Once Nolan had brought order to the energies within him, he stood up and released an experimental punch that caused an impressive windstorm that superseded the gales of nature in the immediate area. In the past, he would have had to put a decent amount of effort into such a strike in order to bring about the same results, though now he didn’t even expend any energy.

It’s not even close to Profound Entry…

At long last he had reached the Integration stage, a realm that perhaps one in ten thousand people could ever hope to achieve. Scanning his body and examining all of the changes that had just taken place, he was ecstatic to feel that he wasn’t merely a bit more powerful than before, but exaggeratedly so. His spiritual space had grown by leaps and bounds, the entire area flooded with liquid energy that was at least two metres deep. The projection of his dantian within this area had also grown to scale, now about the size of a small bedroom where it hovered at the centre of this peculiar space.

The greatest change that he noticed was in the physiology of his inner essence channels, which had nearly doubled in diameter. The energy within was of much higher quality than before; purer, lighter, denser, and more versatile. He only needed about half as much energy to bring about the same results as before. Not only that, but the flow of inner essence within his body was much smoother, as if raging rapids had settled into the calmness of a gentle river. It seemed that even with the uniqueness of the Ancestral Body Technique in mind, the Integration stage remained a catalyst that served to improve a cultivator’s quality of inner essence and their control over it. Nolan’s was much more potent than anyone else’s would be with the same stage of cultivation, however, and was more aligned with someone at the first level of Genesis.

Can I fly now? Wondering this, he attempted to lift himself off of the ground with a subconscious exertion of will, though nothing happened. I guess not. Ian had learned within minutes of his breakthrough, so apparently Nolan had to wait until he genuinely reached the Genesis stage.

As he was looking down at his hands in awe, Nolan was pleased to see that his spiritual sense had also been strengthened by a vast degree. Not only was he aware of May’s aura—a cultivation that was an entire stage and three levels above his own—but he could do so with surprising clarity despite the fact that there were roughly four kilometres between them. It was worrisome to note that she wasn’t fighting, but fleeing, and in his direction, at that. Her aura was also in disarray, which told him that she was in danger.

Of the few villages and hamlets in the area, Nolan could sense every single person that inhabited them, some so distinctly that he could even guess what they were currently up to, and others just enough to make out their cultivation levels and life force.

“Are you gonna lay there forever, or what?” He patted the woman down until he found her spatial bag, though scoffed when he saw that it was sealed. Throwing it at her feet, he commanded, “Put all your spirit stones in another spatial bag and hand ‘em over.”

She did so with shaking hands, still too shocked to speak.

Holy—

She had well over three hundred thousand ordinary spirit stones, and about two thousand superior ones. There was enough energy within these stones to help Nolan reach the third level of Integration, though he intended to pad the sect’s treasury rather than splurge them all on himself. Thinking about the woman’s avaricious attitude, Nolan could only imagine how much of her wealth had been stolen from the corpses of her victims, so he didn’t feel the least bit of remorse.

“Glare at me all you want, but don’t forget that you stole that Keplin guy’s spatial bag before I could loot it. Oh yeah. I lost my magic sword because of you. If you’ve got another one then hand it over. If you’ve got multiple then give me your best one.”

A longsword with a cruciform hilt appeared in front of him, the handle wrapped with tough white leather. A large diamond was embedded into the pommel, the blade a metre-and-a-half’s length of unknown metal that seemed as sturdy as the sword that his teachers had recently made for him. That was saying something considering that his other weapon was made from fragments of the bone sword along with a large hunk of black halmite. He couldn’t help but look over the weapon with impressed eyes, as it was much lighter than his previous magic sword, and of much higher quality.

Awesome! He didn’t intend to use it just yet, since he hadn’t taken the time to get familiar with it. Since he intended on jumping right into the thick of things, he needed to be absolutely sure of his movements. Thinking along that vein, he spent the next forty seconds dashing around the area to get a feel for his new physique. Even without the help of the Tranquil Void Step, he could still cover a hundred metres in a single, dizzying dash. With the help of his movement skill’s base function, he could move three times as fast and could now maintain such speeds for up to ten minutes.

Nolan closed his eyes and tried to focus on May. His heart nearly skipped a beat when he soon sensed a drastic drop in the strength of her aura. The agitation to her life force coincided with an earth-bound reverberation and a lagging sound of impact.

He looked over at the White Rogue, who hadn’t moved since he’d forced her to hand over her fortune. “If you do what I say and don’t cause me any more problems, I’ll end the contract and give your freedom back.” Not until he was stronger than her, of course, but the offer was earnest.

“Why would you do that?” Her voice lacked its usual venom, now light and empty.

“To make things easier for the both of us.”

She finally sat up, and went on to float back to her feet as she fixed him with a complex stare. “How can I be sure you’re telling the truth?”

“If I had a nickel… You can’t, but you don’t really have a choice, do you?” He took out his black-bladed sword and began to climb up a series of steps that he conjured with near-subconscious thought. “Don’t worry, I’m actually a good person and stay true to my word. That might sound crazy to someone like you, but I mean it when I say that I’m willing to let you go.”

“And what will you have me do?” She subconsciously pulled at her clothes, an action that didn’t suit her.

He fixed her with a firm stare as another impact sounded from nearby.

“For starters, let’s help my friend.”

He couldn’t sense Nyla or the others, and although he was terribly worried about them, the two most powerful adversaries that were hostile to their group were currently dogging May to death. Both Great Elder Tegan and the other man were at the fifth level of Genesis, May at the fourth. Even if she was strong enough to do battle with people above her cultivation level, she didn’t stand much of a chance against two of them. The White Rogue was two levels above her, and now that the devious woman had been forced to switch sides, escaping with their lives was no longer just a fantasy.