“Good to hear, because you’ll die trying.”

  “What!?”

  ****

  P-P-P-P-Pa.

  When everyone heard what Long Di said, several foreheads received a palm-themed punishment for a crime they did not commit.

  For those who were spared this fate, shock and anger took hold in an instant. It was obvious at a glance who reacted in what way.

  Sun Zixin responded coldly, “Esteemed immortal, it is good to know that not all those who are powerful are cruel and that not all strong bully the weak. However, even we weaklings have pride and do not accept such blatant insults. We can part ways here. Good fortune on you and your journey.”

  “Hold on, he didn’t mean it that way!” Shen Ling made a move to stop them, as she was sure this was all a misunderstanding.

  Sun Zixin bowed to Shen Ling, saying, “I thank senior sister Shen Ling for her kindheartedness, but we really must go.”

  Saying this, he sidestepped Shen Ling and had Sun Mei relieve her of Sun Kai before going on their way.

  “You really will die.”

  Hearing Long Di’s callous words again caused Sun Kai and even Sun Mei’s expression to darken.

  Before they could shrug it off and continue, Xiannu Liang’s words stopped them.

  “He’s not lying! You really will die… t-that herb you’re looking for is protected by a particularly vicious magical beast. Why go out of your way for such a thing?”

  When Sun Zixin heard this, his blood froze before he and Sun Mei turned around to see the look of concern on Xiannu Liang’s face or as much of her face as the hood of her cloak would allow.

  “Y-You’re not insulting us because you look down on our dreams and ambitions?” Sun Zixin asked her, still a bit guarded.

  “No.” Xiannu Liang told him.

  “It’s protected by a killer monkey.” Long Di chimed in. “You will literally die trying.”

  Long Di’s version baffled them, so they looked at Xiannu Liang for confirmation of this declaration.

  “H-He’s right,” Xiannu Liang corroborated Long Di’s claim with a shake of her head.

  “So that’s it then.” Sun Zixin slumped to the ground as an expression of defeat overcame him.

  “They were just playing with me!” Sun Zixin punched the ground in vexation.

  “It’s okay, Sun Zixin. We can get by as we always have.” Sun Mei came down and hugged him to comfort him as much as she could.

  “Whoever it is that wanted you to get that thing wanted you to die,” Long Di pointed out. “Are you sure you want to enter such a sect?”

  “What difference does it make?” Sun Zixin expressed. “We thought it was something on the outskirts of the forest that we had to be clever to find it.”

  Long Di heard this and his brow raised ever so higher as a result. “On the outskirts? High levelled magical beasts normally live near the centre of the forest. Wait… do you know how deep you are in the forest?”

  Sun Zixin and Sun Mei looked at him in confusion and then at each before turning back to him with a shake of their head. “N-Not really… We normally gauge where we are based on the environment. There are some harmless rank-one magical beasts that don’t attack humans on the outskirts. As long as we don’t go past their territories, it’s considered safe. We didn’t see any this entire time, so we thought we were still on the periphery.”

  “Pebbles, do me a favour and retract that aura of yours,” requested Long Di.

  “Meow?”

  “Yeah, something tells me these beasts are susceptible to your draconic aura, and it’s causing the entire hierarchy of this forest to be thrown out of whack.”

  Whoosh!

  An unexplainable breath disappeared from the air, followed by a few seconds of silence.

  Not long after this, roars and growls filled the forest all around them while several auras and pressures descended on them from all around.

  Pebbles’s aura wasn’t as overbearing as Long Zhe’s mostly because he wasn’t actively propelling it forward while he was in his current form. However, magical beasts were extremely sensitive to draconic auras, so even though Pebbles wasn’t actively   suppressing them, they still coiled and crouched since they felt Pebbles to be something they couldn’t afford to offend.

  This was what their instinct towards life told them. So as soon as Pebbles fully retracted his aura, this was the result.

  Immediately, the trio trembled as they felt eyes of bloodlust land on them from all around. Sun Kai in particular was on the verge of bursting into tears.

  “W-We’re no longer on the periphery,” dread filled Sun Zixin as soon as he saw this.

  He bashed himself for his foolishness which not only placed himself in danger but his brother and sister as well.

  “That’s an understatement, but you got the gist of it.” Long Di told him, seemingly unbothered by their current predicament.

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  Sun Zixin was no fool. Instantly his gaze landed on the cat-thing Long Di had on his shoulder and realised that this thing wasn’t so simple.

  Simply by retracting its aura, it was able to cause such an effect?

  They heard from cultivators that there were magical beats here that not even they would dare to offend.

  If that was the case, then what was the origin of this thing? How terrifying was it that not even these creatures dared to breathe as long as they knew of its presence!?

  And above all, why did it look like a cat!?

  I mean… it was kinda cute, not gonna lie, but why a cat!?

  They hadn’t even felt it before now.

  “Let’s strike a deal real quick,” Long Di stooped down, so they were at the same height.

  “We’ll help you get that spiritual herb and in return, you’ll show us where the Golden Lion Gate is?” Long Di proffered a deal that he thought was pretty good.

  “You want to join the Golden Lion Gate?”

  This time, it was Sun Mei who spoke. Surprise dotted her features at Long Di’s goal and offer.

  “Something like that…” answered Long Di.

  She looked at Long Di, steeped in shock, as she didn’t hold out much hope for him joining the Golden Lion Gate.

  Long Di was even younger than her and seemed exceedingly… unremarkable to be honest.

  Shen Ling appeared to be a better choice. She seemed ethereal in just about every way. What was even more bizarre was that should she leave their mind at any time, it was almost as if she didn’t exist.

  Finding her was a task and a half in itself, no… that was a lie… it was that they didn’t wish to find her… it was almost like they weren’t supposed to find her. That seemed correct to say.

  She was a mysterious beauty, and they were unable to see through her while they thought she was able to see through them.

  Conversely, Sun Zixin wasn’t thinking that either Long Di or Shen Ling was going to act. In his mind, it was the mysterious scaled cat thing that was going to be taking action.

  “Okay!” He saw his chance from this. “If we succeed, I can join the Golden Lion Gate as an outer court disciple and work my way up! Of course, I’ll show you how to join, but I won’t be able to help you join, so you might have to wait for a few years.”

  “Let me get this straight. They want you to procure a light-shroud evil-durian, and that’s only enough to get you to start as an outer court disciple?” Xiannu Liang spoke up in surprise.

  “Y-Yeah… is something wrong?” Sun Zixin asked. He was a bit doubtful of some things now.

  “No, it’s fine,” Long Di waved to her to remain silent about this. “Let’s do this.”

  “Right!” Sun Zixin clenched his fist with a newly forged resolve. ”Then, where should we go?”

  “Hold on.”

  Whoosh!

  A surge of spiritual force spread out encompassing a region of thousands of metres in an instant!

  Long D’s brow rose in an instant when he saw the scene that lay out before him.

  “What’s wrong?” Pebbles asked, inciting a series of excitedly darting eye movements from the Sun siblings.

  They weren’t paying attention to Pebbles at the moment, so hearing someone who clearly wasn’t Whiskers, Shen Ling or Xiannu Liang put them on guard.

  Of course, Long Di wasn’t paying attention to them and instead answered Pebbles. “It would seem that we’re not just being watched by several magical beasts, but that we’re aptly surrounded. There’s an encirclement created by ‘relatively’ powerful magical beasts at the moment. It shouldn’t be an issue, though. Anyone hungry? I’m hungry… ish.”

  Pebbles, Mina, Shen Ling, Xiannu Liang, Pebbles and even Whiskers shot a look that said, the-hell-did-that-come-from!?

  Grumble!

  Long Di’s eyes shot to the source of this sound and saw the vibrating stomach of the young Sun Kai.

  “You’re hungry too, I see,” Long Di pointed out.

  “Sun Kai is fine!” Surprisingly, it was Sun Kai who spoke with a satisfied smile on his face while both arms were crossed, as if he wanted to hide the hunger that his body was awfully audible about.

  Xiannu Liang and Shen Ling saw this and could feel their heart drop at the sight of it. Sun Kai was obviously a child and as innocent as they come as well, but it seemed that even he was aware of certain things, evident by the way he was quick to hide his hunger instead of crying or fussing about it as children ought to do.

  Even less needed to be said about Sun Zixin and Sun Mei. They held their heads down, refusing to say anything or let the others see their expressions.

  “Uhm, Long Di, I’m kinda hungry,” Shen Ling said all of a sudden before flashing a come-along-with-me look at Xiannu Liang and Mina.

  Mina caught the signal and with the back of her hand on her forehead like a damsel in distress, bellowed, “Oh, OH! Oh, I’m hungry too! Oh, so hungry! Like re-”

  “Reel it in a little,” whispered Mina before she too said to Long Di. “I’m hungry too.”

  Long Di looked at her, Mina, for quite a while before saying, “Okay.”

  Mina actually released a breath of relief that Long Di didn’t assail her blood pressure before a challenge was issued when he said, “You sure do look like you need it.”

  “Screw you!”

  It was getting dark by now, evident by the appearance of the moon and stars. This was good for Long Di since he had long felt that there was something about eating at night that just felt… nice.

  Shen Ling was cultivating, evident by the telltale patch of darkness that was in the corner of their group. Xiannu Liang was also cultivating, betrayed by the cauldrons that rotated behind and around her in an odd fashion.

  It seemed that changes had occurred to her cultivation technique ever since she had advanced to the martial adept stage.

  It was Long Di who told them to cultivate since he wanted them to one, grow stronger and for them to two, eat more of what he wanted them to eat.

  It was no secret that to eat any kind of magical beast, one needed a certain level of strength to eat a certain amount of it lest they incur the very high risk of body explosion.

  The Sun siblings were huddled together by this point and their eyes were plastered on the thing that Long Di was taking care of before them.

  Long Di had constructed another spit roast, but it wasn’t to prepare another magical beast, it was the same Monarch Gale Crow that Long Di had cooked so long ago.

  He simply created another spit to reheat it using the Crimson Horizon Earth flame. As soon as the heat permeated a mouthwatering smell wafted out that caused both Pebbles and Whiskers’s eyes to brighten!

  The Sun siblings weren’t exempted from this and their mouths watered as they watched what they could only describe as a giant chicken being prepared.

  Not even Mina was spared as she looked at it. It was so overpowering that it assuaged the fear the Sun siblings had for the monsters that surrounded them at this moment.

  Speaking of…

  Suddenly, the ground below them shook before a deafening roar broke the silence that had long descended on the small group.

  Long Di whispered, “Lord Whiskers if you’d please? Also, Pebbles, don’t let Lord Whiskers die.”