Everyone was caught off guard at the scene!
Feng Yu simply tripped and fell. That was it. But yet, right after that, an explosion of lightning engulfed the two!?
Did little girls explode nowadays!? Did grown women have even more powerful explosions!? What was this world coming to!?
Not only that, there seemed to be a soul-pricking pain that affected everyone as well.
This was the effect of tribulation lightning on cultivators. It was the bane of their existence! This was many times amplified since they weren't expecting this, it may only be Heavenly Levyance tribulation lightning, but their guards being down at this time became their detriment.
Krssh!
'Now Shen Ling!'
Long Di sent a spiritual transmission towards Shen Ling to compel her to act, but she hesitated.
The Bronze Seat wasn't dead, far from it actually. Long Di's plan wasn't necessarily ingenious or anything.
It was a pretty simple plan, with a little common sense sprinkled here and there for good effect.
Basically, Long Di hid tribulation lightning inside Feng Yu through the wound he inflicted on her shoulder.
Of course, his only crime was doing it without consent, but after she chastised him, and he apologised, she did agree to his plans after hearing about him sensing another party's power level in the forest.
So, he had to, in a way, inject tribulation lightning into her body through the wound on her shoulder. The only reason it didn't inflict further bodily harm on her was because he actually used his spiritual force to create something of a barrier to contain it.
Normally, a cultivator's spiritual force and by extension their mind sea would be damaged or even destroyed by tribulation lightning, but Long Di's mind sea was constantly being tempered by the energy due to him cultivating it. So now his spiritual force began to mutate as a result.
Nonetheless, the reason why the bronze helmeted figure was unable to sense it was simply due to Long Di's spiritual force now escaping the realm of normal spiritual force due to said mutation.
So when Feng Yu 'tripped,' he couldn't see anything off about her other than her clumsiness.
So the moment she fell, he brought the energy out of her body and mercilessly released it upon her and the bronze helmeted figure with reckless abandon!
He knew she wouldn't die. After all, he tweaked its destructive power so it could achieve a bit more of a paralysing effect. That's all he wanted, to paralyse the leader of the team.
In addition, when the blast took place, the barrier transformed into a cloak of energy that shielded most of the blast from her.
That way, the real killing blow, hidden inside Shen Ling's body, (yes, there is another one, and this one was inserted without consent as well. See kids, this is why context is important), could be used to severely injure or kill the Bronze Seat.
But did Long Di foresee Shen Ling's hesitance? Could he predict that his attempt at helping her to break out of her shell would actually backfire?
Did he think about the possibility that even at the risk of her friends' lives and, more importantly, HIS life, that she would freeze up causing the split second of paralysis that the Bronze Seat was under to pass putting them all in danger once more?
Yes, yes, he did.
This was a boy that binged hours of anime and manga! He knew all the tropes, all of them!
Even the useless ones like how these novels normally take up space and/or word count for things like exposition and explanations for the character's decision like this one right now!
So under the nose of all the black-clad figures who were still reeling back from the fallout of the explosion, he made his move.
He appeared in a flash by Shen Ling's side with an impassive expression and she stared back at him with a lightly reddened face.
He quickly grabbed the young Abyss Ghost's hand, shaking her out of her hesitation and causing a red blush to burn up her cheeks.
"You are so much more powerful than you let yourself be," he said to her as he tapped her forehead with his finger before he clasped her other hand with his, outstretching both their index fingers as he did so.
In tandem, it was akin to the world's most romantic spirit gun, minus the romance. Yuusuke from YuYu Hakusho would be proud… if he was real.
He used his powerful spiritual force to draw out the tribulation lightning he sealed in her body, which, by the way, was in her index finger, evident by the small wound there.
All this took place in space of a breath, from the moment Long Di spotted Shen Ling's hesitance, to the moment he came to her side and readied himself along with her to attack the Bronze Seat!
"Spirit gu… uh crap. I mean, lightning gu… oh wait. That may be copyrighted too. Fire!"
His hand and hers, with their fingers at the forefront, tore through the light that almost immediately began to die down, aiming for the heart of the Bronze Seat
Pu ci!
"Ack!"
Blood spurted from his chest, causing him to cough up a mouthful of blood, which Long Di promptly dodged to avoid.
'Interesting how other novels, mangas, and manhuas never mentioned how an MC had to look out for those things. Wait, does this mean that other MCs just take it without complaint? Cuz if that's true, that's just nasty.'
As this thought flashed through Long Di's head, the Bronze Seat flew back with grievous injuries.
Boom!
He crashed straight through a tree before smashing into the face of a boulder some distance away!
"Bronze seat!? Y—You kids will pay for this!" One of the figures blurted out as he took one step forward before nearly wobbling over as he held his head. The effect of the tribulation lightning explosion still lingered.
As for the so-called bronze seat, electrical arcs could be seen dancing around the wound every now and again as his body spasmed along with them.
"Tch, he's not dead. That sucks."
He was still impressed by the effect of the attack. This was one of the benefits of tribulation lightning.
It contained great destructive energy and as a result; it was able to tear through even the base defences of a powerful body cultivator's physical body.
Even though he didn't manage to pierce the bronze helmeted figure's heart, which would have killed him. He managed to inject an extremely compressed amount of lightning into his body, which tore up his insides.
"Are you okay?"
Long Di quickly brought Feng Yu closer and took up the sword that the figure dropped when he was attacked.
She nodded to indicate she was fine.
Long Di nodded, relieved that they were fine and that the plan worked. It was a good idea to set up the scheme under cover of the tribulation lightning shield he concocted. This allowed him to do and say what he needed to unimpeded.
"Go and free the others," he ordered.
"What about you?" Shen Ling asked, helping Feng Yu up.
"I'll need to take out the others and get us out of here before Iron man's very troubled step-child gets back up," he stated.
Saying this, the two girls looked over and realised that the black-clad figures were getting ready to rush over once again.
He held up the sword and took up a basic stance. Long Di had minimal sword training that basically included how to hold the sword and how to not cut oneself with it. Seriously, that was it.
'I'll need some more advanced weapons training after this,' he thought to himself.
"D—Don't be afraid, there's only one of him and a group of us!" one black-clad figure who apparently had a slightly higher ranking position than the others spoke, trying to calm everyone, including himself.
Remembering that they were all One Star Core and Two Star Core Martial Masters gave them a bit more courage as they rushed towards him once more.
Holding the sword, Long Di stared at the group shooting towards him.
"To heck with this," he uttered.
Thinking that this was going to be a bit too troublesome, Long Di ditched the sword, which caused the figures en route towards him to be caught off guard.
He pointed his finger towards them in a manner that seemed provoking as he opened his mouth. "Now this may come off the wrong way without any context, so don't hold it against me. However, I'm going to give you all the finger."