It was as if they were standing between ice blocks. The question that she asked seed to hit the black bandaged undead like a hamr to the head because of the way he recoiled backwards, hissing like a snake.
Black aura ca out of him, almost liquid-like, and the pressure that followed was like tal clamping on their shoulders. Riven gasped as an invisible force slamd into him and drove him to his knees.
He wasn’t the only one. The ground cracked beneath Kivara as she was slamd down. Spartacus and the Grave Knight as well. Only the black bandaged undead remained standing.
The countless flickering red lights in his eyes had settled and each red light was like eyes in themselves looking at them. "You want to know how I turned into an undead?"
Kivara struggled and she raised her head, her face was black like a mask. "What? Of course not. I don’t want to know the answer to that question."
There was a pause and then the pressure coming from the black bandaged undead was removed. The black aura surrounding him also withdrew and once again he turned into a harmless undead.
But they weren’t fooled. Riven stood up gently, wearily. He backed off a few steps and called his undead to him.
"... good thing I did not antagonize him that badly earlier... this guy... is strong..."
The black bandaged undead turned his back to them and then he began to retreat deeper into the village. "You boy with the undead, that’s an interesting thing you have. I believe we will et again soday."
"Wait, what about how to get out of..."
Before he could finish speaking, the village blurred and disappeared. Everything that related to the village lted away without traces.
When they looked around, they realized that they were back in the forest. In fact, they had been transported out of the Shadowwood, standing at the very clearing that led to the Shadowwood.
Although they were still in a forest, Riven could see that they had left the Shadowwood behind. The heavy atmosphere was gone and the trees that now surrounded them lacked the heavy presence like the ones in the Shadowwood.
Riven cleared his throat and then he returned his undeads. It was the first ti he would be doing such. Every ti he used the Grave Knights, they were destroyed.
"Lucky one." He muttered as he severed the connection between them. The door appeared again and the Grave Knight passed through without any hesitation.
Spartacus also returned to his shadow with ease.
Then he turned to Kivara. He tried to keep the excitent away from his voice. After all, this was the first ti he would be leaving the Shadowwood that shaped his whole life so far behind. "What’s going to happen now?"
Kivara frowned and shrugged. "It all depends on you. The world is big and you can do what you want."
Riven smiled. "Yes, the world is big. That’s exactly why I’m asking you."
"The plan was to get you to join my sect. The Green Clouds Sect. It’s a small sect without even a hundred years of history," Kivara said.
Riven frowned. "What does that have to do with anything?"
She smiled. "It’s like this. If you are depending on sects or clans to help you on the road of cultivation, then it’s better to have one with thousands of years of history and resources. One, it shows their strength for still remaining standing. Second, they will have different ancient resources, techniques, relics, and such to help you. In short, they are strong and powerful."
As she was talking, she was leading him through the normal forest, their steps quick.
Riven’s mouth ford an ’O’ as he nodded in understanding. "So it’s like that."
"Yes. The Green Clouds Sect is relatively small although they do have a pact with a Greater Sect. If they could reach a certain level of prominence, then they would be accepted as part of that sect’s branch and get supported by it."
Riven nodded along without speaking.
She continued. "But most importantly for you, it’s not a necromancer’s sect. It’s what we call a ’black market’ sect."
"Black market sect?"
"Yes. Simply put, they are sects that don’t focus on one path. You can learn different paths from them. Usually, sects are made up of one path that you can learn. Take the Desolate Elental Sects for example. They have paths only for Sigils related to Elental. Or the Deep Sea Sect, they only teach the water Elental.
"Or the White Feather Sect that only deals in necromancers. Do you get now?"
Riven nodded. "But there are so sects that combine them?"
Kivara nodded. "Yes. They have different paths and create different ’Halls’ in a sect where different Aura practitioners can learn. Those ancient sects that have been teaching a single path usually sneer and look down on the black market sects."
"So to go back to your question. What should you do? Look for a sect that you want and join. Maybe you have heard about practitioners that just go loose and learn on their own without support of sects and organizations, but in real life, it’s definitely not like that.
"How do you want to get a path to start with?"
Riven nodded. Practitioners need massive amounts of resources, and from the beginning they need to have a path to be even called practitioners at all. Riven smiled. "I still want to join your Green Clouds Sect."
Kivara turned to frown at him. "Why?"
"Because I need the experience. I don’t need a path from you guys so I can’t be tied down. You said it’s a small sect, right? I want to gain experience through that," Riven said.
Kivara shrugged. "With that, you won’t ever be the inner or core mber of the sect, but you will still be given a chance to earn your resources."
Riven smiled but his eyes darkened. "... the real reason I want to join is because of my revenge... that bastard seems to be in a sect that’s close by... I will use the Green Clouds Sect as my base to study things before I carry out my revenge... I need to take my sister’s body back..."
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