Passing time and lead

Nick didn't feel the need to worry about any sort of actions elder liang might take since he was sure that he could hold his own. sarina didn't learn of the conflict over her until much later when omen casually mentioned it during one of his visits. she apologized repeatedly for causing nick so much trouble but he simply told her to prove his choice correct instead. time began to pass quickly and in this time nick actively kept an ear out on any signs of his lost companions while pushing his cultivation bases further. this lasted for an entire year before he heard a piece of gossip from an few cultivators that caught his attention. apparently a group consisting of a woman and a young wyrm had offended shang chen the heir of the chen cultivator clan by refusing to obey him. this had led to shang chen throwing a tantrum and sending people to kill the group only to end up with everyone he sent getting killed within a strange cloud of darkness the woman summoned. nick wouldn't have bothered to much with this story had it not been for the description of the woman being similar to millea with the only difference being a scar along her forehead.

Nick made up his mind to at least verify if the group in question was indeed millea and azdra by find the group himself. this left nick with a bit of a problem however as without him here it was quite likely that sarina would be taken by the liangs since he had the impression they didn't take no for an answer. nick knew that taking her along with him was equally impossible since not only would he need to protect her but her mere presence would prevent him from releasing his full power lest he literally crush her from the weight of it. the solution he came up with was to have her temporarily live in his pocket dimension while he was gone where she was safe from most external powers. once his preparations were done nick teleported to the mission area and grabbed the mission to investigate this group since no one had ever heard of them before this incident which was concerning since they were at the ascendant level.