill everyone here and then run, OR two, everyone here wanted to kill him and he needed to run.

For reasons that need no further explanation, he was inclined to believe the latter.

Understanding this, he performed a lazy stretch followed by a yawn before announcing, “Weeeell, time to hit the ol’ dusty trail.”

“Stop right there you demon spawn! Where is young master Xue Zi!?”

“Where is young master Zhen Song!?”

“And Chen Jie!?”

“Ming Tong!”

“Chan Nuo!”

Countless elders, deacons and leaders bombarded Long Di with their questions when they saw him actually trying to walk away like he was innocent.

“Child, where is the young miss?”

A voice absent the anger of everyone else followed soon after. Long Di couldn’t ignore this one and directed his gaze at Ban Yan.

The old cultivator looked at Long Di with a touch of worry. Not for him, no. It was for Yaomu Shou.

Long Di had to admit the old man was a good man. He loved Yaomu Shou more than any hate he possibly held for Long Di. That was rare in cultivation novels, he thought.

“She’s alive. She’ll be out soon,” Long Di advised.

He could see the breath of relief the old man released. He didn’t think that Long Di killed the young miss. It was just that the earlier explosion truly scared him.

D-D-D-Dum!

A massive pressure spread above Long Di bearing down on him.

“Long Di!”

Long Di looked above him to see a cultivator staring down at him with undisguised malice.

Nine cauldrons orbited him. However, these cauldrons were far different from any cauldrons Long Di had ever seen before. They released a blinding radiance as if they wished to compete with the sun!

Additionally, there were no star cores. At least there weren’t any that were visible. Instead, the star cores had sunk into the cauldrons, causing the energy they had been lit with to create a unique type of essence flame, setting the cauldrons ablaze!

This phenomenon of the star cores being inside the cauldron was reserved for those at the cauldron core flame fusion realm. It meant that this Bronze Seat Heng was a true martial grandmaster!

Not only that, he was a ninth fusion martial grandmaster!

The pressure that radiated from him was daunting to say the least.

Curiously, however, it was not this fact that drew Long Di’s attention. It was something else entirely.

“You sound familiar.”

That's right, it was the voice of this martial grandmaster that drew him so. Long Di could’ve sworn he heard this voice before.

“Oh! So you do remember me!?” Bronze Seat Heng with a snort. Unlike the other Metal Seats, he didn’t disguise his voice to hide who he was.

Slowly, he removed the bronze mask, causing everyone to suck in a breath of cold air.

Long Di did the same, though his expression remained the same. He then commented, “so that’s how it is. You’re alive, though you look a bit different.”

The identity of the Bronze Seat was someone who Long Di fought back then with the help of the Peach Blossom Sage’s intent.

Before Long Di could kill him, he was saved by a Di Ming.

It was Gang Heng.

He was different in the sense that there was a horrific scar that marred the side of his face down his neck before his robes hid the rest from view.

This was what caused everyone to stare at him in shock.

What existence could possibly inflict a scar on someone as powerful as this vicious Bronze Seat of the Iron Body Forge Sect!?

Normally, scars of any degree could be healed. Even wounds inflicted by stronger existences could be healed as long as enough time and resources were spent on them.

Sure, the cost might be an astronomical sum under special circumstances, but this was the Bronze Seat of the Iron Body Forge Sect! How could there be a cost they couldn’t cover?

Bronze Seat Heng stared at Long Di with an expression of pure hatred made even uglier by the scar.

Ever since the Di Ming had resolved to make him stronger to aid in his current achievements, he had never suffered the way he suffered since then.

Their requirements for him were strict as far as strength, and the speed of his advancements was concerned. When they were sure that his potential was nearing its end, they fed him a medicine with some nasty side effects.

This medicine removed any bottlenecks for him, making his path of cultivation smooth. In addition, it would dig out the remainder of his potential and concentrate it to make him reach heights he never would have attained even if he spent his whole life trying.

The caveat, however, was that wounds were forever and couldn’t be healed. So anyone that injured him would leave that mark on him forever. In addition, he would be afflicted by unimaginable pain every fortnight. To top it all off, his vitality was irreparably weakened.

Meaning he didn’t have long to live. The Di Ming told him that he would be given the cure for all this but that the cost was Long Di’s life.

Though he didn’t know why the Di Ming wanted Long Di dead, as far as he was concerned, their goals aligned with his.

He blamed everything that happened to him on Long Di. So every fortnight, his hatred towards Long Di grew with the pain that plagued him.

This resulted in a grudge forming that wouldn’t end until one of them was dead!

He put the mask back on before roaring at Long Di, “Hand over the root!”

Bronze Seat Heng was raring to kill Long Di immediately. However, he knew that there were certain things that the iron Body Forge Sect needed this time around.

With great restraint, he held back his urge to kill and instead asked for the spiritual vein root.

‘Destiny Scale, what are my chances of killing this guy?’

[Those Di Mings are truly vicious,] the Destiny Scale commented.

It went on to explain, [He is at the ninth fusion of the cauldron core flame fusion realm. You can’t fight him unless you use the Ultimate Flip Off. However, you’ve only been able to recover up to seventy percent of your spiritual qi and that’s in your primary dantian alone. Your chances of winning are less than ten percent. As for killing him, that’s less than one percent. It’s even less when you think of escaping, considering everyone here is against you at the moment.]

Long Di was truly in a pickle this time around. Why couldn’t his opponents be people of the same generation?

He was eleven!

If he was being honest, he did have one move that he could use to destroy everyone else here. But he wanted to save that until the last possible moment.

[There is one thing,] the Destiny Scale spoke up once more.

‘You have an idea?’ Long Di was honestly surprised. If the Destiny Scale was to make a move, he was sure it would be able to kill everyone here.

[I can’t make a move for you,] it said, dashing Long Di’s hopes. [It’s actually something you can do by exposing his intentions.]

Long Di was surprised, ‘You mean-’

Shu!

Boom!

Long Di quickly dodged a claw strike unleashed by Bronze Seat Heng by the skin of his teeth!

He took a deep breath when he saw the five cavernous ditches caused by Gang Hang.

Bronze Seat Heng who was still in the sky lowered his hand.

“Last chance, hand over the root.”

“F it,” Long Di whispered under his breath.

He then faced Bronze Heng with an innocent expression by asking, “You mean the medium-grade spiritual vein root?”

Bronze Seat Heng’s expression stiffened when he heard what Long Di said.

Everyone’s eyes widened as silence descended when they all heard not just what Long Di said, but the exact detail of what he said.

Medium-grade spiritual vein root.

D-D-D-D-D-D-Dum!!

Sh*t hit the fan in the most spectacular fashion when numerous explosions went off as cauldrons of all grades erupted into being.

“Grab him!”

No one knew who spoke first, but they didn’t need to hear this before a crowd of people descended upon Long Di with pure greed and nothing else!

Shu! Shu!

Suddenly, Ban Yan and Wan Li came to his aid in an instant and released their cultivation bases!