“Stop!”

It was too late as the moon and the stars vanished without warning, plunging the landscape into even deeper darkness, prompting Long Di to look up only to find a whole mountain falling from the sky.

****

Long Di leapt from Lord Whiskers and used his powerful spiritual force to send it and the others flying away from the range of the falling mountain.

“Long Di!”

Shen Ling screamed when she saw that Long Di spirited them away from danger, leaving himself to fend off whatever it is that was the cause of all this alone.

D-D-D-D-Dum!

Several detonations went off that signalled the emergence of his cauldrons. Five of them crackled with lightning as they sported star cores of powerful tribulation lightning energy.

Krrrsh!

He unsheathed his Thunder Dragon Rhino Sabre and imbued it with his spiritual qi, causing its lightning power to increase to new heights!

The air exploded all around him as his power erupted and the light of the lightning lit up the terrain for miles all around.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Thunder boomed as the white light of the lightning made him appear like a beacon within this land of darkness.

Ksh! Ksh! Ksh! Ksh! Ksh!

An army of lightning spears materialised all around him in an instant before they fired off towards the mountain.

B-B-B-B-Boom!

A series of explosions went off as the lightning spears crashed into the mountain, causing huge chunks of the thing to fall off all around him!

He made sure to aim the attacks all at one spot to create a weak spot he could exploit.

Vrrrm!

A soft glow further intensified the sabre’s power as sabre intent suffused it!

Not letting up, he jumped towards the gaping pit he dug out with his weapon in hand.

His spiritual energy spiked as he brought his sabre up for an overhead slash!

‘Earth Severance!’

Bang!

As the sabre landed on the gouged-out cavity, his spiritual qi travelled a set path through his body and into the blade causing it to tremble. At the same time, a resounding crack rang out that ran through the midst of the mountain in an instant!

Rumble!

The mountain shook as its structural integrity was devastated, causing the whole thing to fall apart.

As this took place, massive blocks of rock rained down over the landscape like meteors!

Shen Ling and the others stared with clenched hearts at everything that was happening. How the heck did this happen out of nowhere!?

Shu! Shu!

Long Di darted from the larger pieces to avoid being crushed before his senses blared once again!

He looked down to see a large rock careening towards him, blasting the smaller boulders apart!

Ksh! Ksh! Ksh! Ksh!

B-B-B-B-Bam!

Another wave of lightning spears materialised before bombarding the boulder into nothingness!

Long Di finally fell to the ground and took a good look at his mysterious assailant.

It was an enormous ape that was honestly smaller than the bear Lord Whiskers fought before.

Still, it stood at an impressive twenty-two feet and its fur was a blackish red that covered it from head to toe. The wind gently stirred it, but this made it seem like a sea of flowing blood and a faint stench of the same lingered in the air.

Its arms dragged on the ground due to them being overly long. Black fingernails at the end resembled poisonous daggers and were indeed no less dangerous for it.

In addition, monstrous strength that proved itself earlier lay abundant within its muscles that were present all over its body. A huge fang jutted out from its mouth and curved upwards while the other, though present, appeared broken, most likely due to some past battle.

Pebble-sized eyes that were pitch black stared at him. Though the eyes appeared soulless, the bestial aura this thing radiated highlighted its wild nature.

All of these features came together in one beast and one beast alone.

“Blood Drinking Devil Ape,” whispered Long Di to himself.

Suddenly, the Blood Drinking Devil Ape roared and beat on its chest as if Long Di had touched its reverse scale!

“Tch! I forgot the Blood Drinking Devil Ape’s territorial tendencies.”

Long Di had read that the Blood Drinking Devil Ape was a magical beast that considered a large part of any given area as a part of its territory.

In addition, it was extremely territorial and, as its senses could cover what it considered its own territory, once that area was invaded by anyone or anything, it would immediately attack, no questions asked.

Adding on that Lord Whiskers’s killing intent could be felt from miles away, it took the only action that seemed reasonable for defending itself.

Long Di looked behind it and saw a tall tree around forty metres high that bore around a quarter dozen spiked black fruits that had black mist swirling around them.

“Must be the light shroud evil durians.”

“Seems like it.”

Long Di turned to look at his shoulder in surprise and saw Pebbles just sitting there.

“You were there the entire time?” Long Di didn’t even notice that Pebbles was there!

“Nope… I just arrived.” Pebbles said dis-interestingly. “By the way, I can’t help you this time. The old lizard said that for me to accompany you means that certain conditions have to be laid down.”

Long Di shrugged. “I guess that explains why you didn’t make a move to help Lord Whiskers earlier.”

“That’s right.”

Hearing this, Long Di understood, but still said. “Just make sure to tell me something like this in advance.”

“Sorry about that,” Pebbles apologised.

When the Blood Drinking Devil Ape saw Long Di and Pebbles the Wondercat eyeing its light shroud evil durians it let out another deafening roar before it charged at them!

Krrrsh!

Long Di didn’t shy away from it and instead raised his sabre high, causing lightning to fly all over!

The Blood Drinking Devil Ape stabbed towards Long Di with its dagger-like ungues!

The void broke down along the path it travelled, allowing Long Di to see what level of power this creature reached.

“Rank 6?”

Long Di immediately felt the power of this magical beast, learning that it stood at a greater level of power than even Lord Whiskers at this point.

Bam!

The ungues smashed into the side of Long Di’s sabre! The strength behind it caused the ground under his feet to splinter and explode!

“Yet, you were still afraid of Lord Whiskers’s killing intent. Aren’t you embarrassed?”

The Blood Drinking Devil Ape’s eyes narrowed at Long Di’s words as if it understood him and felt the triggering sting of those words.

“Roar!!”

A punch from a strange angle barrelled towards Long Di before it struck him in the jaw, snapping his neck to the side before it sent him flying!

Boom!

Long Di crashed into a faraway boulder with a resounding crash. As he stood, blood drained from his face profusely.

That one blow from it severely injured him.

“Seems that info about its raw strength being what’s above its rank wasn’t a lie.” He said as he leaned on his sabre.

Magical beasts were existences that not anyone could afford due to them possessing strength in one or more aspects that were above their human counterparts.

So, even though rank 6 magical beasts were equal to martial grandmasters in aura and capabilities, most magical beasts had other traits they specialised in that far outclassed the martial grandmaster realm.

For the Blood Drinking Devil Ape, that aspect of it that stood at the peak or even exceeded the martial grandmaster realm was its raw strength.

The only reason Long Di only came out of it with serious injuries was because he had focused the entirety of his qi armour to his face at the last second to maximise its defensive capabilities.

“Those arms are causing me a bit of a problem in predicting its next moves.”

Long Di looked at its arms that were longer than his entire body several times over.

“Quite true,” Pebbles admitted. “Want me to release my draconic aura for ya?”

Long Di looked at him oddly. “I thought you couldn’t help me.”

Pebbles nodded. “True. But I live to disobey that old lizard. I want to see how he forces me to go back when I threaten him with my mother.”

Long Di rubbed Pebbles’s ears, causing him to purr, “Thanks but no. I’ll try to overcome this on my own. All I have to do is avoid its punch as best as I can.”

Saying this Long Di decided to get serious.

Initiate Divine Heavens True Autocratic Passage!

Boom!

Long Di’s aura exploded as he formally ran his cultivation technique in battle for the first time since its approval was wrested from the Heavens!

A collection of white clouds materialised behind him before a huge crack appeared in the middle where Long Di stood before it.

Kr-Krrssh!

Devastating tribulation lightning swam within these clouds while they crackled even more furiously between the crack. Within it was like a sea, nay, a world of tribulation lightning!

This crack was the passage that only the autarch was qualified to walk through. As Long Di stood before it, this symbolised his ownership of this passage that was his to traverse!

As divine ivoric calamity lightning engulfed Long Di’s body, the space around him exploded as a result.

His eyes spewed lightning, making him seem like a divine immortal come from a land of lightning to cast judgement on unworthy mortals.

The Blood Drinking Devil Ape took a step back in fear at Long Di’s current state.

Pebbles was still on Long Di’s shoulder even now, mostly untroubled by the lightning since he was at the initial stages of the seventh rank. Still, he could feel the power of the lightning as it lashed away at his red scales.

“Long Di is so badass right now. Suck it Long Zhe!”

Shu!

Lord Whiskers appeared at this moment, but Mina, Shen Ling, and the others were oddly absent.

Its face was twisted into a scowl as he stared at the Blood Drinking Devil Ape, wishing to rip it to pieces.

“Are they safe!?” Long Di’s voice boomed as he addressed Lord Whiskers.

“Leave it to me!” Pebbles stated as he disappeared from Long Di’s shoulders, shooting past Lord Whiskers to where the others were.

Seeing this, Long Di no longer worried about the others’ safety. He knew that no matter what Long Zhe did or said, Pebbles would never let anything happen to his friends.

Bam!

Long Di shot off towards the Blood Drinking Devil Ape with the manifestation of his Divine Heavens True Autocratic Passage thundering behind him!

The ground exploded under the impact of his charge, and Lord Whiskers joined him as well. Its killing intent roared as it disregarded the Blood Drinking Devil Ape’s strength that dwarfed its own.

Thunder boomed as Long Di let loose a slash compounded with ivoric calamity lightning!

The slash smashed into the Blood Drinking Devil Ape’s chest, wounding it for the first time!

Anger and a personal ignominy filled it and it swiped at Long Di, wishing to use its claws to rip him to ribbons!

The air parted under its passage as its claws flashed an ominous glint!

Ching!

Long Di deflected its strike to the side using the side of his sabre. He couldn’t handle another direct strike from this thing.

Its strength was too scary!

Shu!

Lord Whiskers orbited the Blood Drinking Devil Ape at insane speeds and unleashed a flurry of bites, claw strikes and all else, but all it got for it was superficial wounds that were a far cry from what Long Di was able to levy.

Seeing this, it grew impatient and stuck in some places for longer, trying to deepen the impact of its strikes.

The Ape flailed around angrily until one of its waves struck Lord Whiskers, sending it flying!

Long Di took advantage of this short opening and unleashed another slash across the Blood Drinking Devil Ape’s back.

The roar it released as a result was proof that this wasn’t a light injury.

Lord Whiskers used its claws to slow its forceful retreat. An expression of pain appeared on its face due to one or more broken bones that wayward blow inflicted.

Nevertheless, it charged in once more, but this time it used its claws to dig into the wound that Long Di caused, drawing a roar of pain from the magical beast!

Vhwoosh!

The Blood Drinking Devil Ape’s killing intent surged and a powerful aura exploded from it as a result!

Its muscles bulged and tensed, especially in the chest where Long Di and Lord Whiskers attacked.

“!”

Lord Whiskers sensed danger and tried to back off but couldn’t move due to the tensed muscles gripping its claws!

The Blood Drinking Devil Ape took advantage and grabbed Lord Whiskers directly.

Crack!

The sound of cracking bone rang out almost immediately as the Blood Drinking Devil Ape sought to crush the shidashi mao without a second thought.

“Lord Whiskers!”