“Fuck me…” he sighed, knowing he would have laughed too were he on the observing end of what had just happened.

He stumbled over to the fountain and allowed himself to fall into it, gulping down its sobering waters as soon as he was submerged. It took a few minutes for him to sober up, at which point he leapt nearly two hundred metres to where Uncle Grey and Jun were waiting for him, both laughing as soon as he appeared.

“What, you never been drunk before?”

“Come now, Nolan,” said his senior teacher. “We must know when to laugh at ourselves in life.”

“Let’s not tease him too much,” said Jun, who cleared away a plot of grass by creating a thin cord of spiritual energy and mowing down the designated plants in an instant. “Here, use this heap as material for your new uniforms.”

“Take out a small amount of that halmite as well.”

After complying with the directions, he listened to his teachers’ explanations on how to alter the construction arrayment that he had been relying on to make sect uniforms up until now. With the new method, an additional word was added into the existing arrayment diagram, which looked like a maze of iridescent light with a few phrases scrawled in certain spots. Even though Nolan was only adding a single word, it required him to resize every single line, symbol, and shape so as to maintain the existing functions of the arrayment.

Five hours and dozens of attempts later, Nolan succeeded in creating a new uniform for himself that was exactly identical to his current one. Pulling on the pine-coloured fabric, he was happy to find that it was much more durable.

“This is great,” he said, patting down the clothes after having changed outfits with enthusiasm.

Uncle Grey tugged at his tangled beard. “These will be especially useful for those two girls. Although they’ve both managed to reach the fourth level of Integration thanks to my brilliant tutelage, they’ve yet to fully grow used to their new powers.”

“Indeed,” said Jun. “As long as they wear one of these then nobody below the third level of Integration will be able to harm them, at least not with a few simple blows.”

Of course, they were talking about Alicia and Aine, who had spent the vast majority of the past year cultivating within the Divine Spirit Fountain. By relying on the Profound Soul-Splitting Technique as well as all of the medicinal pellets that Nolan had gifted to them, they had climbed all the way up to the fifth level of Integration. Like Nyla, they now had two dantians, both of which were far from ordinary. Although they only knew a couple of basic arrayments and weren’t too proficient at using them, they could at least defend themselves from here on out.

“Hmm,” mumbled Nolan. “I could probably make good money selling clothes.” As he seriously considered the new avenue of income, Uncle Grey and Jun showed signs of having a brief telepathic conversation. Seeing that Nolan’s attention had returned to them, the former cleared his throat.

“Now, while you finish up with making uniforms for the others, we’ll go off and make one for Miss Asten.”

“We don’t even know if she’ll join this time around. She’s already made it clear that she doesn’t want to get involved with that kill order that the Nightshadow Sect put out on us for killing that Keplin guy outside of Ridgerock, remember?”

“She’s made it clear that she intends to follow you for the near future. Considering her special constitution, I can’t see her leaving your group any time soon.”

“What special constitution?”

“That is not my secret to share. Anyhow, once she sees your growth, it wouldn’t be surprising if she immediately became a member of your Earth Sect.”

Again with that mysterious air. What did Uncle Grey know about May for him to always make references about some sort of secret that she was apparently keeping from them? It didn’t seem to be a bad thing, but he really wanted to know.

“I can’t argue with that, I guess.”

He and his friends were now a completely different force than they had been when they’d first arrived at the glade more than eleven months ago. He was just a sliver away from breaking through to the Integration stage, and was now unmatched in that realm of cultivation. At Uncle Grey’s behest, Nolan had been holding off on drawing in that last bit of energy, and for good reason. Traditionally, those that broke through to the Genesis stage would undergo a process called the Heavenly Tribulation, where a bolt of lightning would smite them from the skies regardless of location or weather conditions. This happened the moment that their body sent off a certain signal, one that only surfaced during the overhaul of internal energies that took place during such a monumental breakthrough. It was said that this took place as a punishment for going against the natural order of things by stealing vast amounts of Origin Energy from the world and hoarding it in one body.

Nolan had a hard time believing what he’d been told about the so-called Heavenly Tribulation, and reserved his judgements for a later date when he might have more information to go off of. He did believe that this mysterious phenomenon would take place, however, as Ian had also held off on pushing past the peak of Integration for this exact reason. That is, it was unknown if this tribulation would still take place if they were to make their breakthroughs while on a dead world like Nia, within the heart of a grand barrier arrayment, no less. Because of Nolan's peculiar constitution, there was a strong chance that his next breakthrough would bring about the same reaction from whatever atmospheric energies that were behind the strange phenomenon.

“You guys don’t have to worry about making May’s outfit, though. I might as well do it after I make the others.”

He had already told his friends that they would be heading back to Venara sometime within the next several hours, since he could feel that there wasn’t much time left before the Millennial Ring would forcefully eject him from Nia. Since the two spirits would have to wait four years or so until Nolan and his friends would return to the glade, he figured that he might as well afford them a bit more time to socialize with the others. Such considerations were mostly for Jun, as Uncle Grey tended to put himself in a trance-like state whenever he used the Millennial Ring as a catalyst to connect his consciousness to Nolan’s.

His teachers shared an odd look before Uncle Grey spoke up. “She needs a more durable uniform, one that can withstand any attack from those at the Integration stage.”

“That’s an option? Why don’t you guys just make ours then?”

“Ah,” said Jun in a mentor’s tone, a patient look on the long-haired spirit’s face. “Since we lack the proper materials, it will take us many hours to complete. We can only produce one by the time you all want to leave, so unless you decide to stay for a few more days…”

“Alright, I get it.” He waved them off, as he was intent on finishing his task as soon as possible. “I’m gonna get to it then.”

His teachers flew off with eager expressions. Watching them go, Nolan was happy at the thought that neither of them would have to suffer through solitude any longer. He felt as if he’d just brought home a second dog so that his first would no longer be lonely while he was out of the house.

They’re being weird, he thought, yawning as he prepared to clear his mind. But I don’t even care. He set about drawing another arrayment diagram, happy despite the trials that awaited him and his friends back at the Desolate Spirit Tower.

***

“Why is there a seal on it, though?”

A minute or so after everybody had changed into their new uniforms, Uncle Grey and Jun had flown over to the stone courtyard and handed Nolan a spatial bag that they must have borrowed from one of his friends. He couldn’t sense its contents, which left him scratching his head after the reason.

“We’ve included some gifts to help you win her over to your side,” said Uncle Grey. “She will surely be of great help in the future, so we made sure not to spare any effort."

A few metres away from the others, Nolan talked to his teachers for a bit until he was suddenly hit with the sensation that the Millennial Ring subjected him to whenever it was about to eject him from this world. He had been keeping a close eye on the energy that the ring had siphoned from his dantian in recent months, and had felt the stirrings of activity within it for the past several days. Because of this, he had constantly hinted to his friends that they should be ready to leave at the drop of a hat.