“What are our chances of running into that thing?” said Nolan. The thought of fighting a creature at the Genesis stage was already daunting enough, not to mention one that had demonized and abnormally retained its consciousness. “What does it look like?”

“Well, it’s always shrouded by a gigantic cloud of mist, so nobody’s actually seen its real appearance. The mist usually extends around it for a good distance. Also, it was injured back then when fighting with members from the sect, so it hasn’t moved from that area in all this time.”

Nolan wanted to feint. “So if it actually does come by, we’ll have no way of knowing if the mist is part of the formation or from whatever surrounds the beast?”

“Essentially, yes… It’s extremely unlikely, but I can’t help but think about it.”

“Hey white-hair, get over here.”

The woman heeded his command and quickly came over to stand in front of him.

“What do you know about the spirit of the lake? What did you have to do with what happened ten years ago?”

“I know that its cultivation is at the ninth level of Genesis,” she reluctantly explained. “Or at least, it was back then. And as for what I had to do with it…I was simply hired by Tems to throw a certain poisonous pellet into its mouth. Thanks to that necklace, I was able to do it without any problems. Well, at first anyway.” She sighed, wearing the appearance of someone reluctant to reminisce. “After it demonized, that slive Tems pretended he was in dire straits and had his father and a few elders come to his rescue. Only, it killed them all and he ended up becoming the new sect master. He didn’t tell me anything about the pellet or what it would do, so I had no idea that it would trigger such a rampage. I almost died too.”

“Did he pay you to do it, or did you help him because you’re friends?”

“He paid me, naturally. As soon as he became leader of the sect, he let me cultivate in that tower for two months and then gave me a tenth of the sect’s wealth.”

“So, you’re not on friendly terms then?”

“He’s a convenient acquaintance. I still haven’t forgiven him for what happened back then. After all, my hometown was one of the many that the beast destroyed.” She scratched at one of her eyebrows, plucking an odd hair and muttering, “Not that the world’s worse off without those people…”

Nolan reflected on what he’d just learned, noticing that May’s expression was unreadable.

The sect master had had his dad killed by the spirit of the lake so that he could inherit the position of leader? He’d even pretended to be in danger to do it. Damn, what a rat. He had a dad that would rush to save him, and he took advantage of that to kill him? Not only that, but he’d also implicated thousands of other people.

“What does the spirit of the lake look like?”

“It’s just a big lizard.”

“Just a big lizard?” snapped May, who finally reacted to the fact that her family had died because of Tems’s greed. Her fists shook for a moment, though she quickly calmed herself. “It’s the size of a large island, and its scales are hundreds of paces thick. It…it destroyed my hometown with a single stomp of one of its legs.”

“Jesus. Well, let’s make sure to keep as far away from that special zone as possible then.”

While everybody was talking about the idea of running into the spirit of the lake so casually, May explained that they were well over 600 leagues away from that location, and also informed them that at their current speed they would reach the opposing shore in twenty or so hours.

“Can’t we go faster though?” said Lyra, who rolled her eyes at the prospect of sailing through such a thick blanket of fog for so long.

“I don’t want to risk it, not in such unruly weather and with our cultivations sealed.”

Just how big was this lake? Nolan’s world map hadn’t given him the impression that there could be 3,300 kilometres between any two points on this lake, let alone from the island at its centre. Wasn’t that nearly as big as the oceans back on Earth? No, it would be more accurate to compare it to the Mediterranean Sea, though a bit larger and filled solely with freshwater. Nolan began to suspect that, while Nyla’s apparent ancestor had passed down that map to her, they definitely hadn’t been the one to make it. So much was different on this continent than the map described that Nolan began to doubt its accuracy.

“Well, you’re the one that knows the area best, so if you think that’s the safest bet…”

He trailed off as a large silhouette gradually materialized out of the mist straight ahead of him. It was another ship, and it was only about thirty metres away from them. In a bizarre moment, he connected eyes with a disciple of the Falling Rain Sect who was currently straining to peer out into the fog from the edge of the ship’s bow. Both of them froze up in surprise for a moment, simply staring at one another in shock as they silently glided on still waters. How come I couldn’t hear anything? Glancing over the railing, he noticed that the water was calm as a windless day, rather than turbid like it had been just minutes before. What was going on? Did the sect members have something to do with the change in the weather, or was it unrelated?

“Uh, guys…” came Ian’s voice, for he had also noticed the silent ship. Rather than say anything, he simply pointed at the opposing vessel. The moment he lifted his finger, a series of loud bells sprang to life as more than a hundred disciples began to scramble across the deck with bows and arrows in hand.

Nolan and his friends instinctually scrambled for cover as the first volley was unleashed, as none of them were able to sense the trajectories of the projectiles let alone see most of the people that were shooting them.

What kind of bows are those? Nolan flinched as a broad-tipped arrow pierced directly through the wall that he was hiding behind, right near the entrance to what he assumed was the captain’s quarters. At least fifteen arrows followed the first, their tips protruding from the splintered wall where they sat lodged like darts on a dartboard. They were clearly using some sort of essence fusion weapons similar to Nyla’s evernight bow, though it seemed that these were of much higher quality. So long as one had enough strength to draw the bowstring back, the arrows shot off would be able to threaten anybody in the lower-to-middle levels of Integration.

I should try to get one of those, Nolan thought as he huddled for cover. Under the effects of the sect’s formation, the disciples that were attacking were doing so without making use of the true effects of their weapons, and yet they were still strong enough to threaten most of his friends.

In response to the cacophony of warning bells that continued to clamour from the attacking ship, countless instances of similar sounds began to echo all throughout the silent, mist-covered seascape. This told Nolan that the sect hadn’t given up on capturing them just because they had thrown caution to the winds and escaped out into the stormy seas. It was hard to tell with his castrated senses, but there were, at the very least, several dozens of ships within the immediate vicinity. The signal bells of the other ships seemed muffled somehow, as if their sources were sounding off within the confines of well-insulated rooms.

Looking around to make sure that the others were okay, Nolan saw that the Varai siblings were hiding behind a couple of crates that seemed full of some sort of bulky substance, for none of the arrows that targeted them were able to pass through the containers. Sean and Nyla had likewise found a pair of crates to hide behind, while Esteban, Alicia and Aine had simply lifted a latch on the deck and rushed down a narrow wooden staircase that led into the body of the ship.

As Nolan and his friends continued to cower, the white-haired woman remained standing in place while scratching at her ear in an absentminded manner. She was struck by dozens of arrows, though these simply glanced off of her thin white robes as if her clothing were made of the most durable material in existence. Even the ones that hit the exposed areas of her body were deflected away without drawing so much as a drop of blood, though these slightly flushed her skin upon contact.