“Oh wow,” was the first thing he said when he got a good look at what he took from that place.

****

He actually appropriated a large plat from that place. A dark mist hung over it, which raised a feeling of danger within Long Di.

It was like a part of the Netherworld came to the land of the living. It felt both naturally and unnaturally sinister at the same time.

Some of the mist drifted down to the ground where a patch of grass grew.

Tsss…

Once the mist made contact with the grass, the originally lush and green turf dried up into a brownish-yellow necrotic shadow of its former self.

Long Di sucked in a breath of cold air witnessing this.

“This thing possesses powerful death energy.” Long Di’s grave tone was a testament to the danger of this mist.

He quickly tried sending the entire thing into one of his empty storage rings when a bizarre scene took place.

Pssshh!

Unexpectedly, the storage ring shattered when a tiny part of it went inside, leaving Long Di at a loss.

How was he to store his findings?

“Do I have to put it inside me?” he mumbled to himself. After thinking about it a bit, he made up his mind.

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” he expressed with a sigh.

Hong!

He reactivated his Profound Myriad Heavenseize Physique and took a deep breath.

He could see the herb through the mist of darkness that accompanied the plot of land.

It was like a moon in the night, standing solitary among the boundless darkness that surrounded it.

Still, under the control of his spiritual force, he willed the plat and herb into his physique.

This time, he decided to place it near the space where his Earth Flame resided. To be more specific, he placed it a fair distance below the Crimson Horizon Flame.

Together, this created a scene where a land of death was being shone upon by a red sun. The crimson radiance of the Crimson Horizon Flame, along with the dark mist, cast the land in an eerie, sanguine glow.

It was like a land laid to ruin by some unholy calamity and Long Di swore he could feel a portion of the resentment he felt from that destroyed world swimming in the mist he brought within him.

Realising that he would need to put off studying this for later, he dismissed his physique, returning to normal.

“I’ve been gone for a while now. I should get back.”

Not wanting to worry everyone else, Long Di readied himself to return by collecting all his belongings. Speaking of belongings…

Long Di looked down and saw Mina sleeping peacefully. A small patch of colour returned to her cheeks, and this relieved him even more.

To showcase this, he took her up in his arms before haphazardly slinging her over his shoulder like a misused burlap sack.

He then made his way back to the group before the strange gazes of everyone else and proceeded to not explain why Mina was being treated like a hobo’s belongings.

“Oh, hey Jia Yan, Zi Yu. Welcome back,” Long Di greeted the last two arrivals of their small group.

Jia Yan nodded while Zi Yu, noticing Long Di’s odd attire in the form of a person existing on his shoulder, grew curious. “Why do you have a person on your shoulder?”

Long Di stared at her for a while before he said the first thing that came to mind. “Yes.”

Damn! Zi Yu nearly choked on her own anger. The hell did he mean yes!?

How was that a response to her question? Did he take her for a fool!? It was obvious he took time to formulate a response and then grew lazy at the end of it!

Was she not worthy of a well-thought-out lie!?

Leaving Zi Yu to stew in her thoughts, Long Di looked Jia Yan up and down before nodding, “you became stronger.”

Jia Yan flashed a rare smile. Small it may be, but it was there, and that was good enough.

D-Dum!

Two cauldrons floated behind him. One was orange, and the other was a light shade of bronze.

Long Di nodded upon seeing this, “It’s already well on its way to becoming medial grade. Not bad.”

Jia Yan’s cultivation speed was indeed incredible. His cultivation base was not only stabilised, but he even took it one step further and slightly improved‌ its grade in the short time he and Long Di had been apart.

However, this was to be expected. After all, Jia Yan was a genius with a natural Zhong-level Earth-grade physique. In addition, he was using the casting cauldron pills, whose medicinal energy was still in his body. Combined with the fact that he was cultivating in one of, if not the best, cavern atop Cavern Flame Mountain whilst practising a flame-based cultivation method, it would be strange if his cultivation method was slow even with such a low-level cultivation method.

“I wish I could stay here for longer, but the flames in the caverns have all gone out. But I guess that means you must have located and got the Earth Flame then, right?” his smile turned rueful, communicating his dejection.

Long Di nodded and demonstrated it the same way he did for Shen Ling, shocking all the others.

“This physique of yours is incredible,” Yaomu Shou admitted.

Everyone nodded to show their agreement at her words.

“Well, until I take advantage of it fully, it’ll only be a glorified storage ring,” Long Di advised with little care. “But thank you all the same.”

“Now on to more important business,” Long Di turned his attention towards Yaomu Shou.

“What?” Yaomu Shou was wary as she didn’t have good memories of Long Di focusing on her like this.

“What’s going on with the mist in the sky?” he asked something everyone here wanted to know.

“Oh, that?” Yaomu Shou closed her eyes, trying to recall what she learned from her studies.

“Ah, right!” her eyes flashed with enlightenment. “It’s called the Spiritual Bingqi Realm.”

Long Di cocked his head to the side. “Spiritual Bin… it’s a realm for weapons?”

“Well yes and no,” Yaomu Shou half agreed. “It’s a realm that opens very rarely once the spiritual energy in the atmosphere reaches a certain level of saturation.”

“Oh, what’s inside?” Long Di asked, a bit curious about the whole thing.

“Well, I’ve never seen it myself, but I heard it’s a massive plain with powerful weapons strewn about,” Yaomu Shou explained.

“You have a realm for getting weapons? Seems pretty convenient if you ask me,” Long Di commented. “Next, are you gonna tell me that there’s a realm for black forest cake?”

Yaomu Shou didn’t pay attention to Long Di’s sarcasm and went on, “In addition to having powerful weapons, I heard there are martial techniques as well.”

Suddenly, the void opened up and Wan Li walked up to Yaomu Sho, “Young miss, would you like us to transport you to the Spiritual Bingqi Realm once it opens?”

“I thought you weren’t allowed to help her,” Long Di at the side pointed out.

Counting on his fingers, he listed out what they went through. “I mean, she had to go in a dark place while I was subduing the Earth flame. Serial rapist Pandas also descended upon us with all the lust of a rabid rabbit. Then there was the stone beetle, the Shidashi Mao, the two idiots from the Temple. Did you see that earth demon, that was pretty freaky… I mean, there was a lot of stuff.”

“The truth is…” Yaomu Shou clumsily played with her fingers as she spoke. “I kind of, in a way, maybe, probably ran away from home.”

Long Di’s gaze went strange as he looked at her, “Are you perchance bored by the life you’ve lived and yearn for freedom, thus resulting in you running away to experience that which you never had the chance to but you were always found because of your importance and they eventually allowed you to run away but under the condition that you would receive no assistance from your family unless your life was in danger at which point you would receive said assistance but it would also end with you bring forcibly brought back home?”

Yaomu Shou and Ban Yan stared wide-eyed at Long Di. He was right! From beginning to end! He didn’t get a thing wrong. It was both impressive and creepy.

Ban Yan couldn’t help asking, “H-How did you kno-”

“It’s a tale as old as time,” Long Di answered.

“R-Right…” Ban Yan truly didn’t know what to make of this.

Yaomu Shou recovered much faster. After all, she was exposed to more Long Di than most people. Immunity, or at least limited resistance, was only a matter of time.

Turning her attention to her second uncle, she answered, “In response to your first question, I accept. You can take us there upon its opening.”

“Understood,” Ban Yan gave a small smile and executed a slight bow before retreating ‌into the void.

Yaomu Shou watched until he fully disappeared and sighed, “Looks like we have a ride.”

“Do they just hang out in the void all day? What do they even do in there?” Long Di was always fascinated by the ‘void’ even in the novels he read.

It dawned on him that MCs never utilised the void like the antagonists did. He was gonna spam the void button like the spammers did in Street Fighter.

“Uhm, we should probably leave,” Yaomu Shou advised, not answering Long Di’s question.

“The Iron Body Forge Sect?” Long Di asked.

“The Iron Body Forge Sect,” Yaomu Shou answered with a nod.

“Gotcha. Lord Whiskers, let’s get out of here.”

Lord Whiskers had long returned to having its ear scratched by Shen Ling while asleep. It was certainly living its best life.

This was evident by the fact that it opened its eyes to look at Long Di before closing them once more.

“Shen Ling, can you not scratch his ears anymore?” Long Di knew why it was acting this.

Upon feeling its source vanish, Lord Whiskers glared at Long Di with its killing intent on the verge of bursting out.

“Don’t give me that look. We need to have an understanding here. We’ll make you feel like you’re the only cat in the world, but at the same time, there has to be a bit of a give and take in this relationship.” Long Di didn’t want Lord Whiskers to reach the point of wanting to take and never give.

“Sniff.”

Lord Whiskers snorted before getting up. Its massive frame walked over to Long Di and stared him down, while the latter did the same.

After a while, Lord Whiskers gave a very human smile and walked right past.

Long Di shook his head and commented to himself, “Cats…”

He then signalled to everyone else to embark so they could get a move on.

After everyone got on Lord Whiskers, they all took off at an incredible speed, leaving Cavern Flame Mountain.

One month later…

Boom!

The collapsing and turbulent spiritual energy coalescing above suddenly exploded!

Yaomu Shou shot to her feet, “It’s open!”

Long Di and Jia Yan, who had been cultivating this entire month with the help of the Crimson Horizon Flame, opened their eyes to see a stunning sight.