New Status, Compelled Saint Shadow

"Who?"

The morning was still very young, and Di Tian could not make out much in the dim light. Still, he was certain that the tent's subtle movement a couple of seconds earlier hadn't been an hallucination.

Cautiously, he reached beside him to grab his portable tranquilizer rifle with his left hand. With his right, he felt around for a pocket flashlight.

But the next moment, a pair of glowing eyes appeared right beside him.

Needless to say, the flight or fight response kicked in as a burst of adrenaline rushed through his body. Di Tian instinctively jerked backwards and pointed his right hand forward in preparation to fire a shot.

"Poor reflexes, poor level of alertness," a cold voice sounded. "If it was a wild beast that managed to sneak into your tent, you would most certainly be done for."

Following these words, a bright light illuminated the interior of the tent. Di Tian's eyes involuntarily closed at the sudden sensory stimulus. When he opened it a few seconds after, he was stunned.

The cultivator from the Void Ship that secretly taught him the meditative tea ceremony was presently inside the tent, looking at him impassively. In his hands was a small ball of fire that burned steadily without generating any heat, only light.

Amid the shock and with his heart racing rapidly, Di Tian muttered, "W... What's going on?"

"I don't think I introduced myself properly before, have I?" The young man said, ignoring Di Tian's question. "I'm Fang Ao, Taboo Order's Saint Candidate of the 91st generation."

'Why is he including his rank in his organization?" The thought immediately flashed across Di Tian''s mind. Could it be that the young man was here to finish the secret recruitment he started earlier?

By now, he had already put down the tranquilizer rifle. If this cultivator was here with ill intentions, he knew that his weapon wouldn't have any effect on him.

Ignoring the fact that the thin needle couldn't even break through the cultivator's outer skin layer, even if it did, the tranquilizer definitely wouldn't have any effect.

"You're wondering why I'm including seemingly unnecessary details like what generation I belong to in my organization, right?" As if he was reading Di Tian's mind, Fang Ao continued. "Well, you probably have already guessed it. It's the same reason as why I taught you the meditative tea ceremony."

"You want to recruit me into your organization?" Di Tian said directly.

"I don't WANT to recruit you to my organization," Fang Ao said haughtily. "I'm GRANTING you the honour of becoming a member of the organization I belong to."

Di Tian frowned. The second sentence had the same notion of him joining this unknown cultivator's organization, but why did it sound like he had no say in this decision?

"I don't care if you're dissatisfied. You can either accept your fate or have it end, hehe," Fang Ao chuckled coldly. The threat in his voice was clear.

For a split second, Di Tian wondered if his integration with the Grand Primordial Helix came with a misfortune perk. Since he encountered it, cultivators with nefarious intentions had been coming his way like ants drawn to a mothhill.

But this time, he decided to take the initiative.

Gritting his teeth, he suddenly raised the tranquilizer rifle in his hand and fired a shot at the man's thigh.

He didn't think the shot would go through, but it was only meant to be a distraction in the first place.

Without bothering to check the result of his shot, Di Tian abruptly turned and ran out of the tent with his backpack.

At the same time, he retrieved the Spirit Ginseng from it and crushed it with his palm, hurriedly stuffing the whole thing into his mouth.

Behind him, Fang Ao unhurriedly exited the tent and watched Di Tian's back view.

"Quick thinking," he praised. "Then again, that's the quality I want my Saint Shadow to possess the most."

As they said, the older the ginger, the spicier. Fang Ao could immediately tell that Di Tian was running not to get away from him but to keep a distance from the tent itself. His Divine Sense did a scan and identified an inconspicuous-looking object inside that strangely had a volatile potential energy-index.

The next moment, the object exploded with a deafening bang.

Boom!

The explosive force generated swept around the surrounding radius. Mid-run, Di Tian was blasted away. Meanwhile, Fang Ao just smiled coldly and vanished.

In a few minutes, the explosion subsided. Several metres away from the explosion site, Di Tian's fingers twitched.

Visible to the naked eye, the open wounds on his body squirmed and closed up as his injuries healed rapidly. Soon, his eyes flew open.

A nerve-wracking cough immediately assaulted his lungs. This went on for the next couple of minutes.

"You clearly didn't put that into consideration," a familiar voice sounded right beside him. Di Tian's head abruptly turned left to see Fang Ao nodding approvingly.

The cultivator appeared totally unharmed by the explosion. Looking at him, Di Tian felt his heart sink.

"Stealthily activating an explosion mechanism, feigning an attack to escape, consuming a Spirit Plant to activate your physical body's accelerated healing ability," Fang Ao listed. "I have to say, a second stage cultivator could possibly have been neutralized by your ingenious combo. Mortal weaponry do possess quite the lethal potential against low stage cultivators."

Di Tian was surprised. Instead of the cultivator being angry, he seemed....impressed?

"Your performance is only more reason why you're suitable to be my Shadow," Fang Ao continued. "It's settled, you're joining my Taboo Order. You can forget about participating in that bullshit tournament now."

"But I want to," Di Tian said firmly. "I have a right to choose what organization I want to join."

Fang Ao looked at Di Tian like he was crazy.

"Such rules only apply to the weak. This is the cultivation world," he said plainly. "As the strong, I have the right to do what I want and disregard your opinion."

Di Tian suddenly felt the strong urge to give the cultivator a good beating.

"That's my first lesson to you, and the most important," Fang Ao said solemnly. "Especially as the Taboo Order pays attention to strength the most."

"What's the Taboo Order like?" Di Tian asked resignedly. "Also, you're pretty adamant about making me join the organization. Is there any special reason?"

"Finally asking the right questions," Fang Ao said. "But let's start with the second one you asked. I want you to join for one reason only; to be my Saint Shadow."