Read Reincarnated as an Energy with a System Chapter 231 - Timeline online for free - AllNovelFull
The men were shocked when they saw the man in front of them physically bend the metal pickaxe.
"ENCHANTER!" They exclaimed.
"Are you willing to speak or not?" Ning asked.
"Please! Please don't kill us," the men said as they immediately got onto their knees and started begging. Ning didn't expect them to give up so easily. It seemed they were more terrified of him than the bandits were for some reason.
'They changed their behavior too quickly,' he thought. One moment they attacked him, and another moment they were begging.
"Who are you people and why do you know about this cave?" Ning asked.
One of the men trembled and slowly opened his mouth. "We cannot say that," he said.
Ning got ticked off. "Very well, I don't need two people to answer me anyway. Just one of you is enough. The other can go and die," He said.
"Wait, no, please. We really can not answer. They will kill our families if we tell you," one of the men said.
Ning stopped. "What?" He asked.
"Yes. They have our family hostage, and unless we do what they say, they will kill our family," the man said. "So, we really cannot say anything."
The system had made no effort whatsoever to stop him from killing them; it knew he was going to. That meant that these two weren't innocent whatsoever. However, if they really were forced to do what they did, then there was no way he would feel good after punishing them.
"Tsk." Just then, he thought of something. He didn't want to believe this thought as he wanted to believe that it was a coincidence. But he could not ignore the truth once it was this close to him.
Ning took a deep breath and asked, "it is Canon, isn't it? The one threatening you?"
The men kept quiet but their eyes flashed a hint of surprise. That was enough for Ning to figure out he was correct.
'No, I need to be 100% sure he is not lying,' he thought.
Suddenly, the pores on his body opened up as a massive amount of Aether entered his body instantly filling his 640 Million caps for the day.
While his Sea of Aether could only collect so much Aether, he himself on the other hand was free to collect as much as he could.
Once he had some energy back, he walked up to one of the people and placed his hand on his forehead. "Don't resist, or I will kill you," Ning said.
Supreme Domination.
The manmade no peep whatsoever as he was taken in by Ning as a subordinate. Once the domination was complete Ning asked him once more.
"Is your family hostage?"
"Yes," the man answered with no hesitation whatsoever. The other man didn't understand what was happening.
"Is it Canon who has your family hostage?" he asked.
"Yes."
Ning fell into thought and thought of more questions to ask.
"Have you ever killed anyone from the village?" he asked.
"No," the man answered.
Ning was surprised.
"What do they make you do then?" he asked.
"Every time someone from the village dies, the villagers come by to Peak of Afterlife to part away with the ashes of the dead. During that time, we are made to mine as much as we can and get out within the time limit," the man said.
"So, the reason the villagers are killed is simply so that they can open the seal to the mountain?" Ning asked with anger in his voice.
"I believe so," the man said. The other man sat there, dumbfounded at the fact that his partner was spilling all the beans with zero hesitation. Ning on the other hand was in deep thought.
Things were finally starting to make sense. Ning formed a timeline of the events in his mind.
'That old man's son fell and got paralyzed 3 years ago. He tried to heal him, but couldn't. He probably needed more money. Then he came to find out about this place somehow. Since then, he made a pact with Khrom to let him have free reign over the territory as long as he killed a few villagers once every month or two.'
'So, the old man must be using this cave as his financial source,' Ning thought. However, one thing still didn't make sense. The motivation didn't add up at all.
Sure the man needed more money and so he mined this place. But he should have gotten enough money as the Aether ores sold for a lot.
'Why did he still continue to kill the villagers?' he wondered. 'Did he have a taste of the sweet money and couldn't stop doing what he did?' he wondered.
'Whatever, I will go ask him right now,' he thought.
"Leave," Ning ordered the two men in front of him. The one subordinate left without any emotions on his face, while the other man was scared the entire time.
Ning looked at the cave and sighed. He wanted to mine it too, but there were more important things to do now. So, he took in what little Aether ore was on the ground and walked out.
He teleported over to the edge of the barrier that had brought him to the top and walked out.
The two people he had just sent away would still take a bit longer to arrive here. While Famir and the rest had already walked away quite far.
He looked to the distance and saw them going back to the village. With nothing to carry around this time, they would likely cut the travel time by almost half.
With nothing else to do, he decided to go to the Canon mansion right now and interrogate the old man. So, he teleported.
He arrived at the open room where the 2nd son was kept. However, the 2nd son was no longer there anymore. Instead, all Ning could see was pooled up blood on the ground.
Next to his feet were two dead bodies, both of which belonged to the two maids that looked after the second son.
"What the F*ck?"
Ning stood where he had appeared. Below him, he could see the two women's dead bodies. From what Ning could see, they seemed to have been cut across their chest with a sword.
The white marbled floor had blood pooled up in it. The walls had splashes of red on what should have otherwise just been white.
Ning was very confused as to what was going on.
'Did the remaining bandits come to attack after learning that their boss died?' Ning thought. That was a genuine possibility.
From the bandit's perspective, somebody invaded their secret hideout and everyone died. The only one who had enough manpower, as well as knowledge of their hideout, was Canon.
'It must be that,' Ning thought and decided to walk out of the room.
As soon as he stepped out, he stepped on more blood. He looked down and saw a dead man.
'Canon's bodyguard?' Ning thought in surprise. This was the same bodyguard that had helped him with Zand's diagnosis yesterday.
Just a day later, he was dead.
"Another sword attack," Ning thought as he looked at the massive gash on the man's body.
He walked out of the corridor and could hear cries of terror from somewhere far away.
CLANG CLANG
He heard sounds of sword fight from just around the corner.
"Aaahh" a man cried out and fell down.
Suddenly, from behind the corner, Old man Canon walked out with his second son in his clutches. Ning saw him limping around and almost wanted to cry out in happiness. The man got what he deserved.
However, that wasn't the emotions Ning was feeling right now. When he saw the old man's crying face with terror written all over it, he felt sorry for the old man.
Old man Canon stopped when he saw Ning standing a little further away from him. His emotions changed from helplessness, to hope, to back to despair.
"D- Doctor, help me," he shouted.
Ning didn't want to help at all, but he also didn't want to see the innocent son die due to the mistakes of his father.
"Doctor, please! Take my son and le— Aah" the old man cried out.
SWING SWING SWING
"Aahh!" the old man cried out and fell over. There were 4 arrows stuck to his back.
Ning was stunned and stood right where he was. He couldn't see the attacker or the arrow.
Another arrow appeared out of nowhere and went into the old man's head. It managed to break his head and blood as well as brain matter flowed out.
The old man was dead.
"Aaaaaaghhhh!" a sound appeared from below the old man. The second son was healed enough now that he could make simple sounds. He cried out when he saw his father die right in front of him.
Footsteps sounded from behind the corner once more as the attacker appeared.
When Ning saw who it was, he was surprised. "It's you! How could it be you?" he asked.
"Oh, you are here, huh doctor? Good. I won't have to go find you to kill you. You are the root of my problems today anyway. I will only find solace after I kill you," the attacker said.
"But first, let me kill my little brother."
The attacker was none other than Kell Canon.
A sword suddenly appeared on his hand, and he swung down at the immobilized Zand. Ning reacted immediately and pushed him back with telekinesis, but he still managed to cut his brother's arm off.
"Aghh!" a hoarse sound left the second brother's mouth as he cried in agony.
"System, how much energy to heal him altogether?" Ning asked.
You will need 520 Million energy
'So expensive? It's just a paralyzed body though,' Ning thought. "Whatever, heal him."
Light shined on Zand's body and soon he was healed. His cut hand rejoined, his slowly healing paralysis healed in an instant, and his body was back to looking like a normal healthy body with good proportionate muscles and bones.
Ning lifted him up and said, "Run away from here. I will stop your brother."
Zand was surprised at what had just happened, however, he didn't have the luxury to stand around. He looked towards his father's corpse with dreaded eyes, looked at his brother with fury, and turned around to run away.
Seeing the kid gone, Ning turned to look at Kell who was standing up after being pushed away.
"Huh? Where did my brother go?" he asked, but quickly forgot about him as the problematic man was in front of him.
Ning's face couldn't help but keep showing surprise. "Why are you attacking your own father and brother?" he asked.
"It's all because of you, you bastard. You ruined my perfect plan to get richer and become a higher-ranked noble. First, you heal my stupid little brother that I had paralyzed, then you went and killed Khrom."
"Tell me, who gave you the information about Khrom's base. I need to get rid of them if they are on my team," Kell said.
Ning's eyes slowly started shining as he realized what was happening. "Ah, I see. So when they were talking about 'Canon', they weren't talking about your father. They were talking about you," Ning said.
He finally understood the misunderstandings he had from not realizing that 'Canon' was just a surname, and could be referring to any of the 3.
Since he had been in the party where big figures were present, they would only call the old man 'Canon', and refer to the younger ones by their name.
However, the normal folks couldn't show a noble such disrespect and called every one of the family members, a Canon.
"So you were the one behind the killings in the village for the last 3 years, for the bandit attack last night, and in some ways, you were responsible for the death of the old uncle," Ning said as fury started raging back in his eyes.
"Stop talking so much you idiot and die," Kell shouted.
Suddenly, Ning was doused in oil once again.
"Sh*t, another Invoker."
While Ning was doused in Oil, he knew what was going to happen next. So, he immediately used telekinesis to throw away the oil from all over his body.
The fire appeared on the cloth in his chest, but Ning simply dabbed it out.
"What?" Kell was surprised for a moment before he realized. "I see, you are an Enchanter. I've never fought another Aether user before. It seems I will have to get serious."
A bow appeared on his hand all of a sudden. It was a dark green colored bow with a relatively simple design. Kell caught the string with his two fingers and pulled it.
Even as he did that, something appeared in the empty space of the bow's string. A small brown object appeared that elongated until it reached the front of the bow. There, a small sharp metal piece appeared on it.
'Holy Sh*t. He can create arrows just like that?' Ning said in surprise. He wasn't surprised about the fact that arrows could be made; he knew that. Anything could be made with Aether.
However, the more complex the item being made was, the more chances of failure there were. Not to mention, the more complex they were the more Aether they used.
The fact that Kell could create a wooden arrow with a metal tip in less than 3 seconds without a mistake was truly unthinkable to Ning.
"F*ck! He must've used the Aether ores on himself a lot. I wonder if he is an Aether Master now," Ning thought.
Kell let the arrow fly and it flew right towards Ning's face.
The arrow had great damage behind it, but that was nothing to Ning. He caught it right in front of his face and started checking the arrow.
Kell was surprised; the arrow he prided over so much was caught in mid-air by his opponent.
It was indeed pretty well made. "You are not bad," Ning said. "Unfortunately, you have to die."
Ning stepped forward towards Kell, but suddenly, he slipped. His right leg slipped way further than it should have and Ning ended up doing a perfect split.
"Oil again?" he said in anger. Kell had coated the marble with Oil to make it slippery.
Ning punched the marble to create many cracks and stood up. Now, he could walk on it properly. By that time, however, Kell was gone.
That wasn't a problem to Ning however, he could clearly see the direction he had run to. So, he jumped out of the oiled-up area and started chasing.
The hallway was pretty white and kind of the same looking everywhere, but Ning could hear footsteps and followed it.
Arrows flew at him, but it couldn't hinder Ning at all. When the floor got slippery, he used telekinesis to wipe it away, or just simply jumped.
Kell was trying to keep a distance and fight that way, but he couldn't stop Ning from coming closer at all. So, he kept on running.
Ning was getting closer and closer. At some point, he was so close that he could catch Kell if he ran at his top speed for 3 seconds.
Kell attacked with his arrows once again, but Ning just twisted his head and dodged it.
Kell then created small metal balls and dropped them on the ground. They were supposed to work like a ball bearing and trip Ning when he stepped on it. He expected that Ning couldn't focus on so many objects at once as even Enchanters had a limit on how many objects they could enchant at once.
However, it didn't have the desired effect on Ning. Ning's mental strength was ridiculously strong. Besides, Telekinesis didn't work like normal Enchanting.
He floated all the metal balls and caught them in his hands. He then took one of them and flicked it with his finger. It flew so fast that it was close to being a gunshot.
Ning's aim however was pretty bad and he missed. That was still enough to scare Kell. Kell created a metal shield and turned around to block the attack.
Ning sent another metal ball flying toward Kell and sent Kell stumbling backward.
Suddenly, Kell tripped over something and fell down. When he looked at what it was, he shuddered. It was the corpse of his dead father that he had killed. Now that corpse was going to be the death of him.
"P-Please spare me! I can give you all the money I made," Kell said with a quivering voice.
"I don't want money. I want answers and then I want vengeance" Ning said.
"I-I will answer. I will answer everything you want. Just don—"
SWING SWING
Two arrows went through Kell's head and he fell to the floor, dead.
"What the… " Ning was surprised once more.
From around the corner, the second brother appeared with a bloody arrow in his hand. When he got to the dead body of his brother, he kicked him away from his father and walked up to it again.
He flipped it to have the chest upright and stabbed him right through the heart with the arrow.
"DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!" he shouted. Kell was already dead, but Zand wasn't satisfied. Ning watched from the side as the younger brother stabbed his elder brother in the chest over 20 times.
By the end of it, Kell's body was practically unrecognizable. When he was done, he dropped the arrow and walked over to his father's body.
He picked it up and embraced it in his arms. Then, he cried.
The house was silent and his cries were the only sound that ran around the house. He cried at the tragedy he had just witnessed. He cried for seeing his own father die in front of him. He cried for having to kill his own brother.
He cried and let go of all the tears he had accumulated for the past 3 years.
He forgot about everything but the pain and tragedy and just cried.
Report chapter
"Lord Canon, are you alright?" the stronger guards heard the news of the massacre in the mansion and came running in. When they arrived, they were presented with quite a few dead guards and maids, followed by the young lord and their lord.
Zand was still holding his father and crying, but the sound had quietened a lot by now.
Ning was still to the side looking at the scene in front of him with a sad but frowning face. He wanted some answers, yet the perpetrator was dead. However, he didn't have the heart to scold someone like Zand right now.
"Don't move," the guards shouted as they pointed their spears towards Ning.
Ning couldn't help but frown when he saw this. He wasn't in the mood to fight with random people right now.
"Drop your weapons," Zand ordered suddenly.
"Young lord, but this man—"
"He is my savior. Treat him with respect," he shouted again. His body was fully healed so he didn't need to worry about overexerting it right now.
Ning looked at Zand with a hint of surprise. It seemed that despite the tragedy he just had to go through, he was still conscious enough about the surroundings that he didn't let Ning get harassed by his soldiers.
Ning sighed. "I'm leaving," he said and walked out. As soon as he was out of anyone's vision, he teleported to Famir's place.
"Eh, senior. You're back," Mavenna said with a little bit of surprise. "Oh my god, what happened to you?" she asked in concern. Despite having changed his clothes after his raid on the bandit, he had yet again managed to ruin this cloth.
"Sigh, don't mind this. I'm not in a mood to talk, I just want to go rest," he said and walked into one of the rooms and lay down on the bed.
He also felt a little bloated since he hadn't yet refined the Aether he had gained in the cave. He needed to purify it so he could add more.
However, sleep came first.
He didn't see any dreams or nightmares. He just slept peacefully.
"Senior! Senior!"
Ning woke up from his sleep after who knew how many hours. He looked to the side and saw that Famir was back.
"Oh, you returned? Alright, go away for now. Let me sleep," Ning said and went back to sleep.
"Senior, there is somebody here to meet you," Famir said.
"Who?" Ning asked as he stood up. In front of him was a man slightly older than Famir, but way more mature. He was wearing white robes and pants. It was unusual to see someone so colorless in this place.
"What are you doing here?" he asked in confusion as he looked at the man in front of him.
It was none other than Zand. Zand looked a lot more noble-like now, but the white didn't really suit him.
"I'm here for my father's funeral, Doctor," Zand said.
"Your father's funeral?" Ning was a little surprised. It had only been a few hours, and yet Zand had not only fixed his mood but was already here to cremate his father.
"I thought you would be more devastated by your father's death. How did you get over the pain so easily," Ning asked.
"Well, I'm still sad, but I couldn't keep on crying. It is up to me to become the new lord of the family and deal with the different problems. Besides, 3 days is surprisingly enough for one to get his emotions under check," Zand said.
"Huh? 3 days? What 3 days?" Ning asked.
"Senior, it's been 3 days since you started sleeping," Famir said. "I was worried something must've happened to you, but Mavenna stopped me from waking you up."
"I wouldn't have woken you up now either, but this felt like a real emergency," Famir said.
"I slept for 3 days?" Ning was a little surprised. Ning had forgotten now that he didn't have access to Qi, he was just a mortal. Thanks to his body and early level Aether, he could go by without sleep for a while.
However, going without sleep for as long as he did was really not advised at all. Finally, his fatigue and lack of sleep had all caught up to him.
"Sigh, I should take care of my body more," Ning said to himself.
"So, you said you are here for your father's funeral, right?" Ning asked.
"Yes. I wanted to send him away at the Peak of Afterlife, as well as the rest of the people. At the same time, I also want to see the cave that turned my brother into the maniac he was," Zand said.
"Sigh, okay. Let's go. I wanted to go back sometimes too," Ning said and stood up. He told Famir to just stay there by himself with his sister while he went with Zand.
Ning walked outside to see nearly 50 men with some sort of pot above their heads. "Did so many people die?" Ning asked.
"My brother killed a lot of people that were in the house that day just to get to me. So, over 50 people ended up dying. Their family members came for the funeral. "
"Today, I will take them to the peak of Afterlife and help their family members reach the heavens," Zand said with a proud and determined face.
"Good luck, kid," Ning said and decided to follow them.
"By the way, Doctor. When I was paralyzed, I heard that you made a pact or some sort of bet with my father? Did you ever get paid for it?" Zand asked.
"Yes, I did make a bet, and I won. Although I couldn't use it at the time, I still had a bet with your father. He was supposed to listen to what I say," Ning said.
"Umm… Doctor, while I may not be my father, I can certainly fulfill his bet on his behalf," Zand started speaking.
"Oh, you can?" Ning was a little surprised that a person that been in paralysis for so long was going to answer him. However, He needed answers, so he agreed to ask.
"Let's start with, why were you paralyzed in the first place?"
Report chapter
"Did you really fall from the 2nd story of your house?" Ning asked.
The group had already started moving. Zand kept quiet for a while and finally spoke, "yes, I did. Well, I was thrown off of it to be exact."
Ning got a little curious.
"I think I will have to explain from the beginning really," he said.
"When my mother gave birth to me, my mother's body grew weak and she started easily contracting illness. Right around when I was 11, she died after a long battle with a disease. Just like today, I had walked all the way up to the mountain peak back then too," Zand said.
"My father and brother were there as well. When we were going around, I got cold and fell down the back of the mountain. That was how we came to discover a cave with Aether Ores there. Father wanted to mine it, but we couldn't get out hands on it due to the Seal's requirement of entry."
"So, my father forgot about it. However, my brother never did. Only, he didn't have any methods of gaining entry to the mountain either."
"That was until he went to the town over and learned about Khrom. He recruited Khrom and made him move to this town. Then, he gave him the task of killing a person or two every month."
"During that time, he would send his own men to peak with every funeral group and mine a little," Zand said.
"How do you know all of this? I thought you were completely paralyzed with no way of knowing," Ning asked.
"Ah, I asked a few people in the last 3 days. When I threatened a few close people to him with execution, they spilled the bean pretty easily."
"Besides, I was there when he made the plan as well," Zand said.
"You were there?" Ning asked with confusion.
"Yes. One day when father was out on a merchant trip, he called Khrom to our mansion under a disguise and called me too to take part in the planning."
"When I heard what horrible things he wanted to do for the money, I told him I would tell everything to father. In hindsight, that was stupid of me. But… I never thought my brother— no, that monster was capable of what he did."
"Before Khrom could even do anything, he grabbed me and dragged me onto the balcony before throwing me off of it. Luckily, I landed on the grass and survived, but unluckily, I was paralyzed."
"Since the servants found me, he couldn't kill me off, but since I was paralyzed he didn't need to."
"Ever since then, he had been running his operation unobstructed, making hundreds of thousands of Rops in the process," Zand said.
Ning thought for a moment and asked, "Did your father not get suspicious of the sudden increase in income?"
"Oh, he never sold anything himself. He sold the ores through the bandits. He would give the bandits the task of selling the ores, and they in return would get a cut of the money. I wonder what would've happened if he ever told the bandits the location of the ores."
"I doubt any of the village or town folks would be alive at all given how lucrative that would've been to them," Zand said.
Ning remembered the pile of Rops that Khrom had when he had entered his room. That necklace that held the money was still with him and had yet to check it.
"How do you know he made Khrom sell all of it? Did his people tell you that too?" Ning asked.
"Well, yes, but I already knew that beforehand. Every time he was about to get his money, he would come to my room and boast it to me. He would tell me what sort of idiotic mistakes I did by not helping him, that bastard."
"He would sometimes come in and tell me how he destroyed all the letters that were being sent to the Pestonia empire. If they had gotten my letter, I would have likely been treated by now," Zand said.
"I wanted to beat him, even kill him then and there, but I couldn't. I was paralyzed. So, all I could do was wait and bide my time. Thankfully, since I was planning to go to the university in the empire very soon, my father had bought me a rather expensive Aether absorption method, I spent all my time absorbing it."
"That was how I got this strong," Zand said as he made a fist. "I got strong enough to kill that monster in one shot."
"Goddammit, I should have killed him the moment I got my movement back, but I was too weak and couldn't think properly. If I had… If I had killed him, then father would still be alive right now," Zand said and started tearing up again.
Ning looked up and said, "so all the problems that the villagers and the town folks faced are gone now, right?"
Zand wiped his tears and said, "yes, they're all gone. The villagers can finally rest in peace. Maybe I should go apologize to them for what my brother did."
Ning thought for a while and said, "Don't."
Zand was a little surprised and looked at him.
"Let them stay happy in ignorance. They think they lost their lost one to unfortunate causes. If they find out your family was behind it, they will hate you forever."
"Instead, if you want to atone for the sins of your brother, try to make this a better place for them to live in," Ning said.
"Yes, yes I shall," Zand nodded. "Oh, right. I nearly forgot, what was it that you wanted to talk about with my father? If it's something I can help with, please tell me. You are my benefactor, and I will do anything you ask for."
Ning thought for a second and said, "Well, there are a few things you can do for me."
Report chapter
CLANG CLANG CLANG
A constant sound rang out from the cave at the bottom of the Peak of Afterlife. Zand and his guards watched in awe as Ning single-handedly started tearing down the very hard Aether Ores.
Ning stopped and looked back, "I thought I told you guys you could leave?"
"Ah, yes. We were about to leave, but I thought you might need some help so I brought these guys here," Zand said.
Ning looked at the people behind Zand and shook his head. They will be nothing but a hindrance; take them back," Ning said.
Zand didn't expect anything other to come out of Ning's mouth after seeing how good he was.
"Very well, we shall leave. Doctor, please come by the mansion when you are ready," Zand said and bowed.
Ning nodded and went back to destroying the cave.
It had been 15 minutes since the old man Canon's funeral. Ning had stayed up there until the funeral was complete and the old man's ashes were sent to heaven.
Ning had then decided to come down here and harvest as much as he could before the seal would close. He had his mid-grade spirit artifact spear that he was using to cut cross hatches on the ores before punching them into pieces.
He continued doing that for the next 3 hours and finally stopped. It was time to leave. He teleported to the gate of the seal and walked out.
He looked back at the gate and the seal naturally returned behind him. Once no one was inside the mountain, the seal regenerated on its own.
'I will need to find a dead body again in 2 months to pass through here, huh?' he thought. 'Why do I even need a dead body in the first place? Isn't this supposed to be a naturally formed seal?'
He didn't bother wasting energy to find answers, however. There were always going to be unique places all over the world, and it wasn't necessary for him to understand everything.
Besides, sometimes things happened just because.
He checked into his storage space and nodded before teleporting back to the village. He appeared right in front of Famir and Mavenna.
They were a little surprised to see him teleport, but it seemed that they were used to it by now. "Are you guys alright?" he asked.
"Yes, we are fine," they answered.
"How are the villagers holding up? It's been a few days right?" Ning asked.
"Well, the atmosphere is still a little sad, but people are returning to their daily life. I think they are used to death by now," Famir said with a sad voice.
Ning sighed. That shouldn't have been the case, but Kell got greedy and started killing people.
"Senior, about the thing you told me before we went to the funeral… is that… true?" Famir asked.
It took a moment for Ning to understand what he was talking about. 'He wants to know if his father was killed, huh?' he thought.
Ning remembered what he had told Zand just a few hours ago, and decided to follow the same thing by himself. However, just before he did, he stopped and instead said, "Yes, I was right. That indeed happened."
The feeling of sadness and rage could be seen in Famir's eyes. His father was murdered and he wanted to take revenge. Mavenna was a little surprised when she saw those emotions in her brother's eyes. She was very confused about what was going on.
Ning however just shook his head. "He's already dead. The culprit I mean, he's already dead. I killed him," Ning said.
Famir's eyes blanked. "You… killed him?" he asked with a blank face. It was like he had just found a purpose and it was taken away from him. He didn't know whether to get angry at the murderer for killing his father, or at Ning for taking away his chance at getting revenge.
"Revenge is a slippery slope kid. Once you slide down it, you are rarely able to stop yourself," Ning said and walked forward.
"Besides, you should see the good in this news," Ning said.
"The… good?" Famir asked. How could anyone see good in the news that their father was murdered?
"You were not responsible," Ning said.
"Wha?" Famir was caught off guard.
Ning placed both of his hands on Famir's shoulder, looked him dead in the eye, and said, "You were not responsible for the death of your father."
Famir's eyes went wide. He finally saw the silver lining in this new piece of knowledge.
"I— I did not kill my father? I did not kill father— Waa," Famir started wailing.
"Brother, what's— what's wrong?" Mavenna got flustered too and started crying when she saw Famir crying.
Famir got onto his knees and bowed forward. "Thank you! Thank you! I… Father didn't die because of me," Famir cried even hard.
Ning had told him before to not feel guilty about it, but it wasn't impossible to clear away the guilt one felt for being responsible for the tragedy.
The weight of his father's death was quadrupled due to the guilt of being the person responsible for it. The guilt had been clawing at him ever since then and he had been living with that pain.
However, after learning that he was in no way responsible for the death of his father, his guilt all vanished in an instant, leaving him with a void that was quickly filled with sorrow.
Sorrow was always better than guilt.
Mavenna cried as well as she hugged her brother. Ning stood from the side looking at their cry.
He could feel both the sadness and relief in his cries. Ning couldn't help but get down on his knees and hug them both as well.
"You did well hanging on until now kid. Your father would be proud of you."
Famir's cries only got louder but the release was so cathartic that Ning let it be.. The two siblings cried for nearly 15 minutes before they stopped crying at all.
Report chapter
Zand was looking at the different accounts and financial reports that his advisors were giving him. In front of him was a plethora of jewelry, all of which were storage items for the money his brother had made.
He needed to reinvest it back into society without letting them know where the money came from.
This was something that was causing him a headache. If the other nobles ever found out that he had money that came from unknown origins, they could use that as an anchor to pull him down from his noble status and at the same time take over his customers.
As a merchant's son, he couldn't allow that. Thankfully, no one aside from the closest confidante of his elder brothers knew about this money, and those people were locked up in prison for violations of many laws set by both the empire and the ruler of this land, his father.
He rubbed his head due to the stress this problem was causing him. 'How can I turn this illegal money into legal money without anybody noticing it?' he wondered.
He suddenly heard footsteps. Zand hurriedly hid the many pieces of jewelry under the stack of paper and looked at the door. On the door was a girl of around 19 years of age.
"Oh, it's just you Mera. What's wrong? I thought I told you not to come unless it was urgent," Zand said.
Mera was his assistant and had been for a week since he took control of the household. "Well, I couldn't judge the situation's urgency, so I had to come to talk with you," she said.
"Oh, what's going on?" he asked.
"The doctor is here," she said.
Zand immediately got up straight. "Oh, what're you waiting for then, go call him. Fast," Zand urged her.
Mera nodded and left. In less than a minute, she was back with Ning. Ning looked at the papers everywhere and was a little taken back.
"What are these?" he asked.
"Oh, just financial reports. Nothing that would interest you," Zand said as he stood up. "Please come sit, Doctor. Mera, go make the doctor a cup of tea."
Mera nodded and left. Ning sat down and took a report from the ground to look at it.
"Urgh!" he nearly facepalmed himself. He didn't have the language skill belonging to this planet yet and was still working on basic language skills. So, he still didn't know how to read and write.
He was about to place it back down when he saw something glittering below it. "What's this?" he asked as he picked up a chain.
"Oh, a storage necklace," he said. "What's inside it?" he asked as he burned the Aether in his body to activate it. Hundreds of thousands of Rops fell out of the jewelry, filling the room.
"Holy Sh*t! Just how much did your brother make?" Ning asked as he brought in everything.
"Each storage necklace has around 300 thousand Rops. And there are at least a dozen of such necklaces. So, at minimum estimate, he must have earned about 4 million Rops. That is without counting the share taken by the bandits, and all the money that he had spent."
"In total, he must've sold at least 5 million Rops worth of Aether Ore. My father was titled a Baron when the Canon merchant group was able to earn a million Rops in profit in less than a decade."
"If this had kept on going, brother would've surely made the Viscount rank, or maybe even a Marquess rank in a decade or so," Zand said.
"I see. So, what are you going to do with this money?" he asked.
"I… I don't know really," he said.
"Huh? I thought you were a merchant. Aren't you just going to buy some items and sell those?" Ning asked.
Zand quickly explained why that wasn't possible. "Oh, I see," Ning said.
"We could sell the Aether ores and say we earned this money from that little by little," Zand suggested an idea to see if Ning thought it was good.
"Nah, you should keep the ores for yourself. You are an Enchanter, right? You are a good one too. You should certainly continue as an Enchanter, and for that, you need Aether ores," Ning said.
"Besides how would having ores even make this money legal?" Ning asked.
"Oh, that's by… " Zand quickly explained how he had planned to use the Aether Ores to sell at such a massive rate that his rivals couldn't keep track of how much he sold. There in between, he would place false sale figures and turn his money into legal money.
That was an illegal way to do it, but he had no choice.
"Hmm… does it have to be Aether ores. Can't it be just about anything?" Ning asked.
"Well, it can. But it has to be something that we can acquire in large amounts and can thus sell in incredible amounts as well. Basically, we will have to overwhelm the market enough that the rival nobles don't see how much money we made," Zand said.
"Hmm… something you can obtain in large amount and something that sells well, huh?" Ning thought for a second.
'What was something that was expensive and yet readily available?' he wondered. After thinking for a while, his eyes shined brightly.
"I have an idea," Ning said.
"Oh, what idea?" Zand asked.
Ning quickly explained what he had in mind. Zand thought for a second and asked, "but can we even find it in a large amount?"
"Don't worry about that. I will take care of that aspect. You just take care of the business aspect," Ning said.
"Oh, also, the reason why I came here in the first place," Ning said. "Lend me all of your soldiers."
"All… of my soldiers?" Zand asked questioningly.
"Yes.. Bandits like Khrom could thrive in this city because the guards were relatively incompetent, so I am going to train them to be strong, teach them to be righteous, and weed out all the bandits that are hidden within them."
Report chapter
Ning was standing in a meadow near the river. The river was nearly frozen solid and there were patches of snow on the ground. The winter season was right here.
People were all wearing much warmer clothes nowadays.
BAM
Ning was struck with a fireball to the face. However, he didn't flinch in the slightest. From behind his back, he was struck with a stone with a strong force.
"The fireball is good, but imagine it being hotter," Ning said.
Another fireball appeared on his face, this time it was much hotter than the one before and packed a lot more punch.
"Good. That was way better," Ning said. Then suddenly, he twisted his head so that the stone flying from behind him missed him.
Midair, the stone changed trajectory and came flying back towards him. Ning caught the stone between his two fingers and said, "not bad. You managed to change the direction quite fast this time. However, I am sure you can do better."
He then flicked the stone behind him at a not-so-fast speed.
"Aaah!" Mavenna still screamed when the stone came towards her. Famir immediately stopped the flying stone mid-air and launched it back towards Ning.
"Ohh, this is much better. Good job, Famir," Ning said as he headbutt the flying stone and it smashed into pieces. Famir couldn't help but give out an empty smile when he saw that.
"You really are not using any Aether right now?" he asked.
"Yeah, like I told you, I'm not really an Aether User. I mean I am, but I'm barely an Aether Student. Unlike you guys who are clearly Aether Grandmaster by now," Ning said.
"A-Are we really? It's kind of hard to believe," Famir said.
"Definitely, you don't have to worry about that," Ning said.
"Oi Outsider, the young lord is here," Jangar screamed from the fields. Ning looked towards Jangar and the many people working in the field and then turned towards the road where he saw Zand on a carriage, along with Mera next to him.
"Oh, the reports must be back. Keep practicing you two, I will go talk with Zand," Ning said and left. The two siblings got back to practicing with each other.
They didn't want to hurt each other so they didn't fight directly but turned the training into a competition of sorts. They wanted to see who could throw something the highest, or hold the heaviest objects and such.
The carriage stopped and Zand walked out with a bunch of papers.
"Doctor! Doctor!" he was very frantic. "We— We… we-"
"Calm down. Breathe~ … now tell me," Ning said.
Zand took a deep breath and said, "Look at this."
Ning took the paper he was handed and started reading it. The paper mentioned the sale figures of the items that Zand had been selling for the past month; an item that had taken a month to make in the first place.
"See? In just two months, we were able to create a profit of over 500 thousand Rops. If I say I used all of this profit into the production for the next 10 months, I can easily turn all the money legal again," Zand said in absolute happiness.
Ning smirked a little and asked, "Are you sure you are happy for the right reason?"
Zand gave a confused look and said, "Of course I am. I can now turn my 5 million Rops into legal money."
Ning chuckled and asked, "and how much profit will you make in the 10 months you do that?"
Zand stopped for a second and counted. His eyes went wide and said, "5 Million. Oh lord, of course. I got too tunnel-visioned on making that money into legal money that I didn't even see that something much better was here."
"Yes. Do this for a few years, and the 4 million you got from your brother will be a drop in the bucket. Nobody will ask you where you got the money from at that point," Ning said.
"Ah, yes yes," Zand said. He then turned to the field to see so many of the villagers as well as his own soldier working. "Are they harvesting it right now?" he asked.
"Ah yes. Come, I will show you how it works," Ning said and took Zand to the field.
Zand walked onto the field and looked at the plant that was being grown there. It was a thin and long plant that had a yellow stem, vibrant green leaves, red roots that grew out of the soil, and a blue flower growing on top of it.
All of the people working here were harvesting the plant right now. They were cutting the root from the stem, the leaves from the stem, and separating the flower.
As such, they now had a pile of red roots, green leaves, yellow stems, and blue flowers.
"Wow, it's that simple huh?" Zand looked at the pile of plant parts.
"Yes, you just need to let them dry in the sun for a few days and crush them to powder, and it's ready," Ning said.
The plan Ning had come up with to turn the illegal money to legal was to sell color dyes. Since color was considered a privilege in this world, he decided to use that to his advantage.
He had learned that the reason colored clothes were so expensive and a sign of novelty was that color dyes could only be created by an Invoker that was in the 6th rank i.e. Aether King or above.
The dyes of anyone lower than Aether King wouldn't last long enough and would turn back to Aether once enough time had passed.
For Aether Kings, that time was more than 60 years, so people were fine with them making their dyes. However, the longer they stayed, the more the dye was worth.
So, Ning learned about color dyes and asked for the seeds of plants that could create the four basic colors.. That way, he created a dye that could last forever and be easily produced, thus could be sold for a lot of money.
Report chapter
'Status,' Ning said.
[Status
Name: Ning Ruogong
Energy: 12 billion
Separated Energy-
Heat Energy: 8 Million
Sound Energy: 4 Million
Qi Energy: 0
Kinetic Energy: 2 Million
Aether Energy: 11.99 Billion
Skills: Simultaneous Thinking, Omniscient Map of Kumia, Omniscient Klavian Language, Candle Fire, Yin to Heat conversion technique, Night Vision I, Interdimensional Storage (Stopped Time; 522 KG), Air Cutter, Telekinesis, Yin to Sound conversion technique, Water Filtration, Earthly Jade Cultivation Method, Sun God's Morning Cleansing Technique, Qi Cultivation Analysis, Body Cultivation Analysis, Beginners All Language, 8x Qi Acclimation rate, Radiant Holy Sword, Supreme Dominance, Beast Space, Earth-Shattering - Heaven Tempering Art, Divine Vortex Devouring, Intermediate Map of Vilmore, Abyssal Absorption Art, Aether Acclimation 4X, Super Flight]
Super Flight was a skill he had just recently got for 2 Billion Energy. It had a maximum speed of 20 meters per second. However, if one wanted to increase their speed more than that, they would have to pay energy equal to a thousand energy per second for every additional 1 meter per second speed.
So, if he wanted to double his speed to 40 meters per second, he would have to pay an additional 40 thousand energy per second.
Given how hard the burst of Qi and Aether threw him upwards, he was sure he would have to spend a lot of energy to go past it.
He then opened his palm and looked at the black sphere on his palm. At first glance, it looked like a jewel that could be found in any woman's necklace. However, if one tried to destroy it, then they would finally realize how strong this thing was.
"Finally, both of the things I need are ready," Ning said.
He walked out of the room he had been staying in and went outside. He had already told the village his goodbyes and now, it was time to leave.
"Doctor, are you really leaving?" Zand asked. He had come here the early morning after learning that Ning was leaving.
"Yes, I am. You guys can come to say goodbye though," he said as he smiled towards Zand and the siblings.
Famir and Mavenna were teared up. Even Zand was getting a little sentimental.
"So? How are you going to leave? Just disappear like you always do? How do you even do that?" Famir asked. Ning hadn't explained anything about his abilities.
"Well, I can't really explain it. It's just something I can do. There are not many people like me who can either," he said. "Anyway, before I go. I need your help."
"Yes?" they asked.
"Grab my hand," Ning put his hard forward. The three of them grabbed his hand and suddenly, their surroundings changed.
"Wh-What?" they screamed out in surprise. They hadn't teleported yet and didn't understand what had just happened. They looked around and realized that they had suddenly appeared next to the seal of the mountain.
"This is teleportation," Ning said. "Something you guys will be able to do once you learn Enchanting to a high enough level," Ning said.
"We… can?" they all asked.
"Well, you will need a very large amount of Aether to do so, as well as imagination. Not to mention, a lot of other problems such as where you will appear, or what would happen if you arrive in the middle of a wall, and such. You guys don't have to worry about it now though," Ning said.
The 3 of them got hopeful about their future. "Also Zand, make sure these two get into a good academy. My books will help the three of you a lot, but just learning normal stuff from school is good too. The trend changes every day and my books can't teach that."
"I promise, Doctor. I will make sure the two siblings will have the best life out there," Zand promised.
"Good, anyway… it's time for me to leave," Ning said.
"Where are you going, doctor? Pestonia? Kloaka? Whopan?" Zand asked.
Ning smiled. "I am going in there," he said as he pointed behind him.
"Huh?" the group was a little surprised. "Inside the Peak of Afterlife?" Zand asked.
"Yes," Ning said.
"But.. Senior, you will need a corpse to enter," Famir reminded him.
"Don't worry. I've got that covered," he said. Suddenly, the light formed in front of him that took the shape of a human. When the light died down, the three were flabbergasted to see another Ning lying on the ground.
Ning quickly put a cloth on top of him and gave an embarrassed smile. He had forgotten to tell the system to give it cloth.
"Hm… it must be living to be dead right?" Ning asked himself. Suddenly, Ning lost all control of his body and fell to the ground.
"Senior," Famir immediately ran up to catch him, however, his sound came from the other side.
"I'm right here," the other body suddenly stood up. The three started to get scared. The body that appeared out of nowhere, spoke like it was Ning.
"A-are you really Senior?" Mavenna asked.
"Haha, of course, I am. Now, Zand, go take mavenna and close her eyes," Ning said.
"What?" Zand was a little surprised. Ning nodded to tell him what he heard was right, so he took mavenna away while he watched himself.
Ning then looked at Famir and said, " Kill me."
"What? I can't do that!" Famir shouted.
"It's okay. I don't have pain receptors. I won't feel any pain. Just use your strongest technique and blow my head away. Remember though, you can't half-ass it. I need to die," Ning said.
"But— But I can't kill you, Senior," Famir said.
"Didn't you see what just happened? You can kill me, come on," Ning started encouraging him.
Famir looked to the side and nodded. He would do it. A few rocks that were laying on the ground floated up next to him. He started putting a spin on the stones and threw them forward with a massive force.
The stones hit night all over his body, creating multiple holes all over him.. Ning then fell onto the ground, dead.
Report chapter
"There you go. We have a corpse now," Ning stood upon his body to the side and walked over to his other body. He took out a white cloth and properly wrapped his body.
Famir was dumbfounded seeing Ning with different bodies. "Ho-How are you doing that? Are you not a human?" he asked.
"Um… not really," Ning said. "I used to be one, but then I died and now I'm just an afterimage of my former self. A better, must wiser one perhaps, though."
"You… are a ghost?" Famir asked. By this point, Zand had also returned with Mavenna by this point.
Ning thought for a moment. "Ghost huh? I've honestly never thought about it. Maybe I am. Maybe I am not. What I am is just a consciousness that can never die," Ning said.
"Never die?" Zand and Famir looked really surprised.
"Yes," Ning said. "Although you shouldn't be so jealous of me. With how good your talents are, you can surely live for hundreds of years as well."
"Maybe when I come back, you guys will still be alive," Ning said. The three got a little sentimental when they heard it.
"Anyway, let's go in. I need to leave soon," Ning said. He floated his body with telekinesis and walked in.
The seal opened around him as he carried the dead body in. The three also followed him inside and were teleported to the top of the mountain.
"That one is teleportation too, although not as simple as mine. This one disorients you a little. If you ever imagine teleporting, imagine the one I did," Ning said.
He tossed his dead body into the light and it was suddenly sprayed as a rain of blood on the other side. Thankfully, the kids couldn't see it.
Ning then took out the black sphere and swapped bodies. He took his original body inside his storage space and hovered in mid-air as the sphere.
The kids were surprised once more as to where he went to. "I'm right he," he spoke from the black sphere. The group of three was surprised to see him speak through a small piece of jewelry.
"Are you dead now?" Mavenna asked.
"No, I'm not. One thing you guys can count on is I never die. I can promise you that," Ning said.
"Alright guys, take care of yourself. Be sure to learn things and teach others. Help those that need it and be kind to them. I will leave now," Ning said.
"Wait senior!"
Ning was about to fly into the crater when Famir stopped him. "What is it?" he asked.
Famir looked a little expectant as he asked, "Before you leave, can you tell us your name? You never once told us what to call you by."
"Oh, have I never? No wonder you called me senior all that time," Ning said with a chuckle in his voice. "Either way, My name is Ning, Ning Ruogong. I hope to see you guys in a few years. Goodbye."
Without any hesitation, Ning flew into the crater, leaving the three of them behind.
"Goodbye," they said softly but Ning was already gone to be able to hear them.
"Ning… Ning Ruogong. What a strange name," Famir said to himself.
Ning was immediately blasted into the sky and fell down on the red snow on the other side. As expected, his body did not take a single bit of damage. All of it was impossible to destroy the black sphere.
'I should try to make my bones with this material,' he thought. They were really durable.
Now that he knew that the sphere had no trouble staying there, he jumped in once again. This time, he used the Super Flight ability immediately to counter the updraft in the crater.
He pushed through the Qi and Aether, and even then he was constantly being thrown out. He had both heat and kinetic energy ignorance skills toggled on, was a small sphere, and had flight skill. Even then, he was going upwards.
That was just how strong the maelstrom in the wormhole was. He immediately increased the speed rate at which he was flying. Surprisingly 200 meters per second was barely strong enough to fight against the current and stay where he was.
'I need to add more power if I want to move,' Ning thought and increased more energy. He pushed through the onslaught of Qi and Aether and flew down.
'I need more speed,' he thought and added more energy. He was now moving at around 800 meters per second. With this speed, he was making a fair amount of progress.
His energy was getting whittled down and Ning was started to get nervous that he couldn't make it in time at all.
'No, I can do it,' Ning thought and increased the speed once more. He was now at 1 kilometer per second and was using 1 million energy per second to hold on.
1000 meters per second was enough for him to move through the updraft, however, he wanted to do it fast. So, he doubled the energy again.
With 2 million energy per second, he pushed through the updraft with relative ease. He had to keep on pushing for nearly 3 full minutes.
In that time, he lost about 4 billion energy, but that was cheap for him to return back to planet Kumia.
'Alright, it should be coming up right about now,' Ning thought. Suddenly, the gravity increased and he was sped up. The gravity pool he had been riding towards was finally in effect.
Once the gravity showed up, it was easy. He just needed to let gravity take control of his body and pass through the wormhole.
He fell and fell and finally, he entered the wormhole.
The gravity flipped once more and he was starting to slow down. The momentum he had gathered was being reduced. Immediately, he used the Super Flight to fly as high as he could, and once he reached the highest location, he disappeared.
He appeared on the snow a kilometer away from the massive opening in the earth. Ning took a deep breath and looked around.
Then, he smiled.
"Yes! I made it back!"
Report chapter