Soon someone walked over toward Wang Wei while he was talking to Li Jun. To be precise it was two people: one being sect master Wang Tian and an old man full of white hair dressed in very plain and ordinary clothes.
He looked like an ordinary grandfather that doted on his grandchildren by secretly giving them candy when their parents strictly forbade them not to eat sweets before dinner.
Li Jun was the first to notice, so he quickly bowed. "Hello, sect master."
"Oh Li Jun, how many times that I have told you that you can call me Uncle."
Li Jun smiled wryly, then answered. "I will remember from now on, uncle."
"Father, what brought you here. I thought we had already said our goodbyes?"
"Wei'er, I'm here this time to introduce you to your Dao Protector, True Monarch Yan Chen. He will follow you throughout most of your life and protect you. In most cases, he will not intervene unless someone of too much higher cultivation level attacks you."
True Monarch Yan Chen smiled and said: "Young Master, you do not need to worry. Unless I'm dead, nothing will happen to you."
"Then I will be in your care, Supreme Elder Yan Chen."
"There is no need to be so formal, just call me by my name."
Wang Wei smiled, but did not do so. Although he had a high status, Wang Wei knew the importance of respecting people of much higher strength than him. Unless he reaches a certain level himself, he will still respect these people.
Furthermore, Wang Wei can easily guess that the appearance of True Monarch Yan Chen was in fact due to political negotiations between the upper echelons of the sect.
As the future Emperor groomed by the sect, the Wang family will yield a great amount of power in the future. As such, as a compromise, the Wang family has to find ways to tie the other families with them and gain their unwavering support.
Due to the brotherhood of Wang Wei and Li Jun, the Li family was more than happy. What can be closer than childhood friends who grew up together and wear the same pants.
However, the Yan family was not satisfied yet. As a compromise, the Wang Family had to allocate the position of Dao Protector to the Yan family, hence the appearance of True Monarch Yan Chen.
The status of Dao Protector is actually quite high. As the name implies, the person is in charge of protecting your Dao, even if it means at the cost of their own life.
Being a Dao protector means taking an oath to put the safety of someone else above everything else-- even yourself. This is the reason that the Wang family allowed someone else to protect Wang Wei instead of doing it themselves.
After finishing introducing himself to Wang Wei, Yan Chen then looked at Li Jun and said. "You must be Li Jun. Not bad, not bad. Your Li family has a good successor this generation. You will meet my grand-niece during your journey. Helpe me protect her during the trial if you have the chance."
"I will do my best to protect her sir."
Meanwhile, on the other side, Wang Wei and his father were having their own discussion.
"Is there anything else father?"
"No, that is all I have to say to you. Be safe and do everything according to plan. Unless necessary, do not try to improvise."
"Father, you already said these to me. By the way, I meant to ask. Why did you turn into a middle aged man during the past few years? Is something wrong with your cultivation?"
"No, nothing is wrong. It's just that now that you are a young man, I cannot look like I'm your brother can I. That would lose all my authority as a father."
Wang Wei looked at him incredibly and muttered, "As if you had any authority at all."
"I heard that boy. Do you want an ass whooping?"
"Why don't you talk about authority with mom?"
Wang Tian's next words choked in his throat after hearing his son's words. Immediately afterward, he became angry out of shame and said in a slightly raised voice. "Go, go, get out of my sight."
Luckily for Wang Wei, the Elders in charge of transporting all the participants soon arrived in the Wang Family Mountain, accompanied by the rest of the people.
Great Elder Wang Fu of the Refining Hall brought a gigantic ship that stood in the air, floating as if lighter than the air itself. There were countless formations engraved on the ship.
Wang Wei had heard of this ship known as Void Boat. It was extremely powerful as it could teleport to any destination that he has the coordinates to. Furthermore, from the description that Wang Wei heard from Great Elder Wang Fu, this ship was a Supreme Tier Void Boat.
Which means that its formation was powerful enough to severely injure Saints and withstood many attacks from Supreme Realm powerhouses. Wang Wei could guess that this ship was taken out as a form of protection for him, but to be honest, he thought that the sect were taking things a little too seriously.
Before departure, many of the participants--including children from different families and disciples accepted outside by the sect from a very young age--started getting to know each other and promised to protect one another if given the chance.
In the corner of the ship, there was a beautiful and lively young girl staring intently at Wang Wei. She thought to herself. "According to the family's order, this is the main target of the mission. And if everything fails, then...". Immediately afterward, she looked at Li Jun next to Wang Wei. "Initiate Plan B."
She walked over and introduced herself.
"Hello brother Wang Wei, my name is Yan Liling, it is a pleasure to meet you."
"Last name Yan, are you a member of the Yan family?"
"That is correct. Great Elder Yan Mei is my aunt."
"Oh, you must be the grand-niece that Supreme Elder mentioned to me a while ago."
"That may be me. You must Li Jun. I heard of all of your legendary exploits the past two years."
Li Jun smiled awkwardly and did not know what to say. From his years of experience, this kind of girl is not easy to deal with.
Wang Wei, on the other hand, was quite perplexed. He had never heard of Great Elder Yan Mei having a niece. It was during these moments that he truly missed Wang Ju. In this situation, all he needed to do was asked if he wanted to know something.
While the three of them were still conversing, the Void Boat had already started. Despite its ability to teleport, the voyage still took more than two days. The reason for that was due to the fact that the Domain that Spirit Road Trial was taking place in was quite the distance away from. The Void Boat needed to make more than one teleportation to arrive there.
Soon, Wang Wei found himself arriving in a city. There were countless people dressed in ancient garments. Some were easily noticeable as they were made of special materials, while others looked bland and faded away due to constant wash and tear. It was in this moment that Wang Wei truly realized that he had reincarnated into an ancient world full of cultivators.
The custom, culture, habit, and way of life is completely the same as the Han people of his former life. The only difference was just the language.
As the Void Boat arrived in Falling Leaves City in the Blowing Wind Domain, which is located somewhere in the south of the Qilin Central Continent, a lot of commotion arose among the people. Many people were truly awed at the sight of that beautiful and powerful-looking Void Boat.
In a famous Inn called Autumn Bloom somewhere in the city, many disciples participating in the Spirit Road Trial stayed there accompanied by their senior brother and sisters.
A conversation took place in the corner table of the room. A young mortal was drinking and talking to two other people: one woman and another much older man.
"Senior Sister, does our Blue Sword Holy Land have a gigantic and magnificent Void Boat this size?"
"Little Junior Brother, stop dreaming big. This Void Boat is probably a Supreme Tier Magic Weapon. Not even a Supreme Land can easily afford to refine one, let alone our little Holy Land."
"Yes little junior brother," said the more mature man. "Although our sect has three Saint Realm Supreme Elders, however, compared to the truly powerful sect, we are not really anything. A Void Boat cannot be afforded by any Supreme Land, only Emperor level sects can have such means."
Soon after he said this, there was a snort of disdain that echoed in the room. "What do you lowly people know?"
The senior brother and sister were both angry at the voice and turned around to give this person a piece of them. However, when they saw the sect emblem on the person's uniform, they calmed down and took their little junior brother and left immediately.
It was because they recognize this person is from the Illusory Eye Supreme Land--a sect ranked a tier higher than theirs. They knew that they could not afford to offend him.
The person who said these words noticed that these people did not take any action, and his mood became much worse. He provoked these people on purpose in order to have his senior brother and sister teach them a lesson.
In the past few years, he had been under a lot of pressure. Due to the fact that the Path of Supreme was cut off in the last generation, there have been no new Supreme Realm powerhouse in the Illusory Eyes Supreme Land for quite some time.
The ones left are from two generations ago. As such, they are either severely injured or their life span does not have much left. As the son of the sect master, he was always taught that reaching the Supreme Realm was his only goal.
As for things like Heaven Mandate Battle, they were not things that he could get involved with unless he wanted to be canon fodder.
Meanwhile, in the Dao Opening Sect side.
Since arriving in this city, Wang Wei has been touring around with the utmost delight. Ever since he was born, his father and mother would not let him out of the sect. They would not even let him visit the city located at the foot of the mountain, which the sect built and was in charge of.
Now, he was relishing his freedom. For some reason, Wang Wei felt that his mind was more open or clearer than ever before.
Today, Wang Wei was talking to his head maid while on his daily tour.
"Wang Ju, did you get any information?"
"Yes, young master. In this city, there are only 3 Emperor Tier factions, 146 Supreme Lands, 567 Holy Land, and countless other factions below that."
"Oh, who are the other two?"
"One is the Great Zhou Imperial Dynasty. They have taken the bait as the young master predicted. Crown Prince Ji Song is among the participants. The other is the Beating Heart Cult, a devil cultivator faction who had cultivated one Great Emperor long ago."
"Devil cultivators, huh. Do you know their objectives? Will their presence affect our plans?"
"Not likely. They should know how difficult it is to kill people of Emperor factions in the Spirit Road Trial. As for their purpose, it is easy to guess. The Beating Heart Cult has an initiation ceremony in which their cultivators must carve out and eat the beating heart of their enemies in order to cultivate their techniques. In order not to outrage other factions, they usually used the Spirit Road Trial as a way to openly do it--as long they do not target the right people."
Wang Wei frowned. He realized that the cultivating world is not as peaceful as he imagined. If he was not born into a powerful sect, who knows what fate would await him.
While Wang Wei was walking and pondering, suddenly there was a riot and many people were rushing in different directions. As such, he bumped into many people.
However, after bumping into one person, he felt something was wrong. He looked in every direction but he could not find that person. He checked his body and found nothing.
Wang Wei thought that maybe he was too distracted. However, as soon as that thought came to his mind, his instinct kicked in and reminded him not to take things lightly.
As such, he immediately ordered Wang Ju to bring him back to his room in the inn and consult True Monarch Yan Chen and see if he can discover what is wrong with him. His life may be in the line here.