Chapter 561 Saving MerasiNing looked at Darian in shock. The tall man had a gray beard with black hair on his head that seemed to be dyed.

His age seemed to put him somewhere in his 50s, but who could really tell how old this man was. He might have even been nearly a thousand years old.

He wore a coat even on the inside as the cold chill of the night was coming in through the window.

Ning could hear the rain pelting the outside window.

However, a single question ran through the shocked Ning who couldn't help but ask out loud.

"Canon? Like Zand Canon?" he asked suspiciously.

The old man's eyes raised. "You know your history, kid?" he asked.

Ning chuckled a little when he heard the word 'kid'. "Are you a direct descendant, or…?" Ning asked.

"I'm as direct as they come," Darian said.

"Then why aren't you the Emperor of the empire? I thought the empire changed royal family because every single one of you was dead," Ning said.

A frown appeared on the old man's face. "Not everyone died in the coup. I survived for sure. And I will keep surviving until everyone involved in that event is dead," he said.

"Who was invo— actually, never mind. I don't have time for that right now. I need your help in stopping the tower," Ning said.

"What do you want with me?" the old man asked.

"You are an Underlord, so I want you to take care of the lord of the tower," Ning said.

"What use can I be? He is already mobilizing his entire organization. He will have people by his side," Darian said.

"I don't want you to beat him. Just delay him," Ning said.

"Delay? If I'm fighting that bastard, I will only fight until I kill him," Darian said. "But I can't. Not only is that bastard strong himself, but he is also in the presence of other supremes."

Ning thought for a moment. "I can take care of the supremes. You just need to worry about the lord. Can you do it?" Ning asked.

Darian's eyes shined. "If you can truly take care of the other supremes, then I can fight that bastard," Darian said.

"Great," Ning said. "She will take you to the lord. I will go take care of the Supreme problem. Afterward, I will go breakthrough and handle the lord myself."

"Okay," Darian said and took off his coat. He was ready to go battle.

"Take him there," Ning told Alexis, who hesitated for a moment but still followed his orders.

With a touch of her hands, the two of them disappeared.

Ning sighed as he looked out of the window. It was dark and raining, making him wonder where exactly he was.

He didn't have time for that. "Where is Merasi held?" he asked the system.

Once he got the information, he disappeared.

When he reappeared, he found himself at the bottom of the tower, in an underground cellar where people were kept.

Ning saw many individuals sitting around in a place where Aether was constantly pulled away from the location in spheres that Ning himself had provided.

Fortunately, the concentration of the liquid didn't work on anyone at Saint rank or higher. So, even though he was here, Ning's Aether wasn't being pulled away from him at all.

There were almost no guards here with the entire prison asleep for some reason. Even the two guards at the far end of the room reacted almost too late.

They quickly shot up to their feet when they saw Ning. "Identify yourself," they shouted with their guns pointed towards Ning. Since their Aether had been stolen away, they were stuck to using mortal weapons.

With his body enforced by the power of an Aether Supreme, he barged through them, neither of who could do anything to him. They were unable to shoot him since they didn't want to wake the other imprisoned people in the room.

They only stopped pointing their guns at Ning when he ripped open the metal door with his bare hands.

At that point, they knew their small guns were useless.

Ning walked into the room and found Merasi completely knocked out on the floor.

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"Captain! Captain!" Ning called her as he slapped her cheeks lightly.

"Hmm…" Merasi suddenly stirred and opened her eyes. "Who…?" she asked when she saw Ning.

'Huh?' he thought for a moment.

Merasi snapped open her eyes and flipped up from where she was to move away, but the room she was in was cramped and she hurt her head.

"Captain, it's me," Ning said.

Merasi recognized the voice, but the face was not it. "Terran? Did you change your face? Why?" she asked even as memories from right before she was knocked out flooded into her.

"Yeah, it's me," Ning said. "This is my real face."

"What?" she asked in shock. She slowly pulled her hands up to get ready to fight.

"We don't have the time for this. Mercy, Silvers, and Alekor are in trouble. In fact, the whole world is," Ning said.

"What?" Merasi's eyes changed the moment she heard about her sister. "Where is Mercy? What happened to her?"

"She's being kept hostage so that they can gain leverage over you. All 3 of them have," Ning said.

"Huh? Leverage for what?" Merasi asked.

"To keep you away from opposing what they are doing," Ning said.

Merasi's eyes got cold. "What are they doing?" she asked.

Ning gave a brief explanation of what was going on in the world at the moment and concluded it by saying that someone was going to fight the lord, but in the meantime, she needed to take care of the other 2 supremes.

Merasi's cold eyes sharpened. "I will do it," she said. Then, they faltered again, as if she just remembered the problem that she had momentarily forgotten.

"But they have Mercy," she said with an unsure face.

"I know," Ning said. "That's why we are going to save them first."

Chapter 562 Merasi's attack"Drink this and absorb it," Ning said as he handed her a bit of his Aether liquid. Merasi had fought with him for a while and used up a good chuck on her Aether reserves.

He couldn't send her to fight not one, but two Aether Supremes while at a disadvantage.

Merasi saw the glistening dark purple liquid in front of her, and her hands slowly moved forward towards it without even thinking.

Ning let her grasp it and slowly opened the vial of Aether liquid. Like taking a shot, she downed the entire vial in a single motion.

The guard outside looked in horror as he saw it all. As an Aether artist, he would recognize Aether no matter what form it was in.

"You good?" Ning asked after a while, to which Merasi nodded. Then, Ning took her hand.

Merasi looked as Ning grabbed her hand. She could see the cramped prison walls and the terrified-looking guard outside of it.

The next moment, she was in a large, open room with a high ceiling and deep blue walls with a lot of light.

"What?" she shouted in surprise at the sudden change in location. What was going on? Had she been teleported?

"We've got company," Ning said while looking at something that Merasi didn't see.

So, she immediately turned around to find her sister and subordinates tied up to some chairs.

Mercy's eyes propped up with relief when she saw her sister. She tried to speak but there was a metal chain wrapped around her face on top of a cloth to gag her from speaking.

There were tear stains on her cheeks and even Ning started feeling heat in his eyes.

Alekor had a swollen face, likely from getting hurt when trying to escape. Similar to Mercy, he too was wrapped around in metal chains, which was likely enforced with Aether to stop them from leaving.

Silvers on the other hand had given up already and was slumped on the chair.

Merasi's eyes blazed with fury when she saw the three of them and her eyes slowly drifted towards the right corner of the room where a small man was sitting on a chair with an unpleasant face.

"How the hell did you get in here? Why did no one notify me?" Tristan said with a frown on his face.

"You dare tie up my sister?" Merasi got angry all of a sudden and got ready to attack.

"Tsk Tsk Tsk! Don't get hasty. They are still my hostage, you know?" Tristan said.

"Can you deal with him?" Ning asked from behind Merasi.

"Yeah, he's easy to deal with, but I will need your help with saving my sister," Merasi said.

"Don't worry about your sister for now," Ning said. "I can save her easily. Worry about defeating him and then going to fight Jason, can you do that?"

Merasi's eyes shook a little. "He will be easy, but Jason… he… Jason will be a little harder," she said.

"You don't have to fully think of defeating them, Just keep them busy while the other guy takes gets the lord busy," Ning said.

Merasi didn't answer but nodded.

"What are you two ta—" Tristan was halfway through his words when Ning vanished. He quickly turned his head around to look at where he could have possibly gone.

And only then did he notice that his 3 hostages had gone as well.

"You really dared to try and take my subordinates as your hostage huh? You've grown some balls, Tristan," Merasi said with her hands crossed over her chest.

"Tsk," Tristan couldn't help but feel angry. He didn't even notice when his hostages were taken away. And now, he had to fight with a battle maniac.

He had chosen the task of looking after the hostage because it was the one that took the least bit of work.

All he had to do was threaten Merasi into following the lord's orders with the threat of her sister and subordinates, but even before that could come into play, they were gone.

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Merasi's eyes shined with a glimmer of excitement, as well as hatred. 'How the hell did I end up in this situation?'

In a dash, Merasi shot off from where she stood, leaving cracks on the floor where she stood. This was not one of the training grounds that were specially reinforced to sustain heavy fights.

This was just a normal floor.

As he thought that, Tristan enforced himself, bracing for an attack. At the same time, he noticed some sort of gravity manipulation happening behind him.

He wanted to close it, but the juggernaut in front of him wouldn't let him. When Merasi struck Tristan, he felt the force of a mountain slam onto him.

He tried to stand his ground, but the ground was too weak for him. It easily got crushed beneath him and he was pushed back towards the gravity well behind him.

He was worried about something happening. However, when he did touch the gravity well, he realized that it was a portal that sent him elsewhere.

When he came out of the portal, he could see nothing but a bright sun in a clear sky, and trees beneath him.

Tristan looked around, but he didn't recognize the place at all. "Where are we?" he asked out loud.

Merasi's grin widened. "A place where we can fight to our content."

"You crazy bitch!" Tristan cried out and created a massive spear in his hand. With the force of an enforced Supreme body, she sent the spear flying at Merasi.

The spear went straight for her head. She could even feel gravity attracting her head toward the spear tip.

With a flick of her hands, Merasi cleared the gravity on the spear and twisted her neck at the last moment.

At the same time, she reached out the spear and grabbed it by the shaft as it flew next to her.

She hefted the spear in her hands and looked at the sharp spearhead as well as the excellently durable spear body.

"You were going for the kill, weren't you?" she asked. "Good. Makes me feel better now that I will get to kill you."

Chapter 563 All around the world"What is the meaning of this?" Kain Xanders loudly shouted at the people in front of him. Gilian Xanders, his second son and the crown prince of the Xandria Empire stood next to him with anger in his eyes.

They were currently in the Palace Hall and the group of people in front of them had barged in without announcement as if they owned the place.

The one leading this group was Merilyn Champers, the president of the main tower of Xandria. Along with her were the vice president and a few other high ranking members of the tower of the capital.

"I'm sorry for coming here this late in the night, your majesty. I hope you understand that this was not my choice. It was simply an order that I am following," she said.

"What order?" Kain asked angrily. He had already heard reports from all over the capital and knew what was going on, but he still wanted to hear it all from the members of the tower themselves.

"We are ordered to take over the empire, your majesty. From now on, the empire of Xandria belongs to the tower," Merilyn said with no emotion in her eyes.

"Bullshit! You think you can take our empire just because you want to?" Gilian strode forward before his father could speak.

"Prince Gilian, please beware of who you are speaking to. As of now, the entire empire is under me. My men have already taken over the streets and the marshal law is under effect."

"Once the sun rises, we will let them know that the tower has taken over the empire," Merilyn said.

"You!" the Emperor got angry. His guards were in the position to attack, but the opponent had more talented people on their side. He wasn't sure if they could beat them in an attack.

"Why are you doing this? Have our empire not treated you well?" the Emperor asked. "Was it because we housed the person you call the Apostle of Alexis?"

Merilyn's eyes finally showed a little emotion. "I… am not petty enough to attack an emperor over such a tiny little detail," she said.

"Goddammit! Then why?" Kain slammed his throne as he asked. "Why my empire?"

Merilyn's gaze narrowed. "Oh, don't be mistaken, your highness. It's not just your empire. The tower is currently en route to taking over the whole world. Others, just like me, are likely talking with the monarchs and governments of the different countries."

"What? The entire world?" Kain was surprised. "Why would you do that?"

Merilyn finally showed a smile from the moment she entered the palace. "For Peace, your highness."

Similar events were taking place all over the world. The Emperor of the Odrain empire, the King of Shalor kingdom, the High-Prince of Losmana, the government of Ergor, the newly formed government of Embers, and even the city lords of the Freelands were getting an unnoticed visit by the Tower heads of their local towers.

Some of the tower heads were reluctant to do this, but the others who had lost a sense of power after the absorption techniques were released had started to enjoy being in power once more.

To the North of Damir city, just outside of it lay a magnificent palace with deep green grass and a deep blue water fountain.

The palace itself was made of stark white limestone and with all of the four primary colors accented throughout the palace to show its origin.

There were servants in the palace, but everyone stood to the side as they watched two people walk through the hallway of the palace as if they owned the place.

"Are you sure it's him?" the old man with white hair and beard asked.

"Yes, we confirmed it. It's him for sure," the younger, but still old fellow next to him with black hair, and a white-streaked beard said.

"I see," the old man said with a saddened expression on his face. "Without him, I'm not sure how we could possibly gain any more aether."

The other man remained quiet as they walked through the hallway.

"Any idea who did it?" the old man asked after a while.

"The report says… a beautiful woman. Could it be that person you called… um," the man didn't speak any further.

The old fan's face twisted. "What? It says she killed him?" he asked with a surprise.

"Yes, the report matches her completely," the man said.

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"No, she can't kill people. If she could, I would doubt I would be alive all these long time," he said. "Also, she wouldn't have needed me if she could do it all by herself."

"She couldn't hold a knife herself, so she taught me to become strong enough to hold a knife in her stead," the old man said.

"Then… he died just like that?" the man asked.

"We'll talk about this later," the old man said and with a simple gesture opened the door in front of him.

A relatively young man that seemed to be in his 20s sat on the throne inside the room as the two of them entered.

"Senior Perry? What are you doing here?" the young man asked. The young man had blue eyes, and black hair and wore a crown on his head.

"Oh, I'm sure you know what we are here for, your highness," Perry said with a smile on his face.

"These reports I'm hearing… are those correct?" the young man asked.

"If you are hearing about the tower taking over the world then yes," Perry said.

"So… have you come here to kill me, just like you helped my father kill his grandfather?" the young man asked.

"Oh no, I'm not here to kil— wait, his?" Perry's eyes narrowed as he looked at the emperor in front of him.

Somehow, when he said 'his', it didn't sound like he was referring to someone who he didn't want to name.

But rather, to someone that was in this very room.

Perry immediately spun around and saw an old man stand behind the door he had just walked through.

"I have waited many years for this day," Darian said as he slowly strolled forward towards the light.

"I hope you are prepared to die today, you bastard."

Chapter 564 Battle Brews Everywhere"Darian?" the old man asked with a hint of surprise on his face. "How… why are you here?"

"To kill you, of course," Darian answered.

Jason was about to attack, but the old man stopped him. "Don't, he's too strong for you. I will deal with him. You deal with the emperor," he said.

Jason nodded and turned around.

"I should have expected you would come. You truly are desperate for my death, aren't you?" the old man frowned as he spoke.

"If you thought you could go on with this little world domination of yours without me intervening, then you must be quite stupid," Darian said.

"No, I knew you would do it. I was just prepared for your arrival," the old man said and immediately attacked Darian.

A wave of Aether flowed out of him and towards Darian, but before it could enter Darian's body, Darian himself flooded his body with his own Aether and enforced it at the same time.

"You really want to start something in the heart of the empire?" Darian asked with a cold smile.

"Very well, let us take this fight outside," the old man said and opened a portal.

Darian enforced the open portal and entered it. When he reappeared, he was in the same location just a long way up in the sky.

A second later, the old man walked through as well.

"We can start our fight now," the old man said. "Since you are my only enemy left, I can't wait to see you die."

Merasi slammed her gauntlet-covered fist onto Tristan's chest. Tristan tried to use any methods he could to pull the gauntlet aside, but Merasi's physical strength was just too strong and it ended up hitting him.

He felt his ribs crack with the force of the attack. As he flew backward, he immediately spun around and forced open 6 tiny portals all around Merasi that threatened to pull her.

Merasi didn't even look towards the portals as she closed them with a flick of her fingers.

"You might be a supreme Tristan, but the battle experience different between us is a chasm that you will never cross," Merasi said.

"Experience isn't everything," Tristan said. "You need intellect to be great at fighting too. That's something a muscle-brained idiot like you will never understand," Tristan said with slight strain to his voice.

He was already in pain and was even hurting just to speak.

"Are you calling me an idiot?" Merasi got angry and went for the next attack.

The tension between Emperor Kain's group and Merilyn Champer's group was continuously getting stronger and stronger.

Kain wouldn't be surprised if either side decided to attack each other at any moment.

Suddenly, a couple of footsteps rang from the hallway and two figures entered the room.

Princess Elizabeth and her husband Reever entered the hall.

"Father, what is going on?" Lisa asked the Emperor.

"Child, what are you doing here? Take your husband and go," he said.

"Sister, move away," Gilian shouted towards her, but Lisa didn't run away, instead she went toward his father.

"Are you really here to take over the empire?" Reever asked from the side as he eyed the group of people that were there.

"Go away kid, this is not a place for you to speak," one of the men there said.

"I had quite a bit of respect towards the tower and even wanted to join you guys," Reever said. "But it seemed that he was right. You are some of the most terrible people in this world."

"Shut up or we will shut you up ourselves," one of the men was irritated and spoke.

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"Do it then, you bastard," Reever said.

Kain couldn't understand what Reever was trying to do. However, he could see the man from the tower's group preparing to attack.

'This is it,' the emperor thought.

"Attack!" he immediately ordered and people appeared out of nowhere and charged at the group with their spears.

At the same time, the irritated member of the tower attacked Reever. A gun appeared in his hand which he pointed at Reever.

Before he could shoot, however, Reever dashed forward. He appeared next to the man and punched him directly in the chest, sending him flying in the distance.

Out of nowhere, Fiona appeared in the middle of the room and shot another man at close range. However, he seemed to have enforced his body so the bullet didn't pierce entirely.

At that time, Jamie jumped down from the ceiling and slashed both of his two swords at the man. The swords clanged when they hit, but they clearly did some damage as the man started bleeding.

"Emperor Kain, stop your men or we will attack you!" Merilyn shouted even as she created a metal shield to protect herself. As an Invoker, she couldn't simply enforce her body even if she could flood it with Aether.

"We are way beyond that, tower head," Kain said with a dark expression. He didn't see any chances of victory, and even his life was on the line, but he would rather fight his way through this calamity just like his father did, and come out as a hero.

Kain himself was only an Aether Magister, so he couldn't survive if someone attacked him here. With all of his guards gone to fight, any stray attack could harm them.

"Gil, Liz, hide behind me," he ordered his two children.

Gilian hesitated for a few moments but he was clearly weaker than his father, so he agreed. But, Lisa stood her ground.

"Liz, come qui—"

Before he could finish his sentence, an expert from the tower jumped out toward them.

He held a metal staff in his hands and swung it at Lisa. However, just as the staff was about to hit her, it stopped mere inches away from her.

"—ckly!" the Emperor froze. In front of his daughter was a golden barrier that appeared out of nowhere and was protecting her.

Lisa stood next to her father to get a better vantage point as she said, "Don't worry, father. I won't let any of them hurt you."

Chapter 565 Reaching UnderlordNing sat in the Aether forest, with rain pelting him all over. His body was fully soaked from the rain, but his focus was on something else entirely.

He took out a bottle from his storage and looked at the dark purple liquid inside of it. This one was particularly concentrated and thus held a lot of Aether over the course of the last 3 years.

This one bottle alone was enough to send an Aether Saint all the way to the Aether Supreme rank. However, for an Aether supreme, they needed at the very least 5 such bottles.

Ning opened the cap on the bottle and started drinking it. The Concentrated aether had a slightly salty and metallic taste to it. It wasn't something he could exactly explain. But, it was good enough that he drank it without waiting for a single moment.

Immediately, he started using both his manual and automatic absorption skills to take in the aether he had just downed.

'Dammit, I'm losing Aether,' he thought and used Telekinesis to gather the Aether he did not absorb back to his stomach.

That helped with his burden a bit as he continued collecting and absorbing the bottle.

An hour later, he was finally able to absorb all of it, and advance quite far ahead as an Aether Supreme. But he couldn't stop here.

He needed to add more Aether to his reserves and thus make his skills that much stronger.

Ning took out another bottle, but he didn't drink it all at the same time. He took a mouthful of Aether, drank it, and started absorbing,

About 5 minutes later when he was done absorbing it, he took another mouthful of it and drank it.

As he continued doing that, time quickly passed by. He thought he would only need 5, but even as he drank the 6th bottle, he never felt a bottleneck arrive at all.

'Just how much do I need to drink?' he frowned. 6 hours had passed, and he was starting to worry about the state of the situation.

Just how far did the world go in the 6 hours he had gone missing? He shook off his worries and took out the 7th bottle to drink.

Halfway through drinking the 7th bottle, Ning stopped. He was still not feeling anything in his body, but that was the reason why he had stopped.

It had been 3 years since he used his old body and rank up in Aether, and in that time, he had forgotten something.

His main body never faced any bottlenecks at all. That was one of the reasons why it cost him so much energy to make it in the first place.

He also remembered the fact that he could never really tell what rank his own Aether was in his main body at all. So, he asked, "System, what rank of Aether rank am I at currently?"

'Shit!' he thought. He had unknowingly broken through sometime in the last few hours and he didn't even know about it.

He stored the bottle of Aether that was in his hand and wondered, "where should I go first?"

After a few seconds of thought, he decided where he should go first.

Ning teleported directly into the middle of the Palace hall in Xandria.

Everyone that was in the room suddenly propped their weapons at them, but Ning ignored them and looked at the throne.

"Ning?" the Emperor asked curiously.

"Oh, are you guys okay? Reever and Lisa were attacked from what I understand, where are they?" he asked.

"They're fine. They've gone back to sleep," the Emperor said and proceeded to explain just what had happened last night.

Once Ning learned that they had successfully captured the members of the tower and were holding them in the Palace prison where anyone below Aether Emperor would have their Aether stolen away from them.

"I see, if you're doing fine, then I will leave for now. I have more to do," Ning said and left before the Emperor could say anything.

When he reappeared, he stood in front of a bloody Merasi.

Merasi had lost her left eye and was missing a large chunk of her lower right chest.

She had somehow stopped the bleeding, but she was heavily panting on the ground.

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On the other side, Ning saw Jason stand next to a near dead Tristan whose chest had fully caved in and blood was seeping out of his mouth.

"Are you alright?" Ning asked.

"Yes, I can fight," she said. "Go and help th—"

Before she could finish her sentence, Ning placed a palm on her head. In the next moment, all the wounds in her body were gone.

Since an Aether expert was just a slightly better mortal, it practically cost him nothing to heal her.

When Merasi suddenly could see from her left eye and her pain in the chest was gone, she couldn't help but look at Ning in shock.

"How?" she asked. Ning took out the half drank bottle and handed it to her.

"Drink and regain your Aether. I will take care of them," he said.

Before Merasi could even nod, Ning disappeared from where he was and arrived behind Jason.

Jason was shocked to see Merasi heal, but hadn't let that take away his guard. He immediately enforced his body and turned around his a metallic claw in his hands.

Ning did nothing but used his enforced arm to punch directly into his stomach.

As easy as hitting a wall of cotton candy, Ning's hand went through Jason's stomach and came out on the other side.

Ning quickly pulled back his arm and left the horrified Jason to bleed out on the ground.

He looked at Tristan and wondered if he should kill him as well, but Merasi shouted, "Go! Help that old man."

Ning turned around and looked at the sky above him and saw two figures fighting.

"Do what you think right of him," Ning said as he pointed towards Tristan and flew off.

Tristan didn't bother saying anything as he waited for his death.

Chapter 566 I AmPerry huffed a bit as he looked at the bloody Darian in front of him. He himself had been quite wounded, but he had managed to drag on the fight enough to gather his Aether back while also beating Darian.

Darian who didn't have the vials of Aether as Perry did was forced to take more damage than he could endure.

He couldn't see from his right eye as the blood from his head had crusted over it. That section of his face was also swollen, to begin with making simply opening the eye a difficult task.

Still, using his one usable eye at the moment, Darian kept fighting.

Two gravity wells appeared on either side of Perry, threatening to tear his body in half, but with a simple swipe of a finger, Perry disrupted the gravity being poured in there.

Then, lightning crackled from his finger as he targeted Darian with it. Darian tried to move away, but the lightning chased him, striking him right on his left shoulder.

Despite being reinforced by his own Aether, he felt a burning pain pass through his body.

As parts of his flesh charred black, just like many of the other parts. Darian was now starting to find even flying bothersome. Keeping himself afloat was taking a lot out of him.

Seeing this, Perry created a small metallic javelin in his hand and created a strong magnetic pull from Darian's body.

Darain tried to fight against the Aether, but he barely had any at this point. Even his enforced body was starting to grow weak.

His consciousness started to fade as he could barely look at what was happening in front of him.

Then, Perry shot the Javelin. Even without being on target, as it got closer to Darian, the Javelin twisted itself towards Darian's body. With the tip being magnetic as well with the opposite polarity, it was sure to hit him in the chest and kill him.

Even as Darian tried to get rid of the magnetic energy in his body, he couldn't help but think how useless his life had been.

Ever since his grandfather, the last Emperor of the Serian Empire had been usurped and killed, Darian had managed to escape amidst his entire family dying.

He had lived nearly 500 years, going day to day thinking nothing but revenge. He didn't find a woman in this life as there was no space for anything but vengeance in his heart.

As he killed everyone that was involved in the coup, even the new Emperor, Darian still couldn't find a way to kill the last person involved in that matter, Perry.

'This is it for me?' he thought. He was surprised he didn't regret it as much as he would have thought he would. After all, he was going to die while fighting the bastard he wanted to kill for a very long time.

Even if he failed, at least he tried.

~BANG!~

The Javelin struck him on the chest with a… light force? Darian slowly opened his eyes to see why he wasn't dead.

It was then he saw someone standing in front of him with a palm to his chest and another hand grabbing the Javelin mid-flight.

Just when he was about to say something, he felt something strange happen to him.

Suddenly, he lost all the pain and fatigue he had gathered from the fight. He could even feel the swelling above his right eye fade as he could open that eye as well.

"You… You're here," Darian said. Then he looked at his own body that was healed. "How did you?"

"Go and rest. I will take over from here," Ning said as he pushed Darian towards the ground and he himself turned around.

Ning was too strong for Darian's currently low-on-Aether body to resist. As he fell to the ground, he caught himself in midair and slowly drifted down.

When he was down on the ground, he looked up to see both Ning and Perry hanging in the sky, doing nothing.

Since he couldn't hear what they were saying, he could only sit on the ground and wait for the fight to begin.

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Perry was extremely cautious at the moment. Not only had this young man appeared out of nowhere, but he had also grabbed the Javelin that he had thrown with so much force and neutralized it without any problem.

"Who are you?" Perry asked.

Ning was a little surprised. "Don't you recognize me?" he asked. "I know we only met for a few seconds, but I was sure I would have left a mark on your memory. I'm a little shocked that didn't happen."

Perry looked closer, but he still didn't recognize him at all.

"Senile old man, how about this then?" Ning asked and with a wave changed his face to look like someone else's.

The old man's eyes finally went wide. "Terran?" he asked in surprise.

"Yes, that's me," Ning said with a smile and waited for the old man to look even more shocked. But, instead of shock, Ning could only see confusion in the old man's eyes.

"Who are you?" the old man said.

"I just told you, I was Terran f—"

"Terran Forn is dead. We've already acquired his corpse," the old man said.

"Huh? How could you find his corpse when I'm very much al— Ah," Ning remembered something that he had to do, but he forgot in his hurry.

He left behind the Terron Forn's body after he acquired the Aether and left. 'That must have given old woman Gaani quite the shock,' Ning thought.

He would have to apologize to her later.

Ning brought out a bottle of dark purple liquid and showed it to the old man. "Look at all of this Aether, do you still not trust that I'm Terran Forn?" Ning asked.

The old man still kept quiet, so Ning couldn't help but sigh and get rid of his illusion.

"If not that name then what about this one?" Ning asked. "I… am the Apostle of Alexis."

Chapter 567 Fighting PerryAs soon as the word 'Apostle of Alexis' left Ning's mouth, Perry's eyes shot up in horror, and looked at Ning.

He finally recognized him. Yes, that was indeed the apostle.

"But how?" he asked. "I killed you."

"Oh?" Ning asked. "When?"

"3 years ago, back in—"

"Did you make sure I was dead at the time?" Ning asked.

The old man froze. No, he had not made sure. He couldn't even if he wanted to. After all, Ning had disappeared to who knew where and he couldn't follow him.

"You did not die? But I used the strongest poison," Perry said with a terrified look.

"You should know the most basic rule of killing people," Ning said. "If you don't see a dead body, assume they are alive."

"Unless of course they are destroyed into a million small chunks then you can assume they are dead."

"You…!" the old man's eyes changed to anger. Ning could see the air undulate around him as the old man prepared power throughout his whole body.

"No nonsense, straight to fight, huh?" Ning asked as a grin appeared on his face. "I like it."

A rope appeared in Ning's hand which he threw around the old man.

With a flick of the old man's fingers, the rope started burning on its own at a very high temperature. Within seconds, the rope would turn to cinders.

However, even then the rope didn't stop coming toward him. When the old man saw that red hot metal hidden amongst the robe, he frowned.

The old man created his own metal rod and stopped the almost melted rope from touching him.

Ning smiled and immediately put electricity in the metal rope. He waited for the old man to feel the shock, but the old man showed no expression and tossed the ropes aside.

'What?' Ning looked surprised. The old man was clearly wearing no glove and was directly touching at the metal. How did he not get shocked?.

"Why is he okay?" Ning asked confusedly.

"Dammit!" Ning thought. The old man definitely had more experience when it came to fighting. Seeing the metal, he had likely already prepared for magnet and electric energies to be used.

Ning needed to find some other ways to attack.

Ning threw the javelin in his other hand back at the old man and at the same time, he took out the spear from his storage.

He would have to fight with this spear to be able to do anything to the old man.

Ning suddenly dashed forward, but even as he did, a portal appeared in front of him suddenly. Ning immediately changed the direction towards the right but another portal appeared there as well.

With a wave of his left hand, the portal was disrupted enough to disappear on its own, but the old man wasn't done.

Where ever Ning tried to go, the old man opened a portal. Ning was starting to get tired of all of the portals, so without any care, he entered one of the portals.

Ning appeared directly on top of a volcano and was nearly swallowed by it. Without any hesitation, he disappeared and arrived behind the old man.

He swung his spear at his nape as hard as he could. The old man seemed to have sensed him and immediately reversed the gravity around him to the most he could.

Ning's spear slowed down greatly as it reached his nape, and just as his spear touched it, it couldn't move any further.

However, now that it was touched, he could do something else.

"AH!" the old man shouted as he shot forward, away from Ning. There were lightning marks on his neck when Ning had electrocuted him just now.

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A grin appeared on Ning's face as he hefted his spear on his shoulders. "Not bad right? That's what you get for trying to throw me into that volcano."

The old man looked intensely. "So it really is you. I still had my suspicion, but only you can teleport like that," the old man said.

"Tell me, how do you do it? Do you create the portal inside of you? Why is there no portal to your destination?" the old man asked.

"Oh, you want to learn how to do what I do?" Ning asked with an entertained look on his face. "That's pretty simple actually."

He leaned forward a little and said, "All you have to do is die."

The old man seemed to have really been expecting a real answer because when he heard what Ning said, he immediately got angry.

Ning simply shrugged his shoulders when he saw the old man so angry. It was not like he had lied or anything.

If the old man wanted to teleport like him, he just had to find an Energy System and die.

'Well, I doubt it is so easy to find two Energy System hosts in the same galaxy let alone the same planet,' he thought.

"You dare disrespect me, young man. And you dare call yourself an apostle of my master. Fine, I was curious about your techniques so I took it easy on you. But now, you will have to die," the old man said.

"Stop bluffing, old man. If you had the power to defeat me, you would have done so long ago. Do you think you really can bean an Underlord like me with your own Underlord power?" Ning asked.

Suddenly, a portal appeared in front of Ning. He felt a slight tug towards the portal, but that was it.

"I'm not even moving, what's the point of opening this port—"

Just as he was speaking, a massive amount of lava suddenly gushed out of the location.

On instinct, Ning flew backward to get away, but another portal appeared behind him that too spewed out lava.

Ning immediately reversed a large amount of gravity around him, and the lava couldn't touch him.

Then, with telekinesis, he started hurling the lave back to the old man. At the same time, he looked down at the Serian palace.

If the lava dropped on anyone down there, they would very much likely die.

Chapter 568 Finishing the battleOpening portals in reverse was something one never did because of how distorted the portal would get from such distance.

Also, you could accidentally put in too much gravity and cause the other side to start collapsing without you yourself knowing.

So, opening portals in reverse wasn't even taught most of the time. Even Ning hadn't trained for it because it would take a lot of time to get good at it, and even then there were too many unseen factors.

However, if it were a volcano, and you didn't have to worry about what you were dragging in from the other side, he supposed that would be a good idea.

Ning saw the falling lava and carefully grabbed them with his telekinesis before pooling them together and hurling it right at the old man.

The old man pushed it back with his own energy and sent it hurling towards Ning.

Wish a swing of his arm, Ning opened a big enough portal to send the lava flying into ocean. At the same time, he opened another portal right next to the old man, this time in reverse.

He stole the old man's ideas and sent the scalding hot water directly towards him.

The water was too much for the old man to defend against. The most he could do was disrupt the portal and fly away from the water.

Instantly, Ning flew and arrived next to the old man and swung his spear at him again.

The old man this time wasn't focusing too well on him and was a split second too late to put up any defense.

The spear blade left a long gash along the side of the old man's back and blood seemed through his dark purple robes.

"Haaah!" the old man gasped as the sudden pain took over him. He looked at Ning as if he couldn't believe him.

"Why are you doing this?" the old man asked. "If you really call yourself to belong to my master, then let me fulfill her wish. MY WISH!"

"You are too far gone, old man," Ning said. "You've spent hundreds of years around people who never dared to say no to your requests and ideas. So whatever you think, you think you thought of the best."

"If you can't see how troubled your master is from your actions, then you don't deserve to say that you're doing this for her," Ning said.

And with that, he jumped back into the battle.

Both Merasi and Darian looked from the ground in shock as portals of many size opened all around them.

Every now and then, Ning would disappear from their eyes and appear on the other side and continue fighting.

Their clashes was creating so much noise that people from all over the capital were staring at them.

Most of the members of the tower themselves had come to look at what was happening.

The many captains looked in horror as they saw the two Underlords go at it.

"Quit it, old man. The same person that taught you how to fight, taught me as well. There is nothing you can do that I can't," he said.

The old man huffed as his eyes darted around in confusion.

He was sure he landed a few hits on Ning, but to his surprise, there was not even a single scratch on Ning.

On the other hand, he himself was beaten and battered. He had managed to cauterize his wound with open fire for now, but that hurt him a lot.

Ning was getting ready to finish this battle when suddenly a large amount of portals appeared right in front of him.

'Dammit, he really does have more experience than me,' Ning thought and sent out his energy to close some of them, but he didn't manage to do it for all of them.

Orange magma burst out from the remaining 8 or so portals and landed on Ning. A ball of magma hung in the air, as the old man finally thought he had time to take a break.

He took out a small vial out of his storage ring. It was a vail full of Aether, some of the last he had, and he was going to replenish his Aether with it.

However, even as he tried to drink it, the glass started ringing with a sharp tone.

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In the next second, it shattered from one side and the Aether all fell out.

"NO!" the old man cried and tried to grab for the falling Aether with his own power, but Aether never worked on Aether liquid itself.

So, he could only lick the Aether that was stuck to his palm. He didn't even have time to think why the bottle had broken at all.

At the same time, the ball of lava that was floating in front of him moved. It directly dashed towards him, giving him a scare.

The old man stopped licking his hand and put both of them forward to put as much as energy as he could into pushing the ball of lava back.

Surprisingly… it wasn't that hard at all.

So, the old man pushed even more and the ball of lava collapsed. On the inside of it, it was totally empty.

~GASP~

As a spear entered through his back and appeared out in front, all the old man could do was gasp.

The old man tried to turn back and fight, but the spear had entered right through the area where his Sea of Aether was.

Even as he tried to fight back, the old man lost his Aether, and he started falling slipping from the spear under his own weight.

"You… Why?"

The old man slipped out and fell. Ning watched as the old man tumbled down from over a kilometer high.

Just as he was about to slam onto the ground in front of every one, a gentle wind slowed down his descent.

Ning immediately teleported down to see if another opponent had arrived, but no.

There was no other enemy left, at least not strong ones. This was the doing of his master, Alexis.

Chapter 569 OverAs the old man's body drifted down, Alexis grabbed him and settled him on the ground in front of everyone, with his head on her lap.

The old man's body was in pain, and tears had already filled his eyes. However, he could still recognize that silhouette anywhere.

"M-Master?" he called out with broken breaths as blood still seeped out of him from his lower back and abdomen.

"Y-you… You c-can heal me, r-right? P-please, heal me," the old man said. "I… I'm doing this f-for you."

Alexis said nothing except hold him tighter in her embrace and slowly teared up herself.

"M-Master?" he called for her but she didn't speak. Only her sniffling sounds could be heard like everyone else in the vicinity remained quiet.

"Master, why aren't you speaking? I'm dying. Please, help me," the old man shouted, but she still didn't do anything but cry herself.

Ning claimed his authority over the air as he stopped everyone from even thinking of doing anything.

Merasi stepped forward and did the same.

However, that was unnecessary. In front of Alexis, they couldn't do anything even if they wanted to. That was what happened when the world manifested itself as something that every other will in the world would like.

The captains and the other members of the tower could only watch as their lord slowly bled to death while being carried by a woman they didn't recognize.

Perry cried out to his master, even trying to reach out with his old, decrepit hands that had lost all vitality now.

Still, Alexis didn't speak.

Suddenly, Ning placed a hand on her shoulders. "Why aren't you speaking?" he asked her. Even Ning was starting to feel bad for the old man after hearing his screams.

Yet, Alexis still didn't say anything.

"Are you worried about something?" Ning asked her.

She turned her head towards him, with so many tears streaming down her face, that it looked unnatural.

"I… I don't know if I can keep myself from helping him if I speak," she said. "I know I shouldn't help him because of what I've done, but…"

"Do what you want," Ning said. "Don't worry about the consequences. With me around, none of your fears will come true."

As if that was all she needed, finally the sniffling turned to an actual cry as she started speaking to him.

"You foolish child. I told you not to stray into the dark path, but you still did. Why?" Alexis said to him.

"B-but you wanted peace, master. That was the only way I could give you peace," he said.

"I told you, that is not the peace I want. I want people to be happy without fear of anything, and yet you…" Alexis could only cover her mouth as she cried even harder.

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"I… I thought I was doing the right thing. No, I'm sure I was doing the right thing," the old man said. "I was doing this all for you master. Was I really that wrong? Should I… should I never have done any of this?"

"No, you were trying to do the right thing. Only, your perspective on right and wrong was twisted early on."

"I should have helped you steer towards the right path from the start. However, I let you go further and further away while I hoped you would do the right thing on your own."

"That was something I failed as your master. Please forgive me," she said.

"No, I'm sorry master. If what you said is true… then it was all my fault, wasn't it? I'm sorry," the old man's tears flowed more and more as his voice got lower and lower.

"At… least… I won't… do anything… bad… now," he said softly.

As the old man started to die, Alexis couldn't help herself. She moved her hand over his body, and in an instant, his body fixed itself.

Ning looked in surprise. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"It's fine," Alexis said as she wiped her tears. "In the end, he's still my disciple, and I don't want to see him in this much pain."

"Did you fix his Aether?" Ning asked as he checked, but no, the old man had no Aether anymore.

An 800-year-old man with no Aether.

'System, how long will he survive?' Ning asked.

"3 days at most," Alexis answered before the system could even answer him.

Chapter 570 PainAs news traveled around the world, some places got them a little too late. So, Ning had to go around the world and stop them himself.

It was only 2 days later that any semblance of normalcy had returned to this world. However, that was only on the surface level.

On the inside, there were still many problems. On one hand, the kingdoms were angry at the tower for what they did. On the other hand, the tower members weren't satisfied with how they were made to do the dirty work and then asked to stop doing it after they had offended everyone.

Seeing that he was the Lord of the tower now, he would have to go and fix everything.

"Urgh! Goddammit," he thought and opened a portal before disappearing.

The first place he went to was the place that he knew would be open to speaking with him.

The Xandria Empire's Capital. The Royal Palace.

Ning stood in front of the Emperor with Lisa, Reever, and Gilian standing by the Emperor's side.

"Why did this happen, Ning?" Kain asked from the side. Although he hadn't suffered as much as he could have, his people had still fallen into oppression for an entire day.

Not to mention, they started losing hope in the empire's ability to do anything.

It wasn't just in Xandria but all over the world. Both government and emperors alike had lost all hope from the citizens who looked forward to protecting them.

Not to mention the tower itself, which was the one thing that was supposed to protect them.

The information about the tower and nobles making a deal to not let the common people learn about the absorption technique had also come out fully.

At one time, Ning would have rejoiced at this fact. But now that he was responsible for taking care of this mess, he couldn't help but be sad.

'Sigh, if it was only the tower that got caught up in it, that would be nice. But when the nobles and royal families that ruled the country were being made to look like the bad guy, can I even do something?' he thought.

He could.

He knew that himself too, but he was a little reluctant.

Ning looked back at the emperor in front of him and explained what the old man wanted to do.

The Emperor thought for a long time and said. "I can see where he's coming from. In a government where a single person holds power, surely there would be no crime."

"But having no crime doesn't mean the same as having peace. In fact, the terror the common people would face would be too high compared to a normal living situation," the emperor said.

"I know," Ning replied as he sighed.

"What can we do now then? To calm the citizens?" Kain asked. "Also, we need to deal with the tower. Since the tower can be a threat at any time now, letting it stay in the country will be a little bit of a problem."

Ning thought for a moment and asked, "What do you want to do with it?"

"I…" the emperor thought for a moment and looked to the side. "Do you guys have any idea?"

"I don't think the tower itself should exist, father," Gilian said.

"But there should be an existence like the tower, right? One that people could rely on. I don't know how it would be possible though," Reever said.

"I agree. We need something like that," Lisa said as she turned toward Ning. "What do you think? Do you have any idea yourself"

"I… did think of something before I came here," Ning said.

"Oh, let's hear it then," Kain said.

"From what I can see, you don't like the concept of the Tower remaining in the empire any longer. So, I will disband the Xandria branch of the tower," Ning said. "Henceforth, there will be no tower in this country."

"Oh," Kain was surprised by the straightforwardness of the situation.

"You want to disband the tower here? What about the people? I believe most of them are our citizens," the Emperor said.

"I leave that choice to you, your highness. If you want to raise a bunch of Aether fighters of your own, you can give them some job."

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"If not, I freely welcome anyone who you don't want."

"Also, as compensation for what has happened, I will give you a bunch of teaching materials on Aether itself as well as how to use it."

"Combined with the various other things, you should be able to teach your own aether artists in the future and won't have to rely on any organization like the tower," Ning said.

"I see," the Emperor said. "That's not a bad idea. But we are already suffering from quite the problem, you know."

"The citizens already hate most of us because of the deal. Do you have any idea for that?" Kain expectantly asked.

"I…" Ning froze. He really didn't want to do this as it would set him back nearly 12 thousand days, or close to 80 some years of this planet.

However, he saw no other choice at all.

So, with a sigh, Ning took the loss and gave the order.

"Do it!"

Ning sighed once again and looked back at the emperor. "I hope all your troubles have been met too," Ning said.

"Uh, no, I…" the emperor tried to say something, but he couldn't remember what.

"Hmm… is there anything else?" he looked to his children for confirmation.

"I don't believe there is anything major left to deal with," Gilian said. "Also, brother Ning likely has places to go throughout today. Let's not keep him here for long."

"Thank you, your highness," Ning said to them. "Then I'll see you guys later."

With that, Ning left the palace and went to the other empires to have similar talks.

However, it did become a little easier, since not a single person could henceforth ever remember or find information about the deal the nobles made with the tower.

Never.

Chapter 571 GoodbyeAfter a whole day of going around the many countries and talking with the Emperors and governments, as well as making public announcements, Ning finally returned back to the tower.

There was still the Serian Emperor to talk to, but he decided to relax first.

"How did it go?" Merasi asked from the side of the room.

They were currently in Ning's room on the 52nd floor of the tower. He was resting on his sofa, looking to the outside with nothing but disappointment in his eyes.

"Not very good," Ning said with a sigh. "At least, not good for the tower."

"Oh, what happened?" Merasi asked with concern. She hadn't heard any news from the outside since she had been resting while Ning went around on a diplomatic mission.

"Every single country is throwing out the Aether Tower from their lands. I managed to hide the knowledge about the deal, but the rest is impossible to get rid of," Ning said.

"The deal? What deal?" Merasi asked.

"Ah, never mind," Ning said. "Anyway, the tower is instantly downsizing to just this— no, actually we might lose this branch as well. We might have to end up shutting down the tower if the emperor asks that of us."

"Huh? Why are we shutting down?" Merasi asked quickly.

"What can we do? If not a single country will take us, the tower will really have to shut down," Ning said. However, even as he said it, he didn't like that thought very much.

If it were just a random organization like the Shadow Pavilion that had gone silent in recent years, he would have no qualms about destroying the tower.

However, this was something that Famir and Mavenna created. He couldn't just shut it down.

'Hmm…'

An idea came to Ning that he wasn't sure was good or not. However, the more he thought about it, the better it sounded to him.

"I have a plan," Ning said to Merasi.

"Oh, what is it?" she asked.

"Let's wait for my next meeting to be over first to see if I have a take the desperate route or not," he said.

After resting for a bit longer, he left again.

As expected, Ning failed to keep the tower in Serian as well. The only reason he didn't get an extreme backlash was that he had introduced himself as the person behind all of the improvement in Aether lately, the Apostle of Alexis.

Also, after saying that he is willing to distribute the knowledge the tower had gathered for the past many thousand years, the public was more than happy to not fight against the rulers of the country.

Ning stayed on the sofa in his room, a place he would now have to evacuate within the year.

Just as he was thinking about what to do next, Alexis appeared next to him and sat on the sofa too.

"Is he…?" Ning asked.

"Gone. I buried him not long ago," she said.

"I see, my condolences," Ning said.

Alexis said nothing but simply looked outside.

"It's not peaceful out there, is it?" Ning asked.

"No," Alexis answered without hesitation. "But I'm sure it will be soon."

"You think so?" Ning asked.

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"Yes," Alexis said. "I can feel the change in the heart of everyone out there. While they are still a little scared, I can feel the positivity they had gotten from learning what the future holds."

"Soon… they will be happy, and there will be peace," Alexis said.

"Are you sure?" Ning asked.

"Absolutely," Alexis said with a slight smile on her face.

They stayed in the tower for a few minutes, saying nothing to each other, while just watching the scenery down below.

Finally, Alexis broke the silence. "I'm leaving," she said.

"Oh," Ning said. "Okay, I will see you later then."

"No," Alexis said. "I'm leaving."

Alexis looked at him with a face of seriousness.

Ning looked confused for a second before his eyes went wide. "You… your time is up?" he asked with a surprised look. "Don't you still have some time?"

Alexis nodded. "There's a day or two more left, and I want to spend that time roaming the world," she said.

"I see," Ning said with a downtrodden face. He couldn't think of what to say. He couldn't begin to imagine what it must feel like to know that you are dying.

His one death had been way too sudden for him to think anything, and when he had reincarnated, he had become immortal.

Someone like his could never understand the troubles of the ones that had a limited lifespan, even if it were an entire planet itself.

"I don't blame you anymore," Alexis suddenly said. "After learning that you did what you had to, I don't blame you for what I'm going to face."

"I simply hope that one day I can gain enough energy back to be born again," Alexis said.

'System, is that possible?' Ning asked.

Chapter 572 The New Tower2 weeks passed just like that.

After everything was said and done, the world had indeed come to unify together and be a better place to live in.

Only around 20 or so people returned back to the tower, not intending to work for anyone else.

Ning was surprised to see both Alekor and Rachel there.

Alekor was a son of a Duke. Ning was sure that after the tower no longer existed in name, he would leave.

However, it seemed that he liked doing what he did, and since he had an older brother, he didn't have to worry about the dukedom.

Rachel on the other hand was even more surprising. With how bad their relationship had been, even as a friend after she revealed him to the tower as a 'spy', he was sure now that his identity had been revealed again, she would leave for sure.

However, she had somehow approached him on her own and requested that she be taught directly by him.

'She must've seen my fight with the old man,' Ning thought.

Other than that, there was one more person whose existence surprised Ning.

Darian Canon, the rightful heir of the Serian Empire had decided to join the tower as well.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay back? Come up with a coup idea or something," Ning said.

Darian suddenly glared at him.

"Geez, it's a joke," Ning said. "If you want to come with me, I won't say no. I am always happy to have as much help as I can get."

Ning looked at the others gathered around him. Merasi, Mercy, Silvers, Heera, and a few captains as well as squad members,

In total, no more than 20.

"Alright, let's leave," he said and with a simple gesture, opened a portal.

A cold wind blew out of the portal toward everyone standing in front of it. In fact, it was so cold that some of the girls even started to shiver a little.

"Um… you never mentioned where exactly we were going, did you?" Merasi asked with a little fear on her face.

Her whole life, she had lived under the hot sun, training until her body was tanned to the point that she looked like she didn't belong there.

However, now feeling this cold air, she couldn't help but be a little apprehensive about what was coming for her.

"Go on, you will find out soon," Ning said with a light smile on his face.

"You won't tell us, will you?" Heera asked from the side.

"Well, it's a surprise, so no," Ning said.

"Fine," she said and directly jumped into the portal.

"I'm gathering people to kick your butt if I don't like the place," Merasi said as she went in as well.

Mercy glared at him, Silvers shook his head, and Alekor simply laughed. Darian showed a curious expression, while Rachel seemed to know where they were headed.

The rest of them were on either side of the fence, but they all walked through the portal in the end.

Finally, once everyone was gone, Ning walked through as well, leaving the place where the Aether Tower originated to go to the place where the tower's creator came from.

Ning arrived at the south pole of the planet.

Frigid ice filled the landscape as extremely cold air blew past everyone's faces.

Merasi and some of the other people were already wearing thick clothes that they had created as soon as they arrived, and were handing out more to the others that walked through.

"Hey, that's not necessary," Ning said as he pointed towards a tower that stood at the peak of the mountain.

"We are staying up there," he said.

Everyone looked at the place and was shocked. "We're staying in this cold?" Merasi shouted with audible anger in her voice.

"You'll see," Ning said as he made a grabbing motion and suddenly everyone felt weightless. Then, in the next moment, Ning created another portal and tossed it.

When Ning entered and appeared out of the portal, he was immediately confronted with the warm air of the tower.

"Woah! It's not cold at all," someone said with a surprised look.

Some of them even started taking off the jackets that they had just worn.

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"You guys like this place?" Ning asked.

"Yeah, yeah, it's pretty good," Merasi said. "How did a tower appear here?"

"Oh, I made it of course," Ning said. "Took me a week and a half."

"You did this in a week?" Merasi said with shock written on her face.

"Yeah, it's pretty easy once you know how," Ning said.

"Did you make this with Aether too?" Merasi asked.

"No," Ning said. "I used rocks from around the world to make this place. Honestly, it was quite hard."

"Still, it came out looking nice," he said.

Alekor looked at the black walls and empty rooms. "Seems like you based it on the tower, so it looks familiar," he said.

"Yes," Ning said. "Well, not everything. For one, I didn't make any doors."

"What?" a few of the people shouted at once.

"What?" Ning asked. "You guys want to go to the frigid cold?"

"But how are we going to leave?" someone complained.

"By opening a portal," Ning said.

Some of the people looked troubled. "Ning," Rachel said. "We… we don't know how to open portals. In fact, we don't have the aether to do so even if we did."

"Oh, don't worry about that," Ning said and took out some things from his storage.

In a coordinated motion, many items flew out to different people.

Most of the people got vials of Aether, a few potions with correct labels, and some scrolls to teach them the best absorption method.

"Learn that technique, and absorb that Aether," Ning ordered them. "Once you do that, you will surely reach Aether Emperor at the very least. After that, you will reach Saint in a few days."

"For those that are already saint and above, I will have to get some more aether for you. Until then, just learn the technique," Ning said.

"Go explore the tower for now," Ning said. "I have some things to do, so I will see you soon."

Chapter 573 Returning to OriginWhen Ning reappeared from his teleportation, he was flying on top of the massive ocean that took over one-half of the entire world.

Ning enforced his body and dove into the water.

The many fishes and sea monsters swam past him as he let his body drop to the depths of the ocean.

As the pressure increased, Ning also started feeling the pull of the Aether within him. This concentration was too strong, and even his Underlord body was feeling the effect.

'If I had let it be, It would have gathered so much in the next few years,' he thought. However, he didn't want to wait that long.

Now that the Origin had opened up, he didn't have to keep these things down here.

When Ning finally reached the bottom of the ocean, doing his darndest to push back the millions of tons of water, he reached out to the giant glass sphere.

The moment he touched it, it disappeared into his storage. Ning teleported out and went to another location to do the same thing.

After going in a circle around the Origin, he finally managed to gather all the massive glass spheres he had left behind.

Finally, he crossed through a folded space by entering through the perfect location hung in the sky and appeared inside the origin.

"So it really is unlocked, huh?" he thought to himself. 'That means she truly is gone.'

Ning felt a tinge of sadness at the death of Alexis, but there was nothing he could've done to prevent it. Just like he couldn't prevent the ones he loved from dying.

Ning shook his head and walked upon the familiar red ground of the origin. He walked up the mountain and looked down on the water that had Alpurite mixed into it.

It wasn't very dense in the water itself, but that did not mean Aether wasn't flowing out of the pool.

"What's the time difference in this place compared to outside?" Ning asked.

"Hmm, is that lower or higher than Kumia?" Ning wondered. He quickly calculated and after seeing that it was just about the same difference, he stopped worrying about it.

"I guess nearly 2 hours for each energy reset is still pretty good," he thought and brought out the giant glass sphere with a very concentrated solution of water and Alpurite.

As soon as it appeared, the Aether in the area immediately rushed towards it, and the purple liquid started getting darker and darker.

Ning left that and went to a different location before bringing out another one. Then another one, and another one.

In the end, he ended up with 10 glass marbles that each held about 4200 liters of very, very high concentration of Aether solution.

Once everything was set up, Ning walked away from the location in fear of losing his own Aether.

After he was sufficiently far enough, he sat down and started gathering Aether like a mad man.

For the next whole day, he did nothing but collect energy as well as cultivate Aether.

'At this rate, I will only need 4 years to get back the amount I lost by removing everyone's memories, won't I?' he thought.

That fixed his mood a lot as he realized he wouldn't have to wait 80 years on this planet to get back what he lost.

After 2 more days of collecting Aether, he left. He still had a lot of different things to do before he could just settle down in the Origin.

Ning returned back to his house in the Damir city where the old woman Daani and Helena were staying.

Ning put on a foolish smile when he remembered how much he had to apologize to her for nearly killing her with fright.

After Ning and Alexis had left to find Darian, the old woman had stumbled upon Ning's 'corpse' and thought that Alexis had killed him for some petty reason.

"Hey, Mrs. Gaani, are you making potions?" he asked as he walked through the door.

"Aaah!" she squealed loudly. "Make some noise before you suddenly start talking. You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Ah, sorry. Sorry," Ning said.

The old woman continued making her potions while Ning looked at what she was making.

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"Are you only making healing potions?" Ning asked.

"And potions for better sleep. The people out there need it," the old woman said.

"I see," Ning said. "Do you want helpers? You could teach people how to make potions too. I think that would help you fantastically."

"That… hmm… that's not a bad idea," Gaani said. "Although I would like to learn a bit more myself before I think of teaching."

"Yes, yes, of course," Ning said.

"Also, where is Helena?" he asked.

"School. She should be returning soon," Gaani said.

"I see, then let me help you make some more potions," he said and got to work.

About an hour or so later, Helena returned in her white and blue uniform from a nearby school.

"Grandma, I'm hungry," she shouted as she made her way into the upper floor.

"Oh, teacher. You're already here?" she said with surprise. "Wait, let me go get ready."

"Stop," Ning said. "You need to eat first. The rest can come later."

"Ah, hehe," she gave a sheepish grin.

After Helena finished eating her afternoon lunch, Ning brought her to the underground floor to teach her the Aether arts.

Helena was slowly improving, but there was some definite improvement. Her control over the energy itself was fantastic, and as Ning helped show her everything, her mental image of how things are and should be also improved a lot, in return improving her Aether arts as well.

At the age of 20 years old, Helena had already become an Aether Magister. If people from this world found out, they would surely scold Ning for doing something so outrageous.

Ning brought out a thick book and handed it to her.

"What's this, teacher?" she asked.

"This is a list of all the ingredients for potions and what they do. From now on, you will start helping your grandmother little by little."

Chapter 574 Close to the EndTime slowly passed as everyone continued doing their own thing.

Old woman Gaani focused on learning the potions and even started taking students to teach them.

Helena slowly learned from Ning and also got incredibly talented in the ways of Aether. In just 10 years, she went from being an Aether Master to an Aether Emperor.

And that was simply because Ning held her back from breaking through.

She also learned potions from Ning's books as well as her grandma, and in just a few years helped her grandma manage the potion shop.

With the Emperor's permission, the Gaani potion shop opened up to become one of the major shops in all of Damir city.

Back in the Peak of Afterlife, where Ning had created the tower, The group of 20 or so had increased to become 50 now.

Ning wasn't sure when they hired, but from the looks of it, the captains and squad members had used their connections to rope in more people.

Ning taught them all as best as he could.

After getting some bottles of Aether, Merasi had ranked up to the Underlord rank.

Heera and Rachel were both at the Saint rank now, and would soon make it to the Supreme rank, which a few of the captains as well as Alekor had reached.

Ning made sure to teach him the most, alongside Rachel. Rachel's skill to absorb Aether made her an incredible Hand-to-Hand fighter.

After learning that she didn't need to process the Aether she stole and directly absorbed it, Ning had begun training her as best he could.

Alekor on the other hand was already an incredible Aether user. Ning simply helped enhance his abilities.

At the same time, Ning also taught them potions, just so they could save themselves if they ever needed it.

"I'm giving these for you to handle," Ning said as he gave Alekor a storage gem that he had created himself.

Creating a storage gem was tricky, but easy. All one had to do was take an Aether ore that looked more like a crystal than stone, and carve it until only the crystal part remained.

Then, you needed to create a black hole at the center of the crystal that directly dragged in the space from outside.

Once enough space was dragged in, you stopped the black hole, and at the same time made the outer area push in the space to keep it intact inside the gem.

After a while of keeping the space inside, the Aether in the gem would take upon the task of containing the space itself, which would replenish on its own too.

And now, Ning had given such a gem to Alekor, who couldn't help but ask, "What's in here?"

Alekor put a little Aether onto the gem and his vision transported to the inside of it as he checked what was there.

All he could see were millions upon millions of glass spheres.

"Are these?" he asked with nothing but shock on his face.

"Yes," Ning said.

That only increased Alekor's shock. "Why are you giving me this?" he asked.

"So you can use it when necessary. I trust your judgment," Ning said.

Alekor still couldn't help but fear. He had become a supreme, yes, but there were Underlords in the team now. 2 at that.

"Why give this to me, and not captain or old man Darian?" Alekor asked.

"I… don't know if Merasi would be up for the task. All she wants to do is fight. As for old man Darian, I don't think he cares about these things," Ning said.

"I see," Alekor said. Ning's words made sense to him. "Alright, I will do it."

"Good," Ning said. "Here's a reward for you then."

Ning brought out a glass bottle with almost pitch black liquid that only shone purple on the edges.

When the bottle came out, Alekor felt the Aether in his body try to leave it.

"This is for me?" Alekor asked with surprise.

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"Yes," Ning said. "With this, you should be able to reach Underlord. Drink it tonight and absorb it. Shouldn't take more than a day."

"Oh right, make sure to dilute it first. Even as it goes inside you, it will be hard to absorb, and instead, it will steal the aether in your body," Ning said. "Had to learn it the hard way."

"I see," Alekor said with shaky hands that threatened to drop the bottle. "I will."

Then, he looked back at Ning and asked, "Are you leaving?"

Ning had mentioned having to leave some time in the future to everyone, so it was only natural for Alekor to ask that.

"Yes," Ning said with a tinge of sadness. "I would love to stay around, but I have my own thing to do. So, this is goodbye."

Alekor felt his eyes moisten a bit. "I see," he said, showing no inflection on his voice. "Thank you for all you have done."

"Alright, I will leave now," Ning said. "I have a few more people to say goodbye to."

Ning went on to find Rachel and let her know he was leaving. Same with Heera and Darian.

Merasi gave him a grand goodbye by asking him to fight her one last time. Ning fought for as long as he could, but Merasi didn't manage to land a single hit on him.

All she managed to do was show her how strong he had become now.

"An Overlord?" she asked in surprise.

"Yes," Ning said. "You will reach there one day too. I have left some gifts for you to help with that."

"Thank you, Ning," Merasi said. Mercy and Silvers thanked him too.

After saying farewell to everyone there, Ning left for Damir city to meet up with Helena and the others.

"Mrs. Gaani, how are you doing?" he asked as he walked through the many disciples of the old woman Gaani.

"Oh, Ning. Come, come. Look at this new potion I made. This is amazing," She said as she showed him a creation of her.

Ning walked forward to see with a smile.

Chapter 575 Farewell"Oh, what is it?" Ning asked as he walked forward toward the old woman.

She put the final few drops of some liquid and shook it violently.

"Here," she handed it to him.

Ning looked at the slightly golden liquid and asked, "What is it?"

"Drink it," the old woman said.

Ning opened the stopper and downed the vial in one go. As it reached his body, he felt a warm sensation pass through his body. Suddenly, he felt like he wasn't hungry anymore.

"I feel satiated," Ning said.

"Right? With this potion, you will get all the necessary nutrients for your daily life, and it will also numb your stomach so that you don't feel hungry," she said.

"That's not bad," Ning said.

"I know, I have so many more ideas to go through. So many more potions to make," she said.

Ning smiled. "I'm leaving now," he said suddenly.

The old woman stopped. "What?" she asked.

"I'm leaving. Now," Ning said.

"But… but you said you would leave only after…"

"I know," Ning said. "But this world doesn't need me now. Peace has come to the world, and if there is ever a threat, the Tower will handle it."

The old woman stayed silent for a bit. "Have you spoken to Helena?" she asked.

"I'm going to now," Ning said. "Where is she?"

"Underground. Training," the old woman said.

"Okay, I will go meet her then," Ning said. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Mrs. Gaani."

"No-no," the old woman said. "The pleasure was all mine, young man."

Ning smiled and left. He went downstairs to meet Helena who was fighting some puppet she had created herself.

"Not bad," he said.

Helena stopped and looked around. "Teacher? What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Can I not come here now that I have stopped teaching you?" he asked.

"No, no, that's not what I meant," she said.

Helena had grown up in the past 10 years but not by much. At her age, most people in this world would have married by now, but she still looked like a kid thanks to breaking through her Aether ranks very quickly.

"I know what you mean," Ning said with a smile. "I'm here to say my goodbyes."

"Good… bye?" Helena asked. "Are you leaving already?"

"Yes, it's about time I go back to my loved ones," he said.

"You said they are far away, right?" she asked.

"Yes, very far away, and I will likely never return," Ning said.

"How far?" she asked. "Can't you just open a portal and come back?"

"Where I am going, I won't be able to return here. So you will have to take care of yourself okay? And take care of your grandmother," Ning said.

"If you ever need help, go ask Merasi or Alekor," Ning said. "Also, never let anyone know about the ring I gave you."

Helena's eyes were tearing up already, but she nodded still. "Yes, teacher. I understand," she said.

Her sniffling grew loud as Ning patted her head and ruffled her hair.

Helena couldn't stand her tears at all and jumped into a hug. "I- I'm going to miss you, teacher," she said while tears streamed down her cheeks.

Ning felt a bit of tear gather in his eyes as well. "I will miss you too," he said and hugged her back.

After a minute or so of waiting for Helena to stop crying, Ning said a proper goodbye and left.

He had one and final visit to make now.

When Ning reappeared, he was in a garden that was mostly empty aside from some gardeners working on the hedges.

On the swing were two little children, one boy with black hair and one girl with blonde hair, each about 9 years old.

"Uncle Ning!" both of them cried out and ran towards Ning.

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"Luke! Leia! Come give uncle a hug," Ning said as he grabbed both of the children and lifted them into the air.

"UP UP!" Leia shouted with glee in her voice.

"Okay!" Ning said and suddenly threw them up. Then, using telekinesis he kept them afloat.

Ever since Ning had done that one day, the kids had started loving it.

"Hey brother Ning," Reever walked from the side along with Lisa.

"You should have come around sooner. These kids love it when you play with them," Lisa said.

"Reever had more talent than me, he should be able to play with his children better than me," Ning said.

"I don't think so. I've tried, but they always ask me to call you," Reever said. "They don't want to play with their dad."

"I'm sure they will," Ning said as his tone got a little sadder. "They will have to. After all, this is the last day they will see me."

"What?" Lisa asked with a serious face.

"I'm leaving," Ning told her.

"Leaving… as in what you told us before?" Reever asked.

"Yes. After I leave today, you won't see me ever again," he said.

Reever had known this day would come, but he hadn't expected it to come so soon.

"Are you… really leaving this planet?" Reever asked slowly. He had been the only person Ning ever told about his plans.

Ning smiled and nodded.

"I will have to go somewhere and gather as much energy as I can before leaving, but yeah. I will be gone after today," Ning said.

"Have you… said your goodbyes to everyone?" Reever asked.

"Yes," Ning said. "You guys were the ones I met first, so I left you for last."

"I see, then let us give you a farewell party," Lisa said.

The party was small. Only the 5 of them were there as the servants brought different types of food.

Ning, who didn't like drinking much, drank to his heart's content. His last day on the southern continent of Vilmore had become nothing but a banger.

Finally, once the party was over, Reever and Lisa gave him a heartfelt farewell amongst countless tears.

And after that, Ning left. Never to return back to the Southern Continent of Vilmore, ever again.

Chapter 576 Slingshot

210 years.

That was how long Ning stayed in Origin.

Collecting Aether for what was worth about 1800 normal years, he was finally getting close to unlocking the next energy for himself.

Ning who had lost his mind to the numbness of passing time finally got a sense of self back.

He had to look around and ask where he was.

"System, show status," he asked.

[Status

Name: Ning Ruogong

Energy: 995.8 Trillion

Separated Energy-

Heat Energy: 3.2 Trillion

Sound Energy: 4.6 Trillion

Qi Energy: 0

Kinetic Energy: 11 Trillion

Aether Energy: 977 Trillion

Skill: …]

"Damn, I'm so close," he thought.

Ning tried to move but his body was crusted from over 200 years of water and dirt gathering on him.

When he stood up, he felt a little unusual, like he didn't know how to walk.

Also, he could feel a lot of Aether inside his own body. "System, what rank did I reach now?" he asked.

He remembered being an Aether Overlord beforehand. Now, he should have improved quite a bit, right?

"Woah, that's the highest rank of Aether, isn't it?" Ning asked. Somehow he had not only ranked past Aether Archlord, but he had also gone past Aether Demi-God to straight Divinity.

'This was the power Alexis held,' he thought. That was what had given him such an intense pain back when he tried to read her rank.

'Now, I'm at the same rank as her,' he thought.

He couldn't help but wonder what Alexis could do with her rank if she wasn't forced to not bring harm to anyone.

"Anyway, I am about 5 Trillion away from unlocking the next energy. I will need to spend about half a year more here for that."

"Sigh, I don't want to stay here now that I've lost my concentration," he thought. "I will go mental if I do that."

Since he wasn't far away, he would earn the remaining energy while he left.

Now that he was about to leave, he wanted to go check on the other people before he did. However, he knew that if he did so, he couldn't help but want to stay.

So, he didn't want to do that.

After confirming with the system that they were all doing fine and that no one needed his help, Ning flew out of the Origin, and then out of the planet.

Ning had one destination now.

The Sun.

"Are you sure the Auto Breathing skill will help me survive in space?" Ning asked. "Won't the emptiness of space cause problems for me?"

The system tried to console him. Ning decided to trust him. As he entered the upper atmosphere, the air got thinner and thinner. Soon, his skill kicked in and oxygen was directly created in his lungs.

Usually, breathing only oxygen would be problematic for someone, but Ning didn't have to worry about that. Not only would his body heal itself from any problem he would suffer, but as an Energy, he also had a separate mind of his own that he could use to control his body.

Ning had wanted to change to something small and durable, but according to the system, any object that wasn't a living body would lose energy out in space.

So, Ning decided to stay with his own body.

As he went out of the atmosphere and into the sun. Just as he was getting high, Ning noticed intense heat on his body.

"What? I'm not even that far away from the planet," he said.

"Dammit, what should I do?" Ning thought to himself. "If this is going to be a constant in outer space, then I need to do something to protect myself."

"System, any suggestion? What do the other hosts do?" Ning asked.

"Oh, what does that do exactly?" Ning asked.

"Oh," Ning said. "How much does it cost?"

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"Alright stop," Ning said with a sigh. "Give me the 2% one."

Suddenly, the blisters that appeared and disappeared around his body started to fade a little. If Ning hadn't been paying attention, he wouldn't have noticed it.

"I should slowly get stronger now, right?" he thought to himself.

Then, he flew towards the sun. Ning flew at a constant speed, but the closer he got, the faster he went.

At some point, Ning slowly changed his angle and headed towards the edge of the sun. Instead of going directly into the sun, he went as close as he could without his body destroying itself.

Then, just like any other planet and comets, he started circling the sun. Since this was going to be a monotonous task, Ning ordered the system to take control if he was headed for imminent danger.

Then, the only thing he had to do was wait.

Ning didn't know how long passed, but it was surely years. At certain times, he would notice that his body was stronger and that it wouldn't take damage from the sun anymore, so he went a little closer and continued circulating.

Slowly, he was getting faster and faster.

Not only that, his body was getting stronger and stronger as well.

Once again, years passed until finally, Ning got a notification for himself.

"Unlock!" Ning said.

Ning felt all of his energy disappear, but he didn't care as he heard the next lines from the system.

Ning needed Electrical Energy to double the cap with his separate energy, and since he had 0 of it at the moment, he didn't have to worry about it at the moment.

Ning stayed a few more days there to collect some energy so that he wasn't completely out of energy.

"System!" he shouted. "How long until I get to the escape point?"

Ning flew around the sun at an incredible speed for 3 more days until he reached the point of escape.

A vision overlapped Ning's eyes as a green path appeared for him to take.

When Ning reached that path, he suddenly increased his speed as fast as he could, so that he could reach a speed greater than the escape velocity of the sun from where he was.

Then, he slingshot himself out of the sun's gravity well.

The surrounding around him got colder and colder as Ning went further and further from the sun.

Then, he looked ahead of him, at the vast emptiness of space as a bit of fear crept into his heart, as well as the excitement about what was coming next.

He was now directly on his way to the closest planet that was inhabited.

[End of Volume 2]

Chapter 577 Space Journey

Ning was currently zipping through the space, pelleted by objects that floated in it.

He had thought space was a vacuum, but he soon found out it was not. Even space was full of microparticles, dust, and gases that managed to escape the gravity of stars.

So, if not for his Star Strengthening technique, Ning would currently be filled to the brim with minor cuts and bruises from the impact of those objects.

He looked ahead of him at the vast emptiness of the space. It was so dark out here that he could barely see his hands most of the time.

It was only when he used his vision skill that he could see things properly.

The moment he activated them, the space burst into a spectrum of glorious light that spanned from red to blue. Some starts were moving toward him, some were moving further away.

Even his own body was getting stronger by a negligible amount from the star's radiation even this far out.

Given how long he would have to be out here, Ning was sure that would add up to something significant.

The closest star to the sun of Vilmore was about 12 Lightyears away. That was to say, to reach the next inhabited planet, Ning would have to travel the distance that even light would take 12 years.

And he was nowhere near to being a fraction of the speed as fast.

At the speed Ning was moving through the void, it would take him exactly 20,000 years to reach the planet.

Ning so desperately wanted to just sleep for that duration of time, but there was a reason he couldn't just switch to an ordinary object and sleep.

In fact, there was 2 minor reason, that added up to be a very important reason.

The first reason was that if he changed to something else, say even something strong as a diamond, being relentlessly pelleted by the particles would soon deform even diamond.

A diamond may be hard, but it wasn't indestructible.

That was one of the very reasons why Ning had gone with a body that regenerated, rather than one that was durable from the start.

Of course, if Ning did take damage as even a diamond, he could use some energy to fix it.

But that was where the 2nd problem came in.

If he was pelleted by outer dust and particles and was even the least bit destroyed, he would lose energy proportionally, unlike a living body that never lost energy no matter the damage.

If you paired losing energy, with needing the energy to get fixed, you would soon end up with no energy at all.

And that was the biggest problem. Because without Energy, Ning couldn't speed himself up faster and would soon come to a nearly staggering halt.

When that happened, he could only wish to reach the planet in this lifetime, not to mention Ely and the others.

So, he had to give up some semblance of sanity, and stick to being awake half the time during the entire 20 thousand years it would take him to reach the next planet.

Ning was worried about many things, but the 20 thousand years was something he wouldn't worry about at all.

According to the system, since he was so far away from anything of mass, the time he experienced would be hundreds if not thousands of times faster than what he would experience next to any planet or celestial body of mass.

Meaning he could fly for 20 thousand years in the void, and it would only have been less than 20 years in Kumia.

So, he was free to take his time. Not to mention, if he did speed up, he would reach the next place faster.

So, Ning continued his journey as if nothing bothered him and flew off as fast as he could.

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From time to time, he would realize that from the kinetic energy of striking the particles, his energy had increased a bit. As soon as that happened, he would put every single bit of energy into his flight skill to move as fast as he could.

At one point, Ning even reached 0.002% of the speed of light. That made his travel so much faster.

Ning slept most of the time, and it was the system that controlled his body when he did.

Ning had given his system full control over the navigation. It was almost as if their position was changed.

The system was now the User, and he was the one being used.

Ning felt amazing having not to navigate through the vast space. Because he didn't know what exactly was out there.

At the speed he was going, he couldn't maneuver out of the way in time if he came across an asteroid as well.

The system, however, preemptively diverted his path by the slightest angle such that when he reached the spot where they would crash, he would be almost a kilometer away from the object.

Ning opened his eyes from one of his regular sleep that seemed to last for ages. He wasn't sure if he was actually going to sleep, or simply losing consciousness from the sheer boredom.

Immediately, he put all of the energy he had gathered in this time into his speed and propelled him forward again.

'System, how far along am i?' he asked.

'300?' Ning thought. 'That was quite close.'

Ning looked at the star in the distance and recognized the most bright one. It glowed with a red hue that surprised Ning a little.

'A red star?' he thought. 'Is that the one where I am headed?'

'Isn't a red star a dying star?' he asked. As far as he knew, a blue star was a newly formed star, an orange one was a star in its middle stages, and a red star was one at its end.

Ning thought for a second. 'Well, if the system says there are lives then who am I to care,' he thought.

Ning was currently zipping through the space, pelleted by objects that floated in it.

He had thought space was a vacuum, but he soon found out it was not. Even space was full of microparticles, dust, and gases that managed to escape the gravity of stars.

So, if not for his Star Strengthening technique, Ning would currently be filled to the brim with minor cuts and bruises from the impact of those objects.

He looked ahead of him at the vast emptiness of the space. It was so dark out here that he could barely see his hands most of the time.

It was only when he used his vision skill that he could see things properly.

The moment he activated them, the space burst into a spectrum of glorious light that spanned from red to blue. Some starts were moving toward him, some were moving further away.

Even his own body was getting stronger by a negligible amount from the star's radiation even this far out.

Given how long he would have to be out here, Ning was sure that would add up to something significant.

The closest star to the sun of Vilmore was about 12 Lightyears away. That was to say, to reach the next inhabited planet, Ning would have to travel the distance that even light would take 12 years.

And he was nowhere near to being a fraction of the speed as fast.

At the speed Ning was moving through the void, it would take him exactly 20,000 years to reach the planet.

Ning so desperately wanted to just sleep for that duration of time, but there was a reason he couldn't just switch to an ordinary object and sleep.

In fact, there was 2 minor reason, that added up to be a very important reason.

The first reason was that if he changed to something else, say even something strong as a diamond, being relentlessly pelleted by the particles would soon deform even diamond.

A diamond may be hard, but it wasn't indestructible.

That was one of the very reasons why Ning had gone with a body that regenerated, rather than one that was durable from the start.

Of course, if Ning did take damage as even a diamond, he could use some energy to fix it.

But that was where the 2nd problem came in.

If he was pelleted by outer dust and particles and was even the least bit destroyed, he would lose energy proportionally, unlike a living body that never lost energy no matter the damage.

If you paired losing energy, with needing the energy to get fixed, you would soon end up with no energy at all.

And that was the biggest problem. Because without Energy, Ning couldn't speed himself up faster and would soon come to a nearly staggering halt.

When that happened, he could only wish to reach the planet in this lifetime, not to mention Ely and the others.

So, he had to give up some semblance of sanity, and stick to being awake half the time during the entire 20 thousand years it would take him to reach the next planet.

Ning was worried about many things, but the 20 thousand years was something he wouldn't worry about at all. pan(da-n0vel.c)om

According to the system, since he was so far away from anything of mass, the time he experienced would be hundreds if not thousands of times faster than what he would experience next to any planet or celestial body of mass.

Meaning he could fly for 20 thousand years in the void, and it would only have been less than 20 years in Kumia.

So, he was free to take his time. Not to mention, if he did speed up, he would reach the next place faster.

So, Ning continued his journey as if nothing bothered him and flew off as fast as he could.

From time to time, he would realize that from the kinetic energy of striking the particles, his energy had increased a bit. As soon as that happened, he would put every single bit of energy into his flight skill to move as fast as he could.

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At one point, Ning even reached 0.002% of the speed of light. That made his travel so much faster.

Ning slept most of the time, and it was the system that controlled his body when he did.

Ning had given his system full control over the navigation. It was almost as if their position was changed.

The system was now the User, and he was the one being used.

Ning felt amazing having not to navigate through the vast space. Because he didn't know what exactly was out there.

At the speed he was going, he couldn't maneuver out of the way in time if he came across an asteroid as well.

The system, however, preemptively diverted his path by the slightest angle such that when he reached the spot where they would crash, he would be almost a kilometer away from the object.

Ning opened his eyes from one of his regular sleep that seemed to last for ages. He wasn't sure if he was actually going to sleep, or simply losing consciousness from the sheer boredom.

Immediately, he put all of the energy he had gathered in this time into his speed and propelled him forward again.

'System, how far along am i?' he asked.

You are about 300 years away

'300?' Ning thought. 'That was quite close.'

Ning looked at the star in the distance and recognized the most bright one. It glowed with a red hue that surprised Ning a little.

'A red star?' he thought. 'Is that the one where I am headed?'

Yes

'Isn't a red star a dying star?' he asked. As far as he knew, a blue star was a newly formed star, an orange one was a star in its middle stages, and a red star was one at its end.

yes

Ning thought for a second. 'Well, if the system says there are lives then who am I to care,' he thought.

Chapter 579 Crash LandingThe Red star looked bright now. It was very close to what Ning could see in the distance. It looked about the size of a normal Sun, but given that it was a Red Giant, he was sure that he still had quite far to go.

As he got closer, Ning asked the system, 'How much further is it?'

Ning looked in the direction the system told him to and saw a small object shining on just one side, giving a crescent look to him.

'So that's where I'm headed huh?' he asked the system.

Of course, the system gave no answer and that was all the confirmation Ning needed. He didn't need to sleep anymore. As he got closer to the sun, his radiation strengthening started working once again.

By now, he had the physical body closer to that of a Nascent Soul realm, or full enforcement of an Aether Emperor.

He wished he had a stronger body, but that would require him to spend some more energy or time around places with actual starlight.

Now that he was on this planet, he would strengthen himself a bit and get a little stronger before moving on to the star that was about 2 light-years away from here which had a wormhole that lead to the other side of the galaxy to the very corner.

From there, he would have to go towards the next galaxy on his path where time moved at around the same rate as in Kumia.

That was a problem for Ning, but he still had many years to go until that point. There was no point in worrying about the future right now.

For now, he would enjoy some years in this place then and once he had enough energy, he would leave.

As he got closer to the planet, Ning saw more and more of the planet.

To be accurate, it looked more like a moon than a planet. From what he could see, there were still planet-like features like oceans and continents, but everything was so gray and murky.

He could see clouds hanging in the sky, as well as landmasses with ice on top of it. If this was a planet, Ning couldn't understand how it could be inhabited.

Ning started to wonder if humans even lived in this world, or if there were other races that lived underground.

'That could certainly be the case,' he thought to himself. Just as he was about to think of something else, he noticed something on the dark side of the planet.

There were flashes of light that came and went in an instant. Ning looked closely and even used his Vision III skill to see everything clearly as if it were daylight.

When he saw what it was, his eyes went wide.

There was a storm brewing on the night side of the planet. And in that storm, were flashes of lighting.

"Electrical Energy!" he thought and directly flew towards the planet. It would take him about 2 hours to get there at his current speed.

As he got closer and closer, Ning started noticing that the storm was slowly moving towards the right side of the planet.

'System, how long until my cap resets?' he asked.

'Good,' Ning said. Once his energy cap was reset, he would try to absorb nothing but just electrical energy.

Ning suddenly felt resistance against him. His speed was considerably depleting, but he was still so fast that he couldn't be stopped.

He was far faster than a normal asteroid or comet that would move around in the system.

'Shit!' he thought. If he crashed onto the planet without being able to stop his progress, he would definitely cause massive damage to one area of the land.

If he landed on the ocean at his current speed, he would cause a Tsunami that would kill millions.

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So, immediately, Ning turned himself around and used the resistance of the air in the atmosphere to slow himself down. At the same time, he started flying in the other direction.

A fire burned beneath his feet from the sheer friction of him when coming in contact with the atmosphere. Even with how strong his body was, he could feel his feet tear up and immediately heal from the force.

Even after that, he was quite fast and would certainly cause a massive crater and earthquake. So, he needed to find a good place.

"Where can I land so that I don't kill anyone?" he asked.

"Which side is north?" he asked.

"Okay," Ning shouted and changed his direction slightly so that he would fly towards the mountain ranges in the north.

Soon, he saw them. Large numbers of ice-capped peaks reached the sky. There were dozens of such peaks forming in no particular order.

As Ning got closer, he braced for impact.

He immediately crouched into a ball and slammed through one of the icy peaks, then to the heart of another one, before coming out of it, and leaving a long gash on the surface of the planet as he finally slammed onto the third peak.

The sound alone caused an avalanche to start on multiple peaks, not to mention the earthquake it caused.

Ning lost his legs, his arms, part of his stomach, and most of his head were scraped to the point that only bones remained.

When he finally stopped, he couldn't even voice his thoughts as his mind was in disarray from the sudden impact.

A second later, flesh and bones wriggled around the parts where he lost it, and soon new pairs of legs and arms grew, along with the other parts that he had lost.

Finally, once everything was back, Ning stood out of the crater and looked at the mess he made.

There was only one knowledge that gave him solace in this situation.

"Well, at least I didn't kill anyone, did I?"

Chapter 580 Doubling CapNing looked at his surroundings again. The damage he had caused to 3 mountains was quite high, not to mention all the avalanches he had caused.

He stood in the crater of his own wreckage and sighed. "Was there an earthquake that might have accidentally done some damage?" he asked.

"I see," he said as he scratched his arms a little. "I must've slowed down a lot then. Also, these mountains really softened the blow."

Ning finally walked out of the crater and looked at the surrounding. The barren, desolate mountain ranges were now scattered with snow on it.

'It's not as cold as I thought it would be here,' Ning thought for a moment. 'Is it because of my body?'

He was quite happy to get a body with such strength now. 'I should be able to absorb some of the lightning strikes without taking any damage right?' he thought.

Soon, he used some energy to buy himself a basic map of the planet.

The planet Hoflar was divided into 5 different continents. The two smaller continents were to the east, followed by 3 larger continents to the west.

Each of the continents in those two groups was connected by thin pieces of land.

Ning was currently on the northern continent of the group of two, the continent known as Tyrellia.

There were a bunch of countries and city names on the map, but Ning didn't care about it much.

However, one thing did become obvious from the map. It was the fact that people did live on the surface of the planet.

'Well, then they are stupid to live on such a desolate planet,' Ning thought. 'Or… maybe they evolved to live here? Maybe they need less oxygen and food, as well as don't require plants.'

'Ooh, what if this is a futuristic land where factories are everywhere and people's life itself is desolate,' Ning thought while scratching his chest.

"Well, I don't have to think that for now," Ning thought and looked to the skies around him.

"Is the storm going to come by here or am I going to have to wait for another one to brew?" Ning asked the system.

"Well, time to go to sleep for 18 hours then," Ning thought and found a random rock to switch his body into.

Once he stored his body inside, his mind went unconscious.

A second later, he woke up from his sleep to the sounds of thunder rumbling overhead.

Suddenly, Ning's body appeared out of nowhere, and he switched his body.

Then, there was nothing but a smile on his face.

In a single leap, Ning flew all the way to the sky. The storm did nothing to stop him the cold air couldn't freeze him either.

Snow fell from the sky in the midst of flashes of lightning, and just as Ning was about to wonder when it would hit him, suddenly a single bolt of lightning fell onto him.

That bolt alone was more than enough to fill his cap 20-folds.

Ning saw the charred flesh on his body, which immediately healed itself without him having to worry about it.

However, if not for his body taking in Electrical Energy first, Ning was sure the heat would've filled his cap.

He wanted to immediately double his energy cap using electrical energy by simply paying 25 Million and 250 Million, but the heat would take over first.

So, Ning had to wait for a few minutes. Just then, another bolt of lightning fell onto him, leaving another hot mess on his body.

'Shit!' he thought and immediately flew to the ground to take cover.

Only after a few more minutes when the heat on his body died down did he finally decide to do it.

"System, Double my cap twice," Ning said.

'I have 4 more billion of energy that I can gather today,' Ning thought as he scratched his head. Even as he sat around, the constant motion, sound, and heat were being absorbed by his body.

He needed to work fast.

Once again, Ning jumped into the sky and was struck by a bolt of lightning.

Immediately, his cap for the day was filled once again. He flew back down to the ground, and said,

"Status!"

[Status

Name: Ning Ruogong

Energy: 4.8 Billion

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Separated Energy-

Heat Energy: 122 Million

Sound Energy: 46 Million

Kinetic Energy: 61 Million

Electrical Energy: 4.6 Billion

Qi Energy: 0

Aether Energy: 0

Skill: …]

Ning sighed when he saw that. Even if he collected nothing but Electrical energy tomorrow, which was more than impossible, he was still going to be about a hundred or so Million energy short for the third Energy double, which cost 10 Billion.

"Sigh, I can't help but just wait around, huh?" he thought.

With nothing else to do, Ning grabbed a stone from the ground again and went to sleep.

Exactly 5 minutes before his cap was reset, he woke up once again and asked the system about the location of the storm, or any storm for that matter.

Once he got the information, he waited right until when his cap was unlocked and teleported.

Immediately, Ning arrived in the midst of a thunderstorm and was struck down by a bolt of stray lightning into the sea.

"Great!" Ning shouted.

Once his body healed, he switched places with his spear and jumped into the sea, not noticing the plethora of dead fishes that floated on the surface.

Exactly at the same time tomorrow again, Ning did the same thing and teleported into an active storm.

Hails bombarded him like bullets, giving him kinetic energy. Ning was worried for a bit but then lightning struck him directly in the chest.

Ning was thrown back to the ground, but even as he did, he couldn't help but show a satisfied smile.

With this, his journey as an Energy literally got 10 times easier

:)