“Mofang Dao!” Yaomu Shou spat the words out with hatred.

****

That’s right, this was the Mofang Dao that was fighting with the human cultivators from before.

Her dark brown hair was still in disarray, and wounds of varying sizes covered her body.

Even now, there was a ferality to her that couldn’t be hidden.

“Allow me to warn you now. If you harm a single hair on his head, I will cut you down where you stand!” Yaomu Shou’s sword was in her hand and at a moment’s notice, she would explode with her full strength.

The Mofang Dao didn’t say a word and just stared at Yaomu Shou. The blade she held etched closer to Long Di’s neck. Its sharpness wasn’t in question as beads of blood pooled where the blade stroked.

D-D-Dum!

Yaomu Shou’s cauldrons exploded into existence as her somatic essence roared within her body!

The purple sword rang out with a furious clangour before she swung it down!

“Die!”

Whoosh!

A bright sword light raced towards the Mofang Dao!

The latter was shocked that Yaomu Shou truly dared to attack even though she had her friend as a hostage!

Were they not friends? Were they having a lover’s spat!?

Did she need to become their counsellor to help them reconcile their relationship so that the hostage play would work!?

She wasn’t qualified for this! She hadn’t gotten her master’s degree in psychology yet.

While all these thoughts were running through her head, the sword light had already arrived before her and Long Di!

Shu!

Without any choice, she withdrew the blade from his neck and hastily dodged to the side.

Whoosh!

It was too late, however, as due to the hasty dodge the outer edge of the sword light swept by and struck the Mofang Dao’s foot.

“Argh!”

Boom!

The sword light continued onwards before it swallowed Long Di with a thunderous blast!

The Mofang Dao stared down at her leg with a pain-filled grimace.

A section of her leg suffered a terrifying injury as the area below the ankle was nearly torn through.

The whole leg section was hanging on by mainly the skin and more than a few strands of tissue and flesh.

Her face was pale as she stared at her leg. A slow and growing pain battered her body, causing her to grit her teeth in response. The earlier manoeuvre aggravated her earlier injuries, placing her in an even more dangerous situation.

Suddenly, a frightening chill gnawed at the back of her neck, which caused her to reflexively snap her head around.

There stood Yaomu Shou with the tip of the sword mere centimetres from her forehead.

Though fright reigned supreme, anger stood just as prominent on the Mofang Dao’s features.

“To kill your own allies, demons are truly savages!” The Mofang Dao spat out with hate.

Yaomu Shou’s countenance remained cold while her killing intent spiked.

“Ready to die you piece of sh-”

“Now, now, let’s not call each other names…” a voice lazily drifted through the dust cloud Yaomu Shou’s strike kicked up.

The Mofang Dao looked over in shock to see Long Di emerging from the dust mostly undamaged.

Not even his robes were ruffled.

“I don’t know why you insist on putting yourself in dangerous situations!” Yaomu Shou stated with exasperation filling every word.

“I’m more interested in knowing how you knew my physique would have been able to defend against that attack of yours.” Long Di truly wondered if Yaomu Shou’s vision was truly so good.

“Your physique is able to…” Yaomu Shou was just about to explain why she knew Lond Di would be as fine as the day is long when she realised the continued breathing of a certain race.

“Let’s kill this thing first,” saying this she raised the sword and was about to swing it down when a small hand grabbed hold of it.

“What are you doing!?”

Yaomu Shou didn’t know why Long Di was so hellbent on keeping this accursed thing alive.

“You’re probably wondering why I’m so hellbent on keeping this accursed thing alive, right?” Long Di pointed out.

“Y-You… how did you know that!?” Could Long Di read minds now? That was way too specific.

Long Di shrugged. “You have a very expressive face.”

Did expressions reach the level where full sentences and questions could be extrapolated?

This was another realm above hers. Not wanting to acknowledge that Long Di could read her like a book, she soon stated, “Well, the correct phrase is ‘why I am so hellbent on keeping this accursed thing alive?”

“I didn’t say your expression was grammatically correct,” Long Di stated matter-of-factly.

“Screw you!” Yaomu Shou further realised that Long Di loved messing with her. She was sure of it!

“Now… as for you,” Long Di then turned his attention to their long inaudible guest.

The Mofang Dao tensed up when both Long Di and Yaomu Shou returned their attention to her.

“Can you tell me your name?” Long Di asked, addressing the Mofang Dao.

“Grrr!!” She bared her teeth in response with a low guttural growl.

“Tch!” Yaomu Shou scoffed at her before turning back to Long Di. “I told you they were savages!”

The former then turned around to walk away, followed by Long Di who couldn’t care less about how this all ended.

“This is what you get for reaching out all the time! Plus, she just tried to kill you!” Yaomu Shou wasn’t about to let Long Di off for the immediate forgiveness of attempted murder.

He might not care about himself, but she sure as hell did.

Long Di was right behind her as he explained, “There was no killing intent from her. If anything, she just wanted some level of leverage to feel safe.”

Yaomu Shou looked back at him through the corner of her before facing forward with a snort.

“Whatever.”

Seeing them walking away, the Mofang Dao appeared to be engaged in some kind of internal turmoil.

This mental battle reached a head when she looked down. Something was decided, and even then, she struggled to act on it. Her mouth tremblingly opened as her eyes found their back once more.

“Y-Yuanshi Yi…”

Hearing this, they both turned around to see her staring at them warily.

Long Di turned around to face her properly before he cocked his head to the side, still looking at her.

“M-My name is Yuanshi Yi…” this was all she said but nothing more. She didn’t know how to carry on the conversation because she never engaged in what would be considered civil conversation.

“Yuanshi Yi!?” Yaomu Shou sneered. “A race like yours actually has someone with a name like tha-”

“Yaomu Shou.” Long Di cut her off, causing her to cross her hands with a vexed expression.

“Hello, Yuanshi Yi,” Long Di greeted her. “My name is Long Di. How are you doing today?”

She looked straight into Long Di’s eyes, trying to find some inkling of him suddenly attacking her, but she found nothing there. There was no pity, no warmth, no maliciousness, or anything the majority of races would levy upon her.

“I-I’m hurt,” she finally replied.

“So you are.” Long Di observed. He then turned to Yaomu Shou and held his hand out.

Yaomu Shou furrowed her brow in confusion at this. “What?”

Long Di said nothing and held his hand out like a beggar.

“What!?” she really didn’t know how to handle Long Di sometimes.

“Someone is hurt,” he stated calmly.

“So what does that have to do with m-” she paused as she figured out what long Di wanted from her.

“No!”

“Why not?” Long Di wasn’t about to give up.

“What part about kill-on-sight do you not understand? What part about being merciful to one will result in being blacklisted do you not understand!? And now you want me to give medicine to one of them!? Are you mad!?”

Yaomu Shou was right. Long Di wanted her to give one of them a medicinal pill.

“I refuse!” Yaomu Shou made it clear this wasn’t a point she was willing to budge on.

“They’re thieves and impersonators! Frauds of the highest calibre who own nothing for themselves! They’re all the same and this one is no diff-”

“I have never taken another’s techniques for myself!” Yuanshi Yi finally exploded!

“I’ve always hated that innate technique of my race! This is why I separated myself from them! My dream is to change them so we can be accepted once more! I may not have much, but I still have my pride! I have stolen nothing! Say what you will, but call me a thief one more time and I will exchange my life for yours!”

Yaomu Shou was surprised to hear a Mofang Dao speaking this way. She had met many Mofang Daos before and they were all arrogant and living in the days of their past glory.

Most importantly, all of them, without exception, took pride in their ability to mimic and copy the moves of their enemies.

She saw the Mofang Dao’s eyes brimming with righteous indignation as the latter stared her down.

Yaomu Shou went silent here. She wondered about her perception of all the races she knew.

First, there was Long Di who was quite frankly the one and only human she didn’t have an inherent disgust towards. In fact, she quite liked his company despite what it looked like to herself and others.

Now there was a Mofang Dao who appeared to be an outlier among her people.

“I don’t like how you all kill and hunt down another person just because they were born of a certain race. There is something to hate about punishing a son for the sins of their father.”

Long Di’s voice broke the silence as he walked over to the Mofang Dao.

Strangely enough, she didn’t reel back as he came closer to her. He bent down to take a look at her leg.

He reached out to touch the surrounding area of the wound.

Shing!

“Long Di!”

A blade came out of nowhere and was by the side of his neck in an instant!

Yaomu Shou was worried as Yuanshi Yi had him by the neck again!

The difference this time was that a smouldering killing intent could be felt from her.

However, Long Di didn’t pay attention to this. He didn’t even flinch when the blade came to the side of his neck.

Soon, Yuanshi Yi realised he was just trying to see the extent of her injuries and that it didn’t hurt where he touched her.

She was normally repulsed by others touching her. This was because touch normally ended up as a strike to harm or kill. But for some reason, this repulsion didn’t exist with this boy before her.

“This little one did nothing wrong save for, by your words, being born a particular race. Do you hate me?” asked Long Di.

“!”

The Mofang Dao was caught off guard by his question. Nevertheless, she inspected Long Di’s features for a while to better answer his query.

Long Di was absent of any emotion normally found in all living things. Yet his way of touching her was tender and full of care. The juxtaposition was more than jarring, but there was nothing here to hate.

In addition, he could touch her and not have her think he would strike when she least expected it.

“N-No…”

“Great,” Long Di said before standing up.

He held a hand out for her to take. “Why don’t you follow me?”

“Wha-”

“You seek strength to change the fate of yourself and your people. While I aim to reach the apex of this world, you can join me in that. However, there is no free lunch in this world. Though I will fight for you, you will also fight for me. I think you can go far and that all you need is a chance. It’s your choice, but I will never discriminate against you no matter what others say.”

Yuanshi Yi didn’t know why, but she felt boundless confidence in his words and so, as if compelled by some invisible will, she took his hand.