It didn’t take him long to find the ones that he came here for.

In so doing, he asked a question that seemed all too apt for what took place. “Did you pray to your God for the unholy devastation that I rained down upon you?”

****

Yue Wang took several steps back in the face of Long Di’s question. She remembered the last time he saw her. The words he spoke of now were a follow-up in regard to his advice back then.

“Y-You, you better not go too far!” she pointed at him with quivering fingers.

He said nothing to her but turned his gaze to Zi Yu, “I won’t ask the stupid question ‘are you alright?’ but is your life in danger? Say nothing if it is.”

Zi Yu’s body was badly damaged courtesy of Yue Wang, but her eyes were still spirited.

“I’m fine,” she forced a smile. “They won’t dare to kill me. My status is greater than you can imagine.”

“If your status is something that ended up with you getting slapped senseless, then you and I have different definitions of the word great,” he replied impassively.

“It just dawned on me how infuriating you are,” she stated.

“It just dawned on me how troublesome of a wife you are,” he fired back.

“You…!” Zi Yu’s face turned an even deeper shade of purple under Long Di’s tactless response.

Zi Yu didn’t say much during their journey unless she was offering her knowledge about various topics. This saved her from Long Di’s verbal barbs. Now that she was on the revealing.

“Stick a pin,” Long Di cut her off for a moment. “Where do you think you’re going?”

He turned to see Yue Wang shuffling away. She was heading towards the group of disciples at the edge of the square, hoping to use them as cover to escape from Long Di.

“Oh, so this is the young man that taught ninth sister Yue Wang a lesson?” A deductive voice echoed out as Liao Meng sauntered over.

Each of her steps accentuated her long legs through the split in her dress. Her hips swayed from side to side causing most of the males to swallow nervously, slightly envious that Savage Taitan had such a woman under his belt.

She now stopped beside her ninth sister and sized Long Di up before commenting with a smile, “How cute you are… for a human.”

Long Di sized her up as well and came out with his own comment, “Yuck.”

Her expression darkened following his assessment.

“What did you just say to me!?” Liao Meng had great confidence in her beauty and the mere fact that this human dared to classify her as yuck infuriated her.

“I’m not here for you, I’m here for her,” Long Di pointed at Yue Wang.

Liao Meng’s expression got even uglier under Long Di’s dismissive behaviour towards her.

Seeing this, he spoke up, “Yuckier.”

Liao Meng’s original red face nearly burst into flames as she released a hair-raising shriek, “Uncle Jianhuren!”

“Hhmmm… it would seem that someone is causing little Liao Meng a bit of grief,” a seemingly calm voice of amiability spread out from a corner of the square.

At some point, unknown to everyone appeared an elder within the square. His appearance was that of a demon that Long Di wasn’t aware of.

He appeared to be made entirely of metal. Even his eyes were like cast iron. All in all, he seemed like an iron statue with clothes on creating a striking scene.

“Uncle Jianhuren, capture him for me! Don’t kill him! I want him to suffer a fate worse than death!” Liao Meng licked her lips as her sadistic side fully awakened.

“Yuckiest,” was Long Di’s only response to her command.

A vein throbbed on her forehead as she wished she could eat Long Di alive.

“You know I can’t act at my leisure lady Liao Meng,” he said with a polite atmosphere about him.

He turned back to Long Di and extended a hand in gesture, “Why don’t you surrender young one?” Uncle Jianhuren asked with a warm smile. He gave off an air of a kind uncle, a species of uncle that Long Di believed only existed in myths.

Long Di didn’t know if he was really serious in asking that question, “She literally just said she wanted me to suffer a fate worse than death. Why would I do that?”

“Well, it’s not like you have much of a choice.”

As he said this, several experts of the Nether Immolation War Temple came out of the woodworks and positioned themselves on the ground and atop the walls above.

Their expressions were serious and they all entered a battle-ready state ready to take on Long Di at any time.

These experts were from the inner area of the Nether Immolation War Temple. These were most likely the stronger inner court disciples most sects focused their efforts on raising.

They were certainly stronger than the rabble who stood surrounding the square earlier.

Long Di only spared them a passing glance before focusing his gaze on Uncle Jianhuren once more.

“I don’t know why you’re making it out as if they’re the danger when you’re the strongest here,” Long Di pointed out.

Uncle Jianhuren smiled at the claim but didn’t refute it.

“I’m only a protector of sorts. As long as you don’t step on my toes, I won’t act. Pray that you don’t give me a reason to move, young one,” Uncle Jianhuren advised.

The smile remained on his face all the same, but there was now a coldness behind it that induced a chill in even Long Di.

He was surrounded on all sides by enemies, and there was an extremely powerful enemy before him. It wasn’t going to be easy to escape from this predicament.

Suddenly, a thought came to Long Di once a certain action took place within the realm of the scope of his spiritual force.

“Interesting…” he muttered under his breath.

He then turned around and walked to where Zi Yu was tied up, intending to free her before making his next move.

“Freeze!”

Dum!

The surrounding experts released their cauldrons and moved closer to Long Di to increase the pressure.

Long Di didn’t care about this. His expression was as stoic as ever as he approached Zi Yu to take off her bindings.

The surrounding experts were nervous as they neared Long Di. Even though they were battle maniacs, they weren’t stupid.

It was obvious that Long Di was much stronger than they were. It was no exaggeration to say that the first couple of experts who engaged him would die. That was a foregone conclusion.

With this in mind, the disciples were confused as to why the remaining elders in the Temple had yet to take action against Long Di. He was walking around like he owned the place.

For the overbearing lord of the region, Nether Immolation War Temple, to remain as tame as it did before this intruder, this was uncharacteristic. Things were obviously not so simple. These were the thoughts of the powerful disciples.

However, there were those who allowed their emotions to control them more than anything.

Example incoming…

When Yue Wang saw that Long Di went quiet under Uncle Jianhuren’s shadow, her apprehension towards him disappeared.

“Uncle Jianhuren, he’s the one who… harmed me before.” she didn’t want to say that Long Di’s hand and her face had entered a brief but intense relationship.

It was more than shameful that someone so much younger than her was able to manhandle her the way he did.

“Oh?” Uncle Jianhuren’s friendly demeanour changed upon learning this. Uncle Jianhuren was not a normal elder by any means.

He had a specific task assigned to him, which was why, by virtue of these tasks, he was the only ‘elder’ here.

“I would never say what you can or cannot do Yue Wang, but at the same time, I would ask you to stop sneaking out without proper protection,” his tone here was slightly firmer than unusual.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she didn’t tell Uncle Jianhuren what happened on account of the shame it brought about as well. However, since most of the cat was out of the bag, then it was so, and if it could end with the death, or even better, the capture of Long Di, then it was all worth it.

“Forgive me young one,” Uncle Jianhuren said.

Shu!

He disappeared from his original spot in an instant before appearing in front of Long Di.

‘Earth Severance!’

Long Di had his saber at the ready just in the case this endangered species of a kind uncle made a move on him. It seemed his caution was warranted.

“Metal Force Palm!”

Bang!

The two attacks clashed, and a powerful blast erupted in an instant!

Long Di was blasted back under the demon’s power!

He looked at the saber in his hand and saw that several cracks now covered it.

“Shoot.”

He knew that this saber wouldn’t be able to take much more hits like that. Truthfully, the mere fact that the saber could hold up under the weight of all that Long Di put it through was a miracle in itself.

He stared back at the demon, who was staring at his palm with interest. There was a thin cut there where silver liquid flowed from that indicated that Long Di was able to damage him.

‘Saber intent?’ Uncle Jianhuren knew what truly caused the damage. In truth, the damage was lessened because the saber was breaking down.

He then looked at Long Di with a strange look before releasing a deep sigh, “A talented youth shall die here today. Know that in your next life, there are some people who you can and cannot afford to offend.”

D-D-Dum!

Uncle Jianhuren’s cauldrons exploded into being behind him!

All nine of them unfurled with a pressure that spoke volumes of his strength.

When Long Di saw them, his sphincter tightened in preparation as he knew he would be in for a hard fight.

“A nine star core martial master.”