Long Di then stared at Xiong Weizhe who, unbeknownst to everyone, began to question his wisdom in challenging Long Di.

“Come at me bro.”

****

Xiong Weizhe suddenly found that all eyes were on him. This would have been a perfect boost to his ego if it were before, but now a bout of nervousness threatened to overtake him at knifepoint.

Long Di’s impassive demeanour until now was deemed as false bravado by Xiong Weizhe.

However, now the genius saw that something else was at play here. Nevertheless, Xiong Weizhe put all these thoughts to rest and readied himself.

D-D-D-D-Dum!

Nine cauldrons burst into existence behind him. Eight were red, while one was orange.

“Xiong Weizhe too!?”

“Wow!”

“A supreme-grade cauldron!”

“I’m so jealous!”

“Someone give me a crayon! I’ll make my own supreme-grade cauldron, damn it!”

“Careful! Your desperation is showing!”

The experts watching from a distance erupted into a furore once they saw the orange cauldron. Its eye-catching colour gleamed in the sun and appeared like a king amongst his other cauldrons!

This wasn’t without its sacrifice, either. Just like Zhanshi Yong who Long Di fought, Xiong Weizhe pursued a supreme-grade cauldron as well before stepping into the core formation realm.

This was something that most of the top regular sects were trying to do. They were doing their best to have their top disciples forge at least one supreme-grade cauldron before they entered the core formation realm.

The resources needed to forge even one supreme-grade cauldron were not something that was easily procured. So just this supreme-grade cauldron of Xiong Weizhe showed just how much faith Golden Lion Gate placed in him.

So when Xiong Weizhe saw how the experts stared at him, his confidence re-surged. He looked at Long Di with an air of arrogance once more.

“Take out your cauldrons!” He ordered. “I don’t want you to die unresigned.”

“It’s not necessary,” Long Di replied.

“Pretentious dog!”

Boom!

Xiong Weizhe’s aura soared, and a furious wind was born under its urging!

Some of the weaker cultivators had to shield their faces from the buffeting debris that rode on the wings of the tempestuous gale!

“So powerful!”

“What move is Xiong Weizhe planning to use!?”

The present experts were blown away by Xiong Weizhe's display. He hadn’t even attacked yet, and he was already able to cause such a phenomenon!

Shing!

Suddenly, two giant images of golden lions manifested above Xiong Weizhe. His hands blazed with that same golden light to an obscene degree!

“Twin Golden Lion Charge!”

The cauldron that sported the core trembled, and the lions that manifested above him stomped and the ground shook under their might!

“A supreme cauldron is indeed worthy of its name!” Sect Master Huang Jianyu was full of praise when he saw how the supreme cauldron was supporting Xiong Weizhe’s martial technique!

Its absorption efficiency meant that Xiong Weizhe could go all out with this martial technique. The supreme grade of the cauldron covered his expenditure many times over!

Boom!

Xiong Weizhe shot off towards Long Di. The ground below him exploded under the power of his traversal!

Two giant energy lions were all that could be seen as they charged without fear recklessly towards Long Di.

Lord Whiskers saw this and meandered away from Long Di, not seeing any challenge in what was coming.

Pebbles didn’t even stir from the spiritual fluctuations of Xiong Weizhe’s attack!

The energy lions were so vivid that stone and dirt tore up as their paws dug into the ground below them!

Long Di inspected them closely, trying to see the intricacies of this technique. He didn’t even care to block this type of move.

‘I can’t sense any type of element in this move.’ Long Di thought to himself. ‘Makes sense since he hasn’t reached the core flame evocation realm yet. These lions look pretty real, though. Must be the result of him being in the core formation realm. Meh… needs work.”

The core formation realm allowed cultivators to inject more substance into their martial techniques. Xiong Weizhe took advantage of this when he manifested his technique. Of course, since he was only a one-core martial adept, the level couldn’t be expected to reach the peak.

Nevertheless, this was still a powerful technique.

“Pebbles, do you consider these guys your cousins?” was Long Di’s last vested interest in these golden lions before they crashed into him. Even then he didn’t put up any defences.

“Look out!”

Seeing that Long Di didn’t bother to do anything, Violet Flame Noble yelled to warn him to do something!

Unfortunately, it was too late…

Boom!

An explosion ballooned from the point of impact and spread outwards.

Huang Jianyu waved his hand and constructed a simple qi shield that was able to contain the blast.

This wasn’t to protect himself, it was more to protect the younger experts here.

“Senior brother Long Di!” Sun Zixin paled when he saw the powerful attack.

The same went for Sun Kai and Sun Mei as well.

“Don’t worry,” Shen Ling reassured them with a smile. “Long Di’s powerful! Something like this won’t take him down.”

The sect master was shocked nearly to death as he only just noticed Shen Ling now. It was like she didn’t exist until she spoke.

“It’s true,” Mina said with some measure of annoyance. “The boy is many many things, but in a fight, something at this level can’t take him down.”

The sect master shook his head. “I couldn’t sense any spiritual fluctuations on his part even up until Xiong Weizhe’s attack made contact with him. This means he put up zero defences. Even if he somehow avoided being severely injured, for him to not take a step back under its power is a virtual impossibility under those circumstances.” he explained.

“Brother Long Di…” a strained whisper escaped Violet Flame Noble when he heard this. That one move was no joke.

Obviously, Xiong Weizhe had made sure to charge up sufficiently before attacking. It wouldn’t be so bad had Long Di put up some form of defence, but the Sect Master just confirmed what he had seen.

“This doesn’t look good for him,” Heavenly Sun Noble commented as she attempted to peer through the dust-covered battlefield.

“He was too arrogant!” Black Fortress Guo Da stated with his arms crossed. “If he at least put up his defences and had the conditions of the challenge set to him not being defeated by the three moves, it would have been much better. In the end, his hubris ended up with him being defeated.”

“So he couldn’t make it then,” Mad Sword Haoran shook his head in disappointment.

Jingyi Yu was silent, but her attention seemed to be elsewhere at the moment.

Not long after, the dust cleared up enough for two silhouettes to be made up.

“He’s injured!” Someone stated when they saw Long Di kneeling on the ground and Xiong Weizhe standing imperiously before him.

Blood leaked from his mouth it seemed and his two hands hung limply at his sides. The damage to them must have been caused by a haphazard block when the attack connected.

In truth, this was the outcome they expected from something like this.

“So he just knew how to act and talk big,” one person commented with a shake of his head.

“He was too arrogant. He should have tried to defend himself,” another chimed in.

Heavenly Sun Noble sighed to herself and looked to Mad Sword Haoran who blanched under her glare. “Next time, don’t make me waste time on someone useless.”

“Wait! Look!” A shout refocused everyone’s attention to the scene before them and they all sucked in a cold breath of air.

“How does this even make sense!?”

“… So they’re not your cousins then?”