Another World Trip: Journey with My Cat and an Otaku Loli Goddess Chapter 193 - Dark Flame Tian

“That’s an Earth Flame on the Earth Flame ranking, the Crimson Horizon Flame!”

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“Earth Flame ranking, so that’s a thing here too, huh?” Long Di nodded in understanding.

“You know what it is!?” Yaomu Shou asked in surprise.

“More or less,” Long Di shrugged. “You kind of get plot synopsis when you give something a name that’s basically its meaning. Hold on.”

A powerful ripple exploded from the flame, roaring towards them before crashing into a shield.

Bam!

It smashed into a mysterious rune-covered shield of sorts that was at the mouth of the tunnel. However, immediately after this, a shockwave of flame that was much weaker than the ripple passed through the shield and continued towards them.

Long Di’s brows trembled, and he quickly erected his multi-layered shield.

Pling!

The same shattering of the shield took place, but Long Di was well aware of the durability of his shield and the destructive nature of the flame.

“Where did this shield come from?” he asked calmly, with zero apprehension in his voice about their current situation.

“Why are you asking that!? Do you not see the flames eating away at your qi shield!?” Yaomu Shou said as the flames surrounded them on all sides. Their only protection was Long Di, who apparently sounded like he couldn’t care less.

“You gave less than a cockroach’s ass when you had your hand in my mouth. You don’t have a right to speak here until the statute of limitation of pushing your hand in the mouth of an underage child has passed.”

Yaomu Shou’s violet face turned a deeper shade of purple when she heard this. “You—!”

“Besides, I’m asking because I’m curious. Why else would I ask something? As for the flames, yes, I see them eating away at the qi shield. You should be safe with your protector here, right?” Long Di pointed out.

“Yeah, but that condition doesn’t extend to these two!” she said, pointing to Shen Ling and Xiannu Liang. “They’ll die if you don’t take this seriously!”

She wasn’t lying either. Her protector would ONLY save her and leave the others for dead.

“Question,” Long Di said, pouring out even more spiritual essence into the multi-layered shield he constructed. “If the shield didn’t fail me before when we were in the tunnel earlier, what pestilence could have crawled into your brain to make you think it would fail me now?”

“Oh! I… uh…” Yaomu Shou was taken off guard by his question, not even registering the insult Long Di hid in his words.

“Answer,” he firsted her on this by choosing to respond himself. “It won’t. Granted, me being much nearer to the mouth of the tunnel has gifted me a more powerful wall of flame to endure. However, it is not so much that I can’t handle it.”

Pling!

The second layer was now gone, a single layer was all that stood between them and incineration.

“Stay close to Shen Ling,” he directed this to both Xiannu Liang and Yaomu Shou just in case untoward were to happen to him and the qi shield. He was confident it would hold, but fortune favours the prepared.

Yaomu Shou looked behind her to see Xiannu Liang white-knuckling Shen Ling’s robes. The fear was evident on her face, but Shen Ling was oddly stoic.

Yaomu Shou was about to comment but Long Di asked a question, this time to Shen Ling, “How long can you keep them with you?”

“Not long, and I don’t have experience doing this with other people,” she answered, seemingly aware of what he meant.

Long Di did a quick calculation in his head before responding. “Well, I would advise you to do so only when absolutely necessary.”

She nodded to indicate she would do her best.

Pwhish!

The wall of flames passed over the qi shield, allowing the group to sigh in relief.

Long Di then sat cross-legged on the ground to return himself to his best condition.

D-D-D-Dum!

His cauldrons burst into existence, but before they released their natural pressure, he consciously retracted it so they could breathe easy. There were few cauldrons that released an extreme pressure by nature as Long Di’s did, and virtually none that released it in such an overbearing manner.

Even for Long Di, to consciously keep it in, felt like someone who was fat trying to achieve beach-bod status by depriving themselves of oxygen.

“I’m still listening to you,” he said, referring to Yaomu Shou and his question about the shield keeping them from the Earth Flame.

“Oh, right… that.”

Yaomu Shou looked at the translucent shield before them with an odd expression. “There is a myth in the Demon region.”

“Oh?” Though Long Di’s eyes were closed, he was paying close attention to what was going on around them.

Yaomu Shou nodded and went on. “hundreds, maybe thousands of years ago, there was a hero of the demon race known as Dark Flame Tian. He was known as an unstoppable force of nature. His strength was and still is the stuff of legends. At one point in his life, it was rumoured that he travelled across the land and changed the terrain so that cultivators, mostly body cultivators, could train.”

Dark Flame Tian was more than a rising star in the Demon region back in his days. His strength allowed him to walk unhindered wherever he willed.

It was even said that his countenance and demeanour had slain the hearts of countless women within the demon race. He was a heavenly genius who garnered respect even among the humans.

“Seems kind-hearted and selfless,” Long Di nodded feeling respect for this person.

Shen Ling smiled but countered it by saying, “There are those who say the places he changed are a result of his own body cultivation practices. He simply left the changes he had made before he moved on. That allowed others to benefit. So… not completely selfless.”

“Fair. And this shield?” Long Di asked.

“Cavern Flame Mountain never existed before him,” Yaomu Shou said, getting closer to inspect the runes that covered the shield. “So many of the older generation experts believe ‌it was him who created the phenomenon that allowed the Mountain to have caverns that aid in cultivation by fire. He probably reached a point in his cultivation where he needed the energy of the Earth Flame to travel farther on his path.”

“Which sect was he from?” Long Di asked.

Yaomu Shou’s expression darkened when this question came up. “… W-We don’t know,” she said after a moment of hesitation.

Long Di finally opened his eyes and retracted his cauldrons and stood up to look at her. He found her not making eye contact with him and looking elsewhere.

“… The Iron Body Forge Sect,” Long Di said after a while.

“Those shameless morons are the ones who said he was from their sect! My head canon is that Dark Flame Tian is sect-less! I would rather believe that than the Iron Body Forge Sect any day!”

“Is this why they cordoned the Mountain off to say that they owned it?” he asked finally.

“Yeah,” Yaomu Shou answered, feeling a bit embarrassed by her earlier outburst and Long Di’s relative calm.

“Got it,” Long Di then looked to Shen Ling. “Take them now and disappear.”

Yaomu Shou was taken aback by this. “Wait, wha–”

Shen Ling didn’t hesitate before grabbing both Xiannu Liang and Yaomu Shou’s hands. The stars in her eyes continuously flickered before she dragged them to a corner of the tunnel within the qi shield where the light cast a shadow.

The second the trio entered the shadows, it was as if they had entered another world. As the shadows engulfed their figures, their entire presence, aura, and bodies were swallowed up into nothing.

Even if Long Di entered the shadows, he would see nothing more than rocks and the faint scattering of light.

Long Di nodded in satisfaction before a formless pressure weighed on him. He quickly stated. “She’s fine. I’m sure you can tell why I did what I did.”

After he said this, the formless pressure disappeared, and he dispelled the qi shield. A terrifying heat bombarded him and sweat already started to bead on his forehead.

He placed his hand on the rune-covered shield, and he was surprised to find that its consistency was like rubber. It was soft, but no matter how much he pushed, he couldn’t break through.

Of course, he had an idea of how to get through. He just didn’t want to do it yet.

Ti ta, ti ta, ti ta…

The pitter-patter of several footsteps could be heard coming down the tunnel Long Di was in.