CHAPTER 689: AN AMBUSH?

As the cruiser flew at cruising speed, Aldrian initially intended to enjoy the journey while attracting as little attention as possible. However, that intention could only be buried, as several figures kept following him as if he were a mother hen and they were baby chicks.

The two red-haired figures, along with a woman carrying a sword and her friend that kept looking at him with curiosity. This composition alone was enough to attract more attention from others, since he seemed to be at the center of these famous persons.

He tried moving to another part of the deck to find a lonelier place, but they always followed him. Aldrian sighed as he looked at the two red-haired siblings.

"You don’t have to always follow me. If you need to do something, then you could do so," he said.

"No, young master. There is nothing I need to do here. Besides, this place is a good place to enjoy the journey," Ryong said.

"I’m the same, young master. We usually also stay on the open deck like this when we take a journey on a cruiser," his sister Rin said.

Aldrian then looked at the beautiful veiled woman who was watching him with an expressionless face. Though she did not say anything, he already knew she seemed intent on staying near him. He then looked at her friend, another beautiful woman who regarded him with curiosity but did not say anything.

Aldrian sighed again and decided to ignore them, turning his gaze toward the passing scenery.

"By the way, Sword Maiden, why are you standing here? I don’t think you stay here just to converse, right?" Ryong suddenly asked as he looked at the Sword Maiden.

The Sword Maiden did not answer immediately, her gaze remaining fixed on Aldrian. Ryong seemed not to mind this kind of behavior, and only a few seconds later did the Sword Maiden open her lips.

"Well, I just like to be here," she said.

Her friend knew that was nonsense. The Sword Maiden she knew never did this, as she always preferred lonely places. She must be here because of this man she claimed to be a strong person. Her friend was curious about what she saw in him that attracted her enough to be the one to approach him.

Her answer made the two siblings look at the Sword Maiden with narrowed eyes. Had she found something about Aldrian that interested her? For them, they liked being near Aldrian because he was the successor of the Heavenly Demon, and they were fanatics about it. Simply being near him made them feel truly honored. Even now, they felt a strong resonance that made them want to prostrate before him.

Unbeknown to them, the Sword Maiden had chosen to stay close to Aldrian after sensing a difference following their duel last night. She realized that although Aldrian’s eyes unsettled her for some unknown reason, being near him also helped her comprehension of the sword.

His very being was like the embodiment of a walking sword, with his strong sword intent and sword will. She thought that Aldrian might have already reached a higher realm of swordsmanship known as the Perfect Sword Heart, something that only a few people in legends had attained.

The Sword Heart itself was already difficult to achieve, and the Perfect Sword Heart was far more so. The Sword Heart was a state where a person became one with the sword through their comprehension, their body became the sword, their mind and soul became the sword.

However, not all Sword Hearts were the same, as they depended on the cultivator’s comprehension of the sword, which came from their comprehension of sword intent and sword will.

Some Sword Hearts could be far stronger than others, but all of them would be rarely reach another level that remained the dream of sword cultivators, and that was the Perfect Sword Heart.

In this realm, their heart and body were the purest a swordsman could attain. They became one with the sword, with no doubt that they themselves were the sword. Their heart and soul were strong and unwavering in the path of the sword, and they finally reached enlightenment to attain the Perfect Sword Heart.

At this stage, every movement of the swordmaster was like the movement of the sword itself.

The Sword Maiden had read all of that in the records, and as far as she knew, there was no one in this star cluster or even in the entire galaxy who had attained the Perfect Sword Heart. That was why she wondered if Aldrian might have already reached that state, which made her feel different when near him, and even allowed her to gain benefits simply by being close.

However, what she did not know was that Aldrian did not always use his sword and not pure sword cultivator. He could also wield other artifacts, such as a bow, at a mastery level.

If she knew about this, she would probably have to reassess her knowledge of the sword, which might even affect her own sword path.

Hearing the Sword Maiden’s answer, Ryong did not dwell on it further and simply stood near Aldrian. The journey would take about a day, and they would have to pass through a vast forest area before reaching their destination.

For hours, there was minimal conversation between them until suddenly a commotion broke out on the deck. The cruiser shook violently, and its defensive measures activated.

Someone had attacked the cruiser!

It began to slow down rapidly as, in front of them, a red transparent shield suddenly appeared. In fact, the red shield had trapped the cruiser inside, forming a dome around it.

"What the hell happened?!" one of the passengers asked, confused by this sudden development. Was someone attacking them right now? Who would dare to do that when their group consisted of many powerful people, especially the sect master of the Piercing Heaven Sect?

Sect Master Han emerged from the cabin and stepped onto the deck to observe the situation. He instantly understood what was happening and spread his sense to the maximum. At that moment, he detected thousands of hidden cultivators in the forest below, outside the red dome. From their positions, they seemed to be the ones maintaining the dome.

He instantly knew who they were and couldn’t help but smirk.

"This is a devil’s sacrificial formation! They are devils!" someone among the passengers shouted, recognizing what had happened to them.

"We have to get out of here as fast as possible before this formation sucks all of our beings into it. This is a formation the devils usually use to quickly increase their kin’s cultivation by sacrificing others," he added.

Someone then tried to attack the red dome with his lightning element. He was at the pseudo-immortal foundation stage, but his strike did not leave a single mark on the dome.

"This formation is strong!" he said, and one after another began their attacks. Even the elders who were part of the entourage joined in, but at most, the formation only trembled before standing firm once more.

"Give up! None of you will get out of here alive." Suddenly, a voice resounded from outside the dome. A figure, already in his devil form and possessing middle pseudo-immortal stage cultivation, appeared and floated near them outside of the dome.

The moment he appeared, hundreds of other devils also began to reveal themselves. Seeing this, everyone on the cruiser realized that this was a planned ambush. However, many were confused, how could these devils have known their path? Unless there was a traitor among them.

"Ulasis, you’re still alive, huh? I thought you had already died a dog’s death somewhere after running with your tail between your legs when we obliterated the devils in your own territory," Sect Master Han said mockingly as he looked at the devil.

"Han Jinho, you bastard, even if you’re here, there’s no escape. We’ve been planning this for weeks, and with thousands of us maintaining this formation, even if you’re at the peak pseudo-immortal stage, you’ll be dead before you can break it," the devil named Ulasis replied in an angry tone.

Aldrian watched all of this with a calm expression before being approached by the earlier grand elder.

"They are the remnants of the devils from the central continent who were forced into hiding after young master defeated the immortal on the Barisan Continent," he said through voice transmission after nearing Aldrian.

"After young master defeated the immortal, these devils fell into turmoil. At that time, the three great sects took advantage of the chaos and attacked them, causing them to lose all their territory, with many escaping," he added.

Aldrian nodded in understanding. The formation had already begun its work, and he could feel his energy being drained into it. Everyone inside the formation felt the same. This energy would later be converted into devil energy within the formation before being absorbed by the devils to aid their cultivation.

As time passed, the absorption rate would increase, placing everyone here in a dangerous situation.

Despite all of this, Sect Master Han only looked at Ulasis with a gaze full of disdain.

"Is that so?" the sect master asked in a mocking tone. Suddenly, he drew a sword from his storage ring, instantly drawing the attention of many. Its power surged outward, causing others to widen their eyes in shock as they recognized it as a high divine-grade weapon.

Ulasis, watching Sect Master Han draw the sword, also widened his eyes in shock.

’The Heaven Shattering Sword! He brought his sect’s legacy artifact with him?!’ he screamed in his head.

Legacy artifacts rarely left their sect’s headquarters unless under certain circumstances. But to think this old man had brought it with him now!

He knew things would turn ugly and decisively tried to escape.

"Too late," Sect Master Han said coldly before swinging his sword.

Swoosh!