Read Reincarnated as an Energy with a System Chapter 291 - Superior online for free - AllNovelFull
"Sigh, there are probably too many down there. I need to do something first," Ning thought and walked towards the Teacher's quarters which were guarded by only 2 people right now.
The rest of them were amongst the people that died at the east stairs.
Ning swiftly took care of the two of them and walked into the Alchemy teacher quarters.
"It might be better to keep the teachers from learning about the intruders being dealt with. Who knows what sort of reckless things they would do if they knew it was okay for them to come out," Ning thought.
He quickly entered a furnace room and brought out his Hollow Jade cauldron. He immediately heated it up and started preparing the ingredients.
"Let's see… Emerald Ashes, Shadow Silver, Bonding worms, The God Metal's shard, Color-changing hair locks, Horneater's tendons, Eyes of Mist Wraiths, Unflammable stick, and… Black and White Sands. I have it all," Ning said and got ready to make the pill.
Once the cauldron was sufficiently hot enough, he dropped the ingredients all at once and gently moved them inside. There were different techniques to making good pills, but this one was the fastest for him.
He waved his hands for a few seconds and the powder inside the cauldron was ready. Then with another wave of his hands, the powders turned into 7 pills and escpaed out from the cauldron.
All in all, it took him less than 2 minutes to make the pills.
Ning lookeed at the pills and saw that all of them were Grade 7 pills, except for one that was a grade 8 pill.
Ning smiled when he saw that. "Well, can't except the best when you take the easy route," he said to himself and ate the grade 8 pill.
Suddenly, all of the auras around him including and not limited to his cultivation base disappeared. Not only that, he became untraceable by people and hidden to divine senses too.
"Damn, the Spirit Concealing pills really do work like they advertised," Ning thought and teleported outside.
He spread out his divine sense and looked underground. There were in fact teachers and students huddled in an open space with many of the invading armies.
"That's… 40 people down there? Hmm, given that I killed about 20 myself and Night and Blue killed a few themselves too, then these should be all the people," Ning thought.
The people inside noticed Ning's divine sense and sent out their own to check who it was, but they didn't see anyone.
The people all were surprised at first when they didn't notice anyone that could be the source of the divine sense. They didn't realize where the divine sense was coming from.
Instead, they did realize however that their people were missing and that there was a large number of students in the middle.
"Shit, there are too many to do any surprise attacks, and they might hurt the staff and students," Ning thought and walked towards the stairs that took him downstairs to the underground area where the academy's main staff worked from.
"Go check what's happening," somebody asked from inside the underground.
"Yes, Superior," one of the men said and started walking up the stairs.
'Superior?' Ning thought as he focused on the man giving orders. He had hit the jackpot.
"Finally found you, superior," he said as he walked towards the cave door opening. Apparently, all of these people had left to see Dougeo's explosion and thus died. So now Ning had easy passage down the door.
He walked down while keeping an ear out on whatever the superior talked about through his divine sense. However, the superior guy didn't seem that invested in the conversation and instead tried to find Ning.
Ning however was untraceable. He noticed that the man coming up to check was right next to him, so Ning dashed forward and touched the man. Then, they both disappeared.
Ning teleported to the sky behind the cave and immediately killed the man before returning to the same spot, and made sure not more than 2 people saw him at any given time.
The Superior saw that his subordinate vanished and sent more people this time.
"Tsk, why are these people so late at responding. You all better pray they respond or you will all die," the Superior said.
"Why are you doing this? The academy doesn't have any enemies," an old man with long white hair and a long white beard said.
The old man looked remarkably fit for someone at his age. He was currently the only person standing amongst the staff and the students, and not huddled up in fear.
"Hehe, we never said you did, principal Singeer. In fact, you made a lot of friends, friends who will do anything if someone harms you," the Superior said.
"We are using those friends of yours as a threat by taking you hostage," he said.
"What do you mean? How could our friends possibly help you if you harm us," the old man said.
"Hah, who said anything about helping?" the Superior said.
Finally, something buzzed. The Superior's eyes went wide and he quickly took a very old and unusually large talisman from a desk nearby.
"Professor Singeer, do you want to hear what the Wyan family thinks about your little school? Listen to this," he said and responded to the person on the other side.
"Who is this?" a similar voice to the one used by all 70 people came through the talisman. "How do you know to connect through to this talisman?"
"Your highness, you shouldn't speak to them."
"Yes, Your highness. They seem to be threatening us."
"Shut up and let me talk," the Emperor shouted and got back to the problem at hand.
"Explain yourself, citizen," The Emperor said.
"Hehe, I'm not a citizen of yours, and nor do I ever want to be one again," the Superior said.
"Bastard Wyan, You have exactly one day to declare to your people that you no longer rule over them and they are free."
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"Huh? What did you say?" The Emperor asked from the other side.
"You heard me. Give up on your royal status and leave," the Superior said with a nasty smile on your face.
"Hahaha, is this some kind of joke? Why would you try this? Did you think I would just say 'Okay, I give up? Of course not, idiot. Hah! Useless bastard, disturbing me for no reason," the Emperor said and was about to close the communication.
"You can choose not to do what I say, either works for me actually. Only, I wouldn't want the blood of the innocents on my hands before becoming the next Emperor."
"But then again, I am willing to do whatever it takes to ruin your life," the Superior said.
"What? What do you mean by the blood of the innocents?" the Emperor asked.
"See for yourself," the Superior suddenly turned on the visual capabilities of the talisman and showed what was in front of him to the Emperor.
On the emperor's side, he saw dozens of staff, and thousands of students sitting down inside a large underground hall.
"What is this? Who are they?" The Emperor asked.
"Hah! The emperor doesn't know his own empire? Look closely," the Superior said as he pushed the talisman next to the principal's chest wherein the Emperor could see many gold stars and silver stars.
"My God! Yo-You took hostage of the Five Professions Academy?" The Emperor finally realized what was happening.
"Haha, you finally understand the severity of the situation, don't you? Good. You have less than a day o give up on your royal status and return to being a commoner."
"If that happens, I will spare these people. If that doesn't happen, I will kill all of these people with bright futures here and leave the mess for you to clean up," The Superior said.
"You dare threaten me, The Emperor?" the Emperor shouted from the other side of the communication.
"Yes., what will you do about that?" the Superior then cut off the communication leaving the Emperor on his own to make some decision.
"We will find out soon what the Emperor thinks of you and your people, Principal Singeer," the Superior said.
"Who are you? You don't want anything with us. Your grudge seems entirely on the emperor. Why bring us into the mix?" The principal asked.
"You should know what importance your academy has, Principal Singeer," The Superior said.
The principal thought for a bit and suddenly his eyes went wide. "You gave the emperor an ultimatum," he said.
"Yes. I don't really wish to kill you people; I will need some good men after I become the emperor. However, that also doesn't mean I'm not willing to get rid of what will be important to me later on just for what I can gain today," The Superior said.
"You… Do I know you?" The Principal said. The superior's eyes flashed for a second before looking elsewhere, not choosing to answer.
Ning had heard all of it. 'How is threatening to kill the academy members an ultimatum,' he wondered.
However, as soon as he added the context of wanting the emperor to leave his throne into the mix, he immediately got the answer.
'If he were to kill the people here… that would incite the anger of all the neighboring 3 countries who look at these students as the pillars of their future.'
'If they all die here while learning that the Emperor could have done something about it, then they will get together to attack the Wyan Dynasty. That would mean the fall of the emperor.'
'I see. So either way, he wants to see the Emperor no longer be an emperor. So… does he have some sort of undying grudge against the emperor?' Ning wondered.
The two men the superior had sent after Ning finally saw him.
"Huh? Who are yo—"
Suddenly, they both disappeared. When Ning returned back to the same spot, they were both gone.
"Shit!" he said.
The superior had already noticed something weird with the first person disappearing, and now suddenly two of them disappeared only confirming his suspicion that there was something wrong.
"Everyone, take care. We might have a guest down here along with us," he said.
Everyone got alert as they sent out their spiritual sense, but no one could see anything.
"You can come out now. I know you are out there," the superior said.
Ning however didn't say anything. He was still thinking about how to get out of this situation.
"Alright men, get ready to attack the crowd without any hesitation if that person doesn't show themselves in 3 seconds," the superior said.
"One!"
All the people encircling the thousands of academy folks got ready with their weapons.
"Two!"
The academy folks got scared for their lives. With their measly cultivation base, they couldn't survive dozens of Nascent Soul cultivators attacking at once.
"Thr—"
"I'm here," Ning showed himself just in time.
"Teacher Ning?" Maeve, who was in the group, said in surprise.
The students made whispers about who he was. Most of the Alchemy and Beast master wing's students already knew about Ning even though they didn't visit him.
"Oh, and who might you be?" the Superior said.
"I'm a teacher here," Ning said.
"I… see," the Superior said as he scanned through Ning using his divine sense but couldn't see anything with it.
"This is most curious. How are you in front of me, yet I can't sense a single thing about you?" the Superior asked.
"Alchemy," Ning said.
"Ah, I see. You do indeed have the Alchemy badge. Then, where are my subordinates that I just sent up the stairs?" The Superior asked
"Dead," Ning said without a single hesitation.
The superior's eyes flashed in surprise. The other people were surprised too. They didn't know what to do so they kept the weapons targeted at the hostage.
"Hmm, what about my people up there?" the Superior asked.
"Dead as well," Ning said.
"I see," the Superior said.. "That is very problematic for me."
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"Oh, I hoped it would be," Ning said. "With what you are doing, a 'little problematic' is the least of your worries here."
"Haha, surely you don't mean yourself, right?" the Superior asked with a bit of a smile.
"Well, only time will tell I guess," Ning said. "However, do tell me. Did you fake the undying oath?"
The superior's eyes suddenly got sharp. "What?" he asked.
"You know… the whole 'I die if I don't fulfill what I promised' thing? I heard you made an Undying Oath to everyone here that you would tell them about Spirit Transformation realm if they helped you with it," Ning said.
"They are going so far as to kill themselves with a poison pill. That means they definitely do believe you took the undying oath."
"Which then means one of two things," Ning said as he looked directly into the superior's eyes.
"You are either faking that you took the Undying oath, or you were prepared to kill yourself after this job is done from the very beginning," Ning said as he kept on staring.
The Superior's face was the same as the Emperor's so it was hard to tell if emotions seeped through those changing faces, but the eyes never lied.
Ning could see confusion and fear in them.
The superior then took 3 deep breaths and calmed himself. He closed his eyes and took one final breath before releasing the breath and opening his eyes.
"How did you know all this?" The Superior asked.
"Some of your subordinates told me," Ning said, a little surprised at how well the superior was handling himself when caught off guard.
"Well, they shouldn't have been speaking about it in the first place," The Superior looked at the remaining subordinates he had in this place. He felt a tinge of sadness when he learned that he had lost half of his subordinates already.
He then looked back to Ning and asked, "how strong are you?"
Ning was taken aback by this random question. "What?" he asked.
"I can't see your strength at all. Whatever pill it is that you have eaten doesn't let me see you, let alone your cultivation base," the Superior said.
"Ah, well, I only entered the Nascent soul realm a few months ago," Ning said with a smile.
The Superior looked at him with wide eyes. "… you are joking, right?"
Ning chuckled and said, "I can say the Undying Oath if you want me to."
"How did you kill half of my subordinates then?" he asked.
"I have my ways," Ning said.
"Would you like to join me?" the Superior asked.
"Huh? Of course not. Why would I want to join you?" Ning asked.
"Because I can teach you the secrets to the Spirit Transformation realm," The Superior said.
"Huh? I'm not stupid like your subordinates to believe you," Ning said.
"Okay then. I guess I will have to take drastic measures," the Superior said. Qi sprang forth from him as they started gathering around his finger.
Ning stood silent, waiting to see what he would do. He was ready for any sort of attack, whether it be on himself or the staff and students.
However, the Superior did something surprising. Instead of attacking anyone, he attacked himself. He took the finger and pierced his own chest.
"What are you— Can't be," Ning said as all emotions in his face were replaced by his seriousness.
When the superior brought out his finger, there was blood on the top of its tip that did not want to mix with the other blood on his finger.
"What are you doing with your essence?" Ning asked.
"Trying to buy you in," the Superior said with a forced smile. He then put the finger on his forehead and started writing on it.
"I make this Undying Oath to the land that I do in fact know a way to enter the Spirit Transformation realm in this planet. If my mission of destroying the Wyan Dynasty is successful in the next 2 days, I will reveal it all to those who helped me," the Superior shouted.
A large thunderclap sounded from right above them, even though they were deep underground.
The Superior huffed as he said," See… I wasn't… lying."
"You… you really made the undying oath. How did you learn about Spirit Transformation?" Ning asked.
"Hehe… you will have to help me with that. Only then am I willing to speak," the Superior said.
"No, You will tell it all to me right now." Ning was done playing games. The Superior had in fact truly made the undying oat and knew about ways to go into the Spirit Transformation realm.
"You are getting a little ahead of yourse—"
"Trebor Gassain, You will speak about the Spirit Transformation realm now," Ning threatened.
"What?" the Superior said with shock in his eyes. "How do you know my name?"
"Trebor Gassain… is that you?" the Principal asked from the side as he looked in absolute shock.
"Teacher Trebor?" Maeve called out as well.
People who knew about the name 'Trebor' started speaking in a low voice, but the people who spoke out when they heard the 'Gassain' were truly very many.
So, even when they tried to whisper about it all, it became a large noise as everyone spoke over each other.
"Gassain, I think I've heard that name before," A disciple said.
"Yes, that was one of the high-ranking noble houses in the empire just a century ago," another disciple replied.
"I heard that they tried to rebel against the Emperor."
"I heard they were getting too strong and wanted power for themselves."
Students and teachers talked left and right about what they had heard regarding the Gassain name.
"Teacher Trebor, I see life had not fared you very well," the Principal said. "You were one of our best and brightest, how did you lose it all. You would have become a Golden starred teacher very fast too."
"Shut up," the Superior said. "I don't want your sympathy.. I just want your life now."
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The Superior immediately turned around in a fit of madness and struck out at the Principal.
"DIE!" he shouted. With a cultivation base in the upper Nascent Soul realm, he could easily kill Singeer if he wanted to.
However, just before his hands reached the principal, Ning appeared between the two and took the blow to the face.
"Oh, I could almost feel that. You're really quite strong," Ning said without taking single damage.
"Huh? How—"
"Let's not fight amongst these poor folks even more, okay? Let's take this outside," Ning said.
Suddenly, a divine sense was released from inside Ning as it traveled to each and every corner of the underground, falling onto all of the attackers there.
They all got alert and were ready for any attack. Ning raised an open palm into the air, scaring the Superior into moving back.
Then… he closed the palm.
Massive pulling force erupted with Ning at the center. People all around him got pulled towards him. However, surprisingly the people that got pulled were only the attackers.
The staff and the students watched as the attackers flew through the air towards Ning without their own volition.
Even the superior with his high cultivation base was pulled towards Ning without being able to stop himself.
Ning's had to give up a large amount of energy to do just this, but thankfully, he had caught the people while they were relatively unaware, so he didn't have to spend more than he did.
He didn't want to think how much mental energy it would have taken him to move nearly 40 Nascent Soul realm cultivators if Telekinesis had instead used his mental strength instead of Energy.
He knew from back in Vilmore that multiple objects, so long as he used Telekinesis on them at the same time, counted towards one single weight.
Still, he had to use extreme mental focus to grab onto 40 different people at once and pull them together.
Once everyone collapsed together on top of him, he vanished.
Up above the forest to the northeast of the student's quarters, a massive ball comprising of 40 different individuals appeared.
"What?"
"How are we outside?"
"What technique is that?"
People started being surprised as they quickly got their footing when Ning stopped using Telekinesis.
Even the superior looked in horror at what was happening. 'Was there a teleportation formation inside that huge hall? How come I never knew that?' he wondered.
"Alright, since you all are out. Let's be civil and just talk it out, okay?" Ning said. He then turned to the Superior and said, "Trebor, tell me what you know about the ways to reach the Spirit Transformation realm."
"I'm not Trebor anymore. Trebor died a century ago. I am just a husk of my former shell, looking for a way to get my revenge," the Superior said.
"And I will have it. One way or another. You are strong, but you can't stop all of my people from leaving, can you?"
Ning smiled when he heard that. "I won't lie. If it wasn't for catching your people off guard, it will be impossible to stop all of you by myself," Ning said.
"See, so you better mo—"
"That is… if I was by myself," Ning said with a smile. "Tell me, Trebor. What good do you think your subordinates here will fare when they have to fight in total darkness?"
The superior was confused. "What?"
Suddenly, as if a veil covered over their eyes and divine sense, none of the men could see anything.
"What's happening, Superior. I can't see anything."
"I can't use my divine sense to look at anything."
"Did I go blind?"
"AAAHHH!"
One person cried out, and then he stopped. People who were close to that person stopped feeling his aura anymore. Not of his cultivation base, not of him as a human being.
The man disappeared as if he never existed. Without a shadow of a doubt in the other men's hearts, the man had died, and they couldn't see how.
Another person cried out as well and soon his voice vanished too. People started to get scared.
SWISH SWISH
A sound appeared as if some objects had been shot through the air towards the men.
"Arghh!" men cried out in pain but didn't stop speaking like the other time.
More and more attacks flew out into the air targeting the men. The men got scared of fighting with no sense and started sending out their own attacks everywhere as well.
"Stop!" the Superior shouted when he heard his men's scream.
The mindless attacks of the men were starting to hurt each other more than it was going anywhere close to hitting the main perpetrator.
"Stop fighting. Arghh— Stop," the Superior shouted but the veil didn't lift. The sounds of people bleeding and dying kept ringing out from around him.
"Please stop! Don't kill my subordinates. I am the one you want, let them go!" The Superior cried out.
"Stop," Ning softly said.
Suddenly, the veil lifted revealing Night and Blue there, but the people didn't care about them. When they finally could see what they did, they wished the veil hadn't lifted at all.
Half the people were dead on the ground, the other half wounded. The Superior himself wasn't well either. He seemed to have gotten hit by quite a few attacks as well.
Sadly, Most of the attacks were from their own people getting scared to die and attacking whatever sound they heard.
The Superior turned around to look at his remaining people, and how close to death they were. He then looked at people dead on the ground.
"I'm sorry, brothers. I… didn't think it would end this way. I thought my plan was foolproof, but it seems in all of my planning, I couldn't foresee the existence of this monster."
The Superior then turned around towards Ning and said, "Let my remaining people go and I will give myself up."
Ning looked at him with cold eyes, but there was a tinge of humanity in them. The fact that he could kill them meant these people weren't innocents at all and were definitely guilty.
However, just because they weren't innocents didn't mean that they were the bad guy. Ning felt conflicted.
Finally, he made a decision and said.
"Sure. They can go, but…"
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"Sure, they can go, but… they will have to make an Undying Oath to never attack the academy again or take revenge for what happened today," Ning said solemnly.
Seeing the Superior care for his subordinates made Ning feel a little bad about hurting them like this, but it needed to be done.
"Superior, we can't…"
"Do it, you fools. You will live," the Superior said.
"What about you, superior?" they asked.
"Don't worry, I will be fine. Just make the oath and leave. He is not a man we can ever hope to beat," the Superior said.
The men hesitated and made their hestitation known for a while, but after the Superior's constant insists they succombed to it and made the oath.
"I make this Undying Oath to the land to never attack or seek revenge against any of the acadmey staff or students over what happeed today."
About 20 or so people shouted out the Undying oath in a sonorous voice.
Multiple sounds of thunderclaps overlapped over each other to create a single deafening thunderclap that rang out in the sky.
"Good, you all may leave," Ning said.
"We can't leave without superior," the men said.
"Go!" the superior shouted.
"But—"
"Just go. Leave this place and never return. Never let anyone know who you were or trouble will come looking for you. The Wyan dynasty is nothing but trouble," the Superior said.
"Go!" Ning said.
The 20 or so people suddenly got scared.
"Thank you for all that you've done for us, Superior," the 20 or so people suddenly flew far away and disappeared into the horizon.
Ning looked at the direction they went and said, "They seem loyal. I didn't get the same feelings from the one that guarded the outside."
"I took my most trusted with me to the underground for the main mission," the Superior said.
He then kneeled onto the ground and fell into a daze. "This was a failure, wasn't it?" he asked.
"Yes," Ning said.
"Haha, so much planning, and it all fails becuase there is a single person standing between me and my revenge," he said. "Was I always destined to fail in life?"
"Is that what life wants from me? To fail, and fail, and fail again. Every time I am a step away from victory, it puts immovable rocks in front of my path to stop me from getting there," the Superior said.
"What did I ever do to deserve this?"
"I know not what you did. All I know is that you have something that I want and that you need to give it to me," Ning said.
"Here," the superior said as he took out a ragged looking book from his storage bag.
"I found it in a remote location inside the sun kingdom," the Superior said.
Ning took it, but didn't open it at all. He kept on looking at the Superior who simply slumped on the ground on his back.
"I'm sorry father, your son couldn't fullfil his promise to you. I'm sorry mother, this world is a cruel one. When I leave it, I hope I get to see you again."
The superior started bawling, with tears coming out of his eyes without stop. He wiped them as he spoke, but the tears didn't stop.
"I'm sorry senior brother, you protected me, but for what? I couldn't do anyting with the life you had given."
"Little sister, I couldn't get to those murderers of yours. Your brother was a failure."
His feeling of helplessness made even Ning feel a tinge of sadness. He didn't know Trebor Gassain's story, but whatever was happening right now would certainly be called a tragedy.
"My clan members who look at me from the heavens, I'm sorry. I failed you all. I promised I would get revenge, but I couldn't. And for that I'm sorry. I hope… you will at least accept me with open arms now that I am finally coming to you."
Ning's eyes went wide. "Wait, No—"
CRACK
The Superior bit the poison pill in his mouth and died. Before Ning could even do anything, his body physically rotted and fell to the ground in a pool of gore.
Unable to live his life with all of the failure, he opted to taking his own life.
He seemed to have been holding a lot of pain and anger with him, and the feeling of helplessness was weighing on him a lot, but he was holding on.
But when Ning was thrown into the mix, it was just too much and it all colapsed on top of him.
Ning didn't know what to say and simply shook his head. He then looked down at the book in his hands and flipped through it.
The book had some information about the world of the past, but nothing substantial at all.
However, there was a line in it that caught his eyes. It was a half torn page with the front part of the sentence missing, but the second half hitself gave enough information to make the whole book worth it in Ning's eyes.
"…since then, one can only enter the Spirit Transformation by cultivating at the Origin."
"I now he took the Undying Oath, but… to think he wasn't lying," Ning thought. He decided to think about the book later on, and instead went back to the academy to check on everyone for now.
He teleported to the stairs going down the underground hall and entered to see the group of staff and students up on their feet, but clearly too afraid to leave.
"Teacher Ning."
"Teacher."
People shouted when they saw him.
"The bad guys are gone. You can all leave now," Ning said to the students and teachers.
When they got the news, they immediately started celebrating. Many thanked Ning and left, except for a few staff members.
"Teacher Ning… What happened to the Superior guy, the one you called Trebor Gassain," the principal asked.
"He's dead now," Ning said, hiding nothing.
"I see… what a shame," the principal said.. "He could've had such a good future as an alchemist, but instead… sigh."
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"Can you tell me a little more about him, senior? What happened to him?" Ning asked.
"Sigh, it's the age-old tale of power corrupting people," Principal Singeer said as he shook his head.
"Gassain family was a family of merchants in the beginning. They had made their name known quite wide and within a century, the then head of the family, Clive Gassain managed to get a noble status from Emperor Reen."
"Once he became a noble, Clive started to make his only son cultivate. Surprisingly, his son, Horom had great talent in cultivation, and thanks to his father's knowledge in merchant became great in both."
"By the time that Clive died, Horom had already become the head of the family and started getting bigger and bigger."
"After a few years, he sent Trebor to study with us. The boy showed great talent in alchemy and was going to be one of the finest for sure."
"While his family increased in power, Trebor got better here too. In fact, Trebor even ended up as a teacher in the academy."
"Within 5 years of joining, he had the Silver badge, and was getting close to becoming a Gold Starred teacher, that was how good he was."
"However, that was when tragedy struck. Since Horom had been gaining more and more power, he thought he could be the next Emperor, and one day took his entire family and friends to go attack the current emperor."
"Thankfully, the Emperor was ready for the attack and successfully defended himself. Horom died in that battle as well as a lot of the family members. His wife and daughter who had remained behind were captured and publicly executed for defying the throne."
"Trebor killed the two royal guards that came to capture him in the academy as well and then disappeared. We never heard anything about him after that."
"That was 80 years ago. I don't know where he had been all this time, but it seems he had been plotting to take revenge."
"He wanted to use us as the leverage to destroy the Emperor's current status, and perhaps even take over the throne, just as his father did."
"Sigh, he could have been such a great person if only his family didn't stupidly attack the emperor," Singeer said while shaking his head.
"I… see," Ning said. "That is indeed quite tragic."
"It is what it is, teacher Ning. Let us go too," Singeer said and the remaining staff members followed behind them.
Ning took his leave once he came outside and went to the classroom where everyone was hiding.
The students and Eleonora jumped when they heard him walk in.
"W-Where are they?" She asked.
"They're all dead. The threat is gone," Ning said. "You guys can leave now."
"We're saved."
"Thank god."
"I thought I was going to die."
"I'm going back to meet my parents."
The students shouted left and right as they made their way outside the room and soon everyone was gone except Eleonora.
"You saved us all?" she asked with wide eyes.
"You could say that," Ning said.
"I see… I guess I should apologize then. I'm sorry for all the times I have been rude to you," she said.
"That's not needed. You were only trying to protect your brother," Ning said.
"Still, I wrongly assumed you were trying to hide your cultivation base for something malicious. I'm sorry," she said.
"Yeah, well that wasn't why I did that. I assumed there wouldn't be that many people with the Nascent soul realm in the central continent. So I had to lower my cultivation base so as not to stand out."
"Who knew that there were so many of them here," Ning said.
"Central… continent? Are you saying you've been to the other continents?" Eleonora asked with a surprised look.
"Yeah, of course. Wh— Ah right. I forgot travel between continents is impossible right now. Well, it's not for me," Ning said with a smile.
"Anyway, it's been a rough night. You should go get some rest. I will find you sometime soon to talk about the system in detail. Goodbye," Ning said and left.
He too felt unnaturally tired, mostly just mentally. He did use up quite a bit of mental strength in that fight. Also, he wanted to look up the Origin, so he went back to his room.
He opened up the book once more and read through it. The unnamed book really didn't give much information at all.
'Maybe the full book has more information,' he thought and looked up through the interface. Without the AI, it took him nearly half an hour to even find ways to search for this current book.
'Damn, I didn't realize how bad it was at finding existing stuff,' he thought and finally bought the information.
When the whole book came to his mind, he finally read it all. The book seemed to be actually written a little before the war from ten thousand years ago.
The fact that half of it even survived was a mystery of its own. The full thing seemed to be the daily life of a cultivator, mixed in with an understanding of his own.
Finally, Ning got to the sentence he had been waiting for, and it read…
"I heard the beasts could breakthrough once they reached the peak of Nascent Soul realm whenever they wanted to. That was only in the past however… since then, one can only enter the Spirit Transformation by cultivating at the Origin," Ning read.
"Tsk, that didn't add much information at all. Also, what is the Origin? There's nothing like that in the map of the planet?" Ning thought. He tried searching for it through the interface, and all he could find was a single piece of information.
Origin referred to the location on the planet where Qi originated from. As for the location itself, it didn't say.
Ning sighed and gave up on finding any more information about it for now. It was too early anyway.
He then thought of something else and bought another piece of information. He bought the memories of Trebor Gassain.
For some reason, Ning couldn't put Trebor's sadness and Singeer's story together. So, he decided to find out the information on his own.
Once the knowledge of Trebor's past was in his mind, he took a peek at it.
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BAM
"Ah," young Trebor fell to the ground after losing a sword fight with his elder brother, Roid, the firstborn of the house.
"I told you, Trebor. You are much more suited to studying. Leave the fighting to people like me. It's not like I won't be there to protect you when you need me," Roid said.
"Stop teasing brother Trebor and fight him seriously," Leia shouted from the side.
"Come on little sister, I am your brother too. Why do you always only take his side?" Roid said.
"But you are already 20 years old. While brother Trebor is only 15 years old. I will obviously take the side of the weaker ones," Leia said.
Trebor's heart hurt a bit when he heard his little sister call him weak. "Once more, brother," he said and continued fighting with the wooden sword.
"Ah, did your cultivation base increase once more, Trebor? You are hiding your power, aren't you?" Roid said.
"Yes, I reached the 7th Qi Condensation realm yesterday," Trebor said.
"No wonder! You will catch up to me in no time. But…" Roid hit him on the leg with the sword and dropped him to the ground.
"Sigh, you win brother," Trebor said.
"Hehe, go study your plants. I'm late for my merchant studies," Roid said and left.
"Are you okay, brother?" Leia asked. She was barely 7 years old and looked so cute.
Trebor patted her and said, "I'm fine. Big brother will never hurt me."
Trebor then went to study the Alchemy ingredients like he always did.
The business was booming for the Gassain. Years passed in a flash and they gained more and more, both in money and in power.
Roid was now the commander of their private army, while Horom was still the head of the family with his high cultivation base and merchant skills.
"Son, are you ready?" a woman spoke to Trebor. She looked young at a glance, but her age showed through her wrinkles.
"Yes, mother. I promise you I will pass and make the family proud," Trebor said.
"Don't worry about that child. You already make us proud," his mother said.
"Hoho, where is our little alchemist?" Horom walked into his room with Leia behind him. She was now a fully grown lady.
"I can't believe brother Trebor is going to join the academy. He got a direct admission too," she said.
"Of course, that's my son for you," Horom said.
"I should leave now father," Trebor said.
"Yes, good luck son."
Trebor left his family's house and went to the Five Professions Academy. There he spent his days going into the different classes, learning about alchemy, growing as an alchemist.
He spent years in there, while occasionally returning back home. His family was going at a tremendous rate and this was truly great news for him.
After a few years, he finally graduated from the academy and chose to take the Teacher's examination. He passed it with flying colors.
He then went on to teach the school. Within a month of joining, he got the bronze badge. He was so popular beforehand as a student, that it translated into him being popular as a teacher too.
Things were going well for him, incredibly well… until he went back home one day and stumbled upon his father and brothers arguing.
"We can not let this go on for much longer, father. The Emperor keeps making new laws, closing ports, and attacking our shipment just because he can't see us growing?" Roid asked in anger.
"I know you are angry, son, but anger only ever brings one to doom. Think with a calm mind. We are currently the strongest noble family. We have both the finance and the strength to rival the throne."
"Not only that, but we also have the backings of the other family, and that scares the emperor. He thinks that because we are strong, we will go for his throne," Horom said.
"What? Why the hell would we want his throne? We are doing fine on our own," Roid said.
"But he doesn't know that. The Emperor is a jealous man, but he is also a powerful man. If we do anything that seems threatening to him, he will bring his entire army on us."
"We are treading on a slippery slope here, son. We take a single wrong step here and we will slide down to the bottom of the slope," Horom said.
Trebor was in the room, but he was not part of the conversation at all. He only listened to his father and brother speak up on the problems. He never had the political expertise at all, so speaking wasn't a very good choice for him here.
"Then what can we do?" Roid asked.
Horom thought for a moment and said, "Sigh, I will go and talk with the emperor. I will let him know that we do not wish to fight for the throne and that our loyalties have always lied with the Wyan Dynasty. I will even offer up tribute if I have to."
"At least, that should be enough to calm the Emperor's jealousy for now," Horom said.
"Sigh," Roid took a deep breath and said, "I'll go. The people in the family are ready to go to war. You take care of them, father."
"I want to help too, brother," Trebor said.
"No, you go back to the academy. Father and I were the ones who made this happen, and we will be the ones who fix this."
And so, Roid went to the emperor to speak to him about how harmless the Gassain were, while Trebor went back to the academy.
Trebor went on a 4-day long Alchemy session and when he came out, he finally checked a message from his father that he got on his talisman. A message that would change his life for the worse.
"Your brother is dead. He was killed by that damned Emperor. We are going to attack the emperor and take revenge for your brother."
"Should anything happen to me, take care of your mother and sister."
His father, who advocated peace between the Gassain family and the Wyan dynasty was now taking a path of violence for his dead son out of anger.
And that anger was going to doom them all.
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'It's the Emperor's shadow guard. They are here to kill me, father. I haven't even had the chance to talk with the emperor, yet he is already looking to kill me. I don't know how long I can hold on, father. These men are all very strong.'
'But don't worry, I will make you proud.'
Those were the last words Roid had sent back to his father before being brutally assassinated.
Roid could no longer be contacted, nor could his retainers, letting the family know that their eldest son had in fact been killed.
In anger, Horom took most of his family's force to attack the emperor. The only ones he left behind were his wife, daughters, and the weaker members of his family.
That was part of the message delivered to Trebor through his talisman.
'No!' he thought and immediately left the underground quarters of the academy.
When he walked out, he saw two Royal guards talking to principal Singeer. The principal saw Trebor and immediately came towards him.
"What's going on, Trebor? Why do I hear the news of your father trying to attack the Emperor for the throne?" he asked.
"What? My father isn't doing that!" he said. He wanted to explain more, but the next words that left from Singeer's mouth made him unable to speak.
"Your father and all of your family's forces died while attacking the Emperor. The emperor, along with the other families quelled the rebellion."
Trebor stopped. "My father is dead? No, that can't be, it was only just—" he finally remembered that he was in a closed alchemy session, so whatever message he got… was something he probably got days ago.
Meaning, his brother had been dead for days, and his father went to take revenge days ago as well. And now he was dead too, along with a majority of his family members.
"No!" he said and walked up to the Royal guards. "Senior, there has been a mistake. My father didn't start a rebellion. It was the emperor who—"
"That's the boy?" one of the guards said the moment they saw Trebor.
"Yes, capture him, or better yet just kill him."
The two guards immediately attacked Trebor who was unprepared. They managed to hit him square in the chest, but the most they did was a flesh wound.
"What?" they were surprised.
"You really tried to kill me?" Trebor got angry and flared his cultivation base.
"Oh god! Nascent Soul 3rd Realm. How is he so strong?"
"Run!"
Trebor in his anger killed the two guards and left the Five Professions city. He flew as fast as he could and returned back home. But all that was waiting for him back home was a scene of horror.
A fire raged in his family home as the Royal Guards surrounded the remaining family members from escaping.
"We already took the 2 women away, we will just kill the rest of the members and be done with," one of the guards said.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Trebor's mind started going blank as he saw his house and family members being burnt alive for a crime they did not commit.
"Look, people. This is what happens when you try to assassinate the Emperor and take the throne for yourself," the guard shouted.
"NO!!!!!!" Madness took over Trebor as he took out a sword and cut the guard where he stood. The other guards were suddenly alerted and there began a massive fight.
Trebor fought as much as he could, but even with his strong cultivation, fighting dozens of people at once was hard. He took a lot of wounds on his body.
One of the guards hit him on the side with a spear, destroying his storage bags.
By the time Trebor was done with the fight, he was beaten and bloody. Some of it was his own blood, but most was the blood of his enemies.
His anger lowered and he started thinking with a calm mind. '2 women. They must have taken mother and Leia to the capital,' he thought and dragged himself to the capital.
Along the way, he found herbs that could heal him a little, but he was still heavily wounded when he reached the capital.
And when he did, another sight of horror lay in front of him. The Emperor had created a scaffolding on top of which laid his mother and sister, ready to be executed.
"No… NO!" he shouted.
"Kill," the Emperor orders, and the guillotine fell. 2 heads rolled down onto the ground, with their eyes open.
Up close, Trebor could see that they had been tortured before they were killed.
"No!!!!" Madness overtook him again as he killed his way through the crowd, regardless of who anyone was, and made his way to the emperor.
But the emperor's shadow guard appeared out of nowhere to stop him. Trebor was strong, but not strong enough. He was beaten very easily and was one step away from being killed when a blob of light appeared in between them.
"You are the only family I have left right now, please don't die." Roid's voice came out of that blob of light.
"Brother, I—"
BOOM
Roid who had somehow survived his assassination by escaping with his Nascent Soul chose to explode his soul to save his brother.
Just before exploding, however, Roid used a one-of-a-kind teleportation talisman on his brother to send him away.
The Shadow Guards were heavily hurt, while Trebor was nowhere to be seen. So, the Emperor believed that was the last of the Gassain family member was dead as well. He finally believed he had succeeded in removing the thorn from his side.
When Trebor opened his eyes, he was in a desert. There, he cried for days on end after which only anger was left in his heart.
He went around the desert for years, he found an old book, he cultivated, he learned more alchemy, and he gathered people, loyal people to follow him.
All the while, he crafted a plan to take revenge on the Emperor. What better revenge than to force him away from the same throne he killed his family to protect. He could later publicly execute the bastard and his people once he was the Emperor.
He had a perfect plan; one he worked 80 years to form.
Only, he couldn't finish it because of Ning.. Seeing that the world was never going to do anything good for him, Trebor no longer wanted anything to do with it and killed himself.
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"Fuck," Ning said quietly.
That was all he could say after he read through Trebor's past. The man had a really bad thing happen to him, and just when he was going to enact his revenge, Ning had stopped him.
"Damn it. I feel really bad right now. Urgh!!" he said to himself.
He tried to stop thinking about it, but the information was etched onto his memory, his eidetic memory. It was impossible to remove.
He hated what the emperor did to them, he hated the had god dealt with the Gassain family.
Emotions he shouldn't have been feeling, amplified by the system, raged inside him.
"Calm down, Ning. Learn from the other's mistake. Don't let anger take over your heart," he said to himself and started calming down a little.
"Sigh, I will at least do this for you," Ning thought and teleported out. He appeared next to where Trebor's molten body lay and started digging all around him.
Within minutes, he had managed to dig a circle of land. Ning then closed his eyes and thought. He was looking into the map, and once he found it, he used his Qi to pull the land from underneath the body.
Ning then touched the land and they both disappeared. When they reappeared, Ning was flying in the sky. He looked down and saw that there was a house down there.
Ning looked left and saw a small hill back there. People saw him appear but did not dare do anything as he looked very strong.
Ning slowly landed on top of the land and saw a small stone propping up, fully covered with dust.
Ning wiped the name off the stone and read what it said.
"Here lies the progenitor of the Gassain Family, Clive Gassain," Ning read. "We're here."
Ning took out his tool and started digging once more. He didn't use his cultivation or his system. He simply dug with his own strength.
It took him 15 minutes to fully clear enough plot to put in the piece of land he had brought.
He slowly brought it down onto the hole and sighed once again. "I'm sorry I couldn't bury you with a complete corpse," Ning said.
He then started filling back the dirt onto the grave. Once it was all covered, he looked for a few stones and cut them to the shape of headstones.
He took the few headstones and started carving names on them. Trebor, Roid, Leia, Horom, and Garvia.
Once he was done, he propped those headstones around the mountain, next to Trebor's grave.
"I couldn't help you while you were alive and only got in your way. I was the part of the reason for your death, so the least I could do is bury you in your home."
"You were separated and killed by those weaker than you because they feared you."
"I hope… at least in death, you found each other and are on your way to being reincarnated as a family once more. I pray for you."
Ning bowed in silence for a few minutes.
RUSTLE RUSTLE
Ning checked with his divine sense to see what was making the noise. Without even turning, he started talking.
"Young man, it's not nice to sneak up on people, you know?" he said when he saw a 7-year-old kid look at him from behind a small bush.
"What? How did you see me?" the kid asked.
"Hehe, I have eyes on the back of my head," Ning said as he turned around.
"Oh, mommy was right then. You are a monster. Are you here to eat me?" the young boy asked a little scared.
"I'm… a monster? Did your mother say that?" Ning asked.
"Yes. She said that a monster has gone to the mountains and that we should hide away. I wanted to see what the monster looked like so I sneaked up here," the little kid said.
"Oh, and what do you think he looks like?" Ning asked.
"You look just like a normal person," the little boy said, a little disappointed.
"Most monsters do," Ning said silently.
The little boy slowly walked up and saw the 5 headstones. "What are they?" he asked.
"That's… the resting place of some brave men and women," Ning said.
"Why are they sleeping next to my great-great-grandfather?" the little boy asked.
"Huh?" Ning got surprised. "What did you say?"
"That," the little boy pointed at the dirty grave and said, "That's where my great-great-grandfather sleeps. Or so my mommy says."
"You mean 'Clive' is your great great grandfather?" Ning asked. "Did your mommy say that to you?"
"No. I heard it once when mommy was talking with grandma. Mommy asked grandma about how grandpa was like and that was when I learned about great-great-grandpa," the little boy said.
Ning was a little confused, so he asked, "What's your name, kid?"
"Roid, Roid Blevins," he said.
"Roid… huh? Hah, hahaha. I see," Ning said. He then quickly looked up something on the interface and turned around towards Trebor's grave.
"Would you look at that? Who knew your brother was having an affair with the young lady of the Blevins house."
"I hope you find solace in death in learning that your bloodline did not die with you," Ning said.
"Not everyone forgot about you people. Some still remember the good you did, some still know the wrong you were done to."
Ning then turned around looked at the little Roid. "You have a good name to live up to, kid. I hope you don't disappoint these people in front of you. Him, especially," Ning said as he pointed towards Roid's headstone.
"I hope we meet again," Ning said and left.
Roid stayed there for a few minutes, just looking at the headstone.
"Roid! Roid!" a worried mother's voice sounded soon enough.
"Mommy, Mommy," he called out.
"Dear God, child. You gave me a scare. Didn't I say there was a monster outside?" she asked.
"You did, and I met him. The monster wasn't as scary as you told me though. He was just spending some time with his sleeping friends," little Roid said.
"Sleeping friends?" the worried mother finally looked ahead and saw the gravestones.. When she saw the names on them, she couldn't help but gasp.
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Ning teleported back to his room underground. He didn't really know how much time had passed since he read through Trebor's past, but given that it was close to evening time outside, it must've been over 12 hours.
His mood was a little better after learning about little Roid. So, he smiled and went outside. It was time to talk about the system with Eleonora.
He walked out of the underground and was met with almost a hoard of people walking out of the academy.
'All the students are leaving?' Ning thought in surprise. He looked around and saw Jezeere seeing over the leaving students.
"Senior Jezeere, what's going on?" he asked.
"Oh, teacher Ning, we've been looking for you," Jezeere said.
"What's this?" Ning asked first.
"Oh, the students are leaving for home, and we're overseeing to make sure one of those attackers didn't hide somewhere by some chance," Jezeere said.
"Oh, is the academy closing down? Or…" Ning asked
"Yes, for 3 months. In the next 3 months, we are looking to improve the security of the sect. Trebor managed to bypass our formations and enter the academy just because he was once allowed to."
"That led him to turn down all the other security formations too. We're are going to take the time to fix those sort of overlooks," Jezeere said.
"I see. Well, it's not a bad idea to send the students back home after such a traumatic experience either," Ning said.
"Anyway, principal Singeer is looking for you. I believe he has a very important message for you," Jezeere said.
"Oh… okay. Do you know by chance where teacher Eleonora is?" Ning asked.
" Teacher Eleonora? She… I think she left with her brother, not really sure," Jezeere said.
"She left with her brother? Aw man, I really wanted to talk to her about something. Whatever, I will go check what the Principal wants to say," Ning said and went over to the underground hall.
He spread his divine sense and quickly located Singeer.
"Principal Singeer, I heard you were looking for me," Ning said when he ran up to Singeer.
Singeer was with a few people looking at some broken rocks and was quietly talking with them.
"Ah, teacher Ning, you're finally here," Singeer said.
"What happened here?" Ning asked, looking at the mess.
"Oh, just something that Trebor did. He couldn't shut down some of the defenses, so he opted to destroy it instead," Singeer said.
"Anyway, where have you been? I got great news for you," Singeer said.
"Oh? Great you say," Ning smiled, looking forward to what it was.
"Yes, after learning that you defeated the evil men and especially defeated Trebor, the Emperor wants to award you," Singeer said loudly.
"…what?" Ning's smile suddenly dropped as his face turned serious.
"Yeah. We told the emperor that you had taken care of the threat, so he decided to have a ceremony where he awards you with a medal of honor," Singeer said excitedly.
'Fuck!' Ning thought.
"Can I not go?" Ning asked.
"Huh? But it's one of the most prestigious things you can get. Not only will it help you, but it will also help the academy," Singeer said.
"I just… don't want to go there," Ning said.
"Um, is there a reason for that? Are you injured and can't go?" Singeer asked worriedly.
"No, I'm fine," Ning said.
"Then…" Singeer thought for a moment and asked, "do you have a grudge with the Emperor. Did he ever do something bad to you?"
Ning thought for a moment and the answer was obvious. 'Sigh, I'm judging a person before even meeting him. Maybe he's different from how he was 80 years ago.'
'Maybe he's not the same jealous old man, maybe he's changed as a person,' Ning thought.
"Sigh, No," Ning answered. "Alright, I'll go."
"Very good. The ceremony is in 2 days. It will take place in the capital," Singeer said.
"Alright, I will leave today," Ning said.
"Wait, you won't be going alone. Haha, I will be going with you too," Singeer said.
"Ah… well…" Ning wanted to go find Eleonora to talk for a bit, but it seemed that would have to be pushed further back.
"Okay, when do we leave?" Ning asked.
"In a few hours," Singeer said. "I still need to judge the level of damage that we've suffered."
"Alright, let me help you too," Ning said and walked along with Singeer, looking at the damages.
Singeer asked a few questions to Ning, which he answered as truthfully as he could.
Ning told him about his time roaming around the world and how he came to learn a lot of things as well as how he trained to be so strong.
"Oh, so it's not Qi cultivation but body cultivation that made you so strong?" Singeer asked in amazement.
"Yes. I've been cultivating my body longer than I've been cultivating my Qi, so it's somewhat gotten stronger than my cultivation base," Ning said.
"I see. Are you from the Sun Empire?" Singeer asked.
"No, but I do believe my body cultivation technique originated there," Ning said.
"Must be. Who else could love the body cultivation techniques other than the barbarians of the desert," Singeer said.
"Oh right, what about the teleportation and the attraction?" Singeer asked.
"Those were a one-time use artifacts I got during my journey. Sigh, I can't believe I had to use them like that," Ning lamented.
"You are still young, teacher Ning. I'm sure you will find a lot more of such treasures," Singeer said.
They looked around a little longer and documented all the damage. Once that was done, he handed the documents to one of the staff and left the underground.
It was already dark outside and none of the students were there. Only a few staff members walked around.
"Sigh, I think it's time we leave. It will take us a little over a day, so we should reach there half a day before the ceremony," Singeer said.
"Okay," Ning said.. "Let's leave."
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