A few hours after they had sat down to cultivate, Nolan was in the midst of suppressing an anxious sort of anticipation. All throughout his silent meditations, he had invested every ounce of his intelligence into planning the best way to murder Drasin.

  All this time, Nyla hadn't moved a hair. This told him that Uncle Grey's obversations were correct, and that she must have noticed Drasin's ill intentions from the moment that he had first approached them.

  Well, now's as good of a time as any.

  Nolan looked up the stairs and called out.

  "Nyla, you go on up to the next level. There's no need to wait around for me."

  "Who said I was waiting for you?"

  "Just go," he grinned. "Master wouldn't want you to waste an opportunity like this."

  She gave him a long look, but then left with a wave of her right arm. As soon as she disappeared onto the seventh floor, her aura vanished.

  Nolan pulled out a full barrel of Divine Spirit Fountain water and then took a few moments to create a small construction arrayment that basically doubled the width of the step. Once the barrel was securely in place, he climbed into it under the watch of Drasin’s keen eyes, who couldn't help but speak up after a few minutes of silent observation.

  "Nolan, just what kind of liquid is that? If you have such a treasure, then why enter the tower? That's roughly as beneficial as being on the third floor, you know.”

  "I came to the tower so I could do this, but only once nobody was around. This liquid helps to offset the tower’s aura, so it’ll be a great help while I cultivate here.”

  "Is that why you sent the girl away?"

  He nodded. "I don't think I'll be going any higher, so I have no choice but to take it out now. I hope you'll keep it a secret. If you do, I can let you use another method that's almost as good. If not, then my master would be very unhappy with this sect."

  "Can I ask who your master is?"

  "Sorry, buddy, but he likes to keep a low profile. I hope you understand."

  "Yes, yes, of course." He smacked a big fist against his barrel chest, which gave off a surprisingly loud thud. "You have my word. Your secret is safe with me. Now, I'm curious what other method you have that is just as good as that barrel of water?"

  "Hold on."

  He made a few more step extensions, particularly on the three that led up to Drasin's feet. These were much larger, allowing for plenty of space to place things down.

  "It's these." With a wave of his purple-stained sleeve, Nolan summoned nine barrels of gunpowder and arranged them in a square of three rows. "These barrels are filled with the ground-up remains of an ancient demonic beast, one that was at the peak of the Genesis stage. It was killed by my master's master, who sacrificed his life to obtain it."

  "Your grandmaster was so exceptional?"

  "Out in the Western Isles, he was the strongest person nobody had heard about."

  "So you're from those islands!" Drasin smacked the base of his fist into a palm. "Now things make sense. But the Western Isles are quite far, did you really come all the way here just to take part in the tower climb?"

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  "Hell yeah, man. Can't you see that I've already broken through?"

  "You're telling me that that's you're true cultivation?"

  He didn't miss the complicated glint that suddenly flashed through the young man's eyes.

  "Yeah, I'm stronger than I look, though."

  "It's remarkable that you've come this far." Drasin let out a bitter laugh. "Can't you save me just a bit of face? We're basically tied here, and you're only at the seventh level of the Profound Entry stage. I can't even imagine what sort of arrayment practitioner you'll become one day..."

  Perhaps he had a change of heart? came Uncle Grey's voice, cautious yet sounding slightly convinced.

  Should he trust the old ghost's judgement? He might be an expert when it came to cultivation, but he'd been trapped within the glade for hundreds of millions of years before Nolan had first arrived there. While his consciousness had been sealed for the vast majority of this period, so much isolation had definitely taken a toll on the man, as it would have on anyone else. There were times when his mind didn't work in the right way, and Nolan wasn't going to stake his life on Drasin's character. Not now that he had a paralysis talisman on his back.

  "Thanks, man. I hope I make my master proud."

  "Ah," said Drasin, suddenly eager. "You were just explaining how to use these treasures, right Nolan?"

  "Yep, there's eight more of these barrels. You just have to hop onto the middle one and meditate there, and then surround yourself with the remaining ones. You sense the snapfire beans inside them?"

  "Yes, I was just wondering why they were in there.”

  "The beast that our grandmaster killed had a fire attribute, so the powder inside reacts to the flame and then creates an intense stream of energy. With all seventeen barrels, the effects aren't worse than what this liquid can do."

  "You truly have some amazing treasures. Do you mind if I give it a try?"

  “Yeah man, feel free.”

  Nolan's heart was cold as he watched the young man settle into position, his mind calm and without thoughts astray as he carefully assembled the additional barrels around the young man. According to Uncle Grey, the tower was made out of materials so sturdy that even the detonation of a hundred barrels wouldn't be able to damage the walls around the staircase. Since Nyla was on the next floor, she'd be safe from the blast.

  Dear disciple, so even you could be this devious.

  Devious? This guy planned on murdering me like ten minutes ago. You want me to sit here and smile?

  Don't be mistaken. I'm not disappointed. Uncle Grey let out a dry laugh. In this world, you need to have such a mindset. Now you're truly starting to look like one of my disciples.

  Quiet down, I'm busy here!

  "Do I have to activate all of the beans at once, or in a specific order, or perhaps...?"

  "You guessed it," said Nolan. "All at once. You're not a high status disciple for no reason, huh!"

  It would be a lie to say that Nolan wasn’t terribly conflicted. Even so, he took a steady breath the moment that Drasin activated the snapfire beans.

  "Hey, so this talisman on my back..."

  Unexpected killing intent sent chills down his spine, though he ignored it by focusing on the Millennial Ring and falling into the bizarre sensation of being transported to another world.

  He landed on the fringes of the glade, right on top of an old hole that he'd used as a toilet a few years back. Thankfully, he'd filled it in after he'd gotten as much use out of it as possible, else the situation would have been complete shit.

  "Welcome back, welcome back," said Uncle Grey, whose old gaze looked down at him with an excited sort of vigour. "I'm glad to finally have some company. I mean, how have you been? Hahah..."

  "Don't get too happy. I won’t be here long."

  "What, just a month then?"

  "More like a few minutes." He rushed to the Divine Spirit Fountain and hurriedly began to empty and then refill all of his spare barrels.

  "You're leaving that quickly?"

  "Well, obviously. I've gotta make sure to finish what I started."

  "He can't have survived that blast, not when taken completely unawares."

  "But if he's somehow alive, I don't want him healing and going off to tell people what happened."   He stopped to give his teacher a critical look. "I need him to die in that stairwell. Before I came here, I threw the token that they gave me back to the first floor. Now it'll look like he exploded on the stairs just like all those other people, since nobody was around him when he died."

  "Ah, if you say so." The old ghost assumed his trademark position, reclining in the air as if he were lying in an invisible hammock. "This is such a waste of the Millennial Ring's ability."

  "I'll still be able to come back right away if I need to."

  "But you could have stayed here for two years this time! Now, you'll have less than half that if you're lucky."

  "Yeah, yeah. Gotta fly, see ya."

  Now that all of the barrels had been filled, he activated the ring's transportation effects and was soon back in the Desolate Spirit Tower, crawling at the bottom of that same staircase in a bumbling manner. He was disoriented from travelling between Venara and Nia twice within such a short span of time.