As for the Varai siblings, it had been a couple of weeks since Lyra had reached the fifth level of Integration. Her brother was at the peak of the eighth level, so it wouldn't come as a surprise if he achieved a breakthrough in the coming weeks. Addled and absentminded as their master might have been, Uncle Grey's insight into cultivation methods was unparalleled, his suggestions having drastically raised the efficiency and overall quality of the one that the Varai clan used. As a whole, the technique was several times better than it had been before the old ghost had gone off to tutor the siblings.

Currently, Nolan had just finished up with a stint of training within a basic meditation circle arrayment that he'd made earlier that day. Body covered in a light layer of blood, he left the boundaries of the circle and caused it to dissipate within a matter of moments after disrupting its energy composition from within.

A loud crash had drawn his attention to the other end of the glade, where Uncle Grey presided over Alicia and Aine as they sparred in an effort to get used to using their new movement skill in battle. When asked, the old ghost had said that the martial skill was simply called the Swift Steps Technique, though the nonchalant and slightly-flustered way in which he’d said it made Nolan think that his teacher had just come up with the name on the spot.

The others had taken a break as well, and he spotted them standing in a loose group around the two girls as they all observed the practice bout.

"It really doubles your speed, huh?" Lyra watched on with crossed arms. "So once I learn it, won't I be as fast as you, Ian?"

"Not if I learn it too."

"I can't wait to head back to the valley and see everybody's expressions. I'll definitely be paying a few visits to some people.”

"As long as you don't cause problems for the sect," said Nolan, who'd just walked over. "They don't even know what we've got planned yet, so maybe wait before you go seeking revenge on people."

"As long as I can do it. Sanae, that wretch, I'll repay her a thousand fold for her role in getting me kicked out of the family."

Ian scratched at the back of his head, his words nonchalant. "She's the great elder now, you know."

"Her? Since when?"

"Since the previous one died in the war with the Towering Eaves clan."

Lyra was silent for a while, staring down at her golden tangles where they rested atop her supple chest. She eventually gave a sly smile and tugged at her sect uniform. "Well, I’m a great elder too, so who cares?"

While the siblings began to talk about what they would do once they returned to their homeland, Nolan walked over to Sean and Esteban, who had just motioned for him to come over.

"What's up, guys?"

A gust of wind caused their robes to flutter as Aine caught up to Alicia and struck out with all her strength, the two girls' hair whipping about. They connected fists without care for the broken bones that came after, since the Divine Spirit Fountain could cure almost any injury.

"Watching these girls fight kinda made us wonder when you were going to teach us the Tranquil Void Step."

"Yeah," said Esteban, whose frizzy hair was wet from the fountain. "Uncle Grey offered to teach us one, but yours is amazing. I'd way rather use yours!"

"Same here," Sean admitted. I know you're getting closer to your next breakthrough, but is there any chance you could take some time to teach us the skill?"

"Please, Sect Master!"

He straightened his back and tried to look dependable. "Well, yeah, of course I'll teach you guys. You're my dear disciples after all, hahaha!"

Uncle Grey rolled his eyes from where he floated a few metres above their heads.

"Never say that again," mumbled Sean, as the three of them set off for the area where Nolan had just left.

It took about a week for them to get the hang of following the Tranquil Void Step's inner essence circulation routes, but they were still a long way from actually activating the technique’s basic function. It was much more efficient than the Swift Steps, but the drain on the dantian was far greater.

Watching the two of them as they made endless attempts to activate the technique, Nolan's excitement swelled like a balloon as he looked forward to the future of his sect. During his lifetime, Uncle Grey had been one of the most powerful people in the world, and he claimed that the Ancestral Body Technique was the best core cultivation method that he had ever encountered. The Tranquil Void Step was also unparalleled among movement skills, with the base function of tripling the user's speed. There were also nine other phases—steps, as Nolan’s memory labelled them—that each increased the skill's effects in different ways. So long as they weren’t born with a cultivation base, Nolan could teach both of the techniques to future members of his sect. Staring at his friends as they gave up on their training and devolved into a simple game of tag, Nolan's mind was filled with images of several hundred people in pine-coloured robes all attempting to learn the technique.

“Eh! I’m leaving, so stop messing around and get back to practicing.”

Finding his own section of the glade, he stopped to lean up against a tree as he decided on what to do next.

He had to learn the next level of his movement skill, he decided. If he managed to do that, then he would be able to appear directly behind an intended target as if no movement at all were required, even if the range of the first step was limited to about twenty metres or so. On the opposite end of the spectrum, he’d be able to avoid almost any attack that he anticipated, even if his opponent was much faster than he was. Deep in thought, Nolan frowned and then told his friends that he was going off into the forest to meditate for a few days.

He usually avoided leaving the glade, since he was still tremendously ignorant of Nia as a whole. Realistically, however, his sect was destined to grow much larger in the coming years, which meant that he would eventually have to cut down large swathes of forest to expand the glade's size. At some point, the stronger members would have to train at the outer limits where the weaker ones wouldn't be able to reach.

Nolan couldn't help but wonder how large the sect would grow in the future. According to Uncle Grey, the continent where Nolan and his friends resided was one of many, the old ghost having previously referred to it as a tiny island. Even if most people from Earth had died after the Interspatial Migration, it was likely that there were still a few million scattered throughout Venara.

"Who knows?" he sighed, a mind of melancholy as he remembered his younger siblings, Thomas and Steph. "Maybe I'll end up finding you guys after all." The chances were next to none, but it was a nice thought to think about.

He looked around at the silent forest, which was completely bereft of any plant life aside from the motionless trees and the still grasses that tickled his ankles as he stood there with roving eyes. He found a nice spot and settled down to meditate on the philosophies of his movement skill, the profound bits of insight that he’d inherited along with knowledge on how to activate the technique’s basic functions.

When two days had passed and Nolan hadn't made any headway towards furthering his mastery of the movement skill, he decided to return to the neighbouring glade where he'd first acquired the technique's inheritance. He had grown much stronger since that time, and could now enter it without Uncle Grey's help. Currently, he was able to travel over a kilometre away from the main glade in any direction.

It wasn't long before he emerged into the neighbouring field, which was desolate and bare compared to the one where he had met Uncle Grey, which said a lot. Nearly all of the trees on the fringes of this field were colourless, which reminded Nolan of his earlier visits to Nia.

He wandered over to the little shrine where he'd obtained the inheritance for his movement skill, a small frown on his face as he saw that the totem-pole-like monument had crumbled into a pile of fine dust.

"That's right… The stone fell apart, didn't it?"

He knelt down and ran a hand through the monument's remains, letting the dust fall downward like sands in an hour glass. Just like with the Ancestral Body Technique's inheritance, the monument within this glade had been dressed in writings that most likely detailed how to activate the Tranquil Void Step's basic function, as well as how to master the technique's nine steps. He’d been counting on reading these, only to remember that his intentions were pointless.