Chapter 521 Holden CallumThe Callum house was a big, beautiful manor of light blue color. However, the atmosphere here was anything but beautiful.

Ning could see people with teary eyes as if they had been crying since they woke up this morning, and others looking around with vigilance as if hoping to catch someone in the midst of committing a crime.

He and Merasi walked through the gates, not stopped by a single guard once they saw their uniform.

Even the people that were crying gave a curious look when they saw the two walk-in.

Ning wondered what was attracting their attention really. The white and purple uniform, or the 7 foot tall, buff woman next to him.

As they walked in, two men came up to them after hearing a commotion from outside.

"Are you the ones the tower sent?" the two men asked.

"Yes, I am Merasi. This is my subordinate, Terran. The tower sent us to investigate a death. Who are you two?" Merasi asked.

"Welcome, lady Merasi. We are the local detectives. I am Gassu, and he is Chanam. We are happy that you came as quickly as you did," the man named Gassu said as he brought them over to the next room.

Right before he entered, however, he stopped and turned around. "Are you two ready to see the corpse?" he asked.

Merasi turned around and asked, "have you seen dead people before?"

"Many," Ning answered, surprising her a bit.

"Let's go then," Gassu took them in.

The room was brightly lit through the open window. The floor was clear white marble that shined brightly. A man slept on the bed in the corner of the room, next to the window.

No, a corpse lay on the bed. A handsome man with a short beard and thin brown hair, wearing a nightgown.

The only thing that even gave away that he was dead was the lack of breathing and the red burns around his neck.

"This is Higen Callum, the next in line to be the head of the Callum family," Gassu said. "Or… was, I should say."

"Did he die by hanging?" Merasi asked.

"Yes," the detectives said. "But… it's a little weird."

"What is?" Merasi asked.

"We can't find the chair or item he stood on to kill bring himself high enough to hang himself," the detectives said.

"No chairs?" Merasi looked around. The room was indeed empty aside from the closet and desks to the side.

But when Merasi looked at the only place he could have hung from, there was no way to reach that place without jumping from the desks. and the detectives had likely already ruled that possibility out.

"Maybe he was an Enchanter and flew himself to the ceiling to kill himself," Ning said from the side.

"No, brother. Nobleman Higen was an invoker, or so we were told from the family members," the detective said.

"Are you sure?" Merasi asked. "They could be lying to hide the fact that the Marquees' son was a coward, you know."

"We did think of that," Chanam said from the side. "So, we went out of our way to ask anyone who could've known of Nobleman Higen. Everyone says that he was an Invoker, and nothing else."

"Hmm, so the chances of him being Dual awakened also goes if they only saw him invoke stuff," Merasi said. "Although, I can't outright throw the information that they might be lying out of the window."

"Have you figured out the time of death yet?" Merasi asked.

"Yes, it seems to be between 2 hours before midnight and 2 hours after midnight," Gassu said.

"When was the body found?" Merasi asked.

Ads by Pubfuture

"Around 11 in the morning," Gassu said. "A maid came to wake the lord up after him not coming out for quite a while. That was when she found the body."

"Since then, she's been so startled that he hasn't even given us proper information," Gassu said.

"Alright, let's go see if she's willing to talk now," Merasi said and walked out of the room.

Ning followed her out, but just as he did, he slammed onto her back. Merasi had suddenly stopped walking.

A man stood in front of her, with hair that was more gray than black. The hairs were long enough that they looked long but short enough that they couldn't be tied together.

The old man had the hair perfect greased up slick behind his head and was now walking towards them with his cane in hand.

"Are you the ones the tower sent to find my son's murderer?" the man asked, his neck bent backward, trying to look at Merasi's face.

"We would like to figure out if this is indeed a murder before we go find the murderer, sir," Merasi said politely.

"YOU! How dare you! Are you trying to say that my son killed himself?" the man instantly raged.

Ning realized who this was now. This was Holden Callum, the Marquees. For a man who had just lost his son, he was quite energetic.

'Is this how he is processing the grief?' Ning wondered.

"Lord Callum, I am making no such accusations. However, you need to understand that we cannot make judgments without coming to a conclusion. Without learning whether it is a murder or not, we cannot go out looking for murderers," Merasi said.

"Are you saying that you have doubts about my words? That you think there is a chance in this world that my son could've killed himself?" the man asked.

"There is a chance for everything, lord Callum. We cannot ignore the—"

"You truly dare besmirch our family," the lord cried out as he put up his cane. "I shall teach you a lesson."

He swung down the cane with a force that was not normal to an old man. This was the strength of an Emperor Enchanter.

Merasi casually brought up her hand and caught the cane mid-air. Suddenly, her polite aura changed to that of some fearsome creature.

"Holden Callum!" Merasi shouted. "Is this how you show respect to someone older than you?"

Chapter 522 InconsistenciesMerasi's Supreme rank power was on full display as the air moved around her as if to showcase her fury.

"Is this how you show your respect to a Supreme?" Merasi asked, her eyes like a deep abyss that would swallow the old man with not even a single bone remaining.

Holden Callum finally felt something aside from anger. He felt fear.

"You think you can tread all over me just because I try to show some respect for you during your mourning period."

"If you don't want there to be two deaths in the family today, LEAVE!" Merasi's voice thundered all over the Callum household as everyone heard her proclamation.

Holden Callum himself understood that he had done something he shouldn't have. So, he quickly took back his cane and walked away.

Gassu and Chanam that were behind Merasi felt fear like never before as well. Only Ning didn't feel fear from Merasi's stunt just now. However, he did feel surprised.

"I thought we weren't supposed to be disrespectful," Ning said softly.

"That's only true until they stay outside of the line. As soon as they cross it, I don't care about their reputation," Merasi said. "Not to mention, he should be younger than me. Someone younger than me showing me this sort of disrespect really irks me."

"I see," Ning said. "If you don't mind me asking, how old are you exactly?"

"Me? Hmm… I should be around 400 years," Merasi said. "Although, I don't really keep track of years since I go to sleep a lot of the time."

Ning was about to ask something when he happened to glance inside a room. 'That's weird,' he thought.

They were on their way to the maid quarters to find the maid who found the dead Higen.

Along the way, there were a lot of rooms, and most of them had one significant item that the victim's room was missing.

"How much work did you do before we arrived?" Ning softly asked the two detectives.

"Honestly, not much. aside from checking the body and the room, they didn't really let us do anything until someone from the tower arrived," the two of them said.

"I see," Ning said. 'No wonder they didn't notice it.'

Ning had wanted to enjoy the mystery aspect of this death, so he hadn't bothered to ask the system about anything.

Now that he had caught something, he wondered if he should be asking something.

In the end, Ning decided to confirm with the system, rather than ask it anything. So, he would have to wait for a while before he came to some sort of conclusion himself.

They finally reached the maid's quarters and after asking for the maid, they were led to a room.

Gassu knocked on the door and someone opened the door slightly. An eye peered through with a look of confusion.

"Who might you be?" the girl asked.

"We are the detectives," Gassu introduced himself. "Are you the maid who found the victim?"

"Oh," the girl said and opened the door wider. Gassu was about to ask again when he saw a girl wrapped up in blankets at the edge of the bed inside, he knew who he needed to question.

"What's her name?" Gassu asked the girl who opened the door.

"Friola," the girl said.

"Friola, we have some questions for you. Can you answer them please?" Gassu asked.

"Friola, if you keep information away from us, we will have to send you to prison under the assumption that it was you who killed lord Higen," Merasi said.

Chanam looked back at Merasi and said, "that's not—"

"What? No, I did not kill him," a shaken voice came out from the blankets as a woman showed herself.

"I'm just doing what I can to get her to talk," Merasi said to Chanam. "Besides, it's not like I'm a police who needs to be truthful about everything."

Merasi walked to the girl and sat on the bed, bringing the bed down about 5 centimeters.

"When did you find him? Give me as accurate of a time as you can," Merasi asked.

Friola didn't want to speak, but the threat of being sent to prison scared her. "11:30 in the morning," she said.

"And, um, this is a hard question to answer but please try," Merasi said before asking, "Describe exactly what you saw."

Terror flared in Friola's eyes as she closed her eyes, as if not wanting to see it.

Still, the vision from this morning lingered in her eye, refusing to leave her sight.

The hanging body, those dead eyes, the tongue that had slipped out of his mouth.

She couldn't get away from it. She had been traumatized.

"Friola, you have to answer me," Merasi said.

"He was dead!" she cried out with her hands to her ear. "He was hanging and he was dead. That's all I saw, I promise," she said.

"You need to remember more. Think of the surrounding," Merasi asked.

Ads by Pubfuture

"No, there was nothing else, just the hanging body," Friola shouted.

Merasi frowned. It was a little difficult to trust her words right now, not with her refusing to even look at her face.

Ning turned around and looked at the girl who had opened the door.

"How long have you been a maid here?" Ning asked.

"About 8 years now," the girl said.

"Do you enter the departed lord's room often?" Ning asked.

"Um, 2 or 3 times a week," the girl said.

"Then you must know the room by heart," Ning asked.

"I think so," the girl said, not understanding what Ning was trying to question.

"What's the color of the desk in his room?" Ning asked.

"Uh, brownish-red?" the girl said.

"The color of the closet?"

"Brown."

"The color of the ceiling?"

"White."

"The color of the walls?"

"Light blue."

"The color of the rug."

"Green."

"And where is that rug?"

The girl stopped. "What do you mean?" she asked.

Ning ignored her and turned to Friola. "Friola, do you know what happened to your departed lord's green rug?"

"I-I-" she couldn't say anything, but they all realized that she was hiding something.

Chapter 523 Wet"Friola, if you hide something, we will have to take it as an admission of guilt for killing the young lord," Merasi said, trying to scare the poor girl into revealing things.

"No, I didn't kill him. He hung himself," the girl shouted, hoping they would believe her.

Gassu and Chanam's eyes immediately changed while Ning and Merasi took a second to understand what had just happened.

Gassu walked forward and asked, "Did you just say the young lord hung himself?"

Friola realized her mistake as well. She wasn't supposed to say that. She was under direct order to not do exactly that. However, in her fluster, she blurted out the thing she had been trying to hide.

"Friola, did you see the young lord hang himself? Were you there?" Merasi asked.

Friola shook her head. She wasn't sure what to do anymore. The one thing she had been trying to hide was already blurted out.

"Was the rug in the room when you entered?" Ning asked.

The girl didn't want to lie, but she had direct orders.

"Friola, think of yourself. If you don't answer, you will be spending all your life in prison for murder," Merasi said.

"No, don't send me to prison. I'll speak!" she shouted. In the end, her wish for a proper life outweighed her determination to follow her lord's order to the end.

"Ok, then tell us clearly what you saw," Merasi said.

Friola nodded and reigned in her fear to speak about what she saw this morning.

"When the young lord hadn't woken up by 11 for breakfast, the Marquees had asked the maids to go wake up the young lord."

"I had been the one task with this by the head maid. After I went to the young lord's room, I noticed something from inside."

"There was water leaking out of the door," Friola said.

"Water?" Merasi asked with some confusion on her face.

Friola nodded. "I didn't think much of it and only wondered if the Lord had forgotten to use a bucket when he created the ice for the heat. However, when I saw that the door was unlocked, and opened it to call for him, I found him… dead."

"What about the rug?" Ning asked.

"The rug was soaked with water. So much so that, it overflowed out of it," Friola said.

Ning got a sense that he understood what had happened. "And the rug was directly under him?"

"Yes," Friola said.

"I see," Gassu said.

"So it was a suicide," Chanam said.

"No wonder you guys couldn't find a stool or chair. Lord Higen seemed to have used a block of ice as the stool," Merasi said.

"That settles it then. Lord Higen hung himself around midnight," Gassu said.

Merasi and Ning couldn't help but nod.

"Alright, let's leave the poor girl. We will go and find the rug, then make a report," Gassu said.

Ning and Merasi decided to leave as well. They left the girl and walked out of the room.

"I will go with you guys, or Callum will not treat you like people," Merasi said, which the two detectives were thankful for.

Ning, behind the three, walked with a slight smile on his face. He was… a little proud that he caught the clue that lead to the findings.

The missing rug.

'Oh right, system. Was I correct? Did Higen Callum kill himself?' Ning asked.

Ning stopped. Now that was interesting. 'I was wrong. We were all wrong,' Ning thought.

This wasn't the case of a suicide, but a murder? All evidence lead to suicide.

Ads by Pubfuture

'Or… it could be made to lead towards suicide.'

"Guys, can we stop for a second?" Ning asked.

The three of them stopped and turned around. "What's wrong?" Merasi asked.

"Um, let's think this through for a second okay? Let's say, this wasn't a suicide, but rather a murder. Could the evidence we have found be helpful in that assumption?" Ning asked.

"Um, not really," Chanam said. "I don't see how there is any—"

"Actually, there is something that has been bothering me for a while. Let's go check the rug and maybe we will find something out," Gassu said and went to find Lord Callum.

Under Merasi's order, he reluctantly asked one of the butlers to lead them to the rug outside.

"This is the one," the butler said, pointing to a green rug, amongst many other clothes and curtains hanging in the drying wire.

"It's dry," Ning said with confusion. Wasn't it supposed to be wet?

"It's only dry on that side due to the sun. On this side, it's still wet," the butler showed the other side that was traces of water on it.

"Thank you," Merasi said, sending the butler away.

"So, what was it that bothered you, Gassu?" Ning asked.

"Yes, here's the thing okay. We thought that he hung himself by standing on a block of ice right? That doesn't make sense to me," Gassu said.

"If you were to hang yourself, why not do it on a chair? Why make an entire block of ice big enough to handle your weight? That would take hours to melt, and even if it was small enough, it is still the not ideal thing to hang yourself on, is it?"

"Hmm, now that you say that, that is weird," Chanam said from the side. "But maybe he just had the ice lying around. You know how these rich people are. They always have either themselves or others to make ice for themselves."

"For someone not wanting to live, creating an entire block of ice would take too much concentration and Aether. That just seems wrong," Merasi said.

Suddenly, Merasi's eyes shifted as she looked up in the air. "Down here!" she shouted, and a figure swiftly flew down towards her in a uniform of white and purple.

"What's the news?" Merasi asked the newly arrived Alekor.

"Captain, I just listened to the crowd for a few minutes, and I have to say, Marquees Callum… not the best of reputations."

Chapter 524 Red Hair"What sort of bad reputations are we talking about?" Merasi asked with a curious look.

"Random bouts of anger and disdain towards commoners. Highly competitive nature even around things that didn't need competition."

"If a shop were doing rather well and he didn't own the shop, he would either buy the shop from the owner or try to create one of his own that did the exact same thing."

"If that didn't work, he would use his influence to slowly drive customers away from those shops."

"And there's of course the unlikeable personality where he thinks himself above all. There are rumors that he has beaten people, but since he is a marquees, no one really dares make claims against him directly," Alekor said.

Ning was quite surprised. It hadn't even been half an hour since they had arrived in this city, and Alekor had already gathered so much information.

"So, considering all that, the citizens are rather elated that the Marquees is suffering right now," Alekor said.

"Geez, that's quite bad," Ning said softly. "Did the dead son have a similar reputation too?"

"Umm, not really. People are talking more about the marquees than the dead son surprisingly. They really hate the marquees," Alekor said.

"So, he's morally and ethically a bad guy, but there's nothing legally wrong that he's done, right?" Merasi asked.

"Well, he might've but, as of yet we have no evidence," Alekor said.

"Do you guys believe that this was an act of vengeance from someone who was wronged by the Marquees?" Chanam asked.

"That's my theory at least," Merasi said.

"Well, it's not a completely baseless theory," Gassu said, thinking to himself.

Ning nodded to himself and turned around to look at the green rug again. If not for this rug, they would've never gone anywhere.

He had—

"Hmm," Ning squinted his eyes and suddenly his vision magnified. He got closer to the rug and picked up something.

A long strand of hair, around 40 centimeters long was stuck on the rug.

"A woman's hair!" Ning said with a surprised voice. He brought the hair to the sun and saw the reddish light shine through it.

"A red-haired woman," Merasi said with surprise. She turned around to the two detectives and asked, "Was there any mention of the young lord having a wife?"

The two detectives shook their heads.

"Ugh, girlfriend? Mistress? Anyone?" she asked.

"I don't think so," Gassu said. "We can go back and ask. This might also be a maid's hair."

Merasi nodded. "Alekor, go out and listen for any information about the young lord's affairs," she said.

"Yes, captain!" Alekor turned around and flew back towards the sky, and soon disappeared as a veil of light wrapped around him.

"Let's go back and ask some more questions," Merasi said and they all went back inside.

Gassu went to find a woman in the house with a head full of red hair. Chanam went back to the crime scene to see if he could find anything else he might have missed.

Merasi and Ning went to question Callum in the lounge area.

"Tell us, did your son have any woman in his life?" Merasi asked.

"No," Callum said. "Maybe, He would go to fuck some whores from time to time, but he wouldn't dare bring home any women here. He and Marquees Sun's daughter have been engaged ever since they were little."

"Well, your son did bring some woman home, or at least her hair, seeing as there is no maid in your house with red hair," Merasi said.

Callum grumbled but said nothing.

"Do you know where your son was yesterday?" she asked.

Callum shook his head. "He went out during the day and came back in the evening. I do not know what he did during that time," he said.

Merasi nodded. She would now have to go and look for—

"Captain," Ning called Merasi, who turned to look at him and saw a weird look on his face.

"What's wrong?" she asked before turning and her eyes narrowed too.

In the hallway stood a young woman in her 20s. She wore a flowery dress with a sun hat and had her hands behind her, grabbed by a single of Mercy's hands.

"Mercy? Where'd you find her?" Merasi asked in surprise.

Ads by Pubfuture

"Outside," Mercy said simply. "Alekor met me along the way and told me that he was going to look for more information as well as a woman with red hair."

"When I came to the manor, I saw her fidgeting outside, going back and forth, so I caught her and brought her here. For some reason, she isn't struggling at all, so she might be the one you're looking for, right?" Mercy asked.

Not struggling. That was certainly an admission of guilt. But why the guilt?

"What's your name, girl?" Merasi asked.

"Reena," the girl said.

"Your full name," Merasi asked.

The girl's eyes changed and she glared at Merasi. No, she glared behind her, at Callum.

"Reena Gafter. Daughter of Damian Gafter," She said with hatred in her voice.

Ning didn't have to turn around to see that Callum's face had gone dark. Was that anger… or fear?

"Did you know the late young lord Higen?" Merasi asked, looking at the red-haired girl.

The girl nodded, not a speck of the hatred in her eyes lost as of yet.

"How did you know him?" Merasi asked.

"We were in a relationship," the girl said, tears welling up in her eyes..

"Lies. There is no way—"

With a single glare from Merasi, Callum stopped speaking.

"Were you in his room last night?" Merasi asked.

Reena nodded. "I was there from late-night till midnight," she said, not caring to hide anything. Callum's eyes went wide as the fear of what was happening dawned on him.

"Were you the one who killed him?" Merasi asked.

"Yes," Reena said.

"Oh," Merasi was a little surprised at the forwardness of the girl. "Care to explain how you did it?"

Reena nodded and started explaining.

Chapter 525 ExplanationThe Gafter family was not very well known outside of Myrod city which lay 10 kilometers away from Urandran city.

The Gafter family was a budding merchant family that seemed to do everything right and was making it big through the empire.

Soon, they were about to be the merchants that handled the bottom right half of the empire.

Unfortunately, that never happened, as the head of the merchant group, Reynolds Gafter died in a house fire. Many suspected foul play, but no one could find any evidence.

"Last night, at around 16 in the night, I snuck into the manor and went into Higen's room. I had started a relationship with him not long ago, but his father wouldn't let him be in a relationship, so he started teaching me how to sneak in through the eastern side of the house."

"I had been planning to kill him all this time, and I decided yesterday was the night to do it."

"I brought some mind-numbing powder that I had to spend a fortune to acquire. After I arrived, I talked with him for a bit, fed him the mind-numbing powder, and then hung him on the ceiling myself."

"The fool didn't even struggle as he died." Reena was started to choke on her own tears.

"Afterwards, I left," Reena finished explaining. Both Ning and Merasi couldn't help but frown at the simple explanation.

"That's it?" Merasi asked. "There was no conflict? How did you get the ropes or get him on it?"

"I had him create the ropes, promising some fun times. As for getting him up there, it was easy. I'm an Enchanter after all," the girl said.

Ning frowned. For some reason, the girl didn't speak about the biggest piece of evidence they had used to deduce the method of death, and for some reason… their conclusion was wrong?

"What about the ice?" Merasi asked. She seemed to be confused about it herself. After all, the rug was completely soaked.

"Ice? What ice?" Reena asked.

"The maid found a large puddle of water as well as a soaked rug. There should have been some ice there," Merasi said.

"Oh, that was just something the fool made because of my casual remark of how hot it had been recently," Reena said.

That was it? Ning couldn't believe that the thing that them and the entire family linked to being the integral inconsistency in the suicide that led them to believe it was a murder was actually something the victim made with no thoughts behind it.

Merasi looked at the crying Reena and asked, "Did you love him?"

Reena shuddered at the question and her tears became more profound. "Yes," she was starting to choke more and more on her own tears.

"Then why did you do it?" Merasi asked.

That was when the crying face changed to one of anger and hatred. "For my revenge!" she shouted as a demon let loose.

Merasi sighed and turned around. "Care to explain what she means, Lord Callum?" she asked.

By now, Holden Callum was a shade of red and green that made him look like a ripening chili.

"I-I-I- I don't know what you mean," Callum said, but it was obvious that he had already lost his cool. He would've likely struck anyone else dead by now, but in front of Merasi, he could do nothing but lie.

"You don't know?" Reena's spoke with a voice so cold that it took away the summer heat around Callum.

"Even after hearing my name as Gafter, you dare claim you don't know?" she shouted.

Merasi nodded to herself as she could see the vague motive behind the murder, but she still wanted to learn it entirely.

"Can you explain what you mean by revenge?" Merasi asked Reena.

"35 years ago, that man killed my father in our home, and then burned my house down," the girl said.

"Lies, I have neve—"

"I was there that night," Reena said. "I was 15 years old back then and was together with my father as he taught me how to manage money. However, when you came to our house, he realized something was wrong and sent me to hide in the closet."

Ads by Pubfuture

"I watched you and your men beat my father and then drive a sword through his chest before burning the place to destroy your evidence."

"But unfortunately for you, you could not destroy me," Reena said.

"Lady Supreme, you mustn't trust here, she lying," Callum said, but Merasi knew what to do.

She reached into her storage amulet and brought out something. It was a small glass bottle with a clear liquid inside and a wooden stopper on top.

Ning's heart started beating a lot faster when he saw this and unconsciously took back a step.

He had seen such a bottle before and at that time, it had already been too late.

'Is she going to feed him the poison?' Ning wondered. That was a little bit drastic of a measure in his opinion to get answers.

"What I have here is a truth potion. You will drink this, and I will ask you some questions," Merasi said.

Immediately, Callum freaked out. "No, no!" he said.

"You have no say in this."

Meras connected the two spaces between the potion and Callum's stomach. Then, the contents of the potion vanished onto his stomach.

Within the next 5 minutes, he revealed every bit of information he had been hiding. When asked what crimes he had committed by now, there was a lot that he blurted out.

He had really been going under the radar all this time by getting help from powerful people with no affiliation.

"The normal police can't handle him," Merasi said. "You said you can teleport right? Take him back to the headquarters and have someone with enough authority deal with him."

Then Merasi shook her head. "It's not even your first day, and you've already had to do so much. Sigh, take some rest after this."

"Okay," Ning said. Then, he grabbed onto the Marquees and opened a portal before vanishing away.

Chapter 526 Lord's InviteAfter handing the Marquees over to a group of people capable enough to handle him, Ning found his way to a location on some 50th floor where he was to stay.

He couldn't believe that he was given a place in the tower so high. "Do all new recruits get this, or is it only me?" he wondered.

It had to be only him. After all, he couldn't imagine someone else being given an entire northern wing of the 52nd floor.

The room inside was apparently very big, and only a floor or two higher was where the Supreme's rooms were.

Ning was now considered the 5th most important person in the tower. At least, to the ones that knew about his importance.

To everyone else, he was just a new recruit that Merasi took away.

Ning opened the door to his room and entered. As soon as he was inside, he spun around immediately, ready to fight as someone was already in the room.

"You're finally here," Alexis spoke while sitting on the sofa, looking out into the distant horizon.

"You scared me," Ning said. "When did you return?"

"Just now when you were opening the door," Alexis said. "You've done well in achieving what you have. We might even be able to change the plan now thanks to your new influence."

"Change plans?" Ning asked. "Aren't I still going to have to beat Perry?"

"Not if you can come up with some other methods of helping the world become a better place for those that have never seen it."

"The divide due to Aether has always has lasted for too long. While you did help the world a bit when you claimed to be my apostle, you also sowed chaos, which you will have to quell."

"The Aether liquid has done this a bit, but there are still people who you have given the will to fight back, and they are using it to be the thing they hated the most."

"If you can, please come up with a solution sooner. At the rate, things are going… I hope to be there to see the world become peaceful when I disappear."

Alexis sat quiet, looking out of the window.

"How long do you think you have?" Ning asked.

"Not very long," Alexis said. "Maybe 3 weeks' worth of time in total. If I disappear from time to time, I can extend it to 3 years, but that is just hopefulness for now."

"As things go on, my remaining time will get lower and lower," she said. "I just wish—"

Alexis stopped. "I'll talk to you later." Then she vanished.

She didn't vanish like an Aether user having the light wrap around them, or an Aether user opening a portal. Instead, she simply vanished like Ning did when he teleported.

Ning looked around in confusion, wondering why she left just like that. Suddenly, he heard a knock on the door.

'Damn, I was barely going to rest too,' Ning thought with an annoyed look, but quickly hid it before going to open the door.

When he did open, he saw a middle-aged woman with thin white streaks of hair along with some spots.

She was half a head shorter than Ning, wearing a reddish gown, and stared directly at Ning.

"I assume you are Terran Forn?" she asked.

"Yes," Ning said with a weird look. "You are?"

"I am Lira, the one who serves the Lord," she said. "The Lord asks you to visit him. Please come with me."

The woman turned around and started walking without saying anything more. Ning was surprised that she didn't even stay around for his approval.

'The hell? Does she think that everyone will move just because the lord is calling them?' he thought. 'I mean they would, but damn, she should at least wait for people to accept it.'

He quickly poured Aether into his eyes and looked at her core. The amount of Aether and the density told him that she was right on the edge of Aether Emperor and Aether Saint.

Ads by Pubfuture

'Such a strong woman and she is a servant to that Perry guy? Damn,' Ning thought.

He quickly followed her and walked into an elevator with her. Without saying anything, she hit the button at the very top.

'So he lives on the top floor, huh?' Ning thought.

The tower was so tall that it took the elevator nearly 2 minutes to reach the very top. That was after starting on the 52nd floor too.

When they finally reached, the elevator door opened and Ning walked out. However, not even 2 steps later, he realized that the woman named Lira was not coming out of the elevator.

"You're not coming?" Ning asked.

"No. The Lord wishes to speak to you in private, so I will not be following. Just knock on the door, the lord should be expecting you," the woman said.

The elevator door closed and Ning turned around to look at the massive wooden door in front of him with intricate designs on it. It looked like there were many Aether beasts dancing on top of the door.

This was the room of the Lord, on the eastern wing of the highest floor. Although, Ning didn't doubt that this whole floor was his.

He touched the designs a bit and then knocked on the door.

He knocked twice and remained silent until he heard a voice from the inside, "Come on in."

The door opened on its own, and Ning walked in. As soon as he did, he saw a decrepit old man on the floor in the room.

Ning would've thought that he absorbing Aether currently if not for the constant fidgeting he showed.

'Why is he down on the floor when there is a perfectly good table and chair over there?' Ning thought, looking to the side.

The man's eyes suddenly opened, and he turned to the side to look at Ning with what seemed like crazy eyes.

Ning was a little taken aback. This looked nothing like the calm man that defeated him 2 years ago.

Chapter 527 Peace and EqualityPerry Thatcher looked completely flustered sitting there down on the ground. So much so that, Ning felt that this person was completely different from the one he had met 2 years ago.

However, that shouldn't be possible. Ning would check his Aether rank, but he didn't want a headache right now.

Besides, this was the same person, just… with disheveled clothes and hair. 'What has made him so agitated?' Ning wondered.

"Are-Are you Terran Forn?" he asked. His eyes looked all over Ning as if searching for something.

"Yes, I am," Ning said. He wasn't sure how to talk to this man. Should he be polite? Respectful? Should he keep standing or sit down next to him on the floor?

"You are the one that discovered the method to create Aether?" Perry's flustered look turned to excitement as he looked at Ning with wide, hopeful eyes.

"I discovered Aether liquid, sir. Not Aether itself," Ning clarified.

"Same thing, same thing," Perry said, not minding the semantics. "Can you teach me how?"

Ning was a little taken back. He had not even been here for a whole minute and the lord of the tower was already asking him to help teach him to make Aether?

"It's a little hard to teach exactly," Ning said.

"It's fine, it's fine," the man kept repeating his words. "Teach me still. I might be over 800 years old, but my mind still can remember stuff," he said.

"Have the people that you sent to deal with the liquid not explained to you how it works yet, sir?" Ning asked.

"They did, they did. But their explanation sounds stupid. I want to hea—" suddenly, the old man stopped and turned to the side, looking at the window behind the table and chair.

Ning turned to look at it too and saw a bird fly past it. That was all.

"Right, I want to hear it from you, directly," the man then got back to asking Ning.

'What the hell was that?' Ning thought, weirded out by the old man's mannerism. Still, he decided to explain how it worked. After all, just the explanation alone wouldn't help anyone.

People needed Alpurite to make the liquid, and as of now, only Ning had access to it.

So, he went on to explain how Alpurite and pure, distilled water mixed together at a certain ratio could be used to absorb Aether from the surrounding, and turn itself into the Aether liquid that everyone was familiar with.

The old man nodded the entire time during the explanation, but Ning wasn't sure if he got it or not. 'This should be the millionth explanation he heard about Aether liquid. He has to have got it right?' Ning thought.

The old man kept on nodding and said, "I need your help, young man."

'That came out of nowhere,' Ning thought.

"What is it, sir," he asked.

"You see, I have a dream. A one and only dream I have had for a long time and I want your help in fulfilling it," the old man said, with hope and excitement rising up in him.

"Oh, what is it?" Ning asked. He was quite curious as well.

"That is… to bring peace all over the world," he said.

Ning stopped. Peace? That was what he was striving for. How did the old man have the same dream as well?

"Peace, sir?" Ning asked.

"Yes," the old man said. "Long have the people suffered from war and violence. I want the world to go back to peace and equality."

The old man… was surprisingly trying to achieve the same thing he did. That was… unexpected. Did Alexis not see this? She should have seen this already.

Ads by Pubfuture

'Maybe he never vocalized it. She cannot read the hearts of other humans, can she?' Ning thought.

"That is a good dream to have sir," Ning said with a smile. If he didn't have to fight the biggest, badest on the planet to achieve something, and instead could work along with him, then that was all the better.

"I know, I know," the old man said.

"Equality… was what the Apostle of Alexis was trying to achieve, wasn't he? Although he disturbed peace more than necessary," Ning said.

"That coward was no apostle. He was a fake apostle, and I killed him for it," the old man said.

Ning felt a tinge of anger brewing inside him. He couldn't help but want to beat the old man up over his words, but quickly contained himself.

"You're right. He did more harm than good. I understood that too. That was why I strived to bring back some semblance of normalcy."

"I wanted to find a way so that in major locations where the previously oppressed were fighting back, people didn't bring danger to everyone due to the newly awakened Aether skills of there," Ning said.

"I was sure that gaining the absorption techniques would make some people steer towards the wrong path, and to avoid that bringing any harm to the existing peace, I tried to find something."

"Fortunately, around that time I discovered how to create the Aether liquid, and managed to bring some semblance of order to the world after the disorder the ap— fake apostle, left behind," Ning said.

The old man was starting to get agitated more and more. He didn't stop Ning, but his talk had gone on for a little too long for him.

"So, I want to help you bring back peace and equality to the world," Ning said.

"Right, right. And for that, I will need a lot of Aether. How much can you prepare?" the old man asked.

Ning felt a little puzzled. "Sir, how will you bring back peace with Aether, no matter the amount?" he asked.

"Of course, I will take in all the Aether and get stronger. Once I'm strong enough, I will be able to rule the world like a god, and no one will dare do anything that I deem unlawful, bringing back peace to the world."

"Also, since everyone will be beneath me, they will all be equal no matter who," the old man said.

Ning stopped for a moment when he heard the old man. "Sorry, what?"

Chapter 528 UnderlordNing wondered for a few seconds if he heard it wrong. Then the next few seconds he looked at the old man's face, expecting him to burst out laughing, saying that it was a joke.

However, even as seconds passed, the old man's face showed no change.

Silence hung in the air for a moment and Ning finally spoke again. "You want to bring peace… through fear?" he asked.

"Yes, that is the only way Peace can be achieved," the old man stood finally for the first time since Ning had come to his room.

He walked towards the window and stared out of it. "Look at them, those insignificant specks. Every day, they live in fear that something bad will happen to them. They don't know it themselves, but they fear it."

"They fear that someone will steal from them. They fear that someone will hurt them. They fear that someone will kill them."

"They won't say it if you ask them. But deep down they know that they fear it."

"And as long as that fear remains, true Peace will never arrive in this world."

"That is what I want to change. When I use the Aether you make and take it, I can use it to make the Aether tower the greatest thing standing in the world."

"When the tower becomes the true law of the world, everyone will know peace."

Ning felt both horrible and horrified. This man wanted to create a totalitarian world where the Tower was the true power, and everything was beneath it.

"What about Kings? And nobles? Didn't the tower make an alliance with them previously?" Ning asked.

"You know that? I didn't know you came from a noble family," the old man said, not really giving a thought to the fact that Ning knew this.

"Yes, the Lord of the tower that was before the one who I replaced made a decision to bring peace in the world."

"Getting rid of the ability of the common folks to use Aether was what they believed what necessary to create a peaceful world, and they did, to a certain degree."

"But the world was never peaceful. The weak got oppressed every day while the strong kept getting stronger. Crimes were happening everywhere while the police could do nothing about it."

"They tried to bring peace, but as a result, they brought inequality. Look at the world and how much hatred they have over the people who can't use Aether."

"The divide between the Aether Users and the Duds. The divide between the rich and the poor. The divide between the nobles and the commoners."

"Is that what peace is? Those idiots!" the old man said.

"I heard you brought a nobleman in the tower today, for some crimes he committed. Did you see how differently the nobles think of themselves when compared to the common folks?"

"Where is the equality in that? How is there peace in that?"

Ning was having a hard time refuting the old man's words. It was true that what the tower did over a thousand years ago was a failed attempt at bringing somewhat of a peace to the world, but they instead create a massive inequality amongst the people.

He knew that if the old man turned the tower into an absolute force, there was no one that could fight against them.

After all, who in the world could ever fight against an Underlord.

But this method just didn't sit right with Ning. Suppressing people to bring fake peace was the same as drowning a man and calling him cleaned.

"Why do you need my help then?" Ning asked as that had confused him. "You should already be able to do that if you want to."

"The tower has enough of an influence over the world that the very day you tell them to go suppress everything everywhere, they will do it," Ning said.

"Yes they will, and while it may take some time, we would certainly achieve what I want to," the old man said.

"Then?" Ning asked.

Ads by Pubfuture

"But that peace… wouldn't last long," the old man said with a troubled look on his face.

"Why not? Is there someone out there that can oppose the tower?" Ning asked knowing that there was not.

The old man shook his head in denial. Of course, there wasn't anything out there that could oppose the tower.

"There is none that can oppose the tower… but there is someone who can oppose me!" the old man said with a cold look on his face.

Ning's heart started racing. "Someone who can oppose you?" he asked with a surprised look on his face.

The old man gave a wry smile. "Do you know why they call me the Lord of the tower?" he asked.

"Yes," Ning said. "Because you are likely an Aether Underlord."

"So you do know," the old man said with surprise. "Not many know all the Aether ranks."

Ning wondered why he had asked that question, but then a thought occurred to him. "When you say that there is someone out there that can oppose you, you don't mean to say that…"

"Yes," the old man confirmed. "There is another Aether Underlord out there, and he has been my rival, my arch-nemesis for the longest time, and all he wants is to kill me."

"If I were to move the tower to take over the world, he would attack all the towers before I could get to him."

"I had a… scout look after his movements for a while, but after the stunt with the Apostle, the scout disappeared."

"Since then, I do not know where he is or what he's doing. And the thought that he is out there, planning something terrifies me."

"I need to stop him, once and for all."

The old man then directly turned toward Ning.

"For that, I need your help. I need you to make Aether for me so I can use it to get stronger, strong enough to beat an Underlord."

"I need to become an Overlord."

Chapter 529 HypocriteThe old man had lofty goals and he needed Ning's help for that. 'Overlord, just how much Aether would one require to become that?' Ning wondered.

Ning had used a bottle of Aether to reach Aether Saint. That bottle of Aether had taken about a year and a half to form as well. If he were to use all the other bottles he had put around the globe, he would likely reach Aether Supreme.

To reach Aether Underlord, he would have to bring out his aces hidden up his sleeves. Even then, Ning didn't believe he could reach Overlord. That would just take too much Aether.

'No, that's not the important thing right now,' Ning thought.

"You aren't looking for peace, then," Ning said, to the old man. "You're just looking to kill a man that is stopping you from world domination."

The old man's eyes narrowed. "World domination? Do you not see that that is not my intention? I just wish to bring peace and equality to the world."

"By world domination," Ning added. "You are looking for peace to be a byproduct of something else. You aren't doing anything to have peace as the main this."

"Peace, you say. The only peaceful one in a dominated world will be the one dominating. Equality, you say. The only thing equal in this world will be the hatred people have for you deep within."

"Is that what you want old man? The legacy of the lord of the tower to crumble down to nothing but a tyrant?" Ning asked.

"I don't care what I'm viewed as. I shall become the very thing the world hates if that is to bring peace amongst the people. That is my dream. That was my master's dream, and I intend to fulfill it till the day I die," the old man said.

"World domination is not the way to go, old man. That is the opposite of what you should be doing for peace. Is this what your master dreamt of? Is this what you master would've wanted?" Ning asked.

"My master is dead. My master can no longer tell me what to do, I intend to do what I need to. I'm going to make my master proud," the old man said.

"Your master will just hate you instead," Ning said.

"KEEP MY MASTER'S NAME OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!" the old man shouted, scaring Ning for a moment. The air rippled around him as if he was going to attack.

"You show no respect to me, youngster. Did you forget who I am? I am the lord of this tower. I am your lord. You do not get to talk to me as an equal at all. You are beneath me," the old man said as pressure struck where Ning stood.

However, Ning just held a sneer on his face as he looked at the old man.

"Respect? You lost that from me the moment you suggested ruling the world in terror old man. No villain of any story ever gets my respect. You are no different. No, you are worse. You preach peace while wanting to bring the war to the world."

"That's right, you're a hypocrite. You say you want equality and in the very next sentence, you say we're not equal. If that is not a hypocrite, I don't know what is," Ning said.

The old man started fuming. If he didn't want the Aether, he would've struck Ning dead right at this moment.

And Ning saw right through that. "You want to kill me? Do it. You killed the last guy that wanted peace. How am I any different right?" Ning asked.

"You said you have an enemy you needed to defeat and that you needed to become an Overlord to do so. Yet, you never said he was a bad guy, only that he was against you and would stop you if you went forward with your plan of world domination."

"You know what that sounds like? A good fucking person. You are the villain and he is the hero in my eyes."

"I might even go find him and help him get strong—"

Ads by Pubfuture

"YOU DARE!" the old man dashed forward and tried to slap Ning, but Ning stood his ground. He could die right now and he wouldn't care. He had the means to come back stronger anyway.

Thankfully, the old man had enough wits to realize that his potential source of Aether would disappear if he were to kill Ning now.

Ning watched the hand stop inches from his face, yet his face didn't lose the sneer at all.

"No, I don't dare," Ning said. "I wouldn't even if I could. I have no power to turn either of you into an Overlord. Gathering that much Aether would take me almost 50 years."

The old man paused and was about to say something when Ning continued. "You know what I do have? The means to bring another Underlord to this world."

"That's right, old man. You've lived cooped up in this room long enough and have forgotten what the outside world is like. You stand so high that everyone looks like ants, so you treat them as such."

"Well, I am here to stop you. I will use my own Aether to become an Underlord soon, and then, I will come to take your place in the tower."

"Until then, live your days in fear. Feel the 'peace' you wish to bring to the people."

Ning turned around and walked away. He didn't stick around to see what the old man would do, but he did see a tantrum brewing as he closed the door behind him.

The old man sent his furniture flying in anger and helplessness at his ability to do anything. He grabbed his own hair in anger and then started crying as he didn't know what to do.

He needed help, he needed direction.

He walked out of the room to the empty balcony on his inside of the tower and looked down at the massive statue in the middle of the tower.

"I can't do this without you. I need your help, your guidance," he cried out.

"Why… why have you forsaken me, Master?"

Chapter 530 RoutineNing returned back to his room with a million thoughts roaming his mind. But he decided to keep them away for the moment and just relax.

The day seemed to be way too long today, and he needed some free time.

Rachel, Battle Force examination, Merasi, Murder Mystery, and now the talk with the lord of the tower. The day was going on for longer than it should have in Ning's mind.

However, when he looked outside, there was still a good 6 hours of daylight left.

"Screw it," he thought and went to sleep on his new bed that was comfortable beyond belief. After just laying for a few minutes, he fell deep into sleep.

KNOCK KNOCK

Ning was woken out of his sleep by a rather loud knock on his door. 'Is someone trying to break my door or what?' he thought. He slowly opened his eyes and looked outside of his window to the right.

It was already nighttime. He turned to look at the clock that was next to his bed and was surprised.

'I slept for over 6 hours already? I thought I just started sleeping,' he thought.

KNOCK KNOCK

"Oh right, the door." He quickly fixed his hair however much he could with his hands and walked to the door.

When he opened it, he realized why the knocking had been so loud. "Captain, you're back?" he asked.

"Yeah, I came not long ago," Merasi said and looked into the room. "Not bad. They are treating you well."

She then looked back at Ning and narrowed her eyes. "Were you sleeping perhaps?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah. It's been a long day, so I was a little tired," Ning said.

"Well, I won't keep you for long then. Here's your schedule for every week from now on," she said.

Ning looked at the schedule and frowned a little. "That's a lot of free time," he said.

"Well, as a Supreme's squad, you don't get called unless the work is very important," Merasi said.

"And a lot of fighting. A bit excessive amount of fighting," Ning said.

"That's a normal amount," Merasi said. "You'll be fighting every day now that you're in my squad. Think that as your way to put everything you've learned into training."

"You're an Aether Supreme. It can't be that you want to fight me so much right?" Ning asked. There wouldn't be any point to.

"Hehe," Merasi gave an awkward smile. "Mercy forced me to add a lot of fighting time to your schedule. But hey, I've taken away your other duties such as scouting and patroling so that you can have some free time instead for all the fighting, okay?"

Ning sighed. "Alright, I will follow this schedule."

"Okay, I'll see you in a week then," Merasi said.

"In a week? Are you going somewhere?" Ning asked with a confused look.

"Oh no, I'm going to sleep," Merasi said.

"For a week? You can't be that tired, right?" Ning asked.

"Uh… no. This sleep is different from normal sleep. Now that you are an Aether Saint, you should get used to sleeping too," Merasi said.

"What is this sleep then?" Ning asked.

"It's… what we call going into a long period of absorption so that we can advance in our rank. Since progressing becomes hard after Aether saint, we choose to go in our room and absorb as much as we can for as long as we can. That we call sleeping," Merasi explained.

"Oh," Ning said. 'That's just closed cultivation. They should really find a better name than Sleeping.'

He had heard the term sleeping a few times but had never thought it was just closed cultivation. Now that he did, he understood why some of the Aether Supremes disappeared for so long.

"Alright then, I will follow this routine from tomorrow onwards. Thank you for bringing this to me, captain," Ning said.

"Ok, you can go back to sleep now. Good night," Merasi said and left. Ning smiled as he watched Merasi leave his floor and go towards the stairs instead of the elevator.

He liked this girl. She was genuine and fun to be around. While her physique was terrifying, she was a sweet little girl in reality.

Although, her love for battle was a bit too hard to handle. Ning made a wry face as he looked at the schedule in his hands.

Wake up at 8 AM before the sun rises.

Reach the training hall on the 45th Floor by 9 AM.

Fight until 12 AM.

Ads by Pubfuture

Free time until 15 Am.

Fight until Noon.

Free time until 4 PM.

Fight until 8 PM.

Free time until 12 PM

Fight until 15 PM

Go to Sleep.

Repeat.

That was all the routine said and it would follow for all days of the week except the fifth. The fifth was fully free to do whatever he wanted to do.

'Well, that's quite a bit of freedom for sure,' he thought. However, when he saw the fights, he frowned. 13 hours of fighting in a day with 36 hours, of which, a normal human slept at least 10.

Ning sighed and went back to the bed and fell asleep again.

He woke up once again, his sleep done while the sky was still dark outside. It wasn't just dark because it was night, Ning could also see dark clouds with occasional lightning.

'Oh, is it going to rain?' he wondered. He looked at the time and realized he had woken up a bit early.

So, he sat on his sofa and watched the rainfall from the sky.

On the 52nd floor of the tower, Ning was very high in the air, so seeing the thunderbolt and lightning so close to him was quite surreal to him.

'Lightning,' he thought. 'I wonder when I am going to unlock that Energy. Is it the next one perhaps?'

That reminded him. "Hey system, how are Ely and the others doing?" he asked.

That was all Ning needed to hear really. "I hope it won't take a very long time to reach them," he said.

CRACK!

"What?"

Chapter 531 Time Difference

Thunder raged outside the tower, but a similar thunder raged inside Ning as well when he heard what the system had said.

"What do you mean I can afford to take some time. And what was that about time being relative?" Ning asked as hope brewed inside him that he thought would only bring his disappointment if he said it out loud.

Time moves at different speeds at different places

Within the same galaxy, it's not very different, but when you move on to other galaxies, you can truly see how much difference there is in the speed of the moving time

The hope only continued growing bigger and bigger. By now, Ning could understand what the system was trying to say, albeit he didn't understand why what it said was happening.

So, he took a deep breath and asked, "How many years has it been in Kumia since I left?"

Ning had until now based all bits of information he got from Kumia on his own time. In the last 300 or so years, Ely had advanced exactly 4 more times, reaching Spirit Transformation's 5th realm.

If she did access the Origin constantly, she should have been a lot higher in cultivation base. After all, Ning had managed to go up in cultivation in just a matter of years because of how dense it all was.

That was why he had assumed that she was likely not focusing on cultivation at all.

However if what he thought were true— He desperately waited for the system to answer.

The system, almost dramatically, took some time before answering. When it did, Ning's heart nearly stopped from the shock.

58.2 years

58 years. That was all the time that had passed in Kumia. To a cultivator, especially one so high in cultivation, that sort of time was nothing.

Going up 4 spirit transformation realms in less than 60 years… made perfect sense. It was fast by normal standards, given how long Nascent souls took to cultivate.

However, the Origin of Kumia couldn't be compared to the other random locations on the planet. It was a difference between heaven and earth.

Now that he did learn about this, Ning asked the reason behind this time difference.

"Why has such little time passed there, system? You said it was because we were in a different galaxy, but how does that work?" he asked. He had all but forgotten about the rain outside his window. No, he had forgotten about it.

He simply waited for the system to start speaking again.

To understand that you need to know that mass affects time

Whenever you are close to a body of large mass, Time slows down. Currently, you are in a dwarf galaxy, one that is significantly smaller in size and mass compared to the galaxy Kumia is in.

Hence, time in Kumia moves at about 5 times slower than Vilmore's time

Thus, you do not need to hurry as much as you think you do

Ning didn't understand why mass affected time. He didn't need to. All he needed to know was that he had time and could go back to see his loved ones without having to wait very long.

"You should have let me know about this earlier, soothe my inner turmoils," Ning said, but the system didn't respond.

Ning didn't care if it did. He just thought about how long he had before he could reach back.

'At 5 times the slowness, if I wanted to reach Kumia within 1000 years, I have 5000 years. That's… pretty long, even for me,' Ning thought. He was getting more and more hopeful that he would actually make it back in time.

At least, back before they all either died or the worse scenario, lived long enough to stop caring about him. He had never wanted to go back to a Kumia where Ely, Anya, and the rest didn't care about him.

"10,000 years," he said to himself. "I have 10,000 years to return back to Kumia. That should be about 2000 years for them, which I hope they can wait for."

There is a flaw in your assumption

The system chimed in right as Ning finished speaking. Ning frowned once again. "What is the flaw?" he asked.

Ads by Pubfuture

You didn't factor in that not all galaxies you will have to cross have the same mass. Some will have more than others, some less. As such the timing of your return to Kumia will change based on which galaxy you are in.

"Oh!" Ning said with his hands on the chin. He hadn't thought about that. 'That's right. Other galaxies won't move at the same rate,' he thought.

He would have to go through 5 galaxies to reach Kumia. He was already on one, then 3 more in the way, and finally the last one where Kumia was located.

Since Kumia was in the 5th galaxy on the way, Ning didn't think the time difference there would be significant enough to factor into his calculations, but the others…

"The other 3 galaxies… are they bad for me?" Ning asked.

The first and the third galaxy on the way have a slower time than Kumia, so if you stay in there for too long, you will actually lose more time than gain it.

Especially, the third one. The time difference is so bad that if you stay there for a day, you will lose almost a year in return.

"Holy… that's quite bad. What about the 2nd one?" Ning asked.

The second galaxy has less mass than the one we are on. There, the difference ratio should be something around 8:1

"Oh, then that's better than Vilmore for sure," Ning said. He mulled on the information for a little while.

"That settles it then, I will have to somehow skip the 1st and the 3rd galaxy on the way back," he said.

Are you sure about that?

"Of course, what's there not to be sure about?" Ning asked.

Are you sure you want to skip the 3rd Galaxy?

Ning frowned. The 3rd galaxy especially made perfect sense to skip, but then why was the system asking him this?

"Why?" Ning asked. "What's so important about the 3rd Galaxy?"

That is the galaxy where Earth lies

Earth is on the 3rd galaxy?" Ning asked with surprise.

Yes

Ning had never thought about going back to Earth, but… it seemed it was on the way to Kumia. Would he want to go back now?

"No," Ning said resolutely. "I can't go to Earth right now. I will visit later after I go back and find everyone in Kumia."

"It's not like I have anyth—"

His parents… or at least, their grave. He wanted to visit that at least if he could. He wanted to meet his parents.

His parents… who were they again? Vague silhouettes of faces appeared on his mind but nothing specific. It had been way too long for him to remember what they looked like.

If anything, he had likely forgotten their faces back when he was on Earth itself.

Ning shook his head. He couldn't think about that for now. "System, put my Memories of Earth into the auto-buy behind Talent," he said.

Confirmed

He could get them immediately as it wouldn't cost much, but he didn't want to deal with that at the moment.

He thought about something the system mentioned for a while and asked, "how long has it been since I left earth? In terms of Earth time."

6 years, 2 months, and 10 days

"What the… HUH?" Ning couldn't help but shout out loud. It had been almost 3000 years since he left earth… and it had only been 6 years? He found it a little hard to believe.

"What was the time difference again? 1:365?" he asked.

1:387 at the moment and increasing

"Why the hell is there such a difference?" Ning asked. "Is the galaxy Earth is in that massive?"

No. In fact, the galaxy is less than half the mass of the galaxy Kumia is in.

"Then why?" Ning asked. If the mass was smaller, shouldn't time have moved faster there? The system was somehow contradicting its own words.

Because that galaxy's mass is being influenced by something else

"… something else? What is something else?" Ning asked curiously.

Multiple Universes

There are currently multiple universes on route to collide with this one. The point of contact is the galaxy Earth is in.

Thus, their mass is currently affecting Earth and the galaxy by a large, abnormal amount that would otherwise be impossible.

Ning didn't think for a while. Universes colliding with each other… what was there to think about?

He nodded to himself for a few seconds and finally said, "wait what?"

"What the fuck? Universes colliding? If that happens, won't we all die?" Ning asked.

You are an Energy. You cannot die

"I know! I meant we, as in the entire population of the universe," Ning shouted.

No. Universes colliding is a common event in all of the multiverse. Rather than colliding, you can think of Universes brushing past each other.

There will be some location that takes some damage, but most won't suffer at all.please visit panda(-)N0ve1.co)m

"Huh? So they are colliding, but just a bit?" Ning asked.

Yes, and they will pass through each other.

"How does that work?" Ning asked.

Your human mind will not be able to comprehend how two universes exist in relation to each other and explaining it will cost an incredible amount of energy.

"Alright, never mind then," Ning said. 'Damn, Universe colliding, what sort of catastrophic event is that?' he wondered.

"Oh right, do you know when it will happen?" Ning asked.

Ads by Pubfuture

The closest one is 100 thousand years away from colliding

"Oh," Ning said. That…was a lot of time. Humanity would all die by then for sure or move on to the stars and hopefully the other galaxies.

"100,000 years is a lot of time any—" he stopped speaking. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind. The system didn't specify the location of the time.

"System," he asked. "When you say 100,000 years, what galaxy are you basing that time off of?"

I'm basing it on the time you are experiencing at the moment

p-A- n-d-A-n-0-v-e-1、(c)om Ning sighed. "In other words, how long before this other universe collides with earth in Earth's time?" Ning asked.

About 50 years

'That's so close,' Ning thought to himself.

It is in fact even closer

As the universe comes closer, the time on earth will slow down even further until the universes collide

In reality, it will be closer to 20 years for someone in earth

"Well, shit," Ning thought. He didn't know what else to think. The system was right. Just learning about these things was hard enough to absorb, learning how universes worked in a multiverse would surely be worse for him.

He closed his eyes and slumped back on the sofa for a bit as the wind and thunder raged in the storm outside. Rain continuously hit the window in his room, reminding him of what was happening outside.

After a bit of contemplation, he finally opened his eyes. "I would love to visit Earth, but I can't wait around to watch the universe collide. I need to go visit my people first and foremost," He thought.

"That's right. After I rejoin with them, I am free to do whatever I want," he thought.

Thinking about Kumia and the others there, Ning felt happy. No, he felt excited. He couldn't wait to get back to them, and then go roam the stars as he pleased.

Until then, they would have to wait a bit. Not long, just a bit.

A smile appeared on Ning's face as he saw the rain and thunder stop outside.

He had been lost in his mind for a long while, learning about all these things had been straining, but now, he felt relieved.

So, he smiled.

He turned around to look at the clock near his bed. It was about the same time as when the schedule told him to wake up.

'Right,' he thought. 'Let's forget about everything not related to Vilmore for now.'

"I should go get something to eat before I go train," he said out loud. "It's going to be a long day."

Chapter 533 FightingNing hadn't realized how correct his words would be when he had said that it would be a long day.

Fighting continuously throughout the day for 13 hours was not something he liked very much. He would've likely not minded it if there was some training involved, but no, there was none.

It was all just fighting. To Mercy, who was his main opponent, fighting was training.

From time to time when he used a weird skill or did something that impressed Mercy, she would come up to him and ask him to teach her.

But with a few words of teaching, she would get bored and ask him to fight again. 'I learn better when I'm fighting,' she had said.

Mercy, unlike her sister, wasn't a dual awakener. Just an Enchanter. Still, that knowledge didn't look like it bothered her.

Silvers, the old man, was in fact a dual awakener. That wasn't why Merasi had taken him into the squad though. That came from his expertise to create everyday items with ease. The old man's invoker techniques far outranked his enchanter techniques.

Ning was curious at first. Why was such an old man in the tower even? So, he had asked, and without hesitation, he had told him his backstory.

Silvers was born into a poor household with barely any money to do anything. When he realized that he had some Aether abilities, from a young age he started creating things to sell to other people.

He was basically scamming them as the items he created would disappear not long after, but he didn't care. He needed to fill his family's stomach, especially his many younger siblings.

As such, the old man had gone through this young and teen life without a single free day to do anything but create items and sell them for money. He never got to go to a school either. In fact, he couldn't read at all.

Poor guy didn't even have the time to marry a woman. It was only later in his life that he realized that he could enchant as well, however, by that time he was fully invested in Invoking and didn't care much for Enchanting.

Due to the lack of early breakthroughs, by the age of 140, he now looked like an old man, when in fact, he was the youngest of the whole group. However, now that his life was comfortable, he decided to use it to the fullest.

Finally, there was Alekor. Ning had a hard time understanding this man's personality. He looked like a carefree guy that would just roam the streets of the capital with his hands tied behind his head.

However, he was the most hardworking of everyone in the group. And as of yet, he had been the only one who came close to defeating Ning of the three.

Apparently, Alekor was the son of a duke in Losmana, but since he was a second son, he was allowed to join the tower while his brother took over the family.

He had been a fantastic enchanter from a young age, taught by some of the greatest amongst them.

It was during one of her missions to the Losmana where Merasi had met the duke's son and noticed his eagerness to go out and do something other than sitting at home and rot.

So, Merasi told him to join the tower, and when he did, she took him in.

The fighting continued for days on end. By now, it had already been 4 days since Ning started this. Although, he wasn't sure if he could even call this fighting now.

Fighting had become really simple for him. All he needed to do was the exact opposite of what the enemy was doing, except for some cases.

If someone sent something flying towards you, just send that something flying away from you.

If someone created a magnet to attract the metals on you. Just reverse the polarity of the item that was magnetized.

If someone is using gravity to pull, just use reverse gravity to push.

There were a few conditions where it didn't work at all. For example, heat energy. If something was getting hot, he couldn't reverse the energy to make something cold.

Ads by Pubfuture

He could only give energy, not take it away. However, he could create something with no energy and have that dissipate away from the heat.

However, that took incredible focus and concentration as something without energy didn't want to exist and would always pull on his aether to fill it.

Ning was getting there for sure.

He was on the training ground, fighting against Mercy again. Mercy jumped at him with an incredible weight to her whole body. She had increased the gravity on herself, and on the other end of the gravity was Ning.

Ning quickly realized that and canceled the gravity, but Mercy still flew towards him with incredible speed, with her previous momentum.

Ning put out his left hand to his side, a tiny black hole appearing near his palm. His body was fully enchanted and stuck firm to the ground, so nothing happened to him at all.

However, Mercy's body which was freely moving through the air was immediately dragged into it. Creating a black hole, however tiny, cost him a lot of energy, so he stopped using it for more than a second.

However, that was enough to throw Mercy off course. Mercy caught herself midair, suddenly halting her sudden advancement towards the ground.

At the same time, Ning appeared in front of her and flicked her forehead.

"I win again," he said.

Mercy frowned and pouted. She dropped to the ground and muttered 'dammit!' to herself and left with a pouting face.

Ning simply smiled. This was a daily occurrence now. With every loss, Mercy cursed to herself and left to rest for a bit and gather some Aether before starting again.

A woman walked into the room and said something to Alekor quietly. Alekor thanked her, and she left.

"Something wrong?" Ning asked when he saw that.

"Oh, no, no," he said. "I just received a message saying captains requested potions were ready and we could go pick it up."

Chapter 534 Potions"Potions? What's this about?" Ning asked involuntarily before remembering the small glass vial that Merasi had fed the Marquees.

Which then reminded him of the small glass vial that the lord had poisoned him with, making his body reduced to a pile of flesh that decayed more and more with every second.

He chose to ignore that thought for now.

"It's Captain's potions, the one she ordered to be made. She had it ordered before going to sleep, and I will have to go pick it up now," Alekor said.

"Why don't I go too?" Ning asked. He was curious about where and how these potions were made. After all, he hadn't seen them in any of the other locations he had been to.

"Are you sure? It's just a small trip," Alekor said.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Besides, it's my break right now," Ning said.

"Alright, we will leave after Silvers gets back from his patrol," Alekor said.

After a while, Silvers returned, and both Alekor and Ning left the tower.

Ning had gone out to see the city the last couple of days and had been really surprised by how developed the city was.

He had seen it in the day, but at night was when the city finally came to life. With glowing bulbs all around them, people rushing through the big city to do their job gave Ning a sense of urban life that he hadn't yet seen in any other cities.

It was no wonder that the Serian Empire was called the greatest of all the empires.

Vehicles of all types rode past Ning and Alekor as they walked along the sidewalk, going to a place 5 blocks west.

Along the way, Ning asked some questions like what was the use of potions here and who used these as well as why it wasn't available in the other regions.

Alekor answered it all without any qualms. According to him, potions were newer items that were not yet available on the market.

Only the Tower was using it now and that too at the higher members. For now, only squad captains and above were allowed to even own a potion.

It was still unsure if potions were entirely healthy or not, or if using them poisoned the body somehow. So, the tower had not been made it public to the people yet.

Once it was decided that potions were safe, they would surely be sold freely.

Ning reached the place and was surprised at how… decrepit the location was.

It was in the middle of the city, a small building sandwiched between two big buildings, and not much maintenance was done on the outside.

The stairs leading to the house looked like they would break if a cat jumped on them. Not that it would, given this planet had no cats.

Alekor walked up the steps and knocked on the black burnt door of the house and waited.

After a while, a little girl about the age of 10, or 25 in Vilmore years, opened the door. She was about half of Ning's height, with suspender pants and a white shirt on her.

She wore a hat that made her look tomboyish at first, but her long hair quickly gave her gender away.

The girl looked at the tall Ning and Alekor with squinting eyes and asked, "how may I help you?"

"Hey little girl, is your grandma home?" Alekor asked.

The girl nodded and turned around to shout, "Grandma! Someone is at the door."

"Who is it?" a squeaky voice came from inside the house.

"Who are you?" the girl asked back.

Alekor smiled and said, "we are men from supreme Merasi's squad."

"It's Supreme Merasi's people they say," the little girl shouted back.

Ads by Pubfuture

"Oh, dear," the old woman's voice came from inside the house as she quickly came down running. Ning could hear the stairs creak as the woman made it down them.

Finally, he could see the crooked old woman, with thin gray hair come towards the door with a cane in her hands.

"I am so sorry, young man. I did not realize you would come this early," the woman said.

"It's all fine, Mrs. Gaani," Alekor said with a smile that made him look like a prince. Being a Duke's son, he wasn't that far off.

"Right, right, here," the old woman said as she took out 5 different glass vials all wrapped in paper.

Alekor held the glass vials for a bit before putting them in his storage. Ning only needed that one glance to read the texts written on the paper that wrapped the colorful vials.

1 of them was an antidote that healed more venom and poisons.

1 of them was a truth serum.

Finally, the remaining 3 were healing potions, that healed most minor physical injuries such as cuts and burns.

Ning was really curious about the content of these vials, while at the same time wondering about something. 'Was this woman the person who made that vial of poison that nearly killed my other body?' he wondered.

He was still surprised at how effective that poison was, but he didn't fault her for it. She was likely just doing her job by doing what she was asked.

"Thank you, Mrs. Gaani," Alekor said and turned to leave.

However, Ning didn't turn around with him. Instead, he asked, "excuse me, Mrs. Gaani, are you making some potions right now?"

The woman looked at Ning with a judging look from top to bottom. "Who might you be?" she asked in her squeaky voice.

"My name is N— Terran Forn, Mr. Gaani. I am one of the subordinates of lady Merasi. I came here after learning that you make these amazing potions that perform miracles that people with Aether cannot perform."

"I am very fascinated by potions and everything and was hoping you could let me watch the process of how you make everything. If you let me, I will repay you back a hundredfold," Ning said.

The cure to what his main body was suffering from was likely a potion as well. So, he wanted to now learn how to make it.

Chapter 535 Helena GaaniThe old woman named Gaani looked with a confused and suspicious face at Ning. She was about to refuse, just on principle alone when Alekor spoke before her.

"Brother Terran, what are you doing? We should return back to the tower soon," Alekor said.

"I really want to learn this, brother Alekor. I'm fascinated by the prospects of creating something on my own. Besides, I have a 3-hour break right now. I will be back by the time my free time is over," Ning said.

Alekor was still about to say something when he remembered something. 'That's right, he does love creating a lot. Without such a love for something, he could've never created Aether,' Alekor thought.

He couldn't stop Ning now after realizing that.

"Mrs. Gaani, would you please mind teaching my associate a little about potion making? He is one of the best minds in the entire tower and will surely help you overcome any obstacles you might yourself have on the matters of potion-making," Alekor said.

Now, the woman couldn't refuse. She didn't know about Ning, but she knew about Alekor. He was the direct subordinate of a supreme and he was likely a great man.

Following the same logic, she assumed Ning was a great man too. While she frowned at the thought of having to show her work to a random person who came to her, she wasn't in a place she could refuse.

If the young man complained to the tower, and the tower decided to listen to him for some reason, she and her granddaughter would lose the grace of the tower, and would no longer be able to afford anything.

"Very well, please come in," the old woman said and brought him in.

"I'll see you later, Alekor," Ning said and walked in. After Alekor left, the little girl in suspenders pushed the door shut and walked in.

She looked at Ning curiously and Ning simply returned a gentle smile. Looking at her tomboyish self reminded him of Anya.

She too had been dressed up as a boy to gather money and heal her father back in Deepskull island in the Scattered Isles.

"What's your name?" Ning asked.

"Helena, Helena Gaani," the little girl said with a hand put forward for a handshake. Ning grabbed her little hand and shook it.

"I'm Terran Forn, nice to meet you, Helena," he said.

The little girl nodded. She then curiously asked, "Are you an Aether expert, uncle Terran?"

'Uncle?' Ning felt a little bad when he heard the word Uncle as his current body was only supposed to be around 20 years old, but when he remembered that he was old enough to be called an Ancestor, he put the thought away.

"Yes, I am," he said.

"What rank?" the little girl asked curiously.

"Hel! Don't bother the honored guest with your questions," the old woman squeaked from in front of the two.

She then turned to Ning, gave him a smile —or at least tried, failed, and ended up looking like a stretched raisin— and said, "Don't mind the little girl, young man. She has been interested in Aether arts ever since her teachers told her she could be like you guys someday, please don't mind her."

"Oh," Ning said. The old woman walked up the stairs slowly with her cane supporting her, and Ning followed behind her as well, equally as slowly.

"Your teachers checked your Aether rank?" Ning asked.

"Mhm," The girl nodded. "They tested us when I was 20 years old and said I'm an Aether Master."

"Oh," Ning thought. That was quite talented. Aether Master by 8 years old was not a very easy task.

Ning used his Aether analysis on the little girl and saw her rank, Aether Master. 'Hm… has she not advanced at all?' Ning thought.

Ads by Pubfuture

Then he used the 2nd level of the analysis, looking at her name. That said 'Helena Gaani', but that was not what he really cared for.

He went one level deeper and used the 3rd level to see what sort of technique she had been using. Normally, if someone used an absorption technique, it could be seen here.

However, Ning didn't see that at all. There was no absorption technique within her. However, there was something else there that surprised him beyond belief.

Dual Awakener.

That was surprising, to say the least. He hadn't expected a random little girl in a random house would end up being a Dual Awakener.

He wondered how many more of such variety had popped up all around the world. He ignored that thought for now and looked back at the little girl.

"Are you using the absorption technique that has been popping up all around the world?" Ning asked.

"Uhh…no," the girl said. "Grandma says I'm not allowed to use any such thing until she can find me a good teacher."

"The little girl has no talent, young man," the old woman said from up ahead. "The only reason she even managed to reach Aether Masters was that I fed her the fruits grown deep within the Aether forest itself."

"If not for that, I doubt she would have even awakened herself."

The little girl pouted. "I am talented. I even help you so much with my Aether," she said.

"Yes, you do," the old woman said. "But that little help won't be able to get you into the Tower child."

"The tower is where the best of the best gather. If you go there, you'll be eaten up like a little chicken in front of an Aether beast."

The little girl was starting to tear up when Ning said, "That's not entirely correct, Mrs. Gaani. The world has changed and absorption techniques are now spread throughout the world."

"You can buy one for cheap in the stores and learn it yourself. As long as you're awakened and have the slightest bit of talent, you can go far," he said.

The little girl's eyes shined bright as her tears vanished into her sleeves.

Chapter 536 The Process"Sigh, please don't give her unnecessary hope. It will only lead to more disappointment," the old woman said, with a hint of disappointment in her own voice.

Ning caught that and used his analysis on the old woman. She was an Aether Grandmaster in the art of Enchanting.

'Why does she sound so defeated though?' Ning wondered. He could have opened Omni-analysis to learn a lot more about the woman, but he didn't want to suffer from the mental pain that would give him.

The information would never be worth that pain.

Finally, they reached a room on the upper floor, and Ning looked at what looked like a kitchen.

There were two massive black cauldrons bubbling on top of the two gas stoves, dimly lit by a black, sooted light overhead.

In fact, the entire room was black, with seemingly no ventilation in the room.

'That's not good for oneself,' he thought. The woman quickly ran up to the cauldron and started stirring it.

Then, with her enchantment, she stirred the other cauldron too.

Ning walked a little closer and saw that the cauldron was filled to the brim with water and… something floating in there.

He wondered what it was. The woman reached into the cupboard and pulled out a giant flat plate that she kept on the counter.

Then, she reached into the handle of her cane and pointed it toward the plate. Suddenly, dozens of items appeared out of nowhere, surprising Ning a little.

'She put her storage gem in the cane?' he thought in surprise. The little girl walked up to the grandma and jumped onto the counter before sitting down in front of the items and separating them into a bunch.

Once everything was separated, Ning finally looked at them.

At first, it was hard to tell what they were. Those things weren't the easiest to guess. Not to mention, Ning wasn't really knowledgeable about the flora and fauna of this place.

Ning could see some leaves, some branches, some stalks of grass, some dried fruits, some raw fruit, some ripe ones. Some flowers of various colors.

And finally, perhaps the most shocking, bones and meats. 'Bones and meats of what?' he wondered and got a little closer.

He couldn't tell what they were from just looking at them, but the purple lines passing through them did give him an idea.

'Aether beasts,' he thought. Those were Aether Beast's meats and bones for sure.

'Have they learned how to use the body of an Aether beast?' Ning wondered.

There were still many different things about the Aether beasts and the vegetation in the Aether forest that he didn't know about.

In fact, the humanity of this planet seemed to be only tapping into the potential from the usage of those beasts.

The previous Emperor of Xandria had managed to figure out that eating the gems of the beasts made you stronger.

And now, this woman had somehow figured out how to use them in the potion.

As he watched, the woman started cutting the ingredients, measured them on a cup or a measuring spring, and tossed them into the boiling water.

Flower and leaves she would toss without doing anything, fruits and meats she would cut into small chunks, and for barks, roots, and bones, she would crush into tiny powder before tossing it into the water.

Once she put in the necessary ingredients, she started stirring again. The little girl watched from the countertop, with her hands supporting her head, while her grandma kept on stirring.

"Do you want me to help you stir, Mrs. Gaani?" Ning asked. Watching an old woman and a little girl work, while he stood and watched didn't feel right for him.

The old woman jumped a little when she heard him. Only then did she remember that there had been someone else with them.

"It's alright, young man," she said with her squeaky voice. "I may be old, but I have enough strength to do what I want to."

Ning nodded. "I see. Please do not hesitate to make me work if you feel like it," he said. The old woman might be old and have weak bones, but she was still an Aether Grandmaster.

Ads by Pubfuture

A simple Enchantment would make her body stronger and more durable than a young man in his prime. This was something she could easily handle.

For an hour, Ning watched the old woman stir and stir and stir. It wasn't just one cauldron too. She stirred both cauldrons.

After an hour, she finally stopped stirring and put the lids on the cauldrons.

Ning still looked at those cauldrons with fascination in his eyes. The process of making potions was nothing like the process of making pills.

And yet somehow, these two things did virtually the same thing.

"Do you not need to stir?" Ning asked.

"No, now I need to let it boil and bring out the remaining stuff from those ingredients," the old woman said before bringing out a book from her cane.

She saw Ning looking at her so, "Please," she said, asking him to turn around.

Ning nodded and turned around. Then, he continued looking at the book from his back.

'That's a list of potion requests, right?' he thought, looking at the filled pages. 'Just how many captains request for potions?' he wondered.

Potion to heal, a potion to fall asleep, a potion of poison —All sorts of requests were written on that list.

One of those requests caught Ning's attention. 'The strongest poison,' it wrote.

'I knew it,' he thought, with a sigh. Then, the woman flipped to the recent pages and crossed two potions from the list.

'How is she so confident?' he wondered but didn't ask.

Then, he saw another request in there that caught his eyes once again.

A potion to help you fall asleep, it wrote. That wasn't a very interesting request, but what was interesting was the person who had made the request.

If the woman had indeed written it right, then the requester of this potion was the lord of the tower.

Chapter 537 Requesting Recipes'Is that for someone else? Or is he having sleeping problems?' Ning wondered. 'It can't be that my words got to him, right?' he thought.

Ning almost chuckled when he thought that. He waited for a while and the little girl said, "You can turn now."

Ning turned around and smiled at her. He then looked at the cauldron that was bubbling so much that the lids were now starting to rattle.

"You said you wanted to help, right young man?" the old woman said. "Come help."

Ning excitedly walked forward. "What do you need my help with?" he asked.

The old lady brought out a clean white cloth that had spaces in between the threads so wide that it could nearly be called a net. Then, she brought out another white cloth with normal spaces.

Finally, she brought out a gigantic bowl and placed the cloth on top of the bowl as a way to filter the liquid.

"Alright, help me slowly pour these all in here," the old woman's voice squeaked.

"Yes ma'am," Ning said and used his aether to slowly fly the cauldron over. He poured the contents onto the giant bowl which the old lady held from two sides so as to not let the contents spill away or the bowl tilt over.

Once all the content was poured over, the old woman caught the first of the cloth with both her hands and pulled it out.

All the solid materials in the liquid were filtered with this cloth that contained big holes.

Then the minute powders and bits of the bigger ingredients that managed to pass through were captured by the finer cloth.

The old woman had to sift through it a bit to let the remaining drops of liquid pass through, but that didn't take long.

"Is that it?" Ning asked, looking at the pale green liquid remaining on the glass bowl.

"Yes, but not quite," the old woman said. The little girl had already gone somewhere and brought out another large beaker of the sort, completely made up of glass.

"What do you mean 'not quite'?" Ning asked with a confused look.

"Help me pour this in that," the old woman said. Ning nodded and poured the bowl of liquid into the glass beaker the little girl was holding.

He secretly enforced the beaker so as to not strain the little girl's Aether, but it looked like that was unnecessary. The little girl was quite great at using Aether to enforce her body already.

The old woman took the beaker and put it on top of another stove before turning it on. She put the heat on low and covered the beaker with a lid except for a little space so that the steam could get out.

"The mixture we just made can be used as a potion, but it's not as effective. Since I put a lot of water at the start, the mixture is very diluted at the moment."

"If we want it to have more effect, we have to evaporate it until the concentration is higher," the old woman said.

Ning nodded as he listened to her. He had now understood how she made the potion. It was not different from how pills were made.

You mix ingredients, have their attributes influence each other, and have a vessel for the final attribute.

In a pill's case, it would be powder of the ingredients that were clumped up together. In the potion's case, it was the liquid the ingredients were cooked in.

Ning nodded. He knew what he had to do to make potions. Now, all he needed to do was learn the recipes for each potion.

Ads by Pubfuture

"How many recipes do you have perfected right now?" Ning asked.

The old woman hesitated a bit and said, "that's… a family secret. So if possible, I will like to keep that to myself."

Ning thought to himself, 'If I who didn't know about potions today, suddenly started making high-grade potions tomorrow, it will be suspicious, to say the least.'

'So I need to somehow begin here before asking the system. But how do I get through to her,' he wondered. Then, his eyes fell on little Helena.

"Mrs. Gaani, would you mind sharing some recipes if I were to take in Helena as my student? I will teach her how to use Aether and make her adept at it," he said.

"No," the woman said resolutely. "I don't know if you mean well or not, but I cannot allow you to give my granddaughter hope. I know what hope does, it only leads to disappointment."

"I can understand what you are trying to say Mrs. Gaani, but I promise you, I am not giving her false hope. If you let me, I can help her reach the peak of Aether arts itself. In return, I only hope you share some recipes with me so I can start learning how to make potions as well," Ning said.

"My mother used to tell me that I would become a great Aether artist too. She told me if I eat the aether fruits day after day, I will become an amazing aether artist."

"Look at me now. I am barely an Aether grandmaster. What's so great about a 220-year-old grandmaster, hm?" she asked.

Ning thought for a moment and his eyes narrowed, "did your parents tell you that those Aether fruits could help you?" he asked. "Is that why you are so skeptical of everything?"

The old woman hesitated a bit. "It's not just the Aether fruits. I know nothing will work at all," she said

"What about this then?" Ning brought out a few Aether ores to show to the old woman whose eyes trembled slightly at the sight of the ores.

She knew how rare these ores were and were even more surprised at the fact how many Ning had managed to take out.

"I… I still don't think these will work," she said, lying to herself.

"Oh," Ning said. Then he stored and ores and brought out a small glass vial with purple liquid in it. "Then how about this?"

Chapter 538 Deployed Battle ForceSaying that the old woman Gaani was surprised would be like saying a living person breathed. There was nothing more obvious.

Watching the purple liquid slosh around in the small vial, a color far deeper than the ores Ning had brought out just moments ago, Gaani knew exactly what this was.

And that only served to make her shock that much greater.

"H-h-h-h-how do you have that?" she asked.

Helena looked curiously as well. While she knew quite a lot, she was still a young child. Not to mention, Aether liquids weren't something that was readily available for her to have seen them.

Ning smiled, knowing that his next set of words was going to shock the old woman even more. "I can make them."

To his surprise, the old woman's expression changed… in the opposite direction of where he wanted it to go.

She… was actually starting to look suspicious more than surprised. 'Well, I should have expected that,' Ning thought.

"Check it," Ning said, handing off the vial to the old woman. That little vial was merely 3 days worth of aether from a random location in the Aether forest.

Adding in extra Alpurite, and continuously moving the vial around to new locations with Aether made it possible to gather it in just 3 days.

Ning had managed to do this by tying these vials to Aether beasts that could fly. At first, he had been worried that the vials would steal their Aether, which would either kill them or turn them into normal beasts in which case other Aether beasts would kill them.

He needn't have worried. The beasts' Aether in the gems wouldn't be so easily stolen.

The old woman looked at the liquid vigilantly and opened the cork to take a look inside. She took a deep breath to see what the liquid smelled like, but there was no smell.

However, it did have something else. An overwhelming amount of Aether.

With a single sniff, the old woman who had been stuck at the peak of Aether Grandmaster, advanced onto Aether Magister.

Her body shuddered as she felt the Aether in her body move through her. "Oh dear lord," she cried out as she nearly dropped the vial, but she caught herself.

Then, Ning finally saw the surprise he had expected.

"THIS IS REAL!!" the old woman shouted in her squeaky voice.

"That's what I said from the beginning," Ning said, with an I-told-you-so expression on his face.

"But it's so hard to believe," the old woman said, trying to reel in her surprise. She put the stopper back and handed it back to Ning but he shook his head.

"You keep it," he said. "A thank you for teaching me about potions today. That should help you get to Aether King if you absorb it soon."

"I cannot take this," the old woman said. The vial was small and light, but it felt heavy in her hand.

"Take it," Ning said. "Also, think about my offer. If you teach me how to make potions, I can help the little girl become a high-standing Aether artist in the near future."

"I will leave you to think about it. I will return tomorrow to hear about your answer," Ning said and walked away without waiting to hear anything else.

The old woman still couldn't say anything as the Aether liquid had left her flabbergasted beyond belief. For a moment, she had forgotten about the potions brewing behind her, the other one that they had yet to take care of.

'Aether King,' the old woman thought. The thought alone was able to make her feel like a young lady again. Just moments ago, she had been a grandmaster with no way to become an Aether magister, and suddenly, she was looking at an opportunity to reach Aether King.

The old woman's eyes twinkled with the thought of being able to become an Aether King. She was only broken out of her thoughts when her granddaughter asked, "What's that, grandma?"

Jasu Gaani looked at her granddaughter and suddenly all thoughts about becoming an Aether King drifted away like a distant dream long forgotten.

"This is something for you to use once you are old enough," the old woman said. Her days were gone, but her granddaughter's days was yet to come.

Ads by Pubfuture

She would make sure to give to her granddaughter something her mother couldn't give to her, and she couldn't give to her son.

"Go throw out those wastes," the old woman pointed to the cloth with the used-up ingredients in them.

"Okay," the little girl jumped off the countertop and went to work.

Ning returned back to the tower with a newfound excitement that he had thought he had lost.

Fighting each and every time of the day had been boring and he certainly needed something to distract him from the mundaneness of the days coming up.

So, when he learned about potions, he was naturally happy. He wanted to ask the system to tell him everything, but he decided not to right now.

He wanted to research and find out on his own.

As he walked into the tower, he saw groups of men rush past him at a hurried pace, wearing white robes and purple shirts.

'The battle force is being deployed?' Ning thought. It was only one group, so he didn't think much of it, but before he got to the elevator, he saw 2 more.

Now he was really curious as to what was happening. He wanted to stop one of the groups and ask them what was happening, but they seemed to be in a hurry, so he didn't do that.

He didn't need to. There was someone in his squad that was great at gathering information and had likely known about it all along.

So, he jumped into the elevator and went to find Alekor.

"What's going on outside?" Ning asked Alekor, who seemed quite tensed himself.

Alekor didn't even acknowledge that Ning had returned and instead just said, "Deaths."

Chapter 539 EmbersAlekor paced back and forth in the training room with Silvers sitting in the corner reading a book.

By now, Ning knew that he couldn't read anything, but was genuinely trying to learn how to read.

He ignored Silvers for the moment and looked back at Alekor. "Explain more, please. What do you mean by deaths? Where? How many?"

"At least 2 dozen on our side, more on the enemy's side," Alekor said, continuing to pace back and forth.

"And?" Ning said, waiting for him to continue.

Alekor finally stopped. "Do you remember about the rebellion I was talking about a week or so ago?" he asked.

Ning tried to remember and asked, "The one in Embers we couldn't go to because of me?"

"Yeah, that's the one. One of the terrorists that had joined the rebellion group was an Aether Saint, well known for his barbaric methods of fighting."

"I let the tower know before we left for Urandran, but it seems like they didn't quickly capitalize on that information, and only send squads with Aether emperors and below."

"Now, people are dead," Alekor said and started walking around again. It seemed… he felt somehow responsible for the deaths.

Ning got silent for a moment, thinking to himself while Silvers just shook his head.

"We could have gone there you know. When Captain was not sleeping. We could've gone there and had defeated that bastard. Maybe even I could've done that."

"But no, just because you were with us, we had to go to—" Alekor stopped, realizing what he had been saying, and quickly turned to Ning.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say you were responsible for this. I was just… " he didn't continue. He couldn't continue. Anything more and he would be punished for insolence.

"Angry at the lord?" Ning dared to finish his thoughts. Alekor looked with horror and even Silvers closed his book to look at Ning in shock.

"What? It's not like you weren't thinking about it. Besides, the old man can't do anything to me. Don't worry," Ning said.

"O-o-old man?" Alekor nearly lost himself. He had maybe only heard Merasi call the lord 'old man', and that too had been when they were out doing missions.

Ning dared to say so inside the tower. If someone had heard them, then…

Ning looked around. "Where's Mercy?" he asked.

"She went to wake the captain up," Silvers said from his sitting position.

"Isn't she supposed to come out tomorrow?" Ning asked.

"Yeah, but we can't wait, can we?" Alekor said. "Each second wasted is another one of our friends massacred. We need to go there as fast as we can, and we need a Supreme to open up a portal to the city of embers."

"Are the other supremes perhaps sleeping too?" Ning asked and was met with a nod from Alekor.

"What about the lord? What is he doing?" Ning asked.

"I… don't know," Alekor said. "He must be in sleep or something. Otherwise, he would surely help as well."

Ning doubted that. The old man seemed out of his mind the last time he had seen him. He was not the dignified leader the tower deserved.

"Can you guys not do that? I thought Captain said your skills were some of the best," Ning said.

"I may be good in a lot of things, but gravity is something I'm not very good at. Even if I can open it, it only stays there for maybe 10 seconds before collapsing. That won't be enough time for the people to jump into the portal," Alekor said.

"Hmm," Ning thought for a few moments and asked, " Then what about the other captains?"

"They are like me too," he said. "They too can only open the portal for a little while, just enough for themselves. Either that or they cannot open portals at all."

"Why don't they just go and fight this terrorist then? They should be able to do that at least," Ning said.

"They're already doing it," Silvers said from the ground. "The captains have already gone to fight, but they can't take their squad with them."

"At the same time, it's not just about fighting against the terrorist," Alekor said. "It's about quelling a rebellion and healing our allies."

Ads by Pubfuture

"We are lacking personnel on both fronts."

Ning finally understood. It wasn't the fighting that was the problem, but rather the aid.

"I see," he said and turned around. "Then let me help. I can create a portal."

Alekor looked at him in surprise, and Silvers stood up too. "Can you really?" Alekor asked.

"Yes," Ning said. "Now let's hurry."

The three of them no longer bothered waiting for Mercy to go wake up her sister and went to the bottom floor.

Alekor announced what was going to happen and started gathering the people who would be leaving.

"Let me go check and see where I am to open a portal on that side," Ning said and teleported using his portal.

When he arrived, he was a good 200 meters off the surface and looked down on a massive forest.

He saw smokes billowing from a group of tents, and when his vision magnified, he could see white and purple clothes.

This was the location. He slowly drifted down to reach a location where he could set up the portal, but suddenly a ball of fire came flying his way.

Ning dodged and looked down, only to see people had gathered and were now attacking him.

None of the attacks were lethal, but they were certainly annoying.

"Stop attacking, I'm on your side," Ning said with a booming voice that everyone could hear from high above.

"We can't trust you," the people down below said.

'What? Why not? I'm even wearing the same— oh, I forgot to wear the white clothes,' Ning thought.

"Stop! Stop!" a voice came from the crowd as a girl walked forwards. "Terran, is that you?" she asked.

"Rachel?" he asked in surprise. He hadn't imagined he would find the girl in such a desolate place.

Chapter 540 The Old President's Decree Rachel told everyone who he was. As soon as they learned that he was under the Supreme Merasi, they stopped showing any expression of anger and fear toward him.

"I came to bring you help," Ning said, as he flew down to the crowd. The crowd of disorderly people, some wounded, some bandaged, some lacking sleep, and some clearly wanting to leave showed him a confused look.

"Pardon, but what help did you bring, brother Terran," Rachel asked as he alone would likely not be a very good help.

"Ah, my apologies," Ning said. "I came in advance to scout out the location. I will go bring the help now.

A second later, a portal opened close to him and Ning walked inside. However, just before he was fully gone, his voice drifted over.

"More people will come through. Please don't attack them." And then the portal vanished.

The crowd looked even more confused. If a Supreme had said the same thing, they would have been beyond joyful. But what could her subordinate do?

Suddenly, the portal reappeared, a black hole in space that connected to a location far away. Dirt and leaves drifted through the air coming closer and closer to the portal.

The women could feel their hair being pulled slightly, and the rest could feel various parts of their clothes move due to gravity.

Then, a man stepped through. It was not the same man that had just left. This was a different man, wearing the uniform of the battle force.

Behind him, a woman entered, wearing the same cloth. Then, another man entered. And another man. And another woman.

One by one, men and women, all part of the battle force entered the location of the war.

The crowd looked in awe, and so did the newcomers as well.

"Help is here," someone shouted, and soon everyone was cheering as well. Nearly 20 different squads, consisting of somewhere between 5 and 10 members entered through the portal.

Not a single one of them was above Aether Emperor, but the crowd didn't care. The newcomers weren't here to fight, they were here to help the wounded.

Ning walked in last, along with Alekor, and watched the situation. The grim atmosphere had changed to a joyful one as everyone started getting help.

Now that there were more resources, people didn't have to skimp out on medicines, bandages, or even beds.

Ning looked at them with a smile and decided to go help some of the wounded. He was after all still a doctor.

Before he did, Rachel appeared beside him.

"I didn't know you were this strong," she said, greeting Alekor who was beside him. She didn't recognize him, but anyone who could stand side by side with Ning here would likely be on the same status as him.

"I was trying to hide during the test," Ning said with a smile.

"Thank you for the help you brought," she said. "It might have been bad if we were attacked while in this trouble."

"Don't worry, you won't," Alekor said from the side. "The captains should have already gone to quell the rebellion."

"What will they do to the rebels?" Ning asked.

Alekor shrugged. "They will capture them, that's all," he said. "We have no judicial permissions in the Republic of Embers, unlike Serian Empire, so we will capture the rebels and leave the republic to do what they want. That's all we can do after all."

"I hope the captains can defeat them without harming them much," Rachel said with a sad look.

"Why do you look more worried about the enemy?" Ning asked.

"Because they are not enemies," Rachel said, with a sigh. "Well, not entirely."

"They are just the common men fighting back against what they think is injustice," she said.

"Injustice? Can you explain a little?" Ning asked. When Alekor tried to explain, Ning had to quickly stop him, telling him he didn't know much about the republic itself.

"It's like this, brother Terran," Alekor said from beside him. "When there were 12 minor kingdoms and dukedoms in this land after the fall of the original Serian Empire, the constant war between these kingdoms for a chance to get the other kingdom raged these lands."

Ads by Pubfuture

"At that time, the death and destruction the men had to suffer was not something any lesser than wars between mighty kingdoms."

"So, the common men joined together and fought against the oppression of the lesser kings and dukes," Alekor said.

"They formed a rebellion at the time as well, the whole 12 states, together fighting against the constant war and oppression."

"And they won."

"Many died back then, the fire raged the entire republic, but the people rose from the ashes, men of embers, and named their newly formed democratic republic as such."

"When they won, they let the previous kings and monarchs keep their noble titles, as well as many others, but nothing more than that."

"They didn't want any more bloodshed, so they ignored them and formed their own government, formed by the common people."

"They thought their days of being looked at with a different light from the others was over, but it was not," Alekor said.

"As time passed on, peace came to republic and democracy remained. But that was all a lie, it turned out."

Ning got curious. "Was the government not really at the head of the republic, but the previous nobles?" Ning asked. He felt like he understood where Alekor was going with this.

"Close, but not quite," Alekor said. "The government was still at the head of the republic, but after such a long time, it was filled with nothing but the nobles."

"In essence, the nobles still controlled the common people," Alekor said.

"So… how did they find out just now?" Ning asked.

"Back around a couple of centuries ago, a nobleman became the president of the republic of embers."

"The people at the time had no qualms of course, as it was a democracy and anyone could do what they want."

"Then in his time in the presidency, the nobleman changed one single rule in the empire," Alekor said.

Ning looked curiously, and Alekor answered. "After the President, only people will great Aether powers could run for the presidency."

:)