Ambush

Lu Ye was gently awakened by the Sect Master. When he opened his eyes, he saw the Sect Master standing beside him and hurriedly rose.

"Sect Master." Lu Ye rubbed his eyes and patted his face, immediately becoming much more alert.

"It's time to disembark," the Sect Master said with a smile.

More than a dozen sects from the Vast Sky Alliance had withdrawn together from Evil Moon Valley. Now that they had reached Vast Sky Alliance territory, they naturally went their separate ways and returned home. Several sects had already departed one after another.

Lu Ye packed up his bedding and stuffed it into his Storage Bag, straightened his appearance, and followed the Sect Master out of the cabin.

Before long, they arrived on the deck, where someone was waiting for them: a tall, imposing middle-aged man with a stern countenance.

Lu Ye did not recognize the man. After giving him a brief look, he felt that this middle-aged man seemed to carry the aura of clashing weapons and iron steeds.

The Sect Master stepped forward and exchanged a few words with the man.

The man suddenly turned and looked at Lu Ye, who stood beside the Sect Master. "Being able to enter the Crimson Blood Sect is your good fortune. Cultivate diligently, and do not disgrace the sect's name."

Lu Ye hastily answered, "Yes!"

The Sect Master cupped his fist. "Then this old man shall take his leave."

"Please." The middle-aged man gestured with one hand.

With a flip of his palm, the Sect Master produced an object from nowhere and casually tossed it out. Spiritual Light flashed, and a Twin Warhorse Carriage appeared on the deck.

The two horses pulling it were snow-white from head to hoof, exceptionally handsome and spirited. They softly snorted, their hooves restlessly pawing the deck.

Before Lu Ye could get a good look, his body drifted uncontrollably into the carriage compartment. The Sect Master had wrapped him in Spiritual Power.

"Open the array!" the middle-aged man shouted.

At his command, the Flying Dragon Ship's Protective Grand Array opened a gap. Howling winds rushed in, whipping the clothes of everyone on deck until they snapped and fluttered.

The Sect Master and the middle-aged man cupped their fists to each other. As the two horses threw back their heads and neighed, clusters of Spiritual Light appeared around their hooves. They charged through the gap in the Protective Grand Array and galloped into the distance at tremendous speed.

Watching the Twin Warhorse Carriage vanish from sight, the middle-aged man turned and strode toward the cabins, tossing out an order behind him. "Bring that bastard Pang Dahai to me!"

"Yes!" Several Vast Sky Alliance cultivators accepted the order, their faces breaking into gloating smiles. They did not know what Pang had done this time to anger the Vice Alliance Master, but judging by the Vice Alliance Master's expression, Junior Brother Pang would surely be losing a few pounds of flesh.

On the Twin Warhorse Carriage, Lu Ye looked here and touched there with great interest, his eyes brimming with wonder.

He had come to the Nine Provinces over a year ago, but only in the past few days had he realized that the Nine Provinces he understood was not this world's true face at all. This world held far too many things beyond his imagination.

Like the Flying Dragon Ship from before, like this Twin Warhorse Carriage. The immense gap in his understanding made him truly realize one thing.

This was a world of cultivation. Only by entering the Crimson Blood Sect had he gained the foundation to integrate into this cultivation world. As his cultivation continued to grow stronger, the splendor of this world would eventually reveal itself to him bit by bit.

Otherwise, if he spent his whole life mining in the ore veins, how could he ever see such a colorful world?

"These two horses... aren't living creatures?" Standing on the carriage shaft, Lu Ye reached out and touched the rump of one of the horses. There was no sensation of flesh beneath his hand. Instead, it felt like metal, cold and hard.

Looking more closely, he realized that the two horses indeed lacked the aura a living creature should possess. They were simply so lifelike that they gave people the illusion of being alive.

The carriage behind him was open-topped. A large umbrella stood above it, spinning in the wind as strands of Spiritual Light fell from it like silk threads, blocking the fierce winds high in the sky.

The Sect Master sat inside the carriage. Hearing this, he smiled. "They are creations of Artificers, used for travel."

"Artificers?" Lu Ye asked curiously.

"One type of External Cultivator. They excel at crafting artifacts. You will encounter them someday if the opportunity arises."

Lu Ye asked no further questions. After watching with interest for a while longer, he finally obediently entered the carriage and sat down.

The carriage was spacious enough to seat three to five people without issue.

Naturally, he was not foolish enough to sit beside the Sect Master. He still understood the most basic respect due to one's teacher. He sat on the carriage floor opposite the Sect Master, facing him.

"How has your cultivation been going?" the Sect Master asked.

"It has gone fairly smoothly," Lu Ye replied. Through his earlier cultivation, he had confirmed something: taking pills to cultivate did not seem to carry any major hidden dangers for him.

Over the past several days, he had taken more than ten Spirit Nurturing Pills and opened his third aperture. Regardless of how efficient other people's cultivation might be, they certainly could not continuously consume Spiritual Pills as he had.

Nor had the accumulation of Pill Toxin the Sect Master mentioned appeared, causing Spiritual Power to become sluggish and muddled.

It might also be that the time had not yet come. After all, he had only taken a little over ten Spirit Nurturing Pills. He would need to observe further before he could be certain.

He was considering whether to tell the Sect Master about his Apertures Opened when, as he hesitated, the Sect Master asked, "Among the Six Paths, which path do you wish to take?"

The so-called Six Paths were undoubtedly the information Pang Dahai had mentioned before.

Lu Ye had truly never considered such matters. At present, he had only just come into contact with the world of cultivation and knew nothing about everything. How could he have thought of deciding the path he would walk in the future?

So he asked, "What does Sect Master think?"

Old Man Tang stroked his beard. "Your physique is not especially robust, nor do you possess any exceptional natural gifts, so you are not suited to becoming a Body Cultivator. Your Five Elements Primary Fire Secondary Metal also makes Ghost Cultivation and Medical Cultivation unsuitable. That leaves only Weapon Cultivation, Spell Cultivation, and External Cultivation. As for External Cultivation, every cultivator knows more or less some External Cultivation methods, so it can be regarded as a supplementary path. There is no need to specialize in it."

Lu Ye understood. "So the only paths suitable for this disciple are Weapon Cultivation and Spell Cultivation?"

"That is not wrong."

"Then which path does Sect Master follow?" Lu Ye asked curiously.

Old Man Tang chuckled. "This old man is a Spell Cultivator. You need not imitate me. Determining the path you wish to walk is a gradual process; you must first ask your own heart. I am asking you this now merely so you have some understanding of it, not so that you rush to make a choice. Once we return to Ao Mountain..."

Lu Ye was listening to the Sect Master's instruction when the world suddenly spun around him. Immediately afterward, a deafening boom erupted.

As his vision whirled, he caught sight of a blazing mass burning in the air from the corner of his eye. Focusing his gaze, he discovered that it was a Twin Warhorse Carriage on fire. He did not know what attack it had suffered, but it had already been blasted into pieces. The two fine horses pulling it had also been torn apart, their fragments scattering downward.

Lu Ye shook his head. The burning Twin Warhorse Carriage looked exactly like the one he had ridden before.

He suddenly realized that it was the carriage he and the Sect Master had been riding in. It had suffered an inexplicable attack!

Only then did he discover that the Sect Master had already taken him away from the carriage, and they were floating in midair. Spiritual Light blazed around the Sect Master, wrapping Lu Ye within it. One hand formed a seal as he coldly surveyed their surroundings, his expression extremely grave.