When the Grand Preceptor heard the question Long Di posed, he lost his perennial calm and his eyes widened in shock.

“Would you like to know the name of my cultivation technique?”

****

“Your cultivation technique!?” Xue Zhuang was confused.

“It couldn’t be…” The Grand Preceptor muttered to himself as he descended into thought.

Yaomu Shou naturally heard this and turned her attention to the old man that seemed to have one foot in the grave. “Esteemed Preceptor?”

The Grand Preceptor smiled when he heard this, “Not calling me grandpa anymore?”

Yaomu Shou looked down at the ground at his words.

Seeing this, the Grand Preceptor sighed beside himself at the fate of Yaomu Shou.

“Shou’er, I hope you don’t come to resent the King for this. She bears the same fate as you after all.” The Grand Preceptor explained.

Yaomu Shou scoffed at this reasoning, saying, “Hardly a justification. She made the choice herself. So that’s fine. However, she didn’t give me the chance to choose. She already knows who she wants. I’m just some- ”

“Let’s not talk about this here,” the Grand Preceptor interrupted her.

Yaomu Shou looked all around her and didn’t see much in the way of allies. Then again, it didn’t seem like she ever had much of that. That is, until she met Long Di and the others.

“Has this child ever told you the name of his cultivation technique?” The Grand Preceptor suddenly asked.

Seeing that this question was directed to her, Yaomu Shou was a bit caught off guard but she quickly recovered and shook her head.

“He gave me some pretty incredible news about it, though.” Yaomu Shou was naturally aware that Long Di’s cultivation technique was self-created, but she didn’t want that news to spread.

“Do you know why cultivation techniques of a particular grade and rank are so rare?” he asked her.

Yaomu Shou shrugged her shoulders, “I’m guessing because they take countless years to make and only the wise sages of old were qualified to peer into the dao enough to make them.”

This was the information most erudite scholars knew about. Of course, Yaomu Shou was required to possess knowledge that regular cultivators didn’t have, but there was more that was unknown even to her and it was this that the Grand Preceptor was now getting at.

“In truth, the reason why it is hard for cultivation techniques to be created is that those of a certain rank need to be approved by the heavenly daos,” the Grand Preceptor stated.

“The heavenly daos?” Yaomu Shou’s expression grew grave. “Then if it needs to be approved… doesn’t that mean it can be denied?”

The Grand Preceptor chuckled at her question but didn’t answer, “The heavenly daos being triggered for this child may very well spell his doom.”

Yaomu Shou’s heart shook when he heard this. “You mean he could d-”

“Let’s watch for now.” The Grand Preceptor didn’t want to draw any conclusions for now. He would rather observe from afar.

Regardless of what the outcome was, this would prove to be a good show.

Xue Zhuang took out a spear that looked similar to the one Xue Zi wielded and took off in a dead run towards Long Di!

He was on the front lines. He wanted to be the first to spear him through and have him bleed out like a dog! “Screw your cultivation technique wretch!”

“That’s actually part of it,” Long Di said, looking a little proud of himself. It wasn’t his face that gave it away, it was the subtle swelling of his chest that did.

[Huh Keyholder?] The Destiny Venerate sounded in Long Di’s mind.

‘Yes, Steely?’ Long Di answered.

[What were you thinking of calling the cultivation technique?] It asked, clearly worried about what madness was currently swirling around in the nightmare-fueled realm of trauma and insanity that was and is Long Di’s mind.

Suffice it to say, the mere fact that Long Di called it Steely, had yet to refer to the Profound Myriad Heavenseize Physique by its proper name AND just said that the word ‘screw’ was included in the name of this immaculate cultivation technique didn’t fill it with much hope for Long Di’s naming sense.

‘Well, I wanted it to be a surprise, to be honest,’ Long Di told him.

[I beg of you to humour me,] The Destiny Scale actually begged Long Di to tell it what he wanted to call this cultivation technique.

Long Di decided it wouldn’t be so bad to run it by someone else and thus chose to let the Destiny Scale in on it.

‘Grow legs, buy a pair of socks and then hang on to them Steely. Cuz this will blow em off!’

[I temper my sense of decency and expectation.]

‘I’m gonna call it the ‘Screw Heavens, I’m A Chad Cultivation Technique’ or SHIACCT for short. The kicker is that the ACC is silent in that acronym. I know, I know… where do I come up with this stuff? Anyway, SHIACCT is gonna go all over these people.’

[You’re supposed to be an unrivalled expert!] The Destiny Scale legit sounded angry when it was supposed to be devoid of anything called emotions. Not even it was spared from Long Di’s denseness in situations such as these.

‘An unrivalled expert of the SHIACCT dao? Fine, I haven’t mastered it yet, but I’ll get there. Soon I’m gonna make SHIACCT the best thing ever!’

[Do you hear yourself!? Why make the ACC silent?] The Destiny Scale asked. Did he not hear what it sounded like when those were removed!?

‘I wanted it to be exotic and sophisticated at the same time.’ Long Di replied.

[You failed!]

‘You’re a hater and my haters are my motivators,’ Long Di said quickly enough to the point that it almost sounded like a rap verse.

[Keyholder, if I never ask for anything again, please… PLEASE… let me choose a suitable name for your cultivation technique. You are doing it a grave injustice.]

“…”

Long Di thought about it for a while before responding with, ‘Let me see what you got in mind first.’

[Thunder]

‘Nope.’

[Keyholder!]

‘No thunder in the name.’

[But you-]

‘Why do you think I’m cultivating thunder anything? Thunder is sound. I’m cultivating lightning. The mere fact that you even thought about going down that path fills me with little faith in your ability, but I digress. We’ll try this again, and if you say something similar, I’ll go with my idea.’

[Fine!] The Destiny Scale conceded and thought up another name for him to use.

[We can go with… Divine Heavens True Autocratic Passage Cultivation technique.]

‘Pardon my French, but you thought this was worse than SHIACCT?’

[Allow me to explain. Divine Heavens refers to the nature of your lightning approaching the divine, the holy or sacred nature that it is suffused with. In addition, the autarchic outlines your supreme sovereignty and the passage signifies the path you walk and the verse that orchestrates your steps]

‘Sh*t, that’s poetic…’ Long Di was blown away by the Destiny Scale’s reasoning for the name he came up with. ‘Okay, you win.’

Long Di wasn’t sure, but he could have sworn he heard the Destiny Scale sigh in relief.

[Alright, keyholder, call the name of your cultivation technique and validate its existence.]

By this time, Xue Zhuang was right before him with his spear gripped and set in for the ready.

“Die!”

The air exploded as the spear pierced Long Di’s brow!

“Its name is the Divine Heavens True Autocratic Passage Activated.”

Boom!

In an instant, heavenly tribulation clouds covered the region for as far as the eyes could see.

Something, something ominous brewed within the clouds.

Long Zhe growled menacingly at the heavens. His anger was enkindled but a little at the heavenly daos descent.

The Grand Preceptor’s gaze became grave upon seeing this.

“It would seem we’re dealing with a denial.”