"You scum!"
"Curse you and your 18 generations of ancestors!"
"You son of a bitch!"
Taking in the members of Nine Lives' curses—as if they were praises, Long Hua smiles merrily in amusement.
"Y-You…-"
"Y-You…-"
Eventually, the other party runs out of breath, to which, Long Hua rises off the armchair, and says—
"In the world that the Immortals come from, such acts of cruelty—of using others as stepping stones to glory, it's rather common. It is a world ruled over by the strong and the insidious, where tears will buy you no miracles."
Hearing this, the members of Nine Lives grit their teeth, while glaring at Long Hua hatefully.
"Hate me to the bones, do you? Good. This is exactly what I wish to see. The more you hate me, who is an Immortal, the better it is for me—because this means that you'll be willing to put in more effort to strengthen yourselves. And with more strength, the better of a fight that you'll be able to put up against the Ling Yuan family, which translates to you all being able to buy me more time; time, that I can use—to strengthen my standings in the Everlasting Spirit Realm. Once I've strengthened my standings there, not even the Ling Yuan family would be able to touch me, as they helplessly look upon the true culprit that lit this backyard of theirs in flames with extreme bitterness. Cry and howl as they might, but in front of me, who stands above them—they will have no choice but to grit their teeth, and swallow whatever complaints that they have back down their throats! Ahahahahahaha!"
"…"
"…"
"…"
As Long Hua raises a villainous laughter—to taunt the weapon spirits further, Qing Ming Yang, Lin Yu Heng, and Yao Ying can't help but twitch their lips.
Indeed, a person of Long Hua's nature will naturally thrive in the practitioners' circle, and reach a height that the average person could only ever dream of—assuming his schemes go accordingly.
(*-laoban, you truly are going to end up becoming the Chosen Villain of the Heaven.)
"…"
Paying no heed to the Tai Xuan Emperor's remark, Long Hua rotates his cultivation base subtly—causing an odd force of energy to emanate from his body, to pour itself in the direction of the weapon spirits.
Washed over by this odd force of energy, all the weapon spirits felt a primitive sense of rage to erupt from their hearts.
At the limits of his endurance, Zhu Xu steps forward, and shouts—
"Screw this! Everyone, pile on him! I refuse to believe that he can't be killed!"
"Kill this bastard!"
Besides Jiu Sheng, Xu Tian Kun, and Jing Yao, everyone else raised their arms—in wanting to make an attempt at butchering Long Hua.
"…Uh?"
Shaking her head, as if to throw off a sticky object, Jiu Sheng shouts—
"Halt!"
"But-!"
"Tch…"
Just as an argument is about to break out, Xu Tian Kun raises her voice—
"No one is allowed to move! Close your eyes… And try to regain your composures—before speaking again."
"…"
"…"
Similarly, to the others, Jiu Sheng and Xu Tian Kun's faces are beet red, as they do everything that they can—to suppress their overflowing emotions of primitive rage.
(It makes sense to lose ourselves to rage in this situation, but this rage, it feels…-? …)
"…"
Glancing at Jing Yao, who's expression is twisted with confusion and rage, Jiu Sheng finds the situation rather bizarre, whereas Long Hua thought—
(Caught on, have they? …Hmm, seems like my control over this ability will still require some practice. …Either that, or I need to raise my cultivation base further—to truly demonstrate it. Maybe, I should try it on myself first?)
Drawing in a deep breath and exhaling, Jiu Sheng and Xu Tian Kun gradually regained their usual composure.
Inwardly, Jiu Sheng and Xu Tian Kun thought—
(This venomous snake! What the hell did he do just now? For a brief instance, it was as if everyone had lost control over their emotions…)
(As much as we all want to kick his ass we can't, and he knows this. And even if we could actually kick his ass… Tch, without him, Hope City's mechanics can't ever be activated. Whatever he did just now, it made us completely disregard these factors…)
Heaving a long sigh, Jiu Sheng turns to Long Hua with an expression of fatigue, and says—
"Can I ask you to not provoke the others? A person like you is truly just…"
Not having a proper phrase to describe Long Hua, Jiu Sheng could only clench her fist in anger—causing chips to form on her regained composure.
"…"
Halting the subtle rotation of his cultivation base, Long Hua replies—
"A person like me is truly just what? Would you rather me rip all of you to shreds instead? I'd say—all of you got off easy for thinking to plot against me."
Storing the armchair away, Long Hua turns around, and begins to leave.
In the same instance, Tian Cheng withdraws her combat bodies.
"…Dammit."
Noticing the other weapon spirits having a difficult time in trying to regain their composures, Xu Tian Kun grinds her teeth together, and asks—
"For the sake of using us as disposable tools, you wish to pressure the weapon spirits of this world to grow faster, correct? That's why you're going out of your way to annoy us like this?"
Raising a chuckle, and without turning around, Long Hua replies—
"Indeed. You're all free to attack me after the city's mechanics are activated. I'll play around with you all for around half an hour. If you happen to kill me during that time, so be it. I'll simply treat it as me having bitten off more than I can chew."
Following Long Hua's reply, some of the weapon spirits' tension-laced expressions loosen.
Taking one step forward, Long Hua adds—
"The average combat strength of this world, it's far too weak. Those of your village can be considered the cream of the crop. Once the mechanics are activated, I sincerely hope you all don't disappoint me."
Saying this on the outside, Long Hua inwardly thought—
(If I nurture this Qilin flame with other flames, I should be able to acquire a genuine fire elemental source—although, it would have to be one of inferior grade. Ai, if only Ming flames were something that could be used…)
Finding a magic treasure of the fire element will require a great deal of time. That being the case, this is the only alternative that Long Hua could come up with—now that he has Qilin flames to use as a foundation.
And although the resulting fire elemental source won't be anything of high quality, it is something that he can make upgrades to in the future.
"…"
"…"
Hearing what Long Hua had said, every weapon spirit was rendered speechless.
(He's blatantly taunting us…)
(He's asking for a beating, but why do I feel so powerless?)
(Why do I feel like this is an encouragement as well?)
(Does this person have a disease? That if he didn't annoy someone, he'd die?)
Leaving the weapon spirits feeling an array of complicated emotions in their hearts, Long Hua steps out of the building, and turns his head in the direction of Mount Changqiu.
"…"
Taking out a spirit herb cigar, and lighting it, Long Hua decides to take a breather for the time being.