“You know, to be fair, we don’t have to devolve into name-calling here. There are other ways to go around this,” Long Di said, totally disregarding the look of anger on his master’s face.

‘Does everyone get so angry so easily? I didn’t have much in the way of friends, so I don’t have a lot of practice to know what to say from what not to say. Meh, I’ll muddle my way through.’

“Well?” Uncle Tian Lu asked, jarring Long Di from his thoughts. “What other ways were you thinking?”

“Well, we can have someone go with me to make sure I stay safe. Quite frankly, the only reason I am still bedridden or… cot-ridden or whatever you wanna call this thing is because of the remnant energy in my body. The problem, though, is that the energy is being refined as we speak by the steel stele inside my body. I want to be able to use the remaining energy to create and complete even a preliminary outline for a working cultivation technique.”

Uncle Tian Lu rubbed his chin as he thought about Long Di’s suggestion and after pondering for a while, he agreed. “Okay, I’ll set it up for you to go out with the other disciples who couldn’t finish their experiential training.”

Uncle Tian Lu, in a rare occurrence, actually agreed with Long Di. This way, the disciples could go and complete the training they were supposed to do but couldn’t because of their encounter with the human plague, Long Di.

“I’ll go and inform the first elder,” Uncle Tian Lu got up to leave.

“Why?” Long DI asked with a brow raised.

“To have him get the disciples ready,” he explained.

“Uhm, no,” Long Di said, the other brow now raised.

Uncle Tian Lu could feel another headache coming on. He knew this was way too easy! Something would be wrong if it was.

“What the heck is wrong now?”

“Why don’t you go with me?” Long Di asked.

“Because the other disciplines need their training and so we can kill two birds with one stone that way,” he looked at the blank-faced boy in front of him as if he was looking at a fool… which he did indeed feel was the case.

“No way,” Long Di refused.

“For the love of… Why not!?” His anger finally erupted once again.

“We all know that when we go out, because of my MC-ish aura, we’re gonna run into some beast that is above our levels for… reason, or even worse we’ll meet some arrogant young master who wants to bully us just because, and then we’ll wash rinse and repeat the same method,” Long Di explained.

“What the heck are you talking about!?” Uncle Tian Lu truly thought that the boy’s head was over the deep end.

“Crap, you don’t know normal trope-based logic, because you’re one of the tropes!” Long Di exclaimed in realisation.

Uncle Tian Lu’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Long Di, “I don’t know why, but I feel insulted for some reason.”

“Whatever, I’m not going!” Long Di showed his stance.

“Yes, you are!” Uncle Tian Lu shouted. “The less time I spend with you is the way I know that the heavens are on my side!”

“No.”

“Yes!”

“No.”

“Yes! And there will be no further discussion on this matter! I am your master and you will heed my order!”

…

Bang! Bang!

A beast that resembled a boar more than anything else standing at an impressive height of 3 feet was ramming into a tree.

Its tusks glistened in the sunlight, and its eyes were blood red. The fur that covered it was black and it gave off the feeling that nothing could penetrate it.

“What do you call that thing again, a demon beast?”

Bang!

A figure hidden from sight asked another hidden figure what they were seeing in the distance.

‘No, they’re called magical beasts, you little demon spawn! Plus, this belongs to the weakest category, a rank-one magical beast. Also, speak to me using your spiritual force, I don’t want that thing to hear us, it has scarily good hearing!’

If it isn’t obvious at this point, the hidden figures speaking to each other were Long DI and Uncle Tian Lu.

The former was apparently successful in dragging the old drunk out instead of having him accompany the other young disciples.

‘Well?’ Uncle Tian Lu asked.

‘Well, what?’ Long Di asked, not taking his eye off the magical beast.

Bang!

The repeated explosive sounds came from the beast ramming into the tree time and time again. Such beasts weren’t very smart and sought simple solutions to problems that required more… thinking.

In this case, it was to get a relatively common spirit fruit that grew on the tree it was attacking.

‘You’re the one who wants to create his own cultivation technique. We’ve seen over half a dozen magical beasts. What exactly is it you’re looking for!?’ Uncle Tian Lu asked, annoyance evident in his voice, not for the first time today.

‘Well, I can’t really put it into words like what I want. I just wanted to see something that could spark some type of enlightenment to help me out,’ Long Di’s gaze never left the boar as he communicated with Uncle Tian Lu.

Bang!

‘Well, how about this? We know what the issue is. Let’s use that as a basis for what direction you wish to take. It’s better than just looking around blindly,’ Uncle Tina Lu advised.

Long Di nodded when he heard this. ‘Okay, that makes sense. Alright, so we know that the reason why I am having trouble cultivating the energy is because it is too tyrannical, too… wild, at least right now in any case. Is there any magical beast you know of that is in possession of particularly tyrannical energy that we can use as a reference that overcame something similar?’

Uncle Tian Lu’s eyes narrowed when he heard this. ‘There is, but… it’s too dangerous.’

‘We often find fortune in danger. As cultivators, we walk the edge of a blade on the line between life and death as we traverse the path of the dao. So never mind the danger, tell me, master.’

When Uncle Tian Lu heard Long Di’s words, he couldn’t help but nod his head in admiration. ‘Maybe this little demon spawn isn’t so bad. Truly, as cultivators, we are going down a bloody and bone-filled path.’

‘Nice! That was a line from a pretty well-known novel. I delivered it just like a cultivator would in this day and age.’ Long Di kept his composure, which was apathetic as ever.

If Uncle Tian Lu heard this, he would most likely cough up blood in anger and slight confusion at Long Di’s words. Fortunately, Long Di made sure to keep this particular thought to himself.

‘Okay,’ Uncle Tian Lu acquiesced. ‘The only thing that comes close to fitting this description would be the Scarlet Flame Long-Tailed Hawk!’

Uncle Tian Lu’s expression became severe when he brought up this name. As it was an overlord of the region.

Long Di’s expression remained impassive as he kept his gaze on the boar in the distance as Uncle Tian Lu stared at him. ‘Is it a giant hawk, clad in scarlet flames, with long tail feathers at the end of it?’

Bang!

“You know of it!?” Uncle Tian Lu exclaimed in surprise.

“Nope,” Long DI raised a brow in impending interest. “It just so happens that its name seems to be a very apt description.”

Boom!

“Oh,” Uncle Tian Lu said with his cheeks a bit red. After all, he was the master, but it always seems that nothing could move his pupil emotionally, while he was always losing his composure.

“Alright, so we need to move now,” Long Di advised.

Uncle Tian Lu looked at him quizzically. “You want to go there immediately?”

“Well that, and the fact that my impending interest seems to have arrived,” Long Di said, using his chin via a nod to point forward.

“What are you—”

Bo-Boom!

Before Uncle Tian Lu could finish his question, the land beneath them began to shake as the boar a distance away seemed to have teleported as it bore down upon them with all the ferocity of a magical beast!

“Damn! How did i—”

“If you’re asking how did it find us, then that was when you shouted, ‘You know of it!?’ From there it heard us, I watched it coming to us but we were having such a civil conversation I couldn’t bear to break it,” Long Di shrugged while his face flinched in pain at this small action.

“You little de—”

Boom!

There was no time for anything else! Uncle Tian Lu took up Long Di and the portable cot he made for him and clumsily rushed out from the vicinity of the boar.

Though it appeared funny to see an old man running with a dead-faced young man hanging over his shoulders like the perfect garbage bag, the two managed to escape the pursuit of the boar.

Uncle Tian Lu’s face was dark, but he said nothing and made sure to take the direction that led to their next destination.

After a while of running, the towering trees that surrounded them both started to thin out before it was completely replaced by a barren expanse filled with small, smooth rocks.

The rocks emanated a mild heat that made one feel as if they were in a sauna.

“Are we going to the—”

“Shut up,” Uncle Tian Lu calmly ordered.

“Are you angry because of the—”

“Amitabha,” Uncle Tian Lu muttered to himself.

“Did you just become a monk and/or a Buddhist?” Long Di asked.

“What else can I do but look for spiritual enlightenment, oh blight on my life!?” Uncle Tian Lu roared.

“Why did we run away from the boar when you had enough power to fight it?” Long Di asked, neither addressing nor recognising uncle Tian Lu’s mini tirade and less-than-flattering nickname for him.

When Uncle Tian Lu heard this, the anger that was raging in his eyes dimmed, extinguished before it was replaced by immense sadness and grief.

He said nothing, and Long Di asked nothing more. Long Di may be socially crippled, but even he knew that there was a story there that was best not touched upon for the moment.

So the two continued on in silence, edging ever closer to the nest of the Scarlet Flame Long-Tailed Hawk.