Chapter 116 - 102 Intimidation!

Smack!

A hand landed on his face, making a crisp noise. Cruze spun several times in the air and flew out into the distance. Even though he had used all his Fighting Aura to protect himself, he had not expected Long Yi to strike him directly in the face! Who the hell guards their face specifically during a fight!

Cruze was stunned, seeing stars in front of his eyes, his cheek swelling painfully. It felt like something was in his mouth, and when he spat it out, it was actually one of his big teeth!

"Bastard! I’m going to kill you!" Cruze went mad. He had not expected this. Long Yi, with only ten layers of Fighting Aura, even with some luck, should not be able to break through his sixteen-layer Fighting Aura defense.

But the person behind him saw through it.

"Come back, Cruze, you’ve already lost." The man put his hand on Cruze’s shoulder and said. Although Cruze was raging, he stopped when he heard the man’s words. Clearly, the man had absolute authority over Cruze.

"I...I don’t understand, I didn’t lose. He’s no match for me!" Cruze didn’t dare move, but he still argued defiantly.

"You lost. His Fighting Aura is above yours. Whether he exploded with Fighting Aura through some means, or he was always suppressing his Fighting Aura, his Fighting Aura was always above yours." The man spoke slowly. It was just a moment ago that he saw Long Yi’s hand landing on Cruze’s face causing his Fighting Aura to erupt higher than Cruze’s!

And because of this, Cruze’s prideful Fighting Aura was unable to protect him.

Hearing the man’s words, Cruze immediately lowered his head and fell silent. He deeply respected the person behind him, though they were only a year apart in age, Cruze knew he couldn’t match the man’s wisdom and composure. If he said that Cruze was no match for Long Yi, then Cruze had to accept that he was indeed not Long Yi’s equal.

He felt unwilling and indignant but helpless.

Long Yi watched the young man next to Cruze with a grin. The young man had a calm gaze that looked like he could see right through everything. But in Long Yi’s view, there were only two kinds of people who could have such a gaze. One was the elderly who have experienced a lot, having crossed more bridges than anyone. The other kind was the arrogant posers, like this young man. At your young age, trying to appear super worldly? Even if you started adventuring as soon as you were born, you’ve only accumulated eighteen years worth of wisdom. Such a guise might fool ordinary people like the idiot Cruze who immediately bow in awe at your mysterious demeanor. But if you ran into a real expert, say someone like ’Brother Long,’ wouldn’t he squash you in a matter of seconds?

"So, did you come such a long way just to get slapped?" Long Yi queried.

"No, we just received information of a powerful demon here. We originally wanted to deal with it, but you guys beat us to it." The young man with the calm expression responded with a smile.

"Indeed, we came quite early. If we had come later, I reckon we could’ve reaped even more treasure left behind by the deceased knights." Long Yi added.

Cruze wanted to say something but his increasingly painful jaw was preventing him.

"Actually, I’m more interested in how you managed to tame the Female Demon. If you have any unique secrets, I’m willing to buy them at a high price. You can quote your own price." The man remained calm and continued with a smile.

"Hehe..." Long Yi chuckled enigmatically.

This plot was rather too shoddy, even someone like Long Yi who wasn’t good at strategic schemes could see through it. Generally, Dragon Riders asserted their dominance through strength to gain followers. Despite being bound by a contract, the relationship was somewhat fragile. Most Dragon Riders have experienced their followers slacking off and usually try to improve the relationship by strengthening the contract, but this usually results in increased resistance from the followers.

To genuinely get a follower to fight for their Dragon Rider, the Dragon Rider must genuinely be good to them. Now this man was tossing out this problem. If Long Yi showed any sign of eagerness, it could cause a crack in their relationship. But if Long Yi, a greedy man, really threw out any theories, it might further damage the relationship.

Unless, was Long Yi truly fond of this little Female Demon?

But that would be impossible! Even though she was sweet-looking, she was still a Female Demon.

Long Yi cleared his throat and said, "Actually, I really do have a unique method."

The man was stunned. He didn’t expect that Long Yi would actually reveal something and so he smiled. Taking out a gem the size of a walnut from his chest, he shook it and said, "Please do tell."

"Firstly, you need to be two meters tall!" said Long Yi.

"Wow! So tall!" Little Zi floated over instantly, rushing into Long Yi’s chest and looking up at him from below. She exclaimed dramatically.

"Secondly, you need to have strong arms!" Long Yi continued.

"Wow, such strength! So sturdy!" Little Zi grasped Long Yi’s arm, swinging back and forth like on a swing.

"Lastly, you must have one of these!" Saying so, Bajie who was behind immediately ran over, taking out a can of something from the space.

"What is in the jar?" The man felt that Long Yi was spouting nonsense, but he was still curious about the contents of the jar.

"Of course, it’s premium black pepper powder!"

With that, Long Yi scooped a handful and blew it out with a puff of breath. It was downwind at the moment, so the cloud of pepper powder wafted straight towards them. Although they had the protection of Fighting Aura, such protection only worked against Fighting Aura attacks. How could they possibly defend against this pepper powder that penetrated everywhere? A flurry of sneezes suddenly echoed around, and soon, the two Flying Dragons were infected, continuously sneezing and breathing Dragon Breath in response.

Ai Lin and Little Zi were bent double with laughter, while Bajie was rolling on the ground clutching his stomach. Even the usually cold-looking Shadow Dragon cracked a smile, the long face showing a hint of amusement.

"Bastard! You tricked.... Ah-choo! You tricked us... Ah... Ah... Ah-choo!"

The young man could no longer maintain his all-knowing demeanor, tears and mucus streaming down his face as he sneezed uncontrollably.

"Yeah, I was messing with you. Did you see that coming? Ah-choo!"

As Long Yi said this, he too sneezed. He had forgotten he was still holding the pepper powder and had waved his hand in front of his face, causing him to fall victim to his own prank.

Ai Lin covered her mouth and quickly moved away, afraid of fallingvictim to the prank. Little Zi, completely immune to the physical effects, laughed non-stop by Long Yi’s side, completely ignoring the pepper powder attack.

The young man was infuriated, as his carefully crafted image was destroyed in an instant. But what could he do about it?

Fight?

A Dragon Rider whose strength was unknown, a Magic Fighter whose strength was also unknown, plus a Female Demon with unknown power. Just these three alone were sufficient reasons for him to back off. He felt more at ease knowing his opponent’s details before drawing up a battle plan. In fact, the whole reason they had come here was to figure out just how powerful the so-called level nine hybrid beasts from the intel were. Even though they did not have enough personal power, they brought with them powerful tools to potentially deal a fatal blow, hoping to benefit greatly from the fight. However, they found out that the beast was already dead when they arrived. Didn’t this mean that this group also had equivalent power to his?

He didn’t stop Cruze’s reckless behavior earlier as he wanted to see if Cruze, with his sixteen layers of Fighting Aura, could bring out Long Yi’s trump cards. After all, Long Yi had quite a reputation in the Dragon Rider Academy. Even though the older students did not regard Long Yi’s achievements as something significant. If only the details of Long Yi’s two assassination attempts were not such closely guarded secrets, he would have made himself scarce as soon as possible. A single person, taking on two Rock-traversing Dragon assassins, not only managed to kill the assassins but their dragons as well, surely they weren’t a match for such power?

"In fact, I’m quite curious, as your aim was not to snatch the Crystal Core." Long Yi finally recovered. Although his nose was still a bit itchy, he was much better.

"Are you joking? Every kill is recorded in the School Bracelet, what’s the point in looting?" The young man replied with a nasal voice making him sound odd.

"See, the rules do not say that you can’t snatch. Maybe, the rules do not prohibit taking others’ Crystal Cores." Long Yi said.

"Nonsense! We’re leaving!"

The young man decided not to engage with Long Yi any further. He turned his back and mounted his dragon, and Cruze also boarded his Mount Dragon with red eyes, his face wet with tears. The Flying Dragons fluttered their wings hard as if they wanted to sweep all the dust on the ground onto Long Yi. Long Yi maintained his smile, waving continuously.

"Welcome to come again! Be sure to bring Crystal Cores next time!"

In retaliation, the two Flying Dragons were charging straight towards Long Yi. Cruze’s dragon suddenly sprayed Dragon Breath, maliciously towards Long Yi. Long Yi stared at the dragon’s mouth, not evading, just staring at the Flying Dragon.

At that moment, Cruze’s heart was thumping. His intent was merely to intimidate Long Yi, for he wanted to see Long Yi terrified and retreating. However, with Long Yi not moving, he suddenly realised an opportunity was at hand. If he could kill Long Yi in one fell swoop! His servant Female Demon would surely leave him! Ai Lin had no way to stand against the both of them either! They would return and seek the Crown Prince, and with him intervening, they would face punishment, but the family could afford to pay more.

However, just when the Dragon Breath was about to engulf Long Yi, Cruze suddenly felt a chill in his seat dragon’s heart. Following the dragon’s gaze, he saw the fat dragon on the ground, puffing up its belly and looking at him, and its mouth was full of thick smoke. At the same time, he felt something in front of his eyes and took a closer look. It was a young black dragon soaring around him, very fast, with wings as sharp as blades, making no sound when flying. He was completely unaware of it!

In the blink of an eye, the Dragon Breath was right in front of Long Yi. Cruze felt a chill down his spine and immediately wanted the dragon to stop. Reluctantly, his seat dragon withdrew its Dragon Breath. But by then, the Dragon Breath was only a little more than a meter away from Long Yi.

"Good boy..."

A soft giggle came from behind, Cruze quickly turned around, but only saw a skirt disappearing under the dragon’s wing.

It was the Female Demon! She had been behind him all along!

All the color drained from Cruze’s face. He had assumed the chill he’d felt down his back was just his nerves. But it was actual cold! The Female demon had been behind him the whole time while he pretended to take out Long Yi. How naive he had been!

For a moment, Cruze felt a sense of melancholy, he was gradually losing interest in this mission.

Forget it, might as well go home.