Uncle Grey, how far is that monster?

Hmm, about six leagues away? It’ll be here in about ten minutes.

“Hey Whitey,” he said a bit awkwardly, approaching the woman. She was panting, her entire body covered in sweat as she floated precariously in the air. “I hate to do this to you, but…you’re gonna have to go distract that thing for a bit so we can go steal whatever’s in its lair.”

She answered with a murderous glare.

“Don’t worry,” he said, pulling out a fresh supply of Divine Spirit Fountain water and some of his Earth Sect Pellets. “Drink as much of this as you can, then sit in the barrel for a few minutes. These pills might only be medium grade, but they’ll help you take in energy about twenty percent faster.”

She fixed him with a suspicious look, but quietly swallowed the pellets and then washed them down with water from the barrel. Upon climbing in, her eyes momentarily widened in surprise, though she quickly erased all emotion from her face and set about rejuvenating back to her peak state.

During this time, Nolan and all of his friends did the same. He could tell that the sight of so many barrels of Divine Spirit Fountain water being pulled out along with the nonchalant use of so many medium grade medicinal pellets truly shocked the woman, since medicines of such quality were pretty rare. Not only that, but the water itself was basically an all-purpose elixir that dispelled poison, healed wounds and replenished one’s inner energies, not to mention that it was a great cultivation resource.

His unwilling body guard was the first to finish meditating, and he heard her mutter about wishing that she had been able to take his things that time outside of Ridgerock.

“Tell you what. You can keep the rest of that water, too.”

“Why would you give me such a treasure? Aren’t I supposed to be your sacrificial lamb?”

“Unlike you, I’m not some sinister psychopath.” He climbed out of his barrel and stored it away, feeling light and refreshed. “You should be thanking me. Who else would give you something like that after hearing you say you wished you’d robbed them earlier?”

“I won’t thank you.”

“I order you to thank me.”

“Thank you…”

He laughed, nodding to his friends in a motion to get going. “There you go. Well, I’ve got to say this just to make sure, but I order you to go lead that beast around for about six hours. After that, go to its den and head north until you meet up with us, because we’ll be bee-lining it in that direction after we take whatever’s waiting for us.”

The woman didn’t say anything as she turned to go, but he quickly called out to her to wait for a minute. “I can’t keep calling you Whitey. What’s your name?” When she didn’t respond, he continued. “Come on. You’re not going to make me order you, are you?”

Flushed from anger, her voice was surprisingly soft as she muttered something that was difficult to hear. Although he’d heard it, he asked her to say it again.

“Delia.”

“Oh yeah, I heard that old man from Ridgerock call you that back then. I’m Nolan, and this is…” Realizing that it didn’t matter whether he introduced her to the others or not, he laughed. “Alright Delia, the beast will be here in a minute or so. Don’t go dying on me, now.”

He flew off with the others, May carrying everyone else aside from Ian. Thanks to Delia’s overpowering strength, Nolan had been able to collect hundreds of spatial bags while on the way to reunite with his friends, and coincidently had acquired an impressive arsenal of flying swords. He planned to give some of these to his friends later, but they took a bit of time to get used to and time was currently of the essence, so he decided to keep quiet about it for now.

They wound up travelling for nearly half a day, which eventually had Nolan regretting that he’d only told Delia to distract the spirit of the lake for six hours.

When activated in full, the essence fusion effects of his flying sword topped out at about two hundred kilometres per hour, but the energy consumption was ridiculous. It didn’t take long for him—and even Ian, who couldn’t fly as fast as May—to join their friends within the large cloud of spiritual energy that followed the young woman.

Several thousand kilometres later and the sun was beginning to set, painting the surface of the lake in a sheen of shimmering orange that was both calming and beautiful from about a kilometre above ground level. It was around this time that May pointed to an unremarkable island about ten kilometres away, where a large bay was visible in a perfect crescent shape. At the centre of the island was a sizeable mountain that was thick with vegetation, broad at the base with a rounded midsection and a narrow peak.

“That can’t be it,” said Sean. “That monster’s bigger than that island, let alone the bay.”

“It can change its body size,” said May, whose eyes were feverishly scanning the heavily forested island. “It wasn’t nearly as large the last time I saw it. Anyway, we should hurry.”

“What are we looking for?” asked Nyla. “Is it…underwater?”

“Why do you say that?”

“The water in that bay is only a couple of hundred paces deep, but it dips in the centre.”

“To be honest, I’m not sure what we’re looking for. It’s just that powerful creatures almost always decide to live around areas with unique treasures in them, like ancient herbs or rare minerals. I don’t sense anything at the bottom of that pit, do you?”

Nyla shook her head.

Uncle Grey. What are we looking for?

There’s a waterfall on the other end of the island, behind that strange little mountain.

What about that pit they’re talking about?

It’s nothing special, just where that beast is hiding its eggs. Now hurry to the waterfall, that slave of yours is on her way here, and she’s only a few hours out.

Thoughts of riding atop a giant monster filled Nolan’s mind. Wait, its eggs? If I take one, can I raise whatever hatches and use it as a mount or something? Who wouldn’t want to have a deadly mutated crocodile as a mount in a world like this?

What do you think you are, one with nature? How could a human raise a monster like that?

Don’t you have something important to go forget about?

The others were still looking over the island and exchanging observations, though Nyla seemed to have taken his silence as an indication that he was currently conversing with their teacher.

You dare speak to your master in such a way…if my—

If your friends could see you now, blah blah. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re your only friends now, and you keep almost getting us killed out of greed. So yeah, I’ll say what I want.

You all are…my friends? Well, I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on you, then. No, of course not.

A bit creeped out by the suddenly bashful tone, Nolan clicked his tongue in disgust and turned to the others.

“Uncle Grey found its lair. I’ll lead the way.” He hopped out of the neutral cloud of energy that May had been carrying him in and landed atop his flying sword. “Here,” he said, willing dozens of flying swords into the air so that each of his friends could take a handful of them. “They’re not too hard to use. Just lock your feet in place with inner essence, and pour your energy into the blades from the point of contact.” If Delia was a few hours away, then that meant that they had more time to raid its lair than he’d initially thought. With things like this, it wouldn’t hurt to give his friends another method of getting around.

“You’re the best, Nolan!” smiled Esteban, who hopped onto one of his swords and immediately fell out of the sky alongside the plummeting blade.

Nyla, who’d instantly gotten the hang of operating her new tools, caught the boy with an expulsion of spiritual energy and a roll of the eyes. “Don’t just jump into things. Always make sure you’ve got a full understanding of something before you try it for the first time.”

“Sorry…”

They spend about ten minutes in the same section of sky as everybody quickly familiarized themselves with using their swords, which wasn’t too difficult considering that everyone here had unique physiques and particularly sharp senses.

Once everybody was fully mobile, Nolan led the way across the sun-streaked waters and headed straight for the mountain, which he and his friends circumnavigated after a short but scenic flight. It wasn’t long before they stood along the banks of a wide river, their ears soothed by the sounds of rapids and the songs of hidden birds. Despite the morning sunshine, the area was shaded by tall trees and heavily populated by bushes that bore healthy servings of ripe fruit.

Interestingly enough, there wasn’t a single aura on the island with a significant cultivation. Rather, the area was full of negligibly weak creatures, though something worthy of note was that all of them seemed to have demonized.

Alright, Nolan thought to himself. It was time to find out what made Uncle Grey so eager to come here, to the extent that he would ignore the safety of so many of his ‘dear disciples.’ Looking up at the cascading falls and enjoying the light spray of runoff that gently settled on his skin, Nolan was gripped by a tight sense of apprehension.