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Chapter 321: New
Ning walked out of his room. Walking itself felt very weird to him. He felt like he hadn't walked in a long while, but they weren't deformed from not being used either.
'It's such a weird experience,' he thought. Ning didn't want to attract any attention, so he quickly took off his nearly 10 different gold badges and kept them in his storage.
Ning heard a sound coming from behind him and turned to look. The person coming towards him looked young and was someone Ning had never seen before.
'A new teacher?' Ning wondered.
The teacher had a bronze badge on his chest and a look of confusion as well as disgust on his face. He quickly walked around him and went outside.
'That… was rude,' Ning thought for a second. 'Why was he staring at me like that?' he wondered.
'Am I dirty?' he quickly checked his appearance and soon realized just how much his hair and beard had grown in the last many years.
"Oh, I forgot to cut these," Ning thought and took out a blade. Using his divine sense, he quickly cut all the excess hair and destroyed them.
"Hm… I don't look that bad," he thought as he checked himself out. He looked a little older, but not by very much.
He made his way out of the underground and walked up to the open.
"Woah!" he said in surprise to see a very different building on the outside. They were the same building as before but more and more stuff was added around the outside.
"I wonder how long this closed cultivation went on for," he thought and went around checking the different things.
He saw many students and teachers, but almost all of them were different. He made his way to the staff underground on the other side so he could find the principal.
Nobody stopped him since he was wearing a teacher's robe, so he quickly reached the room.
He finally found the principal, but… it was a woman he had never seen before.
"Who are you?" the middle-aged woman asked him.
"Oh, uh… I'm a teacher who was gone for a while. I came to check if the principal had changed at all, and turns out you were," Ning said.
"You were gone? Under whose approval?" she asked.
"Oh, the previous principal," Ning said.
"I see, then that's fine," the woman said. "Still, you were gone for nearly 40 years, that's not very good. Please try to come back to the academy every few years if you can."
"Oh, sure," Ning said. "What's your name, by the way?"
"It's Yola," the girl said.
"Nice to meet you, Principal Yola. I will see you around," Ning said and walked away.
"Hey wait, what's your name? I need to look up your information," Yola said.
"Oh, it's Ning Ruogong. Goodbye," Ning said and left. Yola then brought out the previous principal's documents and looked for Ning in those documents.
However, no matter how much she tried, she couldn't find his information at all.
Ning walked out of the underground and went to the Alchemy wing's staff room. He walked in to find it to have completely changed.
There were many teachers here that he didn't recognize at all. The desks and benches seemed to have been shifted around. The room was redecorated, and the shelves certainly had a lot more books now.
He walked up to them and saw a few books of his own that he had casually wrote out of boredom a few times.
"Are you new here?" an elderly voice came from behind him.
"Oh, sorry. I'm not new, I was just gone—"
Ning turned around and stopped when he saw the gray haired old woman with a gold star on her chest. The woman was mostly unrecognizable, but her eyes were still the same as when she brightly used to look at him with reverance.
The girl saw Ning and felt like she knew him. Slowly, memories started coming back to her and her eyes started tearing up.
"Teacher Ning?" she asked in surprise.
"Hello Reya, how are you?" Ning asked.
"Teacher, yo-you are still alive? Ho-how?" she asked.
"Huh? Why wouldn't I be alive? I was just in closed cultivation. Didn't I tell you?" Ning asked.
"Y-Yes you did, but then you didn't come out for so long. I, we all thought you died in closed cultivation. We thought you failed to—"
Reya stopped speaking and emotions overtook her.
"Hey, hey. It's alright. I'm fine. I was never in trouble during cultivation," Ning said.
The other teachers in the room were starting to get drawn to the commotion as they looked around at each other wondering why their teacher, and senior was crying so much.
"Anyway, congratulations on becoming a gold star. It's… still the same requirements right?" Ning asked.
"Yes, of course," Reya said as she wiped her tears.
"Anyway, things seem to have changed a lot since I went missing. I will go around and look at the different things. You do what you have to for now," Ning said.
Reya nodded. "I'm happy to see you doing so good," Ning said as he patted her head and left.
Ning walked over to the beast master's wings and saw that things had changed quite a lot with noone he knew still there. He asked around about Gonez and most people didn't even know who he was.
He then walked over to the artifact wing and looked around. He walked inside and saw the same thing. Different room and different people.
"Sigh, things really did change around here, huh?" he thought. He turned around to walk back out when he bumped into someone at the door.
Ning was pushed a little back, which surprised him given his body cultivation, but the other person was pushed back even more.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you—"
Ning stopped when he finally saw the person he had bumped into. His mouth opened up as he barely spoke out the word.
"Ely?"
Chapter 322: Total Years
"Ely?" Ning asked in surprise.
Eleonora looked up and saw the relatively young face of Ning. "I-is that you, NIng?" she asked, unsure of herself.
"Yeah, it's me. I just came out of my cultivation an hour ago," Ning said.
"You… You are finally out," she asked in surprise.
"W-what? Why are you still here? Didn't you go back to your house?" Ning asked.
"YOU ARE FINALLY OUT!" Eleonora shouted. "Haha, I thought you were never coming out until I died."
"No, I… I'm not sure what I would've done myself," Ning said. "Weren't you in closed cultivation yourself? Also, how come you've not aged a day? Aren't I the one immortal?"
"Haha, I bought a skill from my system that game my eternal youth. I stopped aging physically since that day," Eleonora said.
"I-I came out so many times, but missed you every single time," Ning said. "I'm glad I finally got to see you."
"Don't say that," Ely said. She was starting to tear up by now. "I will cry if you do."
"Haha, it's good to cry once in a while," Ning said, as he teared up a little himself. "Anyway, what are you doing here?"
"What do you mean?" Ely asked.
"Why are you still at the academy? I thought you would've left by now, improved the Rigot family, and gotten a better life out there," Ning said.
"I-I love being a teacher here. It gives me the freedom to work on my craft. Besides, Ender is back at home with father and sister-in-law. He's handling the family now," Eleonora said.
"What about you? Don't you have a family of your own now? A husband, or what is it they say? That's right, a Dao companion," Ning asked.
"No," Ely sighed a little. "I waited for the right time but… never mind."
"Oh, right, when did you come out?" Ning asked.
"I've been out of cultivation for nearly a century. You are the one that took forever to come out. If it weren't for me knowing you were immortal, I would have suspected you to be dead by now," Ely said as she chuckled a little.
"I took a really long time, didn't I?" Ning asked.
"Of course. You were gone for—"
"Excuse me, teacher Eleonora," a student walked up to her.
"Yes, Hareen. What is it?" Ely asked.
"I needed some help with my project. Can you tell me what metal I should use if I…" the student asked some questions and Ning watched Ely answering the question?
He smiled when he realized that he had missed it quite a bit. Once the student walked away, Ely turned around and said, "Let's get away from the staff room, or more people will come to bother us."
"Sure, let's go outside," Ning said and started walking.
They talked a bit as they walked out. Ely started telling Ning about how the students and teachers basically didn't know her anymore after coming out of the closed cultivation.
Ning also spoke about his experience of seeing nothing but changes everywhere and how incredibly bizarre it was for him.
"Wow, I can't imagine how you must be feeling," Ely said. "Honestly, I was so close to forgetting about you many times. It was only when I saw the system's panel that I was reminded of your existence."
"Wow, was I gone really that long? How long wa—"
"You! Stop right there," someone screamed from the top of their lungs while flaring their cultivation base to try and stop Ning.
However, the aura was of no concern to Ning. "What's she doing here?" Ning wondered as he turned around to face Yola.
"Hey, principal Yola. What's going on?" Ning asked.
"Teacher Ely, catch that intruder," Yola shouted from further away.
"What?" both Ning and Ely were super confused. They waited for Yola to reach them so that she could explain herself.
"What's going on, Yola?" Ely asked.
"Teacher Eleonora, do you know this man?" Yola asked.
"Of course," Eleonora said.
"Alright, then. Since teacher Eleonora knows you, I won't make it hard for you. Why did you come to this academy?" Yola asked.
Ning was super confused now. "What do you mean why I've come to the academy? It's obviously to teach," Ning said.
"No, you are not a teacher. Tell me when you are here?" Yola shouted.
There was a crowd of people gathering around them by now and they were looking at the commotion with quite a lot of interest. It wasn't every day that the principal got this angry.
"Are you confused, Yola? Ning has been a teacher here since a long time ago," Ely said.
"Huh?" Yola was confused now. "But I checked the previous records that were left behind for me, but I couldn't find his name there at all."
"There are no records of him? That shouldn't be the case," Ely said. "Did you really check it properly?"
"Of course. I checked it 3 times, but I couldn't find any name called 'Ning Ruogong' anywhere," Yola said.
"That's weird," Ely said. Ning was also confused as to why his records wouldn't be there. He had clearly asked for permission and was given it quite easily.
If not for the permission to go on closed cultivation for as long as he wanted to, he would have been expelled from the academy.
"Oh, I might know the problem," Ely said after thinking of something. "Yola, did you check the archives?"
"Archives? No, I haven't entered the treasury in ages," Yola said. "Why?"
Ely then turned to Ning and asked, "who did you request the leave for closed cultivation?"
"Huh? Who else would it be? Obviously Maeve. She was the only one with permission to let me do that," Ning said.
"Sigh, I knew it," Ely said and brought out a formation setter, before setting a concealing formation between just the two of them. "Maeve died 600 years ago. We had 2 other principals after her before Yola."
"Huh? 600 years ago? Wait, how long was I in cultivation then?" Ning asked.
"Sigh, I wanted to tell you this earlier, but was interrupted," Ely said. "From the time you joined this academy up to right now, it has been a little over 1800 years."
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Chapter 323: Teleportation Formation
Ning thought he heard wrong at first, so he asked to confirm, "Sorry, did you say 1800 years?" he asked.
"Yes, it's been 1800 years since you joined the academy, I'm around 2100 years old right now. Although, most of it was in closed cultivation, so I don't know if I should call it that," Ely said.
"Wait, that's… I was inside for so long. You were here for so long," Ning said. This was the most time he had skipped ever in his life.
"2100 years… that's a lot of time for a Nascent Soul cultivator. How many years do you have left?" Ning asked.
"I should still have a Millenium before I die," Ely said. "Thanks to the books you gave me of course."
"I will give you something else to improve it even more," Ning said. "Anyway, I think we should fix this misconception."
Ely nodded and cleared the formation setter and took it into her item box.
"Teacher Eleonora, what are you doing?" Yola asked.
"All of your, go away," Ely said to the students, who immediately dispersed.
Some of them showed courage and stayed behind, but they immediately left when Yola followed Ely and shouted, "Disperse."
"What is happening?" Yola asked.
"You should go to the treasury and look up his name. Believe me, he is a teacher," Ely said.
"If you say so. I will go and check," Yola said and left.
"1800 years huh… the last one must've lasted over a thousand years too," Ning said softly. "So long."
"Don't fret much," Ely said. "That's the life of a cultivator. In search for a few hundred more years, we waste away thousands inside a room."
"Sigh, what's happened has happened, let's go somewhere else and talk," Ning said before walking away.
Along with Ely, he went down to the city which had broadened itself by quite a lot. All the buildings seemed to have been changed or renewed. The culture in the city was also a lot different.
Ning just walked around in silence as he watched. "Where are we going?" Ely asked.
"I don't know. I'm just… walking around, I guess," Ning thought as he walked with Ely behind him.
They walked for a few hours as Ely followed behind Ning. Ning strayed off the path and walked into a forest too. He looked around talking a lot.
When he reached the middle of the forest, he called out his beast. None of his beasts looked different, not even Blue who was supposed to be evolving.
However, their cultivation base was certainly reaching its peak. In fact, Ning could feel that they were about to break through to the higher realm.
'Huh? But I thought breaking through to Spirit Transformation was impossible aside from the Origin. Or is it that the Beast space's feature with Qi gathering made it a good place for them to breakthrough?' Ning wondered.
"They're quite strong," Ely said as she too could feel their cultivation base.
"Aren't they?" Ning asked with a chuckle. "Guys, go around and have fun. I will find you guys in a few days."
"You are giving them free rein?" Ely asked.
"They've been couped up in the room along with me. I can understand what it feels like now. So I think they deserve at least this much," Ning said.
"I see," Ely said.
"Anyway, I'm planning on going around to meet a few of my people. Can you go back by yourself?" Ning asked.
Ely was about to say yes when she thought of something else and asked something else.
"Can I not come by?" she asked.
"Oh, of course, you can. Although only I know them, so I don't know what sort of time you will have," Ning said.
"It's fine. It's in the Northern Continent, right? I've been dreaming about going there. They fixed the teleportation formation to the Southern Continent, so I've been there. But they are still struggling to do anything for the northern continent, and it's quite annoying," Eleonora said.
"Wait, they fixed a Teleportation formation? When?" Ning asked.
"A few centuries ago. Two formation master brothers worked all their lives and managed to finally learn enough about the teleportation formation to fix it."
"The Sephyr Empire has been quite a busy place thanks to that. They were called by the Emperor of the Noetra Empire to do the same for their broken Formation too, but it seems there is something really wrong with that formation and they can't seem to fix it," Ely said.
"Hmm… a Teleportation formation to the Northern Continent huh? That's… not bad, The people there can do well visiting the other continent too. " Ning said. "I wonder what the two brothers would do if the answer to their problems were to, say, mysteriously fall on their lap."
Ely chuckled a little and said, "Wouldn't it be better if you use that information to make one for the Galyra empire? I'm sure Nilo would be quite happy."
"Nilo? He's still the Emperor?" Ning asked in surprise.
"No. He gave up the throne to his son a few centuries ago after reigning for nearly 700 years. Knowledge of alchemy helped him a lot during those times, so I'm sure he would be quite flabbergasted to a certain teacher that helped him during his young years," Eleonora said.
"It's been so long that I missed his coronation as well as retirement, huh? Well, I guess I can go meet him. As for the formation, let's talk with the folks over in the Northern Continent before we make any decisions of our own. Is that okay?" Ning asked.
"Yeah, that sounds good to me," Ely said.
"Great. Let me ask my beasts if they want to go to the Northern Continent. They were all born there, so they should be quite thrilled, honestly," Ning said.
Just as he said that the sky dimmed as Night arrived right next to Ning. After that Blue arrived and finally, Aegis came back as well. They all went back into the beast space for a moment, and Ning brought his hand forward.
"Let's go," he asked.
Ely smiled and held his hands. Then, they disappeared.
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Chapter 324: The Saint's Inheritance
Ning taught a class full of now familiar students. It had been a few days since he returned from his few months long adventure and was getting back to teaching.
Yola had learned about Ning, but chose to keep it on the low for now. However, she did one thing that confused Ning a little.
She took away all of his gold stars. So now, he had no stars and would have to start back again.
Her thought process was that since it had been so long since he left closed cultivation, he should have forgotten most of the stuff. If he remembered it, then he could surely get his badge back.
Ning happily handed his badges as they would be nothing more than eye magnet for him, which he didn't want. Beside, being a badgeless teacher had a few perks of its own.
Ning finished teaching his class of merely 40 students and left.
He walked to the artifact wing and met up with Ely. During the last few months, the two of them had been together for essentially always, and had since then grown together.
However, Ning never made any advances into elevating their relation to anything other than friends. He felt sad even thinking about being together with someone who would surely die.
Even with his body cultivationo, Ely would die in less than 2 thousand more years.
So, NIng just decided to keep the feelings to himself forever. He didn't want to be heartbroken about it, ever.
Ely seemed to have realized something about this by now, but chose to say nothing about it. Ning was very thankful about that.
Ning had just met up with Ely when he realized that many teachers and students were rushing somewhere.
"What's happening?" Ning asked.
"I think… they said that the Saint Alchemist has shown up," Ely said.
"Oh, that guy isn't dead yet?" Ning asked.
"He might have eaten a pill or something," Ely said.
"Maybe," Ning said. "But those sort of pills are usually bad for you. It hampers your advances in cultivation. Although, I guess that doesn't really matter to people on this planet."
The two of them walked front and saw the crowd circle around a few people. Most of them were either staffs or teachers from the Alchemy wing. They were all bowing to an Elderly looking man who seemed to be at the end of his age.
"It's a pleasure of this sect to have you, senior," Yola said.
"You don't have to show such a response to a dying, old man," the saint alchemist said. "I have come with a request."
Yola's eyes shined. A request from someone who could make 10th grade pills was a big thing. "Please, tell us your request, senior," she said.
"When is your next Alchemy competition?" the old man asked.
"Uhh… in just a year, we will have our Decennial Competition that will take place in the Sun Empire. Students from all the 5 empires will gather there. Alchemy will be a part of that competition too," Yola said.
"Hmm… make the Alchemy portion of the competition big. In fact, I'm planning on calling the people from the Southern Continent as well as the Northern Continent too," the old man said.
"What? Senior, a competition between students of the 3 continents? That's… why go that far?" Yola asked.
"I'm dying, and I'm in need for someone to succeed me. In all of my years, I never took on a disciple. I focused on my work more than anything. Now that life had caught up to me, and I'm dying, I'm starting to realize just how pointless it all was."
"However, even as pointless it is all to me, I'm sure my knowledge can help others. So, I'm trying to find the best person to succeed me. For that, I decided to choose the best alchemy student from the next competition," the old man said.
Gasps rang around and the crowd was stunned. Yola immediately agreed with zero hesitation, and got to work.
Soon, information hit the street at an extremely fast pace. It was not just people from the Galyra Empire that knew the information, or even the Central continent.
The information traveled around the whole world, and every single one of them learned the same thing, then same information.
The Saint Alchemist, one of the only known alchemist to ever create a 10th grade pill, was now looking to pass his entire inheritance to one single student.
And that was very tempting.
Soon, the whole world was in a fire of ambition as everyone made their way to the teleportation formations.
"I can't believe that old man is dying too. We really lived a long time, didn't we?" Ely asked.
"Yes, we did," Ning said. 'Although, it's just a beginning for me,' he thought.
"Well, at least you got the formations working in time. Now the people from the Northern Continent can join the competition as well," Ely said.
"Haha, yeah," Ning said.
"What's wrong? You aren't talking as much," Ely asked.
"I'm… I'm just thinking about stuff," Ning said.
"Like?" Ely inquired.
"Like how I can help you all. Hyesi is getting old. Although he can live for a while longer, his prime age for cultivation is already coming to a close. If I delay even much longer, it will be Anya's turn next," he said.
"Sigh, I could help you by finding the Origin, or whatever it is called, but I can't seem to find that either. I hope I get some information about it all soon," Ning prayed.
"I'm sure you will," Ely said as she held his hand. "Even if you can't, you don't have to feel guilty about it. You already gave us all something the others in this planet could only wish for. That alone is priceless."
"My father wouldn't be alive right now if it weren't for you. My brother and his family wouldn't be as happy or successful without you either. I'm sure Hyesi's and Anya's life is the same," Ely said.
"We are all thankful for what you've done. So, don't feel guilty about it at all. Even if life catches up to us, and we die of old age, that just means our regular cycle ended."
"Remember, we will all return to the reincarnation cycle at the end of the day. Even if we die, you will surely be there to find us again."
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Chapter 325: Sun Empire
"Teacher Ning, are you coming too?" Reya asked.
"Halfway through, I guess. I'm going somewhere else though," Ning said as he showed up to the gathering of the students in the fields behind the academy.
A year had gone by, and it was time for the Decennial Competition.
The students were all happy and excited to be going on this small adventure. Not only that, the Alchemy students were particularly jumpy due to what was at stake in this Decennial Competition.
"Wow, so many people," Ning said as he looked around.
"Why are you here? I thought you said you weren't coming," Ely asked from the side.
"That was just because Anya said she wouldn't be coming, so I didn't really care about it, but then I recently remembered something I heard a long time ago and thought that it would be a good time to visit that place," Ning said.
"Oh, ok. Will you be flying with the Alchemy wing? I have to take care of the artifact wing's students," Ely said.
"Nah, the students don't really know me. I'm sure the Old man will hog all of their attention. So, I will fly with you. Besides, I want to see how that artifact came out," Ning said a little too excitedly.
"You really do get childish when you remember about Earth, don't you?" Ely said with a chuckle.
"What's wrong with that?" Ning asked.
Yola brought out a massive ship that Ely had made for them and all the students started boarding it.
A few of the teachers remained behind who took out their own boats. Ely brought out her own too.
This boat was very… weird. It was nothing but a 1 by 2-meter block of metal that was about 20 centimeters thick. The only thing separating it from a normal block of metal was the numerous holes in it.
The metal boat started floating in mid-air and both Ely and Ning got on it. The boat suddenly started releasing steam that stuck around them.
The steam then condensed and gathered around the boat like mist.
Yola's boat flew off, and so did everyone. Ely moved her boat as well, as soon she was leaving behind a trail a mist as she flew.
Ning looked around him and sighed, "So, my blueprints failed, huh?" he said.
"I told you. We should use leather instead of metal," Ely said. "You should leave coming up with ideas to me."
She looked at him and said, "Hey, be cheerful. Even if it doesn't feel like one, it sure looks it,"
Ning saw the students looking at him in awe. More accurately, they were looking at the flying cloud he was riding on.
"Haha, it does indeed look like it, doesn't it?" Ning got a little happy.
The group of them flew over the vast forest behind the academy towards the sun empire.
It would take the lot of them about 5 days to reach the Bright Red academy that was located towards the eastern portion of the continent.
Stronger teachers got cautious and started looking out for beast attacks from down below. The forest surrounding the Sun Empire was massive and lasted for tens of thousands of kilometers.
They didn't have to worry, however. Ning already had Night fly down below lookout for such attacks. Night was roaming around checking for dangers before they actually arrived.
So, the lot of them had nothing to do but wait. Ning conversed with Ely about the different things and told her where he was going.
Ely didn't really show any reaction as Ning himself wasn't expecting to find anything there. He was in fact worried he was going there for nothing.
"Why didn't you teleport there?" Ely asked.
"Eh? What's the hurry? Besides, I'm getting to spend some time with you by staying here," Ning said.
Ely chuckled.
Days turned into night, and night turned into day again. The cycle repeated for one more time before the day started to turn into the night again.
They had safely left the forest and were now fully in the desert.
"Oh," Ning said when he saw a mountain range in the desert. He looked around for a bit and shook his head.
"It seems we are a little off course from where I need to go. So, I will leave now. I will come to see you later," Ning said.
"Alright, bye. Good luck on whatever you may find there," Ely said.
Ning smiled and stood. Then lightly jumped from the flying cloud boat and the wind pushed him back so that he stayed where he was in mid-air.
He waved his hands and said his goodbye. He waited for a bit so that the group of people flew off into the horizon where they could no longer make him out.
"Get in," Ning said as Night finally came out of the shadows too. "Alright, let's go."
Ning teleported from where he stood and appeared on top of a massive lake. He was really high in the air, so the people down below didn't notice him at all.
"Ok, so the map doesn't tell me about the buildings. I will have to find those on my own," Ning thought and flew down to the top of a dune and started walking down.
There was a small city where normal people lived. When they saw Ning, they acted with a sense of apprehension.
Ning smiled and didn't bother with the people. 'I guess they are the same as Hyesi and the others. They rarely see white skinned people, so they are a little scared,' Ning thought.
However, these people seemed more used to different people, so they didn't come to attack him.
The small town was built with mostly bricks and cement. It seemed that with the sands in the desert the people here didn't need to worry about housing.
The people were either fully clothes from top to bottom hiding every part of their skin from the sun, or mostly naked since coldness wasn't a problem here.
Ning walked up to one of such men and asked, "Hello, I am looking for a tomb around here. Do you happen to know where it is?"
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Chapter 326: Pattern
Ning stood in front of a giant row of white, marble pillars leading into a giant door. This was the place that the resident showed him when he asked for the tomb.
"So… this is the tomb?" he wondered.
He was currently in a place known as the Grime Oasis. He didn't know why it was named that, nor did he care about it.
The only thing he cared about was this one tomb.
Ning looked at the opening to the tomb and was both confused and surprised. These new emotions of his had nothing to do with the tomb itself, however.
It had everything to do with the people that were entering and exiting the tomb.
"It's a tourist spot now?" Ning thought. He didn't remember Keng talking about this when he spoke about the ShadowGod Buttery.
"He found a ShadowGod Butterfly here, so there must be something unique about this place," Ning thought. "But it's nearly 2 millennia since Keng was here, and now it's turned to a tourist spot."
"Is there really a way that the uniqueness of this place from that time was still preserved?" Ning wondered. Still, he decided to go in.
He looked around the perfectly built walls, the drawings upon them. Every single thing he saw around here looked… new.
"Did someone draw these all after the fact when someone realized they could get rich from turning this into a tourist spot?" Ning wondered.
He walked around the tomb looking for something, but he couldn't find anything special about it.
He visited the room that was at the center of the tomb and looked around. He saw some broken pieces of stones that seemed to have been kept there after the fact.
Ning then noticed the sunlight entering the room. He look up and saw that there was a circular glass on top with a weirdly patterned metal cage around it.
"That's strange," he thought.
"Hello, sir. Have you seen around the tomb? Do you need any help?" A black-skinned woman walked up to him and asked.
"Hm, sure. Can you tell me why that is there?" Ning asked, pointing at the metal bar up above.
"Oh, It's always been there, sir. Same as these walls, and these floors," the woman said, showing the weird-looking patterns on the ground as well.
"Is there any meaning to this?" Ning asked.
"I'm afraid not, sir. It's just decoration," the lady said.
"Hm, tell me more about this tomb, who is it for? How long had it been here? Since when was the tomb available for public viewing?" Ning asked.
"Oh, we believe the tomb to belong to a rich merchant who wanted to create a place for his dying wife to remain here eternally. At least, that is what the story on those walls says. We can only interpret as much as the coffin where the body was buried in was long stolen away."
"All we have left is this empty room with a broken coffin where the corpse should have been," the woman said. Ning looked around and could clearly tell how bullshit the story was.
"Since when was this tomb available to the public?" Ning asked.
"This tomb was secretly visited by many before, but it was truly public when our chief decided to make the tomb into a tourist attraction 300 years ago."
"We don't have much to show in the Grime Oasis, aside from this. Given that our oasis is quite dirty, we have to use this," the woman said.
"Oh, so it wasn't visited by people before that, huh?" Ning said.
"Yes," the woman replied.
"By the way, I have another question. Have you heard of any news of anyone finding butterflies around here?" Ning asked.
"Butterflies? No, I don't think so. There has been news of people finding weird beasts in the area that should not be in the desert, but no butterfly," The lady said.
Ning fell into contemplation. "Sir, if you don't need me, I will attend to the other guests," the woman said.
"Yes, yes, please go," Ning said.
"The woman smiled brightly through the sunlight that fell on her through the ceiling and left.
Just as the woman left, the sunlight fell down on the floor once more. However, it had slightly shifted away from him this time.
"Hmm?" Ning suddenly got curious. He looked up to see the pattern of the metal rail on the ceiling, and then the floor.
Things started clicking in his mind. "Could it be?" he thought.
"Everyone, leave," Ning shouted out loud without prior notice. The people were surprised to see someone shout in the tomb for no reason but quickly ignored him.
Ning looked at the sunlight and realized that he was running out of time for today.
"I said everyone get out," Ning shouted once more.
"Oi, who the fuck do you think you are to shou—"
Ning released his entire cultivation base suffocating all the people inside the room Not a single one of them had ever before felt this strong of an aura.
"LEAVE!" Ning said calmly this time and took back his aura. Without a single moment wasted, the people ran out in droves in fear of the madman.
Once everyone was gone, Ning picked up the fake coffin and threw it out of the room. Now, the room really, truly didn't have anything.
Ning just stayed where he was and looked at the shape of the light and the shape of the ground started being the same.
Ning took out a single gold coin from his storage and tossed it. The coin flew through the air and landed on the center of the room where all the patterns converged, which was previously hidden by the fake coffin.
When the sun reached the zenith and the shapes finally properly overlapped each other, blue light started shining out from the shadows.
"So devious," Ning thought when he saw it all. "Just what could the tomb's owner be hiding by making the only key to the riches be a formation made using the shadows and patterns on a marble."
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Chapter 327: Statues
Over the 2 thousand years, Ning had never bothered learning how to make formations or the formation flags. Creating a formation was never something he thought he required.
However, he did learn deconstruction of formations. He learned how to stop a formation, dismantle it, or if required, destroy it.
So, when he saw the shadows about to overlap and form a perfect formation on the pattern below, he quickly tossed a gold coin in it to open it.
Once the formation was filled, it lit up and opened what looked like a portal to a secret realm.
Ning stepped forward and disappeared. He felt a slight tug on his body as if he was being pulled down instead of teleporting.
"Hmm… interesting," he thought as he let his body free fall. It took him what felt like 3 minutes to finally reach the bottom with a bang. He only had to bend his knees slightly to absorb all of the force of the impact, however.
"So… what's happening here?" he thought and started looking around. He was in a dark cave, but he could clearly see the carvings on the rocks.
'That doesn't look like it was made by a human,' Ning thought as he stared at the deep lines on the wall. They were about 40 centimeters deep, 15 centimeters wide, and about half a meter in between each of the carvings on the wall.
"What sort of tool did the maker of this tomb use to make these?" Ning wondered and walked forward.
The marks ran all along the wall until it reached a massive open space in the cave. When Ning finally walked into the open room, he was stunned.
In front of him were hundreds of statues all over the room, and all of these statues were looking towards a single thing in the middle of the room, a giant coffin.
Ning looked at the statues in more shock than he ever had when he realized just what he was looking at.
"That's… that's a Water Drake, and that's a Wildfire Phoenix, that's a Light Roc, and that's a Black-Horned Qilin."
"That's a Dark-emperor Crow, and the Golden Shelled Beetle's statue is here too."
Ning looked around as he started recognizing all the beasts that were in the room.
A White Puma descended from the White Tiger, a green Turtle descended from the legendary Black Turtle, a seven-tailed Fox descended from the Nine-tailed fox, a snake descended from the hornless dragons called Chi, a fire breathing dog descended from Huodou.
Every single descendant of the legendary creatures was here.
Ning looked in shock at the statues. "Just who carved these statues? How did they know what the extinct beasts looked like? Who the hell made this tomb?" Ning thought.
Finally, he reached the main question that started bugging him more and more as he thought about it.
"Who is in that coffin?" he thought. Since the answer wasn't gonna come up to him, he walked forward.
He gently touched the statues as he walked forward. He checked to see how well made they were and what they were made of.
Ning suddenly stopped when he felt a few of them. He looked at the dirt on his hands and thought, "That's just normal dust. Were these incredible statues really made with something so ordinary?"
He checked a few more and realized that the material that was on the statue was the same one as the one in the cave.
'Going so far as to create a tomb then sealing it away, and then making a fake tomb on top of it. How did the person who made such an incredible tomb, not find a single better material for the statues? I'm sure the sculptors themselves would go out of their way to ask for better materials.'
'So weird,' he thought.
Finally, he left the statue and walked towards the coffin itself. He was a little surprised when he saw the coffin, however.
'Is this where he spent all the money?' Ning wondered. 'Even a small piece of Primordial Holy Jade would cost anyone 5 generations of fortune. I'm surprised the person was even able to afford one, let alone such a large piece of it.'
Primordial Holy Jade was a very strong and resilient piece of jade, far stronger than the small marble Ning had made years ago.
Ning remembered reading that the Primordial Holy Jade could also block all forms of Qi, aura, and even divine sense.
Ning sent in his divine sense up to the slab of jade and was pleasantly surprised to see that his divine sense didn't enter there at all.
"So it is true. It's very heavy too isn't it?" Ning thought and touched the cool, but the dusty surface of the jade.
"Let's see what's inside," Ning thought and tried to push it from the side of the slab.
Just as he was about to push it, a divine sense entered his mind.
"You do not belong here, Human," something spoke into his mind. Ning immediately turned towards the direction of the voice but saw no one.
"Who's there?" Ning asked trying to see if they were hiding behind the statues.
"Go away," a voice entered his mind. Ning turned around again. This time the sound was coming from the opposite direction, and the voice felt very different too.
"Do not open it," another voice made Ning turn to the right.
He still couldn't see anything, but by now he had a sinking suspicion on what could be happening.
Immediately, he spread out his divine sense, but he didn't stop at that. Instead, he started sending those divine senses into the statues themselves to check if his suspicions were true.
"HOW DARE YOU!" many divine senses bombarded him at the same time, but none of them could make Ning falter at all.
"Heh, so that's what it is, huh?" Ning said as he looked around him.
The statues he believed to be just statues were in fact beasts that seemed to have been plastered from outside to make a statue.
"I'm surprised so many of your kind are still alive."
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Chapter 328: Wound
"Human, do you know who we are?"
"This is disrespect."
"The humans have gotten arrogant."
"Let's give him a lesson."
Auras emanated from the surrounding statues as they started crashing down on Ning to punish him for his insolence.
Ning's knees caved in a little when the aura of so many beasts in the 9th Nascent Soul realm fell upon him at once.
However, that was only because Ning was caught off-guard. Once he realized what was happening, he slowly stood back up straight and contested the many beasts' push.
"You can go on as long as you like; I can do this all day long," Ning said. "Although, given how much you must have sacrificed to live for so long, are you sure you want to fight me right now?"
The aura disappeared as soon as it came.
"Who are you, human? The humans alive in our time were in no way this strong. Are all humans like you now?," one of the beasts said.
"No, I am an exception for sure," Ning said.
"I see. Then would you say who is the strongest in your world right now?" the beasts asked.
"Hmm… I'm not really sure, but I should be considered one of the strongest ones now," Ning said.
"Is that so?" one of the beasts said.
"The world is not ready yet."
"They need more time."
"We don't have more time."
"We must endure."
"For our children."
"Yes, for our children."
The beasts suddenly started talking amongst themselves and Ning just stood there listening to everything.
"What do we do now?"
"Send the human back."
"Should I ask him if he's seen my descendent?"
"Everyone, don't forget to focus. You're getting distracted."
"Yes."
"Brother Drake, please tell the human to leave."
Ning listened to the beasts continue speaking. He was curious as to what exactly they were talking about.
"What's going on?" Ning asked.
"Nothing, you should go back that way and fly out of here while you have the time, human. The seal doesn't stop you from leaving out," the Drake spoke.
"Okay… what was that about the world not being ready though? What is the world not ready for?" Ning asked.
"Huh? Where did you hear that?" the Drake asked in surprise.
"What do you mean? That silver-horned Deer just spok— Oh, right. I forgot I can easily understand the beasts. So, I sometimes forget that you are speaking a different language altogether," Ning said.
"You can understand our language, human?" the beasts asked in surprise.
"Yes," Ning said. "So, do you mind telling me what is happening in here?"
"That's… not something we can reveal," the beasts said.
"Okay… then tell me how you are alive. I remember learning that you were all killed by this one beast that came out of nowhere with the power of many legendary beasts. Was that false?" Ning asked.
The beasts went silent for a few moments after hearing Ning's questions. Finally, one of the beasts asked, "Where did you hear about this?"
"I have a beast of my own with some knowledge about it," Ning said and called out Aegis, Night, and Blue.
The three of them looked around and were surprised that nothing was there. They were fully expecting to fight someone right now.
"Why is one of my brethren out there?" the Golden Shelled Beetle's statue suddenly spoke.
Aegis looked to the statue that just spoke and was even more confused. "Master, that thing jus spoke," he said.
"Junior, don't call me a 'thing.' I am your ancestor," the Golden Shelled Beetle statue said. "Also, did you just call him master?"
"Yes, he is my master," Aegis said.
"INSOLENCE!" the beetle statue cried out. "How dare you enslave my kind?"
"Hey, don't speak about my master like that," Aegis's aura exploded when he got angry. His peak Nascent Soul realm cultivation base exploded.
"My child, are you brainwashed?" the beetle statue asked.
"Brother Beetle, I don't think that is the case," one of the other beasts spoke. "He seems to genuinely care about the human."
"So do they all," another beast spoke.
"A flood dragon… but you have the bloodline of the True Dragons. How is that possible? Your aura is stronger than mine. Has the world healed?" the Drake asked.
Blue looked around, not answering anything immediately.
"You!" the Dark Emperor Crow cried out when it saw Night. "How is that possible? How do you carry that bloodline? It should have gone extinct long before me."
"What are you talking about?" Ning asked.
"Can you not see it, human? That kin of mine has the bloodline of our ancestors," the Dark Emperor crow statue spoke.
"Oh, yeah. I knew that. Is that so surprising? I thought you all had it," Ning asked.
"We do… but the amount in him is way too high," the statue spoke. "But how? Are our ancestors back? Has the world truly healed again?"
"You guys keep saying that. What do you mean by that exactly? Was there something that happened in this world that wounded it?" Ning asked.
"We don't know," the beasts that. "These are just memories of ours from our ancestors. All we know is that our world was wounded and that counteracted the Origin,"
Ning's eyes suddenly went wide. "The Origin! What is that? I read about it somewhere. Someone wrote a book that said that the only way to break through to the spirit transformation realm is in the Origin."
"A human did?" the beasts asked.
"Yes," Ning said.
"Did he happen to be a bald man with a yellow and red cloth?" the beasts asked.
"Uhh… I don't know about what he wore. I only know the book he wrote," Ning said. "His name was Nergo Vansmith"
"Oh, so that human lived to tell a tale huh?"
"That weakling actually wrote a book, haha."
"Who is he?" Ning asked.
"The creator of this seal and the person in charge of creating the tomb outside," the beasts said.
"Since the world was favoring the Humans, we decided to give one a very important task."
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Chapter 329: Will Of The World
"And what was the important task?" Ning asked as he looked at the many statues.
"To seal this place," one of the beasts spoke.
"Right, what exactly is this place?" Ning asked.
"It's a prison, human. A prison to hold one of the strongest evil creatures ever to exist on this planet," the Drake said.
Ning suddenly had an epiphany. He looked towards the coffin in the center and slowly asked, "Is that the coffin of that Legendary beast that was said to have killed you all? Is that where its corpse lies?"
"Yes."
"No."
Ning got multiple answers at once, each contradicting the other. The confusing mess resulted in Ning learning nothing.
"Umm… can you guys just let brother Drake talk, please? All of you talking at once is hard to understand," Ning said.
"I alone shall speak then, human," the drake's statue said. "That coffin is in fact keeping Jha'Akim, but it's not his corpse that lies in there."
"then what?" Ning asked. he wondered if it was perhaps just a Nascent soul that managed to barely escape away.
"No! Jha'Akim was never defeated. He's still alive," the drake said. "He's sealed inside that coffin right now."
"What? You guys didn't defeat him at all?" Ning asked in surprise. From what he remembered, Night's memories never had anything aside from the fact that the war favored the lone beast with the bloodline of many.
He remembered there being no end to the story, but because the world was safe and every information about that beast was gone, he had naturally assumed that it was killed.
"So it never died," Ning asked. "How did you guys manage to seal it? I heard its cultivation base was close to if not in the Spirit Transformation realm."
"No, it was definitely in the Spirit Transformation realm. The Jha'Akim had found his way to the Origin that many were struggling to find and cultivated there for a while and entered the Spirit Transformation realm," the drake said.
"Sorry for changing the topic right now, but what is this Origin? I keep hearing it, but there is no information about it at all," Ning said.
"Origin as we call it is the place of origin for all Qi on the planet. It's the one location where Qi is created," the drake said. "Due to it being the origin, it has much higher Qi concentration than any other location."
"Hm… I had a suspicion. It's good to know that for sure though. Do you know where it is?" Ning asked.
"No. The ones that learned that Jha'Akim was cultivating in the Origin were killed before they could relay us the information of its whereabouts."
"However, we are sure that it was in the ocean for sure," the drake said.
"I see," Ning said. "Getting back on topic, how was he sealed exactly? Did you guys manage to overpower him in any way?"
"Yes," the drake said. "It's a little underhanded, but we found him alone when he was breaking through and brought him here before sealing him."
"You didn't kill him when you had the chance?" Ning asked.
"That was impossible. His body is stronger than anything we've seen before. It would have been impossible to kill him."
"We saw no other choice at that time, and we bet it all on the humans that were favored by the planet and came here with all of our people to seal Jha'Akim," the drake said.
"What do you mean by the humans are favored by the planet? Can you explain?" Ning asked.
"It's… I'm not sure how much of this is true since it's something I've learned from my memories, our memories, but it says that the planet has a will too. All of them do. It's an amount not enough to call the planet conscious, but there is definitely some form of cosmic will that a planet has. "
"Most planets that don't want life on them do whatever they can to stay barren and unpopulated. Those that do are the ones that want life."
"And of that, the planets also start biasing over which life they like more. Our planet previously preferred to have every beast among them."
"But slowly, once the humans emerged, the planet's preferences changed. It started favoring the humans, and slowly the beasts got weaker."
"The wound on the planet didn't help either. Soon, humans were starting to get as strong as beasts," the drake said.
"Wait, humans were that strong during the age of beasts too?" Ning asked.
"Yes. They were little in amount, but due to the planet's favor, the humans were getting stronger and stronger," the drake said.
"And yet, it was Jha'Akim that nearly destroyed you all, huh?" Ning asked.
"I don't believe that is by any coincidence either," the Drake said.
Ning was confused now. "Sorry, what do you mean?" he asked.
"It was not a coincidence that Jha'Akim was so strong," the drake said. "After all, he was a humanoid beast too."
"What?" Ning was surprised. "That beast was humanoid?"
"It's would be incorrect to call Jha'Akim a beast. He was many, but he was none. Jha'Akim was in fact a half-beast, half-human, born to a low leveled beast after a human copulated with it."
"From a young age, Jha'Akim was said to walk on two legs. Being half of both, he was ostracized from both the beasts and the humans. That was what we believe to be the reason he went to war against the world," the Drake said.
The new information he was getting made Ning more and more surprised. The beasts he thought were extinct were alive, Jha'Akim was alive, the Origin was revealed to him, he learned that the planet had a pseudo-will, and now he was learning that Jha'Akim was in fact born between a man and a beast.
"Wait, wait, wait," Ning paused for a moment. "Something doesn't make sense here."
"What doesn't?" the Drake asked.
"Wasn't Jha'Akim born with the blood of many legendary beasts? But you said he was born to a lowly beast," Ning asked.
"Ah, right. No, Jha'Akim was not born with the blood of the legendary beasts. However he did have the blood of the legendary beasts, all thanks to his powers," the drake said.
"His powers?" Ning asked.
"Yes. Jha'Akim had the power to devour blood of his enemies and integrate their bloodline onto himself."
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Chapter 330: Promise
"The power to devour blood and gain their bloodline? That doesn't sound like a normal ability someone should have," Ning said.
"Yes. We believe he was born with a heavenly constitution, one that allowed him to do all of that. After all, no ordinary beast should be able to reach the peak of Nascent Soul realm in mere 2 centuries," the Drake said.
"Still, it's been over 10 thousand years. Are you sure he's still alive?" Ning asked.
"We are alive, aren't we? We're sure he's alive too. We can feel him pushing on our powers to undo the seal. Each day, he grows stronger and stronger. Even when we sealed him the furthest away we could from the origin, and even siphoned away most of the Qi, his power still grows."
"It worries me that soon, we won't be able to stop him at all," the drake said.
"You… siphoned the Qi away?" Ning asked in confusion.
"Yes, we sealed him in the middle of this forest and also made a formation to take away the surrounding Qi to… somewhere," the drake said. "You must've felt the lack of Qi in the forest above right?"
"Umm… there is no forest outside.,. It's all a desert now," Ning said.
"Desert? No, it's a forest young man. You seem to have been mistaken," the drake said.
"No, it's a desert. It has been as such for the last thousands of years. It's a desert that spans thousands of kilometers and is surrounded by a massive jungle," Ning said.
"You aren't lying, are you?" the drake asked.
"No, that's the truth," Ning said.
The Drake went quiet for a few moments. Then, another beast spoke from the side.
"Did we… destroy our own home?"
"Is our home truly gone?"
"Where do we return to now? Where do our children return to?"
"No wonder the planet stopped favoring us. We are someone that would eventually destroy our own home."
The beasts started lamenting the fact that there was no longer a forest above where they were. The forest used to be their home, the majority of the Central Continent used to be their home.
"Is it because you guys took away the Qi that this desert came to be? Is that why a desert has such high mountain peaks? Because it wasn't originally a desert?" Ning asked.
The beasts stayed quiet for some time longer. Finally, the drake spoke again.
"It seems in our pursuit to quickly take care of Jha'Akim, we forgot to understand what adverse effects we might have been leaving behind in this world."
"Oh ancestors, forgive us. Your descendants have destroyed that which you loved," the drake cried out.
"Forgive us," every other beast cried out as well.
Ning stood there as the beasts started lamenting and asking for forgiveness. He had never been in such a situation, but he wondered how it must've felt for the beasts.
He was a little saddened by such thoughts but quickly stopped him from getting any more emotional.
"So, where is the Qi going? I hope you've put it to good use," Ning asked.
"Yes, we've done the best we could with what little time we had. We knew we couldn't leave our children outside, so we brought them with us. So, we had to make a small place for our children to live in," the drake said
"Human, do you have malice in your heart?" a beast spoke from the back. The beast was a Heart-Scouring Cyclops. It looked like a single ball of an eye floating with two massive wings on its back, and a single tail floating down behind it.
"I don't harm those that don't harm me. Not anymore," Ning said.
The beasts remained quiet for the Cyclops to speak.
"He's good to go," the Cyclops said.
"Great! Human, go beyond those doors. You can meet our children. The Qi there is quite high compared to other places too. However, in return we hope that you can do something for us," the drake said.
"What do you want?" Ning asked.
"I will tell you when you return," the Drake said.
Ning got a little suspicious and didn't move. "Can you not tell me what you want? I can't make promises on things I do not know about," Ning said.
"Don't worry, it's not something you should worry about. Just go and come back; we can talk about it later," the drake said.
Ning got even more suspicious now. "I'm not leaving until you've told me what it is I am going to do. It feels like you are going to guilt-trip me into accepting whatever you are going to make me do by letting me go in there," Ning said.
"I… alright fine," the drake gave up. "I… We, wanted you to bring our children back to us. Every once in a while, a child of ours gets curious about the outside world, and despite our caution, they leave to the outside world."
"Since the leaving aspect of the seal is nonexistent above, they easily get out of this tomb. I do not know what dangers there are above. The world is overrun by humans now as that is the will of this planet."
"We are worried that our children might have come across dangers that they were not ready to face at all. Or even those that wanted to return couldn't find a way to do so because of the way the seal was created."
"So, we all wanted to ask you to help those lost children reunite with us. That is all we wanted you to promise," the Drake said.
The other beasts didn't make a single sound either, but Ning could tell they were very expectant.
"Very well. I don't know if many could've remained alive because of how small their lifespan would be. But, I will try to get as many of them as possible. I promise you that," Ning said.
"Thank you, human. That is all we wanted. If you wish to, you can go visit our children outside of those doors now," the drake said.
"Okay. I will see you guys later then," Ning said and walked towards the door to see what lied beyond.
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