Nolan stared him directly in the eyes with the straightest face he could muster. “About twenty-five leagues that way”—he pointed west—“it seems like people from your sect fought it out with some mercenaries. We…took everything within sight and continued on our way.”

“Your aura, why is it so heavy? You’re clearly at the first level of the Profound Entry stage, yet the feeling you give off is of someone in the later levels.”

A rabid panic grew within Nolan, which pushed him past the point of rationality. Luckily, the Millennial Ring sent a soothing stream of energy all throughout his body, which calmed him almost instantly. It left him feeling as if he had just woken up from a comfortable nap on the nicest day of the year, and was currently looking at an old friend.

This guy, just how strong is he?

“And you.” The man stared at Nyla. “That you could sense me at your level, you have remarkable potential as an arrayment practitioner. Perhaps I should just take you back to the sect with me?” He paused for a moment, and then let out a derisive sneer. “No, I suspect you two had something to do with the death of my grandson. I’ve already found this so-called ‘battleground,’ and there were traces of your auras on his corpse.”

“We had nothing to do with that!” Nolan focused on the white blade within his spatial bag, surprised to learn that auras could leave traces behind. “He must have been one of those people whose spatial bags we took.”

A tremendous pressure bore down upon him and Nyla. He couldn’t move a muscle, or even breathe. It was as if time itself had somehow stopped. Inner essence can be used like this? He didn’t have time to be shocked, since death seemed imminent.

The older man took a casual step forward, though his eyes burned with the same crazy bloodlust that Nolan had seen in the faces of every disciple from his sect that he’d encountered.

Just as he was strangling his mind in an attempt to force out some sort of plan, the red tattoo on his left forearm began to burn like a beam of light from a magnifying glass. The scalding sensation quickly intensified, but the strange sensation disappeared as abruptly as it had come to life.

The man took another step closer, and then another, each punctuated by a deliberate pause. Whoever he was, there was no doubt that this man was a true villain.

Nolan tried to glance at the tattoo on his arm, but even his eyes had been rendered immobile, making him stare at the angry member of the Bloodhand Sect like a dying man awaiting the reaper.

Why the hell are you burning like that if you’re not going to do anything? You damn ghost!

As the old man took another step forward, his expression suddenly warped into one of anguish. His devilish amber eyes widened in both surprise and alarm. With an almost perfect concurrency, the pressure that bore down upon Nolan completely vanished, as it did with Nyla.

Thick veins stuck out on the older man’s face, which had flushed red and begun to shake with effort. Looking closely, it seemed that he was suffering under an oppressive force similar to the one he’d just exerted upon the two of them.

Not keen on waiting around to figure out what had just happened, Nolan grabbed Nyla’s hand and dashed away from their sudden assailant, who remained landlocked, teeth grinding and eyes feral.

Before they could cover more than a dozen paces, however, that same pressure bore down upon them once again, though this time they enjoyed enough freedom to turn their heads and control their gazes.

He looked at the immobile man, doubting that he was responsible for the renewed restrictions that bore down upon them.

Warm air traced Nolan’s cheeks as a light gust of wind brushed past, colourful flowers rustling as a strange silence fell upon the area. The shy winds faded in the moments that followed, and a brief disturbance in the sun’s glaring light caused Nolan to glance upward.

A shadowy silhouette caught his eye, hovering about a hundred metres above him, almost perfectly aligned with the sun. The dark outline began in a gradual descent, until Nolan realized that the floating figure was actually a person.

Eh, what the—he’s seriously flying? A masculine build betrayed that it was a man’s body beneath the dark cloak that masked his appearance, strong arms crossed proudly as he came nearer to the three of them at a slow but steady pace.

A powerful voice seemed to encompass the entire region, a strong tinge of amusement to its tone. “An old man like you, plotting to murder young ones like these? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”

“W—who are you?”

“Just a passing stranger who happened upon an interesting sight.” The man turned his head a fraction, glancing in Nolan and Nyla’s direction.

“You…” grated the initial stranger. “Are you from those islands?”

“Hah, who knows?”

The air began to hum as if a giant bird were flapping its wings with all its strength, the Origin Energy in the air stirring like a cloud of dust in the wind.

The older man’s expression changed dramatically, his amber eyes gaping in disbelief. “You! Damn you, Mar—” A sudden flash of golden light forced Nolan to avert his eyes, and when he looked back the elder had completely disappeared. There were no traces of the man, despite the fact that not even a centimetre of dirt had been disturbed. The only thing that occupied the space where he’d just stood was a golden spatial bag tied with dazzling silver lace, though it quickly shot up into the air like a small fish on a fishing line and landed securely in the cloaked man’s right hand. Stowing his loot away in his own spatial bag, the man put on a satisfied smile and then abruptly vanished.

The pressure that constricted their movements still remained, but Nolan wasn’t left wondering where the man had disappeared to for long, for a quick glance to his right showed him that he had appeared two metres behind Nyla.

“Don’t be alarmed, I’m going to lift the pressure that’s restraining you two. Make sure not to run though, I want to talk for a bit. After that, you’ll be free to continue on your way.”

They both nodded without hesitation, and soon regained full control of their physical faculties.

“You two are quite an odd pair. One’s cultivation is impossibly deceiving, while the other’s spiritual sensitivity is remarkably high.” He pulled back his hood to reveal a roguishly handsome, clean-shaven face. His square jaw and scheming dark eyes emanated an intimidating sense of majesty that was only seen in the most confident of people.

“Thank you for saving us,” said Nolan, after a moment of uncertainty.

Nyla bowed her head. “Thank you.”

“Don’t be mistaken, I didn’t save you out of the kindness of my heart.” He let out an elated laugh as if he’d just found a fifty dollar bill at the end of a long day. “You two now owe me a tremendous debt, do you understand? I saved you so that you may be of use to me in the future, but that is only possible if you continue to grow.”

Anxious as Nolan was, he had no choice but to nod along with whatever the man said. “What do you plan on having us do, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“We’ll see about that when the time comes. It all depends on how quickly you mature.”

Since he didn’t intend to harm them, Nolan worked up the courage to ask a question. “That man you just killed, is there any chance you know what sort of rank he held in his sect?”

A brief grin visited the man’s lips. “Why do you ask?”

“I want to know more about them. How strong they are, how many people are in the organization, anything along those lines.”

“And why would you want to learn that?”

Nolan didn’t answer, though the man didn’t seem to mind.

“He was an elder, a pretty high-ranking one too. He would have controlled a decent amount of territory within their borders, and was surely in charge of a few thousand disciples, not to mention the fodder that feeds them.”

A few thousand? Nolan had a sudden premonition that the Bloodhand Sect was far larger than he’d initially assumed.

“How many disciples are there?”

“You’re better off worrying about raising your cultivation.” The man fished something out of his pocket, a slip of parchment similar to the one that the grey-haired man had been holding. “You can contact me if you fill this with inner essence, and naturally I can do the same.” Letting out a rough laugh, he released his hold on the parchment and it floated over to hover in front of Nolan as if carried by an invisible hand. “I’ll know if you break it, or if it ever leaves your side.”

Fear and anxiety worked in tandem to stop Nolan from letting out a frustrated groan. This guy’s really got my balls in a vice here. If he accepted the slip, then he would definitely get wrapped up in some sketchy situations in the future. If I don’t…well, I don’t think I have a choice. Meeting the man’s piercing gaze, Nolan accepted the parchment and then placed it in his spatial bag.

Nyla dipped her head toward the man. “Sir, could I trouble you to explain how those slips of parchment work? That elder called it a sound transference talisman. If its function is for communication, then how was he able to find us?”

“Each slip is connected to a sister talisman, and both are enchanted with a complex sound transference arrayment, which makes it so that they amplify inner essence in an extremely precise manner. This creates a series of echoes in the Origin Energy between the two talismans. He followed those echoes.”

The man didn’t seem to care whether or not they understood his explanation, and turned to leave. He paused for a moment to withdraw four black beads from his spatial bag and then tossed them over to Nolan and Nyla, two apiece. “Swallow these the next time you cultivate. They will give you surprising benefits. Oh, and the nearest city is a few hundred leagues that way”—he pointed to the northeast—“roughly anyway. You two looked a little lost earlier.”

He vanished as if his presence had been a lie, and this time appeared in the air about 200 metres above them. Without looking back, he shot off into the distance like a bird without wings. Nolan was shocked silly, for he’d never have imagined that people were capable of self-sustained flight.

As the man disappeared into the horizon, Nolan stored the black medicinal pellets into his spatial bag and turned to share an odd stare with Nyla. Just how long had the man been following them? They both glanced at the empty patch of flowers where the apparent elder of the Bloodhand Sect had been ruthlessly eradicated.

“Nolan…”

“Nothing we can do about it.” He gave his head a shake to regain some focus. “Hey, at least we know the way to Ferguson now.”

He gave her an uneasy smile and then tore off into the field, kicking up flowers as he began heading in the direction that the unnamed man had indicated. Nyla appeared at his side within seconds, her long hair trailing in her wake as a worried frown weighed down upon her pretty lips.