Long Di cooly replied, “and that is enough.”

Hong!

Suddenly, Diqiu Jian’s expression changed into one of shock, “What the…!“

****

Long Di’s body became crystal-like in an instant as faint dots of light appeared in his body. They appeared uncountable in quantity, his entire body became like the very heavens itself!

It was beyond profound, and it embodied a prestige that none would dare to defy or defile.

Not just Diqiu Jian, even Yaomu Shou, Shen Ling, Feng Yu, and others were in awe of Long Di’s current state. The disciples weren’t present at the time when Long Di’s physique awoke, so this came as a complete surprise.

“Special grade physique,” Yaomu Shou muttered to herself in shock. Though she knew Long Di was special, this was too much, wasn’t it!? Was he supposed to get all the good things in this world?

Shu! Shu! Shu!

Long Di took the time when everybody was shocked to attack the Nitu demon with a flurry of slashes, catching him off guard!

Diqiu Jian raised his arms in a hurried block, but being an experienced fighter himself, he was still able to pull off a much more powerful defence using a technique that hardened his clay-like hands to the extreme.

With this move, he was effectively safe against attacks from secular weapons at the high-grade black rank level and even a rank higher!

The saber Long Di held was a black-ranked weapon. This could easily be discerned by someone as knowledgeable as Diqiu Jian, so he didn’t worry about any possible injuries.

Long Di saw that the Nitu demon didn’t care much for his attacks, but he counted on it.

Bam!

“Ugh!”

The saber landed several times in a flash, cleaving off several layers of clay-like flesh each time!

Diqiu Jian grunted in pain before exclaiming, “Saber intent!?”

The Nitu demon paled in fright when he observed this and hurriedly tried his best to create some distance between himself and Long Di. But how could the latter possibly give his opponent any time to relax?

His physique was what saved his life this time around. His Profound Myriad Heavenseize Physique was a physique that emulated the very heavens. Of the many uses that Long Di was able to figure out, one of them was being able to draw in many types of energy and encompass them in their entirety.

This was why he didn’t explode, even though his body possesses both somatic essence and spiritual qi. After all, do the heavens break down even though there are so many taboo existences below?

No! The heavens exist and contain all things, for that is one of its very reasons for being! To contain all, be that which all things look up to but can never touch. For there to be a physique that has captured this empyrean nature, why would a mere earth essence poison bring Long Di to his knees?

Long Di was on him like maggots in bones as he kept close to Diqiu Jian.

“What kind of physique is this!?” Diqiu Jian was flustered as he could see that the effects of his poison were no longer affecting Long Di. It was either that or the effects have been halted entirely.

Nevertheless, this wasn’t good news for him. The Nitu demon that Long Di fought many days ago was a combat-type Nitu demon. The divine abilities that he possessed were specifically geared towards brute force combat.

Diqiu Jian was a different type of Nitu demon. His specialty didn’t lie in brute force or head-on combat. He was from a lineage of Nitu demons that studied the profundity of the earth and what it offered.

For example, if the earth could heal, they would be able to do it. If the earth could give life, they would take it upon themselves to do so. So even though they were not solely meant for combat, they were more dangerous than the latter.

However, despite having a myriad of abilities at his disposal, Long Di’s insistence to stick to him gave him trouble in executing any of these abilities.

‘I’ll have to suffer a hit to get some breathing room,’ Diqiu Jian decided in his head.

After making up his mind, he readied himself to retreat fully, putting minimal effort into his defense!

Long Di saw this and tried to drive the somatic essence in his body to land a blow far stronger than any he levied before.

Dum!

“Ack!”

A mouthful of blood erupted as Diqiu Jian landed on the ground in a sorry fashion. He looked back at Long Di, who had a trail of blood dripping from his mouth in fear!

‘T-That felt like somatic essence! Something’s wrong with this child! I need to let the sect know! We can’t allow him to grow!’

Blood continued to trail from Long Di’s lips, but that didn’t stop him rushing to Diqiu Jian’s side like the world’s clingiest girlfriend, intending to do no less damage than the latter! (Which I’m sure, is devastating!)

However, it was too late. He slammed both palms on the ground and the lines on his hands brightened their glow as they danced rhythmically before they entered the earth. He then executed a set of hand signs too fast for the eyes to see.

“Terra Seize!”

The four cauldrons with the star cores released their bright glow as if they intended to compete with the sun!

Before long, a small area around Long Di released a light that matched the intensity of the Nitu demon’s cauldrons’ glow.

Long Di didn’t know what was happening, and even worse, he suffered some sort of injury to his meridians as soon as he started to drive his somatic essence to land a blow. Because of the injury he suffered, he lost his best chance to kill Diqiu Jian.

Even worse, he had no idea what sparked this wound to begin with. If he tried to use his somatic essence again, would the same thing happen? He had no idea, so he had to refrain from using his somatic essence for now, at least until he could figure out what was happening.

Long Di could soon feel his body slowing down within this field of light. He felt as if the earth itself was rejecting him, and even more so, was robbing him of something vital!

Bam!

He dug his saber into the ground as he leaned against it. His strength was leaving him rapidly.

“What is… Pwah!” A blood-stained cough cut him off as he looked up at the Nitu demon through dizzied eyes.

The latter looked back at him with a strained expression. Numerous veins pulsated and snaked their way across his head and arms.

Yaomu Shou was confused about what was happening for a moment before she stared off into space. When she came back to herself, her face went through several transformations before it finally rested on panic.

“Long Di, he is draining your earth esse!” she finally shouted. The elders who were following her advised her in secret.

“E-Earth esse?” Long DI struggled to look in her direction.

…

“What is this Terra Seize? It’s even giving me a sense of danger,” the younger of the two elders asked as they observed from the void.

“It’s a vicious move indeed,” the older one advised. “As you know, all things in this world are made up of the five elements which are wood, fire, earth, metal, and water.”

“Of course,” the younger elder answered, aware of such basic information.

The older one continued, “As long as one or more of these existential elements are in play, magical things are bound to happen, and the most magical of these is the birth of intrinsic intelligent life.”

The younger elder’s face frowned in confusion, “I don’t get it. There are many things in this world that are not made up of the five elements and still gain life. Even some earth flames are known to gain spirituality, taking on life.”

“How long do they take to gain life? What existence can come to such a profound state of being in a mere few years?” the older elder asked, silencing his younger comrade. “Even if an earth flame were to gain life, this is only after being gestated by the heavens and earth for thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. To speak nothing of gaining life, how much more time is needed for such a life-form to gain intelligence?”

“You mean-”

“Humans, most Demons, Nymphs, Sacred Celestics and hundreds of other races across the continent are able to come to a state of enlightenment that requires another type of life-form countless numbers of years to attain. Do you believe there is no reason for this? The five elements live in us all. They are the basic form of our existence. That Nitu demon is forcibly ripping away the ‘earth’ aspect of his existence. This is a dark thing the Nitu demons have come across. That child won’t be able to survive this I’m afraid.”

“He will need to be… smart to survive this,” the younger one said carefully.

Both elders were aware of the presence that revealed itself not long ago. The temperament of these beings was too hard to predict. Since Long Di was connected to them in some way, it was best to not say anything too provoking about either of them since it may invite a calamity into their lives.

The older elder looked up to the heavens, “Luckily, this move has not garnered the attention of the heavenly daos.”

The younger elder said nothing after this, understanding the implications put forth by his older colleague.

This was truly a powerful move the Nitu demon employed. There wasn’t really a defense against this type of thing. There was a solution here, it just depended on whether Long Di could grasp this before it was too late.

…

Far away, a pair of red draconic eyes surveyed the entire situation. These eyes even pierced through the void and observed the elders that were trying to act mysterious.

Her figure was a sin in and of itself. Her red hair waved in the wind like a sea of fire that her horns peeked out from.

Her expression was calm as she recently got her emotions under control after the pride of her race was challenged earlier.

Though she took action several days earlier to help Long Di and was careful in not revealing her existence, she made it a point of duty to refrain from helping him anymore. For one, she didn’t want him to grow dependent on having a protector, because that was not who she was.

Secondly, she didn’t feel like it. Was it because she was being petty about the earlier slight to her race’s prestige? Maybe? She’ll never admit it. She could be summed up as being tsundere for the dragon race.

“Don’t die and upset the crown prince, you taboo thing.”

…

“Thank you. I will now die less ignorant,” Long Di said when he heard Yaomu Shou tell him what this Nitu demon was doing.

Yaomu Shou nearly ripped out her hair in both anger and fear for him, “No, you idiot! Look at his cauldrons!”

“F-First of all… I resent that, and what… about his cauldrons should I-I be looking at?” Long Di found it increasingly hard to speak. It was as if who he was as a living existence was coming apart.

The only thing noteworthy about Diqiu Jian’s cauldrons that Long Di was able to see was how the four star core cauldrons were emitting light on the same level of intensity as the field that surrounded him.

What was he supposed to do with that information? Eat it? I mean, he was hungry, but was now the time to eat her words?

“You piece of…!” Yaomu Shou focused herself and started to send him a spiritual message. ‘Suppress his cauldrons, you fool! Cauldrons of a higher grade can suppress a lower grade cauldron and your cauldrons are of a higher grade, I’m sure of it. You can use it to interrupt his absorption of the spiritual qi around us. Our cauldrons have a lot more use than you would think. As for his cauldrons, the only reason they’re shining that brightly is because he’s desperately trying to maintain this move of his by using his cauldrons as a bridge to send the surrounding spiritual qi straight into powering this Terra Seize whatever. It’s only been a few seconds and yet his face looks like it’s concocting the world’s most cruel constipation! That’s your clue!’

“Never thought I’d see the day that an unholy level of constipation would be a clue,” Long Di could feel his very being slipping.

His consciousness wavered, but his will bolstered its defenses as he commanded his cauldrons.

He always felt that his cauldrons naturally gave off a heavy pressure even though he never pushed them to do so. Now, however, he would have to stimulate that very same pressure, or he would die here.

The nine black cauldrons hovered above Long Di before they edged closer to the Nitu demon. The latter couldn’t concern himself with this. This move took everything he had to maintain, and losing his focus for a minute wasn’t something he could afford.

Vrrrm!

Boom!

The black crystalline cauldrons radiated a pressure that would render any level of constipation useless!

The pressure targeted Diqiu Jian’s cauldrons, unleashing upon them their full fury!

“Puah!”

Diqiu Jian fell to his knee as every single one of his cauldrons dimmed! To say nothing of his normal cores, even his star cores were a flickering mess!

Shu!

Without warning, a shadow of a figure that no one expected shot past heading towards Diqiu Jian!