Qin Ling didn’t waste any time. She followed after the First Hall Elder to practice the mantra that would allow her to partially awaken the True Ice Cold Heart Physique.

****

“So you were able to enter the cave and collect the Shadow Silk on your own and at the same time also managed to increase your cultivation to become a Third Duan Martial Disciple? And all this while I was gone to retrieve the Zi Yu from the Nether Immolation War Temple?”

“Yes,” Shen Ling simply answered.

“Wait,” Jia Yan noticed something off. “Where’s senior apprentice-sister Feng Yu?”

“Oh… that,” Long Di put his hand to his forehead as he thought about how to explain their group now being one less.

“So, you know how we had a Feng Yu when we went to the Temple?” Long Di asked.

“Yeees…” Shen Ling had a bad feeling about this.

“Right… and you know how when you leave with a Feng Yu, you should bring a Feng Yu back?” Long Di gestured with his hands.

“What did you do?” Shen Ling’s expression fell.

“I didn’t do a thing,” Long Di quickly defended.

“What did you do?” Jia Yan was finally catching on.

“Okay,” Long Di put his hands up. “Promise you won’t be mad.”

Both Jia Yan and Shen Ling looked at each other before staring back at Long Di saying in perfect sync. “What… did you do?”

“So what had happened was…”

And so did Long Di spin the tale of how he executed the equivalent of leaving your child in the gaming arcade.

It took a bit of convincing for them to calm down, especially for Shen Ling of all people. Fortunately, in the end, they finally understood that it was what was best for Feng Yu to remain at the Nether Immolation War Temple.

“You’re sure she’s safe there Long Di?” Shen Ling asked once more.

“I’m sure.” Long Di nodded. “Plus, though I’m not sure about the connection between her and Lord Whiskers, we should be aware if she’s in any life-threatening situation through hi-”

“Meow…”

“Scratch that, I AM sure about the connection between her and Lord Whiskers and we WILL know if she is in any life-threatening situation,” corrected Long Di for a very obvious reason.

“O-Okay then,” Shen Ling had no choice but to accept the situation for what it was.

“Our group seems to be getting smaller,” Jia Yan commented.

“You’re not wrong,” Long Di agreed after looking around.

“Okay, now if we’re all done here,” Yaomu Shou interrupted. “I just need to make sure of something. Are you telling me this is all Shadow Silk?”

“You know about it?” Long Di asked.

“Who do you think I am?” Yaomu Shou said, a little aggravated.

Long Di raised a brow at her tone. “Careful, your inner emo is showing.”

“My inner wha… oh, I-I’m sorry,” Yaomu Shou heard the word emo and thought Long Di was referring to the character ‘Emo’ in Emo Valley and that she was taking on their mannerisms.

She wasn’t wrong, but at the same time, she wasn’t right either.

After whispering something under her breath, she took a pill from her storage ring and swallowed it without hesitation.

Seeing this Long Di asked her, “did the space grandpas give you that?”

“Space grand… are you talking about Uncle Yan and Second Uncle Li?” Yaomu Shou was really curious where he got these names from.

Long Di simply shrugged his shoulders, justifying it by saying, “potato, potawto.”

[I know the spelling is incorrect. I just did that to make it glaringly obvious for the pronunciation.]

“Are you all done!” the shopkeeper didn’t like the fact that he was being ignored in his own spot.

“Oh sorry,” Long Di apologised. “So is this amount of Shadow Silk okay for what you wanted to do?” he asked.

“More than enough,” getting back on the subject of the Shadow Silk was enough to change his mood slightly. “What would you like the design to be like?”

Long Di thought about it for a while before responding, “Broken but still holding on.”

Not just the shopkeeper, even Yaomu Shou and the others were taken aback by this.

“… U-Uhm, w-what about the others?” The shopkeeper asked, realising that Long Di probably had a lot of stories he wasn’t qualified to listen to.

“I-I’m good,” Xiannu Liang advised the shopkeeper. Darkness was not an element that meshed well with her race.

“I’ll pass too,” Jia Yan stated. He had no cultivation technique for the darkness element so it wouldn’t do any good for him.

“I’ll take a few robes,” Shen Ling expressed.

“Oh great!” the shopkeeper was ecstatic to hear that Shen Ling wanted a few robes.

He was surprised that so many of these kids didn’t want clothes made of Shadow Silk. This was an extremely rare item and it was also why the Nether Immolation War Temple placed so much importance on the protection of Thousand Emo Valley.

He actually felt a bit useless when he saw the lack of desire in their eyes.

“You’re all missing out on something pretty good, to be honest,” Yaomu Shou spoke up.

“Shen Ling only told me it was good for defence and could also help in absorbing darkness-attributed spiritual energy,” Long Di divulged.

“You’re not wrong, but there are other uses,” advised Yaomu Shou.

Long Di grew slightly curious, “Such as?”

“I’ll tell you later,” she replied.

The shopkeeper looked at Yaomu Shou and asked, “Would you li-”

“Nah, I’m fine,” Yaomu Shou smiled.

“Oh, okay then,” the shopkeeper said, a bit downtrodden.

“How long are you going to need to finish the clothes?” Long Di asked, ignoring the shopkeeper’s despondence.

“I already have the robes ready, I just needed the Shadow Silk really,” he explained. “I should be done in less than a day.”

When hearing him, Long Di asked just to confirm, “Do you want my size?”

“I scanned your body the first time you came in,” the shopkeeper said proudly.

Apart from Tie Lang, Yaomu Shou and the others held their chests with a resentful glare toward the shopkeeper.

When he saw their stares coupled with what he said, a blush found its way to his cheeks compelling him to take the Shadow Silk before heading towards the back to work.

“Huh,” Yaomu Shou shot a suspicion-filled stare in the direction the shopkeeper disappeared in.

She then turned to Long Di, “What are you going to do in the meantime?”

“Cultivate,” Long Di said almost immediately.

“You’re pretty single-minded aren’t you,” Yaomu Shou commented.

“Maybe,” Long Di didn’t say anything more than that and left the shop.

Outside the shop, he could see Lord Whiskers sleeping soundly. He had to admit that Lord Whiskers was like a real cat, only maxed to a thousand.

He slept like a real cat, loved ear rubs like a real cat, and bathed in the blood of his enemies like a real cat.

“Hey Lord Whiskers,” Long Di prodded Lord Whiskers awake.

“Meow?” He looked at Long Di with sleepy eyes.

“Can you take me outside the Valley for a while please?” Long Di politely asked.

He looked toward the exit of the Valley before turning back to Long Di with a “Nyaa…”

“Oh come on. I’ll expand your horizons and show you something interesting.”

“Nyeargh?” it asked, eyeing Long Di suspiciously.

“Of course, I’m telling the truth. What do you take me for?” Long Di shot back.

Getting his confirmation Lord Whiskers allowed Long Di to board his back.

“Oh yeah, she’s still here,” Long Di realised that Zi Yu was sleeping like a baby on the Shidashi Mao’s back.

As a result, he took up Zi Yu in a princess carry and saw espied Yaomu Shou. He walked up to the young demon and shoved Zi Yu in her arms saying, “Here, take this.”

After this, he got back on top of Lord Whiskers. When he was all settled, he looked at everyone else who was at the entrance, “Normally, I wouldn’t mind taking you all with me, but my cultivation sessions tend to be a bit… heavy.”

“We understand,” Shen Ling said with a smile.

They didn’t forget the last time that Long Di cultivated near them, they felt suffocated by his actions. In addition, Long Di became increasingly aware that his cultivation sessions seemed to be rich in explosions and all sorts of calamities.

With this, Lord Whiskers took off and the girls along with Jia Yan headed to Emo Cave under the urging of Shen Ling for training. The Latter advised that she had a good feeling about the Cave for most of them.