The largest of them, the one called boss, stared at the dome with undisguised greed.
"You did well, Gu Bao. I can tell that this is a treasure being born. This will certainly sell for a lot no matter what it is. Come on, we'll kill whoever tries to stop us."
****
The demons making their way towards Long Di's group were of a specific kind. Their bodies were red and so was their hair. From afar, they appeared like humanoid shapes of fire. They were known as Yan Demons. A relatively well-known species within the demon race.
For most people, they were somewhat difficult to deal with because of their elemental advantage.
The region that Long Di and the disciples went to for their training and cultivation was not a location that many people went to. Not to mention mortals, not even cultivators came here carelessly due to the heat that pervaded the terrain.
As a result, the ones who normally traversed these lands were cultivators who practised fire-based cultivation methods and/or martial techniques, or fire-oriented life forms.
The demon race cultivators with malicious intent belonged to the latter group. At the speed they were going, they were able to quickly close the distance between them and the Destiny Scale's location.
When they came close enough to sense the palpitating aura it exuded, they sucked in a cold breath of air.
"Incredible!" The one called Boss stared at the dome and the incomparably pure fire-attributed spiritual energy swirling inside with an expression of shock.
His partners stared at the spectacle before them with very much the same expression. If it wasn't obvious by now, they were all bandits. They made their living by killing, stealing, plundering, or all of the above.
It wasn't the most luxurious of jobs, but it put food on the table and right now, they were about to land a banquet with what they stumbled upon.
"How do we take it away, Boss Bao?" One bandit asked.
"Just based on the aura it gives off, I don't think storage rings will cut it," another one pointed out.
"You're right," their Boss Bao pointed out. "Its unusual aura definitely puts it on the level of heavenly treasures that can't be held in storage rings. Even if it wasn't, I don't want to take any risks since we only have the one storage ring as well."
Low-grade storage rings were notoriously fragile and, as such, if one were to try to take in something that violently rejects the spatial containment, it could cause the ring to break.
Though most items reacted by remaining unmoved when one tried to use the ring to take them in and nothing else, there were few that did the opposite and opposed the containment fiercely breaking the storage ring in the process.
This was a great loss as when a storage ring breaks, the items inside would be swallowed up by the chaotic spatial flow and be lost forever.
The boss pondered for a moment before finally deciding. "We'll bring it to the Qian Dao Sect. Those business fanatics will definitely give us a fair price for this."
When the other bandits heard this, their expressions brightened as well. Obviously, they were pleased with their boss's arrangement as well.
The Qian Dao Sect was a unique existence on the Heavenly Martial Continent. That is, they were a sect that operated as a business. Or, to be more specific, they were a sect that sought the dao through money and wealth gained through business.
As ludicrous as it may sound, they were serious in this endeavour and rose to become a powerhouse that no one wanted to offend. Their auction houses were all over the continent and their upfront and honest business transactions made them an easy favourite for anyone that wanted to trade, buy, sell and so on.
They never discriminated against their clients.
Are you an honest businessman? We welcome you.
Are you a bandit? The only robbery we're against is daylight robbery. (Terms and conditions apply.)
Are you the devil? Deals with the devil are the ones in which we revel.
Basically, it didn't matter who or what you were; you would always be welcome to the Qian Dao Sect auction houses and places of business.
"All we need to do is to go to one of their auction houses. We simply need to be as stealthy as possible," Boss Bao surmised.
"B-But boss, how are we going to move it?"
The large Yan Demon was struck dumb by this question. Indeed, this… thing's particular nature didn't make it the easiest to transport, even when you don't consider the storage rings.
Vrrmmm!!
Just at this moment, a part of the domain opened up to reveal a small slim figure walking out with an indifferent expression.
"Hello, bandits. My name is Long Di. How are you doing today?"
"Oh! H-Hello Long Di, my name is Boss Bao and I'm quite vivacious at the momen… wait a minute, why the hell am I introducing myself to you!?"
Shock, confusion, relaxation, and anger, these were the expressions that Boss Bao's face went through in an instant.
How was it that a few words from this child were able to have him caught up in this weird, relaxed flow of talking like they were on a terrible blind date!?
Even more so, he ended up using a really weird word to describe his current mood. Fortunately, it didn't seem like his subordinates realised this.
"So you're vivacious, huh? You know what, strut your individuality. I support yo—"
"Shut up! Who the hell are you!?" Boss Bao quickly silenced Long Di, not wanting him to linger on certain things for too long.
"Well, like I said before. My name is Long Di. But if you want to know more, I once had a cat named Pebbles. Truck kun isekai'd me into this world to realise my dreams of being the best version of myself, which includes laughing in the face of logic. Still working on the laughing part, though."
The bandits stared at Long Di like they were looking at an idiot. What kind of person did they encounter?
It took Boss Bao a good few minutes to remember what they came here for. "Forget about that!? Why were you in that thing!?"
"I was shocking my friends."
"Where the heck did it come from!?"
"From an era that's older than my one-toothed master."
"What the hell is that!?"
"An enamel-endowed existence suffering from alcoholism."
"Not that! The dome you cur!"
"Rude, but okay. It's the materialised something or other of a supreme master and its domain to help me train/maim minors in an attempt to be the best version of themselves."
"Why is it that nothing you say makes sense!?"
"I'm trying to help you here, but it seems your common sense got damaged on your path to the dao. So you need to help me help you by just being smart."
"You're insulting me!"
"I just want to point out that if someone is telling the truth about you and at the same time said truth turns out to be insults, you need to rethink your life."
"That's it! Brat, you're dead!" Boss Bao was truly infuriated this time. He had never met anyone as vexing as Long Di. The boy could make the devil repent and a monk lose his faith!
Dum!
Behind Boss Bao, nine cauldrons burst into existence behind him! All nine cauldrons were bronze at the basic grade.
Seeing that all nine cauldrons had no pearls marked Boss Bao as a peak Ninth Duan Martial Disciple.
The rest of the group consisted of experts in the later stages of the Cauldron Forging realm as well, but they were either at the Seventh Duan or Eighth Duan. This meant that Boss Bao was the leader of these bandits.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, the ambient fire-attributed spiritual energy started to gather around them at their beckoning.
Faint flames could be seen forming a fiery aura around Boss Bao and the others. It immediately augmented both their offensive and defensive capabilities. This was an ability unique to the Yan Demons, known as Flame Armor.
Boss Bao and his group glared at Long Di menacingly. Killing intent oozed from them in spades as they took a uniformed step towards him.
"Last chance brat! Step away from that thing!" Boss Bao was done playing at this point.
"Last chance?" Long Di remained unperturbed in the face of their malice. "Well, you never asked me to step away before. So how could you say it's the last chance?"
"Then scram!"
"No."
"THAT IS IT! You're dead!" A bulging vein pulsated on Boss Bao's forehead because of his anger.
"I feel like we've been here before. Have we been here before?" Long Di could feel the repetition in waves.
"Aaah!" Boss Ban and his group of bandits stopped holding themselves back and let loose the restraints on their power.
Boom!
Their aura and power combined to form a tsunamic wave of energy that terrorised the surroundings!
A heatwave, not unlike the one inside the domain, pervaded the area.
"Hehe, I know the reason why you are fearless is because of that strange treasure behind you. But I also know that with your limited strength, you aren't able to draw out its full power."
The logic behind Boss Bao's thinking was correct. For items of great power, one needed a certain level of power to bring it out. Think of it like someone wanting to lift a 1000 kg bat. That person would need to be strong enough to lift it and use it to take advantage of its destructive potential.
With the advantage of numbers, collective power and overall common sense of things, Boss Bao was sure they would be able to easily slay Long Di and comfortably figure out the treasure behind him.
"Now you die!"
Boom!
Boss Bao punched the earth below him and injected a massive amount of fire energy into it. The air around Boss Bao and his subordinates boiled as the heat reached an unbearable level in an instant!
The ground below Long Di cracked, taking on the properties of a supervolcano on the verge of eruption!
However, Boss Bao didn't end it there, he then gathered the fire-attributed spiritual energy from hundreds of metres all around and condensed this volatile energy into an orb!
With no warning, he fired the orb in Long Di's direction and got ready to watch the scene of fire, carnage and massacre that was about to ensue.
Boss Bao smirked at this. "No mercy for those who cross us," he said to himself.
5 minutes later…
"Have mercy on us for crossing you!" The cries of several men and one who was vivacious endlessly rang out in the surroundings.