Chapter 2: I Want to Go Home

With another jarring tremor, the watery shield enveloping the flying vessel flickered and visibly diminished by a third. The young immortal master unleashed a magical artifact, but in an instant, lost all sense of the attacker’s presence.

“Hmph! Cowardly rat,” he snorted coldly, unable to determine whether the assailant had been a human cultivator or a beast. He chose instead to alter the vessel’s course slightly and accelerate onward.

After a few moments passed without further incident, several of the young disciples, nerves unsettled, ventured to ask, “Master Immortal, just now… could someone truly have dared attack you?”

“Hmph! Most likely some filthy rogue cultivator who failed to recognize my vessel. There’s no need to panic!” The young immortal master sneered, tipping his chin upward with disdain.

“Rogue cultivator?” The young disciples, bewildered, found their imagined vision of the immortal realm suddenly shaken.

“Rogue cultivators…” Li Ji’an, by contrast, was all too familiar with the term.

“So this ill omen was a rogue cultivator?” He could not trust the young immortal’s explanation. The vessel was so large—how could it not be recognized? And why would the attacker strike twice, then cease?

Yet reality was that, after the two attacks, no further moves were made.

“Something’s not right!” Suddenly, Li Ji’an’s eyes snapped open.

“Master Immortal, be wary—you may have fallen into an ambush!”

“Ambush? Do you even know what this immortal realm is like? In all of Cangyun Prefecture, who would dare lay a trap for me? Besides, my vessel at full speed can cross a hundred li in a breath—who could possibly ambush us?” The young immortal was momentarily startled, then shot Li Ji’an a contemptuous glare and laughed coldly.

Li Ji’an’s brow furrowed. He’d only bothered to speak because they were, for the moment, in the same boat.

He realized now why the attacker had ceased after just two strikes.

It was deliberate—herding the vessel like a shepherd with his flock, forcing it in a certain direction.

Now that the young immortal had changed course, they must be nearing the ambush site the enemy had prepared in advance.

The enemy had anticipated their flight path, while this arrogant fool remained oblivious—danger was at hand!

Just as Li Ji’an pondered ways to save himself, a sudden, resonant hum filled heaven and earth.

His hearing vanished in an instant. Looking up, he saw an invisible barrier, vast as a net cast over land and sky, materializing out of nowhere.

In the next instant, the flying vessel, rushing at full speed, was frozen in midair.

The massive inertia sent everyone aboard hurtling from the vessel, slamming into the watery shield.

A sickening crack—one disciple of the lowest martial rank was hurled so hard that his organs shattered, blood spattering from his lips.

Only Li Ji’an and Zhao Shuyao, having immediately activated their own protective energies, remained unharmed; the others suffered injuries of varying severity.

The ordeal was not over. After a single, futile struggle, the vessel, now suspended in the sky, rapidly shrank until it was no larger than a palm-sized toy.

The ten young disciples, having fallen from the shield, now had nothing beneath their feet and plunged straight down, a hundred zhang to the earth below.

Only then did Li Ji’an glimpse the endless expanse of yellow sand stretching to the horizon.

“A Spirit-Confining Array!” The young immortal took a full three breaths to recover, staring in disbelief at the immobilized vessel—shocked to his core.

The Spirit-Confining Array was a high-tier formation, capable of trapping even superior-grade artifacts. Only experienced formation masters could arrange it, and the materials required were extremely costly—no common rogue cultivator could afford such a thing.

Fate had it that the vessel bestowed on him by his clan’s patriarch, meant for ferrying these ants, was just such a superior vessel; aside from a Spirit-Confining Array, there was little in the southern Cangyun Prefecture that could threaten it.

Clearly, this was a targeted attack!

“Who’s there? Show yourself!” The young immortal brandished his Mountain Pressing Seal high, as though ready to hurl it at any moment.

He was answered by a volley of Fireball spells.

“Craven wretches—take this!” The Mountain Pressing Seal crashed down on a sand dune below, scattering the incoming fireballs into a shower of sparks.

Clearly, his artifact rendered their fireballs harmless.

After all, his seal was a true treasure, a gift from the patriarch!

His satisfaction was short-lived; his expression changed drastically.

The fireballs weren’t aimed at him—they streaked toward the falling disciples.

“So they’re after you lot?”

There was no time to recall the Mountain Pressing Seal. The young immortal gathered his full strength, bellowing, “Heaven and earth—raise the shield!”

With a rumble, a thick earthen wall surged up from the sand.

But he was a step too late. Some fireballs had already pierced the barrier, shrieking toward the plummeting disciples.

A thunderous crash.

A scream.

One disciple was struck, flames engulfing him midair, his agonized wails echoing across the wasteland.

“Master Immortal, save us!” The remaining disciples, terrified out of their wits, shrieked for help.

“No—I don’t want to die, I haven’t even set foot on the immortal path…” Another was turned to ash by fire.

Even the one who’d first crashed into the shield and fallen unconscious on the sand could not escape; revived by the pain, he too was burned alive, his screams wrenching.

Fireballs, screams, and the stench of burning flesh sowed panic and chaos. The remaining disciples were gripped by utter terror.

“What immortal realm is this—this is hell!”

“I don’t want to become immortal anymore. I’ll just be a mortal, I want to go home…” Someone broke down sobbing, desperate to return.

“Is this what it means to be immortal?” Zhao Shuyao trembled uncontrollably, unable even to muster her master’s strength.

Only Li Ji’an, having anticipated disaster, stood prepared. His energy surged, his spirit sharp, and with a firm grip on Zhao Shuyao’s collar, he evaded three fireballs in succession, far more composed than the rest.

“Pull yourselves together! If you want to live, you must save yourselves!” Seeing the others about to perish, Li Ji’an drew a deep breath, his voice booming like thunder.

The effect was like a lion’s roar. The remaining disciples, shaken, finally snapped back to their senses.

Only now did they see that their so-called guide, the young immortal, was locked in battle with two figures shrouded in white mist—outnumbered, unable to spare them a glance.

At that moment, two more masked figures emerged from beneath a nearby sand dune.

“You two, quickly slaughter the blood-slaves. Don’t be careless.”

“Don’t worry, uncle. They’re nothing but mortals—it’ll be like butchering chickens.”

The two raced each other to the seven remaining disciples.

“Let’s see who kills more.”

“You’re on,” the other replied, accepting the wager.

“Master Immortal, spare us!” One disciple, already broken, fell to his knees before the oncoming immortals, begging for mercy.

A slash—the masked man on the left sent a wind blade slicing through the air, decapitating the youth as easily as splitting a melon.

A fountain of hot blood drenched the cleverest girl among them; all her wit and guile, all her schemes, were useless against such terror. She could only scream in abject horror.

“Noisy,” the second masked cultivator said, stabbing a finger at her.

A sword, thin as a cicada’s wing, pierced her heart on the spot.

“Don’t just wait to die! Fight back!” Watching these prodigies, revered in the Imperial Immortal Dynasty, being slaughtered without resistance, Li Ji’an’s face darkened to the extreme.

Endless yellow sand, no escape in sight.

Only resistance offered a sliver of hope.