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Chapter 331: The Beasts' Secret Realm
Ning stood in front of the nearly 20 meters tall stone door and pushed it open only to realize that it was just an illusion. The door was in fact a portal that teleported him the moment he walked in.
Along with him, Aegis, Blue, and Night also walked into the portal and got teleported.
When they reappeared they were still inside a cave, but just a little ahead of them, they could see the path lead to a way outside.
Ning walked forward with the three beasts and went out of the cave. The moment they reached outside, they were welcomed by some bright light.
When the bright light finally went away, Ning could see a massive jungle down below with hundreds of birds of different colors flying in the sky.
The 4 of them were on top of a mountain, looking down at the beautiful green scenery down below. "Woah! look at that. That looks amazing," Ning said as he looked at the unending forest with beasts running about everywhere.
"The Qi here is also very concentrated. It's about the same, if not higher than that one beast island up," Ning said. "What do you guys think?"
"It… it really is amazing, master," Aegis said.
"I can see my brethren," Blue said as he saw many flood dragons far away in the distance.
The night however remained quiet, not answering anything.
Suddenly, 2 beasts flew up through the air and arrived in front of Ning. Once they reached close to him, they sent out divine sense towards all 4 of them.
Ning didn't mind and let them check him as much as they wanted. The two beasts, one a Seven tailed fox, and another a Mind Flaying Moth, were both surprised when they saw their cultivation base and started getting cautious.
"Seniors, who might you be?" the Fox asked cautiously. Suddenly seeing 4 different strong individuals arrive had them scared.
Soon, more and more beasts started appearing around them as they seemed to have noticed something was happening. Most beasts here had been born inside this secret realm, so they didn't even know what a human looked like.
The newer generation curiously checked out Ning, while the older generation nervously stood around waiting for Ning and the others to answer.
"Don't be scared, we aren't bad company. I found the seal to back there accidentally, and your ancestors told me to come here to see you guys," Ning said.
"The ancestors allowed you inside?" the beasts asked.
"Yes," Ning said.
"Why would they do that?" the beasts asked amongst themselves. They saw no reason why their ancestors would ever send someone so strong to them.
"Well, they probably wanted to guilt-trip me into helping them. They didn't know whether I would help them out otherwise or not," Ning said.
"So, your purpose of the visit is… nothing?" they asked.
"Pretty much. I guess I will just look around and leave," Ning said. The beasts were still quite cautious and didn't immediately accept the answer.
Suddenly, Ning fully unleashed his cultivation base, drowning the entire group of beasts in his incredibly strong aura. The beasts could barely use their cultivation base to not get crushed.
Then the aura disappeared. It disappeared as quickly as it appeared. The beasts got back up and immediately put up a fighting stance.
"Can you guys defeat me if I were to fight your?" Ning asked.
The beasts looked around at themselves, trying to look for a positive answer to that question. Unfortunately, there was none.
"No, right?" Ning asked. The beasts couldn't help but nod in agreement.
"Then you guys should stop being too untrusting of me. If I wanted to come here for any malicious reasons, I wouldn't have to fake an act in front of you guys," Ning said.
The beasts looked at themselves. "I guess… that's true," the Seven Tailed Fox said. "We're sorry for showing such a disrespectful side of us senior, but we could never be too careful. I hope you can forgive us, Senior."
"It's alright. Let's go and see what your little realm is like. I'm really curious what the ruler of the past made of their final gift to their children," Ning said.
"Yes, please come, senior," the beasts started taking them down below. Ning nodded and flew down. Night, Aegis, and Blue followed him and flew downward too.
The beasts kept on looking at Ning as if he was something they had never seen before. Ning chuckled a little since that was true.
They also kept on staring at his beasts, especially at their aura. Aegis was normal. He was strong and had a very high cultivation base, but he inherently wasn't any different from the other beasts here.
However, Night and Blue were different. Their unusually domineering aura kept attracting the gazes of the many beasts.
The 3 of them too felt quite weird about the entire situation. Aegis was surrounded by a few of the Golden Shelled Beetles as well as the other beasts and was talking about them.
Blue had started acting all high and mighty in front of the many beasts that were surprised by his aura that included the aura of his True Dragon's bloodline. That was especially effective at pulling in the gazes of the beasts with dragon bloodlines in them.
As for Night, he tried to remain by himself but was also getting surrounded by other beasts. They were asking him about the unique bloodline he had, but unfortunately for them, Night still had no clue he even had something unique.
The powers he had were something he instinctively knew to use since he was born. It was only now that he met with the other Dark Emperor crows that he finally learned that was not the case.
Ning looked at the 3 of them and started getting a bitter feeling in his heart regarding the fact that the three of them had been stuck with him for so many years, unable to live a life of their own.
He was starting to feel very guilty about it.
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Chapter 332: Choice
The secret realm lasted for hundreds of kilometers. After a certain while, the forest would end, and a sea would start where the other aquatic beasts would live.
Ning visited all of that and was shocked that such a secret realm was actually created by the beasts.
"It's hard to believe that the beasts the world thought had gone extinct were actually just chilling here," Ning said.
"Yes, our ancestors thought that we couldn't survive on our own in the changing world, so they made this for us. I don't know how much of that is true though," one of the beasts said.
Ning looked around and said, "they're certainly correct. There are many people that are way stronger than you that would love to enslave you out there."
"Just look at me. In my attempt to get stronger, I got the three of them too. Fortunately, I haven't done anything wrong to them, but not everyone is like that."
"That's why your ancestors are worried. The world was changing, and they had enough foresight to see what could have happened if they left you guys out," Ning said.
"I see," the beasts said.
They started talking amongst themselves regarding how bad the situation was out there.
"Senior, does that mean we will have to worry about our child?" the beasts asked.
"My son left this place a few years ago? Is he okay?"
"My child left not so long ago too. I hope to see him soon."
"Grayback Bee's child left this place too quite a few years ago."
"Oh no, if the world is so bad, will our children still be okay?"
Ning looked at the beasts that started getting worried and panicked. "No, no, don't think like that," Ning said.
"While it is true that not everyone outside is good, it's not like there are bad people either. Just because someone tames your children doesn't mean they will do horrible things to them."
"There are quite a few of them that treat their tamed beasts like their brothers and sisters, and would die for them."
"Or, maybe your children were smart enough to avoid the humans too. After all, your ancestors out there will tell them what's wrong and what's right before they get to leave."
"So, stop worrying about it all. Besides, I'm going to get as many back as I can," Ning said.
Finally, the beasts started getting relieved and stopped worrying about their children so much. Ning stopped talking as well, as he thought that saying anything anymore would only lead to more worrying from the beasts.
The beasts asked him some more questions about the outside world, and Ning answered as much as he could. In just a few hours of being in this realm, he had explained to them everything about the outside world.
'The competition must be starting soon. I should leave now,' Ning thought and looked around to call back his three beasts.
But then he stopped.
He saw Aegis with his own people talking like they were friends. Aegis was very much having fun in a place where Ning didn't believe he could have fun. As shy as he was around others, he seemed to have lost that around his own people.
Ning smiled when he saw that. It was finally like Aegis was starting to live his life for himself.
He then saw Blue out there showing off his great achievements and how he would soon become the strongest being on the whole planet.
Ning chuckled when he saw that. Blue really loved being respected, and thankfully he wasn't annoying. The other beasts seemed to love him very much immediately too.
Night who loved staying alone and in silence was also opening up to the other beasts who constantly asked him questions. He got flustered when a female Dark Emperor crow started getting closer to him and nearly stuttered when he spoke.
A warm feeling emerged inside Ning. 'Finally, they are somewhere where they can belong,' Ning thought.
A conflicting feeling started brewing up in his heart. He wanted to take them away now that he was leaving, but that felt really wrong for them.
However, he also wanted to let them stay, but if he did that, then all the work he had put into getting them to become stronger would be wasted for him. Although, it wouldn't be wasted on them.
'I should let them make the decision,' Ning thought and called all of them over.
"Yes, master," the three of them arrived in front of him.
"How is this place? Do you guys like this?" Ning asked.
"This place is amazing, master. I really like this," Aegis said in a child-like manner. He seemed really excited about making new friends.
"Master, we should have come here earlier. I would've loved fighting against them when I was just getting stronger," Blue said. "Although, I doubt they could've to beat me even when I was weaker than I am now. After all, I have the blood of a True Dragon."
Ning smiled and waited for Night to answer, but Night chose to remain quiet.
"What? You don't have anything to say?" Ning asked.
"It's… It's fine. It's not a bad place," Night said.
"Really? It's only fine?" Ning asked with a scrutinizing look.
Night got flustered and said, "I guess… it's better than that. I don't mind being here."
"I see, so you guys really like this place huh? But unfortunately, it's time to leave," Ning said. All 3 of the beasts showed signs of reluctance on their face.
"Can't we stay a little longer, master?" Blue asked.
"Do you want to?" Ning asked.
Blue and Aegis furiously nodded. Night looked away not wanting to answer.
"Okay, since the intercontinental competition will be starting soon, I want to go there to see what sort of talents are there," Ning said. "Since it's a month-long competition, it will take quite a while to end."
"So, you guys have a choice to make. I can leave with you three right now, and we only come back once in a while to return the lost beasts."
"Or… you could stay here for the next month, or maybe even more while I am out living a slow life."
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Chapter 333: 6:1 Difference
Ning flew back up to the cave once more. He stopped before entering and looked back to see all 3 of his beasts happily interacting with the rest of the beasts.
'If that's what they want then who am I to say otherwise,' Ning thought.
Without any more consideration, he walked back into the portal in the cave. He was once more teleported and arrived outside, back in the tomb of Jha'Akim.
"You're back already?" the beasts were surprised.
"Yeah, there wasn't really anything for me to do there. I don't even really know why you sent me there, because I would have gone out to search for your descendants despite not going there," Ning said.
"But… we didn't send you there for yourself," the Drake said.
"Huh?" Ning was surprised. "Then why else would you se— Oh, I see," he said. "Yeah, well… your plan worked. My beasts love the place, and I've even left them there for a month before I return."
"You will return back in a month?" the beasts questioned.
"Oh yeah, I will take the information about which-which children of yours have left at that time too," Ning said.
"Oh, that's fine… but which month are you coming back on?" the drake asked.
"What do you mean which month? I'm coming back in a month," Ning said.
"Yeah, but which one?" the drake asked.
"How many different types of 1 month are there? I will return in 30 days," Ning said.
The beasts didn't speak for a moment before one of them spoke once more. "Yeah, but which one?"
Ning was confused now. "What do you mean by which one?" he asked.
The beasts went silent once more. Due to most of their body being encased in stone, Ning couldn't even see their emotions. Finally, the drake asked, "Did you not realize it when you came here?"
"What didn't I realize?" Ning asked.
"That the time moves differently here," the drake said.
Ning stopped for a second. "What's that supposed to mean? Is there a time dilation in this cave?" he asked.
"Not just this cave, but for the secret realm as well. Why else do you think we could live for thousands of years while constantly keeping Jha'Akim in check?" the drake asked.
"It's because… time moves slower in here," Ning asked as if he understood something.
"Yes," the drake said. "The time dilation is about 6 hours in the outside world for every 1 hour in here. That is why we've lived so long. We can't live for thousands upon thousands of years. For us, it's only been a little over two thousand years."
"Oh wow, I didn't realize that. So the last 7-8 hours I've spent here and the secret realm will equate to about 2 days in the real world huh?" Ning wondered. "Anyway, that means you can live for a lot more years huh?"
"We may live for a thousand or so years more, but by that time, Jha'Akim might have already left his prison. We can feel his power increasing day by day. If you can, human, please gather the best of your people to prepare for what's coming," the beasts said.
"Okay, I shall do that," Ning said. "I will come back in… 6 or so days to get back information about your children that left. Until then, take care."
Ning bid his farewell for now and walked back through the cave. He looked at the markings on the wall and finally realized what those were.
"So these are the claw marks of Jha'Akim, huh?" Ning thought as he placed his palm on top of where the marks were and saw that Jha'Akim's claws were nearly ten times as large as his hands.
'I wonder how big he is. Being a hybrid between a man and a beast, he must be really unique,' Ning thought. 'However, in the first place, how did he even get conceived? Human and a beast… that's not biologically possible.'
'Unless, it's because early men came from the beasts too, so it was possible back in those periods,' Ning thought. He tried to stop thinking about it, but his mind kept thinking about it.
Once he was ready, he flew up. Soon he came upon the ceiling of the cave, but he didn't stop. Instead, he slammed through the ceiling.
However, he didn't hit anything. Instead, he was sent back out onto the tomb above the seal.
It was a bit after the afternoon when he was out. Ning looked around and saw the gazed of the many people looking at him.
He ignored them and looked below him. He checked for his gold coin, but someone had taken it already.
'I will need to make sure someone doesn't accidentally enter the seal,' Ning thought and looked around to find the stone slab that was there previously and placed it back in the middle.
"It's him. He's the one that threatened us before," a woman shouted. Ning looked back and saw that it was the same woman who had explained to him about the fake history of this place.
Many black-skinned fighters came into the tomb. Ning just shook his head and walked out of the room. The fighters ran up to try and stop him, but no matter what they did, they couldn't stop him.
Ning casually walked outside while the fighters tried every possible ability in their arsenal to try and stop Ning.
Seeing that nothing they did could stop him, they immediately switched from attacking to begging. They begged for him to forgive them and have mercy after they realized how strong he was.
Ning shook his head and flew away without saying anything. The men were in fear and all the people there were concerned for their life now, but Ning didn't care.
Those people had nothing to do with him. "They were supposed to reach the academy 5 days later, right? Meaning I still have quite a while. Urghh! They will start asking questions if I suddenly reappear on the boat."
"I guess I will take my time going there then."
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Chapter 334: Important Figure
5 days after leaving the academy, the group of folks from the Five Professions academy reached the location of the competition, the Scarlet Oasis.
By now, the group of students was all tired of sitting down and were incredibly bored because of the monotonous journey through the central continent.
After Ning left, Ely had stopped using her vehicle and moved onto the boat to look after Artifact wing's students as well.
"We've arrived," Yola said to the group.
The many students were suddenly energized and immediately walked up to the front of looked down at the new scenery.
Ely too looked down at the massive oasis, always surprised how big it was. 'Can you ever call that thing an oasis?' she wondered.
The Scarlet Oasis was a massive oasis that spanned nearly a hundred kilometers in diameter. It was more of a sea than it was an oasis. The water there was fully red and the surrounding area was also fully inhabited.
No one knew why the water was red there, but they knew it was harmless and lived there without any worry.
In the middle of the oasis was a massive island that was about a dozen or so kilometers wide. That was home to the Bright Red Academy.
There were multiple ferries at the port that went to and from the academy, but most of the people coming here today didn't need one.
Ely could see hundreds of people flying towards the academy. Given how important the next couple of weeks were going to be for these young ones, there were bound to be millions upon millions of people coming over just to watch the competition.
'Not all of them should be going in,' Ely thought. 'Still, there should be hundreds of thousands of people that come in. I wonder how the folks over at the academy are going to handle these many people,' Ely wondered.
"Look at all those disciples," Yola said from the front of the boat. "It seems they've gotten the security quite strict this time."
Ely looked a bit further ahead in the sky and saw a line of people blocking the others from entering. "They must have some sort of requirements to enter this time. I wonder what that is," Ely thought.
"Let's move," Yola said and continued the boat towards the academy. The few different boats all moved towards the academy and were soon stopped by the security of the academy.
"Oh," the person said when they saw the group. "Welcome, Principal Yola. We're glad to see that you've made it. We're sorry that our principal can't come to accompany you this time. It's… just been way too hectic around here."
"Oh, it's okay. Has the Saint Alchemist arrived by now?" Yola asked.
"Yes. He arrived a few days ago, and has been settling fine," the person said.
"Oh, is Tsado looking after him?" she asked.
"Uh, no. The Saint Alchemist has gone into closed cultivation for a few days until the Alchemy competition starts," the person says.
"Oh, and even then Tasdo isn't coming here? That's weird. He used to always come by and escort us. Is he that busy this time?" Yola asked.
"Uh, yeah. I believe Principal Tsado is looking after some very important guests right now," the person said.
"Even more important than us?" Yola asked jokingly.
The person looked at her unable to immediately answer. However, in the end, he did speak and said, "I mean no disrespect senior, but yes."
Yola was surprised. The entire boat full of people was surprised as well.
"You're serious?" Yola asked with a serious face herself.
"Yes, senior," the person said.
"How important?" Yola asked. She was surprised that there was someone other than the emperor who she learned was coming later on, or the Saint Alchemist who was in closed cultivation.
"Uh…" the person deliberated for a bit and finally answered. "Perhaps… even more, important than the Saint Alchemist himself."
"What?" Yola's eyes went wide when she heard that. All the teachers and students in the boat gave a similar reaction too.
"Who is it?" Yola asked.
"I don't know, senior. They were a big group of people, and one of them was very strong. I have never seen such a high cultivation base before," the person said.
"Oh, were they from a different continent?" Yola asked.
"I believe so. But they didn't say which, so we don't know for sure," the person said.
"I see. I will ask Tsado later," Yola said. "For now, let's move. We don't want to create a pause in your work."
"Yes, please follow me," the person said and took them with him.
The disciples forgot about the giant red body of water down below them and started talking about the different people from the other continent.
'Hmm, Ning said Anya wasn't coming, so that leaves senior Hyesi and his family. But they don't have anything to do with Alchemy? Did they come here?' Ely wondered.
'However, if it wasn't them, who else could be so important to the principal?' Ely started wondering. She had visited the southern continent on her own for a few years, and she knew that continent didn't have that many strong people in it.
Event the northern continent only had a handful of people that could be considered strong, and half of that was due to Ning's influence.
The ones that were strong on their own didn't have anything to do with Alchemy as far as Ely could remember. 'So… it's senior Hyesi's group, right?' Ely thought.
'Whatever, I will find out soon,' she thought and stopped caring about it.
The person from the academy took them to the island and showed them the newly built buildings. The massive deserted island was now full of buildings and stuff.
"You guys did this in just a year huh? That's very impressive," Yola said.
"Thank you, senior," the person said.
They landed down in front of a rather large building.
"Please enter, Senior. This is the place you will be staying for the next 30 days."
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Chapter 335: Mysterious Figure
The people from Five Professions Academy started getting settled into their place. Their place of stay for the next month was a massive, hotel-like building with many rooms in it.
"Woah" the students walked in, very surprised at their new place of stay. Quickly, the teachers started selecting the rooms for the students.
"Alright, rest for now. The competition starts tomorrow, so you won't have much free time after that," Yola said.
The students nodded and all went to their rooms to rest. Most of the teachers also went to their rooms. Only Yola didn't go into her room.
When she turned around, she found out that Ely hadn't returned to her room either. "Teacher Ely, you're not going to rest?" Yola asked.
"Oh? What about you Yola?" she asked. "Don't you need to rest?"
"I… I will soon," Yola said.
"Alright, stop acting. I know you want to go see who is so important that Tsado isn't even giving you the time to welcome you," Ely said.
"Hah, I can't escape the eyes of someone so old, can I?" Yola said.
"Come, I'm curious too," Ely said and they both the place. Just as they walked out, they saw a ship land in front of the place on the right to theirs.
"Oh, they're here too," Yola said in surprise.
"Hey, Yola! You guys got here before us?" A man shouted from the top of the ship. He said something quietly to the people on the boat and jumped down.
When he reached the ground, Ely could see that the man was a middle-aged person with golden hair and green robes. He looked a little familiar to her, but she couldn't understand from where.
"Oh, Jivon, you arrive almost at the same time as we did," Yola said. "I would've thought you guys would leave earlier than us."
"Yeah we were going to, but Sephyr suddenly had a lot of visitors from the southern continent, so we couldn't leave in time."
"I would've assumed the same to be for you and the guys from Noetra," Jivon said. "Sigh, Urnet might be the only empire that has a relatively normal time right now."
He then turned around to Ely and quickly bowed down. "Good Afternoon, Teacher Eleonora. I see you are doing quite well," he said.
"Do I know you?" Ely asked. She still couldn't quite remember where she saw her.
"Oh, you might have forgotten me, after all, it's been so many years. I am Jivon Hegger, the current head of the Great Beginners Academy of the Sephyr empire."
"I used to study artifact in the Five Professions Academy about a millennia ago, so you might not remember me at all," Jivon said.
"Oh, right right. Now I remember. You are the kid that made the Stinkbomb and got expelled, aren't you?" she asked.
Jivon's face got a little red. "I'm surprised you remember that, teacher Eleonora. I would've expected everyone to forget about it," he said.
"That sort of thing is not something one easily forgets," Ely said with a light chuckle. "I see you're doing quite well. You must've become the head quite recently then, didn't you? I remember the head being Tymo last time."
"Unfortunately, senior Tymo passed away in closed cultivation so I had to take his place," Jivon said with a sad face.
"I see," Ely said. "Anyway, don't you want to go inside with your students. Why are you staying out here?"
"Oh right, I wanted to ask. Did Tasdo come out for you guys? He didn't even come to get me. So rude," Jivon said.
"No. His students said that he is busy with someone really strong from another continent," Yola said.
"Yeah, he said the same thing to me too. I wanted to go see who is so important that he isn't leaving at all," Jivon said.
"We were just about to go there too. Come, let's go," Yola said and flew away. Jivon flew behind her, and Ely flew at the end.
Before soon, they arrived inside the Bright Red Academy's official grounds and entered. The students there didn't dare stop the Heads of two different academies from entering at all.
"Wow, these students are so lax. They just let us enter without even saying anything," Jivon said.
"That's quite weird really," Yola said.
Soon they realized why they were so lax. A little ahead of them was a short, fat man with a half-bald head with white dress pacing outside of the door to the principal's door.
"Oi, Fren. The hell are you doing here?" Jivon asked in surprise.
"Oh, principal Yola, Jivon. You guys are here too? Are you here for the same thing?" the man named Fren asked. Fren didn't acknowledge Ely's existence as she was just a mere teacher in front of them.
"Are you not going inside?" Jivon asked.
"I tried to, but Tsado didn't let me enter," Fren said.
"Didn't let you enter?" Yola asked confusedly.
"Yeah, I knocked on his door multiple times, and he came out only to tell me to wait longer. The audacity of that man," Fren got angry. "I don't know how important that man with the purple robe could be."
"Oh, you saw who was in there?" Yola asked.
"Oh yeah. It was some guy with a purple dress and a head full of hair. Although I only saw his back, so I don't know how he looks like," Fren said.
Jivon looked at him and asked, "So you don't know which continent he is—"
The door opened.
"Thank you, senior. Your words were very enlightening to me," a hoarse voice came from inside the room.
"Oh, Tsado's out," Jivon said softly.
"Oh no, it's fine. I was just saying what I learned. You would have learned it sooner or later yourself," a young voice came from inside the room.
A dark-skinned, broad-faced, middle-aged man walked out with a young man in a purple robe behind them.
Ely and Yola looked at the young man in surprise, and the young man noticed them as well.
"Oh! hey, Ely. You guys are finally here," the young man said with a smile.
The mysterious person they were so curious to see was none other than Ning himself.
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Chapter 336: Explanation
Ely wanted to laugh out loud after seeing Ning there. The person she was so curious to find out about had turned out to be none other than him.
The other 2 principals looked around in confusion not knowing what was going on. Not even Jivon knew about Ning due to him being a very reserved figure in the Alchemy wing for the last hundreds of years.
Yola on the other hand didn't know what to think. She knew a little about Ning, especially the truth about him being old. But other than that, she hadn't bothered looking into much information about him.
"What are you doing here, teacher Ning?" Yola asked. "Didn't you leave for somewhere before us?"
"Ah, it seems your academy's people are here, senior," Tsado said when he saw Yola. He then looked at the rest and said, "Good to see you guys have made it here quite fast. Let me introduce you to senior Ning."
Tsado then went on to introduce him to the other 2 principals as a very important figure in the entire continent.
Yola couldn't understand how that was possible.
"Wait, I thought your disciples said you were with someone from a different continent," Jivon asked.
"Oh, that was just a misunderstanding. Senior Ning was actually with people from the northern continent, so I assumed they were together and told my disciples so," Tsado said.
"Alright, you guys continue talking. It seems my academy members are here, so I will go over now," Ning said.
"Oh, no senior. We can't let to stay in such a crowded place. Let us prepare a place especially for you," Tsado said.
"Oh no, it's not necessary. I will just go stay with the other teachers. After all, I'm a teacher too," Ning said.
"Are you sure, senior? We can easily prepare a place for you," Tsado insisted.
"It's fine. I like being with other people," Ning said. "Alright, I will see you tomorrow then."
Ning then walked up to Ely and said, "Let's go."
Ely nodded and started walking for a bit before stopping and looking back. "Yola, you're not coming?" she asked.
"I will stay with them for a while," Yola said.
"Oh, okay," Ely said and walked away with Ning.
Ely and Ning flew back to their new place of stay. Ning found himself a room and Ely walked in. "What happened to 'I will get there a little later after you'? Did you teleport here?" Ely asked.
"Oh no. I came here after I was done with my task," Ning said.
"So no teleport? Also, who did you come with? They said you were with someone from a different continent," Ely asked.
"Oh, that's because I was," Ning said. "Let's see…so after I did what I had to in the Grime oasis, I was about 2 days later than you guys. So, I planned on taking my time, flying through the sky."
"But then, on the way, I saw a few people getting attacked by giant sand vultures in the sky and saved them. When I finally saw them, I realized I recognized them," Ning said.
"You recognized them? Is it someone from Klavis, or Seven Lights city?" Ely asked.
"Oh no. Uh, I took you there but you didn't get to see them at that time," Ning said. "Remember Deepskull Island?"
"Deepskull island? That sounds familiar," Ely thought. "Wait, was that Anya's home?"
"Yeah, that island. Remember how I told you I was there for about a year?" Ning said. "So, I met those guys again, the people from the Purple Beasts academy."
"After I saved them and realized who they were, I showed them that I was an alumnus from their school and was allowed to come with them."
Ely listened to his story quite attentively. "So they didn't recognize you, huh? The people you knew must've already been dead by then," Ely said.
"I left that place for over 300 years before I came to Five Professions Academy. Even after that, it's been over 1800 years. Given how those people could barely reach the gold core realm, I doubt they would survive at all."
"After Anya's father died, and the two heads and the other elders that knew her died, she started getting distant from the sect too."
"She said she rarely went back to revisit them. Even then, she would just reminisce outside and never go in," Ning said.
"I see. Anyway, continue. How did you come here so fast?" Ely asked.
"Oh right. It turned out that they had an incredible flying artifact that they were gifted a few centuries ago and were using it. However, because they didn't have a Nascent Soul cultivator, they couldn't use it properly."
"I too wanted to get here just in time to meet you guys so I sped up too. However, it seems that I may have been just a little bit too fast," Ning said.
Ely got curious this time. "I would love to see what artifact could allow someone to fly this fast," she said. "Anyway, how did you get in with Tsado."
"Oh yeah that… is an embarrassing story," Ning said with an awkward face.
"Spill it," Ely said.
"Sigh, when we reached here, I saw that there were people guarding the way. I was mostly hiding my cultivation, so the people from the Purple Beasts sect were deemed weaklings and weren't allowed entry at all."
"So… I may or may not have flared my cultivation to give them a bit of a scare," Ning said with an embarrassed face.
"And that got you to Tsado?" Ely asked.
"Yeah. He had to come himself after a few of the students in charge of security fainted in mid-air after my little scare," Ning said.
Ely started chuckling when she heard that.
"Hey, stop laughing. Everyone was looking at me. It was so embarrassing," Ning said.
"Well, congratulations. Many of the people coming here now know that you are more important than the Saint Alchemist himself."
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Chapter 337: Tournament's Start
A day passed and it was time for the tournament.
"Do you know the schedule of the tournaments?" Ning asked Ely.
"Hmm… I'm not sure," Ely said, so she asked the same question to Yola who was starting to act weird around Ning.
"The saint alchemist has requested that the alchemy competition be the first one, so that will take place in the first 10 days, I believe."
"Followed by another 10 days of other production-based competitions. Finally, ending with last 10 days of combat-based events," Yola said.
"Oh, Alchemy is getting such a center stage huh, the Saint Alchemist's influence must be a lot," Ning said. "I wonder if it's comparable to Anya."
"Who's Anya? Either way, I doubt anyone can compare to Saint Alchemist," Yola said.
"Do you think Anya is as good as the Saint Alchemist?" Ely whispered into Ning's head.
"She's comparable to me, so she has to be better than that old man,' Ning said. "Besides, he spent the last 2100 years figuring stuff out, while Anya knew them all from the start. The advantage she got from the books I left was not small. And I kept adding onto them a few every century."
"Sigh, it's a shame she won't be coming then," Ely said.
The group soon reached the competition ground which actually had a small secret realm in the center.
"Oh, an active secret realm. I'm surprised you don't have to open this one yourself," Ning said.
"All the competition takes place in there. We can see what happens inside out here," Ely said. They all had designated seats and it seemed they didn't have to leave at all.
The desert island was filled with nothing but seats to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of people that had come to the place.
"I will go up there now. You guys go in when it's your time," Yola said to the rest of the teachers and students and turned around to leave.
Just then Tsado came over to their group and bowed. "Senior Ning, would you be so kind as to grace us with your presence in the tower?" he said.
"Oh… uhh… can Ely come?" he asked.
"Um…" Tsado looked over at Ely wondering if he should let her go up to the tower or not.
Ning saw the hesitation and said, "You do know that she's thrice as old as you, right?"
Tsado's eyes immediately went wide and he turned around to look at Ely with a new eyes of reverence. "Senior, I'm so sorry for my rude behavior. Would you please come up to the tower to watch the competition with us? It will be our honor if you did," he said.
Ely chuckled and nodded. Together, the three of them flew off to the top of a massive tower north of the secret realm entrance with Yola following behind them.
"Oh, there are quite a few people here already," Ning said, looking at the group of people in the tower already.
People of every color and culture were here, and Ning recognized quite a lot of them. He was just looking around when he noticed an old man come up behind him and immediately bowed.
"Inikaka, you're finally here," the man said.
Ning turned around and smiled. "It's good to see you again, Hijaka. I didn't know you guys had already arrived," Ning said.
Hijaka smiled and said, "We arrived late last night, so we couldn't come to meet you."
Hijaka was now an old man with a white beard and hair. Being Hyesi's eldest grandson, Ning cared for Hijaka quite a lot as well.
"Senior Ely, it's great to see you again," Hijaka said.
"Please don't call me a senior. You are my elder," Ely said. After all, Hijaka was born way earlier than Ely ever did and was just as if not stronger than her.
"No, you are Inikaka's friend, so I cannot address you as anything other than a Senior. Please do not take away this honor from me," Hijaka said.
Ely hesitated a bit. "It's fine. Let him say what he wants to," Ning said.
"Alright, let's go sit," Ely said. So, the three of them went up to their seat and sat down. More and more people arrived, and Ning talked with Hijaka for a while to pass the time.
The Saint Alchemist arrived too and got a seat for himself. Ning watched as the competition was finally starting.
The host for the competition started introducing it while Tsado gave his own small explanation for the people sitting high in the tower.
"So, per the Saint Alchemist's request, we are going to have 10 different challenges for the Alchemy part of the tournament."
"Every 3 challenges, we will weed out 80% of the contestants such that by the final day, we will only have to choose the winner from one-hundredth of the original amount," Tsado said.
Everyone nodded as they heard him. The host was explaining the same thing down below and soon nearly 50,000 contestants were gathered in front of the entrance to the secret realm.
"So young," Ning said when he saw the contestants. "Did you have some sort of requirements?"
Tsado looked at Ning and said, "Yes, senior. Since these are all here to fight for senior Saint Alchemist's inheritance, they are all required to be no older than a century old."
The other people in the room showed no reaction when they heard that. 'So everyone but me knew, huh?' he thought.
"So, what's the first challenge?" someone asked.
Tsado turned back towards the rest of the crowd and continued explaining. "So, for the first round, it will be Ingredient recognizing test. The participants will be sent into the secret realm and will have to write the name of every ingredient they see in that order."
"Based on the correct name, in the correct place, they will earn exactly one point," Tsado said.
"Oh, they started going in," someone said. Everyone looked down to see the first person go in.
"Since they just went in, we will have to wait about 9 minutes for the numbers to start popping up since they will only have 5 seconds per ingredient to recognize them without touching."
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Chapter 338: First Phase
The lines of participants were so long that most had to sit in their own place until their number was called. Even after droves of people went in, there seemed to be no end to the participants.
"So many contestants," someone said. "Won't it take forever to complete this?"
Tsado heard that and said, "Ah, sorry for the misunderstanding. There isn't just one set of ingredients in there. We have set about 10 sets of 100. With 10 participants going in at once, it shouldn't take that long."
"Ah, that makes more sense. With that, it should be over in about 7 hours," the first person said again.
Ning looked around, not knowing what to watch. There was nothing that could interest him her at all.
Finally, the rankings started popping out in front of them.
"Ah, it's out," someone said, pointing at the two different sets of rankings. However, both of those two had the same numbers and points on them.
"What's going on?" someone asked. They didn't know why there would possibly be two different, but same lists there.
"Oh, it's been 9 minutes, huh?" Tsado said. "Let me explain what is happening."
"The smaller ranking is the number of points each participant has acquired in the latest competition. The larger ranking is the same thing, but for all of the tournament. So, since it's only been a single competition, for now, it's like that. However, it will surely change in the upcoming days," Tsado said.
"There is also the thing that participants that don't make it to the top Ten Thousand in the first 3 competition won't get to move on, so we only have those people in the main rankings," Tsado said.
"Oh, I see."
People finally understood what was going on.
"But then, why is there number instead of names?" someone asked.
"Oh, that is to keep the privacy of some of the participants," Tsado said. "There are many that expressed their desires to remain unknown, so we decided to respect their wishes and not use a numbering system instead of names."
"Sigh, these kids. Not even a hundred years old, and already worrying about their image," someone said as they shook their head.
"Is that why there are so many wearing cloaks and such? It's because you are allowing them to keep their privacy?" another person asked.
"Yes. That is exactly it," Tsado said. "If they wish to not be seen, then I thought it was fine for them to not show their face."
"Although, you do not have to worry about any sort of cheating. I have made sure that they don't change themselves with other people, so I have given a tracking talisman to them. The moment the talisman goes more than 3 meters away from them, they will be disqualified from the competition."
"They are only allowed to have the right to privacy after agreeing to that."
"Also, I secretly recorded their aura, and if the number they have do not match their aura, they will be disqualified then as well," Tsado said.
The many people up in the tower nodded their heads in agreement thinking that was a good choice.
While the participants down below did their best, the people in the tower were simply having fun watching the competition.
"Woah, that's a 98," someone said. "That's quite high."
"The test must be hard if only one person got a 98 in the last hour," another person said.
"Ah, I should have asked my grandson what his number was."
"Those kids told me nothing about it at all."
Ning was surprised a bit too. "I didn't know there was a number system," he said.
"You would've learned if you paid attention to Yola when she spoke," Ely said. "Oh wait, you weren't even present when she explained that."
"Hehe, I'm too old to listen to children speak," Ning said.
"Stop acting like you're old. I know you spent most of those time sleeping," Ely said.
"Hey, you can't call me out like that. So what if I slept? Time still passed," Ning said.
"Did it pass for your body?" Ely asked.
"Uh…that was not the criteria to be old as far as I'm aware," Ning said.
Hijaka saw the two of them bickering and laughed.
Ning and Ely heard him and stopped talking. "Ahem, so is anyone from Klavis taking part?" Ning asked.
"Yes. There is my nephew's son that's going to take part," Hijaka said.
"Your Nephew's son? Oh, Hekti's grandson, huh? Man, he was just a child when I saw him after returning from Vilmore. I can't believe he's already a grandfather too," Ning said.
"Yes, his grandson, Yandi is taking part too, along with a few other kids from the city," Hijaka said. "Although I must say, I also didn't realize the kids were going to have numbers instead of names. Now I don't know how well they did."
"How well do they learn from the books I left?" Ning asked.
"Unfortunately, not very much," Hijaka said.
"Still, it should be okay. Right?" Ning said.
Numbers after numbers started popping up. By 5 hours mark, there were about 10 different 99, 125 different 98, and several hundreds of 97. Given how long it was going on, they were surprised there weren't many more.
"The ingredients must be quite hard then," Ning said.
They waited for some more time and another 2 99-point numbers appeared. They were all wondering how well that was when suddenly, a number with 100 points jumped up to the top of the list.
"Woah, a 100? That's awesome," someone said.
"Who did that?" another person asked.
They watched down at the entrance and saw 10 figures walk out. None of them had any intentions of hiding themselves, and they could clearly see their faces.
Unfortunately, with 10 people coming out, and none of them showing any positive faces, the group in the tower couldn't guess who it was.
Just then, another 100 popped up. This caused some more commotion in the tower as well.
"2 back-to-back 100s? There must be quite a few talented youngsters in the back half," someone said.
"Oh wow, who is it this time, can we tell?" they said and looked down once again.
They saw 9 sad faces with no sign of happiness in them, and finally, a 10th figure that was cloaked and was hiding their face.
"It seems to be the cloaked figure, right?" someone asked.
"It's quite possible," another one said.
Tsado stroked his short beard and said, "Truly amusing. Under Saint Alchemist's direct order, we set the competition to have 80 common ingredients, 16 uncommon ingredients, 3 super rare ingredients, and finally the last one that was said to be extinct before the Saint Alchemist found it."
"Which means that there are two participants out there that not only knew about the ingredient but also recognized it," Tsado said.
The competition soon ended and the result for the day was out.
Everyone was either happy, said, optimistic or doubtful in some way, shape, or form. Still, they looked forward to the next day, which arrived before they even realized it.
Tsado explained the purpose of this competition which was to go in and separate the ingredients into 8 piles, belonging to one of the 7 different elements, or a final one without elements. The points they earned were between 1 and 100 based on how well they did.
They all had exactly 5 minutes to separate and there were over 200 different places set so that the participants could take part at once.
The competition started and once more there were numbers that started popping out left and right.
People watched as the points the participants got were a little worse than last time. Still, somehow, there were over hundreds of people who got above 95 points.
They kept watching and this time, there were 3 participants that got 100 points by the time it was all over.
"That kid was there last time too," someone said.
"Yeah, so was that green-robed junior," another one said.
Since the competition for day 2 ended as well, they all went back to their place of stay once more and came back for the third day.
"Today is the final day for nearly 40,000 participants, isn't it?" someone asked.
"To think they would get rid of 80% just on the third day… that's quite something," another one said.
Tsado began explaining the third test as well. The third test was simple. A massive list of nearly 100 ingredients would appear on the screen in the air.
The participants had to write pills that contained those ingredients such that no two pills could have the same ingredient. Also, they had to use as many of the 100 pills as they could.
The time started and there were exactly 10 minutes this time.
The participants started writing and Ning looked at the lists of ingredients. The moment he saw them, his mind immediately churned out 12 different pills he could make with them without leaving a single ingredient.
The participants were done and it was time for the judges to tally the points.
"That's quite a hard task, isn't it?"
"I could only do about 93 ingredients."
"I did 94, but that was with a pill I made on my own."
"Saint Alchemist, how many can you make?"
The Saint Alchemist spoke in a raspy voice and said. "It's not fair for me to answer since I came up with the question myself, but I will say I used 14 different pills to make that question."
The Saint Alchemist had just finished speaking when the ranking board updated. The people who were talking were suddenly wide-eyed when they saw 2 different numbers with a total of 300 points.
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Chapter 339: Finale
3 more days had passed and 3 more days of competitions were gone too. For the past 3 days, the competition was focused on problem-solving using pills.
The participants were given questions such as what ingredient would give a certain feature to a pill, or what pill would heal which damage.
There were many such questions and each day had a maximum of 100 points assigned to them.
By the end of the 6th day, only 2000 of the original 50,000 people were left. And of them, 2 people had exactly 600 points.
The people at the tower as well as everyone around were quite surprised. They didn't think there would be 2 people that would ever do everything correctly in all the competition so far. Even the person at the third rank was at least 5 points behind.
By now, the group of people had pinpointed who the two people with 600 points were. One of them was a young man with a generic face and hair and wore white robes. Another one was a hooded figure that people couldn't recognize aside from the cloth itself.
"They really are quite talented, aren't they?" someone asked as they watched the remaining 2000 people participate in the third event that was fully shown now on the 7th day.
"Truly. Woah, that hooded figure already remembered the entire recipe? No way," another person said.
"Look, that young man stood up too," someone else said.
The two figures walked up and rewrote the entire recipe from scratch and handed it to the staff and went back for another one.
They had 10 recipes to remember in total and 5 hours in total to remember them all. Each mistake cost them a point for up to a maximum of 10 points per recipe.
The group of people watched the points for this competition go up by 10 for both of them.
"Hmm… that young man truly is quite good," Ning said.
"What about the hooded kid?" Ely asked.
"Oh, I'm not talking about alchemy," Ning said. "I'm talking about the amount of effort one had to put in to learn it all. I don't think the hooded child had to go through as much trouble to learn it all as the young man."
"Although, I do have to say they are both incredibly lucky in their own way," Ning said.
The competition continued and soon the winners were revealed to be the same 2 young people with full 100 marks.
2 more days went by and the total number of participants dropped by 80% once more as only 400 participants remained.
The people started gathering back on the tower to watch the competition unfold. The 400 different participants entered the secret realm once more and got ready for their competition.
"So, what is the challenge today?" someone asked.
The host had started explaining down below, but these people didn't care about him at all. Since Tsado was here to explain the rules of the competition, they didn't care about anyone else.
Tsado was more than happy to explain, but before he could, the Saint Alchemist stood up.
"Everyone, I would like to genuinely thank you from the bottom of my heart for indulging this old man's final wishes. I had stupidly given away my life in the pursuit of Alchemy, and I did learn a lot."
"However, I got no human connection, no relationship formed with anyone. I lived for over 3000 years long, but every second of that was lonely."
"Now, the end of my days are coming and I regret it all. However, that does not mean that I don't take pride in what I've learned. I spent my life learning Alchemy, and the knowledge I acquired will be useful to everyone."
"So, before I passed it along to just anyone, I had this little competition set up to find the perfect person to take my inheritance."
"I, Gyron Heldi once again thank you all for coming here."
The old, crooked man bowed in front of everyone, and the people immediately started explaining how it was unnecessary.
Ning watched and smiled as the old man was treated with the respect he deserved.
"The old man lived a sad life, but his sadness won't be in vain," Ning said softly.
"Don't you know more than him?" Ely asked.
"Maybe, maybe not. I don't have omniscient knowledge of Alchemy, so what I know definitely isn't everything. So, there might be places where he knows more than me," Ning said.
"I see," Ely said.
The Saint Alchemist sat back on his seat and Tsado stood back up to continue explaining since he was cut off.
"Everyone, today is the final day of the competition, so there will be a single task for the contestants to do and that is to make all 10 of the pills that they had memorized from the 7th day."
"They will be provided with all the necessary ingredients and will be given exactly one chance to make a pill."
"They have exactly 10 hours and in that 10 hours, they will have to finish all 10 pills. Depending on the grade of the pills they will make, someone here will become the Saint Alchemist's disciple and inheritor for sure," Tsado said.
The group of people, especially the ones that still had their children in the game were very much looking forward to seeing their performance.
The competition started and people could start seeing the contestants making pills inside the secret realm.
"We have to focus on just those two right?" someone asked.
"Maybe, maybe not," someone else said.
"What do you mean?" the first person said.
"Do you guys think they will make 10th-grade pills?" the second person said.
"Of course not," another person answered.
"What about 9th-grade pills? Or 8th grade?" the second person asked again.
"Hmm… I would say 6 is the highest possible, maybe 7. Definitely not 8 or 9," someone said.
"Yeah, so we don't know how their performance will be. It's very much possible that someone else will make pills that are better than theirs. In that case, there is some chance of the gap being closed," the second person.
"Well, you keep saying that, but look," another person said.
"What?!" a surprised exclamation appeared from the crowd as they looked up in the sky and saw two 8 back to back. Both of them belonged to the two people.
"While you kept on talking, both of them made 8th rank pill. Dear lord, they must be very talented to do that in under 3 minutes."
Even Ning was surprised to see them make pills that fast. 'Did two behemoths of an alchemist appear at once?' Ning wondered.
He wanted to look it up with the system, but the mystery intrigued him. He would wait for the answer to come out on its own.
'That kid though is using a really weird technique,' Ning thought silently at the young man. Ning couldn't really find anything unique about the robed figure aside from their speed.
In another 5 minutes, another two 8 points were added to both of their rankings. The crowd was shocked once again.
Not only were they good at making pills, but they were also incredibly fast which was really surprising to them all.
"I wonder where they got their skill," Ning thought.
While the others took 10 to 15 minutes to make a single pill at the fastest, the two best ones took mere 5 minutes.
Right in front of everyone's eyes, they made 8 different 8th-grade pills, gathering a total of 64 points, going head to head against each other.
However, on the 9th pill, a problem occurred. No one could tell if it was from fatigue, or from not memorizing the recipe correctly, but the young man made a mistake. A very small mistake, but one that was very much costly.
When he went to submit that pill, it turned out that it was a 7th-grade pill, compared to the robed figure who made an 8th-grade pill.
The young man felt the world crash down beside him. He would have to make a 9th-grade pill to make sure he equalized their total points again, or he would lose for sure.
The young man was devastated, but he kept his cool and got onto making his pill.
"Aish, he lost," someone said.
"Poor child. It was a good run too," another person said.
"Truly. I wonder if he was hasty," another person said.
Time slowly passed and the young man was getting close to making his pills once more. He could tell that he was definitely making a good pill, but he couldn't be confident that it was a 9th-grade pill.
The sadness was clearly visible on his face and it struck the heart of many others that watched the competition.
He finished making the final pill and brought it out to look at it. He sighed when he realized that there was no way the pill was in 9th grade.
He started feeling dejected, especially since the 2nd place didn't have anything to gain. It was all for the first place.
He was about to call it quits when suddenly he heard a round of gasps from all around him. He quickly looked up to see everyone was looking somewhere.
He turned his face in the same direction and saw that the hooded figure was done with their pill too. 'Did he get 9th rank?' he thought and got even sadder.
But then the hooded figure opened their palm and a bunch of dust dropped from their hand.
The young man looked in surprise. The hooded figure had just destroyed their last pill.
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Chapter 340: Awards
"Huh? What's going on? Did I see that right?"
"Did that guy just crush the pill?"
"Is this some form of pill-making technique that I don't know about?"
Many of the people watching, including the participants were confused as to what was happening. The scattered powder that was once a pill was truly something no one imagined they would get to see on the final day of the Alchemy competition.
The host who looked over the entire competition stood up and walked up to the hooded figure.
"Was that intentional?" he asked.
People could see the hooded figure simply nod.
"You do know that you won't get another set of ingredients, right?" he asked.
The hooded figure nodded once more. The host and the rest of the people came to understand that it was intentional.
"You will get 0 points for this final pill," the host said.
The hooded figure nodded and sat down.
"Very well," the host said and returned back to his spot and made the staff update the numbers.
The young man who had nearly lost was perhaps the most confused about all the people in the secret realm. He was a single step being the hooded figure and was sure that he was going to lose, and yet, somehow he was going to win.
He quickly walked up to the staff and recorded his pill and got 8 points for the pill, getting a total of 979 points in the entire competition.
The hooded figure lost with a total of 972 points, but still managed to be the 2nd.
The other contestants kept on making pills but they were sure that they had lost for sure. Still, on the off chance that the Saint Alchemist took in more than a single disciple, they tried their best.
Even then, the 3rd highest point was around 968 points, an entire 4 points lower than the 2nd person even after they lost an entire pill.
The host started setting up the award ceremony down below while Tsado started speaking up in the tower.
"Seniors, let's go below and congratulate the children. They've done truly amazing stuff in the competition today," Tsado said.
"Yes, yes, we should go," someone said.
The Saint Alchemist was the first to stand up and fly down below, while everyone else started following behind him.
"We should go too," Ning said. He was very curious about something that he had noticed some time ago, so he stood up and flew down too.
By now the participants were all outside the secret realm, and all but a single one had a sad expression on their faces.
The young man who had won it all still carried a face of disbelief as he couldn't understand why he won the way he did.
He kept looking towards the hooded figure to get some sort of answer, but the hooded figure didn't turn towards him once at all. From what he could see, the hooded figure didn't seem to have many thoughts about what they had done.
"Congratulations everyone on your performances in the competition. No matter how many points you got in this final one, you best believe that you are some of the best young alchemists that the entire world has for now," Tsado said.
"So, with that, we would like to congratulate you all for doing so well in this inter-continental competition. Truly glorious."
Everyone applauded once Tsado said that. The ones that were feeling a little sad suddenly had their spirits lifted. Tsado then called out the top 10 to start handing out awards.
One after another, he handed out awards for the 7 of the top 10. However, for the 3rd ranking alchemist, he stepped down.
The old man slowly stepped up the stage and looked at the remaining 3 people.
"Young man," he said to the 3rd ranking alchemist. "You might have come behind these 2 fellows, and that may make you feel like you're inadequate, but never forget you came ahead of 49,997 different people."
"You accomplished something that not many can hope to in their entire life, and for that, I award you this pill," the Saint Alchemist said as he handed him a pill.
"This pill is a soul-nourishing pill. It will improve your mental state and help your mind become better than it already is. As you may know by how Mind is very important for an alchemist," the Saint Alchemist said.
The young man thanked the Saint Alchemist as much as he could. The Saint Alchemist smiled and moved on to the remaining two.
"Can I ask you something, little girl? Why did you destroy the pill?" the Saint Alchemist asked.
The hooded figure remained quiet for a while before answering with a single question, "how did you know I was a girl?"
"Haha, I have a particularly strong nose that can smell the difference between the most minute of smells, and you young lady give off a lot of pheromones a lady usually gives off. It's just basic biology," the Saint Alchemist said.
The people around them were surprised that the hooded figure was a girl. Even Ning was surprised.
'The old man really is quite great, isn't he?' he thought.
"So… are you going to answer this old man?" the Saint Alchemist asked.
"Well, it's simple really. I was going to win, and I didn't want to win," she said.
"Eh?" the Saint Alchemist didn't understand what she meant. "Can you explain?"
"Yeah. I only took part because I wanted to see how good the others were. I never wanted your inheritance," she said. "I mean no disrespect, however."
"I was going to lose if others did badly, but then he started keeping up with me. After a while, I liked the competition and kept it going. But he made a small mistake and it seemed like I was going to win," the girl said.
"So, since I didn't really want to become first in the first place, I decided to give up at the last moment. I hope that explains it all."
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