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Chapter 341: Surprise
"Is that so?" the Saint Alchemist was truly surprised that there was someone out there that didn't want his inheritance at all.
It had been a long time since someone didn't put him on a pedestal when they were around him, and that felt a little refreshing.
"You do know that even with your little stunt, the choice of choosing the inheritor lies with me at the end, right?" the Saint Alchemist said.
"Eh?" the girl said in surprise.
"Huh?" the young man who had fully expected to become the inheritor was also taken aback a bit. It was pretty much settled in his mind that he was the inheritor. But now, hearing what the Saint Alchemist was saying, he felt like his world shattered twice on the same day.
Even the crowd that was gathered for the award ceremony was surprised. They started talking in hush voices, discussing what they had just heard.
There were some noises that spoke about breaking rules and some such, but the Saint Alchemist didn't bother with any of them.
He kept looking towards the girl who was still hooded and smiled.
"You want to choose me as the inheritor? Not him?" the girl asked.
The Saint Alchemist simply smiled and didn't say anything.
"No, no, no, no, no. You can't choose me? Choose him. He won," the girl said.
"Yes, senior Saint Alchemist. You can't go against the rules you've set on your own," someone else said.
"You should choose the young man. He won and it's his right now," another person spoke.
Almost all of the people started speaking in the favor of the young man who was getting more and more dejected as every second went on.
The Saint Alchemist didn't listen to the crowd and kept staring at the girl.
"You know, a single moment of failure is not enough to define what you can do and can't do. Just because you didn't give a single pill back doesn't mean you don't have the right to be my inheritor," the Saint Alchemist said.
He then turned towards the young man and said, "Same goes for you, young man. A single low-grade pill would have never determined your future by any means. Yet, you let the stress of it all pile up on your head."
"Huh?" the young man felt like he heard it wrong. "You mean…?"
"That's right. I've seen both of your talents in the field of Alchemy and am willing to take you both as my disciples. Do you agree?" the Saint Alchemist said.
The young man looked at the saint alchemist dumbfounded, while the girl's face couldn't be seen through her robes. Still, people could guess what her face must've been like right now.
"Hey! Quickly kowtow in front of your new master," someone shouted from behind. Following that person, others started urging the two of them as well.
The young man woke up from his stupor and immediately got on his knees and touched the ground with his forehead before screaming, "Thank you, master." One could hear his sniffling as the young man soon started crying from joy.
The saint alchemist smiled when he saw that and looked over to the young girl. "What about you?" he asked.
The young girl lowered her body and bowed as well. However, she didn't kowtow.
"Thank you for the opportunity, but I already have a master," she said.
"Eh?" the saint alchemist was surprised. "You have a master? Um… you won't have to leave your master to come to learn with me, you know?"
"It's fine. My master is quite good too," the girl said.
"Even… when compared to me?" the Saint Alchemist asked with curiosity.
"Yes. Perhaps… even better," she said.
Everyone including the Saint Alchemist was surprised, to say the least. Sounds of murmurs started appearing from around the crowd.
"Umm… can you tell me who your master is, little girl? To impart you with such great knowledge of Alchemy, they certainly can't be a small figure," the Saint Alchemist said. "I would love to meet him or her someday.'
"Oh, you can do it right now," the girl said. Suddenly, she pointed her hands towards the crowd.
"Huh?"
Ning was perhaps the most surprised of them all when he saw the little girl point towards him. "Me?" he asked in confusion.
'Is she someone from the academy? I don't remember there being someone so talented,' he thought. Given how much knowledge the little girl had, she could most likely become a teacher.
Everyone, including Ely, turned to look at him. Ning was getting even more confused as to who the little girl was.
Just then, someone tapped on his shoulder a single time from behind and said, "She's not pointing at you. She's pointing at me."
Ning's eyes went wide and immediately turned around to look at the hooded figure who had just spoken. The voice of the person… he wouldn't so easily forget the voice of someone so dear to him.
"Anya?" he asked in surprise.
The hood fell off to reveal Anya who was standing behind him with a face full of smiles.
"Surprise!"
"Huh? Anya? But you told me you weren't coming?" Ning said.
"I lied, master. Obviously. The greatest competition the planet has ever hosted is taking place and you think I would miss it? Of course not," Anya said.
The Saint Alchemist looked at Anya and was surprised. She looked like she was barely in her later 20s, and yet the aura she gave off was one of something ancient.
There was also a very strong medicinal smell coming from her that make his nose prick a little. 'That girl is no small master in the art of Alchemy,' he thought.
"Fellow Daoist, are you the master of this child here?" the Saint Alchemist asked.
Anya stopped talking with Ning and moved out to meet the Saint Alchemist. "It's a genuine pleasure to meet you, senior Saint Alchemist," she said. I am truly sorry if my granddaughter's little stunt harmed the integrity of the competition you were holding."
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Chapter 342: I Think…
The Saint Alchemist and Anya started talking and soon went into talking about alchemy. Before they knew it, they were discussing their understanding of Alchemy.
The Saint Alchemist got to see just how vast Anya's knowledge of alchemy was, and at the same time, Anya got to see just how deep the Saint alchemist's knowledge was.
There were subjects about which the Saint Alchemist knew way more than Anya could ever hope to on her own.
The entire crowd was entranced by the two of them speaking, especially those that knew about Alchemy.
"We should stop it here, senior. We should let the contest end," Anya said.
"Oh, right, right," the Saint Alchemist said, a little saddened that he didn't get to continue talking about Alchemy. He then turned towards the young girl who was still hooded and asked, "little girl, do you still need to keep hiding?"
"Ah, I forgot," the girl said and took off her hood. She looked towards the Saint Alchemist, then to her Grandmother. She then turned to Ning and put on a massive smile on her face. She excitedly started waving at him as if she couldn't wait to get to him.
The Saint Alchemist turned back to look at Ning. He knew that teacher from the Five Professions academy was quite good, but his knowledge didn't feel as profound as the little girl's grandmother, so he ignored him.
"Would you mind telling me your name?" he asked.
"It's Dahlia," the little girl said.
"Dahlia… I see. That's a nice name," he said.
He then took out a black box and handed it to her. "Inside is a very rare ingredient that I found on one of my many journeys. I hope this helps you in ways it could never help me," he said.
Dahlia's face lit up when she saw what was inside and immediately thanked him. The Saint Alchemist simply smiled and told her to keep on working hard.
He then moved on to his disciple. "Since I will be handing out my everything to you, I hope you don't mind not getting anything right now," he said.
"Seni— Master, You took me in as a disciple. That is the best reward I could ever hope to get," the young man said.
The Saint Alchemist smiled. "What's your name, young man?"
"It's Bertel, master," he said.
"Bertel, I hope you can learn everything I will be teaching you," the Saint Alchemist said.
Bertel was in a daze as he looked at the Saint Alchemist with massive eyes. He couldn't believe what was currently happening.
The Saint Alchemist turned around to Tsado and said, "Thank you for holding this competition. I shall return after the following competition is over to give 3 sets of lectures for your alchemy hall. Until then, I would like to take my leave."
"Of course senior," Tsado said. "I will be patiently waiting for your return," Tsado said.
"Alright," the Saint Alchemist said. "Come on, Bertel."
Bertel woke out of his daze and said," Yes Master,". He then started flying to follow the Saint Alchemist.
"WAIT!" someone shouted just then.
Bertel who was barely a meter in the air stopped and looked around to see who was speaking right now.
Ning walked upfront from the stunned crowd.
"Is there something wrong, fellow Daoist?" the Saint Alchemist flew down to confront Ning.
"Oh, sorry about that. I needed to talk with the young man back there," Ning said with a smile.
The Saint Alchemist felt a little defensive and asked, "I'm his disciple now, so can you ask me instead?"
"If you can answer it, sure," Ning said with a smile.
The Saint Alchemist felt weird but still nodded to let him ask the question.
"Oh, I just wanted to ask where your disciple got his Silver String Pill making technique," Ning said.
The young man's face suddenly went pale when he heard that. He started fidgeting, not sure what he should do right now, so he ran behind his master and hid.
"Silver String pill-making technique?" the saint Alchemist asked with confusion. "What's that? I've never heard of something like that."
"It's understandable why you might not have heard of it," Ning said. "After all, it's not a very well-known technique. So, may I just question your disciple a little."
"No, master. I can't answer him," Bertel shouted.
The Saint Alchemist was more confused now that his disciple was starting to act suspiciously. He thought for a moment and said, "if my disciple doesn't want to answer, then I won't force him at all. I hope you can understand that, Fellow Daoist."
"Of course," Ning said. "Thank you for your time anyway."
"Goodbye," the Saint Alchemist said to the crowd and flew away. Bertel also flew up not before taking one last glance at Ning with eyes full of fear. Then, his eyes moved to Dahlia for a split second before he looked away and flew the same.
"Ooh," Ning said just after the two of them left. "It doesn't hurt at all right now. I wonder if my mind became strong or if that Bertel was weak," he thought.
"What's going on, master?" Anya said seriously. "Is there something wrong with that young man?"
"Oh no, he's a fine young man, nothing wrong. I just wanted to learn a little more since it seems like I found one of the ones that I'm supposed to be found soon," he said with a smile.
"Anyway, come. It's been a while since I've seen you guys. An entire year actually," Ning said.
"Grandmaster, I missed you," Dahlia said as he hugged Ning. She had only ever heard of him before meeting him a year ago for a brief period. However, that brief period was all she needed to like Ning.
He was like the cool uncle one kept hearing about that did turn out to be just as cool.
"I missed you too, senior Ely," she said.
"How are you, Dahlia?" Ely asked.
The four of them got to talking before Anya took the two of them to their place of stay to talk some more.
"Wait, why weren't you on the tower?" Ning asked.
"I was invited, but then I saw you flying up there and didn't want to risk it at all," Anya said. "While the robe you gave me might keep me hidden from divine senses, I don't know what little trick you have in that little system of yours."
"Oh right, that's why I didn't notice you," Ning said. "Anyway, you should have let me know. I could've just teleported you here."
"Huh?" Anya exclaimed. "What part of 'surprise' makes you think I should have let you know we were coming?"
"Ah right, it was a surprise. I forgot," Ning said as he smiled.
"Hehe, Grandmaster was so shocked when he saw you, grandma. His face was brilliant," Dahlia said.
"Sister Ely's face wasn't that different either," Anya said with a chuckle.
"Hey, I was surprised too okay," Ely said.
"Right, right, I should have looked at her too, but the old man was standing in between so I couldn't see," Dahlia said.
"Her face was pretty shocked too," Anya said.
"Aww, I can't believe I couldn't see it," Dahlia got a little dejected. The three girls started talking with each other, and soon Ning started feeling something warm inside of him.
Some of the people he truly cared about were right in front of him, with him. This made him remember the good times he had, those years he spent with them.
The few months he spent in Klavia getting to know the people, the time he was a doctor in Anya's house, the little time he spent with Famir and the others, the time when he spent on Klavia again, then the time he spent in the Seven Lights academy with Anya and her family.
These were the memories he cherished the most and he was reminded of what he cared for the most. Spending time with people he loved.
There weren't people like that in the Southern Continent or the Central Continent, aside from a single person. As the girls talked he kept thinking about something.
The girls had forgotten he existed for a moment there.
"So, where are Tanya and Sonya? Are they both still teaching in the academy?" Ely asked.
"Yes," Dahlia said. "With grandma leaving, there needed to be someone to take care of the Woodlight Mountain, so both mother and aunt Sonya stayed behind."
"I see," Ely said. "What about your brother and cousins then?"
"I told them to come, but none of them are interested in Alchemy like me and mother. We inherited that from grandma," Dahlia said. "Well, not like they could take part or anything. They are too old for the competition."
"Ah right, I forgot about that aspect of the competition. Still, they should have come," Ely said.
"It's fine," Anya said. "It's not like the formation is going anywhere. They will come when they have the time. Then they can explore the whole world as they wish."
"That's true," Ely said. "Still, it's always nice to have more people than less, right Ning?"
She turned around, but he didn't answer at all.
"Ning?" she called.
"Huh?" he asked.
"What's wrong? What's in your mind?" she asked.
"I…" Ning didn't know if he wanted to say it.
"Come on, you can say it," Ely said.
"I… I think I want to go back to the Northern Continent to live out the rest of my remaining days."
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Chapter 343: Spider?
"What brought this all of a sudden?" Ely asked.
"I just…I have been staying in the academy because not because I want to, but because I feel like that's where I'm supposed to stay at. Like there is no other place for me. However, that's not true. The academy was merely a place that I happened to enter because of your brother."
"In fact, I would've probably left a long time ago if I wasn't a teacher there. But some sense of loyalty and responsibility kept me from moving on with my life, and I ended up staying there for so long."
"But now… I think it's time I leave," Ning said.
Ely heard him and got quiet. She drooped her head and thought for a while as well. Anya and Dahlia looked at them, a little concerned as to what was happening.
"I think I understand," Ely said. "I think I understand what you mean. Ever since my brother got his own family, and father stayed with them, I've felt like I don't belong there anymore."
"Not like I was unwelcome or anything, but like I needed to find my own place somewhere. Which was why I stayed in the academy in the first place."
"However, slowly I felt like that wasn't enough either. Many came and many left the academy, everything changed but me. Soon, I was starting to feel like I didn't belong there either. However, I couldn't voice what it was until now, but I knew I didn't feel the same way as I did before."
"Now I see. Time has lapped past me and the world is not ours anymore. It's time for me to retire as well," Ely said.
A single tear dropped from her eyes as she realized that the end of her days being a teacher was coming very soon.
"So you guys feel so too huh?" Anya asked. "I remember when I started feeling that way too. Perhaps, being ahead of a mountain made the feeling come for me faster."
"Once I realized what was happening, I left the mountain for my daughters to look after as well. While I'm still the head in name, they are the ones that really do all the work."
"If only they decided which one of them was going to be the next head so I could quickly pass along the position," Anya said with a sigh.
Ning smiled. "Alright, enough of the depressing talk. Let's change the topic," Ning said. "Tell me more about where the other kids are."
Soon the 4 of them got back to talking about their current situation again. Ning felt relieved thinking about it all, knowing that he didn't need to be bound to a single place anymore.
A few more days passed and the other profession's competitions ended as well. They weren't as big or as celebrated as the Alchemy ones, but they were still thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.
Then came the combat section of the competition. This one couldn't even be called competition. With the Klavians being so strong thanks to Ning's techniques, they easily won the whole thing.
In the end, it was Hijaka's own grandson that won the whole thing with his 8th Golden Core cultivation realm.
"Inikaka, are you really coming over to the northern continent again?" Hijaka said with absolute happiness.
"Yes, I will come over and stay somewhere around there. It was a long time ago that Hyesi said I needed to settle down. I thought that was what I was doing in the academy, but I was wrong."
"I was simply mistaking my loyalty to the academy for thinking I belonged there," Ning said.
"Woah, Grandfather will be very happy after learning this. I will have to tell him about it as soon as we return," Hijaka said.
"Wait, wait, wait. Not so fast. I'm going to go to the northern continent, but I'm not going to stay with your guys, obviously," Ning said.
"Eh?" Hijaka was confused. "Then what will you be doing?"
"I will find someplace after I go there, don't worry," Ning said. "But it just won't be around where you guys are."
"I see. Well, grandfather will be happy either way," Hijaka said.
Everyone was starting to leave the Bright Red Academy now. The Purple Beasts sect members came to thank Ning for helping them get in.
Tsado and the rest also came to thank Ning and Ely for being there.
Ning and Ely then went to the people from the Five Professions academy and explained why they wouldn't be returning anymore.
Ning said goodbye to the few people he knew from the academy now and finally left.
"So, where do we go first?" Anya asked.
Not only her, but Hijaka was there too. Ning thought for a few seconds and said, "You guys head over to Ely's house and stay there for a few days. I… have to go for a small trip to the southern empire."
"I will take you all back once I'm back from there," he said.
"Huh?" Anya was surprised. "What's in the Southern Continent?"
Ning smiled and said, "A spider."
A few days had gone past, and Ning was in a tavern, eating some food. He had a soup made up of some bird meat that the tavern owner had cooked. Although, it would be a lie to call it meat since it was mostly just bones.
"Oh my god, this is so delicious, grandmaster. You have to totally try this." A sound came from before him that brought back his attention.
"Eat slower. It's not like it's going to go anywhere," Ning said.
"But Grandmaster, this sweet potato really is very sweet," Dahlia said from in front of him. She had insisted that she too come with him in this little search of his.
"Alright, still eat slowly," Ning said.
"Okay," Dahlia said as she ate the sweet potato. "Oh right, when are you going to stop being so stubborn?"
"What do you mean?" Ning asked when he heard the weird question.
"I mean, when are you going to stop saying that you will find this spider on your own, and just use the system?" Dahlia asked.
"Hey! I don't need the system for everything. I can do stuff on my own too," Ning said.
"Doesn't look like it," Dahlia said as he took another bite of the potato. "You know, when my mother said you weren't really as great as grandma said, I thought she was lying. Turns out she was right."
"What? Little Tanya said that? That little…" Ning was getting irritated. These little kids were looking down on him just because he was using his system a lot.
That was one of the reasons why he decided to find the spider on his own too because Dahlia jokingly said he couldn't really do much without the system.
She didn't mean any harm, but that was the more harmful thing she could say to Ning right now. All because she was right.
Ning didn't know he had a complex about it, but now that he heard it, he realized he did. 'Damn these kids. Of course, I can do simple things on my own,' he thought.
"Anyway, when are we leaving this town?" she asked.
"Wait for a bit. There is a small celebratory event in the Grider's family home. While everyone is out on the front of it, we will sneak through the back. I don't really know how it all looks, so it will take a little while," Ning said.
Dahlia huffed and sighed. She would have to stay there for another whole day just because Ning didn't want to use the system. Because of that, they couldn't even directly teleport.
"Are you invited to the party by the way?" Dahlia asked.
"I probably would be… if it was 1800 years ago. But now this place has changed too, and I wasn't strong enough to leave a mark at that time," Ning said.
"Woah, I am sometimes really surprised as to how old you are. You are even older than my grandma, and she's ancient," she said.
"You do know Hyesi is the oldest right? Did your grandma ever tell you about how I was just gone for 165 years?" Ning asked.
"Yeah, but you were born earlier so you are the oldest. Fortunately, you don't seem like it, so there's that," Dahlia said.
Suddenly, the doors to the tavern slammed open and a huffing man walked in.
"It… It's happening," he said. "The party is starting."
"WOOHOOO!!!!" the entire crowd started shouting and celebrating all of a sudden.
"It's started already?" Dahlia said in surprise.
"It's time," Ning said and stood up. He walked over to the tavern owner and paid him. Dahlia walked behind him and had attracted quite a few eyes, but her aura was enough to stop everyone from having any unnecessary thoughts.
The whole small town was celebrating since their lord's son had hit it big. He was now the disciple of a really big Alchemist in the Central Continent.
"I don't think they're back by now, right?" Dahlia asked.
"No, they were just sent a message beforehand. Let's go, it's time to search," Ning said and put up his hood. Dahlia followed closely and pulled up her hood as well.
As soon as they did, both of them lost their auras completely and soon disappeared in the midst of the many people.
Soon they came across a not-so-big mansion and stared at it.
"Can you feel it?" Dahlia asked.
Ning took a deep breath and felt all the little auras that were bouncing around outside the mansion.
"Yes, it's definitely in there somewhere."
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Chapter 344: Silverback Forest Spider
While the Griders held a decently big celebration at the front, Ning and Dahlia weaved through the crowd, finding a way to get to a back door.
"C'mon, just teleport us," Dahlia said.
"I need to know where I'm headed to teleport. Mostly I teleport to the sky, but this time, I don't want people seeing us," Ning said.
"Sigh, alright," Dahlia said. The two of them sneaked around the place and soon were behind the house.
"What do we do now? Do we use our divine sense?" Dahlia asked.
Ning looked around at the back half of the house, trying to find any clue he could. Unfortunately, there were none.
"I can see a single cobweb," he said as he looked around. "There's nothing behind right?" he thought and sent his divine sense into the woods that lied behind the Grider family home.
"Nope, no spider there, so it has to be inside," they thought and started sneaking in. Ning directly teleported to the furthest end with Dahlia and started looking for places to go.
"Where could they be keeping the spider?" Ning asked softly. The house was mostly empty, so they were successfully able to search most of the place.
The sounds of celebration that came from the front of the house were enough to give them an idea of just why there were none back here.
"Grandmaster," Dahlia called. "I don't think the spider is anywhere here. What about the underground? I think there's a dungeon there."
"A dungeon?" Ning asked in surprise and sent his divine sense down there. "Oh, look at that. There really is one."
He grabbed Dahlia by the wrist and the both of them disappeared. When they reappeared, they were inside the dungeon checking out the whole thing.
"Look!" Dahlia shouted as she pointed somewhere. "Cobweb, just like you asked," she said.
Ning turned to look and saw the cobwebs. He got closer and saw their color as well. "Silver," he thought. "It's here."
Dahlia got defensive and ready to fight. The dungeon gave a very gloomy aura, and it looked like anything could attack them at any time.
"No need to be on guard. I'm here, aren't I?" Ning said with a chuckle. "Besides, if he wanted to harm you, you would've already been dead."
Ning pointed towards the ceiling right atop Dahlia, who turned around to see 8 massive eyes staring directly at her.
"A young man and a young woman, both in my dungeon. How peculiar. Tell me, humans, how did you stumble upon here?" a raspy voice directly spoke into both of their minds, which scared Dahlia a little bit.
The clicking sound the spider was making on the outside, made her feel uncomfortable.
"A green spider with black and yellow eyes, with a silver leaf on its back. You really are a Silverback Forest Spider, aren't you?" Ning asked as he looked at them.
"Oh," the spider spoke into his mind again. "You know what species I am. That hasn't happened before. Tell me, humans, why are you here?"
"I have a question for you instead actually. I hope you can answer me first," Ning said.
"I do not believe you are in a place where you can make such demands, young man," the spider said.
Ning simply smiled and let loose a little bit of his aura before hiding it away. However, that was enough for the spider to change its stance.
All eight of its pupils dilated with fear as it immediately crawled far away in fear.
"I'm not here to hurt you," Ning said.
"Then why do you hide your strength, stranger," the spider asked.
"Uh, Ely did say that. Man, I should stop hiding my strength; it causes way too many misunderstandings," Ning thought.
The spider was in a very defensive stance with its butt ready to throw out some webs to entangle the two of them.
Dahlia was still a little fearful of the spider, but she was also amused after seeing it fear Ning as much as it did.
"When did you escape the tomb? Do you have a time frame?" Ning asked.
"Who are you? How do you know that?" the spider started getting more and more suspicious and scared at the same time. "Are you one of them?" it asked.
"One of… who?" Ning asked in confusion.
"You don't look like them. You don't have the same aura," the Spider said.
"I don't know what you are talking about," Ning said.
"Them!" the spider exclaimed as it pointed to a dark corner of the room. Ning looked to the side and saw a massive cobweb.
He waved his hands and the cobwebs flew off, revealing two balls of webs. He sighed and threw some fire on it, and the ball of webs immediately started burning.
Before they could completely destroy it, however, Ning stopped the fire and brought what remained forward. Inside them were two men, each wearing a blood-red cloak, with their eyes open wide and their body half rotting.
"Who are these people?" Dahlia asked as he stopped herself from vomiting at their corpses.
"They are the three- well now two people that came for me," the spider said.
"Three? There's another? Where?" Dahlia asked.
The spider clicked its mouth and answered, "in my stomach. I wanted to eat these two too, but the first one's blood tasted disgusting."
Dahlia put a hand on her mouth as she was overcome with shock. "You're a monster," she said.
"I was just hungry. Besides, I'm a guard," it said. "I kill intruders, and occasionally eat them. I wanted to eat these too, but… who would have known that there was blood that tasted this bad."
"Their blood huh?" Ning said as he walked forward and made a small cut on the corpse's cheek before drawing out a bit of black blood.
He took out some herbs and mixed them with the blood. The herbs all immediately turned black and fell onto the ground.
Ning's eyes went wide. "That is not the blood of a human or a beast. This is something different," Ning said.
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Chapter 345: Copycats
"What do you mean, grandmaster? Are these people not human?" Dahlia asked.
"You are an alchemist, young man?" the spider asked.
Ning ignored the spider and answered, "No, these are definitely humans, but their blood is not. It's…" Ning felt their blood again and said, "… it's like the blood they have doesnt' belong to them. It's like, they had someone else's blood. However, it couldn't adapt to their body, so it changed."
"Yes!" the spider shouted. "The one I ate said something similar. That human said that it was here to get me so that they can get stronger by taking me away and devouring my blood."
Ning brought out a little more ingredients and did some more experiments. After a while, he said, "I see. I think I have a general idea of what is going one. Shit! This is going to turn into a problem."
"What? What's wrong?" Dahlia asked.
The spider also looked at Ning intently. Ning checked the other person too and found the same result.
"Shit!" he shouted.
"What's wrong, young man?" the spider asked.
"Sigh, if I'm not wrong, these people have injected themselves with an amalgamation of the blood of the different beasts, especially legendary ones to try and gain their powers for themselves."
"If I'm not wrong. They are trying to mimic and find a way to become Jha'Akim themselves," Ning said.
"What?" the spider shouted in surprise. "How do you know that name? It should have been lost to history."
Ning sighed again. "I was sent here by your ancestors to get you back to the secret realm through the tomb. Don't you wish to go back?" Ning asked.
"You… are you really sent here by my ancestors?" the Spider asked.
"Yes. I'm here to take you back. That is… if you still wish to come back," Ning said.
"YES! Of course!" the spider shouted. "I have wished to go back many times. I curse my younger self everytime I remember how stupidly curious I was."
"I came out of that place and unknowingly stumbled onto this place. Now I don't even know how to return back. I don't even know where to return back."
"I've been searching around the lands, but I never found anything. At some point, I simply gave up on finding my way back. That… was a few centuries ago. I've been staying here now, waiting for my end to come."
"However," the spider spoke with all 8 of its eyes shining brightly, "however, If I can go back, then please let me. I wish to go back."
Ning smiled. "Sure, that's what I promised your ancestors anyway," Ning said.
"Wait!" the spider shouted. "Let me call the little guy here first. I've been with this family forever as they were the ones that gave me shelter. I should at least say my goodbyes."
"Sure," Ning said. The spider sent out its divine sense and called someone.
"They must've really taken care of you for you to give out such a great technique to a little boy like that," Ning said. "He made good use of the pill making technique."
"How do you know that?" the Spider asked.
"Bertel, he took part in a competition and won it. You must have taught him quite a lot," Ning said.
"Oh he did? He was telling me about that a few months ago. He was really scared, that kid. I told him he would do good. Thank you for that information," the spider said.
"Anyway, how are you here?" Ning asked.
"As I said, I was roaming and one of this place's ancestors found me, and I started guarding them," the spider said.
"No, no, no, I mean this continent," Ning asked.
"What continent?" the spider asked.
"The southern continent," Ning said.
"So?" the spider asked.
"Do you not know that the beast realm is in the central continent?" Ning asked.
"Huh? That can't be. I was teleported into the middle of the forests in the north," the spider said.
"Hmm… that's weird. I wonder why that is," Ning thought.
Suddenly, footsteps could be heard from the side as someone came rushing in. It was a middle aged man with a face not unlike Bertel's.
"Senior, you—" he stopped when he saw Ning and Dahlia.
"Who are you two? And why are you here?" he exclaimed. He took out a sword and got in a stance to fight immediately. "Are you two the same as the last ones?"
"Wait, Teril. These are not here with a bad intention," the spider spoke.
"Hello, I am Ning, and this is Dahlia. We are here to take your senior here back to his home," Ning said.
"Huh?" the man got more confused and thus less hostile. "Back to his home?" his minds churned for a few minutes and his eyes brightened.
"Senior, you mean… they are…"
"Yes," the spider said. "These people were sent by my ancestors to bring me back."
The man turned to look at the two of them, and his cautiousness returned. "Did you verify that, senior?" the man asked.
The spider went quiet. "Hmm… not really," the spider said. "But they do speak of things that no other people would speak of, and… that young man is way to strong to decieve me into going somewhere with him."
"He would simply just grab me and walk away, and none of us would be able to do anything," the spider said.
"Hey now, I would never do that," Ning said. "Anyway, say your goodbyes, and we will leave."
"Huh?" the middle aged man shouted. "You're leaving right now, senior? You won't say goodbye to Bertel when he returns?"
The spider stopped. He really wanted to say his goodbye to the young lad.
"Um, young man, is it possible to wait for a few days?" the spider asked.
"Um… yes, but if possible I would love to leave as soon as possible," Ning said.
"Hmm…" the spider thought. "Oh, I know. You said you were here to get us back, right? I know of another brother that lives to the south."
"Maybe… you can take him too in the meantime."
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Chapter 346: Redskin Lava Lizard
Ning wanted to not spend any more time here. He still had to spend some time in the tomb where he delivered the spider and that would take a chunk of his time.
However, he could never get himself to deprive someone else of their chance to say goodbye to someone they cared about. That was what he would wish others did for him as well.
"Alright," he sighed as he accepted the task. "Tell me about this other beast."
Ning listened to the spider tell him a general location of where the next beast was. The other beast was a Redskin Lava Lizard, that could be found in the city of Freegold of the Blackfire empire.
Ning thought for a moment to remember where this place was and looked through his map. This was a place that used to be called Travan City back when he used to roam the place. Now, every other name on the map was new to him.
In just 1800 years, the world had changed to a point where it was unrecognizable to him once more.
"Let's go. We will come by in five days," Ning said. Dahlia nodded and followed Ning before the two of them were back outside.
Ning flew into the air and brought out a chariot-like flying machine that he had made himself. Once Dahlia was ready, he let it fly.
"How far is it?" she asked.
"The Freegold city? Dozens of thousands of kilometers," Ning said.
"Eh? Won't that take us forever if we fly with this?" She asked.
"Yes. It should take us around 4 days, I would say," Ning said.
"What? Let's just teleport there," Dahlia said.
Ning smirked. "I thought you said I was useless without my system. So, I won't use it at all. You will have to sit through this entire journey," Ning said.
"Wow. So petty. I thought you were supposed to be thousands of years older than me," Dahlia said. "Mom and grandma will love to hear about this when I return."
"Tsk." Ning clicked his tongue. No matter what he did, he couldn't seem to win against this kid. Still, he was going to stick to the chariot which he could speed up to reach the city in about 2 days. He had to spend his time somewhere.
After nearly 3 days of monotonous journey, and multiple insistence of Dahlia to teleport to the city, the two of them finally arrived there.
Ning took back the chariot without notice, and Dahlia started freefalling while screaming. She started flying the next second, but that one second of the scream was worth it for all the torture Ning had felt mentally for these last couple of days.
"Why are you so childish?" Dahlia shouted angrily.
"Who says I'm old?" Ning said. "I barely started living."
He smiled and floated down towards the city. The city was different from what he had remembered. He didn't remember there being a wall around it, or the city being this large either. Most of the farmlands had turned to house spaces as well, and one of the mountains to the right of the city was missing and had been turned to what looked like sect grounds.
Ning landed outside the city gate and was suddenly confronted by guards and soldiers from inside the city.
"That's a mighty welcome," he said with a chuckle when he saw them point their weapons at him.
"Who are you, stranger? We will attack if you don't answer," the guards said.
"Ooh, must be quite a sensitive time. What's going on? Are you fighting with some other sect or city?" Ning asked.
The guards didn't answer at all but only got more defensive. Ning shook his head and directly released his divine sense that covers dozens of kilometers. He looked through every place in the city, including the city lord's manor.
"Hmm… I don't see him anywhere," Ning said.
"He's not here?" Dahlia asked with surprise. "What about that sect?"
"I was about to check that next," Ning said and concentrated his divine sense on the sect that was at the place.
He alerted a lot of different people but still couldn't see signs of anything.
"Still nothing," he said with a surprise.
"Did the spider give us the wrong information?" Dahlia asked.
"I don't see why he would," Ning said, but his confusion only increased. 'Did the spider tell me when it saw the lizard?' Ning thought.
As far as he could remember, the spider had said it met the lizard on one of the recent Grider family explorations. It had taken time out of the vacation to go meet its brother.
That was only a few dozen years ago.
As Ning was thinking of it all, many unique figures started flying towards him and landed in front of them. The figures consisted of many elders and high-level figures from the city.
"A young man and a young woman?" one of them asked in surprise. He then turned towards the guards that were already there and asked, "Where is the senior that sent out his divine sense just now?"
"Th-That's him," the guards were barely able to form a sentence as the fear of Ning's divine sense still remained in their minds.
"The young man? But he's so young though," the man spoke.
"That was definitely him, sect leader," one of the guards answered.
"Hmm… senior, was it really you who sent his divine sense into the city and sect?" the sect leader asked.
"Yes, it was I," Ning said. "I was looking for someone and this was the last place I heard he was here. So I decided to check, but it seems he's not here."
"Who might it be that you are looking for, senior?" the sect leader asked nervously.
"The one I'm looking for is a Lava Lizard that I was told would be found here. Do you have any clue as to where it is?" Ning asked.
The sect leader's eyes went wide.
"Senior… our sect guardian, the Lava Lizard, is dead."
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Chapter 347: Return
"Dead?" Ning asked with surprise. "I was told the lizard was alive just a few years ago."
"Yes, senior. It happened only a couple of months ago. There was a fight where the city and sect were infiltrated by people from another city."
"At the time, the fight got so bad that senior Lizard had to step in, but even he couldn't win. He struggled until his last breath and managed to kill the intruders, but his wound was so bad that he died just a couple of days later," the sect leader said.
"An invasion?" Ning asked in surprise. 'Is that why these people are so stressed?' Ning thought.
"Yes, senior. We were attacked by another city from the next empire, so we are a little scared to let just anyone in. Which was why these guards stopped you. I hope you don't mind," the sect leader said.
"Sigh, it's fine. Urghh," Ning felt tired. After coming all the way, only to find out that the beast was dead.
"I came here to bring the beast back to his family. Now that he is dead, I will have to bring it back even if it's just its bones. Can you show me where its grave is?" Ning asked.
"His home? Not even the senior lizard knew where his home was. How do you know, senior?" the sect leader asked.
"His home is in the Central Continent, but he never searched for it there, so he wouldn't have known," Ning said. "I came to the southern continent to find another spider, and he told me the lizard was here."
"I see," the sect leader said. He was still very suspicious of Ning, but given the strength, he showed with his divine sense, it was unlikely any of them could fight against him or deny him what he wanted.
The city lord walked forward and said, "Senior, would you like to come to stay in our city for a while? It would be our honor to serve you."
"Uhh… maybe nex—"
"Yes, we would love to," Dahlia said from behind.
Ning looked at Dahlia disapprovingly. "What?" she asked. "It was you who said we need to spend a few days somehow. Let's just stay in the city. I want to look around too. Please~"
Ning sighed and shook his head. He turned around to the city lord and said, "Alright, we'll say."
"Great!" the city lord exclaimed. "Please come with us, senior."
The two of them then went into the city and were taken to stay at the city lord's place. They introduced themselves to the group of people that followed, who were surprised to learn they were from another continent.
Ning and Dahlia stayed in the city lord's manor for a few days. In those days, Dahlia went out to the city and roamed it with a few disciples from the sect that were left there to look after the two.
Ning on the other hand simply stayed behind and enjoyed some semblance of free time. He took the opportunity to think about what he was going to do next after he left for the northern continent.
He wanted to live a normal life or at least one that felt like it. He wasn't sure how someone that wasn't even a human could do that.
"Whatever, I will just go check the Origin for now. If I can get Hyesi, Anya, and the rest to that place, then my job on this planet will be over," he thought.
Now he simply needed to take some time to fly around the entire planet looking for the Origin in the ocean. Aside from that, he also needed to make his new body.
As for Jha'Akim, he wasn't really worried about him doing any harm, despite how strong he could be. Once Hyesi and Anya quickly broke through to the Spirit Transformation realm, they could easily defeat him.
"I guess I don't really have any problems then," Ning thought with a sigh. This also meant that his time to leave the place was going to come soon.
Ning was then taken to the grave of the lizard, and he took away the entire land along with the bones, leaving a massive opening in the middle.
Once he was done, it was soon time to leave.
"I hope you've had your fill with the city cause it's time to leave," Ning said.
"Aww, okay," Dahlia said.
Without waiting, Ning caught her arm and teleported the two of them into the dungeon underneath the Grider family's home.
"I've been waiting for you guys," the spider said. "Where's the lizard?"
"Unfortunately, the Lava Lizard died a few months ago in a city invasion. I could only bring back his bones," Ning said.
"Is that so…?" the spider said with a saddened voice. "I had just seen him a few years ago. To think he died already."
"Yeah, it's quite sad," Ning said. "Anyway, are you ready to leave?"
"Yes," the spider said. "I've said my goodbyes already. Let me just tell them I'm going."
After a few moments, Bertel and his father came down to say their goodbyes.
"You!" Bertel said with surprise. He couldn't believe that the people that came to take away their guardian was the two people from the competition.
"Hello," Dahlia said with a smile.
"Bye, I'm leaving now," the spider said to them.
The two of them seemed to have been prepared for it, so they didn't try to stop him or anything, but the Bertel kid kept staring towards them.
"Hey! It's rude to stare at a lady like that," Dahlia said jokingly.
Bertel got flustered and started apologizing.
"Keep learning Alchemy. I will see how much you improve if there is ever a competition next time. Only that time, I won't hold back," Dahlia said.
"Alright, let's go," Ning said and with a single grab of the spider's leg, they vanished.
When they reappeared, the three of them were flying in the air above the Grime oasis.
"Do you see that tomb over there?" Ning said while pointing far away, "That's your home."
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Chapter 348: Entering the Tomb again
"That's my home?" the spider looked at the tomb, surrounded by the desert. "That can't be it; my home is in the forests."
"Well, you can ask about that to your ancestors. They are the reason this place is no longer a forest," Ning said as he looked at the tiny people that came and went from inside the tomb.
"Are those people there to look at the beasts?" Dahlia asked.
"No, the beasts are inside a seal, so the people down there are only looking at a bunch of scams," Ning said. "Let's go down."
The three of them slowly floated down to the tomb, and immediately people started noticing them. Ning and Dahlia were fine, but the massive spider flying in the air was a scene straight out of nightmare for many.
The guards of the tomb started pouring out to fight the Spider. They didn't know how strong the spider was, but they were being paid to fight, so they would.
They all flew into the air, with weapons ready in their hands. They would sure fight the spider, even if it was to just test how strong he was, or to let the other people escape before the spider attacked them all.
However, when they got close, they couldn't help but stop. Behind the spider, they saw Ning flying down as well.
They still remembered their terror from over a month ago when they had to fight against Ning and just his mere presence had scared them all.
"Run!" they shouted and flew back to the tomb to let everyone know that danger was approaching. Soon, no one remained in the tomb.
"That works quite well in our favor," Ning said with a chuckle.
Dahlia started asking some questions as to why the people showed such behavior, but Ning sidestepped all the questions.
"So, is this where you left the three?" Dahlia finally asked after they had all reached the room in the middle of the tomb.
"Yes… this is where I left them," Ning said, without paying much attention to what he was saying. His attention was clearly somewhere else.
"How do I get there, young man? Please tell me," the Spider said very excitedly. It couldn't wait to return back after nearly a millenia.
Ning looked at the shadow on his right and started wondering what direction he was facing currently. It took him a while but he realized. When he did, he couldn't help but sigh.
"It's afternoon right now," he said.
Dahlia and the spider didn't know what that meant so they asked, "So?"
Ning thought for a second and went to the center to remove the rock that was there. Once the half formation was clearly showed, he placed a coin at the center of it and said, "Step aside from this center part for a while, okay? Its a formation."
The two of them nodded and waited. Ning disappeared and appeared high in the air above the tomb. He raised his hand and suddenly bright light started appearing from it that made even him wince a little.
He closed his eyes and sent his divine sense down to see what was going on. The shadows from the ceiling was completely misaligned, by a large margin, so he started moving around to fix it perfectly.
Dahlia and the spider were inside the room, looking at the shadow slowly moved around until it finally aligned.
"GET IN!" Ning's voice sounded inside both of their heads and they simultaneously stepped into the formation. In a flash, the two of them disappeared.
"Now, what should I do," Ning thought. He focused and started letting the ball of light float away from his hand at a steady rate.
Once he felt that it was stable, he teleported direclty onto the formation and disappeared the same.
When he reappeared, he didn't waste a moment and teleported directly to the bottom, and managed to catch the falling Dahlia.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yes," she said. She hadn't expected to fall at all. "Thank you!"
The spider on the other hand had stuck to the side of the wall and was now crawling on it. "I would've caught her," it said.
"Let's go," Ning said and walked to the center hall where everyone remained. The entire way, Dahlia couldn't help but be amazed at how terrifying the gashes on the walls were.
When they finally reached the statue, Ning proclaimed, "I brought your descendant back."
"Ancestors!" the spider cried out when he saw them.
"Is that really you, my child?" the spider statue cried out as well.
Ning saw the happiness in the spiders face, and soon everyone started to thank Ning. "Human, we hadn't even given you the method to find our descendant, and yet you brought one back already in just a week. How did you do that?" The drake asked.
"Just luck, I guess," Ning said. "Anyway, I'll see you guys later. I'm going in to meet my beasts."
Dahlia followed behind as Ning walked towards the stone door and disappeared into it. She slowly put her arms inside the stone and soon she disappeared too.
When she reappeared, she saw that Ning was already at the end of the cave. The spider followed behind her and looked at the opening with tears in all of its 8 eyes.
It hurriedly walked to the end and cried,"I'm home. I'M FINALLY HOME!"
Its screams reached all the way to the bottom of the cliff where the beasts heard it and flew up. "BROTHERS! SISTERS! I'm back," the spider cried out and jumped into the forest.
All beasts ignored the presense of Ning and Dahlia and went to meet their newly returned brother. All but 3.
Aegis, Night and Blue flew up to the cave's opening where Ning was standing. "Master, you're back?" they asked with surprise.
"Hey you guys. I haven't seen you in a while," Dahlia said from behind.
"Eh? Little Dahlia, you came here too?" Blue said in surprise.
"Yes, Grandmaster brought me," she said.
"How are you all doing? Are you having fun?" Ning asked.
"Yes, master. It's really fun," Blue said.
"We're doing well, master," Aegis said as well.
Night nodded slightly to show that he was having fun as well.
"But Master," Blue said, "Why did you return so early? I thought you were supposed to come back a month later."
"Oh, that… right. I didn't know time moved differently here. It's already been over a month on the outside," Ning said. "Well, you guys are having fun, so that's all that's important."
The 5 of them talked for a while, and the other beasts came up to them too. Ning let the beasts show Dahlia around, who couldn't believe how many beasts there were still alive.
They stayed there for a couple of hours as that was the most Ning was willing to spend before days disappeared in the real world.
Once it was time, Ning decided to return.
"What do you guys want to do? You can stay if you want. I have no problem with that. Besides, I'm going to settle down now, and you guys won't have the chance to leave or anything," Ning said.
Unanimously, the 3 of them decided to stay. This place felt like a home to them and they didn't want to leave this place unless necessary.
Ning smiled when he saw that. He was trully happy to see them happy.
"Alright then, I will see you guys soon," Ning said and flew away with Dahlia. They returned back to the place with the statues.
"I'm going to leave now. What should I do to find your descendants?" Ning asked.
"Wait, let us give you a small technique," the beasts said and started humming some words to Ning. Ning didn't understand what they were trying to say but some sort of knowledge entered his mind. When the beasts were done, Ning had now learned a new technique.
He decided to use it and suddenly many feelings, all of which led to the statues appeared inside him. "Oh, so this is supposed to help me track down your descendants huh? It's not bad," Ning said.
"Yes, please use that to find them. Since we have nothing to hold you to this promise, you can instead view this as a request. So, you can not do it if you don't want to either. We will leave it up to you," the beasts said.
"Don't worry. I have some free time, so I can help you. Although, I will be a little slow. Goodbye," Ning said and walked away.
He grabbed Dahlia and flew to the ceiling. He entered the exit formation and suddenly felt his body lurch in a different direction from what should be. He hurriedly pulled Dahlia into his arms and protected her as much as he could.
The intense feeling of lurch disappeared in a few seconds, and when it was done, they were outside of the formation. Only, they weren't inside the tomb anymore.
Fresh air rushed past Ning as he slowly let go of Dahlia. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yes," Dahlia said as he tried to get rid of the dizziness she was feeling. "That… that feeling, it reminded me of something," she said.
Ning looked around at the many islands that was scattered around below their feet. "We were teleported; that was the feeling you felt," Ning said.
Dahlia nodded.
"I see," Ning said. "No wonder the spider showed up in the southern continent's forest. There was a goddamn teleportation formation sneaked into the exit formation."
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Chapter 349: Asking
"Where are we exactly?" Dahlia asked. Ning didn't know either as he could be at the edge of any continent.
"I don't know," Ning said as he looked around at the massive blue ocean with few islands scattered around. "We got teleported so high up too."
He then started to look at the shape of the islands and distance between each other to match them together with the information in his mind.
"Oh, we're in the Northern Continent," Ning said with a bit of surprise. He then fell into a bit of a thought. 'So the exit formation not only sends the beasts out to the tomb in the central continent, but also the Northern and Southern continent s well,' he figured.
"It must have been that person's job. He made the exit to a random location in the 3 continents," Ning thought.
"Anyway, let's go. I will leave you at your home and come back to get your grandmother and others," Ning said. He grabbed Dahlia and teleported once more before appearing on top of the Woodlight Mountain that was home to Anya's family now.
"Go on, I will come back with your grandmother in a few hours," Ning said and disappeared again.
When he reappeared, he was outside the tomb. He flew into the tomb with a few people that looked at him in surprise. The people had already came back to claim their tomb and had restarted taking in the guests. When Ning saw that, he couldn't help by shake his head.
The coin at the center of the formation had already been taken away, but one didn't need a coin to unlock the seal, it could be anything that places the perfect shadow at the perfect time. So, he couldn't let the center exposed like that.
"Although it is quite unlikely that would happen, let me just place the rock back," Ning thought and moved the rock back into the center.
Then, without caring much for the people's eyes, he left the tomb. After he was a bit away from human eye, he teleported once more and appeared outside of Ely's home city.
The city had also grown a lot more than it had last time and was now at least 3 times as large. He walked through the busy streets of the city and made his way to the biggest mansion he had seen in a long time.
"I wonder how jealous Nilo's child would be if he saw this," Ning chuckled as he thought. The current emperor should have been taught about the fate his granduncle had went through for trying the usurp the emperor, but jealousy was a human nature, and wasn't something one could taught to get rid of, only to control it.
As he got close to the house, he sent out his divine sense and called out Ely. Both Ely and Anya flew out.
"You took quite some time. Didn't you say it was going to be quick?" Ely asked.
Anya looked around and asked, "Where's Dahlia?"
Ning explained everything that happened to him the last couple of days. They ladies finally brought him inside. Ember and Ender along with his wife and children were also in there.
"Inikaka, you're finally back," Hijaka said. "We've been waiting for you."
"Yeah, I'm back. We'll leave in a day or two now," Ning said, considering how impatient everyone must've been with his lateness.
Fortunately, Hijaka and his people were well treated by Ender.
The sun set soon and the people started gathering to talk some more. The entire thing felt like a celebration, rather than a simple grouping of people with how many there were.
They all say around a small camp fire and talked about different things. People laughed, some told tales others had never heard before, Ning told some of his own from the Souther continent.
Dahlia would've certainly spoken about the many beasts she had seen today, but unfortunately she wasn't here.
Slowly, one by one, people started leaving to go and cultivate. Soon, only a few were remaining.
"Brother Ning," Ender said. "I heard that you are moving over to the Northern Continent, is that True?"
"Yes. I want to just settle down now. I have a few things to do that I can slowly do, other than that, I have nothing to do here anymore," Ning said.
"I see," Ender said. "Well, I wish the best of luck, Brother Ning. Anyway, I will go back now. You guys should go in as well." With that, Ender walked back into the house.
"I will go in too, Inikaka," Hijaka said and left.
"So will I," Anya said with a smile and left.
In the end, only Ning and Ely were left. "So, what plan do you have now?" Ning asked.
"I don't know. I was actually hoping…" Ely didn't finish off her sentence. A troubled look arose on her face that was very rarely there.
Ning racked his mind with multiple thoughts that contradicted each other. It was clear to see how much he cared about Ely, but he feared that asking her to come with him was not something that was good for her.
Ning would leave someday, and Ely was bound to die unless Ning did something too. So, he feared that he couldn't give her the life she deserved if he called her with him.
However, this small desire to be with her kept giving him the urge to throw caution to the wind and just ask her.
And so he did.
"If you don't have any plans, do you want to come with me? I would love it if you did," He asked.
Ely was surprised, but happy too to hear that. She smiled as that was what she had been hoping for. "Do you really mean it?" she asked.
"Of course. After all this time, do you still have to ask that?" he asked.
Ely chuckled when she heard that. "I suppose not," she said.
"So? What's your answer?" Ning asked.
"Do you really have to ask it? Of course I will," Ely said.
Ning smiled brightly, but there was a trace of sadness hidden in that smile. While he was happy for now, he believed that this was something that would lead him to sadness later.
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Chapter 350: Return
Time passed some more. Days, months, years, everything was the same to Ning whose life had now grown monotonous.
He had a simple house in a mountain where he lived a normal life, doing normal things. The only thing that was abnormal was that he did not age, and neither did Ely who was living with him.
The two of them hadn't spoken it out loud, but they were clearly Dao companions now. They cultivated together in their small mud and wood house in the village.
As time passed, Ning felt both happy and sad. He was happy that he was getting closer and closer to making that new body of his that he so desperately wanted.
Time passed again, and finally, Ning felt he was settled enough. So, he decided to do the things he had meant to do for so long and left.
He didn't know where to start, so he teleported at the edge of the Northern continent.
"If it were anywhere close by, people would've noticed it by now. So, it has to be somewhere so far away that no human or beast in the last 12 millennia has ever visited it," Ning thought. This meant, he had to start by looking at the furthest place from all known lifeforms on all the continents.
So, Ning teleported to the other side of the planet which was nothing but water. He was currently dozens of thousands of kilometers away from land on all sides.
Not only did people have a problem coming here due to the distance, but there were also strong beasts in the ocean that made sea travel nearly impossible out in the open.
"Wait! Oh no, I forgot about that," he thought when he realized a problem. If the Origin were truly in the ocean, or at least freely existing there, the fishes and other aquatic beasts would've been strong as well."
"Well, let's just look around for now," he thought and moved around the ocean. He looked for the strength of the beasts and realized they weren't that strong. So he was definitely in the wrong location.
"At least, the Qi feels a little denser, but not as much as the island with the beasts from long ago," Ning thought. He felt the Qi in the air and with that in mind, teleported towards the eastern shore of the Central Continent.
"Oh," he thought as he felt the new Qi. "This is so much weaker. Hmm…. So I'm in the wrong direction?"
With that, he disappeared towards the western shore of the Central Continent.
"Much better," he thought when he felt the Qi in the air of the western shore. "I'm close, but… did the first place feel denser?" he thought.
He started doing the same thing over and over, teleporting to different locations around the ocean, trying to figure out where the density was the highest.
Finally, he found a location that felt like the best he had felt anywhere. Even if that was not the correct spot, that was very close.
"It should be around here. I hope so," he thought and slowly moved around. He searched the Origin for a few hours, but couldn't find anything at all.
There were two problems he was facing right now. The first one was the obvious case of not seeing any location that was the Origin.
The other problem was that even if Origin was somewhere around here, the beasts weren't in the Spirit transformation stage yet.
Unless what the book and the beasts in the tomb had said was false, the Origin couldn't be here.
"Unless…" he thought. His eyes slowly widened as he thought. "What if the Origin is not freely seen, but instead inside a seal or secret realm?"
That was the best idea Ning could gather about the Origin. With no more hesitation, he started looking around signs for something of that sort.
However, he couldn't find anything. So, he resorted to finding out information from the system instead. Only, he didn't open up the interface but instead spoke out loud.
"System, is there any sealed locations or secret realms around here?" he asked.
There is an island hidden in the ocean 4 kilometers to the right
The system AI answered Ning without asking him or letting him know that energy was being used. It only asked such questions when the information being delivered was big or the cost was above a certain threshold that Ning had set.
The AI had returned to Ning a few years earlier, just randomly notifying him of its return. After the return, Ning had noticed a considerable drop in his ability to emote.
Even though he was already capable of not acting on emotions the majority of the time, it was still good to have normal emotions.
The other added benefits of the system upgrade such as the change in the cap system such that it refreshed every 24 hours, and the system's auto teleport out of a place if one is stuck there for 10 thousand years wasn't useful right now.
In fact, the most useful stuff with the system's update completion was actually the return of the AI itself. With it, Ning no longer had to go into interfaces to look into the different stuff himself.
Ning was quite elated when the AI returned, despite his emotions being less. After a few days, he had tried asking for information about the location of the Origin.
However, the AI told him that the Origin had to do with the release of energy in a planet, and because of that, it was out of the System's hand to tell him where it was.
Although the system didn't stop him from finding it, it didn't actively help him search for it either.
Fortunately, it was telling him where he could find the secret realm or seals around here.
"4 kilometers from here that way right?" Ning thought as he looked into the map. The place had nothing on the map, but Ning wouldn't know until he checked.
With that, he disappeared.