“Die for me.”

Before anyone could react, a single wrinkly finger landed on Zhen Yong’s forehead and the light in his eyes dimmed and he fell to the ground with a thud.

****

Just like that, Zhen Yong died. A leader of one of the ten grand families died.

When the other leaders and high-ranking officials saw this, they visibly swallowed their saliva in nervousness.

Zhen Yong didn’t even have a chance to resist. He died as quietly and as quickly as stepping on an ant.

These experts looked at this old demon before them with a new level of fear and respect. They had heard of the Grand Preceptor and knew that he was insanely strong, but they had never seen him in action.

As expected, the Grand Preceptor of the Yaomu family was not an existence they could afford to offend.

Copper Seat Tong in particular was shaken by this. The Copper Seat was the one among the demons who stood second in power to the Grand preceptor at the moment and not even this powerful demon could see the bottom line of the Grand Preceptor’s power.

‘I need to inform the higher-ups that we need to remain low-key for as long as possible while we carry out our plans,’ thought the Copper Seat.

The Grand Preceptor stood hunched over on his cane as he deeply inspected Long Di. The latter was wobbling due to the lack of strength he now suffered from.

“Your path will not be easy,” The Grand Preceptor stated.

Long Di shrugged, sending new shockwaves of pain through his body. “To be honest, I never expected it to be. Since you killed Goro’s failing in-law relative back there, should I take that as an indication of you keeping true to your word?”

The Grand Preceptor donned his characteristic smile and tapped his cane on the void.

His voice echoed out all around, “No one shall interfere in this child’s passage out of the Demon Region!”

The expressions of the demons that ambushed Long Di changed. This child was too terrifying and because of the Grand Preceptor, no one could stop him from leaving.

If allowed to grow, there was no doubt that he would become a figure capable of shocking the cultivation world.

They couldn’t stop him in the Demon Region, meaning they could only do so when he is out of the region. Their actions would be greatly suppressed since the different races, and the five major races, in particular, didn’t have the best relationship.

This was now a matter that commanded deeper contemplation from their side.

“Here,” Long Di held out the spatial life ring towards the Grand Preceptor.

When the other demons saw this, their breath caught in their throats, but they didn’t dare to have any ideas about this medium-grade spiritual vein root.

The old demon looked oddly at the spatial life ring before he cast a complicated gaze in Yaomu Shou’s direction.

The young yuan demon embarrassedly looked away and said nothing.

He then eyed the two imperial protectors by her side, which caused the two of them to look down in shame. They were truly led around by the nose by this young miss of theirs.

“Hehehe… these young ones nowadays,” the Grand Preceptor chuckled to himself as he took the spatial life ring from Long Di.

“The yuan family accepts this gift,” the Grand Preceptor stated gracefully.

He then turned to Long Zhe. “I have shown you a shameful side of the demon race. I hope you won’t hold it against me.”

The large dragon snorted, sending a plume of smoke outward. “If I didn’t sense you making a move, I would really look down on you.”

This statement further chilled the spectators. This meant that this Long Zhe remained stationary because he sensed the Grand Preceptor taking action.

This meant there was a great chance of him making a move should they take action against Long Di.

A dragon taking action was vastly different from the Grand Preceptor taking action. The Grand Preceptor only killed the perpetrator, but a dragon in his rage could very well wipe out everyone here barring the Grand Preceptor taking action.

A surge of energy enveloped Long Di and Lord Whisker bringing them to Long Zhe. He opened his claws and inspected the unconscious Lord Whiskers closely.

“Hmph! It seems this creature is close to breaking through. I estimate about a month or so.”

“Really?” Long Di was surprised and glad to hear this.

“Hhmm…” Long Zhe nodded. He then directed his gaze to Long Di. “We will be leaving shortly, so you best try to recover as soon as possible. Not just anyone can enjoy the luxury of having me carry them where they want to go.”

“Long Di!”

A shadow flitted past Long Zhe’s chest before landing in Long Di’s chest with a powerful force!

“Ack!” an ejection of blood from his mouth caused Long Di’s face to pale even further when this happened.

“Long Tian Yan, are you a fool!? Do you want to kill this so-called friend of yours!?” Long Zhe couldn’t fathom the mind of this prince of his.

“S-Sorry Long Di!” Pebbles wasn’t used to the fact of him being able to so easily harm Long Di. Even though he took the shape of a cat, his defences and physical body were shocking and far above the likes of Long Di.

“It’s okay buddy,” Long Di rubbed between the ears of Pebbles, drawing a purr from him.

Long Zhe nearly vomited blood in anger when he saw this. “What are you doing!?”

“Rubbing between his ears.” Long Di calmly answered.

Long Zhe bared his teeth as his draconic aura stirred. “I advise you to cultivate and heal yourself. Cease this humiliating thing before I throw you off.”

This was the prince of the noble dragon race and a human was patting him on the head as if he was some kind of pet!

Plus, they were doing it in front of other races! Had Pebbles no shame!?

Sure, these cowards won’t say anything while he was here, but what about behind closed doors!?

“Tch! Jealous!” Pebbles spat out before he made himself at home and laid down in Long Di’s lap before closing his eyes to sleep.

A soft snore soon escaped the small body signifying that he had truly drifted off into a deep slumber.

Long Zhe was surprised to see this. Nobody was more familiar with Pebbles than him, not even his parents.

In the time he had spent with this insufferable prince of his, he could on one hand count the number of times Long Tian Yan had slept since the start of his training.

In addition, the number of times he had slept was filled with an uneasiness that spoke volumes about the prince’s state of mind.

This was the first time he had seen Long Tian Yan sleep so soundly since… well, ever.

Just who was Long Di that he garnered such trust and comfort from Long Tian Yan?

“My cultivation technique is a bit… intense. It may be best to take Pebbles a tad further from me.’ Long Di whispered.

“His name is Long Tian Yan!” Long Zhe growled.

“So you all call him Virtuous Rock? I guess rocks of great morals are pebbles when you think about it.”

“It means Heaven Flame you cur!” Long Zhe roared.

“I can tell that’s not gonna fly with him, but I digress. Can you remove him for me?” Long Di asked.

“It’s fine. Cultivate as you please.” Long Zhe advised. “You will find it hard to injure him.”

Since Long Di chalked up Long Zhe as being a family member of Pebbles, he shrugged his shoulders and entered a meditative state.

D-D-D-D-Dum!

Nine black crystalline cauldrons materialised with a suffocating pressure behind him.

Arcs of white lightning crackled as they coruscated over the surface of five cauldrons.

At the same time, a white tribulation cloud spanning a range of a couple hundred of metres spread out in all directions above him.

When the experts present saw this, their jaws dropped to the ground in shock. They felt a familiar fluctuation from that cloud. It was the same fluctuation one felt from a tribulation cloud, but how!?

Faint crackles could be heard from within the clouds and it was at this point that even the gaze of the Grand Preceptor and Long Zhe turned grave.

The muffled rumble within the clouds continued to echo out, but apart from this, nothing else took place.

After they realised this was the case, Long Zhe and the Grand Preceptor sighed a breath of relief.

They didn’t even want to imagine the implications of Long Di’s cultivation technique calling down its own tribulation.

However, they were still stunned by the arcs of lightning that Long Di was cultivating. This was true ivoric calamity tribulation lightning!

Its divine nature couldn’t be faked. For someone to be wielding this type of energy was unthinkable. The Grand Preceptor couldn’t even begin to imagine who could match Long Di in the same cultivation realm.

On the other hand, Pebbles was untroubled by the titanic pressure Long Di’s cultivation generated. Not even the arcs that danced all over Long Di’s body troubled him.

“The prince is truly incredible,” the Grand Preceptor praised.

Long Zhe snorted with pride. This was the result of his patience and hard work with Long Di.

“This much is only natural.” Long Zhe replied.

“Which is right.” The Grand Preceptor nodded in agreement before his gaze landed on the ruins of the Blood Crypt Sect.

Only the outer area of the sect was destroyed by the tribulation. The inner area of the sect was still intact.

“Now how shall I handle this?” the Grand Preceptor asked himself.