“I see them!” called Lyra over the storm, which was particularly intense in this area. Seeing Nyla’s canvas, she said, “So are we fighting, or fleeing?” Her eyes darted to the left, where a much larger group was momentarily illuminated by a giant streak of lightning, at least sixty Integration-staged cultivators.

“Keep moving!”

It was Ian who answered his sister, the lean-muscled boy shooting off through the hurricane-like storm in the direction of the larger group. When his sister made to follow, Sean grabbed her arm and pulled her back. “Don’t! You’ll give him away.”

The surprise on Lyra’s face betrayed the realization that none of those that approached from the left were above the sixth level of Integration. This meant that while the approaching group would be able to detect her, none of them were capable of sensing her brother.

Nyla would have to talk to Lyra about the girl’s tendency to let her emotions take the reins during dangerous situations. Even if she wasn’t the calm and calculating type, it didn’t mean that she had to rashly act upon every situation that stirred up her sympathies.

The moments dragged on as everybody waited for Ian to make his move, their hearts pounding amidst the natural din. Only Nyla could keep track of his movements, as he quickly arrived high above the large group of enemies, an indiscernible blur amidst the endless waves of pelting rain.

The former heir of the Varai clan didn’t keep them waiting, as not even half a minute had passed when a brilliant flash of golden light appeared about half a league away, a giant sword of blinding energy that stood nearly as tall as a hundred men. It was hard to believe that this was the same martial skill that the Varai siblings had always relied on, though there was no disputing this fact as the great blade was launched from his sword in a vertical slash that smashed down into the centre of the disciples below him with devastating effect. The abrupt disappearance of eighteen auras was quickly followed by a retaliatory bombardment of over a thousand azure blades, bright flashes of blue light that shot up into the sky like a curious show of fireworks.

Ian swerved this way and that, weaving through the mass of projectiles as he closed in on the distant disciples. Thirty more auras disappeared and over a dozen others fluctuated wildly as another flash of golden light swept through the group, almost half of the attack arrayments disappearing almost instantaneously in the face of the martial skill, a much larger manifestation than the previous one. Most injured and all frightened, the small amount of disciples that remained didn’t give chase as Ian beat a hasty retreat, instead hanging back to check up on their wounded, and to avoid any further casualties.

When Ian returned, it was with the heavily weighted expression of somebody that had just committed a massacre. It seemed that Nyla wasn’t the only one that was conscious of the fact that these disciples had no say in this situation, that they were simply following orders and doing their best to carry them out.

“Better them than us,” came Lyra’s harsh tone, which was slightly awed at her brother’s strength.

Ian simply shook his head in slight disapproval and then fixed his gaze ahead of them. Another force was fast approaching, this one of similar size to the one that he’d just engaged but boasting a much more powerful lineup of individuals. At least ten elders were present, and one of them possessed the same level of cultivation as Ian. Seven similar groups were also closing in from all sides, as the countryside was suddenly lit up by hundreds of tiny lights. These distant signs of arrayment diagrams being drawn were foreboding, to say the least, so Nyla didn’t hesitate to pull her friends closer and activate her treasured canvas.

The painting lit up as the entire sky seemed blotted out by thousands upon thousands of blue energy blades, which drew high arcs in the air as if a massive volley of arrows had just been loosed in their direction. Some of these projections were much larger than the others, courtesy of the elders that were mixed into the masses, though Nyla and her friends didn’t stick around to bear the brunt of the assault and quickly disappeared from where they were standing.

Blood leaked from Nyla’s mouth as they appeared almost two leagues to the south of their previous location, the distant sounds of impact barely reaching her ears as she stumbled forward and nearly fell to the ground. Ian quickly cast a globe of spiritual energy around her and then took the lead, which gave her time to eat various medicinal pellets and to drink large servings of Divine Spirit Fountain water. By the time she had improved her condition enough to run on her own, they found themselves back in the exact same situation that they had been in before she’d relocated the group. The various forces that they had left behind were currently rushing toward their current location as if they had immediately been made aware of the area that they had relocated to. No matter what direction she centred her focus upon, the only signs that awaited her perceptions were large masses of moving bodies.

“How do they keep finding us so easily?” said Lyra, whose halmite great sword was hefted onto her shoulder as she sprinted by her brother’s side. “They shouldn’t be able to sense us, right?”

Nobody had an answer, though Nyla suspected that a powerful elder must have been keeping tabs on them. If this was true then that could only mean that this individual was in the vicinity, which could very well signal a disaster for their group. The only hope that they had going for them at the moment was that, although there were too many elders in the area for comfort, the disciples that they led were only in the early levels of Integration. Normally this would be terrible news since such a force was extremely formidable and intimidating in its own right, but from what Nyla had seen, the Falling Rain Sect’s inner court only consisted of cultivators that had at least reached the fourth level of Integration. This meant that they were currently being chased by the lowest ranking—and by extension, the weakest—members of the sect.

“We’re going to end up fighting soon,” said Sean with nervous eyes, sword hoisted over a lean shoulder in the same manner as Lyra’s. “There’s no avoiding it. We need to make a plan for when that happens.”

Nyla glanced at Alicia and Aine and then called out to them. “Remember the barrier arrayment that Uncle Grey showed us?” When both nodded, she said, “Draw out the diagram and be ready to activate it at any second.”

She was referring to an intermediate arrayment that their master had taught them during their final months in his company, one that was meant to be used by multiple people. The way the diagram was drawn made it so that the barrier reacted to others of the same design, allowing the energies to link together and reinforce one another. Uncle Grey had said that normally it was meant to be used by hundreds of cultivators, but the general effects remained the same no matter how many people were powering it. Nyla also drew out the diagram in question, ready to combine her energies with that of the other two girls should they happen to find themselves forced to take on an attack like the barrage that they'd just fled from.

It’s still not enough. Nyla summoned a barrel full of superior spirit stones and quickly siphoned their energy into her dantians and spiritual space, expelling the excess inner essence without any hesitation. Normal spirit stones only had about a fifth of the amount of spiritual energy as they did Origin Energy, but that wasn’t the case for the ones that had sat within the Divine Spirit Fountain for several weeks. The ratio of these stones was perfectly equal between the two types of energies, which allowed her to collect several dantians’ worth of spiritual energy with which to power the diagram. This was quite a dangerous thing to attempt, however, since so much energy ran the risk of exploding apart when condensed to such an extent outside of the body.

They did their best to avoid the seemingly endless amount of sect members that were currently combing the countryside, though it soon became apparent that they had long since been surrounded by a massive net of patrolling enemies that was slowly constricting in on them.