Boss Bao smirked at this. “No mercy for those who cross us,” he said to himself.

5 minutes later…

“Have mercy on us for crossing you!” The cries of several men and one who was vivacious endlessly rang out in the surroundings.

****

The group of bandits were laying on the ground paralysed. Arcs of grey lightning flickered off their bodies from time to time, causing their body to spasm uncontrollably.

Their faces continuously twisted in a hideous grimace. The pain was obvious by this alone, but they didn’t dare to curse due to the dead-faced presence before them.

The outcome was wholly expected. After all, Long Di was an existence at the Core Flame Evocation realm, a bona fide peak, One-Star Core Martial Master.

He could take on several existences at the peak of the core formation realm easily. Not to mention that there wasn’t even one such existence at this level, everyone here was at the cauldron-forging realm.

“So you don’t want me to kill them?” Long Di asked a question to seemingly no one in the eyes of the bandits.

Though they were frightened to hear the word kill come from his mouth, it seemed that he had no intention to kill them, luckily.

“So you want the kids to have a go at them? Isn’t that too much? These guys may be successless, but they’re still stronger than the disciples.”

[Enter the dome and have a look at them.]

Heeding the Destiny Scale’s request, Long Di re-entered the dome, only to find that the tumultuous waves of fire-attributed spiritual energy were all but gone.

He didn’t have to worry about the bandits escaping to cause more trouble. They were powerless to resist the effects of the tribulation lightning. The only reason it didn’t do more damage was because Long Di willed it so.

“What happened her… oh my.” Long Di was about to question the Destiny Scale when he saw the situation of the disciples over yonder.

Krrsssh!

Grey lightning within an orb hammered the bodies of all three disciples relentlessly. At the same time, one could see what appeared to be a faint red vapour escaping from their body under the onslaught.

“Is that…?”

[Flame poison, yes.] The Destiny Scale confirmed. [It’s why I agreed to your use of tribulation lightning energy. Tribulation lightning has quite a miraculous cleansing effect and is perfect to help rid their bodies of the fire poison.]

“There’s quite a lot, though.” Long Di pointed out when he saw the seemingly never-ending plume of red steam rising from their heads.

[The runes I utilised forcibly drew in the surrounding fire-attributed spiritual energy, which I proceeded to condense within the dome. They had to choose between digging out the absolute limits of their physique’s potential or dying, and as you can see, they’re still alive.]

“Uh-huh, yeah sure.” Long Di knew the Destiny Scale wouldn’t kill them in the end. What was important was that the kids believed it would. “So because you stuffed in here the same amount of fire-attributed spiritual energy that they would have taken months to accumulate on their own, the flame poison increased as well. Makes sense, but their cauldrons though. What happened here?”

Both Tie Lang and Jia Yan had white cauldrons that were clearly medial-grade, whilst Feng Yu had a bright red cauldron that shuddered intensely as she continuously did her best to refine it. This was a high-grade cauldron!

“What happened in the last five minutes? Was there some kind of time skip to wuss out on essential explanation? Cuz I’m gonna need some context here.”

Long Di couldn’t believe that they made such staggering transformations in this short amount of time.

[I am expending divine energy to help these young ones. If there wasn’t this bit of change taking place, it wouldn’t be a type of energy accessible only to those who stood at the peak of this world.]

“Not gonna lie, if I was reading this as a novel I would start to think of divine energy as a fancy way to say plot.”

[Once again, I have no idea what you are talking about and I have given up on understanding your odd and unusual phrases and outbursts. Regardless, the more divine energy I exhaust, the more drastic the changes become.]

Hearing this, Long Di couldn’t help but ask, “Then why don’t you use that divine energy to help them attain the highest grade cauldron-wise?”

The Destiny Scale explained patiently. [First of all, the grade cauldron that you have is not something that just anyone can get their hands on. Second, whilst I can help them attain a fairly higher grade, the higher ones will consume more divine energy, which would end with me slipping into a type of dormancy. With that in mind, I would rather not fall into a deep slumber and leave you to your own devices.]

“Fine,” Long Di didn’t harp on this point and moved on. “Then how far along can you bring them? Plus, you still haven’t answered my question about their chances with those guys out there.”

[The main point of the cauldron-forging realm is to set the stage for your future path. But before those realms are reached, the cauldron’s grade determines how efficiently the spiritual energy is absorbed and refined for use. These kids will be able to use that advantage to fight these bandits. Of course, there will be handicaps in place to make it a bit more… plausible for them. As for how far I can bring them, I can’t say. I will do my best is all I can promise. Of course, this comes later. For now, I want them to get some decent combat experience so they can clearly feel the benefits that a higher-grade cauldron brings.]

“That’s fair,” Long Di nodded upon hearing this. Now that he knew everything he wanted, he turned his attention from the cauldrons to the kids specifically.

Psssh…

The lightning within the orb petered out before the orb itself disappeared. Long Di waved his hand in their direction when he noticed this, as it was time to begin.

Whoosh…

A gentle wave of spiritual energy spread from Long Di before enveloping Feng Yu and the others to awaken them.

However, when it arrived near Shen Ling’s area, the spiritual energy wave appeared to have been swallowed by the endless darkness.

[Leave the Abyss Ghost for now. Her cultivation technique places her outside our space while keeping her in it. It is a profound state. She will awaken when the time is right.]

“Got it.” Long Di ignored the black spot in the room and gave the disciples a little time to awaken from their cultivation.

Not long after, three sets of eyes opened at roughly the same time. Tie Lang and Jia Yan could immediately feel the changes that their bodies underwent. Feng Yu could feel how her cauldron absorbed the ambient spiritual energy at a rate that put her previous medial-grade cauldron to shame.

They saw Long Di standing before them, nodding in satisfaction with their current level.

Shu!

They quickly got up and bowed at the waist in his direction. “Thank you.”

Long Di accepted their bow since he knew that they would feel uncomfortable if they did nothing.

Even an idiot could tell that the item they were benefiting from was not something simple. The mere fact that Long Di was using something of this level on them displayed his sincerity in wanting to help them get stronger. They were immensely moved by his trust in them and his goodwill.

“Let’s go for some exercise.”

Long Di started walking in the direction he came from to exit the dome. The children wordlessly followed him and exited the dome as well.

“Who are the—”

“Hey, guys.” Long Di cut off Feng Yu’s questioning as he addressed the bandits. “How ya doing?”

“Pain!”

“Greeeaaatt,” Long Di replied. “So remember the friends who I was shocking? Well, here they are.”

“Just kill us already!”

“Fantastic,” Long Di was loving the mood as he went on. “I will let you guys go along with a spirit stone each if you manage to beat them in a fight where you only use your physical bodies.”

At this moment, the lightning that was plaguing their bodies came to a stop, allowing them to catch their breath.

Boss Bao stared at Long Di and shuddered in fear of this little devil. This would be a trauma that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

He took some time to collect himself before asking. “W-What’s the catch?”

“No catch. Just beat them using only your physical bodies. You win, you all walk away with one spirit stone each. Apart from the handicap of using ONLY your physical bodies, there are no rules.”

Boss Bao gave them a cursory glance and saw through their strength in an instant. “Ah, little sir, you know that swords don’t have eyes, right?” Boss Bao was afraid of there being an accident that would cause Long Di to fly in a rage and kill them.

Long Di, on the other hand, knew what he meant by that question and put his fears to rest. “Do whatever you will.”

He then turned back to Feng Yu and the others. “You wanted to know who they are?”

Based on the conversation they were a spectator to, they had a good idea of what was going on, but they still nodded, wanting to know what they were to do here.

Whilst the first part was expected, the last part terrified them.

“They are your new sparring buddies. Your goal… will be to kill them.”