ONE DAY EARLIER

“Give me all your spirit stones, woman!”

Aeripha, Saint of Wind and Storms, checked her nails, humming a tune as her attacker unleashed a barrage of deadly techniques. A thousand wicked spikes and ten orbs of deadly metal flew towards her, but with a wave of her hand, they dismantled under the pressure of her aura.

The ground underneath her caved with the sheer force of her spirit, but she ignored the collateral damage. This was just an uninhabited world fragment, after all, and she doubted anyone would care about the miles of cracked ground she had just destroyed.

The man struggled to stand under the weight of her aura, and with a flick of her swords, a wave of cutting wind tore towards him. He brought up a defensive talisman, but the Blades of Tempest were a Saintly treasure, far too powerful for any mortal defenses to touch.

The technique ripped through his defenses, splitting him cleanly across the torso.

On instinct, killing intent flowed through her spirit, and pure, unadulterated malice pressed upon the man's emerging soul. Wait… no. She shook her head, and as quickly as it came, the murderous fog dissipated without a trace.

"Sorry about that! I didn't mean to scare you."

The transparent wisp that now housed the man's conscious trembled, terror evident in his barely-visible eyes. "Please! I don't want to die! I just wanted to — I just wanted some spirit stones!"

Aer gasped. Was that a half-formed soul?

She crossed the distance between them in a blink, carefully surpressing her aura as she approached. Any bandits strong enough to cross the void here should have been in at least the Evolution stage, but here was someone who hadn’t even completed Soul Formation. And his lack of advancement was showing — his soul was barely holding itself together under the weight of the ambient mana.

"I apologise profusely, sir. I thought that you were of a higher stage, and that you would have no problem reforming yourself."

She reached into the bag at her side, frowning. Healing treasures… had she run out? No, that wasn’t quite right. She pulled her hand out, and in it rested a brilliant blue potion.

This was an incredibly potent elixir, one she had just acquired to finally heal the scarring in her soul. Using it on anyone less than a Saint would complete waste, and yet…

The man was now leaking mana in a steady stream, and he desperately looked at her. “P-please don’t kill me…”

The elixir wasn’t even meant to restore bodies, but she had no doubt that it held enough healing energy to accomplish that feat a thousand times over. And though she was confident in her ability to cross through to another world and grab a lesser healing treasure before he dissipated, what if she had miscalculated?

The man wailed, seconds away from falling apart, and she shook her head. “Come here, you.”

The vial containing the concoction shattered in her hand, and she focused on rain’s connection to growth. The healing energy flared bright in her mind, and she guided it over to the weakening soul.

The mana flashed a blinding white, and then the man was sitting on the rubble-covered ground, even healthier than he had in his past life.

He looked at her, confusion evident on his face. "You… just used an immortal treasure. On me. I… I feel stronger than I was before."

"Yes, I'm terribly sorry about the overload of energy. Your core might be a bit sore for a few days, but you’ll come out of it significantly stronger, and probably with some new abilities."

"... So you're not going to kill me?"

She gave him a soft smile. "No, I really don't want to kill anyone today. Now how in the heavens did you end up robbing me here?"

* * *

Aer stepped into the void between worlds, humming once more. She lamented the loss of her treasure, but in return, she had made a new friend! It turned out that the man's sect leader had sent their weakest members to rob people, in a 'test' to weed out the untalented. She sighed. It wasn't that this behavior was particularly shocking — you needed a certain kind of ruthlessness to survive in the cultivation world — it just, well...

She shook herself. Dwelling on stuff like that was bad for the heart. Plus, after a nice little talk with the sect leader, she'd managed to convince him that sending your disciples to rob people was not the best way to filter out the weak. He hadn't budged on his mentality, but he'd at least given in when she pointed out the obvious flaws in such a plan. Next time, maybe she’d be able to change him just a little bit more.

So long as she had enough time, she believed that nearly anyone could change. Well, almost anyone.

That reminded her — it had been a year since she had checked on the Hong Clan. Tang Seira was one of the only prospective disciples who consistently showed basic morality, which, considering she had scouted out hundreds of youths, was slightly disheartening. And after her brother… well, it was amazing that she turned out the way she was.

Still, that only proved how much of an amazing find Seira had been. Both motivated and willing to see the best in people, she would be a perfect student for Aer to pass her teachings to.

The Saint aimlessly channeled her mana, working her core as one might flex their fingers. Good, no pain. Though her healing might have been set back, at least she was making visible progress. Now that she had cleared herself to use Third Circle techniques, she could show herself without worrying about that old hag.

She moved against the void's currents, her destination decided. Assuming that nothing had happened, she was finally going to get herself a disciple!