Mei audibly gulped.

I gathered all the herbs the group had and added some of my own. Then, I selected a fistful of reagents from the pile and gave them a final look. It was not perfect, but they would have to do.

I pulled some water from the air and heated it up to a boil. I cut up the herbs and tossed them inside, keeping everything steady with my Telekinesis.

Mei watched it all with wide eyes. I ignored her and made a golden claw by draining yet another Spirit Shard. Then, I cut my forearm and extracted some blood.

The recipe required Phoenix Blood, but I had powers of one, so that should be good enough, right? It was something I had to test anyway and the results were important. I added a bit more blood than necessary in case it wasn’t potent enough.

The liquid soon turned viscus crimson, burning off the remaining leaves and roots until it became a smooth red sauce. I stopped the magic and filled up three small vials with it and stored the rest. I went to Gang and poured the liquid into his mouth. His Soul was ready to leave his body at any moment, so he was first.

“What… What is that?” Mei asked fearfully.

[Elixir of Life… and Fire.] I answered coldly, observing the reaction it was having on the man’s body with my Arcane Eyes. I still felt overwhelmed using them, but I was slowly getting accustomed to it.

I watched intently as the heat started spreading from his throat into his chest. That’s when the man suddenly opened his eyes and began to scream as a fire spread across his body and his flesh began to glow. He began clawing at his chest and throat and screamed himself hoarse while flailing around.

“What is happening?!” Mei jumped up and shouted, panicked and terrified.

[Hmm…] I just looked at it and nodded to myself. The improvised potion seemed to be doing its job. I had to substitute some ingredients, but my gamble seemed to have worked. His Soul was pulled back and tightly anchored into his body. He wasn’t going to die any time soon.

Plundering all those memories of the old ghost was the best thing I could have done. Centuries of knowledge, even if fragmented, were invaluable.

I delivered the potion to the other two unconscious people and then sat on the ground, ready to speak, burning and screaming people behind me giving the place a nice atmosphere.

[Now, Mei…] I gestured to the stone seat I created before me. [Sit. Let’s have a talk.]

She sat, nervously.

[First of all… What is your Realm exactly?] They were obviously in the Golden Core, but in terms of combat ability, they were trash! I basically just walked over and that was enough to kill all of them. If I didn’t want to test my newly acquired regeneration abilities I could have just blown them to pieces from a distance.

They wouldn’t stand a chance.

“I- I’m Golden Core, First Layer.” Mei answered. She was much older than me, obviously, yet she looked and acted much like a shy 20-year-old would.

[First Layer…] So they called the levels a bit differently. Interesting. [Like an onion?]

“Excuse me?”

[What about them?] I pointed at the burning people in the background with my thumb. Regeneration seemed to be working much slower on them. Most likely the potion I created was much weaker, after all, it contained only some of my blood. A real Phoenix would have been better.

Also, their every nerve was currently on fire, so the pain they were experiencing was unimaginable. Sucked to be them.

“They…” Mei averted her gaze from her screaming teammates and stared at the floor. “Fang reached the Second Layer recently, and the rest are still in the First Layer, like me.”

[I see. And do you lot have any experience fighting other people? Was this display a norm for your Sect?]

She shook her head. “I’ve never fought another person before. Fang and Chun both used to train in some sword Martial Arts, but they ranked at the bottom in the last tournament. And Gang is a blacksmith. He is strong, but his swordsmanship…”

[Pathetic, yes, I have noticed.] I stroked my short beard while in thought. Really, it was such a shame I would have to shave it off soon.

[Do you have a map? Wait, no never mind...] I took all of their stuff and I didn’t see one. A slight problem.

“I can draw one if you’d like. I know approximately where we are.” She offered meekly.

I gave an affirmative nod and the place between us shifted to present a clear surface for drawing.

Her finger glowed and she began to carefully draw the area.

I winced as I looked at the picture. Either she was completely terrified, or this was the worst person on the planet in terms of drawing ability. I could barely make out what she was trying to show.

[So… This is your Sect, and this is where we are?]

“Yes…”

[And this is north?]

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She shook her head. “That’s east.”

I wanted to facepalm but refrained. According to her, I was on the completely opposite side of where I thought I was. But at least now I knew that.

[And… Where is your Sect’s Nexus?]

“A what?” She looked at me wide-eyed.

[You know… The Portal Nexus that was destroyed a few months ago.] The one I ruined. Accidentally.

“How- How do you know that?!” She gasped.

I just stared at her. She nervously played with her fingers.

[Draw.]

“...Yes.”

Mei drew where the approximate location of the ruined Nexus should be, and I imprinted the map in my memory.

It shouldn’t be too far away. A few hundred kilometers to the… I looked at the map again. To the south, yes. But that would bring me dangerously close to the Brilliant Sword Sect if I went straight. And if I went around, it would take me much longer and would most likely be also more dangerous.

While I could take on an early Golden Core beast, anything higher than the Third Layer would be a stretch. Even with all the abilities I gained, without having the ability to produce Golden Qi, I was still limited in what I could do. Constantly draining Spirit Shards just wasn’t a good solution.

Also, I wasn’t used to the increased abilities of my body. I was severely underusing the speed I was currently capable of.

I looked at Mia who was absentmindedly twiddling her thumbs with a lowered head.

[How old are you?]

She jerked her head up. “My age? I was 49 years in the summer.”

Damn! She’s old! I almost showed the shock on my face. Almost. Luckily I masked it well, I think.

[Hmm. What’s your talent?]

She lowered her head, seemingly in shame. “It’s low-grade Earth.”

[Lifespan?]

She lifted her head again, seemingly confused, but answered nonetheless. “According to the Elders, it should be about 170-180 years remaining.”

I considered her answers and slowly nodded my head. It was in line with what I already kind of knew. There was the least discrepancy in lifespan between Cultivators of the same Talent and could be easily calculated. Sadly, I didn’t know where I stood.

[And when do you think you’ll be able to reach the Spirit Realm?] I finally asked.

Mia turned her eyes to the side, thinking. “I believe it should take me another 60-70 years if everything goes well. Hopefully, there won’t be any bottlenecks.”

[Bottlenecks…] I murmured, thinking how I just skipped the arduous accumulation phases and just advanced through realms like it was nothing. Well, the last time that happened it was because Long Dong killed dozens of high Golden Core beasts and trapped their Souls for later consumption, so something similar wasn’t likely to happen any time soon. Also one of the reasons I didn’t straight up kill these guys. They were so weak, all their Souls combined might budge me 2-3% toward the next Layer.

While I was close to advancing, they were still literal crumbs. They served me much better as guinea pigs.

“Hey, what’s happening with them?” Mia suddenly exclaimed, waking me up from my thoughts.

I looked, and the three burning people quieted down and stilled as their bodies began cooling down. A gray rocky shell formed across their entire body and they seemingly fell unconscious.

I slowly stood up and went after Mei who was already examining her teammates.

“Fang? Fang, can you hear me?” She called. It didn’t seem to work.

[Wake up, you lazy dogs!] I shouted and kicked them, breaking the shell. [Time for rest is over!]

I heard them groaning weakly, and they moved, cracking the shell around them further.

“What happened?” Fang asked weakly and tried to stand up. His body appeared drail and he was quite thin, something I didn’t expect to see. You would think they had more meat under those robes.

“Oh my gosh! What happened to you?! You look like a skeleton!” Mia exclaimed and my ears perked up.

Okay, maybe they did change. I know that the Elixir of Life burned your flesh to heal, but…

I checked my body. There wasn’t much difference I could notice on my body. I was still pretty lean and muscular, though it was true that I had localized regeneration that happened in short bursts while their entire body burned for quite a while.

Some unwanted side effects, I guess.

I mentally shrugged. It was an improvised potion anyway. And yet it worked pretty much like the original. The duration of regeneration was just too long, consuming more resources than necessary.

“Ow… My head…”

The other two also slowly awoke and stood up. I examined them, and all of them appeared to have lost significant weight. They were also naked. Kinda obvious since they've been on fire for nearly half an hour. They just didn’t notice it yet.

“What the fuck! Why am I naked?!”

Chun Ke rapidly covered herself with her new hands while the other two didn’t seem to mind it too much. Or they just realized the situation they were in.

“Wait, where is my stuff?!” She frantically looked around, until her gaze landed on me. Specifically on the four pouches tied on my hip.

“You! You did this! I’ll kill you!” She lunged at me and I just lifted an eyebrow. Was she dumb? Did I hit her head too hard? Well, there was one way to fix that. I gave her a slap and she went sprawling on the floor, spread eagle pose.

I looked at her and shook my head. The rest of them also glanced at her but then turned back at me with lowered heads.

[Is she always like this? Acting without thinking?]

Fang took a step forward, cupped his hands, and bowed, his long hair covering his face. “This Fang thanks Senior for sparing our lives. Please forgive our teammate’s blunder.”

[Senior?] I smiled. [I believe I told you I was less than twenty years old.]

“Please don’t joke with us, Senior. I detect no lies from your words, which could only mean two things. Either you are telling the truth, which is impossible since you are so strong, or you are of a higher Realm and we cannot tell.” He seemed convinced in his words so I didn’t push it further. Not that I cared what they thought about me.

In any case, I liked that guy. He had a good head on his shoulders. At least he knew how to act before someone stronger. It didn’t matter who was right in the wild, only who was stronger. When there weren’t Elders and laws around to keep the peace, only fists mattered. I took a few spare robes from their pouches and tossed them at them.

“Thank you, Senior!” The two men said in unison and quickly put it on. Chun Ke also slowly stood up and dressed. My casual backhanded slap seemed to have leaf a mark on her cheek weirdly enough. How weak was she? Or was that because the regeneration burned away their Essence?

I looked at the three of them. Weirdly enough, they all kept their hair. Maybe it was considered a part of their body? When I was resurrected I completely lost mine though. What was different? No idea. All this magic mumbo-jumbo was really confusing sometimes.

“What now, Senior?” Fang asked, still keeping his head lower and gaze aimed at the ground.

[Now? I don’t know. Do whatever you want.] I wasn’t going to be their babysitter. No sir! They could just fall over and die for all I cared.

[Just know that the Elixir of Life probably burned away 30% of your Essence, so you know… tread lightly.] It was just a random guess that regeneration burned Essence, but judging by their decreased abilities, that was most likely the case.

“30%?!” Chun Ke exclaimed.

“That’s a decade of Cultivation!” Gang added, exasperated.

I just grinned. [The other option is death. We can do that if you’d like.] That shut them up real quick. Still, Fang had enough balls to address me again.

“Senior, could we maybe get a weapon? We are far away from the Sect, and the wilderness is dangerous.”

[Nope!] I turned on my heels and began walking away. [I wish you luck on your way back, though.] I waved at them. [And you should probably be nice to Mia, she’s the strongest among you lot now. Haha!] With that, I left. Almost as if on cue, the jungle around us burst back to life, the momentary silence from our fight was drowned in the sounds of wild beasts.

Whether they survived on their way back wasn’t my problem.