When the woman didn’t move, a black ring momentarily appeared around her delicate, snowy neckline and she quickly moved to heed his command. Judging from the look they shared, they seemed to have exchanged a few words with their minds. Taking a small sip from the cup and then placing it atop the floating wooden table, Nolan threw an arm around each of the women and stared at Tems like a king looking down upon his sinful subject.
“Did you really think we’d just sit around and wait to die? Look at my life, Tems. Why would I risk such an awesome situation? I'm stronger than you, better looking than you, richer than you, and all that at half your age. I'm also incredibly humble.”
Many in the surroundings looked upon the young man with newfound disdain, though Kalvin saw no small amount of bitter jealousy mixed in with these expressions. It must have been difficult, he thought, to be a low-quality person. Sure, the girls in the enemy group were beautiful, but the world was vast and so too were the boundaries of such beauty. So long as one reached the Genesis stage or accumulated a massive amount of wealth, how could they not freely enjoy relations with such women?
Even so, they are quite enchanting.
May and the White Rogue aside, the blonde girl and her lightly-tanned, raven-haired companion were also staring at the young man with mixed looks, the latter looking quite displeased. Had Kalvin encountered them elsewhere under different circumstances, any one of them would have been among the most eye-catching beauties that he had ever laid eyes on. And there the young man sat, the centre of their attention and the object of envy for many of the men present.
To think that at his age, I was spending eighteen hours a day managing my father’s enterprise. Kalvin had been too busy in his youth to truly enjoy it, however he had no right to complain because all of his hard work had paid off in the end.
Tems, meanwhile, had no choice but to bear the shame that was being cast upon him like shade beneath a looming cloud. One of his eyebrows twitched as he watched the youth stare down at him with contempt, his face growing flushed with anger as he watched the women he loved lean into the embrace of another man. Interestingly enough, the White Rogue’s face had noticeably flushed, which was strongly in contrast with her cold-blooded reputation.
“Delia…” came Tems’s slightly broken voice, but whatever he had intended to say was drowned out by Nolan’s kingly laughter.
“How does it feel to be cucked by women that never had any interest in you in the first place? Are you mad? I would be, hah.” Drawing out a simple construction arrayment without bothering to remove his hand from around May’s shoulder, a bright flash of golden light flared up before disappearing to reveal a well-made sun hat that was completely green in colour. “If you are, why don’t you come over here and teach me a lesson?”
Punctuating his words, he threw the hat at Tems with a flick of his wrist as if it were one of the discs that children liked to throw around for fun, the well-weaved piece of wicker sailing through the barrier as if it didn’t exist only to bump into an enraged Tems’s chest before falling to the ground as a silent insult.
As the young man continued to laugh, his companions on the rooftop seemed a bit embarrassed by his shamelessness.
Red in the face with large veins prominent on his brow, Tems began to draw out another arrayment diagram but was abruptly approached by Great Elder Dracia. Frowning, the woman rushed to her sect master’s side to speak quietly into his ear in an urging tone.
“Sect Master, arrayments will only empower this barrier further. I suggest we take a moment to think of a different approach.”
Struggling to master himself, Tems slowly dismissed the arrayment diagram that he’d been drawing out before he wheeled around to fix Kalvin with a bloodshot stare.
“Do you have a way to deal with this?”
Hiding a smile, Kalvin feigned discomfort and pinched his chin in thought. “None that I can afford to make use of.”
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“We have an agreement. I give you the Desolate Spirit Tower, and you help me take care of these criminals. Naturally, all of your capabilities are a part of that agreement!”
Dracia recoiled in shock, as did nearly all of the Falling Rain Sect members behind her.
“Sect Master...is what he said true? You can’t possibly think to give away the tower.”
As the great elder stared at the irrational man’s back with a dumbfounded, increasingly conflicted gaze, an uproar erupted from the other sect members, who represented the foundational force of the sect.
“Is this real? How can he agree to give away the tower?”
“Look, he’s not denying it.”
“I knew he was eccentric, but…to give away the tower? How are we supposed to survive if he does that?"
Kalvin foresaw the end of Tems’s leadership in the near future as he observed the reactions of the other members of the Falling Rain Sect. Evidently, such was the fate of those that lived overly sheltered lives where true responsibility was a foreign concept to them. As Kalvin mused in his mind at the scope of Tems’s immaturity, a goading voice rang throughout the open grounds like fuel falling on an open fire.
“Wow, he killed his own father just so he could take over the sect and hook up with his young students, and he’s giving away your most important treasure just because two women who didn’t like him to begin with decided to move on with their lives?” Nolan’s voice was incredulous as he continued on with mock surprise. “He also used up your defensive formation too, right? And God knows how many other people died because of the spirit of the lake, which is also his fault. Are you all seriously willing to risk your lives for this guy’s ego?”
As the members of the Falling Rain Sect continued to murmur to themselves, Tems shot Kalvin an angry look.
If they don’t die, you get nothing. Do something now, or leave.
Patience, Tems. I’m quite enjoying the show.
Do it now!
Meeting the man’s gaze with a calm one of his own, Kalvin brushed a few strands of long black hair from his pale, handsome face before letting out an unwilling sigh. He currently had three arrayment dispelling talismans on his person, which were extremely valuable treasures that he was saving for the coming conflicts on North Island. These worked by targeting the entry points of specific arrayments in order to forcibly dispel them. The ones in his possession happened to have been made by a peerless arrayment master and had been very difficult to obtain. The top grade available, these talismans ensured that no matter how complex an arrayment was, as long as it was below a certain level of potency then it would stand no chance in the face of its effects.
It’s just one, I suppose. The Desolate Spirit Tower would enable all of the fighters in his faction to rise to the Genesis stage within the coming decade, and it would even allow him to reach unprecedented heights in his own cultivation. There would always be more opportunities to make money, and by extension to get his hands on more such treasures, but the chance to obtain the tower was a once in a lifetime occurrence.
As everyone’s eyes jumped between Tems and Kalvin, the members of the Nightshadow Sect gradually dispelled their martial skills. It would serve no purpose to waste any more energy than was necessary, and they could do nothing so long as the unknown barrier was still in place.
As Kalvin produced the talisman in question, Nolan and the two women climbed out of the tub and began tidying up the area. The floating table, the tub itself, a large, thick rug of high-quality demonic beast fur, as well as a cold, quiet fireplace were all stowed away within the young man’s spatial bag, after which he, The White Rogue, and May all leapt up to the tower’s top to join the others. In unison, the group floated upwards into the air before stopping about a hundred paces above the uppermost eaves, Nolan and the other Integration-staged cultivators standing atop flying swords that had clearly come from the sect that was currently hunting them down.
Curious, Kalvin waited to see what they were about to attempt without paying any mind to Tems’s incessant, urging words that were being directly transmitted into his mind. While it was true that they were untouchable behind the safety of their miraculous barrier arrayment, they would all die within a minute or so of being exposed. Just Belren and his people alone could sweep them off of the face of the earth in a head on confrontation, let alone the thousands of powerful cultivators that he and Tems had brought along.
Face hardening as his disposition took on an abrupt change, Nolan’s empowered voice stung the ears of everyone present that was below a certain level of cultivation.
“Well, are you going to keep staring at us like that, or are we going to do this?”
Punctuating his sentence, he momentarily leapt off of his flying sword—a small jump, just a dozen paces higher into the air and a few paces forward—and then punched downward with a simple movement of his right arm.
The cultivation tower crumbled beneath an immense amount of force that completely decimated even the smallest grains of wood, the debris dispersing within moments of the structure’s destruction. The resulting whirlwinds were nearly as powerful as the ones that Belren’s martial skill had given life to, which stunned Kalvin into a wide-eyed silence as his hair and clothing thrashed around like a drowning seaman.