Aine and Alicia weren’t keen on drinking, since they felt that the group indulged too often these days. Instead, they chatted quietly amongst themselves as they sampled all of the different and delicious foods that had been laid out on the old, dusty table.

Welson turned out to be a heavy drinker, the extent of his consumption revealing the scope of his frustrations and helplessness. The more out of sorts that he became, the more he began to talk about all of the stresses that came with his new position in the CMA. According to him, many in the city were still loyal to their former ruler and so constantly deferred to Connick for official matters out of spite for Welson and the faction that he was a part of. He was essentially alone in enemy territory, which was an interesting analogy to use considering that he and his adversaries were all a part of the same organization.

“So Welson,” said Sean, his eyes sharp. “I noticed a big fortress in the centre of town. If you’re the regent, why are you staying at an inn and not there?”

“Only merchant lords are permitted to stay within the keep. Even though I’m currently running the city, I don’t have the authority to occupy it.”

“Wait, then why did that Connick fellow take our room then? He said he needed it for his master, who’s a merchant lord, so what the hell?” Ian looked quite annoyed. “I don’t like when people play me for a fool.”

Nolan rolled his eyes. “He obviously just made that up to take our suite. He might seem like an agreeable guy on the outside, but I think he’s just a weasel who wants to hook up with Nyla. He lied about the room just to create an opportunity to be alone with her, and then he saw the other girls and got excited, and yeah…weasel.”

“Well, if we’re destined to be on bad terms with him no matter what, can we not concede to him next time? I’m stronger than any of his little henchmen, so I don’t like ducking my head and going along with his schemes. I’d rather just tell him off.”

“Ian’s right,” said Sean. “I know you want to be cautious Nolan, but until this Merchant Lord Kalvin shows up, Connick basically has no leverage against us.”

Nolan considered their thoughts and figured that they made a good point. If anything, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to actively begin to antagonize the man. The worst he could do was try to have them killed, which was going to be the inevitable outcome anyway, so logically speaking it would be best to initiate the conflict sooner, so as to whittle down the enemy’s overall numbers. While it was true that Connick’s Genesis-staged cultivators didn’t pose any threat to them, that wouldn’t be the case if they joined forces with a larger group of people of similar strength.

“Alright, we can fuck with him a bit, but nothing too big for the time being. I think we should cultivate hard for a week or so, each make a breakthrough or two, and then start flexing.”

Weston seemed caught off guard by the direction of their conversation. “You act as if making a breakthrough is easy.” The man had a cultivation at the fourth level of Integration, which would make him a very respected individual in many cities throughout the Easterly Kingdoms. This would put him in the top five to ten percentile in regards to strength within the continent, though considering the immense population of the mainland there were still tens of millions of people that were stronger than him.

“We’ve got our ways.” Nolan took out a large vial of heavenly dew that was plugged with a cork and handed it to the portly merchant with curiosity. “Apparently this is called heavenly dew. How much would you say it’s worth?”

Welson was speechless for several moments before he blinked his eyes in rapid succession and then donned an impressed expression. “Where in the heavens did you get this? Such a miraculous treasure is indescribably rare.”

“Aren’t these golden spirits made from that liquid?” asked Esteban, who had been spacing out for a few moments.

“It is, but it’s extremely diluted. Connick makes the local spirits and likes to claim that ten percent of each bottle is purely heavenly dew, but it’s actually more like three percent. This vial’s about half the size of a typical bottle of these spirits, so it should be worth at least 200,000 spirit stones. It’s so rare though, that you’d likely fetch much more for this at an auction.”

Nolan and his friends looked at each other with dollar signs in their eyes. “You don’t say, eh?”

Just as he was imagining all of the money that they could make if they sold a single of their countless crates of heavenly dew, he sensed Nyla and the others showed up outside of the small building.

“Stay outside,” he said to May via his sound transference talisman.

“Okay.”

Standing, Nolan nodded to the others and told them that it was time to leave.

“Wait,” said Welson, a bit hesitant. “I was wondering, would you be willing to sell this vial to me for 250,000 spirit stones?”

“In honour of our new friendship, just 150,000 is enough.”

Both he and Welson were delighted with the transaction, exchanging happy farewells as Nolan and his friends walked outside to meet the others.

Nyla and May were gorgeous as always, looking very cultured and refined in their slim, satiny dresses. Lyra didn’t much care for glamour, finding comfort in her simple black robes, though the brilliant shades of her hair and eyes created a stunning golden contrast that was difficult to ignore.

Catching himself thinking about his friend’s sister, he cleared his mind and greeted the girls with a smile.

“That Connick guy sure knows how to host a party,” said Lyra, who was picking at her teeth with a toothpick. “I don’t think I’ve ever eaten such expensive food.”

“Tell us about it later,” he said, conjuring an arrayment to prevent anyone around them from eavesdropping in on their conversation. “I need to update you guys on some things.”

We told them all about their meeting with Welson and the arrangement that they had come to. May wasn’t surprised to hear that Tems might be colluding with Merchant Lord Kalvin, while Nyla seemed a bit relieved.

“Thankfully I won’t have to keep pretending to like that man.” She put on a disapproving look. “He kept resting his hands on my legs during our conversations.”

“Yeah, that was pretty annoying,” said Lyra. “Thankfully he liked May the most.”

“As much as I love to hear about all that, I think our game plan should be to cultivate hard for a week or two and then start to mess with Connick and his businesses. Though, you guys are kind of making me want to skip the cultivation part.”

“Are you jealous?” said May, who gave him a sly smile.

He rolled his eyes and then disabled his arrayment. “Let’s hurry to the inn. I think it’s about time we see what these divine fruits are all about.”

***

Nolan and his friends all sat around a large circular table, the others waiting for him to speak. Delia was also there, her long white hair and lengthy lashes as distracting as ever as she waited patiently for the meeting to commence. Informal as their sect was, Nolan had stressed that this would be an important gathering that everyone had to take seriously, and now that all ten of them were present he figured that it was time to lay out his thoughts.

“Alright.” He stood up and crossed his arms, thinking of the best way to allocate their resources. “Now that everyone’s caught up on our situation here, I think we can all agree that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to increase our cultivation levels as much as possible before this Merchant Lord Kalvin guy shows up. That being said, I think we should set some realistic goals for ourselves to make it easier for us to come up with a plan for the eventual confrontation.”

“Um,” said Aine, a bit shy. “So it’s set, then? We’re going to have to fight again, no matter what?”

“Unfortunately, it’s something that has to happen.” Nyla’s earlier nonchalance was gone, replaced with a solemn sort of anticipation. “We need to deal with the Falling Rain Sect as soon as possible, so that they know to leave us alone in the future. The last thing we need is a large group like that scheming against us for the rest of our lives.”