He slowly and carefully turned his head to see Death Armour Archaic Soldier, and he nearly shat and pissed on himself at that moment.

He found the gaze of Death Armour Archaic Soldier fixed squarely on him!

****

Its head was in Long Di’s direction, but its gaze was on him. He knew it!

Death Armour Archaic Soldier didn’t have eyes for him to tell. In fact, through the holes in its helmet where the eyes should see through was terrifying darkness.

Yet, despite this, Grand Elder Jin Ya instinctively knew that should he move, this thing would kill him!

He then carefully and very slowly stepped back.

Death Armour Archaic Soldier didn’t move yet Grand Elder Jin Ya inwardly sighed in relief as the killing intent-filled gaze left him.

Nobody dared to move lest they trigger it. They could only hope that this child stopped whatever it was that he was doing, so this walking calamity would leave them!

Grand Elder Jin Ya still felt the fluctuations of energy discharging from where Long Di was and wondered what was going on.

‘I only felt this kind of energy once, and that was when sect master Shi Hao became a martial grandmaster! What is he doing!?’

Despite Grand Elder Jin Ya’s question, the only thing that answered him was a blood-curdling scream that went on, seemingly without end.

Behind the cover of Lord Whiskers Furryback the First, Long Di commanded a stream of lightning to strike Violent Flame Noble’s body.

Violent Flame Noble was on the ground in the lotus position with divine ivoric calamity lightning striking his body mercilessly!

His cries signified the pain he was currently suffering at the moment. As the lightning wrapped around his frame, black smoke rose from his body continuously.

This was what caused Violent Flame Noble to be reacting the way he was. Long Di was using the most direct and brutal method to drive the death energy from Violet Flame Noble’s body.

For those who couldn’t see what was happening, which was everyone outside of Long Di’s group, they could only begin to wonder what kind of pain he was under.

After all, Violet Flame Noble was a supreme genius. A heavenly tribulation would be something that he would encounter eventually. The pain was great, sure, but it was something that cultivators were fated to experience once they got far enough.

For one to scream in pain from the tribulation was something that was quite rare, even for those with low talent. Thus, what Violet Flame Noble was reacting to was both the pain of the tribulation lightning AND the death energy that was being burned out of his body.

Things like death energy, dark qi and so on were of the yin affinity, whilst something on the level of divine ivoric calamity tribulation lightning was a supreme yang force.

In addition, Death Armour Archaic Soldier only retaliated when attacked, so even though Violet Flame Noble had challenged it and lost, he only suffered injuries born from a retaliatory response.

This means the amount of death energy inflicted, though deadly if left on its own, was something that Long Di was able to force out even though it was brutish in its execution.

Long Di commanded a steady output of energy to cleanse Violet Flame Noble’s body. He didn’t dare to release too much lest he accidentally kills Violet Flame Noble.

One must remember that this wasn’t heavenly levyance tribulation lightning, but ivoric calamity. Combined with the fact that Violet Flame Noble was nowhere near the level where he would come in contact with tribulation lightning, one mistake on Long Di’s end would end with Violet Flame Noble’s death.

Long Di himself was thankful for that heavenly execution he survived. It allowed Steely to leave his own reserves of divine lightning energy alone so that he could use it for what he wanted.

The others who were watching from the sidelines couldn’t see what was happening. They didn’t even activate their heavenly gazes in fear that Death Armour Archaic Soldier would sense it and come to tear them a new one.

They weren’t ready for something like that to run their fade just yet.

Long Di finally saw how Violet Flame Noble’s skin was much lighter than it was before. However, it wasn’t pink and supple like how one would expect.

Instead, it was wrinkled and a bit decrepit. Remember, Violet Flame Noble had burned his essence blood to increase the power of his flames when he fought Death Armour Archaic Soldier.

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Because the death energy had already invaded his body by that point, it even caused his flames to exude tendrils of dark energy that the flames couldn’t expel.

Once the dark energy was fully eliminated from his body Long Di could see how Violet Flame Noble immediately calmed down, even though he was still being hammered by the lightning.

The screaming finally stopped, replaced by the visage of determination in Violet Flame Noble’s demeanour. He gritted his teeth to bear the pain the lightning itself brought him even though he was weakened by the expenditure of essence blood.

Shen Ling saw this and stepped forward. “Long Di, you can stop n-”

“Hold on for a sec,” Long Di kept a close eye on him, controlling the level of lighting to make sure he didn’t accidentally kill this prodigy.

He saw faint traces of black sludge pouring from the pores of Violet Flame Noble’s body. Shen Ling and the others saw this and were immediately shocked by it.

‘As I thought.’ Long Di was expecting this. ‘The impurities in his body haven’t been cleansed yet. It’s normally driven from his and most other cultivators’ bodies during their own tribulation. There shouldn’t be anything wrong with getting rid of it ahead of schedule. Hopefully, it also helps him in his path of repairing his vitality before it’s permanently damaged.’

Long Di lowered his hand and dismissed his lightning. Violet Flame Noble didn’t open his eyes. He quietly felt the changes in his body and was inwardly surprised at the difference within.

Even though his body was decrepit-looking, its strength was nearly that of his body when he was youthful. That meant that once his vitality was repaired, the strength of his body would reach new heights.

“Do what you need to do to fix that state of yours.” Long Di’s voice shook him from his rumination.

He saw the expressionless boy staring at him unfeelingly. “You’re no good to me as you are. So forget everything else and fix that.”

Violet Flame Noble simply nodded and took out a red pill that had a metallic smell to it. A look of pain flashed in his eyes before he swallowed it.

Whoosh!

His depleted blood qi surged and a quiet pressure slowly spread from him. Eventually, a pinkness returned to his skin, causing Long Di to nod in admiration.

‘I really need to become an alchemist,’ he thought to himself.

“Hmmm?” He finally noticed that everything was silent… like really silent. He looked all over and saw that Lord Whiskers was still shielding him from everyone’s view and was satisfied.

He peeped over Lord Whisker’s large frame and saw everyone staring daggers at him. He nodded and slowly descended.

“They don’t look happy,” Long Di said to Mina and the others.

However, they didn’t answer him.

“Guys?” He called for them when he saw they remained silent.

“I think they finally noticed that… thing.” Pebbles the Wondercat’s tail gently turned Long Di’s head in the direction of what was looking at him.

Long Di’s brow became a martial grandmaster and took flight when he saw what was looking in his direction.

Obviously, it was Death Armour Archaic Soldier. Shen Ling and the others finally saw it when they were no longer distracted by Violent Flame Noble’s impromptu baptism.

Long Di smacked his lips a few times before saying. “Yep… I refuse.”

Pebbles looked at him quizzically. “What do you mean you refuse?”

“I refuse to acknowledge that this thing is looking at me.” Long Di replied.

“For the love of… is your trauma acting up again? I thought the inept goddess was supposed to fix tha… wait… she is inept so that may be the reason why you’re still mostly jacked up.” Pebbles stroked his chin in rumination.

“One,” Long Di put up his index finger. “You’re the last person I want to hear telling me I’m jacked up. You are jacked-up incarnate. Two.” He raised the other finger. “It’s not trauma. It’s a life choice, sprinkled with a little bit of PTSD.”

“That’s still trauma. Now I may be clinically insane, but birds of a feather of a flock and caw-caw, caw-caw Long Di, your feathers are mentally unruffled.”

Long Di stared at Pebbles for a long time before he finally answered back. “Fine, I won’t say anything.”

“Good enough for me.” Pebbles was okay with this.

Long Di then focused on Dearth Armour Archaic Soldier staring deep into the void-filled sockets that were its eyes.

Now Long Di wasn’t the best at reading people’s expressions due to his socially-malnutritioned diet, but for some reason, he was able to feel something strong from this thing.

It felt both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. There was also a yearning in it as if it was looking into the depths of him to find something in him.

“Do I know you?” Long Di subconsciously asked.

Because the place was so deathly quiet right now, everything that was said by anyone could clearly be heard.

Therefore, when everyone else heard this, their stomachs fell.

Was this brat trying to kill them!?

Did he not know how dangerous this thing was!? Why are you trying to talk to it!?

Where would you have even met?? Your last family reunion!?

Did he think he was another Heavenly Sun Noble!?

Death Armour Archaic Soldier simply stood there, inspecting him deeply.

“Who are you?” Long Di could sense these feelings growing stronger within him.

Vrrrm…

Death Armour Archaic Soldier trembled before it turned around and proceeded to walk its original path causing everyone to sign a relief.

“Wait!”

Long Di caught up to Death Armour Archaic Soldier and held it by its arm.

“Where have I seen you before?”

Jesus!