Read Reincarnated as an Energy with a System Chapter 221 - Diagnosis online for free - AllNovelFull
Canon seemed a little intrigued after listening to Ning.
"While your words have a lot of confidence to them, young man. I'm afraid my old self isn't able to find out if you are truthful or not. What if you harm my son more than you will heal him?" Canon asked.
The audience nodded when they heard him speak and looked towards Ning. Ning thought for a moment and said, "How about this then. I won't treat your son."
Canon frowned a little. "What will you do then?" he asked.
"I will instead just diagnose him. I will check him and tell you what the problem is, as well as what the solution to the problem is. Aside from that, I will use no medicine or equipment on your son. That should be enough to not have you worry about me harming your son, right?" Ning asked.
Canon thought for a moment and asked, "What is your name, son?"
"My name is Ning," he said. He didn't give a family name as only Nobles were allowed to have those.
"Ning… I see. Very well, I won't waste this opportunity at the slightest chance that you may have some skill. I will take you to my son in a little bit. Anyone else here who has any other solutions?" Canon asked.
A few others suggested some doctors they knew. Canon made his son note the names of those that hadn't been to the house and soon ended the party.
Once it had ended, the group of people left back to their own homes. A few people got a little annoyed at how short the party was for what they had paid, but surprisingly, as they were leaving, the guards handed them back the 10 rops they had taken as entry fee.
After that, they had no right to get angry at all.
"Please come with me, Doctor Ning," Canon said and took Ning inside the mansion, along with his eldest son and his two bodyguards.
Ning was surprised when he saw the inside of the mansion. The floor was lined with white marble and the walls were colored in stark white. The ceiling was at least 8 meters high and the whole mansion looked massive.
He was taken through a bunch of winding corridors to a room that had nothing in it but a single bed with the second son in it. There were 2 female maids who took care of him, and as soon as Canon entered, they bowed and left.
"This is my son, Zand. Doctor Ning, he's been on a liquid diet ever since he was paralyzed. So, we've kept him in this room, away from the other servants. Please see if you can find anything wrong with him," Canon said. He was hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.
Ning walked forward and almost assumed that the kid was normal. He had a steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. He slowly opened his eyes after hearing the noise and looked towards Ning.
His drowsy eyes seemed to be filled with hate when he saw him. 'Damn, does he hate doctors now or what?" he thought. 'I would get angry too if I had doctors coming in and out of my room with not a single one treating me, I guess.'
"I will do some checkup now. If you feel nothing, blink once. If you feel anything, blink twice, and if you feel pain, blink thrice, Okay? Blink once if you understood," Ning said.
Zand looked directly at him and blinked once. Ning took off the bed sheet covering his body and revealed a scrawny looking figure. He was in a far worse situation than what Mavenna was in, and she was in a coma.
'How is he in such a bad condition? I thought he was given nutrients daily,' Ning thought. He pinched the big toes on both of his feet one after another. "Feel anything?" he asked.
Zand blinked only once. 'No huh? I guess he really is paralyzed. Ning went up a bit and pinched his calf. "Now?"
Zand blinked only once. Thigh, hips, stomach, chest, and neck; Ning pinched all but Zand didn't feel anything. 'He's already suffering from muscle atrophy,' Ning thought.
He then pinched his cheeks and Zand blinked twice. 'So, not only is he paralyzed, but he has also lost all feelings as well. Now that's troublesome,' Ning thought.
"Can you come here," Ning called one of the bodyguard. The man walked forward and stood next to Ning.
"Go on the other side of the bed and watch his eyes. Tell me if he blinks once or twice, okay?" Ning said. The servant nodded and went to the other side of the bed.
Ning caught Zand and flipped him easily such that he was now looking straight at the servant. He then started poking around on his back.
"Now?" he asked.
"Once," the servant answered.
Ning changed position and asked, "Now?"
"Once."
"How about now?"
"Once."
"Now?" Ning asked as he poked in a different location.
The servant waited for a little longer and answered, "Thrice."
Ning changed position and asked, "No— Wait, three times?"
"Yes," the servant answered.
Ning went back to the previous position and asked, " here?"
"Yes, young lord blinked 3 times," the servant said.
"Hmm… I am currently pressing on the 5th disc of your vertebrae, is that where you are feeling the pain? Blink once if yes, twice if no," Ning said.
"He said no," the servant answered.
Ning walked to the front of looked at Zand. "Where are you feeling pain in? The back?"
Zand blinked twice.
"The arms?"
He blinked twice.
"The legs?"
He blinked once.
"Okay, we are getting somewhere. Right leg?"
He blinked once.
"Left leg as well?"
He blinked twice.
"Thigh?"
He blinked once.
"Calf?"
He blinked once.
"Wait, the whole leg?" Ning asked.
Zand blinked once.
"Nowhere else?" Ning asked.
Zand blinked once to confirm it.
"I see. The 5th disc of the vertebrae causing pain on the whole of left leg," Ning pondered for a moment and smiled.. "I know what the problem is."
Report chapter
"I know how to heal your son," Ning said as he stood up.
"What did you say?" Old man Canon nearly dropped his cane when he heard that. "Did you just say you can heal my son?"
"Yes, I have found the problem of your son's current condition, and I also know how to heal it," Ning said.
"I… if you really aren't lying, thank you so much," Lord Canon said. "Please heal my son at once."
"Father wait," Kell spoke for the first time in a long time.
"What is it?" Canon asked.
"We can't trust him just like that. He said that he would only diagnose his little brother. He never said he would heal him. What if he puts poison inside little brother?" Kell said.
He then looked to Ning and said, "I'm not saying you will, but please understand that we have to be careful here."
"Oh, that's right. I must be getting old and muddle-brained. That's right, Doctor Ning. Can we just hear the diagnosis first? What's wrong with my son?" Canon asked.
"Sure. You said your son fell from the 2nd story of the mansion right?" Ning asked.
"Yes," Canon said.
"Well, you see, when he fell from the story he must have hit a rock or something at the bottom directly on his back. So, the 5th disc on his vertebrae was slightly dislocated but just enough to crush nerves leaving from the spinal cord. Thus, no information has been passed through the nerves to his head or the other way around."
"Basically, the communication between the brain and the body is completely shut off. However, there is a cure, and it's a very easy one."
"What I will do is give his body a little massage, so that the dislocated disk is back in place and the crushed nerves are released. After that, he will gain feeling back in his body."
"He will need to stay in bed for a week or two more due to his muscle degeneration, maybe even longer. But after that, he should be back to normal," Ning said.
"That is my explanation for what is happening to him and how he can be cured. If you would like, I can cure him in under 5 minutes," Ning continued. "However, after that, I will be needing something as compensation. Do you agree?"
Canon's eyes darted around for a moment. "If…. If…"
"Father, let us first confirm whether he is a real doctor or not. We can also confirm his diagnosis with the other doctors and see if he is telling the truth," Kell said.
"Shut up. We have a chance, so we must take it. So many doctors came and went, yet not a single one could give this clear of an explanation. The ones who could do something never replied to our letters. We don't have much time now. Your brother's body is getting weaker and weaker by the day and will die soon. We must do it now," Canon said with a face full of determination.
"Doctor Ning, please heal my son. I will give you anything you want. You want my mansion, you can have it. You want my merchant group, you can have it too. Hell, you can have the Baron title from me as well. Just heal my son," Canon got really low to bow to Ning.
"Very well. I will heal your son. As for what I want in return, let's talk about that later," Ning said and pulled up his sleeves. It was time to deliver his famous 10 Finger Heavenly Massage technique.
He placed Zand properly on the bed and started. He didn't go at it strongly, as the man didn't have many muscles on the back. He massaged slowly and deliberately.
He softened the entire vertebrae before trying to fix the dislocated disc. After 5 minutes of massage, it seemed he was ready.
"You, bring a cloth from that table and shove it in his mouth," Ning ordered one of the servants. The servant did not hesitate and did what he asked.
"You are going to feel pain like you've never before, so be ready for it," Ning said to Zand and put the disc back in place.
Suddenly, the pain that was all over his body, rushed to Zand's head, and finally he could feel it all. His face showed that he was screaming out of his mind, but there was no sound coming out.
His vocal cords were all but completely gone. Ning had only put the cloth in there to stop himself from chewing his own tongue and dying. 'Although, he might not even have the strength to do that right now,' he thought.
"What's happening?" Canon asked. His face was pale from seeing his son in pain.
"He just gained senses to his entire body. He will start to—"
Zand started waving his arms and legs up and down as the pain was too much to handle.
"— move soon. See? He is healed." Ning said.
Ning took out a premade pain relief that he had prepared while bored the last week. He fed a little of it to Zand after taking out the cloth from his mouth.
Zand stopped struggling and quietened down. Then, he fell asleep.
"Alright, he had been healed. Your son is fine now," Ning said.
Canon's face was in awe. He couldn't believe that a random kid he picked from the party was able to heal his son.
"I do not know how I can ever thank you, Doctor Ning. You… you did what no one else could do ever. You have my gratitude from the bottom of my heart," Canon said. He was crying now.
Ning could see just how much he loved his child right here. Canon quickly wiped his tears and said, "You said you wanted some compensation right? Ask me whatever you want, I will give it to you."
Ning smiled. He was finally gonna get what he was here for.
"You see—"
Just then, a feeling appeared inside of Ning.
A feeling of horror and distress.
Report chapter
[Warning: Mature Content]
"What's going on?" he asked out loud. He had never felt this sort of feeling ever before. He could tell that he wasn't really feeling it, but someone was projecting his feelings onto him… from very far away.
"What's wrong, Doctor Ning?" Lord Canon asked after seeing his exclamation.
"I— do not—" he stopped speaking. He suddenly thought of something. That thought terrified him. "I- I need to go. I will come back later," Ning said and ran out of the room before anyone could say anything.
As soon as he was out of sight, he vanished.
From what he knew, after the use of Supreme Domination, the one dominated was connected to you through an invisible bond. Sometimes, the subordinate could send messages through the bond if the connection was deep enough.
Right now, this was one of those situations. While his bond with Aegis wasn't deep enough to send messages, it was however deep enough to just send simple feelings.
So, after realizing that Aegis was in trouble, Ning went directly to him.
Ning appeared inside Famir's house and went to the room. However, no one was there. He went to the backyard, yet no one was there.
He then went outside and saw a scene that horrified him.
Fire raged everywhere he looked. Sounds of screams rang out from all directions. The village was under attack. He felt the same fear as he did back when Starsight burned in a similar way.
'Monsters… No.' Ning thought of other possibilities and quickly realized the answer.
"Bandits."
He took out his Spear and ran towards the village. The bandits had set the village on fire and attacked the people. The villagers had taken up what little arms they had and started to fight.
The outside of the village had little skirmishes. He only saw 2 bandits attacking 2 women who were trying to save themselves.
Ning's anger reached the highest it had in a long time. He dashed forward and threw his spear like a javelin. The spear skewered through both of the bandits, killing them at once.
He ran by the women, checked if they had any injuries, and picked his spear before walking forward.
As he went on, he could see half a dozen or so bodies along the way. While it wasn't on the same level as the one from the island, but it was still a sad sight to see. However, there weren't any more people here or any bandits.
"What's going on?" he wondered.
He saw another bandit trying to kill a man who only held pots and pans to protect himself. Ning used telekinesis and pulled the man's arms, legs, and head in 5 different directions and tore him into 6 different sections.
He saw another man trying to have his way with a woman he had pinned down. Ning teleported right next to him and cut off his privates. He then used telekinesis to shove the privates into his mouth and made his gag on it.
The man couldn't breathe as he choked on his own p*n*s and died. Ning helped the lady who was pretty shaken and proceeded on his way.
Ning went past a few more dead bodies until he reached the place that made the most noise.
Finally, he saw the reason why there weren't a lot of bandits everywhere. Dozens of bandits were gathered around a group of people in an arc and were attacking the group.
The only thing protecting them were his two beasts. However, all they could do was protect the people. The moment the two beasts left to attack, the bandits would attack the people.
After protecting for so long, the beasts were starting to get tired. They had to constantly move around to protect from any and all attacks, and that was very exhausting.
Famir and Mavenna were giving out orders and the beasts were following it to the best of their ability. The beasts couldn't even use Qi, so they were forced to just endure the attack without being able to send attacks back.
If not for that, Blue would've killed everyone by now.
Ning teleported to the middle of the encirclement and patted on his two beasts. "You guys can rest. You did well," he said as he took the beasts back into the beast space to rest and heal up.
The sudden disappearance of the beasts caused a massive opening in the group and the attacks would now get through them. The villagers shouted at the sight of stones, arrows, and all sorts of things flying their way.
However, before they could land, every single object coming towards their way, stopped in midair. Both the villagers and the bandits made sounds of shock and awe.
However, the feeling they got after that was completely different. While the villagers got hopeful, the bandits started feeling that they were in trouble.
The arrows and javelins that were thrown towards them suddenly turned around.
"A- An Aether User… they have an expert Aether user. Run!" A bandit shouted and turned around to run. However, Ning wasn't going to let them do that now.
He suddenly threw everything that was floating towards everyone from the bandit. All the bandits in the area were hit and incapacitated. They all fell to the ground with wounds all over their body. Some even died from the sharp arrows and javelins hitting them.
The remaining ones who could walk started to stand up to walk away. Ning had an answer for that too.
He made a horizontal slashing motion in front of him. Suddenly, a massive air slash appeared in front of him and flew out to the bandits.
Whether they were dead, immobilized, or running, the Air Cutter cut through every single one of them, killing them all in an instant.
There was no sound from the bandit side as they weren't able to make any.
There was no sound from the villagers' side as they were too stunned to make any.
Finally, Ning relaxed and looked back towards the group of villagers.. That was when his relaxing heart sped up once again.
Report chapter
"No!" Ning exclaimed as he ran up to the middle of the group.
In the middle of the group was an old woman holding a bloody old man in her arms. Next to her was a man in pain with a large cut along his chest.
The woman's face was devastated. She was overwhelmed by what she was seeing in front of her.
"Old man, are you okay?" Ning said as he reached the Old grand uncle who seemed to have lost a lot of blood. "You are in a lot of pain. Let me help you."
"No!" the old man said. "Heal my son first."
Ning then looked to the side to see Jangar with a cut on his chest. He had also lost a lot of blood and was on his last breath.
"Don't worry, I will help you both," Ning said. Now wasn't the time to hide his abilities, so he decided to help them in the open.
"System, heal them both," Ning said.
There is not enough energy
You can only save one person
"What?" Ning felt like he was just hit by a train. He quickly opened up his status and saw that he only had a couple hundred million energy left. That was only enough to heal one of these two completely.
He already didn't have a lot of energy after using the few auto buys, and what he had left was mostly used on the mass telekinesis and the massive Air Cutter he had used just now.
"No, isn't there any other way?" Ning asked the system. "Is the cap cooldown back online?"
You still have 13 hours left
"No, try to save both of th— "
The old man suddenly grabbed his arms. "Go... help... my... son. Worry... about... me... later," he said.
Ning came back to his senses. "Yes," he said. The old man had enough faculties such that Ning could probably treat him just with medicine.
So, he walked forward to Jangar and asked the system to heal him. Light shined from Jangar's body as it was back to being fully healed with no injuries in sight.
With that, Ning only had a couple of million energy left. He immediately ran back to the old man and started taking out a few different ingredients to heal the man.
"… gone," the woman spoke through her tears in trembling voice.
"What?" Ning asked as he didn't catch what she said the first time.
"He's gone," she said.
Ning looked down at the old man with a smile on his face and no signs of life. The ingredients he had taken out fell from his hand as Ning rushed forward to check his pulses.
Despite his greatest hope, there weren't any pulses. The old man was dead, and he had died happily knowing that he had saved his son's life as the last thing he did.
"No, old man. Come back. You can't die like that," Ning started crying. He immediately put him on the ground and started pumping his chest to restart his head.
"You said you will feed me a meal at your house right? See? here I am, you need to come back to feed me. You need to come back old man, " Ning said as tears slid down his eyes. He kept begging for the old man to come back.
However, deep down he knew that the old man had lost a lot of blood. There was no way he was going to come back to life.
"System, is there anything we can do?" Ning asked.
Soul once gone, cannot be brought back.
If you do bring it back, you would only be bringing back a desecrated soul that knows nothing but hate and resentment
"Grand Uncle!" Famir and Mavenna came by only to see that their grand-uncle was dead. Jangar woke up too, only to find his father dead.
Everyone who knew the old man started sobbing at the sight. The cries of loss deafened the cries of fear very soon, and the whole village started mourning.
All except for a single person, Ning.
Ning's eyes were red with anger and hatred. The blood lust was returning back to him and he could easily stop it. However, he decided to let it loose this time.
"System, teleport me to Khrom's base," he said. A tear rolled down his face and fell to the ground, but the man was no longer there.
The villagers were surprised at his sudden departure. However, they had seen more absurdity today and quickly went back to mourning.
Ning appeared inside the forbidden forest. According to the system, Khrom was terrorizing the town and village from inside the forest.
Ning looked at the light around 100 meters in front of him and asked, "is there anyone innocent here?"
No
"Good."
He started walking towards the light. Soon, he saw that there was a bunch of tents laid around the forest. There were two men standing guard at the front.
"When are the guys coming back?" one of the men asked.
"I don't know. They should have been back by now right?" the other man asked.
"Yeah, they weren't supposed to loot or anything. They were only supposed to kill a few people and come back. That was boss's order," the man said.
"Man, I wish I could go there too. I haven't had a woman in months," the other man said.
"And whose fault was it? We could have been out there with them today. But all because of you, not only did I lose one of my eyes, we got demoted to guard duty too," the man shouted.
"Hey, it's not my fault that guy was so strong. If I had known, I would have tried to fight him," the other man said.
Just then, he heard movements from in front of them.
"Ah, you guys are finally—" the man's words were cut short as his head was cut apart from his body. Even as his head fell, all he could see was a man whose face in the dim light looked like that of a demon.
A demon with a blue spear in his hand.
Report chapter
The other man was taken aback when he saw his partner's head get cut off of his head.
"Who?" he turned around to ask. Suddenly, a spear thrust through his shoulders and he was stuck onto a nearby tree.
"Ahh!" he screamed as loudly as he could as the pain rushed from his shoulders. Ning walked froward and ripped the patch in his eyes and put his thumb inside as he straightened the man's head.
"Scream once more and you will die," he said.
The man kept on grunting, but didn't scream anymore. "Wh-Who are you?" he asked.
"You don't recognize me?" Ning asked in a serious tone.
"I- I don— It's you. Why are you doing this?" he asked.
Ning pressed his finger deeper and said, "I ask the questions here, not you. Why are you free when you should be rotting in the prison?"
"We— We have connections in the prison. Some of our people work there too," he said as he kept on grunting from the pain.
"Who?" he asked.
"I— I don't know. The boss knows who they are; I only know that they exist," he said.
"I see. Then I have no need for you," Ning said.
"No, Wa— "
Ning ripped his spear out while at the same time cutting the man through the heart. The man fell to the ground as blood gushed from his eyes and shoulders, but not a single sound escaped his mouth.
The man was as dead as one could be.
Ning looked at the tent closest to him and suddenly lit a tent on fire. He stood in front of the tent's opening and waiting. When the people inside started realizing that their tent was on fire, they started running out.
At that moment, Ning cut every single person that walked out. Screams rang out from the people of the tent and soon all the tent had movements as they realized there was a problem.
When they all walked out and saw that their members were dead, they immediately ran for a weapon and came charging at Ning.
Ning's blood lust kept on increasing as his fury reached its peak.
The first man came in with sword and slashed towards Ning. Ning sidestepped the attack and punched him with his left hand.
The man's skull broke apart as if it was an egg being crushed. Blood and brain matter scattered to the right of Ning as the remaining body was hurled into a tent far away.
The bandits got scared. They couldn't understand what had just happened.
Suddenly, one of the bandits started shouting with a quivering voice. "A- An Enchanter!" he shouted.
The bandits finally 'realized' what was happening. They believed that Ning was enchanting his body to become sturdier than it actually was.
Ning didn't give a damn about what they thought and ran forward . The bandits were scared but they didn't believe that Ning could be strong enough to fight all of them at once.
So, they threw caution to the wind and charged at Ning all together.
With every slice of his spear, a body was cut apart. With every punch and kick, somebody lost part of their body. With every use of telekinesis, somebody whose weight was less than him got thrown high into the air only to fall down and die.
Ning went through the group of nearly a hundred, and death followed where he went. He made no distinguishment between men or women. Anyone that came at him got the same treatment.
In less than 2 minutes nearly all of the bandits that charged his were dead. There were a few with just broken bones that lied on the ground unable to move.
Ning used telekinesis to pull the tents and put it on top of all the bodies on the ground and lit fire to it.
He walked towards the remaining bandits as the fire behind him started raging.
"Wh-Why are you doing this?" one of the bandits asked as he put his sword up with his shaky hands. Ning didn't immediately kill these people.
Instead he asked, " Where is Khrom?"
The bandits didn't answer and just kept the weapon targeted towards him.
"I will ask only once more. WHERE IS KHROM?"
The bandits shook more when they heard the rage in his voice. Still, they didn't answer him.
"Whoever answers first gets to live," Ning said.
"He's underground!" one of the girl answered.
SWING
The rest of the bandits that didn't speak immediately had their heads cut apart from their torso. The girl didn't even understand what had happened just now, but she understood that the only reason she was alive right now what because she spoke.
"Underground? Explain!"
"There is a passage underground that leads to outside the town. The boss is currently in a room there," she said.
"How do I get there?" he asked.
"T-There is a hole carved behind that tree. Its hidden in the bush," she said.
"Good!" Ning said.
"I-I will live now right?" she asked.
"I stay true to my words," Ning said and turned around.
The girl sighed in relief, but then suddenly, 4 slashes flew through the air and cut her. She didn't die, but all 4 of her limbs were cut off from the base.
"AAAAAHHHH!" she screamed louder than anyone had amongst the bandits.
"I said I would let you live. But I didn't say it will be a pleasant living," Ning said as he walked towards the tree and repeated what the system had said.
"No one here is innocent!"
He quickly found the bush the girl was talking about and walked past it to see the giant hole in the tree.
"So this leads to the underground huh?" he thought and jumped in. There was a ladder to the side, but he didn't need it. It took him about 4 seconds to reach the bottom.
He stood up and saw that the tunnels went around in all four directions. He didn't know what direction the town was at all since he had teleported here.
"Where am I supposed to go now?"
Report chapter
[Warning: Very Mature Content; Please SKIP if you are uncomfortable with R*pe and Torture, or are not 18 or Older. There will be TL: DR next chapter]
He thought for a while and said, "System, give me the full knowledge of the tunnels here."
Confirmed
Suddenly, he got an intricate map of the tunnels, and what little energy he had, including sound energy, all disappeared. He now had 0 energy with him.
"This way!" He instinctively knew what direction to walk in.
"Let me know if there is someone innocent here," Ning said.
Understood
Ning could see on the map that there were many prison-like rooms here, so he didn't believe that everyone here was a bandit. He needed to be careful that he didn't kill someone innocent by accident.
Even though he didn't know what the system's verdict would be on accidental killing, he didn't want that on his conscience again.
He walked through the tunnels towards the rooms that looked like places one could rest in.
"Urghh! This feels suffocating," he thought.
He finally reached a room and opened the door. Inside, he saw a man sleeping on a sofa with two other men playing some dice with each other.
They looked towards the door and asked, " Who?"
Just from the clothing, they were wearing, Ning knew they couldn't be innocent at all. He immediately threw his spear at one of the men awake and calmly walked to the other.
The man who got hit by the spear died before he could even make a peep.
Ning walked to the second man and placed his foot on his chest as he pressed him. "Where's your boss?" he asked.
"Wh— Who are you?" the man kept on asking.
"Your death. Now answer me, where is yo— "
CLANG
The sleeping man was awake by now and had hit Ning with a sword. However, all that happened was that the sword got bent in half, and Ning's cloth got cut a little.
Ning grabbed the sword and pulled the man towards him. He caught him by the next and flung him to the wall of the room.
SPLAT
He was sent back with such a big force that his body ended up splattering the wall with blood and gore. The splashes flew all the way to where Ning was.
Ning ignored that and looked at the man that was under his feet. "Where is your boss?" he asked.
"R— Room 34!" he answered.
Ning looked through his mental map and said, " I see."
"Argh!" the man started screaming as Ning pushed more and more on his chest. His ribs started cracking and soon punctured his organs inside, but Ning didn't stop. The sofa broke under the pressure and the man laid flat on the ground.
Ning pushed until his leg went through the chest and came out the other said. Only then did he stop and pull his foot back out.
He grabbed his spear and walked away.
The room he was in was number 22. So, 34 was a dozen rooms down the tunnel. It wasn't a straight tunnel, so it would take him quite some time.
He entered the next room that was 23 and found another group of bandits. These ones he killed without asking.
Room 24 had a male and female bandit that was having the time of their life. Ning killed them both while they were in their bliss.
He cleared rooms 25-28 in a similar fashion.
In room 29 he had to finally stop to take in what was happening. Inside was a man having his way with a woman that seemed to not belong here. The woman was clearly kidnapped from somewhere.
The most Ning would react at this sight was get taken aback a little and maybe get a little angry.
However, when he saw that the man had abused the woman so much that she had cuts all over her body, and that he had already killed her and was now doing it with her corpse, He got mad.
The man didn't seem to realize that someone was at the door. So when Ning suddenly attacked him, he was caught off guard.
Ning was so seething with rage that he couldn't even speak. The very first thing he did what cut the man's pe*is and shove it into his mouth. However, he didn't push it deep enough to choke on it. That would be too lenient of a death.
He then started cutting all over the man's body. The cuts were so tiny that individually it wouldn't be harmful, but together, they hurt a lot.
Also, the places he made the cuts at, he would also crush all the bones there. He also cut off the man's ears and gouged out his eyes.
Once he was broken and cut all over, Ning sat over his broken ribs and put a rag on his face. The man screamed very loudly and fainted from time to time, and each time, Ning woke him back up.
"It seems you really like torturing others. Let's see how you like it when I do I to you," he said and suddenly cut the man's left arm.
He then held the arm over his face such that the blood from the arm dripped all over his face, waterboarding him in the process.
Once the blood from the arms was empty, he cut the other arm and waterboarded him again. Once the arms were done, he went with the two legs.
Through all the waterboarding, the man was somehow able to survive. Seeing this, Ning pushed his 'gag' a little more in. Now, if the man wanted to live, he would have to swallow it whole with his broken teeth along with it.
Ning walked to the lady's corpse and put a cloth on it before keeping it in his storage.
Ning walked out, leaving the man limbless, with all of his bones broken, with cuts all over his body, gaging on his on p*n*s, without the ability to see or hear. Then, he cut the stones around the door and collapsed the door.
The man would likely not live, but on the off chance he did, he would spend every waking hour wishing for someone to kill him off, yet unable to let anyone know about it.
Report chapter
[TL: DR - Ning bought a map of the tunnels with all of his energy and is making his way to room 34 where Khrom is at.]
Ning found a few kidnapped people in the rooms between 30 and 33, as well as a few more people he had to kill. After saving the kidnapped people, he let them know which direction to go towards and he went towards room 34.
Room 34 was situated at the center of the tunnel system and had easy access in all directions. So, Ning had to be extremely careful to not let the bandits know he was there.
The lanterns along the walls flickered as Ning finally opened the door to room 34.
The man inside reacted swiftly and looked up. He was an old man with a rough beard and a very well-built body. He was quite dirty and looked like he hadn't taken a bath for days.
When he saw Ning with the bloody cloth, he quickly reacted and swiftly stored away all the money and other items he had in front of him.
"Who are you? Where are my henchmen?" he asked.
Ning looked at the man with a hint of surprise on his face. The man behind the terror in the town, the tragedy in the village, and all those other problems that this corner of Thorman Empire had to suffer… was actually an old man in his 50s.
It was a little hard to believe that such an old man would be capable of such horror.
"Are you Khrom?" he asked.
Khrom was apprehensive. In all of his life as a bandit, he had seen many people die in front of his eyes; some that were killed by others, and some that he killed himself.
During all those deaths, he could remember seeing the fear in the eyes of the one dying. The same fear was now starting to bud inside of him.
He didn't immediately answer Ning's question and instead asked once more, "Who are you?"
"I see. So you indeed are Khrom," Ning said. Khrom's unwillingness to answer the question was an answer in and of itself.
Khrom was startled a little. 'Sh*t,' he thought as he realized his mistake.
"So, what if I am? Who are you?" he asked again.
Ning walked into the room. "I am the vengeance you invited by sending your people after the village. I am the reason you are going to die today."
"F*ck. MEN! An intruder is here," Khrom shouted, yet nobody made a peep.
"All your people who can hear you are already dead. Once I kill you, I will go deal with the rest," Ning said.
Khrom now knew that nobody was coming for him, so he decided to take matters into his own hand. He put his hands up and suddenly some sort of liquid dropped all over Ning.
Ning was a little surprised and looked at what was dropped on him. "Water?" he thought and checked. It wasn't water; it was too slippery to be water.
His eyes widened a little when he realized. "Oil."
Ning burst into flames all of a sudden as the oil caught fire. "Die, Idiot!" Khrom started laughing after seeing Ning fall for such an obvious attack.
Oil and Fire was one of the most well-known combo attacks that could take care of any unprepared opponent.
"You think you can waltz in here and expect to leave alive, boy? I am Khrom. The Khrom that has been reigning this side of the empire for decades. A kid that is still wet behind the ears cannot do anything to me," Khrom said.
"Is that so?" Ning spoke. The fire still raged on him, but he was unaffected. Not only did he have a really strong body that didn't take damage easily, but he also had the heat ignorance skill that made it so that 15% of the heat-based damage ignored his body in general.
Then, he walked forward.
"Ho-How are you still standing? Yo-You… are you an Enchanter?" Khrom asked. He was finally starting to get a little scared. He stumbled on the chair he was sitting in and fell backward.
Ning was now standing right in front of him. He squatted down to get up to Khrom's level and asked, "Do you know what happens when you mix water with burning oil?"
Khrom shuddered.
Ning smiled through the burning flames and said, "boom!"
BOOM
A loud explosion occurred as massive flames left Ning's body. The items in the room caught fire and so did Khrom. He was now starting to burn along with everything in the room.
Khrom quickly created water to douse himself and put out the fire. His clothes were torn in places, his skin was red from the burns, and had lost almost all of the hair on his body.
Ning was also no longer burning now. He took out a different grayish robe and wore it before walking up to Khrom.
"So you are an Invoker, huh? Oil and fire, that was quite neat. Shame you had to fight me. Do you have any more tricks up your sleeve? Try it," Ning said.
Khrom suddenly swung his hand towards Ning. As he did that, a light flashed in his hand and it turned to a big sword.
CLANG
However, it did no damage to Ning. Khrom's eyes shook in fear as he now understood the magnitude of danger he was in. His final sneak attack was fruitless and he didn't have enough Aether to use any other attacks.
Ning grabbed the sword and snatched it off of his hand. "Hmm… this looks quite intricate. Did you really create this yourself?" he asked.
"Or…" Ning thought of another possibility and suddenly grabbed Khrom's clothes before ripping it off.
Around Khrom's neck was a necklace with a large jewel in the middle. The jewel was dark blue in color and gave off faint undulations of Aether.
"A storage item, I see. So this is where you kept all the riches just moments prior. I will be taking this now."
Ning ripped the necklace off of his neck and took it.
Report chapter
"Where did senior go? Is he going to be okay?" Mavenna asked as she wiped away her tears.
It had been a little over two hours since Ning had left. After they were done sobbing, they gathered around the ones that died. It was a terrible night and they had many losses.
But they couldn't let those losses drag themselves down.
They didn't care about the bandit's body; those would be taken care of by someone from the town. Lord Canon had sent his own son to help them take care of the bandits.
The villagers were very grateful for the help.
The total number of people that died in the bandit attack was around 11 on the villager's side, while the injured were around 30. Everyone who fought against the bandit even a little had some injury on them.
The Lord's son went around with people to deal with the injury of whoever was injured.
"Sir, all the injured people have been treated and the bandit's corpses have been burned," A guard told Kell.
Kell got close to the guard and asked, "Did you find out why they were all cut apart like that?"
The guard got quiet too and whispered, "I tried asking around, but everyone is keeping a tight lip about it. Not a single one of them wants to speak about it. I think they are hiding an expert in the village."
"That makes sense," Kell said.
"Alright, let's move out," Kell shouted and turned to leave. But just then, he saw someone approaching from far away. "Who is— "
"Senior!" Famir shouted and ran forward. However, when he reached near, he stopped. He turned around and caught his sister who was also running.
Ning had a serious look on his face, more serious than anything the two siblings had ever seen. Behind him was a naked man, all bloody, being dragged since god knew where.
Ning ignored the two siblings and walked to the center of the village, right next to where Kell was standing at and threw the man in front of the villagers.
The villagers gasped when they saw the man. The man had no eyes, no ears, no fingernails, missing toes, half his skin missing, and the other half burnt.
Ning looked to the villagers and said, "This is Khrom, the boss of the bandits that were behind today's tragedy. Do what you will with him." Then he left.
The villagers, the guards, and even Kell himself were stunned. Kell looked at the half-dead man in front of him in horror. "T-This is Khrom?" he couldn't help but ask.
"Doctor, wait!" Kell shouted. "You said this was Khrom? Where did you find him? How did you find him?"
Ning turned around and glared at Kell, who took a step back after seeing the anger in Ning's eyes.
Ning ignored the son and turned to the crowd. He didn't say anything else and simply nodded towards them. The crowd hesitated a little, but then Jangar walked forward.
"This is the bastard who is behind my father's death?" he said angrily. He looked around for a broken piece of wood and started beating Khrom with it.
BAM BAM BAM
The crowd shuddered with every hit. Then, another man who had lost his wife in the attack tonight also walked forward and started beating him.
Then came a father who lost his son.
A mother who lost her daughter.
A wife who lost her husband.
A daughter who lost her father.
Everyone from the crowd picked up a piece of wood or stone and started barraging the man on the ground. Even as the hits landed on him, the man never made a sound. Ning had made sure to gag him properly so that he didn't make a single sound.
Ning watched from the side and was constantly getting ticked off as he looked at the man getting beat. Just before coming here, he had asked the man a few questions.
The answers he had gotten were something that was constantly eating up his free thought and made it impossible to think of anything. He started remembering what had happened an hour ago.
"Why did you send people to attack the village?" Ning asked Khrom who was down on his knees.
"W-What villager? I-I don't know any village" Khrom said.
"Don't lie to me bastard," Ning said as he pulled what remaining hair Khrom had on his head. "I will just kill you right now," Ning said.
"Wait— I-I'll speak," Khrom said. Ning waited for him to speak.
"I- I was ordered to attack the village and kill a few people there," Khrom said.
"What? Ordered?" Ning was surprised. Who would order a boss of the bandit? Or was Khrom not the boss after all?
"Who ordered you?" he asked.
"I- It was Canon. It was that bastard Canon!" Khrom said.
"What?" Ning was surprised. "What do you mean Canon?"
"We-We have a pact with each other. He lets us hide out here and doesn't come after us, and in return, we do a few things he asks," Khrom said.
"Like?" Ning asked.
"I don't know. It's usually just secretly killing people that we find in the forest or poison someone's food in the village," Khrom said.
"WHAT?!" Ning pulled his hair tighter. "You are lying!" he said.
"N-No! Believe me. We've been doing that for over 3 years ever since we came here," Khrom said.
3 years. That was around the time Jangar's brother died, a lumberjack who was crushed by a tree he cut. Thinking about it, he also remembered another thing Jangar had mentioned.
'The village is cursed. Every month or two, someone dies here.'
Ning couldn't believe it. What Khrom said matched what Jangar had said.
'Sh*t!' he thought. While it was possible that Canon was doing all of these, it was also possible that Khrom was simply lying. Ning had no way of finding out either.
'I wish I could use Supreme Dominance on him right now,' he thought. Unfortunately, he was all out of energy. 'Fine. I will learn about the truth once I get energy later on,' he thought.
And then, he tortured Khrom a little more before he started dragging him throughout the tunnels. Everywhere he went, Ning killed the bandits and freed those who were captured.
Once he got out of the tunnel near the town, he then dragged him all the way back to the village.
Report chapter
Khrom was dead. Without a shadow of a doubt, he was dead. After being beaten to such a state, if he was still alive, he would truly deserve to live.
Unfortunately, he wasn't that lucky.
Ning looked at Kell who was looking at the dead Khrom in horror.
'Rich kid reared in safety. He probably hasn't seen the true horrors of the world yet,' Ning thought. 'Could such a person's father truly be capable of sending so many people to their death?' he wondered.
He remembered the sweet old man that had thanked him after he healed his child. That man knew love, could he truly—
'His son!' Ning's eyes widened when he remembered about Zand. 'His son was paralyzed for quite a while right? Could it be that he partnered up with Khrom for this particular reason?' he wondered.
Ning couldn't understand why though. 'Killing people won't save a paralyzed child at all. He has no reason to— '
"Senior!" Famir shook him back awake.
"What? What is it?" Ning asked.
"He's dead. What should we do with his body?" Famir asked as he pointed to Khrom's corpse.
Ning gritted his teeth and said, "Just chop him to pieces and feed him to the dogs."
Famir got a little confused. "What's a dog?" he asked.
"It's— Never mind. Just let the guards handle his corpse," Ning said. Then, he remembered something.
"How did you say your father was found again?" he asked.
"Oh, it was one of lord Canon's men. I don't think he's here today," Famir said.
"Are you sure your father fell to death?" Ning asked.
"Yes. He died while trying to get the fruit for sister," Famir said with a guilty voice. He blamed himself for his father's death.
"How did your father's body look?" Ning asked.
Famir shuddered a bit. "Why are you asking these questions, senior? Can I not answer?" he asked as tears started welling up in his eyes. He didn't want to remember back to that day.
"Answer me, it's important. I don't think your father's death was an accident," Ning said softly.
"What?" Famir exclaimed with shock. "That can't be!."
"Quiet down, and tell me how he looked," Ning asked.
"He- his arms were broken and his— " Famir took a deep breath trying to not let the visuals affect him, and continued," and the back of his head was caved in."
Ning suddenly had a quizzing look. "How were his hands broken?" he asked.
"Right here, it was bent backward," Famir said as he pointed to his elbow.
"Any other damage?" Ning asked.
"No, not really," Famir said.
'Broken arm, broken skull, and yet no damage to the body. This sounds like assault rather than an accident. Was he killed by Canon's men and then that man reported it as an accident?' Ning wondered.
'Did famir's father know something? Does this village know something? Why would Canon want to kill the village?' Ning couldn't understand.
"Senior, let's go," Famir said and took him along.
Ning didn't know where he was taking him, but it looked important. When he reached the place, he finally realized.
"Oh," he said.
It was the funeral. 10 bodies lay on top of a pile of firewood. 10 people walked to the front of the bodies, each with an unlit torch.
All 10 of them put the end of their torch on a fire that was previously prepared and then went to their individual family's corpses to burn the funeral pyre.
The fire raged and everyone got silent for a while. They prayed for the people who died, and the ones who had to keep living without them.
The fire raged for nearly an hour, and everyone stood there the whole time, unmoving. Once the fire died down, the 10 people walked up to the ashes and kept them inside a pot.
Once the ashes were inside the pot, the 10 people all picked it up and placed it on top of their heads.
Jangar walked from the side and went to the center of the funeral pyre that was set so that the fire never reached here. Another man from the village also went to the center.
There in the center laid a corpse that was left untouched by the fire.
Ning was surprised. "What's going on? Did they make a mistake?" he asked.
"No," Famir said. "We needed to keep one of the bodies safe."
"Huh? Wh—" Ning stopped. He then turned south and looked at the mountain far away.
"I see. We are going to the Peak of Afterlife."
Ning walked forward and went to the center where the man was struggling to carry the corpse. "Let me do it," Ning said and swapped with the man.
Ning was on the back, and Jangar was on the front.
"You ready?" Ning asked.
Jangar didn't speak, and only nodded. Then, the group started walking.
The destination was far away, but nothing stopped their advancement. Every man who could walk, walked. The group of people walked for over 4 hours when they arrived at the gate of the seal.
Ning wondered how they were going to enter, but Jangar didn't seem to stop. He continued walking.
Right when he approached the barrier, the barrier opened to create a portal-like appearance, similar to what he saw back in the Hub Island's secret realm.
As he passed inside, he suddenly appeared on the top of the mountain. The men he had come with immediately got cold and shuddered. Only he was fine.
Ning got worried for a second but then stopped when he saw that the people were started to set up another funeral pyre. Once it was set, Jangar and Ning laid the body on top of the pyre.
Jangar opened the cloth covering the face of the corpse. Behind the cloth was an old face with a small smile on his face. Everyone got silent when they saw the face and started praying once again.
Once they were done, Jangar brought out two stones to light his torch.. It was time to proceed with the Old Uncle's funeral.
Report chapter
Jangar took the torch and started lighting a fire near it, but his hands were trembling with the cold, and he could hit the stones properly.
"Let me help you, Uncle," Famir said and closed his eyes. Suddenly, fire burst on top of the torch and it was lit up. The people around him were surprised that he could do that, but for now, they didn't say anything.
Jangar walked up to his father's corpse and covered the face again. Then, he lit the pyre on fire.
The fire in the snow helped relieve some of the coldness the crowd was feeling. They stayed there for another half an hour as the fire crackled to a stop.
Jangar walked forward with an empty pot and gathered the ashes. Then, he stood up and started walking.
The other 10 people who were also carrying pots of ashes followed him. Ning soon realized that they were going to go around the mountain.
So, he followed the people and walked.
As he walked he started to realize the familiar environment once again. 'I fell on this site, didn't I?' he thought.
The group walked and stopped at the clutter of wooden planks stuck on the ground. 'The headstones,' Ning thought. Some of the men brought out other planks of wood and started carving on it.
Ning didn't even need to read it to know what it read.
Famir walked up to a headstone and got on his knees before it. "Hello father, how are you doing?" he started speaking.
Ning watched as the other people also got on their knees and started speaking with the headstones there. 'Everyone here has lost someone,' he thought.
As Jangar had mentioned, every month or two, somebody in the village died. So, by now every single person had to attend the funeral of their family.
Ning still remembered the first funeral he had attended, his parent's. It was a rainy day and he was mostly unsure about what had happened.
Unlike him from that time, these people were very used to this stuff. Seeing this, Ning got angry.
'Nobody should be used to the death of their friends and family. They shouldn't have to say goodbye to their loved ones on a regular basis,' he thought.
The group got up and walked away from one by one. Ning saw a new headstone next to the one that said 'Here lies Feroy'. The new one was the headstone of the Old Grand Uncle. He was now reunited with his son.
Ning gave a deep bow and walked behind the rest of the group.
As he was walking away, he saw something strange. There were still two people behind that were talking to the headstones, but Ning didn't remember seeing them amongst the villagers that were at the funeral back in the village.
'Did they join after we left the funeral pyre?' he wondered. He was currently looking behind him with his omnidirectional vision, so to a normal person, it would look like he is turning forward.
As Ning and the rest walked further away, the two people finally brought up their heads and looked at each other. Once they made sure nobody was looking, they started running below.
'What the hell are they doing?' Ning wondered. However, this wasn't the time to feed his curiosity. Jangar and the other 10 people circled back to where they began.
Then, they started walking up to the peak where the burst of Qi and Aether still flew to the sky. Once they reached there, they gently tossed the pot into the crater.
The little specks of light immediately destroyed the pots as well as the ashes inside of it and threw it into the sky. By the time they reached the top, not a single thing remained.
The 11 people had now entered the afterlife.
They prayed for another minute or two for the departed's safe journey and started walking down the mountain. Ning stood where he was and didn't move.
"Senior?" Famir asked when he saw that he wasn't moving. "We need to go past that barrier again. It will close in less than 3 hours," he said.
"You guys go down. I have some things to do here," Ning said and sent Famir away. Famir wanted to ask some questions but decided to keep quiet and leave.
Once they were gone, Ning went to the other side and followed the footsteps the men had left on the snow. 'Just where did they go?' he wondered.
He was nearly at the foot of the mountain when he saw the footsteps change direction. It went to the right and a little down.
'A cave?' Ning thought when he saw what was there. 'Why is there a cave here?' he wondered. As he walked close to the cave, he could hear of metal clangs.
He quietly walked into the cave.
"What the hell?" he couldn't help but exclaim loudly when he saw what was inside. The two men, who were mining inside with a pickaxe, were startled and got into an attacking position with their pickaxe.
Ning didn't care about them, however. The thing that garnered his full attention was this cave.
Bluish-black crystals shined even in low light all around him. It was as if they were embedded onto the rocks themselves. From Ning's estimate, there was at least a large truck full of materials here.
"Aether Ore," he spoke in absolute surprise. He then finally looked at the two men and asked, "who are you, people?"
The two men didn't seem to like the questioning very much.
"Isn't he the man who brought in Khrom?" one of the men asked.
"Yes," the other man said.
"No answering huh?" Ning said and walked forward.
"Don't come closer or we will attack!" one of the men said as he readied his pickaxe.
"Oh, you wanna do something with that toothpick? Go ahead," Ning said as he taunted the men.
Both the men got angry and ran forward to attack him with the pickaxe.
CLANG
However, it did nothing to Ning. Ning caught the stopped pickaxe from the metal side and bent it upside in a U shape.
"Now, are you willing to talk?"
Report chapter