Whoa, what the—Uncle Grey, who the hell's this guy?

How would I know? Before he could ask any other questions, Nolan was urged by his teacher. Quickly, make sure to put the fruit away safely.

The man's eyes narrowed when he made to stow away the fruit, which quickly disappeared from Nolan's grasp only to miraculously reappear in the stranger's outstretched hand.

How strong is this guy? Nolan couldn't sense his cultivation, and the fact that he had been able to snatch the divine fruit so effortlessly was a clear indication that he was more powerful than anyone on their side.

This person should be that so-called spirit of the lake. Hmm, this isn’t good. It's already reached the second level of Soul Strengthening.

Typical Uncle Grey, snapping at Nolan for asking about the person's identity only to immediately reveal that he knew who they were facing. Unfortunately, the situation was so bizarre and unexpected that Nolan couldn't afford to fall into a bout of bickering with his teacher, not when the man before them could kill everyone here with a flick of his finger. Is there anything we can do?

The man calmly walked over to the centre of the cave and gazed into the significantly depleted pond with despondent eyes, one of his lips curling in anger as he turned around and snarled, "Return the liquid, and leave. I won't kill you."

Is he telling the truth? If so, that'd be an easy out—

The tattoo on Nolan's left forearm suddenly began to shine with a bloody, crimson light, and before he could do or say anything he suddenly found his consciousness residing within the growing realm of his spiritual space. He was currently floating within an iridescent mist of raw spiritual energy, which was constantly condensing and causing little golden droplets to fall down to the waist-deep liquid below.

At the centre of this fairly large space floated a projection of his dantian, about fifty metres above the surface of his liquid energies. At the moment it was only about 1,700 metres in diameter, but according to Uncle Grey once Nolan reached the Soul Strengthening stage this area would have grown into a full-scale spiritual sea that would be hundreds of kilometres from end to end.

Closing his eyes and focusing intently, he was able to see through Uncle Grey's line of sight, as the old ghost had just taken control of his body without warning.

Uncle Grey wasted no time in drawing out a quick arrayment, which upon activation caused the divine fruit in the man's hand to suddenly disappear in a similar fashion to how it had originally been stolen, the natural treasure immediately vanishing into Nolan's spatial bag. As soon as the fruit was stowed away, Uncle Grey began to draw out a diagram that he activated within eight seconds, an arrayment that had required nearly all of Nolan's inner energies to activate.

"You think you can hold me with this?" smirked the man, who made to shrug off the chains of red light that now bound his arms. Surprisingly, the bindings held. "You've angered me. Even after I said I'd spare you."

"How could I just let you keep these good things?"

Another arrayment appeared within forty seconds, which remained on standby as the man struggled to free himself from the chains, his limbs shaking from some unknown strain. After drawing out another arrayment with his other hand, Uncle Grey activated them both. The first one caused large amounts of heavenly dew to drift over from what still remained within the pond, the mass of golden liquid gathering around the second schematic and powering it with vigorous vibrancy as it trapped the man within a small barrier of dull blue light.

Why can't he break the chains?

Heh, it's an arrayment that uses the energy of the person it's restraining to power itself. With his voice filled with pride, Uncle Grey's beaming expression was all Nolan could imagine as the man continued with his explanation. It's actually modelled after an ancient artifact that I saw in my final days of life. The more force one uses to try to break free, the stronger the bindings get. It also paralyzes its target.

There's a treasure like that?

Yes, but I've long forgotten to whom it belonged. All I remember is the sense of dread those silver chains made me feel, and the inspiration that they provided me. This is actually the first time I've used this technique.

Such an incredible arrayment had only taken Uncle Grey a short while to draw out, not to mention that he had clearly modified it in order to supplement its activation with external energies rather than Nolan's. The schematic had been altered specifically to account for the heavenly dew as a substituted source of fuel, since most arrayments were powered by both the caster's inner energies and Origin Energy from the environment. Uncle Grey might have made a lot of claims, but the fact that he was a true Arrayment Master was indisputable.

Nolan's friends all remained still and silent as they quietly watched the scene unfold. May was particularly awestruck as she saw Uncle Grey use one arrayment after another, all of them extremely advanced and effective techniques, and all of them making use of the heavenly dew to power them. Most importantly, the target that he was subduing was a Soul Strengthening demonic beast in human form, meaning that it was far more powerful than human cultivators of the same level.

"What...have you done?"

The chains appeared to have tightened around the man's arms and shoulders, causing his face to flush. He could only twitch at this point, not even able to move a finger under the victim-powered paralysis effects of the chains. It was hard to believe that the shaking, twitching, flushed-faced man was one of the most powerful individuals in existence, rendered completely harmless by Uncle Grey's amazing techniques.

"Don't worry," said Uncle Grey, who was concentrating on drawing out a final diagram. "I can tell that you're not an evil fellow, so I won't kill you."

The man was quiet for a few moments, during which time he completely stopped struggling. "What will you do?"

Uncle Grey didn't answer as everybody in the cavern afforded him absolute quiet as he finished up with his current endeavour. For a while, the only sounds within the natural dwelling were the roaring waters that blanketed the entrance.

"I'll send you some place nice," said Uncle Grey, who activated the diagram and gave life to an odd, vortex-like portal that began to tug the barrier-bound, restrained stranger as if a heavy wind were pushing at his back.

The man glared. "You...once you subside back into that boy's consciousness, I doubt you'll be able to do much for a long while. What makes you think I won't hunt these young ones down and kill them during that time?"

"If you want revenge, then you can come find us any time at the Nightshadow Sect of the Western Isles, where we're very important people!"

With that, Uncle Grey snapped his fingers and the man was instantly sucked into the vortex, which quickly disappeared. Once the man vanished, Uncle Grey laughed lightly and turned to the others. "Remember this, dear disciples. A good way to take care of your enemies, is to pit the new ones against the old ones whenever possible. That fellow should be arriving at those islands any moment now, and if we're lucky then the two problems will solve themselves."

Dude, that was crazy.

No time to talk. Be sure to save me half of those grapes, and a few barrels of heavenly dew.

Why do you need so much energy, anyway? Isn't there enough in the glade, and in the Divine Spirit Fountain?

A strong wave of lethargy overtook Nolan's body, which quickly reverted back to his control. Not going to answer? Uncle Grey's greed for resources despite only being a lingering spirit had always left Nolan wondering what exactly he needed so much energy for. He was almost positive that the old ghost was storing up a large amount of reserves in order to create a new body for him to possess, though he couldn't be sure. It seemed like almost every time they managed to get their hands on a large amount of resources, they were immediately met with urgent situations where they had no choice but to rely on Uncle Grey, who would subsequently expend whatever energies he'd obtained during that timeframe in order to save them.

"Uncle Grey, that was amazing!" Ian exclaimed, shooting a thumb's up from the left side of the cave. "Did you really send him all the way to the Western Isles?" He began to laugh. "Is that even possible?"