“I should be saying that to you.” He ran a hand through his short hair, which was dripping-wet from all of the clouds that he’d been thrown through. “How many times would I have died by now if you hadn’t been around?”

He stood up and glanced in the direction where he supposed the spirit of the lake was located at, his gut weighed down with worry for his friends. Aside from Ian, everyone else in their group had weaker bodies than him, and they had also been about thirty metres behind him when the spirit of the lake’s torrential attack had landed. Had they been able to escape in time via the framed portrait? If he had nearly been crushed to death by the force that assaulted him during the incident, then what about Alicia and Aine? Sean and Esteban?

That woman better have protected them.

“You’re worried about your friends?”

“How could I not be?”

“Hold on.” She pulled out the sound transference talisman that he’d forced the white-haired woman to give her. “Let’s see if that scum kept her word.”

“She’ll die if she doesn’t.”

After closing her eyes for a moment, May shook her head. “They must be out of the range of this talisman. That woman wouldn’t have died to that blast, and if she stayed alive, then the others should be fine too.”

“Uhg,” he sighed, “not this shit again.” He’d finally reunited with them only for the group to be separated immediately after.

“What’s the biggest town in the area?”

“You think they went there?”

A while back, he and Nyla had agreed that if they were ever separated again then they should meet up at the biggest settlement in the region where they parted ways.

“Most likely.”

Since every horizon was dominated by water, May cast her spiritual sense out in all directions in an attempt to get an idea of where they were.

“Damn it, we’re about eighty leagues from the opposite shore.”

“You can sense that far?” That was easily over four hundred kilometres. “I can only sense about two leagues out.”

“Truly?” she said, making no effort to hide her astonishment. “My senses reach about ten leagues in any direction. I just recognized a nearby island, so I’ve got a general idea of where we are.” Her gaze gained an odd light, as if she were looking at him for the first time. “Why is your cultivation so strange? I’ve never heard of anyone at the first level of Integration being able to sense even half of a league away from them. Usually people at your level can only sense about a thousand paces in any direction.”

“It’s my core cultivation method,” he explained. “It takes me a lot more effort to make a breakthrough than anyone else, though. Like, to make it to the second level of Integration, I’ll need the same amount of energy that it’d take anyone else to go from the first to the sixth level. Something like that, anyway.”

Nolan, I found the others.

Hearing Uncle Grey’s voice, he rushed to respond. Where?

About 600 of your kilometres to the southeast.

Are they okay?

They’re fine, but that slave of yours is half-dead.

It seemed that she really did risk her life to save his friends. Even if he’d ordered her to do so, he still felt a bit of gratitude.

Don’t be grateful, lad. If things had gone even a little bit differently then she would have killed you and your friends, and would’ve probably already forgotten about it by now.

Yep, but that doesn’t mean that I also need to be a piece of shit.

“Okay,” he said to May. “My teacher just located the others. They’re just over a hundred leagues that way—”he pointed in the appropriate direction—“and they’re heading west.”

May stood up from within the barrel that Nolan was still supporting with his spiritual energy and then looked around with skeptical eyes. “Your master’s here? Right now?”

“Well…sort of.” Nolan couldn’t help but stare at the way that her water-logged clothes clung to her seductive frame, giving him a great idea of what she looked like underneath.

Have some class, my perverted disciple.

Catching himself staring, he quickly shifting his eyes elsewhere.

You’re one to talk. Did you already forget about the uniform you made her? You’re basically Master Rosh—

“Don’t tell me,” she said, touching an index finger to her bottom lip and leaning in close to stare him straight in the eyes. “Your master, he’s a lingering spirit, isn’t he?”

Taken aback, he said, “What makes you think that?”

“Every time you communicate with him, you go silent for a while as if you’re exchanging sound transmissions with someone.”

“He could just be nearby, though?”

“If he were, then we wouldn’t have almost died just now. The only explanation is that he’s a lingering spirit, which isn’t as uncommon as you think.”

He shrugged. “Yep, you hit the nail on the head.”

“So he’s inside your spiritual space?”

“Something like that.”

“How interesting.” She floated up out of the barrel and levitated in place, the surrounding winds helping to dry her clothes. “Now that I think about it, there were a lot of rumours that the ancestor of the Falling Rain Sect left his lingering spirit at the top of the Desolate Spirit Tower. You were up there. Was that true?”

He pulled out the nineteen beads that Uncle Grey had created from the refined soul of the spirit in question and put on a hesitant smile. “You’re looking at him. Or what’s left of him, anyway.” He quickly put the pellets away.

May’s face was a beautiful portrait of shock. “You refined him? How is that even possible?”

“My master did.”

She went quiet for a while.

Why’s she so surprised?

Hoho, you don’t know much, do you? Lingering spirits are generally pretty weak. She’s probably never heard of a great and venerable master like me, so she’s clearly in awe of my awesome self.

Don’t jerk yourself off too hard.

Nolan stowed away the barrel of water and motioned for May to follow him before taking off in the direction of his friends.

Hold on, Nolan. There’s actually a pretty interesting place in this lake, and if you go there it’ll be a great benefit to you.

He stifled an eye roll. A great benefit to you, you mean?

To both of us, naturally. Why not stop there before meeting back up with the others?

Can’t we go there after?

Well…our window of opportunity is a bit short. If you waste any time, then you’ll end up missing out.

Why’s that?

Erm…

We don’t know how long that woman will be able to keep them safe. I don’t wanna risk it.

But if that beast returns to its den, then how will we ever get our hands on the good stuff it’s been hoarding? As long as it keeps chasing that woman, then it’ll—

It’s chasing them? Heart going cold, Nolan poured as much energy into the flying sword as it was capable of accepting, and then shot off into the sky as fast as possible. You selfish fuck. You can be a real piece of shit sometimes.

It’s a slow creature!

He quickly filled May in on what was going on, at which point her eyes began to shine and she called over. “This is a great opportunity. Once we meet up with your friends, you can order that slivey woman to act as bait, and then we can go and reap the spoils!”

“What if she dies?”

She gave him a skeptical look, as if he’d just asked the stupidest question she’d ever heard. “Who cares?”

Realizing that in her book such a development would simply be a win-win, he shrugged. “Let’s just focus on meeting up with them first.”

After a short while of flying at high speeds, he and May drew close enough to contact the white-haired woman via a sound transference talisman, and the two groups coordinated in order to meet up within the shortest amount of time. It wasn’t long before his friends came into sight, all of them being ferried along by the white-haired woman, who had a corpse-like gauntness to her. All of them were in poor shape, not a single one without serious injuries as showcased by the bloodstains on all of their uniforms.

Surprisingly, they had no idea that the spirit of the lake had been following them. They had barely survived its tail whip due to the efforts of the white-haired woman, who had sacrificed several life-protecting treasures during those perilous moments. With deep circles around her eyes and a hollow expression, she looked like she would collapse any minute.