The Grey Ghost: Book Two of the Archaic Ring Series

by Reed R. Stevens

  In Redfox Village she had been too haunted by the trauma that lingered after losing all that she’d loved to put any effort into making any real friends. People had been nice to her because they had acknowledged her brother’s strength, not because they cared about her as a person.

  When Hale had kidnapped her, it had been in front of many people that she’d been on good terms with. The only one who’d moved to save her was Jason, the weakest person she’d ever met. The honest-eyed boy was a bit naïve, but intelligent nonetheless. He’d fully expected to lose his life, something only Quin and her father had ever done for her. He was much braver than any of the villagers had been.

  Nolan had also risked his life for her on several occasions, and usually found himself on the brink of death as a result. Even at the onset of the Interspatial Migration, he’d always kept a calm head and gave considerable thought to even the most insignificant situation. He liked to joke around and made the occasional snarky remark, but his playful eyes hid an astonishingly astute and calculating mind.

  At this stage in her life, he was her best friend.

  She had constantly relied on him since the destruction of Redfox Village, and as a result he’d suffered time and again. But that would change. She had grown much stronger in recent months. Uncle Grey, the Divine Spirit Fountain, the mysterious glade; she resolved to take full advantage of the opportunities that had presented themselves to her.

  I will pull my own weight from now on.

  Nyla had lost more loved ones than anybody should have to endure in one lifetime. Losing someone close to her, she didn’t want to experience that again. She planned to continue cultivating even after they left this world, so that she could become strong enough to protect the people who were important to her. She would shed the yoke of a regular person and become a cultivator, to ensure that her life would carry more weight in this world.

  Well, on Venara.

  “Check it out. I can already cover three toes.”

  “Don’t talk. Keep concentrating and try for the fourth!”

  “Just a sec, I’m losing it.” Nolan’s brow furrowed as he entered a state of deep concentration.

  “Don’t get all excited over every little thing,” mumbled Uncle Grey. “Though I must admit, you’re progressing faster than I’d anticipated. It seems that I’m as good a mentor as ever.”

  Eyes burning with resolve, Nyla slipped out of the courtyard while Nolan and Uncle Grey were busy with their lesson. It only took a few moments to sprint across the field, which was now fringed with a lush and vibrant layer of healthy trees. The forest appeared to have broken free from the timeless spell that left it monochromatic, at least for a few paces past the treeline.

  The area where Nyla stood was littered with splintered wood and broken branches, many of the trees riddled with tiny black holes. Taking a deep breath, she summoned the evernight bow from her spatial bag along with its quiver. Her black arrows could easily penetrate the trees before her, none of which were over a thirty paces in height. She had to be careful, however, for if her projectiles penetrated into the dull areas of the forest then they would also be repelled by the strange barrier that prevented her from wandering too far in.

  Twice she’d been clipped by her own arrows, though thankfully they had been the regular ones she’d purchased in Greenwall, not the ebony ones that could puncture through steel plated armour.

  Nocking an arrow, she aimed for the largest tree in front of her and loosed the shot. A dark blur smashed into the tree with a sharp hiss, splintering wood as it left a fresh hole in its wake. Nyla rushed over to the smaller tree behind it, which was similarly scarred with hundreds of holes. Seeing that her arrow had passed through the first tree and tunnelled partially into the wood of the one behind it, she grasped the tail end and yanked it free without much effort.

  Just what are these arrows made of?

  She wanted to activate the effects of the evernight bow by instilling it with inner essence and then firing off an enhanced shot, but she feared that she wouldn’t be able to dodge the rebound in time and didn’t want to risk dying such a lame death. She decided to practice her archery for a while before returning to the courtyard to take a dip in the Divine Spirit Fountain. After that, she would cultivate until she grew fatigued.

  

  Despite Nolan’s early successes, it still took two days for him to gain enough control over his inner essence to prove that he was ready for the next lesson. After he managed to cover all ten of his toes with light films of energy, Uncle Grey had him attempt to thin these layers out as much as possible. Once he could employ his inner essence at a subconscious level, he’d have gained a good reference when the time came to use his spiritual energies.

  “Once you’ve distributed the energy as thinly as possible, withdraw your inner essence and start over. The feeling should stick after a few hours of repetition.” He twirled a finger through his messy beard, a thoughtful expression on his wizened face. “After that, cover each of your toes with differing layers of thickness and density.”

  Nolan was lazing in the fountain, feeling refreshed as Uncle Grey began to explain his next assignment. “Is that all?”

  “Not up to the challenge?”

  “It’s not that, it’s just…”

  “You want to cultivate.”

  Nolan shrugged. “I was sort of hoping you’d have some sort of ancient wisdom that might help with my breakthrough.” Although learning to manipulate his inner essence to a finer degree was a bit boring, he couldn’t deny the positive effects of his training. If he could reach a level where every punch and kick that he sent out was subconsciously cloaked in perfectly layered walls of inner essence, then he could increase his passive fighting capabilities by a great degree. Even so, the more time he spent improving his control, the longer cultivating would have to wait.

  “Who says I’m not helping you? Do you think I’m simply wasting my time?”

  Nolan’s back straightened and his face brightened up. “So this might help me make a breakthrough?”

  “Just keep doing as I say.” Uncle Grey floated away from the fountain and then disappeared from the courtyard.

  Damn ghost, always wandering off in the middle of a conversation.

  Nolan sighed as he leaned back and rested against the stone ledge. He hadn’t slept in over thirty hours, so he figured that he might as well take a nap. Due to the energizing effects of the water and the ridiculously healthy atmosphere within the glade, a few hours of sleep felt like a long night’s rest. His enhanced constitution alone made it so that he could run on less than half the amount of sleep that he used to require. He wasn’t specifically tired at the moment, but the water was nice, his body relaxed. He felt like he could sleep.

  Uncle Grey returned a short while later, chatting happily with Nyla as the two of them approached the fountain where Nolan had just drifted off. It was his spiritual sense that woke him, for he now had a subconscious awareness with a radius of around fifteen metres. Being a sixth sense, it had become an intrinsic part of him to the point that it operated on a subliminal level, even while he slept.

  While awake, he could sense well over sixty metres away from him. Even with the Ancestral Body Technique, his premature spiritual sense shouldn’t have been so developed. According to Uncle Grey, this was a side effect of sitting in the Divine Spirit Fountain.

  Nyla lowered herself into the water as the old ghost finished up with giving her some advice.

  “—should just focus on cultivating to the early levels of the Integration stage.”

  Nolan smiled at her in greeting. “Were you practicing your archery?”

  She nodded.

  “So that’s where you went.” He looked over at Uncle Grey. “And you interrupted her, huh?”

  “Do you think my advice is worth nothing? She’s my disciple. Why would I mislead her?” He reclined backwards in the air, floating above them with his hands behind his head, the epitome of leisure. “While
that bow is quite handy, it won’t be so useful once she breaks through to the Integration stage. Why waste time getting familiar with its functions?”

  “I doubt we’ll reach that level by the time we’re kicked out of this world. Honestly, it’s better for her to practice using her weapon.”

  “But you’ll be able to return after thirty-five days on Venara. It would make more sense for her to train then, when she’s not missing out on the benefits that the glade has to offer.”

  Nyla ran a hand through her long, dark tangles. “Well, our situation is…”

  “Now that I think about it, you had to have seen us when we first arrived here. You aren’t at all curious why I was all fucked up and mangled? I almost died!”

  Uncle Grey’s silvery eyes lit up in remembrance. “Ah yes, I’d nearly forgotten.”

  “We’re being hunted down by a sect.” Nolan snorted. “Jeez, man. You think you’d feel for me since basically the same thing happened to you.”

  Abandoning his comfortable position, the old ghost’s head shot up and he turned to face the two of them. “What could the two of you have done to offend a sect?” His gaze lingered on Nolan specifically.

  “They tried to kill us for no reason, so I fought them off. Petty, right?”

  Nyla sighed, her pretty lips curving downward. “They destroyed the village that we were living in. When we fled into a nearby kingdom, they followed us.” Her nightshade eyes flashed with coldness. “They killed my brother.”

  “I see.” Uncle Grey sighed, his face a bit downcast. “At the time when you arrived, Nolan didn’t know how to operate the ring. If it hadn’t activated…”

  “Nyla might have been able to get away, but I’d be dead for sure.”

  “So that’s why you’re so fixated on making your breakthrough.”

  “Yeah, I can’t see them letting go of whatever grudge they have against me.” Those bastards had tracked him all the way to Greenwall because of that blond-haired boy that he’d defeated in Redfox Village. Now that he’d killed more than just a few disciples, he could only imagine the headaches that awaited him back on Venara.

  Silence reigned for a few long minutes until it was eventually broken by Uncle Grey. “Change of plans. For the next few months you will focus solely on cultivating. Nyla, try make it to the fifth level of the Profound Entry stage. It shouldn’t be too hard considering your current progress. Nolan, you keep practicing to control your inner essence. Once you can manipulate your energies to a certain level, you will continue to cultivate.” He stared at him with confident eyes. “You just need to make this one breakthrough. After that, I’ll take you both somewhere interesting.”

  He’ll take us somewhere? Wasn’t he supposed to be bound to the glade? He said he couldn’t travel too far off from the place where he’d died.

  “But we can’t leave the field.” Nyla voiced her skepticism. “I can’t take more than ten steps into the forest.”

  Uncle Grey straightened his posture and rested his hands behind his back, a confident expression on his scraggly face. “You let me worry about that.”

  “Seems like you’ve thought of something,” said Nolan. “What did you have in mind?”

  Uncle Grey looked over at the dark cabin that stood nearby. Without answering Nolan’s question, he slowly floated away from the fountain and directly passed through its dark, murky walls.

  Nolan climbed out of the fountain. “Well, if that’s how it’s going to be then I guess I’ll get back at it.”

  Before he made it to the other side of the courtyard, he felt the Origin Energy around Nyla fluctuate before it slowly accumulated around her. The Profound Soul-splitting Technique didn’t require any bodily movements, so she had formed the habit of cultivating inside of the Divine Spirit Fountain.

  No wonder she’s getting so strong. Nolan was a lot more powerful than he’d been before they had met Uncle Grey. Even so, he had a feeling that if things didn’t change then Nyla would soon leave him behind. Don’t be impatient. You’ve got this.

  Taking up the first stance of the Ancestral Body Technique, Nolan slowed his breathing. Two light inhalations, one deep exhalation. Large amounts of Origin Energy began pouring into his body, his dantian pulling in every trace as if it were a gluttonous black hole that was impossible to fill.

  Running through the one hundred and ninety-eight stances of his core cultivation method, he entered a tranquil state of mind. He cultivated for eleven hours straight, finally deciding to take a break when he noticed that Nyla had left the fountain and was in the midst of roasting two skewers of demonic fox meat over the fire. Following the pleasant aroma of grilled meat, he sat down beside her without saying a word, simply enjoying the smell.

  Where’s that damn ghost at? Staring at the meat, a sudden thought hit him. Uncle Grey said that he died in this glade. If the fox and the mantis haven’t decayed, then wouldn’t his body still be…? He turned to look at the windowless cabin, its dark walls provoking a grievous image. Uncle Grey had apparently placed a defensive arrayment on the cottage-like building just before his death. He still hasn’t come out, huh.

  “Yours is ready.” Nyla handed him the first of the skewers that she finished cooking.

  “Thanks.”

  He held the food in his hands, frowning down at the charred wood that held the succulent fox meat, which had been roasted to an appetizing shade of golden brown. I should be nicer to the old guy. He glanced back at the cabin before taking his first bite. After forcing down what he could, he placed the half-eaten skewer by the fire and stood up with a stretch.

  “Not hungry?”

  He shrugged. “I’m going to train for a bit longer.”

  He walked over to the fountain and dipped a hand into the water, fishing out a shimmering stone that shone brightly enough to make an ordinary person have to squint. Back when they’d first met, Uncle Grey had told Nolan to place all of his spirit stones into the fountain. He’d complied, albeit warily. Now that so many weeks had passed, he could finally see what the old ghost had been driving at. The energy contained within each stone had nearly tripled.

  “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Nyla had followed him to the fountain. She leaned over its stony ledge and retrieved another spirit stone.

  “Uncle Grey’s an oddball, but I’ve got to say, he’s not all talk.”

  Nyla looked down at the stone and then closed her eyes for a moment. “Did you know these were originally intended to be used by arrayment practitioners? The ability to house Origin Energy is just a secondary effect.”

  “Did he tell you that?”

  She nodded, her dark eyes seeming to sparkle as she stared up at him. “If these were meant for martial cultivators then why aren’t they called Origin Energy stones?”

  “Spirit stones… Huh, you’ve got a point.”

  “The spiritual energy in these was originally very weak. Now, it’s about equal to the amount of Origin Energy within them.”

  “You can sense that?” Nolan could only suspect that Nyla’s core cultivation method had enabled her to sense it earlier on. “What’s it like?”

  “Compared to inner essence, it’s…lighter?” She gave him a half-smile. “I’m not very familiar with it, so it’s hard to say. You’ll just have to wait and see for yourself.”

  He sighed. “God only knows how long that’ll take.”

  They spoke for a while longer before going back to their training.

  Countless hours passed, and Nolan lost track of time as he subconsciously waited for Uncle Grey to emerge from the cabin. Just when he was planning on calling it a day and heading over to the fountain to take another nap, an electrifying jolt shot through his body before dissipating as abruptly as it had appeared.

  A strange tingle lingered in his chest, which prompted a rush of excitement as he realized that his breakthrough would arrive in a little over a month’s time, so long as he spared no effort in his training. His long-awaited breakthrough was finally in reach.
/>   Chapter Twenty-four: Taken

  If I hadn’t tipped my sword with poison… I hope it doesn’t dilute or anything. Jason stared at the varnished wooden door to his room at the inn. The Gilded Mare. He figured that it was the only place the ignorant and penniless Amy would go.

  The entire trip through the business district had been nerve-wracking. He hadn’t been able to enjoy his sudden leap in cultivation, since the black-haired woman had always been an arm’s length away during the walk.

  With his improved spiritual sense he could now perceive everything within his spatial bag with a thought, so he’d spent most of the walk focusing on the gleaming blade of his short sword.

  He wondered if the poison from those Heartrending Lillies would have any effect on the frightening woman. She’d implied that she would kill him if it turned out that he was lying about knowing the blonde girl’s location, a memory that was hard to forget while her shrewd glare dug into his back all throughout the walk.

  Please be in this room. Don’t fuck me again, Amy. It had registered with him early on that the black-haired woman had turned the second assailant from the alleyway into a bloody mist. Just how strong did someone have to be in order to instantly eradicate someone’s body? How was it even possible?

  He rested his hand on the doorknob, heart thumping wildly in his chest despite all of his efforts to remain composed. He tried to open the door but it wouldn’t budge, so he produced the key that the front desk staff had given to him and then unlocked it with a click.

  Relief washed over him as he opened the door to see that Amy and the blonde girl were sitting atop his bed on the far side of the room. The younger girl didn’t look surprised to see them, though Amy stared at the door with anxious eyes. The second that Jason stepped into the room, her expression stiffened from disbelief.