Chapter 23: Ambush

Tian Ming gazed at Wang Ping, who had already walked out of the Treasure Gathering Pavilion, and a flicker of astonishment flashed in his eyes.

Just now, the shop attendant reported that there was a large pit nearly one meter deep in the middle of the cultivation chamber.

According to their investigation, this is the mark left by a heavy object being smashed.

How hard the ground of the artifact forging chamber is—how could he not know? Even he, who possesses late-stage Qi Refining cultivation, could not easily destroy it.

This young cultivator has so many secrets!

Tian Ming suddenly smiled at the corner of his mouth, "No matter how many secrets he has, what does it have to do with me? I cultivate my own Dao."

With the resources of the Treasure Gathering Pavilion, he can achieve great completion of Qi Refining within ten years, and has confidence to attempt Foundation Establishment within fifteen years; by then he will be only fifty.

Then, by pulling strings to be transferred to the Western Decline region, he will go to a larger country to serve as an attendant, using its resources to strengthen himself.

The path of cultivation has myriad ways; each walks his own way, with no superiority or inferiority.

Wang Ping's Dao lies in the Spirit Realm, especially the Foundation Establishment stage; the Western Decline region hardly has any Foundation Establishment spiritual materials, but the spiritual herbs for Foundation Establishment pills might be found in the Spirit Realm.

From now on, he must pay attention to information related to the Spirit Realm; Wang Ping walked while analyzing.

Soon, he had already walked out of the North City Gate.

After leaving the city, his speed gradually increased; a single leap already carried him over seven zhang away.

The first-stage mid-level completion of his body refinement cultivation, combined with a speed talisman, made his gallop like gliding.

Given the purity of Wang Ping's spiritual power, a single thread of Qi Refining equals four threads for others; at this point he could fully ride the wind and fly.

Yet he did not do so; besides caution, it would be too ostentatious—a mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator daring to fly in the sky, leaving other mid- and late-stage cultivators nowhere to hide.

All the way he sped, he sought a mountain cave in the wilderness to enhance his body refinement cultivation.

Moreover, he had not yet properly studied the translated Spirit Realm text.

Enhancing body refinement cultivation does not require heavenly and earthly spiritual qi; it relies entirely on the spiritual liquid inside the silver-white block.

After consideration, he did not want to spend spirit stones to rent a cultivation place any further.

In the wilderness, mountains are abundant; finding a hidden cave is very easy.

After running for an hour, the outlines of mountains already appeared in the distance.

Whoosh!

Just then, a sudden tearing sound came from behind; Wang Ping's outward spiritual sense did not detect it until his ears heard the sound, and only then did he react.

Wang Ping had no time to know how the opponent evaded his perception, for his back already felt a frigid, deadly aura.

At the critical moment, Wang Ping activated the Azure Wood Longevity Technique, instantly projecting a layer of light shield, which is the innate protective shield of the technique.

The higher the rank of the technique, the better its defensive effect; as for the Azure Wood Longevity Technique's light shield, Wang Ping actually held little hope for it.

Even though his spiritual power is extremely pure, the technique's rank being what it is, its defensive effect is not particularly good.

This is due to the technique's quality and the difference in the shield's structure; the quality of spiritual power cannot bring about much change.

He first released the spiritual power shield precisely to buy time against the attack from behind.

Immediately afterward, his Diamond Body technique activated, his muscles suddenly bulging, forcibly increasing his height by one cun.

His originally fair skin now took on a bronze-like hue.

All this was completed in the flash of lightning and flint; after finishing, the next second Wang Ping's azure light sword behind him was drawn.

At the same time his body shield was pierced, causing his spiritual power circulation to pause for a moment.

The azure light sword already flying in the air also experienced a momentary wobble.

Before Wang Ping could react, he felt an extremely sharp object strike his back.

The armor he wore blocked it only on one side, then failed again.

However, thanks to the armor's obstruction, that sharp object did not pierce the Diamond Body's defense.

Cold sweat poured down Wang Ping's forehead; just now was the closest he had come to death since arriving in this world.

A killing intent suddenly arose in his heart; being ambushed for no reason on the road and nearly losing his life caused him to erupt with heavenly fury.

He slapped his right hand; a white light flashed, and a three-inch crystal seal appeared atop his head.

Then, with a change of hand seal, the azure light sword made a downward plunge, descending from above and continuously rotating around him.

Instantly, rings of azure sword light appeared around Wang Ping.

After leaping another ten or so zhang, Wang Ping turned around with a wary expression, his eyes continually scanning the surroundings.

After three seconds, no trace of the enemy was found within his line of sight; he now stood in an open plain with a wide view.

Furthermore, the weather is clear, granting good visibility; at least within ten zhang, he saw no enemy.

He slowly released his spiritual sense, and even within a thirty-zhang radius, no enemy appeared.

Wang Ping's face turned solemn; upon probing with his spiritual sense just now, he saw that the object attacking his back was a flying nail.

It is clearly a magical artifact; such an artifact requires spiritual sense to control, so for the enemy to attack him, they must activate their spiritual sense.

Then he must be nearby.

Yet no matter how Wang Ping searched, he saw no figure; could the opponent be using an invisibility technique?

Just then, a figure suddenly appeared a hundred zhang away, sprinting madly toward this spot.

Wang Ping, standing in place, his eyes filled with disbelief; could the opponent possibly be controlling the flying nail to attack him from that far away?

Although he is already in the cultivation world, such a method of attacking from a hundred zhang away is still something he has never seen before.

A hundred zhang away, that is about three hundred thirty meters; could the opponent be a cultivator of great completion of Qi Refining?

No, if the opponent had already achieved great completion of Qi Refining, they should be flying in the air at this time.

Yet that person, like him, was leaping and running on the ground, clearly still at late-stage Qi Refining.

Wang Ping's face turned solemn; why such an enemy would target him, he did not know.

He only needed to confirm one thing: as long as the opponent was coming to kill him, that was enough.

Looking at the Heaven-Overturning Seal above his head, his inner unease eased somewhat; possessing the Azure Light Sword Technique, a perfect magical artifact, he might not lose to the opponent.

I never expected that shortly after the Overturning Heaven Seal was successfully refined, it would already need to be baptized in blood.

Wang Ping's gaze drooped; the spiritual power within his body split in two, part flowing into the Azure Light Sword, part into the Overturning Heaven Seal.

After the Overturning Heaven Seal hovering silently above Wang Ping's head received the infusion of spiritual power, it suddenly emitted beams of crystal light that fell three cun before him, enveloping Wang Ping within.

This change caught Wang Ping somewhat off guard; in his expectation, this was merely a dharma implement for smashing people, lacking any protective function.

Gazing at the beams of crystal light before him, Wang Ping secretly pondered that this might be the change brought by a perfectly flawless dharma implement.

As the saying goes, strike first to be strong, strike later to suffer; when the unknown-clad enemy had advanced thirty zhang, Wang Ping flicked his sword finger, and the Azure Light Sword crossed twenty zhang in the blink of an eye, then with a flash it reached the enemy's front.

The speed of the Azure Light Sword somewhat exceeded the black-clothed person's expectation, yet he showed no panic whatsoever; in the next instant, a layer of red light shield appeared on his body.

The Azure Light Sword struck the shield, actually emitting a piercing screech.

The hardness of the opponent's protective shield did not faze Wang Ping at all; his sword tactic shifted, and another sword light split off from the Azure Light Sword.

The two azure sword lights went back and forth, attacking the opponent's protective shield.

The opponent's originally calm red shield actually showed a hint of instability.

The black-clothed person was completely unfazed, and a hoarse voice came from beneath his black cloak:

"Azure Light Sword Technique of the Azure Moon Sect! Unfortunately, it is merely a low-grade martial-art-level Azure Light Sword; even if it splits into a sword light, it cannot break my protective shield."