“You…who are you?” mumbled the man, who began to fall under the effects of the paralysis poison that Nolan had applied to the needle’s tip. “This poison, it’s from the auction…”

“You really don’t recognize me?” He took out the mask that he’d worn throughout the evening, which only covered half of his face. “I know you’re going through some stuff right now, but it’s not a hard code to crack.”

He caught the man in a net of spiritual energy and then raised him back out of the forest, suspending him in midair while staring at him in order to build up suspense.

“Those swords,” coughed the man, blood spurting down his front. “You’re one of the people that fled the island, aren’t you?”

“They really sent their best guy this time, huh?” he said playfully, though with an eerie undertone. “Now that I’ve caught you, I’m sure you can guess what’s about to happen.” He produced a few vials of dubious liquid, all of which he had obtained at the auction for high prices. “I’m sure you recognize these, since you wanted them so badly.”

Seeing the pain-inciting poisons that he had attempted to purchase back at the venue, the man’s pupils dialed in fear. Supposedly, each of these poisons were said to produce the most painful death possible, none of which were quick.

“If you tell me what I want to know, I’ll let you leave with your life. That’ll mean betraying your sect, but at least you can go somewhere else and start over. How does that sound?”

“Do I have a choice?” came the eventual reply, disheartened and downcast. Looking indignant yet helpless, the man forced himself to say, “Ask your questions. Just be quick about it.”

“Alright,” he said, joining his hands behind his back as he looked down on the broken man. “I’ll keep it simple. Tell me what Tems is planning. If you leave anything out, I’ll know.”

***

Nolan felt a bit bitter as he slipped back into the city, wondering if it was really necessary to kill the man. He’d ended up resorting to a lesser yet nonetheless formidable poison that mimicked the sensation of open flames against bare skin, something that he judged was true after seeing the way that the man had squirmed and screamed. He hadn’t wanted to kill him, but after keeping tabs on the man’s aura after letting him fly off into the distance, he’d noticed that the elder had waited until he was about ten kilometres away before returning to his original course. This told Nolan that he had been intent on rejoining with his allies and informing them about all that had taken place in Tallgate, which had left Nolan with little choice but to rush after him and finish him off with a silent, undetected slash of his halmite long sword. It had been a quick and painless death, though that wasn’t much of a benefit considering the excruciating torture that the man had endured in order to survive.

Standing over a kilometre above the city, he looked out at the expanse of lights that glittered in the night like a cloud of floating fireflies, thinking to himself that the city was a lot larger than he recalled from his initial impression of it. As he stood overlooking the oblivious townsfolk that were out and about enjoying the variety of night life that Tallgate had to offer, he noticed several specks of blood that were marring his clothes. Seeing the sight that he had long since been desensitized to, Nolan looked up at the dark, overcast sky and wondered if there would ever come a day where he wouldn’t have to worry about dirtying his hands for the sake of himself and those around him.

After taking his time cleaning his clothes with Divine Spirit Fountain water, Nolan hopped atop a nearby building and then began to leap from rooftop to rooftop in the direction of the inn where he and the others were staying. Along the way back, he made the effort to shed his sombre mood while thinking about all that he had learned from the elder in question. While the man had likely left some information out of his admissions, Nolan believed in the authenticity of his words. He had seen fear and pain in the eyes of plenty of his former opponents, and was now well versed in their many variations. At least, he could recognize when somebody was speaking reluctant truths in the hope of surviving a lethal predicament.

Turning his focus away from what he had just taken the initiative to do, he patted his spatial bag with the hint of a grin on his smooth face. A positive of his brief excursion out of the city was that the flying swords that Connick had paid for back at the auction house had been among the belongings of the three men that he had just murdered, along with each of the mens’ personal fortunes. At the end of the day, the nearly seven million spirit stones that Connick had handed over out of good faith for the Falling Rain Sect had been nothing but an unwitting gift that had done a good job of padding Nolan’s pockets.

As he arrived at the entrance to the large inn, he couldn’t help but wonder how the chamberlain would react if he were to find out that Nolan was the one that had put the flying swords up for auction. I’ll tell him if I get the chance. He was quite happy with his haul this time around, for he had unloaded a lot of his excess belongings in the auction and had made a head-spinning total of twelve million spirit stones. He’d had hundreds of cultivation-aiding pellets of lower quality left over from back when he had just started to practice making medicinal pellets, and he’d also sold three barrels of Divine Spirit Fountain water. In addition to all of the other treasures that he had acquired from the countless powerful cultivators that he and his friends had killed, the appraiser that had been assigned to them hadn’t hesitated to accept much of what he had offered.

Even though he had held off on offering any of the heavenly dew, he had still made fourteen million spirit stones today when he included the contents of the three elders’ spatial bags. Trust was a treasure in and of itself in this world, so it was extremely common for cultivators to keep the entirety of their possessions on their person in order to avoid people stealing their belongings while they were away from their homes. Thanks to this, Nolan tended to inadvertently make large amounts of money whenever people tried to kill him for whatever reason.

While musing over the fact that he now possessed enough spirit stones to fill several spirit stone mines, Nolan returned to the suite with calm strides. Nobody was around when he entered the main room, though the messy tabletops and unaligned chairs told him that this hadn’t been the case a short while ago. Seeing that some fresh food had been brought up from the kitchens, Nolan strode over to the table and snatched a large drumstick of meat that looked like the sort that a cartoon character might eat. Taking a seat, he gathered some slices of soft bread and a large hunk of cheddar-like cheese, fixing himself a plate before he poured a nice glass of wine to go along with his meal. Even though he had hardly used much of his energies, he always grew hungry after a battle, and tonight was no exception.

Thinking of the mangled bodies that he had beheld just an hour or so ago, he paused in his dining and took a long sip of wine. Willingly coercing a bit of calming energy to emerge from the Millennial Ring within his chest, he settled his nerves and continued on with his meal with a fresh, objective perspective.

If what that last elder had said was true, then they were certainly in for quite a dangerous confrontation in the near future. Apparently a task force of several thousand of the Falling Rain Sect’s elites—mostly elders or other prominent members—was currently on its way, including ten of the sect’s remaining Genesis-staged cultivators. On top of that, there were apparently outside forces joining in on the expedition, though the tortured elder had sworn that he hadn’t been told which parties were going to be involved, just that the members of their sect wouldn’t be acting alone.

As far as Nolan was concerned, it was safe to assume that at least several of the hired hands would be in the Genesis stage, since it wouldn’t make much sense to seek outside help from people of moderate strength. Finishing his meal, he decided to summon everyone into the main area to tell them about what he had just learned.