“Where have I seen you before?”

Jesus!

****

Shock, cold sweat, urine and faeces. These were the things that increased in quantity this day.

Not just Shen Ling, Mina and the crowd, but even Pebbles was shocked by Long Di’s actions. This was extremely uncharacteristic of him!

Of course, the crowd was shocked because they never thought they would ever see someone crazy enough to come up to Death Armour‌ Archaic Soldier like this.

They were waiting to see Long Di be crushed by it. This would be an appropriate end for someone like him.

Shing!

A black sword ripped through the air, en route to cleave Long Di in two!

Shung!

Long Di used his sabre to parry the strike but kept his grip on Death Armour Archaic Soldier all the same.

The attack he parried earlier landed on the ground blasting the earth apart sending the shockwaves spreading in all directions.

The elders and younger experts were gobsmacked. How powerful was that attack!?

How powerful did Death Armour Archaic Soldier perceive him to be to attack with so much power!?

Curiously, Death Armour Archaic Soldier didn’t attack him anymore and proceeded to walk. Long Di released his grip and watched as Death Armour Archaic Soldier stumblingly advanced.

Whilst everyone held fear and curiosity towards it, Long Di felt only grief, loneliness and loss. He didn’t know why he knew this, but he was sure it was what he felt.

Before long, Death Armour Archaic Soldier had exited the city and everything returned to normal.

Shu! Shu! Shu!

Immediately, several powerful auras descended and surrounded Long Di.

“Report! Who are you!?” The Grand Elder barked. Not just him, everyone needed answers for what just happened.

However, Long Di didn’t answer him, in fact, Long Di didn’t even look at him. His gaze and attention were all focused on the direction Death Armour Archaic Soldier left in.

When Grand Elder Jin Ya saw that Long Di didn’t even pay attention to him, his expression darkened.

“You!”

Dum!

A powerful coercive pressure spread out from the Grand Elder and weighed down on Long Di.

Yet Long Di didn’t react to this pressure, prompting a gasp of surprise from the spectators.

But, seeing as how loud he was being, Long Di’s eyes slid in the Grand Elder’s direction, causing his heart to jump wildly in response.

He made sure to keep his composure as he didn’t want others to think he was afraid of Long Di or anything.

“How can I help you?” Long Di asked him. Shen Ling and the others shuddered when they heard it.

It was as inexpressive as ever, but there was something else to it. No… that wasn’t right… there was something less to it.

Long Di’s mind was a myriad of madness and inconsistency. In most cases, he was unfeeling, but to his friends, he wasn’t.

Though he sounded unfeeling, to those who knew him enough, they could pick up on little cues to know otherwise.

This was something that Long Di would never be able to do in the past, Before he entered this world, and before he met his parents, this was something that was beyond him.

He learned how to feel feelings behind the veil of his emotionless veneer. His parents and the love they held for him were responsible for that. This allowed the people closest to him to know he felt more than what he showed externally.

When he was taken from his parents, he didn’t know how to do that with Shen Ling and the others, but time was an adept teacher. He learned this, and eventually learnt to express more emotions, though they were inside more than anything.

This was the first time that they felt such coldness and emptiness in Long Di’s words. It was like he was a shell, far removed from humanity and the emotions they held.

The Grand Elder realised that something was wrong with this child. His eyes were much duller and much more dead than Death Armour Archaic Soldier ever was.

He couldn’t say anything. Or rather, he didn’t know what to say.

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“I’m sorry if I caused you any trouble. I’ll be leaving now.” Long Di gave the Grand Elder a slight bow before he left, leaving him speechless and embarrassed.

By the time Grand Elder Jin Ya regained his senses, Long Di was gone. His face became red with embarrassment, but he couldn’t seek Long Di out to deal with it, at least not now.

The other elders saw that this was the case and immediately spoke up.

“Hmph! That brat came to our Golden Lion Gate and dares to act so presumptuously! Don’t worry grand elder, once he comes to our martial competition, he will surely know what respect is!” One of the elders said.

“He only has a little strength by blocking one move from Death Armour Archaic Soldier and already he thinks he is unrivalled!” The Enforcement Elder added. “The folly of youth in all its splendour!”

The Grand Elder quickly caught on that his fellow elders were giving him a way out so he took it.

“Let’s go! We have important matters to discuss!” He flapped his robes and left with the rest of the elders.

As soon as they left, everyone else dispersed. Long Di and the others parted with Mad Sword Haoran for now, since the latter had to care for Heavenly Sun Noble.

Long Di had Shen Ling book a hotel for him and the others in the city. Since something like gold coins was something they had in spades, they bought a few rooms for themselves so they could sleep alone if they wanted.

The mortal children were also with them.

Long Di was taking a shower, which wasn’t something that cultivators needed to do since their spiritual energy could do the job much better. However, the feeling was soothing, and he didn’t lose anything for it.

As the water collected in his hair, and the coolness of it refreshed his mind; he wondered back to why that thing affected him as much as it did.

‘Thinking about it isn’t gonna give me the answers, unfortunately. I can only leave it to time and hope some light is shed on this soon enough,’ he thought to himself.

He came out of the shower room with a towel over his head drying it and he found Pebbles lying on the couch.

“You’re enjoying yourself.” He said.

“…” Pebbles didn’t say anything and just kept his eyes closed. Long Di didn’t mind.

Pebbles was a cat… well… at heart… and as such, he exhibited cat tendencies. Even though he could talk, he still had cat moods.

Long Di was used to this and went to sit down on the couch beside him. He then started to pet him, which drew a wave of purring from the latter.

Bam, bam, bam.

Suddenly, a knock came at the door.*

“Hmmm?” He wasn’t expecting anyone at the moment, so he got up and went for the door.

He opened it to reveal Sun Zixin.

“What’s going on?” He asked him.

“I wanted to ask you to accompany me when I go to drop off the light shroud evil durian with the Golden Lion Gate disciple tomorrow. Is that okay?”

“Don’t want to get jumped again, ammi right?”

Sun Zixin was confused by the term. “I’m sorry… jumped?”

Long Di rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I had never known that being ignorant of popular terms and teen slang would make conversation such a chore at times.”

A shout from inside the room replied to him. “It’s not lit is it!?”

“Would you stop? That just sounds weird coming from you.” Long Di shouted back in the room.

He then turned back to Sun Zixin. “You got it.”

Sun Zixin smiled and bowed to Long Di before running off.

Long Di looked as he retreated. He was clean and his hair was washed as well. It seems he was using the amenities of the hotel to the fullest.

He stood there for a while before he went back inside and started to put on his robes.

“Where you going?” Pebbles opened his eyes to eye Long Di getting ready for something.

“Wanna see how I cultivate my physical body?” Long Di asked him.

“Do I!? This should be lit AF!”

Long Di groaned when he heard this. “If there is one thing I regret in my lives, it's that I introduced you to the internet’s comment section.”

“Oh, come on. You know me… I’m Gucci! Hahahahahahaahaa!” Pebbles nearly turned over and fell off the couch from laughing so hard.

“You humans and your slangs are hilarious!” His laughter deprived him of air for a good five minutes.

Long Di left the room without him and closed the door, shaking his head. He had no idea how much he missed Pebbles if there were no times like these. That cat was his other half.

His chaotic neutral just went with Pebbles’s chaotic evil like peanut butter and jelly.

“I need to get stronger so I can make this arrangement permanent,’ he said to himself.

As he walked down the hallway, one of the doors opened to reveal Violet Flame Noble.

He looked much better than before. His skin was still a little pale, but the wrinkles were all gone!

He was extremely handsome. His eyes were sharp with sword-like eyes brows. His hair was also let down freely, and it reached the middle of his back.

That pill he used must have been extremely valuable and high-grade as well.

The latter bowed and spoke. “Young noble should I accompany you?”

“I have no problem with it. I figure spending time with you isn’t bad and I may need assistance.” Long Di agreed.

Shu!

As soon as he arrived outside, Lord Whiskers came up beside them.

“Hey.” Long Di greeted him.

“Meow.”

Long Di shrugged his shoulders. “Well, I didn’t know they had a no-pet policy. This was the best hotel in the city, and Mina and Shen Ling wanted to give the kids a night of luxury. What can I do?”

“Nyargh!” Lord Whiskers replied.

“I’m not capping. Where did you even learn that term from? Pebbles is a bad influence on you.”

Violet Flame Noble took a good look at Lord Whiskers, and a bad premonition welled within him.

Y-Young Noble, is that a-”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s a shidashi mao. Look I’m gonna save the word count here and allow you to get over it in your mind. Just follow along.”

It was still night by now, or about as much as night as 3:00 AM is to anyone else, and they located a spot a few miles from the city.

Boom!

A giant rusty portable forge appeared out of nowhere, shocking Violet Flame Noble. He had never seen such a thing before.

What was Long Di going to do with this?