"Grandma?"

The Spirit density in the air rose. Ben heard his body crackling as the woman up ahead instantly tried to immobilize him.

At the same time, Syd shrieked in the bag as the pressure activated all the protective measures in place.

Around the boy, a glowing protective bubble formed.

Ben's eyes lost their consciousness light, and his body limped down.

All the fog immediately flew out, building an enormous empty sphere. Even the ground and the wall began to fissure.

However, even before his body fell to the ground, Ben's right eye focused and glanced around like a broken animatronic.

And once the maniacal movement stopped, he stared at the attacker.

His muscles were still limp, but his legs moved while blood poured out of his pores.

At the same time, cold and hot energy fled from Ben, cutting the restraining veil around.

The duo was closer to the precipice. So the time it took for Ben to jump out was short. Yet, the resulting sound was like thunder and made the boy flinch.

By the time Ben had no ground beneath him, his bloodstained hand was already clutching the bag. And black lines had grown out of it, building some protective array.

But his eyes were still staring intently at the woman, so he saw when she began to move.

He expected it, so his chest was already burning. And a large amount of ominous energy erupted from it, accompanied by a numbing roar.

However, as the attack took the form of a vague quadruped, it was the boy who felt the imminent dread yelled out from his Formation Core. But since everything happened too fast, the second thunder drowned the first, and it didn't even allow the boy to react normally.

But his grandmother could interpret everything calmly. So, seeing the parabolic path of the attack composed of too much Spirit and her target's whole arm, The Ghost Doctor changed her trajectory.

But more importantly, she folded all her energy around the ghostly beast's direction, trying to counter it.

Her choice decreased the pressure on the duo. As a reaction, Ben's crumbling body plummeted faster, and he lost vision of his perpetrators.

Fortunately, he could finally freely move and think, unrestrained.

He swam the fog down by using masterly whatever left he had of his discharged power.

Ben's movement was like that of a wooden doll. But very precise. So by the time he was closer to the ground, he spun around by folding his energy.

His two feet hit the floor precisely, but Ben didn't stop there. From his ring, four big stone arrays materialized around him. He immediately linked everything with his energy. And small Spirit Stones flew out of his treasure, drawing a defensive formation.

In a few seconds, Ben prepared everything he could. And the floor covered with materials began to hum in harmony.

His skin had black tattoos, and his body was stitched together by black wires.

With his shirt destroyed, his exposed chest revealed a texture flower shape that glowed in orange.

But the dreadful waiting was interrupted by Syd whimpering in the bag as he regained consciousness.

Yet, Ben's eyes stayed focused up ahead, as they were from the beginning.

He stared and stared. While his energy flowed with rhythm, building up for battle.

Yet, nothing came down. The attack Ben expected didn't come.

So after one minute, Ben began reshaping the surrounding formation. And after two minutes of work, he sprinted out into the foggy darkness.

Behind, he left a strange formation. Fragile, yet brutal.

---

Folding her Spirit Veil into a counter, Marie Ghost didn't hesitate. Her instincts screamed at her to stop it.

So she went all out. Yet, her solid veil powdered as it wrapped the ghostly beast.

Noticing that the only way to stop the attack was to waste the same amount of energy, she was appalled.

As a result, she ground her teeth, and her jewelry glowed, which caused her veil to become even denser.

All her movements were fast and precise. So by the time the attack got closer to her grandson, she was already standing there, waiting.

Her hand gracefully moved around as she ordered her spell precisely.

Before the attack landed, the whole energy that filled the area ate it away and disappeared with it.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think."

After catching her breath, Marie took a look deep below but ultimately chose against jumping down since they were alone right now. So instead, Marie contacted her people to initiate a giant search.

"Was he the one that grandma felt yesterday?"

"Very likely. Even if not, this old man should still be someone who could help with my breakthrough."

"Sorry."

"No worries, child. I wouldn't have been able to reach for him either if he aimed that at me. Maybe it was even better with you here. Since then, I didn't jump in blindly. And now, I can regroup and be more careful."

With the help of her friends, who were still around, Marie thought it would be easy to track and catch a single person. Even if she had to share, that would be better than taking more risks since that cultivator already showed he had a lot on his sleeves.

So with that decision, she contacted everyone she could while staying attentive to her surroundings.

---

"That was close."

Deep inside a crevice, Ben hid while embracing a marble array plate.

He had just one arm, so his movements were clunky. But he had to pay the extra price to throw that attack controllably.

However, even if he could grow it back, it was taxing on his body and mind.

As a result, Ben was a complete mess, but Syd wasn't that much better.

So as a priority, Ben focused on healing first.

"Stop being such an unwavering little shit. Go to sleep!"

Yet, squeaking, Syd kept defying the suggestions. Overwhelmed by the shock, he stayed in a runaway frenzy.

"Sleep!" Ben forcefully calmed the squirrel down, triggering it into resting.

Signing, Ben felt lost. He knew if he acted at least a bit slower, his little friend would've died. And even worse, his future would be in someone's else hands.

"Why is such a ghost around here? She's dying and still decided to travel. How can that be?"

Ben knew her, but there were not that many people who didn't. Marie Ghost was famous all over because of her insane healing skills. And she was also especially aged, historically in the top 10.

She was a legend. So every very sick people likely had the name Ghost Doctor at least once in their mouth before passing away.

But since she was also at the apex, she acted weirdly like all of them. But that didn't stop everyone from building some positive lore around the idea of her existence.

'They're all crazy. All crazy. CRAZY!'

Ben whimpered on the floor while his body reconstructed itself.

He was also overly shocked because he couldn't even prepare for the incoming pain. He got overwhelmed, and his body acted on its own.

All his instinct of wanting to live flared up, and he even threw away his best attack. This card he couldn't control well and hadn't even refined it to its peak state.

'There it goes, my plans. And I could've used a few other things too. Fuck.'

However, he could only lament so much since he wasn't sure if he could refine that spark of intent anyway.

So Ben just worked on healing while thinking about his way out.

That was the focus because every step forward would decide if he ended up like a rat in a crazy doctor's laboratory or not.

'Most predictions would tell she's already dead. And that her clan is just prolonging the inevitable bad news. But how wrong they are. Did she use some malicious last stand? It doesn't matter, though.'

"Syd, she's likely the worst person we could meet. Once at the apex, but now despairing, dying. And she's also one of the few that can have a good read on me, despite all the work I've done in hiding it all away."

'This is her specialty indeed. So she must be extremely sensitive to my residual aura. Well, my hacked absolute can only do so much. If someone reaches that level, it's too difficult to hide any uniqueness from them. The best that others can do is to hide the details.'

"How unlucky."

Ben tried to calm down.

But he didn't stop working. He worked on healing both their bodies.

Sunset Cores plopped out of his chest and melted while he activated his Formation Core despite his hesitation.

"And that's why such treasures are terrible," Ben said as he looked at the small changes on his ring.

He multitasked his way into almost madness.

He rewrote the ring engravings.

He made Syd into a tortilla, surrounding the squirrel with protection and healing spells.

He changed the structure of his body while separating his possessions more clearly.

He inserted everything he must keep into his chest and put everything else on the ring.

By the end of it all, he felt slightly lighter.

His body was also physically younger. He still looked old, but now in his 60 rather than almost dying.

He triggered everything he could. And he eventually went back to his peak.

"Sleep well, Syd. When you wake up, everything should've ended. If you wake up, no promises, though."

'I can likely keep this up for a week. It'll be a very long and painful week.'

Ben went as far as straining his mood, becoming even more robotic. As a result, his survival instinct grew louder and louder.

Every second he felt like prey in its last moments. But that also made all his senses hypersensitive.

With his body in this constant stress overload, he felt like time was rewinding and slowing down.

His body fought to stay alive. So it saw better, heard better, felt better, and burned every bit of energy better.

It fought hard to stay alive, as life does when confronted with death.

But because of that, everything right now was his enemy, even the insects crawling on the floor.

Anything that moved around him would be a threat, be it a monster from within this ravine or just a rock falling.

"Ah, I haven't felt this alive in a while."

His body healed fully in a few hours. Even his lost arm grew back.

A pile of clothes waited at his feet for him to move forward. Everything else was as ready as it could be.

And Syd slept in a marble bowl, still rolled into a tortilla.

"If this is a competition of who is dying faster. Well, fortunately for me, the doctor is. But if she wants to die even sooner, she can come closer. She ain't at the apex anymore."

Ben laughed hysterically.