Whoosh…
The air distorted and the Di Ming eventually disappeared, returning silence to these barren plains once more.
****
"So… this is the human his highness the crown prince took a liking to, eh? Not bad. Well, I guess this is to be expected of the very taboo the crown prince spoke of the day he was born."
Long Qian was talking to herself with a wide grin. One of her fangs that jutted out glinted in the sunlight.
"Hmph!"
This snort caused the dragon race woman's eyes to narrow in displeasure. "The only reason I haven't killed you for being near me is simply because the crown prince advised us to grant you sanctuary. Don't push it and stay with me as if we're friends, I've brought you to where the child is. Now go to him and leave me to my mission."
"Whatever, I'm going to make my way to that idiot and his friend. I can't believe I have to stay in this stupid realm. I used to be a goddess, damn it!" Mina was fuming as she made her way down the craggy mountain.
It was laughably obvious that she was NOT the goddess of climbing down mountains… because she sucked at it.
…
Long Di had already made it quite far away from where the battle took place earlier. He kept looking all around him, his spiritual sense had covered the surrounding area in case he was being followed by someone.
After he realised that no one was after him at the moment, he finally relaxed and let loose a breath of relief.
"Sigh…"
He was reflecting on everything that happened before in a sombre mood.
'How is it possible that I'm caught up in some sort of fate-based karmic entanglement when I wasn't even meant to come to this world?'
He was right to question what he had learned based on what the Spiritual Intent of the Peach Blossom Sage and the Di Ming brought up regarding his involvement in fate's work affecting this world.
This was something that had been in the making for far longer than he had been alive. This was even more amazing when one considered that, up until a few years ago, he had absolutely nothing to do with this world.
"Well, I can't do anything about it now, and there's no use complaining about it either. The Spiritual Intent is right, in this world, strength is the only thing that matters, I can't forget that. I need to work on my cultivation technique, so much happened in the last few hours that it felt like a few weeks went by instead."
As he made his way through this forested part of the valley, he tried to bring himself back to his peak. It didn't make sense to walk around with most of his energy depleted.
Shu!
Suddenly, a few shadows flew from the trees in front of him. Of course, he could see who it was clear as day.
"Long Di! You're alive"
Before Long Di could react, or, to be more accurate, before Long Di could bother to react, Tie Lang rushed up to Long Di with tears in his eyes and held him in a bear hug.
"I can't believe you're not dead." Yaomu Shou walked closer to him with a somewhat surprised look on her face.
"You see, death is only ever fatal once you've died, and I have to have been unalived by anyone so… you know…" Long Di shrugged when he said this as if his near paradoxical statement spoke for itself.
"Why is it that nothing you say ever makes sense?" Yaomu Shou started to rub her nose bridge. She could never assume nor guess where her conversations with Long Di would go.
If one likened conversations with Long Di to a carriage that was to go from point A to point B, then the carriage would careen off course to arrive at Y, then somehow end up at the #7, rendezvous at the % sign before making its way to B which would probably be an 8 in disguise.
"Anyway, Shou Shou, I've done what I need to do, but I don't have much time left. I need to get stronger fast. Is there any way for me to get my hands on a lot of resources by any chance?" Long Di asked Yaomu Shou.
"Sure you don't want to use that favour that you have on me?" Yaomu Shou asked with a mischievous smile.
Shen Ling and Feng Yu came up from behind with the latter eyeing her suspiciously.
Long Di shook his head in refusal. "I'll be straightforward. Anyone who gets the chance to have you owe them a favour and uses it just to get stuff is clinically insane. I'd rather hold on to that and use it when I either have no choice or ideally to its fullest once I get the chance."
Yaomu Shou displayed a wry smile when she heard this. She had come here to find Long Di and use his power to help her in the future, but she ended up owing him instead.
Still, this was good since, in the end, it meant that they would meet again. It gave her the chance to not only repay the favour, but to build even more connections with Long Di.
"Well, though it's rare, there's going to be an auction in Blackstone City in about a month's time." She said after thinking for a while. "It was supposed to be augmented by the findings in the Relic, but since you kind of monopolised that, the rest of the items will be provided by the auction house courtesy of the Qian Dao Sect."
"I'm sorry. Are you trying to tell me that there is a sect that works on the basis of money alone? What is that even like?" Long Di asked, genuinely interested.
"I'll tell you if you come to the auction with me. By the way, how long is that going to continue for?" Yaomu Shou said, pointing to Tie Lang, who was still glued to Long Di with his arms wrapped around the latter, bawling like a madman.
Jia Yan, the silent one in the group who was also closest to Tie Lang, was shaking his head in irritation at his fellow-apprentice brother, who was crying away without reserve.
He knew that after a while Tie Lang started to idolise Long Di. When they left Long Di and ran away here, Tie Lang's anxiety was strong enough to induce some sort of heavenly heart attack.
His happiness at Long Di's current well-being culminated in this sorry display. Jia Yan was thankful that Long Di's expression didn't fluctuate even in the face of Tie Lang's current actions. Truly, the mind and will of an expert were not something that he could match up to.
Still, Jia Yan couldn't take it anymore and pried Tie Lang off of Long Di much like how one would scrape doodoo from one's shoe.
Honestly, Long Di just didn't care. He just stood there when Tie Lang hugged him, and he did the same when he was disengaged by Jia Yan.
"Since that episode is over, I will say yes. I'll come to the auction with you." Long Di agreed.
Yaomu Shou smiled at this. "Great! Alright, I'll head back first. We'll meet in a month's time at the auction house. I'll head back first." Yaomu Shou turned on her heel and took off.
"Wait a minute." Long Di stopped her before she went too far. "What do you mean, we'll meet up in a month's time? That is not a specific time frame at all. Is it 27 days from today? Is it thirty days from today? I would like us to be specific about this." Long Di pointed out.
"Oh, right. Sorry about that." Yaomu Shou stuck her tongue out at her own little folly and gave Long Di all the info he would need about where in the city to find her when the day came and everything else.
Long Di found it curious how in cultivation novels, people would say 'let us meet in a month's time, year's time, or even a decade's time,' and still be right on time, to the day to the hour to the minute.
How did that even work? Well, he wasn't one of those people, so he needed information to work with.
When all that needed to be said was said, the two groups. Yaomu Shou headed off to wherever she needed to be whilst Long Di and company ended up walking back to the village.
It was going to be less than a day's worth of walking for them, so they didn't necessarily rush.
Feng Yu who had remained silent all this time, couldn't take it anymore and was the first to ask.
"Long Di, can you tell us what you found in the Pech Blossom Sage Relic? I tried to ask Shen Ling but she wouldn't tell me anything!"
Long Di looked back at Shen Ling and saw the latter look down dispiritedly. Obviously, Feng Yu didn't make her feel too good about keeping secrets from her.
However, the things they found in the room came with a conditional promise from Long Di that he had made with the Spiritual Intent of the Peach Blossom Sage. She didn't want to impart any unnecessary karma to her senior apprentice-sister.
The Spiritual Intent made it clear that a person could lose their life when karma unrelated to them and wholly strong enough infected a person.
"We'll get to that soon. However, before we get to that I have something I need to tell you guys."
"Huh? What is it?" Feng Yu asked. Everybody else was curious about what he had to say as well.
"You guys suck, and I need to stop that from being a thing. So, tonight, when we set up camp and everything, we're gonna find ways to make you less of a dead bison weighing people down and more of a dead rat. They're lighter and are much easier on the spine, hip and back."
Feng Yu, as well as everyone else, looked back at Long Di with a mixture of shock, confusion, and shame. "Come again?"