[I apologise… in advance for your… divinity…]

After saying this, the Destiny Scale disappeared into his body. He received a final piece of info from it before it went quiet, and no matter how Long Di called out to it, he received no response.

****

Long Di then looked to the spot where Boss Bao disappeared before he stared at the three bandits in the distance who were on the ground with white foam coming out of their mouths.

“This is… irksome.” Long Di said.

He took up Shen Ling in a princess carry and made his way to where the cannon fodders were. As he passed by the disciples, he instructed. “Follow along children.”

Tie Lang, Feng Yu and Jia Yan tagged along in silence. They looked at the back of Long Di with complicated expressions.

When they arrived where the bandits were lying, Long Di turned around to face them.

“I never… what?” Long Di saw that they were shooting him looks of confusion, shock, hurt… and betrayal.

He could guess those first few ones were for Shen Ling, whilst the last one was because of him.

Tie Lang was the first one to speak up in a shaky voice. “Did you not care?”

“You were going to let us die,” Jia Yan followed up.

“You were going to let them kill us!” Feng Yu exploded. Many thoughts swirled in their heads at the moment, but as the most powerful emotion was anger, whatever thought it was that was fuelled by this was the one that burst forth.

Feng Yu continued. “We trusted you and you were going to let them kill us! We put our lives and our futures in your hands, and this is what you did with it!? You didn’t even care!”

Her chest heaved in her anger, and Long Di remained silent in the face of this. He saw the tears streaming down Feng Yu and Tie Lang’s faces and Jia Yan’s attempt to keep his emotions in check.

“Do you believe that?” Long Di simply asked.

This one question threw them off, and they all looked away in self-reproach and embarrassment.

This question truly dredged up from the back of their mind something that was always there.

They knew that Long Di wouldn’t let them die. They were aware that their life wasn’t in danger.

However, the killing intent they suffered during their earlier fight banished any and all such agency. But once it was completed, they couldn’t help but lash out at the earlier treatment.

“But we trusted you,” Feng Yu said subdued.

“As you should,” replied Long Di.

They quieted down in the face of this, not knowing how to respond.

Long Di sighed after a while and stated. “I do… kinda not uncare for you guys.”

A look of confusion took over when he said this.

“Are you trying to say you… care for us?” Tie Lang asked while wiping his tears away.

Long Di wasn’t about to answer that and went on to deal with the most immediate issue. However, when everyone saw this, they felt a lot better.

“I expected you guys to be able to beat them, but the thing that helped you guys intervened when those guys didn’t keep their word. Regardless, you guys are gonna finish it.”

Their initially settled emotions fluctuated at these words.

Jia Yan took the risk to ask. “The implication being?”

Long Di’s expression didn’t flinch in the slightest when he said. “Take out your weapons.”

The disciples hesitated when they heard this command.

“What are we going to do with them?” Jia Yan was the one who asked this time around.

“You are going to kill them,” replied Long Di.

“But why!? They can’t fight back anymore!” Feng Yu cried out.

Long Di shook his head, “they’re not good people and you need to get over this if you’re serious about cultivating. I am sorry that this needs to be a thing, but we don’t have time to dilly or dally. So please kill them for me.”

“But senior apprentice-brother Long, do we really have to kill others to cultivate?” Tie Lang asked in fear.

“It’s not that we have to kill others to cultivate, but others will kill us to do so. It looks like your teachers have been holding your hands a bit too much. However, you can’t run away from this anymore.”

“There has to be another way.” Jia Yan shook his head.

“Take out your weapons.” Long Di ordered them once more.

“Long Di, we’re not ready for this. Obviously we’re not.” Feng Yu felt she had to speak at this point. “Maybe another time.”

“Take out your weapons.” Long Di closed his eyes as he advised them once more.

“We can’t—”

“TAKE OUT YOUR WEAPONS!” Long Di exploded at this time. His expression didn’t change, but his voice rose in volume for the first time in a long time.

Feng Yu, Tie Lang and Jia Yan stared at him, frozen. This was the first time they saw Long Di like this.

“Take. Them. Out.”

Shing!

Hearing Long Di enunciate each word this time around, they didn’t dare to disobey.

“Stand above a bandit right now.”

At this moment, Long Di exuded a will that they couldn’t refuse. So they took their place above a bandit each.

Their frenzied breathing was a testament to their being alive.

“Now.” Long Di was no longer playing around. “If you wish to end your path of cultivation right here, then you can put your weapon back in your ring and forget about advancing. You may not want to kill others, but they want to kill you. I need you to do this because when the time truly comes when you HAVE to do it, you will hesitate and more often than not, it will cost you your life or even more unforgivingly, the life of your friends and family. Don’t allow this defining moment to end in your cowardice, I have scars of fear that you can’t even imagine and I wish it on no one. This will allow doing what must be done to survive in the future. I need you to live, so… Lower. Your. blade.”

Hearing Long Di’s speech, the three kids threw away their inhibitions and slowly lowered the blades to the heads of the bandits.

Their hands trembled as they did this, and when blood spilt following the breaking of the skin, they paused.

Long Di didn’t say anything here. There was nothing more for him to say.

Tie Lang suddenly closed his eyes and gritted his teeth when he pushed the blade down.

“Look!”

Long Di’s booming voice caused him to open his eyes in fright just in time to see the man’s life flame going out through the man’s eyes, and he was sure this was a scene he would always remember.

Jia Yan and Feng Yu hewed courage from this and did the same as well.

The darkness that covered their eyes had receded, so Jia Yan and Feng Yu could see the light of life leaving their eyes as well.

“This is much worse than I thought it would be.” Feng Yu whispered as the sword fell from her hand.

“Big brother Long Di, I-I…”

“It’s okay,” Long Di displayed a rare moment of care as he patted Tie Lang’s head, though the latter was older than him.

“Come on. We’re done here.” Long Di took off in another direction.

“Where are we going?” Feng Yu asked in a subdued tone.

“Somewhere where we can recover from all this ”

Long Di couldn't deal with the drama that would come from telling them outright that they were heading inside a volcano.

He would cross that bridge when he got to it. Which was a lot closer than he would like it to be.