Yang Fuyou then looked to the floor and saw that Hu Guan was still kneeling on the floor, “Aren’t you going to tell him to get u-”

“Now,” Long Di didn’t give Yang Fuyou a chance to finish. “Tell me everything you know about my parents.”

****

“Do you want us to leave?” Yaomu Shou asked after seeing that they were going to be talking about some very personal information.

“Yeah, everyone can leave for a moment except you, Shen Ling, Feng Yu, Jia Yan, Tie Lang and Xiannu Liang.”

Everyone’s name was called except…

At this moment, all eyes sneakily shifted towards Zi Yu, who was glaring at Long Di like she wished to eat him alive.

Long Di stared at her innocently, “As a husband, I don’t think you’d want to hear about your mother-in-law!”

“Screw you! Who’s married to you!?” Stomping her feet, she stormed out of the room and was soon out of sight.

Unfortunately, she didn’t go too far. Long Di was still able to sense her in the nearby vicinity with his spiritual senses.

Of course, she didn’t dare leave. Even if one didn’t take Long Di into consideration, she remembered that Yaomu Shou made an off-hand comment about wanting some more details about a particular issue from her. Even if she was 100 times more courageous, she wouldn’t think about running away after that.

“Now, you can continue,” Long Di gestured for Yang Fuyou to continue.

“S-Sure…” as he looked towards the kneeling Hu Guan, Yang Fuyou couldn’t help but think that this was an odd sight.

However, he quickly put this to the back of his mind, “Right, so a little over two months ago, after the event that shook the entire continent, now that I think about it, we seem to be having a lot of those,” he commented before continuing.

“The dragons made a move as a few of them mobilised towards a small insignificant city in a backwater place. It was practically a corner of the Tu De Region… oh wait, I-I’m sorry!” Yang Fuyou just realised that he was verbally defecating on Long Di’s birthplace.

“Oh, don’t mind me, please continue,” Long Di advised him.

Yang Fuyou looked down in shame and embarrassment when he saw this, feeling Long Di’s contempt for him.

The thing was, though, that Long Di didn’t care about the description pointed towards his former home. Since his parents were no longer there, that place lost its importance to him. It was Yang Fuyou’s mistake of utilising the logic used to gauge a normal person, that he didn’t see that Long Di didn’t feel any way towards him.

“Oi,” Long Di called out to Yang Fuyou when he saw the latter still looking down.

Yang Fuyou then looked up at him, to which Long Di stared at him expressionlessly. Yet, the young auction house manager could tell that Long Di’s patience was running out. He broke out in a cold sweat at the moment.

He couldn’t remember the last time he was so terrible at dealing with someone. However, he gritted his teeth and decided to keep going. Stopping here would only annoy Long Di further and further distance him away, which was the opposite of what he wanted.

“Ahem.”

After clearing his throat, Yang Fuyou went on, “The dragons took your family away and furthermore provided no reason for their decision.”

“Why would you think I have the dragon’s backing with this information?” Long Di asked. “Why not think of the dragon’s stunt as an act of aggression towards me?”

“We-”

Vrrrm…

Everyone suddenly sensed a feeling of dread overcome them. As if they were all on thin ice and any further action could end their lives.

It was similar to a dark hand clutching their throats. The feeling was suffocating to an unbearable degree.

Sweat covered Yang Fuyou’s and everyone else’s forehead. Fear dotted their features and breathing became a chore.

Everyone here wanted to ask what was happening, but they didn’t have the courage to. The feeling of death was not just creeping towards them, it was already upon them and they felt like the wrong words would bring swift destruction to not just them, but this entire city.

That was how harrowing the feeling they experienced was.

The only person who didn’t show any outward reaction was Long Di, but he could feel it the most out of everyone here.

Yang Fuyou felt horrified as a very vague thought about what was happening at the moment came to him. Not wanting to risk anything, he took extreme care to use words that would clear up Long Di’s confusion whilst making sure not to offend any existence that apparently had them in its crosshairs.

“Long Di,” Yang Fuyou gulped. “The dragons are an immensely proud race. There is nothing that can enter their eyes. Forgive me for being blunt, but the dragons have no need to be aggressive towards you because you are not worthy of it.”

Whoosh!

The feeling of dread receded like the tide, causing everyone to let out a breath of relief. That feeling just then was terrifying beyond belief, and it made the current feeling nigh euphoric.

When Yang Fuyou sensed the current situation, he instantly knew what was happening but chose not to comment on it.

Long Di felt it and immediately curious, “What was tha-”

“Ah, Long Di! H-How about we continue the conversation from before!?” Yang Fuyou asked in a panic. He truly felt that Long Di was going to get him killed if this continued!

Everyone could see that he had an idea about what was happening, but the fear on his face let them know that this was not something to linger on. If Yang Fuyou, a disciple of the Qian Dao Sect, was fearful of the impetus of whatever it was that just happened. With that being the case, not much thought was required for them to know to leave certain things alone, or at the very least, put it off till later.

Taking their silence as consent, Yang Fuyou continued from before, “You wanted to know why I think they are your backing as opposed to being your enem… I mean, as opposed to being… not your backing, right?”

Long Di nodded.

Yang Fuyou made sure to speak in such a way so that he didn’t put Long Di and the dragons on the same level, whilst not being inherently disrespectful to Long Di. This was because if his intuition was correct about the current state of affairs, this was the only way he could continue going forward.

Truly, he didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. He just wanted to make a big move by making an investment, yet he was practically walking on the edge of a blade right now.

“Alright, so the dragons came to meet your family and didn’t kill them outright. That alone is inconceivable, especially when you consider that Thunder Cloud city is not even seen as a city by most other places. To make things more baffling, it was clearly seen that your family was taken away by the dragons. Now if the dragons wanted to kill your family, Long Di, the dragons wouldn’t care who saw. They would have done it then and there. Doing things in the shadows is below them,” Yang Fuyou advised.

“The mere fact that the dragons ‘cared’ enough to spirit your family away means that there is some connection there. You might think that they don’t care, but they wouldn’t have taken your family away if they didn’t.”

Long Di took in his words with a pondering look, “In the last couple of years, eleven years ago to be exact, did something major happen that included the dragons?”

Yang Fuyou was taken aback by this question but thought about it for a while before he answered, “Yes, actually. Eleven years ago, there was a major commotion that shocked the continent involving the dragons. Apparently, a very terrifying existence came into being there back then.”

Long Di descended into silence once more.

Yang Fuyou took his silence as him being disappointed by the lack of information provided. “I-It’s difficult to get information from the Dragon’s Domain. Looking too deeply can result in death, while staying too far away will yield nothing of significance. I’m sorry that we’re not abl-”

“You have a deal,” Long Di stood up and extended his hand towards Yang Fuyou.

“C-Come again?” This move caught the latter off guard. He didn’t expect Long Di to agree to his proposal, especially when he didn’t even explain the details of his proposal as of yet.

“I said you have a deal. We can shake on it if you’d like,” Long Di said with his hand still out.

“But you don’t even know what I want,” said Yang Fuyou.

“For the love of…” Long Di really wanted to slap his forehead at the moment, but held himself back. “You said you wanted to make an investment in me, whilst also being a disciple of a sect whose dao is, simply put, literally about business and money. You want that from me, meaning you want me to make you money. The only way I can do that is by going far on the martial path which you’re aware that I have embarked on. Common sense dictates that you will support me in this endeavour, hence the investment, so I can make a substantial return. Is this not the case?” Long Di asked.

“How did you know?” Yang Fuyou asked in shock.

“Because I’m not stupid,” he responded. “Now shake my hand, give me my stuff, refrain from screwing me over, and we’ll have a decent partnership.”

Yang Fuyou stood up and shook Long Di’s hand without any further hesitation. It was then that he realised just how easy it was to deal with smart people.

“I’ll need some help from you,” Long Di advised.

Yang Fuyou didn’t even blink at this request. He had to show that he was willing to do what it takes to keep such an investment satisfied. “What do you need?”

“I need a map, the biggest and most detailed map you can find,” Long Di requested.

“Done,” Yang Fuyou patted his chest with a smile.

“I also need a bestiary and herbiary for research purposes,” Long Di really wanted to amass knowledge about the different kinds of magical beasts and about the different medicinal plants and treasures out there. There were no books that touched exclusively on these subjects in his father’s library.

“Easy,” Yang Fuyou waved it off.

“I’ll also need a book or scroll about basic formations, and a few hundreds of pounds of metal ores.”

“Consider it done,” Yang Fuyou reassured Long Di there was nothing to worry about.

“Is there anything else you’d like to inquire about?” Yang Fuyou asked.

“Yes, actually,” Long Di replied. “How do you feel about slavery?”

“I hate it,” Yang Fuyou said without a moment’s hesitation.

“Great,” Long Di nodded, “Say that I found a Nymph in my travels, and I wish to send it back home, what would be the challenges I would face?”

“If it became widely known, you would be met upon by sects, clans, bandits and all manner of groups who would stop at nothing to have you dead and take such a creature away.”

“I’m not a creature!” one of the persons behind Long Di shouted, causing the latter to look behind him with a look that asked, ‘you were dead set on showing me how ill-equipped your intelligence was today weren’t you?’

Hearing this outburst, Yaomu Shou looked towards Xiannu Liang in shock.

Yang Fuyou couldn’t believe, “L-Long Di, please tell m-me that isn’t a-a-a…”

“Well the cat’s out of the bag, so… what of it? You don’t do slavery, can I take your word for it?” Long Di asked.

Yang Fuyou got up in a hurry and looked to Huli Ruo who was standing by the side the entire time, “Get the rest of the stuff he asked for right now! We don’t have much time!”

Long Di was confused, “What are you-”

zzz “Long Di, I am throwing in my lot with you on this one. So you need to trust me when I say that you are in an incredible amount of danger, and unless you want to die, we need to move right now!”