The Grand Preceptor waved his hand, stating, “I will take responsibility for this. I want to know what his choice is after learning about the soon-to-be annihilation of his teacher’s village and sect and if he can or dares to save it.”

****

A nearby expert from the Blood Crypt Sect was shaken when he heard this. How had this been discovered!?

Shen Ling and the others on the other hand felt their hearts stop when they heard this.

The village was in danger of being annihilated!?

When Yaomu Pan heard this, he slowly removed his hand from Long Di’s guts.

Long Di fell forward before he was gently caught by Yaomu Shou who was nearest to him.

“You may want to act fast,” this was all that Yaomu Pan said before he tore the void open and left.

The Grand Preceptor nodded in admiration when he saw this. Originally, Long Di should have been dead for quite some time now.

The only reason he was still alive was because Yaomu Pan had injected a small and steady stream of life energy into Long Di’s body to keep him alive.

In truth, this was why Pebbles allowed Yaomu Pan to draw breath even now. He was well aware that should Yaomu Pan be killed in a fit of rage that Long Di would die. So he could only hold back this belly of fire he had for Yaomu Pan for now.

Obviously, the Adjudicator wanted to kill Long Di, but when the ‘cat’ arrived, he held his hand and acted with prudence, and that was best. Though Yaomu Pan couldn’t tell, he was vaguely aware of who and what that cat thing was.

It was by no means as harmless as it looked, and the mere fact that Calamitous Dragon Long Zhe was actually entertaining its whims was no trifling matter. If this thing incited the latter to act, then even with the Grand Preceptor here, a true calamity would befall the Demon Region and war would break out.

Yaomu Shou turned Long Di over and shoved a pull in his mouth, “Xiannu Liang get over here!”

The little nymph ran over at breakneck pass with Shen Ling following along with a tight grip on the former’s robes.

Mina and the others came over shortly after to see how bad it was.

“I know you’re not at the core formation realm yet, but I’m gonna need you to go all out to save him. Hold on for a bit…”

Yaomu Shou bent over and covered Long Di’s mouth with hers for a few seconds before she came back up and continued. “His life shouldn’t be in danger, but we’re gonna need him to get his strength back. I don’t know how much time he has left as a martial grandmaster, but if his power starts to drop, this could get dangerous.”

“Uhm…” Xiannu Liang had a question about what just happened.

“What!?” Yaomu Shou furiously blushed. “He wasn’t swallowing the pill, so I helped him a little.”

“With your mouth?” asked Xiannu Liang with a raised brow.

She could feel Shen Ling’s fist tighten around her robes.

“Would you just help him!?”

“Fine!”

D-D-Dum…

Xiannu Liang’s cauldrons emerged with a gentle thrum. Dense life energy spread out and rejuvenated those who were nearby.

“The nymph!” A nitu demon who played a part in the ambush of Long Di widened his eyes when he saw Xiannu Liang.

He took a step forward when Pebbles, who was on Long Di’s shoulder this entire time, snapped his head back to stare him down.

The cat’s gaze made his heart leap and nearly stop altogether. A palpable murderous intent compounded with an alien-like draconic aura unfurled that caused him to inwardly tremble despite himself.

He shakily took a step back to regain his former place. The other experts who were with him couldn’t laugh at him for this either. They also felt a wisp of the murderous intent and draconic aura that Pebbles released a while ago and couldn’t believe what they were feeling.

It was practically perverted in its quality and suppressive nature.

Seeing this, Pebbles turned his head back and focused on Xiannu Liang and her healing of Long Di.

It desperately wanted to engage in a killing spree, but Long Di’s well-being came before anything else.

After a while, Pebbles turned his head to Mina and commented, “Eleven years. Eleven years I’ve been gone, and ya nearly killed him. How do you do it?”

Mina snorted and said nothing. As far as she was concerned the damned cat was just as bad as Long Di.

Whatever medicinal pill Yaomu Shou had given to Long Di was extremely effective, as it caused his blood qi to surge and circulate at a swift pace.

Dum!

Suddenly, Long Di’s aura began to plummet quickly and seemingly without end!

“W-What’s happening!?” Shen Ling asked in a worried tone. She could still somewhat sense Long Di’s state since she poured all her focus on him.

“Don’t worry. This is expected…” Yaomu Shou tried to calm her down. “He probably used a forbidden technique to forcibly raise his cultivation level. Since that technique’s run its course, his strength is returning to normal.”

Her voice then took on a grave tone, “Still, I expect the side effects for such a boost to be quite severe.”

As Xiannu Liang continued to heal him, her face changed several times until it paled.

Yaomu Shou naturally didn’t miss this, and asked, “How is it?”

Xiannu Liang shook her head, “not good. His meridians are riddled with cracks and could break apart at any moment. Most of his inner organs are lacerated and his spiritual qi has dropped to absolute zero. His spiritual force also suffered a backlash when he was injured during the execution of that last move of his and to top it all off, his stomach's pretty empty. The good news is his blood qi is thriving and his life isn’t in danger. Worse comes to worst; he could very well be crippled.”

“N-Not likely…”

“Long Di!”

Everyone jumped at the same time when Long Di opened his mouth. He was conscious!

“Long Di!” Pebbles jumped from the side and onto Long Di’s chest in excitement.

“Puah!”

“Careful!” Xiannu Liang yelled at this stupid thing that she was now half-convinced was trying to kill Long Di after they just brought him back from the brink.

“Sorry.”

Unexpectedly, Pebbles apologised to Xiannu Liang.

Long Zhe who was standing watch above was surprised when he saw how docile Long Tian Yan had become.

That infernal prince was arrogant and disrespectful to anyone and everyone. Not even his parents were spared this attitude, but for Long Di, he had become so soft and obedient.

He didn’t know why, but this peed him off.

Seeing that Pebbles sincerely apologised, Xiannu Liang’s expression softened, and she instructed him to be careful while she told Yaomu Shou to wipe clean the blood that Lond Di threw up.

“Pebbles? I-Is that you?” Long Di asked with a slight tremor in his voice.

“Meow!” Pebbles nestled its head under Long Di’s neck.

“It’s been years, buddy!” Long Di grabbed Pebbles and held him in tight for a hug.

Although his expression remained the same, tears streamed down his face as he held onto Pebbles for a long time.

Yaomu Shou, Mina, Shen Ling Jia Yan and the others were shocked to see this level of reaction from Long Di.

The only other time they saw something remotely similar was back in the forest as they left the village and the sky shook and were nearly rent asunder by some cataclysmic force.

Sometime after, as Long Di held onto Pebbles tightly, not wanting this to be some type of dream before death, Pebbles got annoyed.

“That’s enough! It’s been eleven years, not a lifetime…” Pebbles was still a cat and had a limit for the amount of skinship he could endure.

“Sorry.” long Di released.

“How have you been all these years?” Pebbles asked as it stepped lightly on Long Di’s chest as it assumed a sleeping position.

“It’s been good with my parents. You can’t pay for that kind of therapy,” Long Di had to admit he had a good life back home.

“What about you?” Long Di asked.

“Catch up later will you!?” Xiannu Liang interjected before focusing all her attention on Long Di. “How are you awake?”

She was well aware of how bad Long Di’s internal injuries were and couldn’t even begin to comprehend the amount of pain he had to be enduring simply to talk.

“It’s not without its fair share of effort,” he said to her.

He had no way to tell them that the Destiny Scale had seen everything that was about to happen and had forcibly retrained a sliver of his spiritual force beyond the read of even himself. Right now, this was all that kept him conscious, but everything else was lost to him.

“Thanks for your help Xiannu Liang.”

Xiannu Liang shook her head. “You don’t have to thank me. Just rest up.”

“No need,” Long Di struggled to sit up before failing, prompting him to direct his gaze at the Grand Preceptor who had been quite patient all things considered.

“What are you doing!?” Xiannu Liang could feel her blood pressure rising when she saw what Long Di was doing.

“Don’t worry, just continue to heal me,” he said before paying attention back to the Grand Preceptor.

“I guess you’ve heard the conditions for your survival?” the Grand Preceptor asked.

His voice was so hoary and aged that it made it seem like he was telling a story to the younger generation to pass on words of wisdom, not discussing the terms that needed to be met to continue to live.

Long Di nodded, “I heard it.”

“And?” the Grand Preceptor asked.

To this Long Di only had one response. “Take Me To The Blood Crypt Sect.”