Why were the people of this world so hypocritical? Nolan stared at the thin, ratty-haired woman that was charging toward him with bloodshot eyes, who was clearly intent on taking revenge for her fallen family members. They had literally tracked down his friends for the sole purpose of killing them, and then when some of the sect’s forces ended up dying they suddenly became victims?

Recognizing the attack that the woman had just used as the same one that the leader of the sect had relied on during his fight with May, Nolan directed his flying sword to draw a quick arc in the air as he flew forward to meet her head on. Using his full strength, the sable blade of his halmite longsword collided with that of the woman’s simple sword, which immediately bent in a V-shape upon contact. Although Nolan’s weapon was far superior, he couldn’t match up to her when it came to strength. Even though he had bent her blade, she had still been able to send him flying backwards in a series of disorienting tumbles, which he barely recovered from in time to block her follow-up strike. She had discarded her first weapon as soon as it lost its shape, which she did a second time before chasing after him with ruthless movements.

Nolan, on the other hand, had used the momentum of the second exchange to quickly flee in the opposite direction, having kept his hold on the flying sword beneath his feet due to his exemplary spiritual sensitivity and heightened awareness. With the utmost focus, he had maintained contact with the essence fusion object even throughout the dizzying trail that he’d traced through the sky and was now able to make a hasty withdrawal.

Holy shit, she’s strong. Both of his arms were shaking uncontrollably and his hands were numb enough that he couldn’t feel his grip on the weapon’s handle. Even his shoulders hurt from the recoil, which told him that the best way to defeat this woman was to keep his distance and harass her until he could create a perfect opportunity to initiate an all-out strike. Thankfully, he was wearing the silver necklace that he’d forced the white-haired woman to give to him, which had the incredible ability to falsify his cultivation base in addition to being able to completely mask it. According to its former owner, so long as he kept the necklace on then nobody beneath the Soul Strengthening stage would be able to sense his aura. Relying on its effects, he distracted his opponent with a small flurry of needles that moved around at the behest of his spiritual sense, occasionally shooting a single-bladed attack arrayment in her direction.

Elsewhere, the rest of the sect’s forces began to move in on his friends, with every member preparing a fresh diagram at the commands of their elders. When Nolan had first showed up, he hadn’t been able to believe how many people had been mobilized just to subdue him and the others. They were currently surrounded by over thirty thousand members of the Falling Rain Sect, which was comparable in size to the army of the Bloodhand Sect that had besieged and conquered the city of Davenhold back in Hauss. This time, however, instead of inner and outer court disciples in the late and early levels of Profound Entry respectively, everyone present was in the Integration stage.

After May had healed her injuries—miraculously regenerating a foot and an arm—Nolan had asked her to contact Nyla via sound transmission to let them know that they were on their way to meet up with her and the others. The white-haired woman that he had recently enslaved proved an invaluable asset in their efforts to escape, having killed thousands of people under Nolan’s command in the short while that it took to reunite with his friends. This included two Genesis-staged cultivators as well as several dozen elders and honorary members of the sect at the peak of Integration, fights that would have given him immense trouble had it just been him and the dying May. Thankfully, all May had needed was a healthy helping of medicinal pellets—pellets that had cost tens of thousands of spirit stones, she’d lamented—and to replenish her inner energies via Divine Spirit Fountain water, and she had been able to make a complete recovery.

Even with May and his new servant at full strength, and even though they were both on par with people at the sixth level of the Genesis stage, Nolan knew that they had next to no chance of defeating such a massive and impressive army in any kind of conflict. Their only hope was to flee, and so he didn’t plan to engage in any prolonged exchanges.

His current opponent was unrelenting, the woman chasing after him while unleashing strike after strike of bare-fisted fury. At the second level of Genesis, each one of her punches disturbed the space within a diameter of nearly two hundred metres, causing the wind to hiss and the air to shake at every instance. Intent on buying a bit of time to shake her off, Nolan quickly stored his flying sword away and landed atop an instantaneously conjured platform of spiritual energy, this one just large enough to give him a slight foothold. Kicking off of it, he conjured dozens more in rapid succession following a series of pinball-like jumps that saw him dashing circles around the woman in an effort to confuse her. Just as she pinpointed his location with her spiritual sense and made to attack him—likely detecting any disturbances in the air in order to perceive his movements—he used the first step of the Tranquil Void Step and abruptly vanished only to appear five metres behind her almost immediately after.

The moment he appeared, Nolan unleashed the Emerald Thorn Piercing Technique with all his might, lighting up a significant area of the countryside as thousands of thick emerald needles suddenly appeared in front of him. Now that he had broken through to the Integration stage, not only had the amount of needles that he could conjure skyrocketed by dozens of folds, but the projectiles themselves had gained an incredible density that gave them the appearance of luminous metal. These were now arm’s length and several centimetres in diameter, and it was with no small amount of surprise that Nolan watched them almost instantaneously push the woman back as he lashed out with all of his strength.

He didn’t stick around to see how much damage he’d done to her, opting to use the momentum from the resultant windstorm to carry him towards his friends and away from the tattered silhouette that he’d just turned his back on. A few moments ago, May’s voice had entered his mind, exclaiming in alarm that the sect master of the Falling Rain Sect had just activated a grand defensive formation that had completely walled the island off with a dense perimeter of mist. Hearing this, he quickly slipped away from the unwanted fight and infused his voice with inner essence so as to project his words across the countryside in a loud and imposing manner.

“Hey Whitey, we’re leaving!”

He relied on the Tranquil Void Step’s base function to appear beside his friends after a few seconds of high-paced dashing, noting the slight relief that slipped onto their faces as he came within eyeshot. Alicia and Aine were in the midst of climbing out of the barrels of Divine Spirit Fountain water that Sean and Esteban had been carrying via spiritual energy, their pale faces having regained a bit of colour since Nolan had first appeared. Lyra looked both frustrated and anxious as she stood on guard with sword in hand, clearly upset at her inability to contribute to the group’s defense thus far into their dire dilemma.

May was holding Nyla’s odd, ornately-framed canvas and listening to the latter’s succinct explanation on how to use it.

Ian also made an immediate retreat as soon as he heard Nolan’s voice, which had been loud enough to cause visible discomfort to many of the outer court disciples in the area. The white-haired woman on the other hand, simply snorted in a derisive manner upon hearing Nolan’s curt command, and then turned to comply with his will. She paused, however, to quickly unleash a strange martial skill that caused a wave of water-like white light—a literal oceanic wave—to crash down upon the nearest mass of disciples, destroying the individual barriers that few had the time to create when faced with the sudden attack. Well over a thousand people died beneath the incredible pressure of this mountainous wave, which was well over two hundred metres tall and four times as wide. Not one person present in the sect’s encirclement was unaffected by the sight of such one-sided slaughter, since even their great elders would have had a difficult time dealing with such an unexpected and ferocious attack.