Nolan watched the pillars of smoke with a smile that bordered on sadistic. That makes, what, four buildings now?

Two weeks had passed since he and his friends had struck up an agreement with Welson Telis, the Consul of Tallgate, to mutually antagonize Connick Sorus and the others of his faction. During this time, Nolan and the others hadn’t been idle, all of them cultivating like madmen within their room at Welson’s inn.

Thanks to the abundance of extremely rare and potent resources that they had gathered, every single member of the group had made extremely rapid progress in their cultivation, to the extent that outsiders would be doubtful of their auras had they sensed them just a couple of weeks back.

“How does it feel?” he asked the open air as Sean and Esteban both appeared at his sides. “Ah, take your time.”

Both were floating in a seated position along the edges of the rooftop that Nolan had chosen to watch the show, suspended by the inner essence of an unseen Delia. As he had done several weeks before, both of his fellow Otherworlders had just broken through to the Integration stage, as described by the destructive force of the violet bolts of lightning that had just completely levelled the gambling house and public baths that belonged to the Merchant Lord’s Chamberlain.

“We didn’t kill anyone, did we?” asked Esteban, who had just opened his eyes with a calm and collected expression. “There were a lot of people in there.”

“Yeah, you guys killed like thirty people just now.” Munching on an apple in an apathetic manner, Nolan added, “But they were all mercenaries on Connick’s side. I already told you guys, Delia and May were keeping an eye on those places, and today they were closed for renovations.”

Connick was quite the wealthy man, but unfortunately for him the hundreds of thousands of spirit stones that he had invested into remodelling and refurbishing these two businesses in light of his liege’s arrival had all gone to waste.

“Delia. Did you get it?”

A spatial bag appeared in front of him that contained over 3,000,000 spirit stones and about half that amount’s worth of star gold. Letting out a whistle, he said, “Damn, buddy sure saved up a lot at that gambling house. Maybe we should open one when we get back to the Three-River Valley?”

Stowing the bag away, he floated a few metres into the air and handed Delia one of the black pellets that Uncle Grey had refined from the soul of the Falling Rain Sect’s founder. Such a pill was priceless no matter where one went, since it was quite difficult for Genesis-staged cultivators to obtain resources that were capable of enhancing their cultivation speed to such an extent.

“You…” said Delia, who trailed off into silence. As had become the new normal, she avoided meeting his eyes.

Esteban stood up just then, a light smile tugging at his freckled face. “I’ll take Sean back. It looks like he’s still assimilating the energy from the tribulation.”

“Phht, you just want to keep cultivating.”

Holding up a hand that suddenly gained a layer of orange flames, the younger boy let out a loud laugh. “Obviously! Don’t you want to gain more affinity with fire?” He clenched his hand into a fist, the flames fading. “Besides, that Welson guy said that the Merchant Lord is on his way now. Shouldn’t we try to get as strong as possible before he gets here?”

Squinting his eyes, Nolan returned to the rooftop and put a hand on Esteban’s head, drawing a straight line to his chest. “Dude, you grew like four centimetres just now.”

Slightly taken aback, Esteban looked up at the sky with shining eyes. “God does exist!”

He gave the boy a heartfelt pat on the shoulder. They had spent so much time on Nia that up until today Esteban had looked like he was ten-years-old despite the fact that he was actually thirteen. He didn’t quite look his age yet, but at least he no longer appeared as childish.

“Why don’t you go back and show the others?”

“Let’s see Aine make fun of me now!” Looking excited, Esteban cast a globe of spiritual energy around Sean and then leapt to a distant rooftop, the clean-shaven man ferried along after him like a balloon that was tied to a child’s wrist.

“Hmm, now that I think about it, I’m a bit taller than before too.” He was about 180 centimetres tall now, or 5’11 as Sean would say. Although he had been keeping his face clean shaven, he had also begun to grow facial hair in recent months.

Seeing him mumbling to himself, Delia tried to slink away in a silent manner only for him to reach out and tug at the hem of her white cloak. Nobody else could see her thanks to the concealment arrayment that she had cast on herself prior to taking Sean and Esteban out to face their heavenly tribulations, which was a good thing considering that she stuck out like a star in the sky on a hot summer day like today. Her white hair hung down to her waist, the straight strands thick, luscious and smooth as silk. Her robes were soft and cottony, the colour of the clouds that drifted here and there above the island of healthy landscape that surrounded the city in the midst of the vast expanse of barren wilderness.

Delia glared at him when he didn’t let go of her robe.

“Don’t just run off,” he said in a friendly manner. “Look, I don’t know you too well but even I can tell that you’ve been acting kind of weird lately. Ever since we left that island, you haven’t been able to look me in the eye. Did I do something?”

Her expression became uncomfortable, her cheeks flushing at an unknown memory. Seeing such a look on a cold-hearted killer like herself, Nolan was momentarily flummoxed. Okay, I’m definitely missing something.

“I…I’d rather not say.” Biting her lip, she began to fiddle with her thumbs.

“Man, you’re the most confusing person I’ve ever met.” Rather than cloaking his body in spiritual energy and using it to ferry himself around, Nolan took out the white-hilted flying sword that he had taken from Delia back when he had first taken her into his service. Stepping onto it and floating away from the rooftop, he added, “I won’t force you to say anything. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay with you.”

He motioned for her to follow and began to fly toward the inn where the others were currently cultivating within the confines of their room.

“What does it matter to you?”

He stopped as he heard a quiet, withdrawn response from Delia that he wasn’t quite sure had been intended for him to hear.

“Look,” he sighed, “I don’t know what you’ve been through in your life, and I’m not one to pry. I just think that if we’re all going to be travelling around together, you know, sharing life and death together, we should be on better terms.”

Next came a cold snort that he was more familiar with. “Says the man who enslaved me.”

“In order to avoid being murdered by you…”

Delia rolled her eyes as if his defence was a poor one. “We all have our own circumstances.”

He nodded. “You’re right. But I still think you should try to get along with the others. You might not like hearing it, but you’ll be travelling with us for the next few years at least.”

“I should have known it was a lie when said you would free me.”

“You almost took my life, which means all of the years I would have lived. I think I can squeeze a few years out of you in return, can’t I?”

He stared at the people that were rushing to and fro beneath his feet, the city streets congested now that tens of thousands of outsiders had accumulated within its gates. Subordinates of the CMA were hurrying towards the smoldering ruins of the businesses that his friends had just destroyed.

“I’m not used to being around other people. You have no idea what my life has been like, so stop trying to understand me.”

“That doesn’t make any sense though? It’s only natural to want to know more about and understand the people around you.”

He felt a bit awkward having an honest talk with the infamous White Rogue, but he wasn’t just some shmuck on the street and thus wasn’t too worried about any judgement on her part. Now that he was at the sixth level of Integration, it wouldn’t be long before he could match her in a direct confrontation, so it wasn’t so outlandish to expect some form of respect from her.

Delia glanced at the priceless pellet in her hands, no doubt thinking about how the previous one had allowed her to break through to the eighth level of the Genesis stage in a matter of weeks. “You want to know more about me?”

“I do.”

A little glint in her beautiful white eyes told him that she had finally lowered her guard by at least a little bit. “I was born in the Thebes Empire. My mother was very beautiful and my father was a renowned warrior, and even though we rarely spent time together as a family, those days were quite nice. At least until my father was murdered by a friend, who then forced my mother to be his concubine.” Her eyes darkened. “He was the first person that I’ve ever killed.”