The Emperor slowly turned around to look in the direction of where the voice had come from.
There, on one of the broken crystals that were on the ground, he saw a man sitting on it. The man looked older, in his early 30s, but quite handsome.
He wore weird clothes that the Emperor hadn't seen before. But all of that was sidelined in the Emperor's focus when he saw that sword in his hand.
"Who are you?" the Emperor asked. "Put that sword down. It's mine."
Ning grinned from ear to ear, before looking down on the sword in his hand. "Goddamn, it really is so heavy," he said, moving the sword around a bit. "I've never used something so heavy before."
He looked below him at the crystal that he sat on that seemed perfectly fine. "It's heavy for me, but the weight isn't real, huh?" he spoke. "That's quite fascinating. Should I bond with it?"
"You damn brat! Answer me when I'm speaking to you. Who are you?" the Emperor shouted in a fit of rage that caught the attention of the guards to the side.
"Hmm?" Ning touched his face with his left hand. "Do you not recognize me?"
He leaned to the left and looked at his dead body which looked like a pin sack with the crystal spikes that came out of it. He couldn't even see what his face looked like.
"Well, I did say I needed a slightly different face," he mentioned, turning around to the Emperor again. "In case you still haven't recognized it, it's me, Ning."
"Who?" the Emperor asked.
Ning gasped exaggeratively. "Old man, you just killed me. How do you not recognize the person you just killed? Look at me, I don't even look human anymore because of what you did to me."
"What?" the Emperor asked, a look of confusion on his face.
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Ning ignored the emperor and looked to the right where the dome was. "Hey! Stop fighting now. It's over. I died," he shouted at them.
The few guards who were still attacking stopped in confusion and looked around to who had just arrived. They saw the emperor and then Ning.
"Clara, come here," he said, waving the large sword in the air.
Clara could barely hear him, let alone see him. She couldn't even walk because of the lack of leg. And yet, somehow she moved.
Outside of her own control, her body flew from the dome, going past the guards who tried to attack her and arrived next to Ning in an instant.
"Are you alright?" Ning asked her when he was in front of him before grimacing a little. "Ugh, sorry. You're not alright."
He tapped her forehead a little and suddenly her leg that she had lost started growing on its own. The wounds on her shoulder healed, and the other wounds that she had acquired over the course of the battle today healed as well.
The 6 guards of the Emperor arrived next to him and watched in horror at the growing limbs and squirming skin. How was this happening?
The Emperor himself was shocked to see what was happening here exactly. How was he healed?
For one thing, the Emperor was more confused at the fact that he couldn't sense any Essence from this man at all. That was the most confusing part of all. Was that how he managed to come here? But then… how did he heal the girl?
The Emperor was so confused that he had already stopped believing at all in the possibility that this truly was Ning and not a different person that had come from nowhere.
The Crown Prince arrived a moment later than everyone and stood a distance away from them. He saw Clara next to Ning and saw that she was fine, healed completely. He couldn't help but sigh in relief.
"Are you alright?" Ning asked Clara, who looked around in surprise and confusion.
Clara was low on Essence and thus felt pretty lethargic because of it, but other than that, she was fine. She stepped away from Ning, looking around in shock.
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What had happened just now? How was her consciousness so clear all of a sudden? How were her arms back?
"Did you hear me?" Ning asked. "Are you alright?"
She turned around and looked at Ning before slowly nodding. "I am," she said. "Who… are you?"
"It's me, Ning," Ning said. "I know I look different but I don't really want to de-age this body. Sorry."
"You're… Ning?" Clara asked.
"Yes," Ning said. "I'll explain it all to you once we go elsewhere. Let's leave."
He jumped off the crystal. He only took a few steps to walk away when the Emperor shot multiple crystal spikes around his feet.
"You won't leave until you hand me over that sword," the Emperor said.
Ning looked at the sword and back at the Emperor. He gave an annoyed look and said, "Old man, you killed me. You ended my adventure in this world, and now I'm back to being myself. Consider that a win for yourself and please leave."
"If you try and force something to happen, you'll only end up killing yourself and your men," Ning said.
"Hah! A bunch of big words for someone without Essence," the Emperor said.
"Oh!" Ning widened his eyes. "Are you sure it's me who doesn't have Essence, and it's not you who can't sense it?"
The Emperor frowned a bit. That had crossed his mind as a possibility but that surely couldn't be possible at all.
For the man to evade his Essence Senses, one of two things had to be true.
He either had no Essence or very minimal essence. Or, he had to have so much Essence that he couldn't sense it at all.
'No, I should be able to sense it even if the man was in the damn Divine realm,' he thought. The possibility remained that he didn't have much Essence.
'He must've wasted it all to make that sword his,' the Emperor thought and smiled. "Hah, your bluff doesn't work here. Hand me that sword, or die."
Ning looked at the crystals around him and back at the Emperor. "Are you sure you want to fight me, old man?" he asked. "The best case scenario for you out of this will be to walk away without your Essence core."
"Hah, that's a lot of talk for someone without Essence," the Emperor said. "I was going to let you go, but I'm afraid I cannot do so. You bonded with the sword, and like him, I must kill you too."
"Father, why ar—"
"Shut up! I do not want to hear a single thing from you," the Emperor said before turning back toward Ning. "You should not have taken that sword."
"I found this sword, so this is my sw—"
A crystal spike struck him in the head out of nowhere, bursting into a million different shards as it spread all around Ning.
Clara was pelted a bit by the shards too, but other than that, she wasn't hurt.
The Emperor was about to go grab the sword, but when he saw that nothing happened to Ning, he was confused. "What… what did you do?" he asked. He hadn't felt him use any Essence, so he couldn't understand what had happened.
Surely he didn't just stand there and take the attack directly, did he?
Ning sighed. "I told you not to do this," he said. "And yet you still do. You won't understand with words, will you? I guess it is only fists that will help you understand."
Ning started walking toward the Emperor.
The Emperor attacked once more, sending massive amounts of crystals to kill him at once, and yet when they struck Ning, they all shattered. Many were even destroyed so badly that they turned back into Essence.
And yet, not a single scratch appeared on Ning's body.
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Finally, the Emperor felt scared. He felt no movement from Essence in Ning. He felt no armor, and he definitely saw that he didn't move at all. And that started scaring him for the first time in a long time.
He realized he was dealing with something that he couldn't make sense of. Something foreign from everything that he had been used to.
Something unknown.
As Ning got closer, the Emperor was terrified.
"Kill him!" he ordered his royal guards, who immediately jumped into action.
6 different Essence souls appeared out from behind Ning, each one growing over 10 meters tall in an instant.
There were souls with wings, souls with weapons, souls with a flower growing out of them, and various other little traits that showed that their souls were slowly changing from a human soul to something different.
A little bit more change and a heap of Essence later, these people would enter the Stellar Harmony realm as well.
Ning cared not for that realm, so this realm did nothing to him either.
A flash of light burned as a massive fire serpent devoured him where he walked. A green blade fell into the fire, causing an explosion that brightened the entire area for an instant.
A giant rock spike grew out from the ground and was pulled into the air before it was dropped where Ning was. It crashed into him without the fire, and no one could tell what happened to him at all.
The guard with a Steam Essence core quickly sent out a strong, fast stream of steam that blew into the place where Ning was at. The Steam would be of such a high temperature that it would rival the flames while adding more heat to the location.
The ones with water and ice attacks held off from attacking for a moment. They wanted the heat to deal with Ning and then they used their attacks.
Both Ice and Water attacks landed where he was at the same time, adding so much force to the ground that the very structure of the arena shook to the point where it was going to shatter.
Clara was shocked at the attacks that were dealt to Ning. Not even she took that much damage at once when she was fighting earlier. The open area had given them a lot of levity on where to attack and who to.
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The Emperor looked seriously at where it happened and waited for the dust and smokes to settle down before finding out if Ning was dead or not.
However, he didn't need to.
"Did you think that would kill me?" Ning's voice came first, and then the man walked out himself.
The Emperor gawked in terror when he saw that there was not a single scratch on his body at all.
"You… who— no, what are you?" he asked in fear.
"Me? I'm the man you just tried to kill," Ning said. "Now, it's time for payback, right?"
"Attack him again!" the Emperor shouted before turning around to run away. He needed to get out of here as soon as he could.
He didn't look back and ran toward the other side of the arena, but before he could get far away, he slammed onto a strong wall and fell back.
He held his nose started bleeding and quickly looked up to see what he had hit. To his surprise, Ning stood in front of him, with hands in his pockets and eyes that looked down on him.
"Is this all you can do?" he asked. "Kill those that are weak, run away from those that are strong? Pathetic."
He threw the man's own words back at him.
"Y-you! What are you? You're not a human," he shouted.
"You're not wrong," Ning said. "I am more than a human."
"Don't… don't kill me, please," he shouted.
"Oh?" Ning raised an eyebrow. "Did you think that would work? Did it work when the Grazer family and servants were burned alive that day? Did it work when Jernon asked you for forgiveness after the duel?"
"Did it work when your father asked you not to kill him after you poisoned him and forced him out of the throne?"
The Emperor's eyes went wide. "How- How do you know that?" he asked.
"Doesn't matter," Ning said. "The thing that matters is… you are not getting away from this without any consequences."
The guards turned around after realizing that Ning had already run away and their Emperor was in trouble. They moved to attack but their Emperor was in between, and thus they had to stop.
"I don't really care that you killed me," Ning spoke to the man. "I was bound to die from the beginning anyway."
"I started this adventure to live how a normal person would go through the same problems an ordinary man would," Ning said. "I will say I didn't exactly start at the bottom like a normal man, but I still liked my adventure. An adventure that I knew would come to an end someday."
"I just… didn't expect it to come to an end this soon."
"I'm not angry with you or anything for killing me. That was part of the adventure too," Ning said as he looked around at the people that stared at him. "But… even after all that, even after I told you that I would kill you if you attacked, you still let your greet take over you."
"You are one greedy man, Darran Black," Ning said. "And keeping you as the Emperor will only harm the people of this land. Let me do them a favor and get rid of this strength of yours that gives you this green and confidence."
Ning slowly raised his sword.
"NO!" the man shouted, using the entirety of his Essence pool to create spikes out of the ground to try and kill Ning. However, before the spikes could hit Ning, someone clanged and the entire first batch of spikes was completely cut in half, the upper halves thrown off to the side.
More came from the ground, and Ning's hands moved faster. It was a blur to everyone as no one could see what exactly was happening, but the sound of clanging was clear to them all.
Ning was destroying the spikes as they grew out of the ground.
The Emperor used his entire pool of Essence and yet it all fell apart in the end. Not a single one could hurt Ning at all as he somehow managed to tear through it all.
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He managed to tear through an all-out attack made by someone in the Stellar Harmony realm as an act of desperation. And he only used his body to do so.
The Emperor's fear peaked as he started crying out loud, begging Ning to let him go. However, Ning didn't listen to him at all.
"You killed me because you wanted this sword right?" Ning asked. "Even without knowing how it was made, I could already tell that it was a special sword. Now that I know all about it, its simply remarkable that I was even able to find this sword.
He showed the sword off by pointing it at the sky.
"This is what caused you to be greedy, right?" Ning asked. "Well, I might as well use it then."
Ning's left hand moved forward, stopping the 6 guards from moving in using his telekinesis skill.
They struggled to move and even use their essence, but nothing worked. "Just stay there will you? I don't want to kill anyone else," Ning said, flipping his sword over as he placed the tip over the man's core in his lower stomach and smiled.
"You wanted this sword, didn't you?" he asked. "You can have it."
He let go of the sword as it fell straight into the man's stomach.
Because the Emperor wasn't bonded with the sword yet, he felt the weight of a continent pierce through his stomach, and dig into the ground beneath him.
The Emperor cried out a scream that he had never made before, as he felt the Essence core in his body that he had worked so hard to form had been destroyed. With that, it also destroyed the connection between him and his Essence soul.
The Snake like body flew out of the Emperor, even though he hadn't died yet. As soon as it appeared, it sought to learn why it had died. That was the instinct it had with its limited intelligence.
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It looked around itself, seeing Ning and the others, searching for any strong individuals.
It ignored Ning completely as he had no Essence in his body right now, and looked in the direction of the 6 guards that Ning had now stopped using telekinesis on.
Ning reached down and pulled out his sword from the Emperor who seemed to have fainted from the pain. His screams could no longer be heard at all.
The Essence soul was ready to attack the people when Ning arrived on top of it. "You, disappear."
Ning swung his sword once and in that one strike, the snake was cut in half, turning back into the Essence it was made out of.
He landed down below, in front of the 6 who could only look at him in terror. They did not want to have anything to do with him.
"Your Emperor is alive," Ning said. "Albeit he had lost his Essence core and is now no more than a normal human. If you can stop the bleeding in time, you should be able to sa—"
His words stopped halfway through and then he sighed. He could only turn around as Clara had already arrived next to the Emperor with a black scythe in her hand.
Ning looked at her, completely silent as he had no reason to interfere in that fight.
The guards moved, although it was already too late.
"This is for my father, mother, my little brother, and everyone from my family that you killed," Clara shouted. "Die!"
She swung her scythe and cut through the Emperor's neck, killing him at once.
The guards arrived in time to catch her, but before they could reach her, Ning teleported in between them.
"Are you done with your revenge?" Ning asked her.
Clara simply nodded without saying a word.
"Good," Ning said, turning around to grab her arm. "Then let's get out of here."
Clara was confused, terrified, and felt all sorts of other emotions as she tried to figure out just where the hell they were. Her own emotions from having just taken a revenge that was nearly 30 years old were overwhelming her and now she felt others that she couldn't explain.
She looked around at where she was. First thing that surprised her was that it was daytime right now. Had she fallen asleep somehow? Where had the last 12 hours disappeared to?
And then there was the fact that she was stepping on sand, looking at the vast blue ocean in front of her.
What exactly was going on?
"You're tired, right?" a voice spoke behind her.
She quickly turned around to see the older Ning, laying down on the sand, enjoying the sun.
Once again, she saw the weird clothes he wore and looked worried and confused. "Who are you exactly?" she asked. "Are you really Ning?"
"I am," Ning said. "Come sit. I'll tell you what you want to know. Just rest for now."
She took up his advice and sat on the sand, lying back as she looked at the clear blue sky. She didn't speak and neither did Ning.
The silence brought her to a calmness that forced her to think over things.
She had done it. She finally got time to realize that she had managed to do something that she had wanted to for the last 25 years and had given up on already.
She came to the understanding that she had avenged her family and that brought her to tears that no pain could ever.
"I did it!" she cried without closing her eyes, staring directly at the sky "I did it!"
Ning smiled and looked at the sky as well, letting her cry for a while.
The gentle ocean wind blew across them, and the two stayed there for a while.
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"Are you done?" Ning asked her.
"Yes," she said. "Are you really Ning?"
Ning chuckled at the question. "How many times must I answer before you accept it?" he asked.
"I saw your dead body," she said. "It's hard to accept it, your know?"
"I know," Ning said. "How should I explain this then. I am not someone from this world to begin with."
Clara nodded for a second before cocking her head to the side to look at him in confusion. "What do you mean by that?" she asked.
"I'm not from this world," Ning said. "I come from the stars basically."
"Liar," she said.
"It's not a lie," Ning said.
"How would you come from the sky? You can't live up there. People have tried to go there, but no one can breathe after a while. They all come down," she said.
"True," Ning said. "But I live on a planet just like this."
"I don't trust you," she said.
Ning smiled. "Then why don't you take a look."
Clara disappeared for a second and appeared on top of a large building, looking down on a world with boats that flew in the sky and people that flew even higher.
Many people looked at her in confusion and some even came to check on her. Before they could do anything though, she disappeared, arriving back on the beach.
"Wh-wh-what was that?" she shouted in fear.
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"My world," Ning said. "The one I came from. It's a different world from yours, isn't it?"
"What did you do to me?" she asked. "A hallucination?"
"No, I sent you to my world for a second," Ning said. "Was it fun?"
"No, it was scary," she said. "How can there be so many carriages and people that fly in there. Does everyoine have Wind Essence?"
"Oh, there is no Essence in my world," Ning said. "It is instead filled with Qi and Mana. A different type of energy that follow similar rules as Essence, but manifest as completely different laws."
"Qi? Mana?" the girl looked confused.
"You don't have to worry about those," Ning said. "Just know that I am not from this world. That is enough for you."
"Then… who was the Ning that we met. If that is you, how are there two of you?" she asked.
"There aren't two of me, exactly," Ning said. "I just have multiple bodies. And with multiple bodies, I can change around to whatever I want."
"Then… what was that?" she asked. "Why were you in that weak body? Why did you hide your strength? You could've done so many things with the strength you have right now."
"I can," Ning said. "But I chose not to. It's not easy living a fun life when you are so strong. Life gets boring soon."
"So, when I came to this world, I sought to do something," Ning said. "Have an adventure that a normal person would have. So, I made myself a weak body and started my journey."
"Not that it started so normally. I was only in the town for just 2 days when I was roped into your gang, forced to fight for you. It was certainly not normal," he said.
"You… so you lied about your amnesia?" she asked.
"Of course," Ning said. "I couldn't tell you where I really came from."
He grinned at her, which she refused to look at. She thought for a second and asked another question. "Now that your adventure has been cut short, are you going to make a new body? Can you do that?"
"No, I'm done with my adventure as a normal person in this world. I've achieved what I could've achieved as a normal person. Now, I live as myself. I'll roam the other continents for a while and then maybe I will decide to leave this planet too, finally," he said.
Clara didn't really understand what he meant, but she understood enough. "Alright," she said getting up from the sand. "Now that you've said so much, tell me this. Just where the hell are we?"
"This?" Ning asked, looking around at the small island he was on. "This is the place I arrived on when I came to this planet for the first time."
"When I first came to this planet, I arrived on this island," Ning said. "At that time, I had removed my memories about everything regarding Essence and started my adventure here."
"That was about… not so long ago," he said. "I took you here so you could get away from your problems for a while."
Clara nodded. She looked around at the serene scenery around her. "Why is it daytime?" she asked.
"Because we are on the other side of the planet," Ning answered. "We should be… somewhere between Springwind and Blueflame continent. I think we will reach the Blueflame continent in a few days if I'm not wrong."
"Oh," she said. She was just too surprised by everything else to be surprised by this as well. She simply acknowledge what was happening and nodded.
"Rest for a bit. I'll take you somewhere after a while," he said, letting Clara rest.
He prepared a simple hammock between the trees on the island and let her lay there while he stayed in the sand. He looked at the beautiful blue ocean, the bright trees, and everything in between.
It was so quiet, so peaceful. Compared to the place he had just been to, this felt like paradise.
"Emma will love this," he thought connected with his other body inside his Inner world. He realized that barely a day had passed in the time he was gone and sighed.
He was with his wife, who quickly realized he had changed.
"What's wrong? Are you checking in?" Ely smiled.
"No, not checking in," Ning said. "I'm here to bring Emma out. It's a new place, so I think she'll love it."
"Is it a fun place?" Ely asked.
"Yes," Ning said.
"And why are you not calling me then?" Ely said.
"Father-Daughter time. No moms allowed," Ning said.
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Ely chuckled. "Alright, go enjoy your time with her. But I'm next. I want to see the many worlds too," she said.
"I promise I'll bring you out before I leave this world," Ning said and quickly released his Divine sense and found Emma with the other kids, teaching them how to cultivate. She was the strongest cultivator and mage on earth, so she spent her time teaching when she could.
Ning quickly told her what was happening and she came running back.
"Other world?" she asked in surprise. "Really Papa?"
"Of course," Ning said. "Let's go."
"Wait, I need to say goodbye," Emma said, trying to go to her mother, but Ning stopped her.
"You'll be gone for a day at most. No need to say any goodbyes. Let's go," Ning said, throwing Emma out into the World of Astoria.
As soon as Emma was out, she looked around, confused for some reason.
"What's wrong?" Ning asked. "Do you not like the place? It's only an island for now. We'll go to different cities soon."
"No, that's not it," Emma said. "I feel… weird, weak. I think it's because I'm not on Earth anymore."
"Ah!" Ning realized what was going on. "System, will there be a problem with Emma staying away from Earth?"
No immediate problems will occur from her staying away from Earth because of his unique situation as a living being that is a Will
However, because she is no longer on Earth, she will no longer have any means of using either her Qi or Mana unless she is in a world with that.
Also, the energy that she can use as a Will won't regenerate as her world is in another verse from this one. As a result, she will start losing her energy as a Will and will need to return back to Earth to gain more of it
"How long can she last?" Ning asked.
Depending on the situation, it can be anywhere from a year to a decade
"And if she does lose her energy, she won't have any real problems will she?" Ning asked.
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Aside from not being able to do the many things that Will can do, she will have to live as a normal human being.
Of course, as a high-level Body cultivator, she will neither age nor have any problems living with the mortals.
"Great!" Ning said. "Did you hear that?"
Emma nodded. "It seems I have nothing to worry about," she said.
"Who's that?" a voice called from behind them.
Emma turned around and saw the black-haired Clara. She turned to Ning and asked, "Since when did my ring have this language?"
"I added it just a little bit ago," he said and turned to Clara. "Come, meet my daughter."
"Daughter?" Clara looked surprised. "her?"
"This is Clara, say hello," Ning said to Emma.
"Greetings, Clara. I am Emma," Emma said. "It's great to meet a person I know nothing about."
"What?" Clara looked confused.
"Don't mind her," Ning said. "Why are you down? Go rest. We'll leave once you're rested."
"Sorry, hello. I am Clara. You're pretty." Clara couldn't help but add the last sentence on her own. It was hard to beat the beauty of a Planetary Will that was modeled after the humans that were born there.
Emma touched her face, wondering if that will become a problem here. She still looked no older than 15 years old at most, but that would be hard to stop creeps from trying to get to know her.
"But… how is your daughter here?" Clara asked.
"Clara, it's better if you don't ask these questions," Emma said. "The answers you get will be more confusing than the question itself. Just know that I am his daughter and now I am here as well."
Clara looked at Emma and frowned a bit.
Ning tapped Emma on the forehead. "Be more respectful with your words," he said.
"Huh? I am respectful though," Emma said.
"No, you are not," Ning said. "She thinks you are a 13-year-old child who is being rude to her. If you don't want to stand out, you will need to learn to be more adaptable."
"You will need to act your age and only then will you start having fun."
Clara went to rest and fell asleep pretty soon. She was already exhausted from fighting and being wounded, and having avenged her family made her feel a calm that she never felt before.
Ning stayed with Emma by the sand looking at the horizon. She stared at it too, enjoying a world where she didn't constantly know everything that was happening and had to force no long force herself to not listen to every single conversation that was happening between the billions of humans in the world.
"What's going on with finding the other planet?" Emma asked. "One where I can have friends."
"Well…" Ning thought for a bit. "To have a planet where you can make friends, one that will live as long as you, it will have to be a Qi planet. I have asked the system to keep track of a few of them, but right now I don't even have any energy to collect one if I could find it. I will need to find more."
"Okay," Emma said. "So what have you been doing all this time?"
Ning grinned. "You want to hear your father's journey, do you?" he asked happily. Before Emma would tell him to stop, he started talking about what it was he did in the time that he was missing.
Emma heard it all and nodded. "So let me get this straight. You got recruited by a shady guy in a tavern to deliver something for him, which could've been drugged, and 7 months later, you went on to kill the Emperor of another Empire?" she asked.
"Uhh… when you put it like that… I guess that did happen," Ning said.
"And the sword?" Emma asked. "Where is it?"
Ning brought out the sword from his storage space and showed it off to his daughter. "Can you hold it?" he asked her.
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"Let me try," Emma said and grabbed the sword. She moved it around, slightly confused. "It's light. You said it was heavy to anyone that wasn't bonded."
"Hmm," Ning thought for a bit. "It isn't treating you as a human then. It's treating you as a will, so it doesn't count you. That or it's afraid of you."
The system acknowledged that was the truth.
"What is its story then?" Emma asked.
"I don't know," Ning said. "Let's find out together."
He asked the system what the truth was, and he got an answer.
"I see," Ning said with his newfound knowledge.
"What is it?" Emma asked curiously.
"Long ago, a Will formed in this world," Ning started explaining. "It was during a period of time when the humans were nothing but some primitive beings who didn't even live in a society."
"They prayed to their gods back then, the beasts that ruled the world. The Divine beasts. So, as a result, the will that formed was also a beast. It lived for thousands of years until the humans grew so much that they no longer cared much for the beasts."
"Due to having been created from the souls of those that were born here, the change of their mindset caused a dissonance in the will, which caused it to lose its identity."
"Without an identity, a Will can't live for very long. So, it knew it was going to die. Even then, however, they will love every being equally. So, in its absence, it worried the people of Astoria would devolve into mindless wars, killing all the beast and men that were there."
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"So, in an act of what could be called desperation, the Will did something extreme."
"It went to the smallest continent of all, the Stonehall continent and decided to convert it."
"There weren't many people living in the continent as it was a land belonging only to the beasts for the most part, so migrating them was no difficult task."
"Once no one was there, the Will did what it could to convert half the continent and created a sword out of the Essence in itself. That day, the world of Astoria lost one of its four continents."
"That was just 500 years ago."
Emma's face was wide with shock upon hearing the story. "The will… did it die?" she asked with a worried look.
"I'm afraid it did," Ning said. "It was already dying in the first place, converting so much essence of the world into a physical object removed the planet from the level of threshold that was required for a Will to exist. As a result, it disappeared after it made the sword."
Emma was a little worried after hearing that. "Will that… happen to me too?" she asked.
"Unlikely," Ning said. "Earth is a world that only belongs to humans. Due to the lack of beasts, there isn't much that souls can imagine about other humans. As long as the humans thrive on Earth, you'll be fine."
"Even if that somehow does happen, you are a human before you are a will. If you somehow lose the Will power, you'll still live as a human," Ning said. "Besides, with your father here, do you think you have anything to worry about?"
"No," Emma said, smiling. "Okay, continue that story. What happened to the sword then? How did it arrive on this island?"
"Hehe, that's where the fun begins," Ning said. "You see, as I've mentioned, Essence souls are like Nascent Souls for a Qi cultivator."
"Even when a person dies, the nascent soul can live. However, unlike Nascent Souls, Essence souls are much stronger if compared to their body when it was alive. Also, way less intelligent."
"That is… unless you are at the peak of Essence realms, which the Will was," Ning said. "As a result, when the will died, its Essence formed from its corpse, becoming another will that was all the same powerful."
"Then, it went on to finish what it had started," Ning said. "It went to bring peace to the world that would last for centuries until the next Will hopefully formed once again."
"The Essence Soul of the Will went to every country and every empire in every continent, and used its new sword to show a dominating power that was so extreme that people would fear it for ages to come," Ning explained.
"It told them what the sword was made up of. A continent destroyed in its creation. No one would be worthy of it and it would forever be a threat to the many empires and countries that tried to take it from him."
"It also told them that it would return if they ever did something destructive to the world and the innocent ones that lived in it. If it ever returned, it would kill them all," Ning said. "As it was no longer a Will, it could do that too if it wanted to."
"Did it return?" Emma asked curiously. "Did it go back to the countries that went on war?"
"No," Ning said, sighing. "It was a bluff. Even if it was the Will's Essence soul, it could not live for a very long time. Essence soul die very soon on their own, turning back to the Essence that it was made out of."
"As a result, there was no way for that Essence soul to ever go and attack the others," Ning said. "All it could do was come back to meet one of its oldest friends, talk with him for a while, leave the sword for him to look after, and die on his back."
"The island we're on is where the Essence Soul died," Ning said. "And that was the end of the Will of the world that formed many thousand years ago."
"Woah!" Emma looked in surprise. "It truly is a fantastical place. I couldn't have imagined such a world was possible. I look forward to learning more. Can I use Essence?"
"If you stay here for long enough, your body adapts to it by creating a core for you, but as it is now, no," Ning said. "But that should take a dozen or so years."
"Hmm," Emma got a bit sad hearing that. "Is there no way for me to absorb Essence?"
"I'm afraid not," Ning said. "You can do what I did though. Restrain your powers and only use what a normal Essence user can use."
"Use for what?" Emma asked. "You know I can't hurt people."
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"Then… ah!" Ning realized. "I know the perfect way. We'll have to go to the Origin where the time flows differently."
"Oh, that's not a bad idea," Emma said. She turned around and looked at the trees. "We should gather these fruits as well. Can't let them go."
"Yes," Ning said. "I plan on taking them all this time around."
"What even are these fruits anyway? They seem so special," Emma asked.
Ning asked the system the same question and got an answer back within a second. He smiled at the answer. "That's because it is not a normal fruit."
"The fruits that grow on the turtle's back are normal coconuts that have mutated over the past centuries from absorbing the most purest Essence there is in this land. The Essence that comes out of the dead Essence soul of the dead Will of Astoria."
"It grows, falls down to the ground. Some get washed ashore, but most return to the sand, enriching it, growing more fruits of pure Essence," Ning said. "Most of the Essence that formed the Essence soul of the strongest being on the world lies in these very fruits."
"Which is why they are so special."
"Oh," Emma said excitedly. "Let's gather them."
She got up and tried to fly up but couldn't. She realized that her Qi wasn't working at all. She tried magic, but that didn't work either.
"I truly can't use anything huh?" she asked. Then, she tried using the pure Energy that came with being a Will of a planet. She used her own energy and took flight.
She could do whatever a Will could do. She could create stuff out of nowhere, empower others, and many more things.
Sometimes, Ning even wondered if the Energy System was in part modeled after the Celestial Wills. Of course, the System would never answer that question, so he could only guess.
The father and daughter duo went around the island, gathering every piece of fruit they could find. It was the most concentrated form of Essence, so they took every piece of it.
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It took them a while to take it all down and by the time they were done, it was approaching evening.
Clara woke up from her nap and found them laying on their hammock too. "Are you guys sleeping?" she asked.
"No, just resting," Ning said.
"Oh… when are we going back?" she asked.
"Uhh… in a few hours," Ning said. "There are a few places we will have to visit before we return, so it will take some time."
"Oh… can we not go back right now?" she asked.
"Is it urgent?" Ning asked. "What do you have to do back there?"
"That… nothing," she said. She truly had nothing to do.
"You don't want your house back, do you? Or do you want to become the lord of Whiteowl region?" he asked.
Clara realized that she did not know what to do. On one hand, she did not want to return to that place, but on the other hand, she also wanted to maintain her father's legacy.
"I'll… have to think about it," Clara said.
"Do that. Take your time," Ning said. "There is no hurry."
Clara left back to her hammock to think for a while and soon enough the evening turning into night with stars glittering in the bright, open sky.
"Woah!" Emma said. "That's… so weird looking. Its like there are millions of explosions in the sky happening all at once."
Ning smiled.
Inside his Inner World, there was only Earth, Sun and a moon. In their absence, the world was filled with darkness.
As such, for the first time since she was born, Emma got to witness the starry sky in the night, and hearing her talking about it made Ning feel the happiest he had in a long time.
After an hour or two of laying in the hammock, and thinking about what she wanted to do in the future, Clara decided to go and take her place as the rightful ruler of the Whiteowl region. That was her father's legacy and she did not want to throw that away.
There was a chance that she could come to regret this decision, but she decided to take it anyway. She would rather regret taking it now than regret not taking it later.
So, she told Ning what she wanted to do.
"I want to go back!" she said with a ferocious attitude.
"Great!" Ning said. "We should leave then. But… before we go, I think you might want to see something. Or rather… sense something."
"Hm?" Clara looked at him weirdly. "Sense what?"
"Have you noticed that ever since you came here, you couldn't sense any Essence at all?" he asked.
"Huh?" Clara looked around, trying to sense what she could. "Wait, you're right. I can't sense anything."
"That's because I stopped your senses from working," Ning said. "I thought you needed to work on your emotions and didn't want to give you any outside influence more than I already had."
"Papa, what are you talking about?" Emma asked.
"You won't be able to tell. You don't have Essence sense yet," Ning explained. "But she will be able to tell very soon."
"You stopped by senses? Give it back," Clara said. "…please."
Ning smiled. "I will," he said. "But… try not to get scared."
"Scared? Of what?" Clara asked.
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Ning continued smiling and snapped his finger to note the moment of change.
Clara suddenly felt pure Essence and Water Essence all around her. The Pure Essence was thick and strong, and the Water Essence… scary.
Her legs shivered at the overwhelming senses she had as she tried to understand what was happening. She looked around at the sea, at the forest, and yet she could not tell where this strong Essence was coming from.
"What's going on?" she asked. "Where is this coming from?"
Her voice had a level of stutter to it that Emma immediately picked up on. "Is it scary?" she asked.
"Of course it is scary," Clara said, looking around frantically, hoping to find something that could answer what was happening. "Please, tell me. I'm scared."
Ning looked at her directly and said, "I think you have guessed already."
Clara's eyes widened in fear as she came to understand just what was going on. She looked around, worried as she slowly said the next few words.
"Is… is there… a Divine beast nearby?" she asked, her voice almost a whisper at this point.
"Oh," Emma noted and looked at her father. "She doesn't know?"
Ning shook his head and looked at Clara. "There is indeed a Divine Beast nearby, but that is not very accurate. What is accurate is that there is a Divine Beast right under our feet."
"Wh-what?" Clara was simply too shocked to even have any inflections in her voice at the moment.
Ning turned around. "Can you show yourself, please? This girl wants to see you" he said.
The ground shuddered at Ning's words as it elevated a bit above the sea. Clara grabbed hold of Ning to remain standing, and Emma simply chuckled looking around at the ocean that was so much further now.
Then, from their left, they all saw something that raised its head high in the air, a turtle that Ning had only seen once before.
Clara looked up to see the turtle and finally realized just how massive the thing was. She had not expected the Divine Beast to be so massive.
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She stumbled backward out of fear as the Essence of a Divine beast was too overwhelming for her, even though she was already in the Stellar Harmony realm.
Ning snapped once again, and Clara lost all sense of Essence once again. She still felt the fear in her heart, but the feeling of oppression had gone and what replaced was an emotional numbness that she couldn't explain at all.
Ning looked toward the turtle and flew up toward its head. He landed on top of the head and spoke, "Nice to finally meet you. Do you have a name?"
"I am Gorofus," the turtle spoke in a beast language that only Ning and Emma understood. "You are strong, aren't you?"
"Very," Ning said. "I am stronger than your old friend if you care about knowing that sort of information."
"Senior was strong back then," the turtle said.
"I am stronger," Ning said. "But of course, I'm not really looking for opponents to compare myself with. I just wanted to thank you. Even if you didn't mean to be involved, I acquired quite a bit of help from you early on when I came here.
"Is that so," the turtle said. "I had no hand in anything I did so I don't really need your thinking, but I will accept it."
"Do you want anything in return?" Ning asked.
"I don't think there is anything I want," the beast said. "I am an old beast, looking to die of old age in the future. What need do I have for wishes?"
"Are you sure? I can do something if you want me to," Ning said.
"I have no need for anything," the turtle said.
"Not even friends?" Ning asked.
"I have had friends, and they have all died. I no longer want one anymore. I do not want anyone else to die," the turtle said.
"What if this one was a friend that couldn't die?" Ning asked.
"A friend that can't die?" the turtle didn't believe Ning. "How could such a thing exist."
"Do you want one?" Ning asked. "I can get you one in a short time. About a century or so."
The turtle looked up at Ning with doubt clear in its large blue eyes. "How will you—"
"You don't need to know how. You just need to say yes, and I will do it," Ning said. "Do you want a friend?"
The turtle hesitated no longer. "If you truly think I can have a friend that will live for a few millennia like me, then yes. I do want one."
Can we leave now?" Clara asked once Ning and Emma returned to the ground. Even without her sense, she still felt scared being on an island that was in fact a shell of a Divine beast.
Ning nodded. "Let us leave then," he said, grabbing Emma's and Clara's hands before they disappeared.
When they reappeared, Clara looked around with confusion clear on her face.
"Where… are we?" she asked.
The landscape was one of a slanted forest as if it was on the side of a mountain. The land was wet from a recent rainstorm and the sky was mostly dark with thick clouds as well.
The smell of rain still hung in the air, along with some other smell that Clara couldn't tell what it was.
She looked through the forest and saw nothing but trees far past the forest as well. There was not a place in the entire continent that had a place like this.
"Are we back home?" she asked.
"No," Ning said.
"Huh?" Clara turned around to look at him. "What do you mean no?"
"No," Ning said. "As in, we're not at your home, or anywhere near it.
Clara's eyes narrowed in confusion again. She had asked Ning to take her home, even if she didn't word it that way, but he didn't take her back at all.
Ning didn't seem to have any such plan at all. He did accept to leave, and yet… he brought her somewhere entirely different from where they were supposed to be.
"This is a mountain in a special region of the Springwind Continent known as the Beast's land. Hundreds of kilometers on all sides are full of Essence beasts, each of which is strong enough to be in the Essence Manifestation realm, if not in the Essence Soul realm."
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"There are even 60 beasts with their own separate area in this place, all of which are in the Stellar Harmony realm."
"As for the Divine realm, there are 3 beasts of that rank in here, but they aren't close," Ning explained. "I'm going to let your Essence sense come back. Don't be afraid."
Clara nodded and Ning let her sense work again.
She cringed a bit, feeling the various essence all around her. The sky thundered, lighting the area in a bright light before leaving it in darkness again.
"Is this a rainforest, papa?" Emma asked. "Not having Divine sense is annoying."
"Haha, you'll get used to it," Ning said and looked at Clara. "Now that your senses are working, I'm sure you can sense it right?"
"Sense what?" Clara asked with a confused look on her face. Was she supposed to sense something?
"Hmm, maybe it doesn't leak as much and is hard for you to sense easily," Ning said. "Try it, you should be able to."
He walked past her, going up the slope while Emma followed behind her father, curious about the whole ordeal.
"Wait, what am I supposed to sense?" Clara asked and quickly ran behind the two so as to not get left behind. As she ran up to them, she realized that she did sense something.
It was vague at first, but when she moved up the mountain, it become stronger.
The air was filled with all sorts of Essences, and this one increased in concentration as she went up.
She arrived next to Emma and Ning who stood in front of an open cave. Arriving at the open cave herself, she could finally sense it so clearly that there was no doubt to her as to what was there.
"Shadow Essence!" she spoke in surprise. She hadn't expected to find Shadow Essence here at all.
Essence crystals by themselves were rare around the continent, and ones with elemental attributes were even rare.
On top of that, something like Shadow was simply too rare to even be found in most locations.
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She tried to walk in but Ning blocked her with her arm.
"Your Shadow Essence allows you to hide yourself quite well, doesn't it?" Ning asked freely.
"Huh? Oh yes," Clara said. "It's a technique my father bought from the Springwind continent."
Emma chuckled a bit hearing about that. "He isn't talking to you," she said.
A black puma walked out of the cave with the ony parts of its body that had any sort of color being its purple eyes.
It stared at the three of them, of which it could sense one person as strong as it was. As for the other two, they weren't strong at all.
It could easily bea—
"Are you thinking that you can defeat us?" Emma asked, looking at the beast.
She walked up toward the puma which got ready to attack her. It growled, sending tendrils of shadows to attack her. However, when the attack did come for Emma, she simply flicked her finger, destroying all the tendrils at once.
The force of her flick even caused a thunderous boom that shook the entire mountain.
"Oh… oops," she quickly hid her mouth in embarrassment. "I didn't meant for it to be that strong. Sorry."
Clara's eyes were way too wide at this point. "How…" she whispered. She even wondered if all beings that came from the stars were that strong. Was it just her world that was weak perahps.
The puma shuddered took and tried to run away, but it found that it couldn't move.
Emma arrived right next to it and grinned, petting the beast a little. "What's your name?" she asked the fearing beast.
The Puma looked at her, surprised that it could understand her at all.
"I… I am a Shadow Puma," it answered in its own language. "I have no name."
"Wah! A female beast!" Emma looked happy when she heard its voice. "Papa, papa! Do you think I can keep her?"
"If she agrees, sure," Ning said.
Emma excitedly looked around at the puma and grinned. "Do you want to come with me?" she asked. "If you do, I'll give you a name and I will take you around the world to see the many places you might not have seen before."
The Shadow Puma was simply too scared to refuse immediately. The request itself was bizarre and outrageous, but the people that made it so were even more so.
Not only were they completely without any essence, they were also simply too powerful to refuse and most likely continue living.
"I…" the Shadow Puma started speaking, but it couldn't say anything. It wanted to refuse, but then it worried what that would mean, not just to her but also…
Her fear made her feel completely unable to move. She stood there, not knowing what to do at all.
"Come," Ning said, calling to Clara who finally got out of her stupor. She looked at Emma with fear in her eyes and then back at Ning who acted like nothing happened at all.
"Your daughter," she spoke, following Ning quickly. "How is she… so strong?"
"Reasons," Ning said. "I could try and explain, but that would be like explaining the concept of smartphones to a group of primitive folks."
"A smart… what?" Clara was confused.
"See? It's hard to explain," Ning said. "Let's just say that she is simply too strong for anyone in this world."
"Is everyone from your world like that?" Clara couldn't ask as they delved deeper into the cave and light started slowly dying.
A person at the Stellar Harmony realm like her was supposed to have a vision that could even see clearly in the dark with nothing much light from the stars and the moons.
However, in this instance, even when light came in through the cave's opening, the winding paths made it impossible to get all the way in. On top of that, it seemed to be naturally blocked off as well, causing the rest of the cave to forever remain in darkness.
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'Shadow Essence,' Clara thought.
"Not everyone," Ning answered her question. "Only my family and friends. Rest are… strong, but not at the same level as us."
"I see," Clara said. She imagined how strong the rest of them would be.
"Don't mistake it though," Ning said. "Even amongst us all, I am at a realm beyond any of them are capable of reaching. Most of them can't even come close to my daughter in terms of strength, and I ma far beyond her."
"Sounds like all the same to me," Clara said and continued walking down the cave. She followed the Essence, now that she could sense it so much more clearly and ended up at the end of the tunnel where the Essence was at its highest.
Light appeared out of nowhere around her and she looked toward Ning who simply smiled at her, letting her know that it was his doing.
She turned around and finally went to the edge of the cave where the darkness was the thickest. She paused when she saw something in front of her that she hadn't expected to see there.
"Those are…"
"Her children," Ning said, looking at the small puma cubs that were barely a few months old.
He heard a swift rush as the puma ran back through the cave, coming back for her children. It seemed the threat of what would happen to her children had overshadowed the threat she felt for her own life.
She stood before Ning and Clara, growing at them with a stance that was ready to attack them.
Ning smiled and walked up to the puma.
The puma jumped, slamming Ning with her paws, but nothing happened. Instead, Ning simply rubbed her head lightly when she landed and spoke up.
"I'm not going to hurt your children. Don't worry," he said. "We're here for the Shadow Essence crystals that are hiding beneath this mountain.
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The puma didn't believe him, but there was nothing she could do. All she could do was try to fight him even more.
Emma walked in. "What happened? She just wal—"
She paused when she saw the puma's children.
"Wah!" she shrieked in surprised when she saw the cubs.
There were two of them, and both of whom were sleeping. They stirred awake hearing noise in the room. The made some cute noise that got Emma even more excited than she already was.
She walked up and went past the puma who couldn't move at all anymore. The puma growled but there was nothing she could do. She couldn't even see what was happening behind her.
Emma took the two cubs on her embrace and brought them to their mother. "Look, I'm not going to hurt your children," she said, caressing the two cubs. She let them go after a few seconds next to the puma, who could finally move.
Emma walked back up to her father.
Ning looked surprised. "What's wrong? Do you not want her anymore?" he asked.
"She is more scared of me than anything," Emma said. "I don't want to take her when she would probably hate me more than anything if I did so. I'll find something else I guess."
Even as she said so, her eyes were still on the pupa and the two cubs.
Ning sighed and looked at the beast. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave here now," he said. "We're going to take away all the Shadow Essence from here, so there won't be anything left for you at all."
The puma looked at them in confusion and a bit of curiosity. She slowly grabbed the cubs with her mouth and walked out with them.
Once she was completely out, Ning finally got to work.
He tore apart the ground with his energy, sending earthquakes around the location and made many weaker animals flee away.
Ning pushed the walls back, making everything bigger and then grabbed onto the crystal with his telekinesis powers.
He used the full brunt of his force and pulled out the black crystals as far as he could. Clara saw the crystals and showed a look of shock.
The Shadow Essence crystals she saw today were purer than anything her family could have ever mined. With such great crystals, anyone could reach the pinnacles of Essences without any worries.
:)