Long Di let go of the sabre, allowing it to fall to the ground blade first.

Shu…

It pierced the ground with the blade halfway buried.

****

“Is he crazy!?”

“W-What is he doing!?”

The experts present couldn’t understand why Long Di let go of such a powerful spiritual artefact!

It was obvious at a glance that its power was far from simple.

They believed that Long Di was being way too arrogant, either that or crazy.

Top experts like Jixie Wudongyuzhong, Er Jinshu, and the Noble Attendant, on the other hand, narrowed their eyes at Long Di’s decision.

Naturally, they didn’t think that Long Di was crazy or arrogant, but surely Long Di couldn’t be thinking of fighting a demon in hand-to-hand combat, right?

The majority of demons fought with somatic essence. This rendered them hand-to-hand combat experts from a young age.

Even if a human did cultivate somatic essence, this was normally not the first choice and as a result, their hand-to-hand combat capabilities always fell short.

To make matters worse, Xue Zi was using a weapon, so this would be hand-to-spear combat. That was way less catchy and gave him no advantage. So no one else could see the logic in Long Di’s decision.

Xue Zi eyed where Long Di’s family jewels would be and gave his spear a vicious thrust in that direction!

Long Di saw this and tightened his fist. “Y’kno. An eye for an eye in that respect won’t make us blind. But it’ll sure as hell will make us extinct. What say you let bygones be bygones?”

“Bygones!? You did that a few seconds ago!” Xue Zi roared, his spear en route to destroy Long Di’s ‘spear!’

“Still falls under the class of bygones if you ask me,” Long Di retorted.

“Die for me!” Xue Zi’s rage reached an all-time high.

“Much like your reproductive capabilities?” Long Di shot back.

“Aaaaahh!” Xue Zi couldn’t bother to engage this devil spawn in verbal barbs anymore.

“Fertility be upon you,” Long Di stated before he got a bit serious himself.

D-D-Dum!

None black crystalline cauldrons exploded to life, radiating unmatched pressure!

Powerful somatic essence filled his body as he ran the Foundation Forge Body Tempering Art!

Not to mention the normal experts like, or even the top experts, even the Noble Attendant was shaken by Long Di’s cauldrons.

“T-Those cauldrons! T-They can’t be!” Her expression went stiff with shock.

Xue Zi went wide-eyed with panic. What was this pressure!?

As the spear was mere inches from Long Di’s body, his arms wound around the spear like a snake, pulling it behind him before a punch smashed into Xue Zi’s face!

“Ack!”

Teeth and blood flew from Xue Zi’s mouth when a hand grabbed his neck before he could be knocked back!

Xue Zi stared at Long Di in horror, “W-What are you doing!?”

Pu Ci!

“Gah!”

To answer his question, a fist buried itself into Xue Zi’s midsection causing him to cough up another blood bank's worth of blood.

“Stop!”

Er Jinshu couldn’t allow Xue Zi to die. Though the Blood Crypt Sect wasn’t an alchemy organization, they were the only ones able to create and provide the pill that had the best effects required to circumvent the side effects of the Iron Body Forge Sect’s cultivation technique.

He rushed over to save him when a sword light raced towards him, forcing him to defend himself against it.

“Yaomu Shou!” Er Jinshu’s anger flared when he realised who it was that stood in his way.

“I’ve long been interested in the Iron Body Forge Sect’s techniques. Why don’t you accompany me for a bit?” Yaomu Shou said sweetly.

Er Jinshu’s expression darkened. He knew she was using his earlier words against him.

“Long Di! Let him go or I’ll have you suffer a fate worse than death!”

Long Di looked at him for a few seconds before turning his attention back to Xue Zi. “I’m trying to care less and I’m finding it difficult. Could you help me out?”

Er Jinshu’s rage peaked when Long Di dared to mock him. “You…!”

“Ah!

Er Jinshu’s words were drowned out by Xue Zi’s screams when Long Di attempted to rip wrest Xue Zi’s spear from him only for him to dislocate Xue Zi’s shoulder instead.

“Well, you are just holding on to that spear for dear life aren’t you?”

“Long Di!” Er Jinshu had never before faced such disdain.

Jixie Wudongyuzhong sneered when he saw this. The more and more he looked at this Long Di, the more he found him pleasing to the eyes.

“Goodbye Xue Zi,” Long Di said indifferently.

“Hehehe…”

Held aloft by his neck, Xue Zi weakly looked back at Long Di and released a weak laugh.

The senses of his cultivation technique alarmed him and he tightened his grip around Xue Zi’s neck when the dots on the latter’s body sent a red line to the spear that drove veins of red energy down the length of it that made contact where Long Di grabbed it.

The veins then made contact with the blood on Long Di’s hand from where he felt his face earlier.

The veins, as if being rejuvenated, spread all over his body in an instant!

He could feel some strange force trying to invade his body. The temple wound he suffered made it much easier for this force to perfuse his body as well.

Long Di could sense great danger from these blood veins, and knew he couldn’t let his guard down before it!

“Hehehe! Blood Qi Discharge is an ability of our Blood Crypt Sect!” Xue Zi could speak now due to Long Di’s grip weakening. “Once it invades your body, I’ll be able to manipulate the flow of blood inside your body!”

This was the same ability Xue Zi used against the sable armoured mountain centipede.

To Xue Zi’s surprise, however, Long Di was able to resist the invasion of the ability for so long.

“What the-”

Soon Xue Zi realised that his rate of driving the blood qi discharge forward was much weaker compared to when he used it against the sable armoured mountain centipede.

Sure, it spread quickly when it touched Long Di’s blood, but it was an ability that activated due to blood, so this was normal. However, for the rate of progress to pause this much was something he had never encountered.

Then he eyed the cauldrons behind Long Di. The pressure they exuded slowed the circulation of his somatic essence to almost a complete stop!

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a sword light came speeding towards Long Di’s neck!

“Zhen Song!” Xue Zi cried out.

That’s right, it was Zhen Song who made a sneak attack while Long Di was tied up trying to drive back the blood qi discharge.

Shu! Shu! Shu! Shu!

Pu Ci!

“Ah! Aaaah! Aaaaaaaahhh!”

A silver streak cut through the air faster than anyone could react before a geyser of blood erupted followed by a wailing scream!

Two arms fell to the ground with a thud as Zhen Song stared in shock at his arms that were gone below the elbow.

Xue Zi stared in horror at the silver sabre that Long Di had put aside before now floating in place beside his neck. Lightning flashed from it in waves, but some type of force was keeping that lightning from touching him.

Xue Zi was beyond terrified, “H-How are you able to-”

“Spiritual force.” Long Di indifferently answered, before with just a thought he compelled the sabre to spin in a flash, placing Xue Zi’s head and his body in a long-distance relationship.

His head fell to the ground and rolled right beside Zhen Song who paled, even more, when he saw the lifeless eyes of Xue Zi.

Long Di who was now free of Xue Zi’s blood qi discharge apathetically looked at Zhen Song who now stared back at him dumbfounded.

The sabre simply flew through the air before it came down and wrecked the relationship between Zhen Shong’s head and his body. It was truly a home-wrecker of the highest degree.

These two deaths caused a deathly pall to settle over the venue.

Long Di now made his way towards Yaomu Qiang with a measured pace.

Yaomu Qiang stood there calmly with hands behind him like a heavenly judge looking down at a lowly criminal for whom the guilty verdict was passed.

A shout then broke the silence like a crack of thunder. “All Iron Body Forge Sect disciples, heed my order! Kill Long Di and extract the spiritual vein root from his body!”

Jinzi Buxia nodded at Er Jinshu when the latter said this. No words needed to be said between these two.

“Everyone, with me!” Jinzi Buxia assumed the lead and took off in a dead run towards Long Di!

Currently, one-hundred-something cultivators that were at the two core and three core realms rushed to swarm and overwhelm Long Di with their numbers.

Their bodies glowed silver while a golden colour shone conspicuously at the front!

“Long Di!” Yaomu Shou was a bit worried. Their numbers truly did look a bit scary.

Yet all he did was look back at her and said, “Don’t let him pass. Kill him if you must.”

“Wha-”

Before she could understand what he meant, he took off in a dead run of his own towards the oncoming horde!

Er Jinshu sneered when he saw this. Each of those disciples were silver body cultivators! Their combat prowess was not something someone like Long Di could imagine!

In an instant, they were upon each other, and Jinzi Buxia took the first attack!

A devastating punch tore through the air towards Long Di who dodged it, then grabbed the fist before pulling towards him, throwing Jinzi Buxia off balance.

He smashed a fist in Jinzi Buxia’s face. Blood, snot, and tears immediately eked out from the pain.

This was even though he had his golden body defences erected.

Before Jinzi Buxia could recover, a kick from Long Di sent him flying from the point of conflict.

Now that he got rid of the only troublesome person. Long Di got to work on everyone else.

“Silver Peak!”

A peak two-core expert brimming with powerful somatic essence and killing intent descended with his palm outstretched!

His palm blazed with silver somatic essence that contained an aura of heaviness!

“Cauldron suppression.”

This simple word was all that Long Di uttered and a powerful pressure spread out for several miles!

The descending silver body expert’s silver peak reached a state of nearly petering out.

Even the experts that were not a part of the battle were affected and had to back off for a fair distance before they could breathe easy. Even Jixie Wudongyuzhong and Er Jinshu facing the others had to move away so as not to be affected by the pressure.

A touch of fear now started to permeate their being.

Long Di was slowly unravelling the cap he held on his power.

His cauldrons spun at insane speeds to furiously drive the circulation of his somatic essence that rumbled throughout his body!

“Ah!”

Bam!

Long Di’s punch landed on that expert, blasting him into a bloody mist!

Er Jinshu’s smile vanished when he saw this. “Oh no!”