None of them moved as the new arrivals lowered their arms, hovering from high above. They had just killed such a powerful creature despite the fact that it had possessed a cultivation equivalent of five levels above them, which meant that its energy reserves and stamina would have been vastly superior.

Are they like me? Nolan was wary, as were his friends. Aside from him, Sean, and Esteban, this was the first time that he’d encountered somebody that could fight more than a few levels above their cultivation, since the inherent difference between the quality and quantity of inner essence placed those of lower levels at a great disadvantage.

Still, on the surface, the strange cultivators had just saved their lives. In reality, they would have eventually killed the snake, but the victory would have come at a cost.

“Thank you,” said Nolan. “We really appreciate your help.”

The cultivators nodded down at them. Floating forward a few metres, the one farthest to the left called out. “Please proceed to the meeting point.”

“Meeting point?”

The young man, whose head was clean shaven, cocked a thick eyebrow. His focus was on the needles that levitated around Nolan. “Aren’t you here for the opening of the tower?”

“Honestly, I don’t know what you’re talking about. We’re just travelling through the area.”

“Then you’ve picked a good time! The Desolate Spirit Tower will be open to the public for a short while, so I’d suggest you take advantage of that while you can.”

“The tower is the treasure of our Falling Rain Sect,” said the youth in the middle, a keen-eyed girl with short, frizzy hair. “It’s an artifact that tempers one’s spiritual energy, which our ancestor created in the past. Every so often we allow outsiders to enter, and at the end of this week it’ll be opened up to the public for the first time in eleven years.”

While Nolan didn’t believe that a martial sect would help other people out of the goodness of their hearts, he responded politely. “That sounds interesting. Where’s this tower at?”

“Head north until you hit the lake,” said the wiry young man on the right. “Once you get to the lakeside villa, the ferry will take you across.” He spent a few dozen seconds drawing out an arrayment diagram, which he activated to create a simple map that marked the destination. “It seems like you’ve never heard of this event, so understand that we don’t do this for free. In order to access the tower, you’ll have to pay an admittance fee of a thousand spirit stones.”

If the others hadn’t been skeptical already, then everybody lost interest when they heard about the cost.

“If you think this is unfair,” said the first youth, “then know that the average person grows their spiritual space by about ten percent after spending a single day in the tower. Even we disciples can’t use it freely, since there’s a finite amount of energy contained within.”

Nolan suddenly got the feeling that he was dealing with some shady salespeople. Smiling, he took the map and said, “We’ll head there. Thanks again!”

“The path ahead has been cleared, so you shouldn’t run into any more trouble. Most of those are just rocks, after all.” The youth, who couldn’t have been much older than Nolan, began to rise higher, his shiny scalp gleaming in the sunlight. “Well then, good luck.”

With that, the three cultivators sped off into the distance atop their magic swords, heading in the direction of the dead forest. Sean, Esteban, and company arrived a few moments later, escorted by another pair of sapphire-clad youths. The escorts didn’t stand on ceremony and left as soon as they saw the others to safety.

Nobody spoke of the tower or the event that they’d just heard about. Most of the girls had just died, and their absence weighed heavy on their hearts. As for Alicia and Aine, their eyes were red and swollen as they stared downward in a daze. It wasn’t long before they began to sob, hugging one another as they named off their friends in anguish.

One look at the others told Nolan that he wasn’t the only one that felt guilty. He should have been more prudent and paid more attention to the huge rocks that filled the local landscape, instead of focusing on aura detection. That skeleton of a forest that they had just travelled through had also alerted them to the fact that some creatures were capable of completely masking their auras.

The poor girls had barely escaped the destruction of the mountainous valley that they’d lived in, and had no choice but to flee into the very kingdom that had instigated the invasion. There, they had joined the same caravan as Nyla and Lyra, all of them having lost their families with the exception of Aine and June, who’d still had each other. They persisted into the Northern Wilderness only for the caravan to suffer a merciless attack that left every man and boy dead. After the subsequent kidnappings, they had nearly been forced to marry the scumbags that had carried out the massacre and captured them, only to undertake a harrowing journey through the desolate countryside with a group of strangers. Now, most had been killed, survived only by Alicia and Aine, who had just suffered through another terribly traumatic experience.

Nobody said anything for a long while, the only sounds that of the whispering wind and of the throes of grief that came from the two girls.

“I’m sorry about what happened,” Lyra eventually said, her voice lacking its usual aggressiveness. “But we can’t just stand around here. Those guys said that the path ahead was clear, and I don’t see why they’d save us just to send us to our deaths. I think we should head north until we reach that lake, and then we can leave, if that’s what everyone wants.”

“I don’t want to fight anything else,” said Esteban. His eyes were red and glazed as he sniffled in sadness, his frizzy hair tousled and full of dirt.

Ian nodded. “We shouldn’t wait around. Just because the path is clear now, doesn’t mean it’ll stay like that.” His words were punctuated by distant sounds of impact, his sharp eyes wary. “I’m not up for spending a thousand spirit stones on whatever benefits this tower supposedly offers, but it’d be a waste not to take the least dangerous path.”

Sean and Nyla nodded along, and one by one the gazes of the group settled on Alicia and Aine.

“I’m sorry girls, but we need to get going,” said Nolan, feeling like a villain. “I know it’s a lot to ask, but we can’t wait around here.”

Aine kept crying, though Alicia was able to wipe the tears from her eyes and nod along in a disheartened manner.

“Take a minute to get ready. I’m gonna go see what there is to see.”

Nolan conjured a series of iridescent platforms and climbed high up into the sky, at least six hundred metres. He’d visited the CN Tower once when he was a kid, on a family trip to Toronto. He remembered the awe that he felt as he’d overlooked the city from the observation deck, amazed at the height that he’d stood at. Now, he stood higher than that, on a metre-by-metre platform that he’d created himself. The difference was that, these days, all he saw was sprawling wilderness.

So many?

There were five more groups of people within less than a few kilometres of his friends, all of them heading north. Farther away, he spied eleven more groups, four of them fighting for their lives with similar snakes to the one that had just killed the girls.

Movement from down below caught his attention, and soon Nyla was standing at his side on her own foothold of spiritual energy. Her face appeared pale, slightly greenish, even.

“This is a lot more uncomfortable than it looks.”

“Heights aren’t for everyone.”

He extended his hand and surrounded them with spiritual energy, which abruptly stopped her sable hair from whipping about in the wind.

She smiled, despite her discomfort.

“Look at all those people,” she muttered. “Do you think they’re all arrayment practitioners?”

“Maybe. Not all of us are, right?”

She shrugged. “Look there.”

Off to the northwest, a trio of sapphire-robed figures was flying toward a group of struggling cultivators that had been ambushed by two large snakes. Similar scenes were playing out all around them.

“You think they’re trustworthy?” he asked as they stood there, alone between land and the clouds.

“Who is, these days?” She closed her eyes and took a breath, collecting herself. “About that tower, I think we should go.”

In all honesty, he felt the same. Still, he didn’t think it was fair to sign his friends up for such an unknown situation, not to mention footing them each with a massive bill. Only four of them had any spiritual energy to speak of, so it was a selfish desire.

“You think everyone else will be down to do that?”

“Let’s convince them.”

“We don’t know if this is legit, though. I’ve never heard of this Falling Rain Sect, and think about all the people that’ll be there.” Even at this height, he couldn’t see the lake where the disciples said people were gathering. Still, there were at least a hundred people in the region, a number that kept increasing the farther north they travelled.

“Everywhere we go will be dangerous.” She gave him a stern look, her dark eyes captivating as she conveyed the weight of her intentions. “We’ve got tens of thousands of spirit stones. If we pay for everyone’s passage, I don’t think they’ll mind. We can also get directions while we’re there.”

“You want to enter the tower that badly?”

She nodded, looking downward in distaste. “Thanks to the Divine Spirit Fountain, we don’t have to worry about our spirit stone supply. If this tower’s as beneficial as they say, then what a waste it would be to pass up on this opportunity.”

“Well, it just seems kind of sketchy to me.” He nodded towards a particularly brutal battle, the combatants tiny figures in his vision. “Look at how strong those disciples are. If they turn out to be shady people, then we’re fucked.”

She shook her head. “If things get bad, we can use my painting to escape. I’ve been storing energy in the ring that I found in that tomb, so I should be able to move us at least ten leagues without worrying about any backlash.”

“I still don’t—”

“You said it yourself. Look at how strong those disciples are. How do you think they became so strong? They might have talented instructors, but do you think they’re anything compared to Uncle Grey? If this tower’s such a big deal to them, then it’s probably related to their capabilities as arrayment practitioners.” She reached out and squeezed his arm. “Help me convince the others. At the very least, we won’t bump into any more Genesis-staged creatures along the way.”