The cave twisted into a bend, and when they bent the corner, a stunning sight greeted them.

****

The tunnel opened up into a cavern a hundred metres high and well over a thousand metres wide.

Several underground rivers ran from caves similar to the one they emerged from before they intersected at the centre.

They combined to form a vast lake where a huge whirlpool swirled with a terrifying force.

The power of the whirlpool was so strong that space seemed to warp around it, creating a bizarre sight.

There was no doubt that whoever got caught in the force of this whirlpool would be torn apart!

Plumes of spiritual energy surged from the centre of it, collecting at the top of the cavern where countless medium-grade spiritual stones melded into a giant mass of the stuff.

“Gulp!”

Both Lu Pei and Yaomu Baiyin swallowed their saliva when they saw it. They couldn’t even imagine how much spiritual energy such an amalgamation contained.

“Where is it!?” Yaomu Shou didn’t even spare the mass of medium-grade stones above a second glance.

“What are you looking for?” Lu Pei couldn’t help asking.

Her head animatedly swivelled around before, in an offhanded fashion, she answered, “the spiritual vein root.”

A look of confusion permeated Lu Pei’s face. This wasn’t that unusual, as spiritual vein roots were items that can build sects and empires. Lu Pei wasn’t at a level where such things concerned him.

Yaomu Shou saw this but couldn’t be bothered to answer him. She needed to find this spiritual vein root and fast!

At her wit’s end, she turned around for help, “Long Di, can you-”

Her words stopped abruptly as Long Di had a sole finger up to signify silence from her and everyone else.

He didn’t even look at her. His gaze wandered all over the cavern. It targeted the numerous caves, the amalgamation of spirit stones above, the lake and its whirlpool and then finally the plume of spiritual energy that erupted from it.

After repeating this a few times, he nodded to himself seemingly in understanding.

Shung!

A sabre’s hum rang out as Long Di drew his silver sabre. Its heavy aura weighed greatly on the surrounding area.

Shu!

Before anything could react, Long Di took off in a dead run!

Vrrrm!

He held the sabre out from him, and an aura of destruction unfurled from it.

Krrrsh!

Lightning crackled along the blade as its innate abilities came into play.

As he neared the wall of the cavern, he leapt high and his speed allowed him to scale the length of the wall with ease!

Then, before the shocked gazes of his accomplices, he unleashed several slashes that dug out the base of the amalgamation of spirit stones!

B-B-B-Boom!

Several explosions rang out as rock fragments rained down under Long Di’s assault.

“What is he doing!?”

Both Yaomu Baiyin and Lu Pei hurriedly tried to dodge out of the way of the falling debris, confused by Long Di’s actions.

Yaomu Shou was having a better time than they were but shook her head to signify she didn’t know why, either.

“Don’t question it! He wouldn’t do all this if he didn’t have a good reason for it!” She had more trust in him than the other two and tried her best to calm them down during the chaos.

Boom!

A final explosion echoed out and Long Di came falling down with the entire mass of medium-grade spirit stones in tow!

Shu!

He manoeuvred himself amidst the horde of falling debris and shot himself down to quicken his descent!

Bam!

He landed with a powerful thud, but he wasted no time and snapped his gaze upward.

A flash of light passed through his eyes before the wind kicked up around him as he summoned his spiritual force!

Both Lu Pei and Yaomu Baiyin used their hands to shield their faces from the raging gust.

A flood of spiritual force assaulted the falling amalgamation of spirit stones.

Suddenly, the descent of the spirit stones and the rest of the falling rocks slowed before they came to a full stop.

Dum!

Profound Myriad Heavenseize Physique on!

Krrrsh!

Quasi-divine tribulation lightning erupted from Long Di’s body!

The air exploded under the release of the tempestuous energy, and both Lu Pei and Yaomu Baiyin stared at Long Di in horror!

What kind of monster was this!? Was this the same Long Di they knew!?

The energy he gave off terrified them. They felt the urge to submit before him as if he was the very heavens itself!

Yaomu Shou wore a satisfied smile when she saw their expressions. Long Di was her friend and seeing how his power put other people in awe instilled a strange sense of pride within her.

Especially Lu Pei, since the latter arguably knew Long Di before her.

Whoosh!

Long Di sent a great deal of his spiritual force to wrap around the tribulation lightning.

It ferociously coruscated and whipped all over, but Long Di’s spiritual force bulldozed it into submission.

Before long, a sphere of tribulation lightning covered the amalgamation. Long Di carefully adjusted the intensity of the tribulation lightning covering it. He meticulously laid down layers of his spiritual force into a strange rhythm along with the tribulation lightning.

In less than an incense stick’s worth of time, he stood back and surveyed his work. It was a sphere of lightning that floated ominously in the air. Powerful lightning energy comprised it, engendering a great sense of danger in Yaomu Shou.

The sphere of lightning wasn’t so thick that you couldn’t see through it, but at the same time, it wasn’t so thin that you could see exactly what was inside either.

It painted the contents within in an air of mystery. What was obvious, however, was that whatever was inside teemed with spiritual energy.

Yaomu Shou and the others came up to his side to take a look at his recent creation.

Yaomu Shou cocked her to the side in curiosity at it. “What is this?”

“Bend over,” Long Di requested.

“Come again!?” an intense shade of purple coloured her face as her blush travelled all the way to her ears. Why couldn’t she ever keep up with this guy!?

“Bend over,” he repeated a tad louder, as if that was all that was needed.

“You brute!” Yaomu Baiyin’s face succumbed to the same level of blush as Yaomu Shou's.

Lu Pei silently nodded to himself. ‘Long Di may lack many things, but at least he’s a man.’

“Why are you having Lady Yaomu Shou do something so sha… Lady Yaomu Shou what are you doing!?” blurted Yaomu Baiyin when she saw Yaomu Shou bending over with a resigned expression.

“I’ve just come to accept my fate,” Yaomu Shou said, with all the vigour of someone who’s had the fight taken clean out of them.

She knew that no matter what, Long Di wasn’t going to do something inappropriate… or whatever could be considered inappropriate when Long Di was added to the equation. You’d think the margin of error for that was small, but it was as large as the heavens.

Long Di walked over to her with a “thank you,” before he took her up under his arm like he did not long ago.

It was quite the comical scene to see an eleven-year-old carrying what appeared to be a sixteen-year-old girl in his arm like a burlap sack of chicken feed.

He then looked over his shoulder at Yaomu Baiyin and Lu Pei, causing a chill to run down their spines.

He wouldn’t ask them to do… that? Would he?

However, his next words put them at ease. “Only my friends get this treatment. You can choose to follow, or you can choose to stay. Either way, this place is gonna get busy real fast and whoever gets here won’t be too happy.”

They didn’t know exactly what his words meant, but his tone didn’t speak well of any who stayed behind so they chose to follow him.

He then took up a few stones and flung them at the lake as if testing the power needed for something specific.

When he was done, he motioned for both Lu Pei and Yaomu Baiyin to come closer.

After spending a little time convincing them that he wouldn’t be clutching them under his arm like Yaomu Shou, they came closer.

He needed to tell them his plan.

“We’re going in there?” exclaimed Yaomu Shou after hearing what he said.

Long Di nodded. “Something tells me that what we’re looking for is in there.”

“Then how do we get there?” questioned Lu Pei. “Do we simply swim to it?”

Yaomu Baiyin walked up to the edge of the lake and put her hand in the water. Though the part that she touched appeared still and peaceful, a terrible force in the water tore at her, forcing her to pull her hand back quickly.

As a demon, she had a naturally powerful body, but even then, the force in the water at the outer edges caused her hand to twinge under its assault.

“I don’t think so. The force is so strong at the outer rim. It’s hard to imagine what it’s like at the centre. It’ll tear us apart before we get close.”

“You’re right,” Long Di nodded. “The only way to enter is to dive directly into the eye of the whirlpool.”

Lu Pei wondered, “then how do we get-”

Suddenly, a chill brushed the back of his neck and he turned around to see a leg flying towards him before it landed on his butt!

Bam!

“Aaaah!”

Yaomu Baiyin was shocked at Long Di’s actions and demanded to know what was the meaning of this only for the same thing to befall her as well.

Far off into the distance, two dots fell smack dab in the centre of a huge massive whirlpool.

Yaomu Shou was calm throughout the entire ordeal and thus commented, “the stones you flung before, they were to test the general angle and power you’d need to get something right in the eye of the whirlpool, weren’t they?”

“Yep.”

“You’re going to throw me in there?”

“Friends get better treatment. I’ll keep you right here.”

“Bring it on.”

“Say less.”

Shu!

Long Di shot off with Yaomu Shou. His leap carried him far above the warped space the whirlpool caused.

His perfectly powered and timed leap set him and Yaomu Shou on a trajectory for the eye of the whirlpool. As they fell through, their vision was filled with a bright white light.