Yang Anju brought Huang Ying to the stables and explained the basics that one had to keep in mind while preparing a wagon or taking care of the horses. The rest of the people who were to hitch a ride with them came faster than anticipated so they had to stop playing around and quickly prepare the wagons and the horses, leaving the city less than an hour after Huang Ying and Yang Anju headed to the stables.

The caravan contained two different types of wagons, the standard open wagon that was basically just a box without a top and a somewhat smaller wagon that was more akin to a room on wheels, complete with roof and window. It was only now that Huang Ying learned that getting a seat on the caravan only cost around 10 copper, only if you wanted one of the room-like wagons to yourself would you have to pay 75 copper. He was scammed a bit by the red-dressed woman in that regard, but he got a room to himself so he didn't mind it too much.

The rooms themselves only contained a thin bed and a nightstand where you could store a few items, far from luxurious but more than good enough for a trip like this. The caravan itself was set up in a manner that there would be one open wagon at the front and then one room wagon behind it, with another room wagon housing one of the bodyguards right behind the room wagon.

All the wagons were tied together with a rope and there were two special open wagons in the caravan, one close to the front and one further back. These special wagons had a special pit built into their center, allowing people to make up a campfire within them so that they could cook food or spend the night around it. The caravan wasn't scheduled to stop even at night, so these wagons were a necessity to prevent the people riding the caravan from being forced to eat nothing but dry meat and bread for the entire trip.

They didn't use the special wagons on the first day, mainly due to the fact that it was starting to grow darker by the time they left so everyone had already eaten ahead of time. But the campfires on the special wagons were lit up on the second day, Huang Ying taking this chance to hop onto one of them and chat a bit with the others that were already sitting there.

"So, if you don't mind me asking of course, why are you heading Willow's Whisper, or beyond even?"

Sitting around the campfire and roasting a few skewers of either meat, fish, or vegetables, were seven other people, four men and three women. They were a bit caught off guard by the sudden youth that interrupted the silence with a question, but none of them minded a bit of casual conversation so they all responded and returned the question.

"Son's coming home from the army for a bit so I'm heading there to pick him up. You?"

"Bringing some hay I prepared last yeah, gonna sell it in Burning Clouds. What about you?"

"I've got a job lined up four cities over, gonna spend the next four months there before returning. What brings a kid like you out?"

"One of my friends needs some help in his shop so I'm heading there to help him for a bit before he drives his woodshop into the ground. And you?"

"Nothing special, just heading out to see a new city for a change of scenery. You doing the same or?"

"There's a certain shop in the city to the north of Burning clouds that sells a special wine that the wife loves, gotta stock up now before the price skyrockets later in the year. You?"

"I bought a house in Burning Clouds that I intend to use as a winter house, heading there now to check it out. And you, are you out on a journey?"

One of the men removed a skewer of vegetables from the fire and handed it to Huang Ying, who gratefully accepted it before placing a skewer of his own on the fire. Food and water were included in the cost he paid, so Yang Anju handed him a certain amount of provisions each morning, meaning that he didn't have to worry about going hungry due to not buying food. Huang Ying gave his own answer while chewing on the vegetables, which were still somewhat raw.

"Calling it a journey is probably the best way of putting it, yeah. I'm heading to Burning Clouds to join the Fierce Flame academy."

The others around the fire slightly raised their eyebrows after receiving his response. Everyone could cultivate, but that didn't mean that everyone had it in them to join an academy, it required both talent and determination. One of the women seemed to remember something, accidentally pointing at Huang Ying with her skewer of meat while talking.

"That's pretty smart, now's a really good time to join them. I heard that their rival academy accepted a very talented student a few years back, so the Fierce Flame academy has declined slightly in popularity over the last seven or eight years, forcing them to lower their requirements to join, especially in the talent department. That's your reason, no?"

The woman was rather certain about her deduction, quickly pulling back her skewer when she noticed that she was practically waving it in Huang Ying's face. But her assuredness quickly deflated when she saw Huang Ying somewhat awkwardly scratch the back of his head.

"Ehh, not really, no. I didn't even know that they had a rival academy until you just told me. But hey at least now I know that I should be assured a spot to join. I do have enough talent, right, grampa Jun? And how do they even measure talent to begin with?"

The last part of his sentence was only spoken out inside his own mind, the others wouldn't understand who he was talking to after all. Huang Ying had no idea how the academies gauged talent or the like, so he felt that it was best to ask Li Jun, a response quickly echoing out in his head.

"Enough talent? Just what sort of body do you think you've got right now? If you don't have enough talent, then no one does. But the talent portion is nothing to worry about, only nobles or the like care about talent, academies and sects care more about your determination and will. As for how they measure it, that's pretty simple, they look at your age, your cultivation, the number of elements you have, the strength of those elements, and if you have any special properties. Once all these factors are put together, you will receive a talent ranking ranging from Mortal, Immortal, Earth, Sky, Divine, and Sacred, all divided into nine sub-levels."

Some would consider it a bit unfair to measure age and current cultivation as part of someone's talent, there were quite a few people who didn't start cultivating until rather late after all. But looking at one's age and current cultivation was one of the better indicators of how talented one was, so the practice remained in use. Huang Ying was somewhat interested in the ranking titles of the system, so he multitasked, conversing with both Li Jun and the group around the fire.

"How was the ranking system created, and do the titles carry any special meaning?"

Huang Ying and Li Jun had spent quite some time together already, and only in some very rare instances had Li Jun been unable to perfectly answer any questions that Huang Ying had. Sadly, it seemed like this time would become a part of those very rare instances.

"I don't know who created the ranking system, it was already well-established by the time I started cultivating. The titles themselves don't really have any meaning, they're the same titles used when talking about armor, weapon, or item rankings. Yeah yeah, no need to ask about it, I'll tell you. Depending on how strong or special an item is, it will receive a rank with the same titles and sub-levels as the talent ranking. The higher the ranking, the stronger and more special the item is. Generally, any item that reaches the 5th Earth Grade will have absorbed so much energy that it will manifest its own consciousness and will, you have to be very careful when dealing with any such items, as they can act even without anyone controlling them."

Li Jun considered this information that Huang Ying wouldn't need for quite some time, but as he was now the inheritor of the Ninth Ancestral God, he was destined to reach at least that height if he wasn't killed while still weak. Huang Ying's eyes sparkled slightly when he heard the information. Weapons and armor that could move and do things without anyone controlling them, just how special would such an item be?

The caravan continued its journey without pause, passing through a small pine forest and reaching Willow's Whisper city after nine days on the road, Huang Ying spending each night around the campfire and chatting with the various travelers. The caravan stopped for half a day to drop off some of their passengers and to pick up the new ones, as well as to restock on food and water for the next trek of the road. Once evening arrived, the caravan set out again, heading for Burning Clouds city.

They managed to reach Willow's Whisper without incident so they hoped that they would be able to do the same with the road to Burning Clouds. Even the guards themselves hoped for this, after all, a peaceful journey was better than one filled with battles. But when they were just three days away from Burning Clouds city, as they were passing through a valley that went between several hills that were so steep and tall that they almost resembled mountains, a loud shout resounded from atop one of the hills and stopped the caravan.

"In the name of the Cloud Shredders, halt!"