Hidden in the emerald forests that garbed the greater part of Peach Blossom Peak, a loud chorus of lewd noises drifted up from an obscured villa at the mountain's base.

"Heavens!"

"Mmm..."

"Oh, daddy!"

Just as things were beginning to heat up, a shock ran along Tems's back and caused him to freeze up for a moment. He looked over at the doorway to the windowless room, where a gorgeous woman stood with her arms crossed, her eyes and hair as white as the coldest snow.

Narrowing his eyes, he barked an order to the group of naked girls that had been smothering him with their bare bodies. Once they left, he drew out an arrayment diagram and then activated it, ensuring that nobody would overhear their words.

"Right when I was wondering who could possibly dare to interrupt my...training. So it's you, Little White."

“We must speak. Dress yourself now, or there'll be nothing to cover.”

Tems couldn't believe his ears. He was the Sect Master of the Falling Rain Sect, and this young lady who hadn’t even reached her thirties dared to barge into his private villa and threaten him so arrogantly.

"Listen here, you foolish woman. You might have helped me out back then, but I've already repaid you a hundred times over. I'm telling you now, stop coming here and bothering me as you see fit! This is my domain, and you're no longer welcome!"

"Oh? I guess you won't mind if I stop by the Hall of Elders and tell them about what happened all those years ago."

"That won't work this time."

Tems began to trace out an arrayment diagram, but stopped once the trespasser raised her hands.

"I didn't come here to fight. I'm just looking for something. Well, someone, I guess. Since your tower is the only reason anybody would ever come out to these wretched wastelands, here I am."

"Let me guess. It's some powerful expert that you pissed off, and now you want to blackmail me into helping you ambush them. Well, not this time. I'm not risking this heavenly lifestyle for another one of your whims."

"Do you forget who helped you seize this ‘heavenly’ lifestyle?" snorted the woman, who stepped closer and pointed a slim, ivory finger at him. "Relax. He's not some expert. It’s just a boy in the Profound Entry stage. I want you to help me catch him. Dead or alive, I just need the stuff inside of his spatial bag."

Even though Tems was rarely disgusted by another person, he couldn't help but recoil at her words. "You would stoop so low? What else do you want of me, to drown a newborn while you rob a grave?"

"You're so deluded, it's actually troubling." Seeing that Tems was still unwilling, she said, "He's got a large supply of black halmite on him. I want it."

"Black halmite?" This was one of the rarest materials on the continent. Even if one managed to attain some, those that could forge weapons or tools from such minerals were few and far between. "Even so, just leave him to his luck. You might kill and steal without restraint, but I have a reputation to uphold." Mostly, he didn't want to waste any time dealing in some devious deeds when he could be sowing his seeds in the fields of freedom.

She would just blackmail him for the halmite in the end, and he would get nothing. He’d much rather stay at his villa and train until sunset.

"I know that I've been a bother," said the woman, suddenly coy. "So this time, if you manage to help me get my hands on that halmite, I'll do anything you want for an entire day. You know what I mean by anything, don't you?"

Tems summoned a set of sapphire robes and donned them in a flash. "What exactly was this boy's cultivation level?"

The woman put on a cold, beautiful frown. "He'll be easy to find. He's at the Profound Entry stage, but somehow he's as capable as an Integration-staged cultivator. If he's attending your tower climb then I'm sure he'll stand out."

As capable as an Integration-staged cultivator, at Profound Entry? As he stormed out of his compound, he wondered if such a person really existed in this world.

"Well?" he said to Little White, the only name by which he knew the woman that he'd just pushed past. "Are we heading out, or what?"

The flight to the Desolate Spirit Tower was a short one, and soon they were hovering above a large crowd of disciples that had gathered out front of the entrance. Everybody's attention was on the massive projection of energy that tracked the locations of the tower climb's participants, or rather, the talismans that they had been given. There were nearly five thousand disciples spread out below him.

"What are all of these kids doing here?" grumbled Tems, who was undetectable to everybody present aside from Little White. "That damn Tegan. What's he even doing these days?"

"Looks like something's drawing a lot of attention," said the woman at his side, who bared her teeth in a lioness's smile. "Oh? Three people actually managed to make it so high?"

Tems immediately looked at the top of the projection. Sure enough, there were three dots on the sixth floor. "Back then, I only made it to the fifth..."

One of the three had to be Drasin, the only direct disciple that was taking place in the tower climb this year. Who could the other two be?

"One of them's the boy." Little white spoke as if she were thoroughly convinced.

"How can you be sure?"

"The tower's aura responds to one's potential more than anything. If they had a strong base at a young age, then they'll be able to climb higher than older people that hold more power. You're the leader of this sect, and you don't even know this much?"

"What, do you take me for a fool? Of course I know this. Only, there are thousands of people in the tower right now. How do you know he's not one of those few on the fifth level? Even if he's as impressive as you say, at best he'll be among the group on the fourth floor."