Chapter 221: Chapter 221- Resolve The moment Grey heard those words, his expression changed instantly.
It was as if a deafening explosion had gone off inside his head.
As the words sank in, a torrent of memories surged forth uncontrollably. One scene after another replayed themselves in his mind, vivid and painfully clear.
He saw Caster standing atop a solitary block of ice, hands clasped behind his back, overlooking the entirety of the scavenger camp as if it were his personal domain. His posture had been relaxed, yet there was an undeniable air of authority about him.
Another memory surfaced.
Caster casually reminding him to heat his food before eating.
Cold food isn’t good for your body, he had said, his tone indifferent, yet oddly sincere.
At the time, Grey hadn’t thought much of it. Now, the memory struck him like a knife to the chest.
Then came the image of Caster looking at him with a rare, gentle expression—one devoid of mockery or arrogance—as he explained things that he normally would have kept to himself. Things he had no obligation to share.
One scene bled into another, each memory heavier than the last.
All of them crashed into Grey’s mind at once, and he couldn’t stop the ache that welled up in his chest.
Caster... and his group... were the very first people he had encountered after arriving in this world.
Before them, Grey had been completely alone—wandering through the corroded zone, struggling every day just to stay alive. No guidance. No protection. No warmth.
And now...
Now he was being told that Caster was missing.
Grey’s eyes instantly turned bloodshot.
To him, Caster wasn’t just a captain or a senior cultivator.
He was an older brother.
"How—!"
Grey’s voice came out cold and hoarse as he spoke, cutting through the air sharply. His face paled, and his expression shifted rapidly, struggling to contain the storm brewing beneath the surface.
Ange’s words died in her throat.
She knew better than anyone how close the two of them were—perhaps even closer than actual blood relatives. That was precisely why she had hesitated earlier, giving Grey time to mentally prepare himself before revealing the news.
Several long seconds passed.
Grey slowly steadied his breathing. He closed his eyes, forcing the turbulence in his heart to settle. When he opened them again, his gaze was clear. The bloodshot red had faded, replaced by a chilling calm.
"What happened?" Grey asked quietly. "How did he go missing?"
Though his voice was controlled, the faint trace of anxiety beneath it was impossible to hide.
Ange sighed inwardly before speaking.
"Grey... they said he went to the Dead Sea several months ago. He would occasionally return with monsters he killed along the way. This wasn’t a one-time thing—he had been doing this repeatedly."
She paused briefly, then continued.
"A few weeks ago, he broke through to the Spirit Core Formation realm."
Grey’s heart trembled slightly at the news, but Ange wasn’t finished.
"However, a few days after that... they discovered his magic ship. It had been completely torn apart and was sinking to the bottom of the sea. Many of his personal belongings were found nearby, and there were clear traces of an intense battle."
Her tone grew heavier.
"This happened along the coastal archipelago near Summoned Moon Island."
Grey clenched his fists.
"Still..." Ange hesitated before continuing, "even though his ship was destroyed, they were able to confirm that he is still alive."
Grey’s brows furrowed.
"You might not know this," Ange said slowly, "but Caster had a master—"
At those words, Grey’s thoughts immediately drifted back several months, to when they had first arrived at Sky Mist City for the examination.
Back then, Tyler had once mentioned that Caster had a master.
A master he had offended in an unforgivable way.
After being disowned, he had been banished from the sect and explicitly forbidden from ever returning.
From that point on, Caster had stopped cultivating altogether.
Although he often appeared calm and carefree, there had always been a lingering gloom behind his eyes—a deep-seated dejection that never truly faded.
It wasn’t until several months later, when Grey entered the scavenger camp, that Caster finally found the motivation to cultivate again.
And that was because Grey reminded him of himself.
They both practiced the Sky Mist Art.
That shared path had created an unspoken sense of kinship between them.
At the time, Caster had only been at the eighth level of the Qi Accumulation realm.
Yet once he resumed cultivation, he broke through the ninth and tenth levels in an astonishingly short amount of time.