"So it was the Law of Space," he said to himself, pinching his chin in thought. "I've got to pour all my focus on where I'm standing, and where I want to go…" He had sat down a while back, but now jumped up as if controlled by his curiosity.

The first part of activating the movement skill's first step was to rely on his spiritual energy to study the Origin Energy composition around where he was standing, and also around the target destination. Simultaneously, he had to project a small amount of inner essence onto both locations. Interestingly enough, the projected energy had to undergo a certain route within his inner essence channels at a very specific speed before it could be dispersed towards both spots. This would create a link between the two spots that disturbed the space around them in order to create a subtle connection through which to ferry his body, though the range of the skill was extremely limited.

This is insane, Nolan thought with excitement. He had no hope of showing the same level of skill as the old man had earlier on, but this wasn't the first time that he'd assimilated with the memories of some forgotten master, so he was confident that he could pull off the move. Especially now that his body had gone through the process dozens of times when it had been controlled during the battle with Uncle Grey, earning him a bit of precious muscle memory.

Just as Nolan was about to attempt to employ the first step of his movement skill, the energy around the struggling spirit suddenly burst apart.

"Okay," said Uncle Grey, who hovered close to the man's face, which was equally as pale as his own. "Regardless of what you want to say, you have two choices before you. The first is that you accept your fate and allow me to enslave you with a certain arrayment, and the second—"

"Don't waste time with your lies. Just kill me." All struggle had escaped from the man, whose remnant spiritual energy had been greatly depleted over the course of the past half-hour.

"And your second option is to, well, accept your fate, and die peacefully here in this glade."

"It's impossible to enslave a spirit, let alone a fragment of one. There's no bodily compulsion."

"What, according to the logic of this world?" After tugging at his ghostly beard for a few moments, Uncle Grey nodded up at the featureless sky and then motioned toward the surrounding forests. "Don't take this the wrong way, but your methods probably aren't up to standard here, no?"

"As if you have the slightest clue about what you're talking about."

"Enough talk. What will it be?"

"I didn't seal this fragment of my soul away just to experience slavery, not after enduring that thoughtless darkness for who knows how long!"

Uncle Grey clearly didn't want to kill the man, likely for the same reason that Nolan was unwilling to see the unwanted cultivator lose what was left of his life. There was a good chance that he could shed some light on what had taken place on Nia before the ancient world had met its mysterious end. Since the day Nolan learned that this was another world, the question of Nia's collapse and subsequent Armageddon had always been at the back of his mind. As far as Nolan could tell, Nia had been far more advanced than Venara in respect to its standard for cultivation levels and martial arts. And yet the world had still ceased to be.

Uncle Grey proved Nolan's suspicions correct by drawing out a complex arrayment diagram that took the old master nearly ten minutes to complete. Within moments of its activation, the other spirit was screaming and hollering in such a way that made it seem as if he were drowning in a sea of molten lava. His voice eventually died down, and with it his convulsions. Once he regained his faculties, it was as if he'd never suffered the slightest agony.

Now that the immediate danger had passed, Nolan finally got a good look at the man. His robes were very thin, and long enough to drag on the ground were he alive and the garments tangible. His eyes were beady to a point, the circles of his irises having about half the circumference of an ordinary person's. As for his frame, it was wiry and frail, to the extent that Nolan doubted that he'd had ever had much substance to his physique even in his prime.

The spirit began to pat down the area where his heart would have been. "W—what have you—"

"Stop talking," said Uncle Grey, "and sit still."

A fascinated horror seemed to take root on the ancient spirit's face, whose eyes were just as wide as Nolan and Nyla’s.

"Now," smiled Uncle Grey, whose expression lacked the leisurely manner that usually composed it. "I've got some questions for you. Until I say, you're only allowed to speak in response to what I ask. Understand?"

"Y—yes," grated the man, who attempted to say something else but was strangely unable to.

"Let's start with your name, and your position within this world."

"I…I'm Jun, leader of the Tranquil Void Sect, which used to be a Hegemon Sect here on Nia. Or at least, I'm a fraction of his soul."

"And where's your real body?"

"Shouldn't it be somewhere here?" interjected Nyla. "Don't spirits have to stay around the spots where they die?"

Uncle Grey held up a hand to silence her as Jun answered out of compulsion.

"The real Jun followed Halvin, Overseer of the Winterlands, through some sort of teleportation arrayment that he'd created, one that supposedly led to another world. Jun didn’t—I didn't trust it. But I had no choice. None…none of us did. The real me should be somewhere in that land, though I'm not sure of what happened after everybody set off. Something…something tells me that their fates were deserving of pity."

"Your spiritual connection was severed," nodded Uncle Grey. "Understandable, considering the distance between the two worlds." After losing himself to his erratic thoughts for over a minute, he seemed to remember that he wasn't alone and said, "Give us some context, would you? What's a Hegemon Sect, and who's this Halvin character?"

"Throughout most of Nia's history, if you were a cultivator, you were either a part of the League of Righteous Sects or you were a rogue from a renegade sect. Back in my time, the Hegemon Sects were the most powerful forces on the planet. Out of the eight, I headed the third largest. As for Halvin…" the old spirit let out a complicated sigh. "He was the leader of the Blackstar Sect, which surpassed all of the Hegemon Sects. He was the most powerful person of my time—in all of our recorded history, I should say."

"You know about planets?" asked Nolan, who nodded at Uncle Grey to repeat the question.

"Of course I do. How else would we try to charter a path to another one?" Jun looked up at the featureless, colourless sky, his age truly showing in this moment. "It was just that, Halvin was the only one with even a small chance of succeeding at creating a teleportation arrayment that could accomplish just that. I have memories up until my body left this world, and to this day I still don't know a thing about the arrayment he used."

After talking to the man for a short while, Nolan began to pity him. Wasn't he just as unlucky as Uncle Grey, having been stuck here in solitude for an incomprehensible period of time? He asked his teacher to let the man have free rein over his voice, which was granted only after Jun was forbidden from harming anybody—including himself—or attempting to escape in any way.

The first thing Jun did was apologize for attempting to take over Nolan's body. "My family, my disciples, everybody I care about has long since left this world. The last thing I remember is leaving through Halvin's arrayment, and then blackness. When I saw that you were one of Halvin's disciples, I thought there might be a chance to comb through your memory, to discover his methods and leave this place. Your master here has great foresight, for the arrayment on your arm prevented me from accessing your memories. I…I am truly sorry."

One of Halvin's disciples? Nolan's heart nearly froze in his chest as he recalled the trials he'd had to undergo during the process of inheriting the Ancestral Body Technique. At the time, he'd spoken with an old spirit that was similar to Uncle Grey and Jun, but that man had given off a much more impressive aura.

Call upon me when you reach the Genesis stage. With enough power in your voice, you should be able to reach me. Recalling the last thing that the spirit had said before his voice had died off, Nolan felt a chill run down his spine. That man must have been a previous owner of the Millennial Ring, and judging by his words, a fragment of his spirit must have been dwelling somewhere within Nolan's person. That neither Uncle Grey nor Jun had discovered him meant that he was far more capable than either of them.