They stopped and, upon doing so, they sucked in a cold breath of air even though nothing of the sort was present here.

Yaomu Shou took a good look around and nodded, “Makes sense. Everyone, welcome to Cavern Flame Mountain.”

****

Long Di got off Lord Whiskers and gave the entire place the once over. They were at the top of the mountain, for sure.

However, instead of it being filled with trees or snow like most mountain tops were, this one was instead covered with Caverns.

Even more curious was that some of these caverns sometimes lit up with a strong orange glow. Others held the orange glow for a short while before they dimmed into darkness, whilst a scarce few held the glow for much longer.

There were a rare few that were actually filled with flames that bathed a part of the scenery in the same orange glow!

When Jia Yan saw these caverns, his eyes lit up!

These caverns, at the moment when they lit up, discharged powerful flame energy. A place like this would be perfect for him to not only breakthrough but to further cultivate and forge his new cauldron.

He looked towards Long Di and the latter could tell what he was thinking at a glance. He nodded to Jia Yan to give him permission to move alone, but before he could move…

“Who are you?”

A voice filled with surprise and immense displeasure sounded that drew Long Di and everyone else’s attention toward the source.

He looked over to see several demon kin whose skin gave off a bright bronze glow staring at him with contempt. Behind them was another demon whose skin shone with a silver glow.

He didn’t spare Long Di and the new arrivals a passing glance and remained crossed legged in one of the very few caverns that were filled with flames.

The flames filled the caverns at regular intervals. It was like the heartbeat of some prehistoric beast. His expression was peaceful and despite the flames being notably powerful, not even his robes were burnt.

His cauldrons, which were all high grade, rotated in a steady fashion. Three of the cauldrons housed their own cores, cementing him as someone at the Three Core Martial Adept level.

Seeing this, Long Di told Shen Ling to give Jia Yan some of the cauldron casting pills and told him to go on his way to find a cavern to cultivate in peace. Not only that, he told Jia Yan to find one of the better caverns for him.

Jia Yan looked at Long Di Di and couldn’t help but be impressed by his overbearing nature. Then again, this was expected. Long Di was far ahead of any disciples, and his strength gave him the right to act this way.

“You!” the disciple that called out Long Di and his group earlier grit his teeth in anger.

This group of fools dared to ignore him. He was someone who, at normal times, wouldn’t give anyone here the time of his day. Yet now, they dared to hold a conversation when he asked them a question.

“Zi Yu, can you follow him to make sure nothing happens to him?” asked Long Di.

She didn’t find anything wrong with this and moved beside Jia Yan before asking, “Ready?”

Jia Yan nodded, and without waiting for anyone else, took off for one of the caverns.

“Stop!”

Shu!

In response to this, one of the disciples who blocked them took off to intercept Jia Yan and Zi Yu.

The latter looked back at Long Di as if asking something. Long Di knew what she was asking and nonverbally assented to her request.

“You’re kicking a hornet’s nest.” The lazy voice of Yaomu Shou drifted over.

“You’re enjoying yourself, aren’t you?” Long Di replied.

He was referring to how Yaomu Shou was lying flat on her back on top of Lord Whiskers, staring at the sky. The comfort of his fur was forcing her to close her eyes to drift into what she reckoned would be the best sleep of her life.

This was why the disciples from earlier didn’t see her and this was the case now as well.

“Stop right there!” the disciple that moved to stop Jia Yan and Zi Yu came over with a haughty expression. He was giving off a lot of young master energy and Zi Yu was not having it.

“You best move out of the way before I make you!” Zi Yu glared at him as she took out her fans.

“Tch!” the disciple snorted when he heard this. “Do you know who we a-”

“I do, don’t care. Go screw yourself!” She sneered. She wasn’t sure if it was because she was hanging out with Long Di, but she found these young master types to be very insufferable.

“Pfft… Ha…” Jia Yan couldn’t help and blurted out a laugh before he quickly stifled it.

The corner of Zi Yu’s mouth upturned into a cocky smile with this.

The disciple, on the other hand, was shivering with rage.

The reason he didn’t outrightly attack her was that based on her high-quality robes, he took her for someone in high standing. Add to that, her race, which was one of the purebloods, were of those who couldn’t easily be offended.

“Don’t blame me for being vicious then,” the disciple then took out a staff that was wooden in the middle whilst the ends were encased in an unknown metal.

“You talk too much!” Zi Yu shot towards the disciple with her fans in hand.

Long Di didn’t pay this too much attention as he roughly gauged everyone’s cultivation bases and knew that the disciple who went after Zi Yu and Jia Yan couldn’t match her.

“Are you going to be unreasonable?” Long Di calmly asked.

“You think you can offend us and get away with it!?” Another disciple asked darkly.

“This is getting old, Lord Whiskers, if you please,” Long Di looked toward the Shidashi Mao.

Lord Whiskers Furryback the first stared back at Long Di and wanted to be sure he was giving him permission to slaughter wantonly.

Even before getting the go-ahead, his killing intent leaked out, and he bared his teeth, which he licked menacingly.

“Sic-”

“Wait!” A shout came from behind the disciples and the silver bodied demon walked from the cavern they had their backs to.

He stared at Long Di, Zi Yu, and the mysterious hooded Xiannu Liang for a while before deciding, “We’re leaving.”

“Silver Body Lun Qiang-” one of the disciples was about to say something when a hand found its way to his cheek.

This blow sent the disciple flying, causing the other disciples like him to freeze in shock!

“We’re leaving,” without another word, Lun Qian left. The disciples went to their injured brother and hurriedly called to their other brother, who was entangled with Zi Yu to disengage and follow them back.

After forcing Zi Yu back, he made his way back to his other brothers, following behind Lun Qiang with a confused expression.

From what they knew of Silver Body Lun Qiang, he was an extremely arrogant person and put no one else except the young master in his eyes. However, that same arrogant Lun Qiang left without another word and even injured one of his own followers, who questioned the reason behind this.

“You might wanna kill him,” the same lazy voice of Yaomu Shou drifted out and caused Silver Body Lun Qiang's steps to freeze. He couldn’t see who was talking but the lack of care in her voice let him know that this should be someone who should be on equal standing with the Iron Body Forge Sect, but there should be none of those existences all the way here.

He then looked to Long Di, realising that he was the leader here, and looked at him with a serious expression. He’d be lying if he was saying he wasn’t unnerved by Long Di’s impassive demeanour, but he kept his bearing all the same.

The two said nothing and Long Di cocked his head to the side as if internally contemplating something.

“Lord Whiskers…” Long Di called out to this murderous entity, who looked at him with expectant eyes. “Make it quick.”

Lord Whiskers grinned in ecstasy and Silver Body Lun Qiang’s eyes widened in shock that Long Di would actually give the kill order!

“Y-You dare!?”

Shu!

Lord Whiskers took off and Yaomu Shou rolled off and fell on the ground with a thud.

“How does that make you feel?” Long Di asked her.

“You did that on purpose!” She glared at Long Di while rubbing her bum.

Long Di shrugged his shoulders, “Maybe.”

In a flash, Lord Whiskers was ripping through the disciples with depraved pleasure clearly visible on his face.

His killing intent was thick and palpable, and it turned the sheep before him into mice who could only scurry around before their lives were ripped from them. This didn’t help when Lord Whiskers Furryback the first underwent a tribulation that increased his power. Though he was still at the fifth rank, he could match some rank six magical beasts in combat! What more disciples who were in the Core Formation realm at best?

“I didn’t think you’d actually do it,” Yaomu Shou commented after recovering with a bit of surprise.

Long Di shrugged his shoulders, “He was going to tell the people of the Iron Body Forge Sect that I committed some crime of offending the sect and then bring people here post-haste to deal with me.”

“You’re aware of their tactics,” Yaomu Shou stated, impressed with Long Di’s decisiveness.

However, Long Di went on, “Then again, killing him is just as bad.”

“Oh?” Yaomu Shou gave him the side-eye. “Why do you say that?”

“Because a member of the ten great sects such as the Iron Body Forge Sect most likely has tabs on most if not all of their disciples and chances are that they will be alerted the minute I kill that guy via some life crystal or something,” he finished.

“You know!?” Yaomu Shou was shocked to hear this as everything that Long Di said was correct.

She was going to tell him, eventually. In truth, she didn’t expect him to act so decisively and was going to use the time he was hesitating to tell him this bit of information to see the kind of person he was.

“I’ve seen too much of this,” Long Di said tiredly.

“From where?” she asked.

“Books, novels, light novels. Things of that ilk,” he answered.

Yaomu Shou didn’t know what to make of this, but it didn’t matter as Lord Whiskers came strolling over with a pleased expression.

Its mouth area was covered in bloodstains. Its teeth, which were stuck in a perpetual grin, had pieces of meat stuck here and there.

“How long do we have?” Long Di asked Yaomu Shou.

Realising that Long Di was asking how long it would take till the Iron Body Forge Sect descended, she quickly answered, “Considering the distance we are from the Iron Body Forge Sect, we have around nine, maybe ten… “

“Weeks?”

“Hours,” Yaomu Shou corrected.

Long Di gave Yaomu Shou a double-take with the same expression, which was comical to see.

“You’re-”

Shing, shing, shing…

A crystal that was tied to Yaomu Shou’s side was continuously flashing with a purple light.

“Hold that thought,” Yaomu Shou said, mimicking Long Di’s mannerism.

She took the crystal from her sash and injected it with her spiritual strength, and once she saw the information inside, her expression turned ugly.

Shen Ling, who was to the side, had never seen Yaomu Shou this serious and knew something was terribly wrong and asked, “What is it?”

Yaomu Shou took a while to collect her wits before looking at Long Di. “You’re a criminal.”