Home?" White asked curiously. "Why master? You want me to be there with your cousins and grandmother? I don't think they're in any danger."

Ning chuckled a little and shook his head. "No, not my home. Your home," he said. "I need you to go back to your universe."

White was surprised for a bit. However, after a few seconds, he nodded. "If that is what you require of me, master. I will do as you say," White said.

"I'm sorry. I promised you I would keep you around for 5 days, but I'm already sending you back at the start of the third day," Ning said.

"It's alright, master," White said. "I might have been too hasty in coming here as well. Had I known I had a granddaughter at the time before I accepted your offer, I might not have come. Alas, she must have grown up so big by now."

Ning smiled. "Come, let me get you back."

The three of them flew over to the location where the portal had opened. Everything around it had become a huge mess with trees and rocks pulled all the way to the portal.

Ning had to pull out some trees even to see the tiny bit of portal that remained. It was all but gone.

"This is its status now?" White asked. "Wasn't it bigger before?"

"Yes, but it was supposed to have disappeared mere 2 minutes after we came back," Ning said. "And yet it was kept open for this long because someone decided to dig their nose in this matter."

"Oh, who did?" Sorlus asked.

"It's a constellation. You don't need to worry," Ning said and looked at the portal. He asked the system if could do anything here, and the system replied that he could indeed do something.

He could use a generous portion of his energy to pull open the fabric of space and reforge the portal to the other universe.

This time, however, it would last mere seconds.

"Alright, I will open it any time now, so listen to me carefully. There are people that were thrown in there. I don't know how if the people in there are alive or not. It has been years for them since they left, so it is likely that they are used to living there by now. Either that or they never survived in the first place."

"Other than that, there is also the possibility that they are struggling and need help. Do what you can to help them, okay?" Ning asked.

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"I will, master," White said.

"Good," Ning said. As he did, he thought of something else. He remembered the thing he had left behind in the other universe, the knowledge of the truth.

"Right, listen to me…" Ning said a bunch of information very quickly, explaining the truth and everything about the other world. Since White was the only one he could trust, he relayed everything he had kept hidden. White wasn't the one he was waiting for, but he could help in finding that person.

White's eyes went wide in awe when he heard that. "That's… there's no way that's true," he said.

"It is," Ning said.

"So… so… our world, it was…" White couldn't articulate the shock he was feeling at the moment.

"Yes, it was," Ning said. He grabbed White's head and did something. "I've locked your memories with my powers. If someone tries to look at it, it will erase itself. Make sure you do not tell anyone about this. Not even by mistake."

"I promise, I won't master," White said.

"Good, let me open the portal now," Ning said and walked forward.

"Master!" White stopped him before he started.

"What?" Ning asked. "We don't have much time. Every minute we waste is days gone in the other world."

"No, I just… I wanted to say goodbye to the others," White said. "Can I not meet Saphandra and the rest before I leave?"

"Oh, sorry. I didn't think you would care," Ning said. "Let's go quickly then."

Ning teleported back into the Tae household where the brother and sister duo were watching the news alongside Saphandra by their side.

"Cousin?" "brother!"

The both of them quickly walked out off the sofa and ran towards Ning.

"How is it? Is everyone okay? I saw you on TV," Hi-Ah said.

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"Brother, how are you so fast? Even the TV camera couldn't pick you up," Jung-hee said.

Ning smiled. "We can talk about that later," he said. "For now, White wants to say goodbye. He's going back home."

"Goodbye? Why so early?" Saphandra asked as she flew towards him.

"I'm afraid the situation calls for it, sister Saphandra. I will have to go back," White said.

"What situation?" Saphandra asked.

"I will explain in detail later, but now just know that he is going back to look after the people that have gone missing in the small radius," Ning said.

"They… they went in there? Wasn't the portal closed?" Saphandra asked.

"Later," Ning said, not bothering to repeat.

"Anyway, it seems this is my goodbye," White said. "Thank you for treating me like a human and letting me enjoy the normal life of one."

"Treating you like a human?"

"A normal life?"

Both the brother and sister were confused.

Saphandra on the other hand only smiled. "It was fun going around the world with you, White. I hope we can meet again in the future," she said.

"I hope so too," White said. "For now, this is goodbye."

"Let's go, we need to hurry," Ning said.

White nodded and together, the two of them teleported away.

The two arrived back on the mountaintop where they had left Sorlus. Ning quickly walked up to the place where the space was still cracked and started pouring in his energy to open it wide.

The portal reformed instantly, but it was unstable.

"Go in quickly," Ning said.

White nodded. He walked forward and stopped right before the portal as he turned around. He gave a deep bow towards Ning.

"Thank you for everything you've done for me my entire life, Master," he said. With that, he turned around and walked through the portal back into his own world.

Ning stood there and watched as the portal closed off. White was gone forever, and the chances of meeting him again were all but nonexistent.

"Is the portal truly gone this time around," Ning asked.

Yes.

"No Constellation can mess with it, right?" he asked.

No. If they want to access that universe, they will have to use their own powers, which will be impossible for them since the amount of energy required is higher than the system that manifests from

"Of course," Ning said. He took a deep breath as the problem was finally over, even if it had come at the cost of sending back White.

Now, there was something else he was going to do.

"Go home, Sorlus. You will find the direction in your bracelet," Ning said.

"What about you, master?" Sorlus asked.

"I will have to stay. There is another problem that I have to deal with," Ning said and flew away.

Sorlus flew away as well, moving at an impossible speed as he went to Korea.

"Can you find him?" Ning asked.

yes, but reaching that place is going to be troublesome

"Huh? Why?" Ning asked.

He is in a location that can be considered a different place from this planet. In this case, your teleportation ability won't work.

"What? Do I have to fly to space?" Ning asked.

There is a simpler way. You can open a portal to his space using his own power.

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"His own power?" Ning asked with a confused look. "What power?"

Stryxus has handed a small portion of his strength to the girl you met before. You can use that energy to find him.

"Okay, good," Ning said. His divine sense appeared from within him, reaching half the world in an instant. He found the girl, being surrounded by some other people that were talking to each other now that most of the saving had been done.

He immediately teleported and arrived next to her.

The group of people there jumped back at the sudden arrival of Ning.

Instead of being scared, however, each of them pulled out a weapon from somewhere as they got ready to attack.

They stopped when they saw that it was a human.

"Goddamn, don't scare us like that," one of the men said.

Ning looked at the blonde-haired young man who had just said that. He could feel a lot of mana from this man.

Other than that, he looked at the others there and noticed something peculiar about all of them.

"Oh, you guys must be Apostles," he said. It would make sense that they would try and meet someone new.

"Oh, it's you," the girl said after finally recognizing Ning.

The others looked at her. "Who's he? Your friend?" they asked.

"No, he is one of the people that helped today. He was going around saving people just like we did," she said.

"Oh, good work, brother," the blonde-haired man said with a friendly smile.

Ning nodded and looked at the girl. "Call your god here," he said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" the girl asked.

"Your god, Stryxus. Call him here," Ning said.

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"Why would i—"

"Just do it. I'm not in the mood to speak much today," Ning said with an annoyed look on his face.

The girl frowned a bit and started considering if she should do as he said or not. However, remembering all the people he saved, the girl couldn't find any excuse to refuse.

"Okay, I will do so," she said. "How do I do it though?"

"Grace, you just have to call for him. He is a god, he will hear your call," a girl said. "Although they usually prefer to talk in private, this person seems to want to hold a conversation or something. I'm curious what someone would say to a god."

"I see," the girl, Grace, nodded and clasped her hands together as she brought it to her forehead and started to pray.

"What is it?" a voice came and she opened her eyes. Everything around her was clouded in darkness. It was close to evening, but even midnight was never as dark as it currently was.

"What do you want from me, little girl? Do you want to ask how good a task you've done?" Stryxus asked.

"I doubt I've done anything exceptional. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm the worst of the Apostles you have raised," the girl said.

"Oh, so you didn't call me to praise you? What is it then? Do you want more power?" the Constellation asked.

"No, god. The reason I called you is that someone told me to. Apparently, he wants to meet you," the girl said.

"Someone wants to meet me?" Stryxus suddenly got angry. "That's why you called me? Because someone wants to meet me? Are you insane girl?"

Grace stepped back a little in fear. She didn't expect her god to get so angry. Maybe she had inconvenienced him.

"I'm sorry, god. I didn't know you would dislike being called like this. It was my mistake. Please forgive me," the girl begged quickly. She didn't know what she would do if she lost the powers she had gained today, the same day her family had died.

She was already devastated by one thing, she couldn't handle something so tragic happening on the same day.

"You better be sorry," Stryxus said. "Next time you think of calling me for something so stupid, think more. Do you think I would simply appear for just about anybo—"

A hand came through the darkness and grabbed onto Stryxus by his neck.

"There you are," Ning said as he pulled the horrible-looking god from his darkness and back into the world of light.

"Nice to see you, Stryxus," Ning said with a menacing look. Stryxus tried to fight back, but he couldn't. He was surprisingly powerless in front of Ning.

"It seems I can't take my chances with you," Ning said as he tightened his grasp. "System, Link!"

Energy Cap has been removed

Linking with the Constellation Will known as 'Stryxus'

Linking…

Linking…

"You… What are you doing?" the Constellation got angry. Space cracked around him as an attack came flying toward Ning.

Ning acted unbothered and pushed the attack upward with his free hand. The projectile from the attack flew into the sky and exploded with a massive bang that sent shockwaves even dozens of kilometers away.

Everyone close by had to close their ears because of the sound. Ning, however, wasn't bothered once more and looked at the second attack that was coming out from the Constellation.

This time, he wasn't planning on blocking it. The people saw the attack get close to Ning's body where even space and light were waving around from the power.

However, just as it was about to land, the attack disappeared.

The group of people that were watching the situation were wide-eyed in shock as it was not just the attack that had suddenly vanished. Rather, Stryxus himself was gone from the scene.

All that was left was a calm Ning who dusted off his clothes before giving a single look towards the group that was standing here and teleporting away.

Ning arrived on a deserted island in the middle of the pacific ocean. As soon as he arrived, he sat down and closed his eyes.

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The next moment, he found himself entering his inner world where he had thrown in Stryxus just moments ago.

Outside, Ning had the power of a physical body that could rival gods. It was easily one of the strongest objects in the entire universe.

However, since he couldn't come inside with his old body, Ning was there with a newly made weak body.

The Constellation looked at the vast darkness and a loss of connection to his own system. "You bastard! Where am I?" he shouted and attacked Ning once more.

A powerful glowing ball of energy flew at Ning. However, before it could reach Ning, it fizzled away like a drop of water on a hot metal.

"What?!" Stryxus was shocked. He couldn't understand why that had just happened. Why was his attack so easily destroyed?

Fear started growing in his heart as he looked at the man in front of him. Was this even a man? Who exactly was he?

"Why are you doing this? Where am I?" he asked.

"You're in my world," Ning said calmly. "I am called Ning, but I assume you know me quite well since you decided to manipulate the portal I came through."

The Constellation's face shrunk, as his non-existent eyes were trying to narrow. "No way, it's you?" it asked. "You're the one that came from the fourth universe."

"I am," Ning said as anger filled his voice. "And you decided to play with it. I didn't mind it when I learned that you had kept it open long past its due time. I didn't even mind that it was because you kept it open that today's tragedy happened. It was just a coincidence, as unfortunate as it may be."

"However, even after all of that, instead of trying to do something about the disaster you were in some part responsible for, you instead chose to further yourself. You didn't even come to help the humans that were in so much need," Ning said.

His voice grew even harsher as he spoke. "Not a single one of you did. You, and the other Constellations, you think you are so strong that you can't be touched, so you do as they please."

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"But you're not," Ning said. "In my eyes, you are no weaker than an ant with broken legs. You can't even run away from me."

Link has been established successfully.

"Today, you shall be an example for the others on what exactly not to do. Today, you and the other Constellations shall see that there is an end to you."

"I am your end."

Stryxus' face turned dark when he realized that his very essence was being stripped away piece by piece.

"No… what is happening to me?" he asked. He couldn't make sense of what was happening. "Who are you?"

"I am a holder of the Energy system. Your worst nightmare," Ning said.

The Constellation had to dig through his memory to remember where he had heard that term. When he did, his eyes went wide as he finally understood who he was up against. "No way! No, that can't be true. No…" he refused to believe it at all. After all, how could he be so unlucky to meet something that was so cosmically rare that finding one in an entire universe was considered impossible by many?

After all, there was an infinite number of universes, but there were only a finite number of hosts.

'No, I have to tell them. Warn them. If they can find some other will, I can be free,' the Constellation thought. Suddenly, a wave of energy was released from him that looked to find the closest constellation and pass on the information he had learned here today.

However, when he noticed the small smile on Ning's face, he started worrying. Even as his life itself was being stripped away by Ning, he asked, "Why are you smiling?"

"Did you really think that would work? That you could send a message and I would allow it?" Ning asked. "You seem to forget what I was saying earlier. You are in my world."

"Everything that happens here, or will happen here will be according to my will. This is my domain and I am its master," Ning said as he raised his hands.

"Now, time for you to die completely."

The final part of the transfer was sped up as Ning pulled away the energy from the Constellation's body.

Stryxus screamed and shouted. He tried attacking and then running away. But in a world that followed Ning's will, any action he did was useless. Even begging wasn't going to save him at this point.

The last motes of light that made up his body disappeared as the energy that was him was transferred over to Ning. After that, Stryxus, the Constellation, was forever gone.

Ning returned back from within his own world and came outside. As soon as he was out, he could feel a few eyes looking at him from someplace far away.

'That's a weird feeling,' he thought. He wondered why he could sense them so well. Was it perhaps because he was so strong now?

He quickly checked his status and he nearly lost his mind for a few seconds.

'Wait… what?'

[Status

Name: Ning Ruogong

Energy: 648.26 Septillion

Separated Energy-

Heat Energy: 48 Quintillion

Sound Energy: 543 Quadrillion

Kinetic Energy: 335 Quadrillion

Electrical Energy: 12 Quadrillion

Magnetic Energy: 468 Quadrillion

Gravitational Energy: 8.51 Quintillion

Qi Energy: 33 Quintillion

Aether Energy: 0

Mana Energy: 20 Billion

Magicules Energy: 258 Million

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Willpower Energy: 0

Spiritual Energy: 42 Million

Lifeforce Energy: 0

Aura Energy: 0

Essence Energy: 0

Chakra Energy: 0

Skill: …]

'Is that really accurate?' he wondered when he saw the number. 648 Septillion didn't feel like something he could gather so easily. 'That's more than Genesis gave me. Is this because my body is so strong that it can handle this much energy now?'

The amount of energy that had spilled out of him back on the planet Genesis was not some small amount. In fact, the small amount the energy he had been able to make use of was the one that was negligible.

Ning tried to think more about what he could do with this incredible amount of energy of his, but the glares he was getting were getting obnoxious now.

"Do you really have to stare so hard?" he asked into empty space, but the words fell on the ears of those that were looking. "Why not come out and say what you want?"

No one spoke at all. If someone else was to stand next to Ning at the moment, they would think he had gone mad, but Ning knew exactly who he was talking to.

"Still not coming out?" he asked. "What? Are you scared?"

"Are you a human?" a voice came from nowhere, falling only onto Ning's ears.

"Do I look like something else?" Ning asked with a slightly smug smile on his face.

"Where's Stryxus?" the voice asked.

"Who?" Ning asked, acting like this was the first time he was hearing the name.

"You know damn well who. What did you do to him?" the voice demanded.

"Who knows? He went somewhere else. I came here alone without him," Ning said. "Why? Did you have something to ask him?"

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"What did you do to him? Did you kill him?" the voice asked.

"Wow, do you really think I could kill a god? How could I ever kill a self-absorbed, piece of shit constellation that only formed because the collective consciousness of the human mind thought they were something special, and yet he goes on to harm the same humans to make their mediocre life just slightly better. I have no such power," Ning said.

The voice didn't say anything. In fact, Ning felt more and more eyes fall on him. The energy inside of him was at some level resonating with the energy that made up the other constellations and as such he could sort of feel them.

"I wonder," Ning said. "Just what exactly would happen to the next constellation that tries to take advantage of human tragedy? I wonder if they will leave this place just like… what was his name again? Stryxus? Right, I wonder if they will leave this place just like he did."

"With so many of you around, why don't one of you try and find out?" Ning asked. "Especially you 50 that are waiting for the dungeons to mature and the monsters to come out. Why don't we skip it all so you reach the same fate as Stryxus?"

The Constellations were very wary at the moment. None of them was an idiot, so they knew Ning had done something to him. What they didn't know was what he had done exactly.

Seeing the massive amount of energy in Ning, they started wondering if that was how Ning had defeated Stryxus, but then what happened to Stryxus.

There were so many questions that were a mystery to them since Stryxus disappeared out of nowhere, and none of the constellations could trace the teleportation that had likely happened to send him to some other location so far away that they weren't able to sense him at all.

However, in that case, was Ning really that much stronger than them all?

"What's that? Nothing?" Ning asked since no one else spoke. "Well, then allow me to say something to you instead."

His friendly and mocking attitude dropped in an instant as his face turned vicious. "If I ever find out you are doing something harmful to the humans or making use of the tragedy to better yourself, then the first thing you will see after that will be my face."

"And once you see my face, nothing else will be left for you to see. So, tread lightly or Stryxus won't be the only one whose whereabouts remain unknown," Ning said. He slowly stood up and dusted off the sand from his clothes.

"Now, please stop staring at me so hard. It's uncomfortable," Ning said.

The glare softened, or at least Ning felt it that way, but the eyes still remained on him.

"Well, if you want to keep looking then do so. I'm leaving," Ning said and teleported away.

The eyes vanished from him as Ning arrived at a different location. 'So they don't know much about what is going on without looking for it, huh?' he thought.

He had arrived back in the USA to check on something. His divine sense went out to look for something and he quickly found it.

Grace was there, helping in what little way she could to aid the others. She had superior strength and could thus help them as they wished.

'So they do actually give away a part of their powers, huh?' Ning thought. That was all he wanted to know.

Before returning to Korea, he sent a message with his Divine sense.

"You don't need to call your god ever again."

Ning arrived back in Korea. By now, the eyes on him were gone. Either the Constellations weren't able to find him, or they weren't searching for him at risk of offending him.

Either way, Ning was enjoying the lack of spotlight on him.

"You're back!" Saphandra was the first one to say.

Sorlus had already arrived back home. Ning was a little surprised at his speed and wondered if he had spent a bit too much time inside of his own world, trying to destroy Stryxus.

"Why didn't you return with him?" Hi-Ah asked.

"I had a few things to do," Ning said. "Anyway, let's not stand—"

Suddenly a phone rang. Ning looked around and saw Hi-Ah pull her phone out from her pocket. "It's the director of the Dungeon Defense," she said. "He's been calling me for the past few hours, trying to ask if you are back. What should I say to him?"

"Give me the phone," Ning said. He took the phone and accepted the call.

"Is this the director?" he asked as soon as he accepted.

"Ning? You're back?" the director's voice came from the other side.

"Yes, I'm back. Is there an emergency you need me for?" he asked.

"No, there's no eme—"

"Then I'll see you later," Ning said and hung up the phone. He gave the phone back and walked away. "Ah, I'm hungry. Let's eat something. Has grandma eaten anything yet?"

Looking at the time, it was about 3 in the afternoon in South Korea, so it was time for some snacks usually. Today, however, everyone had skipped lunch.

"No, I gave some heated soup to grandma, but she hasn't eaten anything else," Hi-Ah said. "I'll cook something up."

"Jung, help your sister and I will reward you with something," Ning said as he walked up to the staircase.

"Reward? What sort, brother?" Jung-Hee asked.

"The sort that you find out after getting. Now get to work," Ning said and went to his grandmother's room.

"Grandma? Are you awake?" he asked from the door.

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"Hmm?" Jung-Hwa turned from the book she was reading towards the door. "Ah, my child. Where have you been? You've been gone since yesterday."

'Yesterday?' Ning thought. Now that he thought about it, once he left for the White Devil guild yesterday, he hadn't seen his grandmother at all.

His time had been wasted on various different things, and as such the old woman hadn't been able to see her grandson at all.

"I've been… busy," Ning said.

"Too busy to see your own grandmother that you haven't seen your entire life?" she asked.

"I'm afraid so," Ning said. He walked by her bed and sat down. As he did, something purplish came to his hand from somewhere which he quickly slipped underneath his grandmother's bed.

"What were you busy with?" the grandmother asked. "Do you have a girl you like or what?"

Ning chuckled a bit. "It was a different kind of busy," he said. "More so related to fighting."

"Oh, are you okay?" she asked.

"Oh yes, I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me," Ning said.

"I see," the grandma said. "Don't focus too much on your work too. My Min-Ki did the same and he ended up marrying so late. You are already 25 years old, you should think about finding a girl and settling down with her."

"Oh, did Uncle not tell you?" Ning asked.

"Tell me what?" the grandma asked.

"I'm married," Ning said with a smile.

"WHAT?!" the old woman was so shocked that she had to take her reading glasses off to look at him properly. "Are you serious?" she asked.

"Of course," Ning said. "Why would I lie to you, grandma?"

"You are really married? Quickly, show me a picture of her. I want to see what sort of granddaughter-in-law I have," the old woman said and got up to check.

"I don't have a picture of her," Ning said.

"You don't have a picture of your wife? Are you lying?" she asked.

"No, no, I'm not lying. I don't have any phone with me at the moment," Ning said. "I left it all behind in china."

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"Oh, then what about your wife? Did you leave her behind as well?" she asked.

"Yes, but not in China. She's someplace else," Ning said.

"Why are you leaving your wife alone in this current state of the world? What if there's a dungeon break?" his grandmother got angry. "You should have her come immediately!"

Ning chuckled a bit. "I was actually planning on doing just that, grandmother," he said. "I was planning to go get my wife."

"When?" she asked.

"Uhh…" Ning thought for a moment and said, "Tonight doesn't seem like a bad idea."

"You'll leave tonight?" she asked.

"Yes," Ning said. "The sooner I go, the sooner I can come back with her."

"That is true," his grandmother said. "Go, set things up. I can't wait to see my Granddaughter-in-law."

"I'm sure you will love her, grandma," Ning said. "She's a foreigner."

Ning left the room and went back outside. He walked over to where his cousins and Saphandra were and explained the situation.

"Can't you just go and come back, as you did so easily with the USA? Why are you telling us this?" Hi-Ah asked.

Ning shook his head. "This place takes time," he said.

"Oh, how long will you be going for?" she asked.

"Uh… no more than a month. Although, I hope it will be less than that," Ning said.

"Is sister-in-law pretty?" Jung-Hee asked from the side.

"Very," Ning said. He turned to look at Saphandra. "Do you want to come with me or stay here?"

"How long will it take?" she asked.

Ning thought for a bit and only told her the real answer. When she heard it, Saphandra quickly chose what she wanted to do. "I'll stay here."

Ning shrugged. "That's most likely the better choice here," he said.

"Now then, before I forget about it, I should give you two your rewards," Ning said as he pulled something out.

The two siblings got curious and looked at what it was. When they saw it, their eyes went wide.

"Behold," Ning said. "These are SS-ranked Mana stones."

What?"

"No way!"

Both the siblings were surprised to see that Ning had pulled out 2 different SS-ranked mana stones.

"How is that possible? Didn't you give all the SS-ranked Mana stones to Mrs. Kim Min-Soo when we were in the dungeon?" Hi-Ah asked. As far as she knew, the boss in the S-ranked dungeon was the only place where the SS-ranked mana stones could have come from.

"Is this really an SS-ranked mana stone?" her younger brother, however, did not care for its origin and only the item itself.

He looked at it with wide eyes, wondering just how strong he could get with that.

"Use your rings to improve yourself, but do it slowly," Ning said. "Absorbing mana is the same as exercising. Do it at a constant rate and you will go far. Do it hastily and too much, and you will only injure yourself."

"Thank you, brother. I promise I won't misuse it," Jung-Hee said. He quickly touched his ring and started learning the method Ning had put into it. Since it had only been 2 days, he had still not finished learning it all.

"I should give Uncle one as well," Ning said.

Hi-Ah looked a little suspicious. "How many do you have?" she asked.

"Wanna see?" Ning asked.

The curious girl nodded immediately. Saphandra also flew next to Ning to see what he was about to bring out.

"Here," Ning said as he revealed all the SS-ranked mana stones he had acquired from the SS-ranked dungeon.

Hi-Ah's eyes nearly popped out of their socket when she saw the pile of mana stones that Ning was barely holding with his cupped arms. There were so many that some nearly spilled out of his hold.

"H-how did you get so many?" she asked. "There are over 50 here."

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"I got them from an SS-ranked dungeon I visited yesterday," Ning said. "That was where I was gone all day yesterday."

"SS-ranked dungeon? There's something like that?" she asked.

Saphandra flew up to him and looked towards the living room before asking, "Where did Sorlus come from?"

Ning only smiled and didn't say anything else. "Anyway, I will go meet the director for a while and come back for dinner. After that, I will have to leave. I don't think I can wait any longer."

"Okay," Hi-Ah said and went back to preparing the food.

Ning teleported away and went to Seoul where he quickly arrived in front of the Dungeon Defense building.

He walked up to the woman that was outside the director's door. "Hello, can you tell the director that I'm here?" he asked.

"I'm sorry, did you have an appointment? All appointments have been canceled for today," the girl said.

Ning shook his head. "I have no appointments, but I believe the director will like to meet me anyway," he said.

"I'm sorry. He's really busy today. The tragedy in America is taking up most of his time. Please schedule an appointment for some ot— Wait, you can't go in. Stop!" the girl said, but Ning ignored her.

There was no point in waiting anyway.

With a snap of his fingers, the door opened and he walked in.

Inside were a few people including Soo-Yun, and Lee. The director was at the center speaking with other various government people.

"I'm so sorry, director. He came in here—"

"It's okay, Yoon-hi," the director said. "You're finally here, Ning."

"Sorry about taking my time, I was a little busy as you might imagine," Ning said as he walked up and took one of the empty seats by the site.

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"So, what exactly did you want to talk about?" he asked, looking at the group of people.

"It was you, right? Out there helping people," Soo-Yun asked from the side.

"Of course. Or are you saying there's someone else that looks just like me?" Ning asked jokingly.

"How did you get there so fast? How did you get here so fast?" Lee asked.

"Simple Teleportation, obviously," Ning said.

"Thank you for what you did in the USA. The US government has expressed to us their wish to thank you too, but that will have to wait until that mess is over," the director said.

"Oh," Ning said. "That's fine. Tell them I did what was needed. I don't need a thank you in return."

"Are you sure?" the director asked.

"Of course," Ning said. "Anyway, that can't be all you called me here for right? I— Fuck off!!"

Ning's sudden shout caught the people off guard, making them jump in fear. Lee was the one that was scared the most as it had been him who Ning had turned to when saying so.

"Wh-what did I do? I'm s-sorry," Lee quickly said.

"No, not you," Ning said. "Goddammit. I should kill them all and be done with."

The people in the room looked at Ning and wondered if he had some mental problems. Maybe he was bi-polar, whose mood changed from happy to mad at any second of the day.

Ning's mood had changed in a split second, but that was because the Constellations had found him again. It was likely because he was close to their bestowed powers, so they sensed him.

Ning wasn't sure what did it, but the Constellations' gazes disappeared after that.

The crowd wondered if they were safe, or if they were going to be killed at any moment there. If they were, could they protect themselves from someone so strong?

"So, what did you call me here for exactly again?" Ning asked.

The director wasn't sure what to do with the current situation, so he did the one thing he knew best. He ignored the issue.

"Ahem, the Chinese government contacted us today after seeing your doing in America and have demanded us that you be returned to them immediately."

"They are saying that we stole you without the Chinese government's knowledge and thus you were duped into joining us," the director said. "They say they will put an economic blockade on our country if we don't return you within the week."

Can you contact the Chinese government right now?" Ning asked the director.

"You want to talk with them?" the director asked with a confused look on his face. He was unsure if contacting them was a good idea or not.

"Yeah, I just want to speak with them," Ning said.

"Uhh… sure," the director said. "Alright, I'm contacting."

Ning saw the screen light up behind him and turned around. He saw some sort of phone symbol on the screen, noting that the call was being made.

Ning arrived at the center of the room and stood directly in front of the camera. The video conference call was accepted on the other side by someone who seemed like they were expecting to get such a high-level call.

"So you called back? Hmm… are you the one called Ning Ruogong?" the old, white-haired man on the screen spoke as soon as he saw Ning.

"And who might you be?" Ning asked.

"I'm Jin Taizhou, director of the Hunter Association of China," the man said. "Mr. Ning, you are requested to return to your country as soon as you can."

"My country?" Ning asked. "Ah, you mean South Korea?"

Ning pulled out his National card and showed it to the camera. As soon as the camera focused, the old man on the screen got a little angry.

"They made you a citizen? That is unacceptable," the man said. "That piece of paper is considered null and void as far as we are concerned. Your national ID card in China is still considered the accurate one."

"Is it?" Ning asked. "Does that mean that China still considers someone a citizen once they are dead? I wonder how that goes with pension and stuff. Do people have to continue paying their life insurance even after paying?"

"What?" the director on the other side was confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, did you not know?" Ning asked.

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"Know what?" the director asked from the screen.

"November 7, 2022. In the Cheng Provine, in a zoo called the Red Mist. Would you mind checking any news from that time?" Ning said.

"Huh?" the director asked. He quickly got the people beside them to work. The people in the room in Korea were confused too. They could all perfectly understand Chinese, so Without anyone telling them, they quickly started checking any news regarding that on their own.

"WHAT!" the Chinese director was the first one to shout. "There's no way this is true. You're a fraud!"

Ning smiled back at them, "So what do you think?" he asked. "Do you think I'm still a citizen of China?"

"This is nonsense. This doesn't count," he shouted.

The people in the room were starting to get the result from what Ning had said and found the result.

"Ning Ruogong, 18, has died of an unfortunate zebra attack when entering the enclosure. The young man was noted to have been trampled by many zebra in the zoo, and it was noted too that it was a serious trauma to the head that had been the main cause of death," one of the people there started reading.

"Yang Baihuan, who was at the scene says that the young man had gone in to check some sort of loud noise, which had caused the zebras to attack him."

Everyone in the room looked at Ning as if he was a ghost. Either that, or he was someone impersonating a dead man.

The director read it too and couldn't imagine that the Ning in the news was even related to the Ning standing in front of them.

There was no image, so it was hard to judge if they were the same people, but just the fact that their names were similar meant that they were somehow connected.

"Do you still think I belong in China? Even though I am technically already dead?" Ning asked.

"No, you do belong to china. Tell me, what's your real name?" the Chinese director asked.

"What? No, I'm not using a fake name. My name is Ning Ruogong," Ning siad.

"Nonsense," the director said. "You are impersonating a dead person certainly."

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"I'm not," Ning said.

"Even if you aren't, you are still Chinese," the director said.

Ning sighed. In the next moment, he vanished. The whole group of people was surprised and turned around to look for him when they heard his voice again.

"Are you gonna tell me what I can and what I cannot do?" Ning asked the Chinese director with an arm around the man.

The people in the director's room suddenly stood up as they thought he was in danger. However, they couldn't do anything as Ning's arm was still around the director.

The team in Korea was shocked to see that Ning was in the other country so soon.

"How… how are you here?" the Chinese director asked.

"What do you mean? You called me, didn't you?" Ning asked.

"I… I…"

"Since you seem to care about me so much, I will come to visit you more times," Ning said. "Maybe I'll come with a knife next time. I can come while you're sleeping, or while you're with your family, or while you're in a card, or… ah, the possibilities are endless."

The director was shaking so hard that Ning thought he was going to start peeing on the floor in front of him.

"So, what do you say? Do you really want to threaten me to come back?" he asked.

"N-n-no, I'm s-sorry," the director said.

"Good," Ning said and his head turned towards the man that was not far away from him that was ready to attack.

"And you," Ning pointed at that man. "Tell your god I'll kill him if keeps staring. I'm starting to get annoyed from all the staring here."

The room was filled with Apostles and one of their gods had already noticed Ning. "Anyway, goodbye, and don't contact me again."

Ning teleported back to the team in Korea and appeared behind the director there. He manually hit 'end' on the screen next to the director and only then did people realize he was back.

"So, now that that's done. Do you have anything else you need from me?"

Alright, I will be leaving then," Ning said and walked out of the door. As he got out, he remembered something and turned around to say, "I'll be gone for a few weeks. Don't come looking for me if you are in trouble, I won't be around."

With that, Ning left the capital, leaving not a single explanation behind for what he meant by his last few sentences.

Ning arrived back at his Uncle's place and went on to have some food.

The news continued saying things regarding the incident in America, but things had settled down by now people were no longer praying for them, only mourning.

The time was already too late, so the supper Ning ate became dinner merely by the time of it as the sun was already setting by the time he was eating.

Once they were done eating, he finally got ready to leave.

"Listen to her in my absence," Ning said. "She's the oldest one here."

Saphandra nodded with a cross arm as Ning pointed at her. Hi-Ah and Jung-Hee looked confused, wondering just how young she was.

"Alright, take care of yourselves for the next few weeks, I will be leaving now," Ning said and waved goodbye to his family.

"Master, I can't come with you?" Sorlus asked.

"There's no mana where I'm going, so taking you will be useless anyway. Besides, you are needed here to protect them from any danger they might suffer," Ning said.

"Oh, okay," Sorlus said. "Don't worry, master. I will protect them from any danger," Sorlus said.

"Good," Ning said. "If you do a good job of it, I will reward you with something good."

"Woah, I will definitely do a good job, master!" Sorlus said.

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Ning waved back again and walked up the house to enter his room. He made a small spatial boundary with his powers so no Constellation could ever do again what Stryxus had done with his last portal.

Then, using 1.5 Sextillion of his current energy, he created a portal in his room. A portal from Earth, directly to Kumia.

Nervousness filled Ning as the silver door opened in front of him. He could already see the mountains on the other side of the portal.

Now, he had 2 minutes to enter.

As he got ready, a thought came to him. A question that he hadn't asked the system for many, many years.

The last time he had asked the system, it had been too soon to get an answer. But what about now?

Approximately 400 years had passed for Kumia in the time he had been in the other Universe, and even a year had passed for Earth.

Ning hoped there were some changes.

So, he asked the question, and the system answered.

Ning liked the answer. "Shouldn't take me very long to get there with this much energy," he thought.

In some sense, his nervousness had vanished after getting that answer, so with a confident smile on his face, Ning walked through the portal.

He stepped onto the mountain range and looked around. This time, he didn't immediately leave and waited around for the door to close.

He couldn't make the same mistake again.

After a little while, the door closed and he finally looked around to see his surrounding.

The mountain range was tall and vast. He could see thousands upon thousands of mountains from where he stood and they seemed to go past even the haze.

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The greenery suggested that Ning was not in the center of the central continent or the far north and south where it was all snow. Other than that, he had absolutely no idea where his portal had formed.

After all, the only requirement he had placed on the system before forming the portal was that it was in Kumia, and away from any human life.

Divine sense emerged from him like a shockwave, reaching the farthest limits of Kumia. With a single thought, he had covered the whole world with his divine sense.

"Damn, I had forgotten just how massive this place was," Ning thought. He was having trouble tracking the various things that he was seeing, so he only focused on the important ones.

"Oh, so that's where I am," Ning said when he realized the location. "So I arrived through the Southern Continent once again, huh?"

"At least it's not the glacier again," Ning thought.

His senses revealed a few different things to him at the same time. Some of which surprised him, but thinking back now, it shouldn't have.

"So many beastmen," he thought. That was something Jha'Akim had done in order to make everyone the same as him. He had made his subordinates go around exploding to release blood mists that would transform them.

Many had died in the process, but many also had successfully become beastmen.

Ning wished they weren't treated too badly for something they didn't do, and it seemed they weren't. They were going around their normal life like everyone else.

Ning also sensed the current status of the Qi in Kumia. The Northern wormhole had collapsed in of itself and was no longer there. So, as a result, the density of Qi in Kumia was steadily increasing.

It would still take some time to be better, but at least the people should be able to reach the Spirit Transformation realm now. That was the most important realm for them anyway.

He looked to the north at where the Klavians were, but he did not see anyone he recognized. He looked to the other side of the north where the Seven Lights city was to search for Anya and her family, but he didn't recognize anyone there either.

His sense then went to search for the beasts that would be at the center of the Continent, and while he sensed the Spatial pocket there, none of the 3 beasts were there.

Ning wasn't worried, however. Since they weren't at their home, then there was only a single reason.

They were all in a different places.

"The Origin!"

Ning teleported away from his current location, arriving on top of the vast open ocean where the Origin was.

He felt the space contort next to him, forming a spatial fold where the Origin was hidden.

"There it is!" He teleported in between the separated space and arrived inside the Origin.

The change in the amount of Qi was immediately apparent. The difference was quite high after all.

'It still is quite concentrated in here,' Ning thought. Then, he looked around and was both confused and surprised.

What he was expecting to see inside were the same old mountains that surrounded the Origin at the center. However, what he came across was something very different.

The island with only trees had turned into a small town with many people living inside.

He could see the people living in various mountains, forming a small city of their own. The center where the Origin was barricaded, but aside from that, the island was no longer different from any other inhabited island.

As Ning had expected, he could see the Klavians in here, which likely meant that the fair-skinned folks in here were Anya's people, as long as they didn't make it freely accessible for others to come here.

He was surprised at just how much it had changed since the last time, but then again, it had been many years.

It had been nearly 700 years in Kumia alone. It would be rather stupid if things hadn't changed.

"Well, they did good developing it so far," Ning thought as he looked around. "But where are the beasts?"

"You there! Who are you?" Someone shouted at him from below. They quickly came flying up to him, with a girl at the front as their leader.

Ning looked toward the group that was coming for him and smiled. "Hey!" he waved his hands toward them.

"Intruder! How did you get in here?" the girl at the front asked.

"Oh, I know how to get in here," Ning said. "Can you go call out your elders?"

The girl at the front got even more suspicious. "How did you find this place? No one is supposed to know of it," she said.

"Hm? Oh, I know of this place," Ning said. "Don't worry about me. I'm no bad guy. Just call your elders."

The girl pulled out a spear and pointed it in front of her. "You haven't answered! Who are you exactly?" she asked.

Ning smiled when he saw the spear. His childish side started showing up.

"I'm someone your elders will love to see," he said with a smile.

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"That is no answer," the girl said. "I will suggest you leave before I attack you."

"That's alright, you can attack me if you want. I'm quite curious how well they've trained their children anyway," Ning said.

The girl frowned, but she didn't attack. Normally, she might've thrown some warning strikes, but this time she hesitated.

No matter how much she tried, she couldn't peer into Ning's cultivation base at all. Usually, that meant that he had no cultivation at all, which would be a lie at the moment seeing how well he was flying.

Then, the other reason was that he was too strong for her to sense his cultivation.

But then… how was that possible? If he was stronger than her, then it meant that he was…

"What? Are you not going to attack?" Ning asked the girl.

"Senior, please identify yourself so I can tell my elders of your arrival," she said.

Ning smiled when he heard that. She was quite smart to recognize that she didn't have any chance of winning if this devolved into a fight.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Iris," the girl said.

"Iris, that's a nice name," Ning said. "Are you related to Anya?"

He could see some very vague similarities between the girl in front of him and the teen Anya in his memories.

Although, they were so incredibly vague that it made him believe that she was at least 3 generations below Anya.

"You know about my Great, Great Grandmother?" the girl asked with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, that little girl is now a Great, Great Grandmother, huh?" Ning asked with an amused face.

The girl's eyes went even wider. She could not imagine anyone in this world calling her ancestor a little girl.

The only one who could possibly do so was…

The girl looked at Ning more carefully as the thought grew in her heart. She remembered those stories her grandmother used to say about the massive spider.

"It can't be…" she said softly. Instantly, she pulled out her talisman and called her grandmother.

Ning's eyes moved to the left as he sensed someone else coming up along with many others behind them.

He sensed the person's cultivation base and noticed it was close to peaking in the Spirit Transformation realm.

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'Not bad,' he thought when he saw that.

The woman flew up to the group of youths and stopped. When she saw Ning standing in front of her, her eyes started tearing up at the same moment.

"Grandmother, is he…?" Iris asked.

"Yes," the woman said with disbelief. "Go back, you all."

Iris waited for a moment before turning around to leave.

"She's quite bright, that one," Ning said to the woman. "You've done well raising her, Dahlia."

"Is it really you?" she asked.

Ning smiled. "Yes, It is me," he said.

Dahlia immediately moved forward and hugged him without any hesitation. "You're finally back, grandmaster!" she shouted.

Ning smiled and patted her back. "Yes, I'm back."

"I can't believe it's really you." Dahlia moved away from Ning and wiped her tears. "So you really didn't die back then?" she asked.

"No, I was alright," Ning said.

"And senior Hyesi?" she asked.

Ning sighed and shook his head. "He had to give up his life to save you all," he said. "I hope his sacrifice wasn't in vain. I can see that it wasn't in vain. I'm happy to see that you're doing quite well."

"Yes, grandmaster," Dahlia said. "We're doing very well. I can say without a doubt that there is no one on this planet that is doing any better than us."

"Well, you are in the Origin," Ning said as he looked around.

"I should tell the others that you are back," she said as she pulled out a talisman.

"Oh, wait. I want it to be a surprise, so don't tell Ely, or Anya, or even Night, Blue, and Aegis," Ning said.

Dahlia stopped and turned around. "Uhh…" she couldn't find a way to say what she wanted to say.

Ning frowned. "What? What's wrong? Are they alright? Are they hurt?" he asked.

"No, no, they are fine. Or at least I hope they are," Dahlia said.

"Hope? Why? Do you not know how they are?" Ning asked.

"I don't, grandmaster," Dahlia said. "After all, Grandmother and many of the rest including the beasts and senior Ely have already left for another world after their ascension."

Ning looked dumbfounded when he heard that. "Wait… are you saying that in just 700 years since I left them… they achieved Immortality?"

"Yes," Dahlia said. "I'm afraid they are in the other worlds now."

Ning stood there with a blank look on his face. "They really entered Immortality already? But… how many years has it been since I was gone?" he asked.

"Uhh… about 730 years or so, I think," Dahlia said.

"They went from Spirit Transformation to entering Immortality in just 700 years?" Ning asked again. He simply couldn't believe it. In the other universe, people would spend thousands of thousands of years to enter immortality.

Even White was quite old when he became immortal. Hearing these words, Ning couldn't help but feel something was going on there.

"Wait, were they fast because of the skills I left behind?" he asked. Those were good cultivation books, certainly, but they were far from the best especially since he had bought them back when he barely had any energy at all.

"Your books helped a lot, grandmaster," Dahlia said. "But they were fast because of where we are right now."

"Right now?" Ning looked around. "Ah! The Origin. I forgot you can cultivate very fast here."

Ning shook his head. It had been so long since he had last been inside an Origin with other people that he forgot the slowed-down time worked for everyone else.

"Come with me, Grandmaster. We can talk somewhere else," she said.

"Alright, let us go."

Ning arrived by a large mansion behind which was a massive garden. They sat on a few chairs around the garden as other people came to meet them too.

Ning looked at the newcomers, but he didn't recognize anyone. Most were either too distant from him for him to care, or were simply born after he had left.

"Are you the only one remaining from before?" Ning asked Dahlia.

"I… suppose, yes," Dahlia said while looking around at the newcomers. None of these people were there to get acquainted with Ning back when he was still around.

"Why haven't you left yet?" Ning asked.

"I'm going to leave soon too," Dahlia said. "Just a few dozen more years and I'll be gone too. I'm just staying behind for the kids. I don't want to leave too soon."

"I see," Ning said. "Who has ascended exactly?"

"Hmmm, quite a few actually," she said. "Let's see, there's my grandmother, my mother, my aunt, my siblings and cousins, most of senior Hyesi's immediate family including his Great grandchildren, the three senior beasts that used to follow you and their family, and senior Ely. That should be all."

"Only Ely? Not her family?" Ning asked.

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"No, her household refused to relocate here, so senior Ely left them be. Besides, they were so far off from her in relation that she didn't feel very strongly for them. She helped them where needed, but aside from that, she didn't really interact with her own family anymore," Dahlia said.

"I see. Her younger brother has his own life and family, I guess," Ning said.

"Oh… her brother passed away years ago," Dahlia said.

"What? Ender died? How?" Ning asked.

"Qi deviation. He crippled himself by mistake, and as a mortal, he couldn't live for very long," Dahlia said.

"That's… that's terrible," Ning said. He remembered the young man he met by the road and shook his head.

"Anyway, has anyone returned back after ascending?" Ning asked.

Dahlia shook her head. "We have no idea what happened after the ascension. The only reason we are even hopeful that they are alive and well is because the book you gave us said that once ascended, one would go to a different world with a high-level Qi," she said. "That's… true right?"

"That is true," Ning said. He closed his eyes and asked his system about the status of everyone out there.

"They are all fine," Ning said. "You don't have to worry about them. But it does look like they all ended up9 in various different worlds. It will take some time to get to them all."

"Is that so?" Dahlia asked.

"Alright, I'll leave now," Ning said as he stood up.

"Leave? Grandmaster, but you just got here. You can't leave just like that." Dahlia could not understand his intent behind wanting to leave so soon.

"Don't worry, I'll be back to get you in a few months," Ning said. "You can meet your entire family then."

"I… I can meet them again?" Dahlia asked.

"Yes, you can," Ning said. He turned to look at the others that were gathered there. "You all must be responsible for everything that happens here, right?"

The other men and women that were there nodded.

"Good, can you guys do something for me?" Ning asked.

"What is it, grandmaster?" Dahlia asked.

"Tell the people that I will be relocating everyone to another planet with better Qi. If they wish to, they can be ready for that. Don't force them, just let them make a choice. I will be back in a few months," Ning said.

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"We will do as you say, grandmaster," Dahlia said.

"Alright, I'll see you later," Ning said and opened a portal right where they stood. "Don't try to come through this. Goodbye."

The group watched in shock as they saw the silver portal remain behind them. Dahlia looked through it and saw a busy street.

She saw some sort of grassland with walls in the distance. Ning turned around and waved them goodbye.

The silver portal closed a bit later and Ning walked off. Thanks to the system, he knew exactly where he had to go.

The Qi here was quite thick, allowing one to progress quite far in their immortal journey.

The planet was called Gionia and he was currently in front of a city called Redstone city.

He went through the city gates with no trouble and made his way to a building in the distance that seemed to be one of the more popular ones.

He smiled when he read the name and walked in. There were people who tried to stop him or make him stay in line, but Ning went past them all as he made his way directly to the very top of the building.

With a little bit of searching, he found the room he was supposed to go to. As he opened the door, the dozens of people that were following him to stop him arrived with him.

Ning sidestepped a few of them, who walked through the door by mistake.

"I told you guys to not bother me when I'm working," the woman said.

"I'm sorry, miss. We will do it right away," the guards said and turned around to grab Ning. However, Ning was already inside the room, next to the woman.

"Do you really want me to leave?" He asked.

Ely turned the moment she heard his voice, dropping everything she had been doing. "Ning?" she asked in disbelief.

"Have you missed me?" he asked.

"Is that… really you?" she asked.

"Of course," Ning said. "Who else could it be?"

Ely couldn't help but jump onto his embrace. "You're back! You're really back! I've missed you so much."

Ely started crying out loud as she couldn't hold back her emotion. Ning's felt his heart grow warmer after hearing her voice.

"I've missed you a lot as well," Ning said. "I'm glad to be back."

[End of Book 6: Return]

Go away!" Ely shouted at the people that were staring at the two of them.

"Miss, he is…?" one of the guards asked.

"He's my dao companion. Now leave," she told the people.

"But… what about senior Gallow?" one of them asked.

"What about him?" Ely asked with raging eyes. "Are you going to leave or not?"

Ning pushed them all away without waiting and slammed the door shut. "You sounded quite angry there," he said while continuing to hug her.

"Don't speak. We can talk about that later," she said as she closed her eyes and reached up to kiss him.

Ning kissed her back before stopping a few minutes later and embracing her tighter. "This feels nice."

Ely put her head in his chest as she continued holding him as well. "When did you return?" She asked.

"Uhh… 15 minutes ago, I believe," Ning said.

"You came to this city 15 minutes ago?" Ely asked. "Or the planet?"

Ning chuckled. "I actually returned to Kumia 15 minutes ago. I talked with Dahlia there for a few minutes and left. I arrived here just 2 minutes ago."

"And you found me so quickly?" she asked. "Your system must've grown quite a bit," she said.

"It has," Ning replied. "Far more than any of us could have imagined back then."

The two embraced each other for a while before leaving. Once apart, he looked at her from head to toe.

"Don't look at me like that. I know I've aged," she said.

"Hmm? Of course. But that wasn't what I was looking at. I'm looking at your cultivation base, and… I don't know how to say this, but it's rather weak," he said.

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"Of course it's weak," she said with a pout on her face. "Your stupid books no longer work for my cultivation base. Even the improvement in my body is so minuscule. Thankfully, I have my artifact system, so I have been able to do quite well for myself."

"Hehe, sorry," Ning said. "I'll pamper you with the best stuff from now on."

"You better," she said with her arms crossed in front of her.

"Alright, can we leave? Or do you have to finish your work?" Ning asked.

"Urgh… I have to finish it," Ely said as she went back to finish making the artifact. "Dammit, I messed up. I'm not going to even make a 6th rank artifact this time around. And here I thought I was going to gain a lot of points this time around."

"Points? From your system?" Ning asked.

"Yes, there's this knowledge about smelting Goldiron that I've been wanting to learn for a while, but it costs 250 points. I'm trying to gather some, but the only way to earn a lot of points is to make new items, and making new items is hard," she said.

"Smelting Goldiron? I can tell you that?" Ning said.

Ely stopped and sighed. "Of course, you can," she said. "Anyway, let me finish this all the same. Stopping halfway through makes me lose points instead."

"Okay, I'll wait," Ning said and looked around the room where Ely was working. "Is this your workshop?"

"Yes, I work here," she said.

"No, I mean, is this YOUR workshop? Do you own it?" he asked.

"No, the owner is someone called Frindal Gallow. He owns the entire building and many other locations in this city," she said.

"I see," Ning said. "That's the same man they were talking about previously?"

"Oh no, they were talking about his son, Trushar Gallow," she said. "His father is not bad, but he is a hateful man."

"Oh, why?" Ning asked.

"He's wanted to make me his Dao companion for the last 300 years," she said. "I keep telling him I already have one, but he doesn't believe me at all."

Ning couldn't help but chuckle.

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"Do you think that's funny?" Ely asked.

"Why not? You could beat him up if he got too annoying, right?" he asked. "Or is he too strong for you?"

Ely sighed. "He's in the High Immortal realm, while I'm still in the Low Immortal realm. I could never beat him," she said.

"I see, well I will help you beat him up now," Ning said.

"It's alright, we can leave. Although, I would like to thank senior Gallow for allowing me to work here. I would not have found such a good place to work and make a name for myself had it not been for him."

"After I had to auction off what little items I had from back in Kumia, he was the one that noticed my talent and allowed me to make Immortal items with his own fortune. Had it not been for him, I might have been living like a peasant for a long while," she said.

"I see," Ning said. "Then after I beat up the son, we can go meet with the father."

"No, there's no need to beat up the son. We can just meet the senior and leave," Ely said as she worked on her artifact.

"No, we will have to beat up his son," Ning said.

"Can't we just leave silently? Why do we have to beat him up?" Ely asked with a slightly annoyed look.

"I mean," Ning shrugged. "It's not like we have much of a choice."

"What do you—"

The door slammed open as a middle-aged man walked into the room all high and lofty. "Where is that man?" he shouted as soon as he walked in.

Then, he finally noticed Ning who was standing close to Ely.

"That's him?" the man asked with a slightly confused look. "He's the Dao companion?"

"That's what the miss said, senior," one of the guards said.

The man looked at Ning again and showed a disgusted look. "Hah! No wonder you never fell for me. Turns out you have a thing for younger men," he said.

"You must be Gallow junior," Ning said.

"And who the hell are you?" the man asked.

"I'm Ning Ruogong, Ely's dao companion," Ning said. "And as a show of gratitude towards your father, I will try not to kill you."

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Huh? Was that a threat, you little shit?" the man asked.

"Of course," Ning said. "You disrespected my woman. That deserves nothing but the harshest of punishment, but since your father was so kind as to give her a place to stay and a means to earn, I am going to go lenient on you. Which is why you can be glad I'm not killing you."

"Hmph! You sure talk a lot," the man said. "He intruded here, right?"

"Yes, senior. We tried to stop him, but he was too slippery to catch," the guards said.

"Useless bastards, I should have you all fired and hire some better ones. We don't need garbage here," the man said. "Yeah, that's what I'm going to do now. I will give you one chance now. Beat that kid. The one that beats him the hardest gets to stay. Everyone else is getting fired."

As soon as he finished saying that, Ning's arm wrapped around his shoulder as he leaned in close to the man. "Why get the poor guards involved when they were just doing their job? It's not like they have the capabilities to stop me," Ning said.

The young man surnamed Gallow frowned. He did not realize when Ning got so close to him. Also, how did he not sense it at all?

"Ely," Ning called out.

"Yes?" Ely asked.

"Can you go to senior Gallow's place and tell him that you are leaving? I will meet you there after doing this real quick," Ning said.

Ely hesitated. "Just… don't kill him okay?" she said.

"Don't worry, I won't kill him," Ning said. "Alright, see you in a few minutes then."

Ning disappeared as he went somewhere along with the man. Ely was left alone with the guards, but she quickly walked out as per Ning's instruction and went towards the Gallow mansion in the city.

She asked to speak with the old man who spent most of his time cultivating as his weak body could not do anything else. The only way for him to come out of this with a better body was to break through to the Full Immortal realm.

After hearing that Ely had visited him, the old man left his room and went out to the garden to meet her.

"Miss Ely, it has been a while, hasn't it?" the old man said as he walked out with a cane.

"Senior Gallow!" Ely stood up and walked up to him to help him walk.

"It's alright. I can walk," the old man said as he walked on his own. Ely still stayed by his side just in case he needed her.

"Ahh… you haven't come to see me in a while. I thought you had forgotten about me," the old man said.

"Nonsense, I can never forget about a benefactor," Ely said seriously.

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"You don't have to be so serious. Ours was a relationship based on exchange. I gave you a place to work and you worked to pay me back. You don't have to be any more thoughtful than you would to a friend," the old man said. "So, why are you here today? I don't suppose you came upon a new blueprint, did you?"

"I have a few new ones, but that is not why I am here," Ely said. "I came to tell you that I will leave this place today."

"Leaving?" the old man asked with a confused look before his eyes narrowed in seriousness. "Not permanently, right?"

"Permanently," Ely said. "My Dao companion returned to me today and I will be leaving with him."

"Your dao companion?" the old man asked. "I thought that was just a small lie you told to stop my idiot son from approaching you."

"No, I have a Dao companion, and I am leaving today," she said.

"Where are you going to go?" the old man asked. "Can't you just stay here?"

"That will depend on my dao companion," Ely said. "However, I doubt he will want to stay here."

"Hmm… sounds like a man who knows what he wants. I would love to meet him," he said.

"He should come by any time soo—"

Ning appeared right at the moment, arriving next to the table. He slumped onto the empty chair next to him and looked towards the old man.

"You must be senior Gallow," he said with a cupped fist. "I am Ning Ruogong. Thank you for taking care of my wife."

"You are her Dao companion?" the man asked. "You are lucky to have ascended to the same plane as her. Most do not have your luck, young man. The heavens are favoring you two, you better keep each other happy."

"Haha, thank you," Ning said.

"Where do you plan on going next?" the man asked.

"I have no concrete goal at the moment," Ning said. "But I'm going to search for a good place where we can settle for a bit. I would like to start a small sect or organization of my own where my people can live without worry."

"I see. I don't think I can say anything other than good luck."

Ning and Ely talked with the old man for a little while before leaving. Ely left behind a handful of blueprints, amongst which Ning added a small scroll of his own.

After they left, the old man opened up the blueprints and sighed to himself. "Such a gem, gone like that. I will have to find someone to replace her," he thought.

The artifact guild he had formed in the city was too great to just give up on after the head artificer left. He needed to find someone quickly if he wanted to keep the occupation going.

"Still, there are so many good blueprints here. I can make another fortu— Hmm?" the old man paused when he saw the scroll. It had words written on it, instead of drawings, which caught his attention.

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The old man slowly read through the scroll. At first, he was confused about what the writing was about, but as he read it, his eyes went wide.

"No way!" he said in a soft voice. "This… this can help me heal?"

The scroll he was reading had a cultivation technique written on it that was not only very good to collect a lot of Qi at once, but it also improved one's longevity while improving their healing capabilities.

This was the exact type of cultivation method the old man had been looking for and now he had found it.

"I need to go train immediately," the old man thought. "But what about an artificer? I need to get one too."

Just then, one of the maids walked out in a hurry. "Lord, something's happened to the young lord."

"What?" the old man asked. "What happened to my son?"

The old man rushed as fast as he could to go over to his son, and when he arrived, he saw the young Gallow huddled up in the corner, mumbling incoherent words.

When the old man got closer, he finally heard what he was saying.

"He killed me and healed me. He killed me and healed me. He killed me and healed me."

"Son?" the old man asked.

"He killed me and healed me. He killed me and healed me. He killed me and healed me."

"Son, what's wrong?" the old man asked, placing a hand on his son's shoulder.

"AAHH!" the son jumped up in fear and turned around. When he did, he expected to see a young man with a spear that was ready to cut him down again.

However, this time, he saw none other than his own father. Noticing his father, the young man immediately started crying.

"Father! I was wrong, father. I was wrong. I won't do it ever again," he started shouting. "Please help me, father. I'm a bad man, I want to change, father. I want to become a decent human being again."

"What?" the old man looked at his son in confusion. His son was one that never even looked him in the eyes. In recent days, he had been too haughty and was treating everyone like garbage.

However, for some reason his son had suddenly changed his stance and was now asking to become a decent human.

The old man was surprised and wondered what had happened to his son. He tried asking his son, but his son would not open his mouth.

Later, he would come to find out that it had to do something with Ely's dao companion, but even then nothing fruitful would result from his investigation.

However, even if something did come from investigating, the only thing the old man would do is thank Ning and reward him for what he had done.

After all, that was the day the old man's son changed his ways and became an honorable person that deserved praise and respect from everyone.

The old man's health became better and along with his son, he improved his wealth even more. As an immortal, the old man would go on to live for another few hundred thousand years, dying only to a lightning tribulation that would come when he tries to break through to the Immortal Saint realm.

His son would go on to be just as great as his father, improving their wealth even more and having his own son that would help him in the family.

The Gallow family would continue to prosper for hundreds of thousands of years more, and they would all look back on this fateful day as being the turning point that brought them to where they were.

Ning and Ely got on a big flying boat commercially used by cultivators to travel between cities.

Ely had her own boat, but she wanted to spend some time with Ning, instead of flying the thing, so they chose a public one that carried civilians as well.

"This place is not bad," Ning said as he looked at the secluded seats they were given. There was no ceiling or walls on the boat's deck, so Ning could see the scenery far away and around them.

"A lot fewer mountains than I would've expected. Most cultivation worlds usually have a lot of mountain ranges," he said.

"Are you really not going to tell me where we are going?" Ely asked.

"I can," Ning said. "It's a city on another continent. I don't think you will know of it. It's called Baelon city."

"Which continent?" she asked.

"The Blackspire continent," Ning said. "Have you been there before? No right? You should have been stuck here for most of your life here."

"No, I've rarely left the city even. The only time I got to leave was in some sort of competition or showing where I would have to make artifacts to earn some prize," she said.

"Oh, did you win?" Ning asked.

"What do you think?" Ely asked with a proud face. "Against my system, none of the other participants had a chance."

"Woah, good job," Ning said. "I'm proud of you."

"Hmph, you're just patronizing me now," Ely said jokingly.

Ning chuckled as well. "Ah right, I… I heard about your brother. I'm sorry," he said.

"It's alright. I've come to terms with his death already," Ely said. "It was a sad death, but he was surrounded by his family when he died, so I'm sure his final seconds were filled with happy thoughts."

Ning nodded. "Do you want to go visit your niece and nephews?" he asked. "I can take you there."

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"Not right now," Ely said. "I've been away from their life for so long that they don't feel like families to me anymore. Just relatives."

She leaned her head against his shoulders. "For now, you are the only family I have."

Ning sighed when he heard the small bit of sadness in her voice. He was about to say something when he remembered.

"Wait, don't you have a family back on Earth?" he asked.

"Earth?" Ely asked. She tried to remember back to Earth, but the memories just weren't there. It had been many years since she had been away from earth, so she couldn't remember it at all.

"Let me help you remember," Ning said as he touched her head. He quickly asked the system to return her memories of her life on Earth.

Memories of lost days flashed before Ely's eyes as tears rolled down her cheeks without her even realizing it.

She saw her mother, the hardworking old woman who would always stay by her side on her sick days.

She remembered her elder brother who started working from a very young age to provide for their family because her medicines cost a lot of money.

Most of her own memories were a blur in her mind. The number of days she had spent inside the room, couped up due to her sickness far outscored the number of days she did see the outside world.

Most of her days were spent watching TV in her room, and that was most of the memories she had.

"I'm sorry, I should have asked you before giving you the memories," Ning said when he saw her tear up.

Ely's tears were falling from her eyes, dripping sideways along her cheeks before falling onto Ning''s shoulders.

He quickly wiped her tears off.

"Thank you," Ely said softly. "I didn't remember I had such a fond memory of my mother and my brother."

"Did you not have a father?" Ning asked.

"No, he died shortly after I was born," Ely said. "He had the same immunodeficiency disease as I did, only mine was worse. He lived to be far older than I ever could."

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"I'm happy he did. I wouldn't have had the chance to meet such lucky women like you if not for him," Ning said.

Ely chuckled a little. "It's funny, isn't it? I lost my father early on in my previous life, and then I lost my mother early on in this life. It's like the world wants me to only have a single parent in either of my lives."

"And now, even those parents are dead," Ely said. "I guess you really are the only family I've got."

"Hmm… I'm not so sure about that," Ning said as he quickly asked the system for some information.

Once he got the information back, he asked. "So… I have good news and bad news. What do you want to hear first?"

"Good and bad news? What's it about?" she asked.

"Just choose one for now," Ning said.

"Sure, bad news I guess. I don't want the good news to be undervalued by the bad news," she said.

"Okay, so… I'm sorry, but it seems your mother died as well," Ning said with a somber voice.

"Are you joking with me right now?" Ely got a little angry. "What's the point of telling me something like that when I'm already sad about it."

"Well… she was alive until a few years ago," Ning said.

"Huh? What do you mean she was alive? How could she live for such a long time?" she asked.

"It's not a long time, at least not for earth. It has only been 6 years since you died on earth," Ning said.

"What? How is that possible?" Ely looked stupefied. "That can't be true."

"It is," Ning said.

"But… how?" she asked.

"It's a little tricky to explain," Ning said.

"Okay, then tell me what the good news is?" she asked.

"Right, here's the good news," Ning said. "Your brother is still alive, and he is doing quite well for himself."

My brother… is alive?" Ely couldn't believe it. "You don't mean my brother from Earth, right? That can't be true. It's been so many years."

"As I said, it has only been 6 years or so since you died. 7 years since I died. You must've died before the portals started appearing," Ning said.

"Portals?" Ely asked.

"I'll explain everything later. I still have my experience back on earth to share with you."

"YOU'VE BEEN TO EARTH?" Ely shouted in surprise, catching the attention of the other passengers, who showed dissatisfied faces.

"Sorry," Ely said meekly before trying to hide her face. "Is it really true?"

"Yes, it's true. Would I ever lie to you?" he asked.

"No…" she said, but she still found it hard to believe.

"If you don't believe me, we can go back right now," Ning said. "Although I would like to stay here for a while. Once I go back, there will be responsibilities thrust upon me that I won't be able to ignore."

"This is the only time I can ignore them without having to worry," he said.

"So you plan on staying here for a while?" Ely asked.

"Yes," Ning said. "A single day on Earth is something like 420 days anyway now, so I can spend years here and only a month or two would have passed back on earth."

Ely was still shocked about it all. "Tell me about it. We have time now," she said. "Wait no, actually, tell me everything from the start. Since the day you left, what happened?"

"Sure," Ning said and started explaining everything about his journey after he had gone through the portal in Kumia.

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He told her about Vilmore, Alexis, the zombie planet, Genesis, Nulwurn and the little princess, the slime, Saphandra, about the games he played, and finally Earth.

Ely leaned on his shoulder as she listened to Ning say about all of it. "You must have cared about all of them," said.

"I… do," Ning said.

"Do you want to go back and see how they are doing soon?" she asked.

Ning shook his head. "I can't," he said. "By now, they are all dead. The only one of them that is possibly still alive is the red dragon. She is nigh immortal, but I don't think she really cares if I go back to visit her or not. I might go back to see how she's doing, but the others have already died by now, so I don't really want to go back if I can."

"I see," Ely said. "Well, you can decide if you want to or not later. For now, you don't have to."

Ning smiled and put his arm around her as he rubbed her shoulders. Ely immediately moved away from him. "What the hell is up with your body anyway? It's so hard that it doesn't even feel good to lean on," she said.

"Haha, is that so? My body is super strong right now, you know," Ning said. "But if you want, I can make it feel soft."

"Yes, do that, please. I want to hold you without it hurting me back," she said.

"Sure," Ning made his body feel a little softer than it really was. He added a bit of fat between his muscles to make it feel not as strong.

Ely tried leaning back and smiled. "This is so much better," she said. "Speaking of which, can you also age yourself a little."

"Huh? Why?" Ning asked.

"I… I don't want to look older than you," she said meekly. "It feels weird since I've aged so much, but you haven't even aged a day."

Ning chuckled. "If its any consolation, you don't look a day older than 25 to me," he said.

"And you look 18, so you should change," she said.

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"Sure, sure," Ning said and quickly aged up his body. He didn't look that much different, but he stopped looking like someone who had been a child until a few years ago.

They talked for a few hours more and the flying boat landed. They left the boat and walked into the city.

"Where are we going now?" Ely asked.

"To the teleportation formation. It will take us to the Blackspire continent from here," Ning said.

"Can't you just take me there?" she asked.

"Nope," Ning said. "You have to learn to appreciate the adventure, Ely. You will never make it as a good adventurer if all you can think of is the destination."

"Yeah, yeah, like I'm ever going to be one," she said.

"Why not?" Ning asked. "You and I will be together forever, and you will roam the stars with me. Or do you not want to?"

"Of course, I want to," Ely said. "What else can I do with my long life anyway? Just cultivate and live."

Ning smiled. "Well, I for one am glad you can cultivate. Qi is the only energy that gives someone immortality and I'm thankful for that," Ning said. "I suppose mana does that too, but it's really hard to get to that level with mana, unlike Qi."

"Hmm, I should bring grandmother and the rest here too someday after we've returned. Your brother can come too," Ning said.

"If it's that easy then we should," Ely said.

They arrived outside of a massively barricaded landmark with very few people going in and out of it.

"Do you guys have some sort of ticket system or something?" Ning asked.

"Right there," one of the guards said, that stood outside the only gate that led inside.

Ning walked over to the building the guard pointed to which was where the payment was done for the teleportation. He bought two tickets for himself and Ely, spending a few thousand Immortal spirit stones.

"How are you so rich? I thought you couldn't make spirit stones," Ely asked.

"Hehe, I stole it off of that Gallow guy after I beat him up. Turns out, he has a few nice things in his storage bag," Ning said. "Now, let's go. I can't wait to go over to the other continent."

The world of Gionia was divided into 3 different continents, with various other islands spread around the world.

The planet itself was one and a half times the size of Earth, making it larger in general.

The Blackspire continent was one of the 3 continents and was the strongest continent in terms of how many experts lived there.

The whole continent was ruled by the BlackSpire dynasty, which was the reason why this unified piece of land had such strong people.

With rarely any battle or war happening under the Blackwing Emperor's watch, the continent got to improve on its own.

The silver light flashed from the stone formation on top of which Ning, Ely, and a whole lot of other people stood to teleport over to that very continent.

When they arrived, they looked around with a bit of awe. They walked out of the building only to see dark skies around them.

"I didn't think I would have ever come to this continent for another thousand or so years," Ely said.

"You will be able to go wherever you want now. Let's go get a place to stay for now. I will help you cultivate a little, and then a few days later we will have to leave again," Ning said.

"Okay," Ely said.

The current city they were in was the easternmost city of the entire continent so they would have to use fewer resources to teleport around.

Ning found something called the Cultivation Pavilion where one could rent a place for a couple of weeks at a time.

Ning took a couples room for 2 weeks of time. After going to the room, he immediately bought a very expensive cultivation technique that could make Immortal Emperors tremble in greed if they ever learned about it.

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Once he bought it, he gave it to Ely, who quickly started cultivating it.

2 Weeks passed in a flash and Ely broke through 2 minor realms. Just one more minor realms and she would reach the High Immortal realm as well.

She would have already reached the High Immortal realm had she not spent a lot of the time not cultivating. Since she had reunited with Ning after a very long time, she couldn't just keep cultivating all day long.

The pair left the Cultivation pavilion and made their way toward another flying boat service that would take them where they wanted to go.

"Where are we going again?" Ely asked.

"Uh… some city called Baelon City. It should be… Southwest from here," Ning said. "Depending on the speed of the boat we get on to, we should reach it by sunrise tomorrow morning."

"I see. So an entire day on the boat again, huh? You can just take me there right now," she said.

"But it's fun this way, and besides, I don't want to go there just yet. I still want to spend some time with you," Ning said.

"2 weeks of alone time, and you're still not happy," Ely said with slight laughter in her words.

"I could spend an eternity with you and I would still not be satisfied," Ning said.

Ely punched him lightly. "Don't say such things, it's embarrassing," she said while blushing a little.

Ning chuckled this time around. "Come, we will miss our ride."

The two of them got onto a boat that was preparing to leave. They were a little late, so they had to sit in the middle, where they could hear everyone and everyone could hear them.

They weren't even allowed to use any type of formation on board as per the rules of the boat, so Ely couldn't bring out her noise-blocking formation that she had ready to deploy.

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"It's alright," Ning said. "I can stop all sounds for you."

With a single thought, his body started creating the same noise as everything around them, but instead, it was creating an inverted phase, so instead of adding onto the sound, it canceled it out.

Ely was surprised by the sudden silence from around her. She looked around to see, but people were clearly still speaking and moving, and the air was still blowing through the ship, and yet not a single sound could be heard.

It didn't take her long to realize that she couldn't hear the noises her own body made. The rustling of the clothes or her hands clapping together, none of those sounds could be heard at all.

"Our voices should be the only thing we will hear for now," Ning said. "I've kept the range pretty small so others won't know it."

"Is that some sort of technique?" she asked. She was grateful she hadn't gone deaf all of a sudden.

"A system skill, yes," Ning said. "I bought it back in Vilmore when I had to learn to destroy things using sound by learning their resonant frequency and creating the same noise to destabilize them."

"Sounds like science. I suppose I can understand it somewhat," she said.

"It's alright if you don't," Ning said.

The flying ship took off and the two of them continued talking. Since there was nothing else to do for the next 24 hours or so, this was the only way they could spend their time.

There wasn't much they could talk about now that they had been together for 2 weeks already. To keep the conversation going, Ely started asking about their future, and what they were going to do.

"What about after earth? Do we just come back here?" she asked. "I don't know what I could do on earth for thousands of years really."

"You don't have to stay on earth. We can go to a billion different planets in a million different galaxies in hundreds of universes," Ning said. "If you ever feel like it gets boring, then it's easy. I just erase our memories and we can start over again," Ning said.

"That doesn't sound so bad, but… just us two?" Ely asked.

"Who else would you want to take with us?" Ning asked.

"What about our children? Have you not made any plans for getting some children?" Ely asked.

"Uh… Children?" Ning hesitated.

Ning felt a little awkward talking about children. Not that he was awkward about having some, but rather because he had never even given it a thought.

For some reason, he still thought of himself as a young man, rather than someone who had lived for hundreds of thousands of years.

"What? Do you not want kids?" Ely asked. "It is alright if you don't want to, but I just… never mind."

"No, no," Ning said quickly. "I'm not against the idea of having some kids, but not right now. I don't want to have kids, only to watch them grow old before I get to spend some time with them."

"There is something I still have to do which will make me feel more secure to have kids, and then I will think about it," he said.

"Alright, it's settled then," Ely said. "So, what is this thing you have to do?"

"Hmm… I wonder if I should tell you," Ning thought slightly.

"Why not?" Ely asked.

"It's one of the things I have not told you and I want it to remain a surprise until the last day," he said.

"How much more surprise do I need? It's already a mystery why we are even going to the Baelon city," Ely said.

"This one is definitely worth it, I promise," Ning said. It would be a surprise to him if he could achieve it. For now, he could only hope to be able to one day.

The sun slowly moved west as they flew through the sky. The ship had to stop multiple times to drop off and pick up some more people, which was why the travel was going to take an entire day.

"It's no different than an airplane back on earth," Ely sighed. She was getting bored staying in this one place, waiting for the boat to start moving again.

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"Ooh, I don't think you'll be bored now though," Ning said.

Ely flinched a little when all the sound suddenly came back, and she could hear the noise everyone else had to listen to for the entire journey.

"You should have told me you were going to remove the silence before doing it," she said loudly.

"Sorry, sorry," Ning said softly. "But I thought you would want to see this."

8 different masked individuals walked up the boat at once holding swords and spears in their hands.

"What's happening?" Ely softly asked.

"How should I know? They just came here," Ning said.

"But you know everything," Ely said.

"I choose not to. It's boring that way," Ning said. "They will tell us anyway."

"Everyone! Please remain quiet!" the man at the front with a silver sword in his hands spoke. "We are the Nine Marauders. We have taken this boat hostage and alongside it, you all are—"

"Why are there only 8 of you?" Ning spoke up from the middle of the group.

"I told you to remain quiet. We are taking you as hostage today so that—"

"You still haven't answered me," Ning said. "Can it be that your group can't count? In that case, let me tell you that there are only 8 of you, not 9."

"Bastard! I told you to shut up. Speak again and I will gut you like a fish," the man got angry. He even showed off his True Immortal cultivation base to scare off anyone else from speaking.

"As I was saying, we are the Nine Marauders and today you are our hostage. Please do not act hastily, or we will have to kill you all. For now, just hand over your belongings," the man said.

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The 7 others immediately moved out from behind him and started taking away people's storage bags.

The group slowly moved from the front to the back. A few of the people tried to resist a little, but a single sword or spear pointed at them made them let go of any storage bags they had on them.

One of the 8 people came up to Ning with a small bag in his hands filled with the storage bags he had taken away.

Ning looked at the bag and smiled. "Thank you," he said as he picked one. "I really needed it. I was quite poor."

The man immediately pulled out a sword. "Bastard! You have played enough. Give your storage bag or you will die," the man said.

"Geez," Ning said as he threw the storage bag in. "Alright, tell me why you are called the Nine Marauders when you are only 8 and I will give you my bag. That's a good deal right? It can't be that you are stupid enough to make such an obvious—"

Ning heard the blade shatter on his body. "—mistake…" He looked at the broken shards of the sword and sighed.

"You are quite trigger-happy, aren't you? Wanting to kill someone just for refusing to part with their belonging," Ning said.

"Y-y-you… wh— how did you?" the man trembled as he fell back in fear.

Ning slowly stood up and walked towards the man that was trying to crawl away. Before the man could get very far away, Ning caught him by his robes and pulled him up.

"Tell me, can you breathe in outer space?" he asked.

"Wh— what?" the man asked.

"Breathe, in outer space. Can you do— actually, you know what? I don't care," he said as he flew 10 meters into the air with the man. Then, in one swift motion, he swung his arm towards the sky, sending the man flying into the stratosphere, going all the way out into outer space.

Ning looked up and even to his eyes the man vanished.

"Whooo… he went so far away," He said before looking back down at all the horrified marauders and passengers altogether.

He ignored the passengers and turned towards the Marauders' leader who was scared out of his mind too.

"Tell me," Ning asked. "Since you just lost a person, you are going to change your name soon, right?"

The leaders of the Marauders stepped back in fear, but Ning kept moving forward toward him.

"Are you not going to answer?" he asked. "Where's your 9th Marauder?"

"He-he-he… he is imprisoned," the leader said.

"Oh, so you do have nine," Ning said. "And you are trying to take us hostage because?"

"W-we wanted to f-free our brother," the leader said.

"Ah, and you were going to use us as leverage, huh?" Ning said, understanding the situation. "So, why was your brother imprisoned? Did he do something bad?"

"He… he did nothing wrong," the leader said.

"Hmm…" Ning felt that hard to believe so he quickly checked himself. "I see, so looting people alone on the road, and even killing them when they don't give it to you is considering nothing wrong? I guess I know what to do with you seven then.'

The leader freaked out and pointed his spear forward hopelessly. "Wh-what do you plan on doing?" he asked.

"Don't worry, it's nothing wrong," Ning said as he walked forward. The spear touched his chest but it was only forced back. The spear had met something that was both unstoppable and immovable.

The blade's tip bent backward as it couldn't even leave a single scratch on Ning's body.

"Alright, I will give you one chance," Ning said. "Throw away your weapons and give yourself up to the authorities here. If you do so, I won't kill you."

The leader was a little confused and so were the others behind him. They were simply too scared to understand just what Ning was saying.

"NOW!" Ning shouted at them.

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"They… they will kill us if we go," the leader said. "They are already going to execute our other brother."

Ning's eyes narrowed. "And you think I care?" he asked. "Do what I say or I will execute you all myself."

The group couldn't find the will to resist, even though it was the only way to protect themselves.

However, when the tiniest bit of resistance was building up in them, Ning revealed his cultivation base.

At that moment, the group of True immortals fell to the floor like fish out of water. They trembled so hard that the other passengers could hear their teeth clatter in fear.

They had no idea what was happening as Ning's cultivation base was only affecting the Marauders.

Without hesitation, they all willingly went to the Blackspire guards to give themselves up.

Ning watched them get taken away and returned to his seat. The other passenger thanked him and even tried to talk to him to form some connection, but Ning only smiled and nodded before turning away.

"Just how strong have you gotten before you got back?" she asked. "You must be Immortal King or Immortal Emperor level by now."

"I don't think you can measure my strength with the Qi system anymore. At least not the system of this Universe," Ning said.

"What… does that mean? Are you saying that you are stronger than Immortal Emperor? Or even Immortal Gods?" she asked.

"Pretty much," Ning said.

"Can I even ever catch up to you?" Ely asked with a slightly fearful look on her face.

"I don't think that's possible for anyone," Ning said. "Not unless they are users of the Energy system themselves."

"I wonder if I can ever get one too," Ely said. "The Artifact system is good and all, but it is nowhere near as robust as yours."

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"Hmm… I wonder if a system owner can get the energy system," Ning thought to himself. "Let me ask."

Ning quickly asked the system if it was possible for Ely to ever get the Energy system or not.

It is possible, even if one does have another system attached to their soul. As long as there is a soul, one can get the Energy system

"Ooh, he says you can. I wonder if I can ever find you one," Ning told Ely.

However, the person getting the system must have the two requirements fulfilled. If they have, the system will find them itself

"Two requirements… right, what were they again? One was something like having a terrible previous life?" Ning asked.

Yes. As long as your life has been nothing but tragedy prior to this and it was fated that you would die without ever being truly happy, you have a chance at getting the Energy system.

"Die without ever being happy…" Ning thought to himself. "Wait… was I fated to die in the Dungeon Break? Is that it? Did the system come before I could die then?"

The system cannot tell you about a potential timeline that did not happen.

"Either way, I was going to die shortly after," Ning thought. "And what was the 2nd rule? You never told me, right?"

The creator hasn't allowed the system itself to know exactly what the 2nd rule is. So, the system is unable to tell you.

"Will I ever get to know the reason? Maybe I will have to ask the creator himself if I ever do meet him," Ning thought. "Goddammit, but the damn bastard lives outside the multiverse. Isn't that the place where I die if I go? Dammit."

"Why are you angry all of a sudden?" Ely asked.

"Sigh, it's nothing. Never mind," Ning said.

"Yeah, you shouldn't be so angry. You have no reason to be angry anyway. You are the strongest person in this entire world," Ely said proudly.

"Well, just in this tiny little sphere alright. There are beings millions of times stronger than me that will obliterate me in the blink of an eye," Ning said.

"How can that be?" Ely said. "Who can do that?"

"Wills," Ning said. "There are many wills out there, even Constellation wills that can do that to me. Not to mention, coming across a rogue Galactic will or Universal Will that knows what I am will mean absolute misfortune for someone like me," Ning said.

"I'm sure it will be fine," Ely said. "What are the chances of something like that happening anyway?"

The boat flew through the night sky, slightly behind schedule but not by much. Any hour after sunrise, they would reach their destination, Baelon city.

For the remainder of the time, Ely and Ning simply talked to each other as they waited.

Sun rose in the Baelon city as morning came. The city never settled even at the night, but there was a certain kind of rush during the morning as everyone, including the ones that were open all night, had a fresh start to their day.

A young-looking man with blonde hair walked up to a building and shut down the formation that protected the building from thieves at night.

Once the barrier came down, it was time to open his flower shop.

He brought out bouquet after bouquet of flowers from his storage bag and placed it all on display. Each one of them was exquisite to the extreme. They seemed to have been plucked at the perfect time, making them all the more alluring.

"Your flowers are as good as ever, brother," one of the shopkeepers to the side that was watering the road in front of his shop said.

"Haha, they did come out quite good, didn't they?" the blond-haired young man said.

"You must be proud of your work," the shopkeeper said.

"Oh no," the young man said. "I barely do anything but pluck them at the right time. It's my wife that does all the tough parts from growing them to rearing them."

"Haha, I would love to meet sister sometimes. Why don't you bring her along?" the shopkeeper asked.

"I can't," the young man said. "She's busy taking care of our children. We can't really leave them until they have reached a certain cultivation realm, you know."

"Ah right, I usually forget about that. Anyway, good luck on today's sale," the shopkeeper said and walked back.

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"Good luck to you too, brother," the young man said and brought out his own bucket of water to water the front of his shop so there wouldn't be any dust.

Even before he could do that, however, the customers had already started arriving.

The young man was all alone, so he was forced to go handle his business. He sold a few flowers for a costly price and when he was going to leave, another customer would arrive.

There was a certain uniqueness to his flowers that was hard to find elsewhere. All of the flowers he grew were extremely important in Alchemy, so people would come from all around to find these rare flowers.

Thanks to this business, he had been able to make a good life of his own at this place.

A few humans and a few beasts came to buy the flowers, and the young man monotonously sold them all.

'I guess they will have to deal with the dirt then,' he thought. 'Maybe I should simply create a barrier to stop it all.'

He ignored his own thought and continued selling the flowers. When the amount got low, he would pull out some more flowers from his storage bag and place them out again. As such, his shop was never really out of flowers.

"How much for this Blue Spirit Lily?" someone asked him.

"12 Immortal spirit stones if you buy one. 132 Immortal Spirit stones, if you buy a dozen," the young man said.

"That's quite expensive for a flower that's so easy to grow," the person said.

"It's not really that easy, sir. It takes a lot of time to grow these things. If it were easy, you would find them everywhere," he said as he brought out some flowers to fill the space where the flowers were missing on the display.

"Hmm… what about this Shadow Orchid? That should be cheaper right?" the voice asked again.

"Shadow Orchid go for 10 a piece. 110 for a dozen," the young man said.

"Still so expensive, huh?" the voice said. "Is there no discount?"

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"I'm afraid there is no discount, sir," the young man said. "My wife and I work hard to grow these things. The price we are selling at is already discounted."

"Okay, then what about a friend's discount? Do you have such a thing?" the voice asked.

"No, we don't have a friend's discount," the young man replied without even thinking. However, after replying, he realized what he was saying.

"Wait… friend's discount?" he thought with a confused expression. He was about to turn around to see who was talking when a new voice spoke up.

"What about a master's discount? Surely you have something like that, right?"

The young man's expression froze when he heard the voice. A face popped up in his head the moment he heard the voice.

"No way…" he thought as he slowly turned around. When he did, he saw Ning standing outside of his shop with Ely by his side, both smiling from ear to ear.

"… Master? Is that you?" the young man asked with disbelief clear on his face. Before he could even confirm the truth, tears were already rolling down his face.

Ning's smile widened when he heard that. "Yes, it's me," he said.

The young man jumped out of the shop and jumped directly onto Ning, grabbing him for a full-on hug as he teared up.

"Master, I missed you," he shouted.

Ning felt slightly emotional and patted the young man's back. "I missed you too, Aegis. I'm glad to see how well you are doing," he said.

Aegis moved back and wiped his tears. "It's all because of you, anyway. If not for the books you left behind for little Anya, I would have never been able to do what I have done right now," he said.

"Still, I'm proud of what you have done with yourself," Ning said.

Aegis nodded and wiped his tears. "It is good to see you too, mistress," he said to Ely.

"I thought I told you not to call me that, especially since Ning freed you all," Ely said.

"Master can decide whether or not to call us his beast," Aegis said. "Same as we can decide whether or not he is our master."

Aegis closed the shop early that day before bringing Ning and Ely to his home.

He lived in a small plot of land with a 2 story house with a relatively big backyard.

"Shaana! Shaana! Look who's here!" he excitedly walked into his house and called for his wife.

"Honey? Why are you home early?" a voice came from the other side as a blonde-haired lady walked out of a room.

"Look!" Aegis spoke up again.

The young woman saw the two humans and her eyes went wide. "Is that you, mistress?" she asked with a look of surprise and walked out.

"Hey, Shaana. It's been a while, hasn't it?" Ely said.

"It sure has, mistress," the woman said.

"Shaana, how come you're not greeting my master, and only the mistress?" Aegis asked.

"Master?" the woman finally looked at Ning and realized who he was. "Ah! My apologies, master. Please forgive this fool for not recognizing you."

"No, no, it's fine. You don't have to recognize me. You probably haven't seen me that many times, have you? Also, don't call me master. I keep telling Aegis the same, but he doesn't listen to me," Ning said.

"Please do not take away my pleasure to call you master. That's the highest achievement I can think of for someone like me," the young woman said.

Ning couldn't help but smile. "You're of the same species as Aegis, aren't you? You were back in that beast's realm, right?" he asked.

"I am, master," Shaana said.

"I'm happy my Aegis managed to find someone like you. Thank you for taking care of him when I was gone," Ning said.

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"Master, come. There are more here you should meet," Aegis said before bringing him to the back of the house.

"Haana, Raelis, gather up," Aegis called out the moment he reached outside.

"What is it, father?"

"Father? You're home early."

Two voices came from the back of the house. Ning walked out to see two young Golden Shelled beetles walking away from the flower field.

"Are these… your children?" Ning asked with a surprised look on his face.

"Yes, master," Aegis said. He turned around towards his children and said, "Look who came to visit us. This is Ning, my master that I've told you about so many times."

"Oh!" one of them exclaimed.

"Father's… master? The one that saved your planet?" the other one asked.

"No, I was not the one who saved the planet," Ning said. "It was someone else."

"Where are your manners? Greet the guest first," Aegis told his children.

"Greetings, seniors," both of them said at the same time.

"It's nice to meet you two," Ning said.

"They're quite cute," Ely said from the side. "How old are they?"

"The older one, Haana is nearly 100 years old, and the younger one Raelis is only 70 years old," Aegis said.

"Oh, they're very young," Ely said.

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Ning had to shake his head to throw off any confusion he was feeling from hearing the number and had to remember that this was an immortal world, where a person that was a few thousand years old would still be considered young.

"I see they've reached the Nascent soul realm. It won't be much longer before they can take a human form too," Ning said.

"We are waiting for just that, master," Aegis said. "The immortal world accepts beasts in their society, but it still feels awkward to send them out into the world when everyone else looks like humans."

"That's why I've instead let them grow flowers for the shop while they wait to get a human form."

"Not bad," Ning said as he looked at the two kids. He walked up to the two and rubbed their head before bringing out a book from his storage.

"Read this and practice it. You will be able to get a human form very quickly," Ning said.

"Really?" Haana was surprised and quickly took the book. She started reading it right there without letting her little brother see it.

"Master, what is that?" Aegis asked.

"You should read it too when you have the time," he said. "For now, let's leave the children to it. Come, I want to talk to you about your life here."

They left the children and went into the house to talk some more.

Aegis told him about what he had been doing after he reached the Immortal world. Since there wasn't much he could do with his slowed-down progress, he had to find a way to support himself and his wife he had brought along.

Fortunately, he had read Anya's books and knew how to grow special plants. As such, he could start a flower shop using the flowers in his own garden.

Ever since then, his life had been slow with nothing much to do. It was only after his financial status was stable that he decided to have some kids with his partner.

Ning told his half of the story and how he had come looking for them. Aegis felt warmhearted to realize that he was the 2nd person Ning had sought out, right after his own partner.

"What about Night and Blue, master? Do you know where they are?" Aegis asked.

"I do," Ning said. "But they're not in this world. They are in two separate worlds that are quite far away from here."

'I see, so… does that mean it will take time before you go to them?" Aegis asked.

"Haha, no. I can go there right now if I wanted to," Ning said. "But I have something else I want to do before I go there. They have waited for so long, I'm sure they can wait a few more years."

"They can," Aegis nodded. He trusted his two brothers more than anyone else. "But what is it that you want to do, master?"

"I'm planning on creating a place, a safe haven for everyone from Kumia so that they will no longer be separated when they ascend to immortality."

Ning stayed with Aegis for a little while longer, helping him where he could. However, after a few days, he had to leave to find the place he had promised.

After all, Dahlia and everyone else that was still back in Kumia was waiting for him. He had no plans of staying here since he still had family back on earth.

As a result, he wished to leave them with something that could help them live safely for a very long time.

"I'll be back in a month or two to take you all," Ning told Aegis before leaving. Aegis secretly wanted to leave with his master, to go on an adventure again. However, he was too old for that. He needed to look after his children now. So, he could only wait for his master to come and take him away.

Ning sat at the back of a carriage with Ely, going out of the city.

"What are you doing?" Ely asked, seeing that Ning was lost in his own thought.

"I'm looking for a perfect place where everyone can stay at," he said. "This is certainly the best world for that, but I can't find a place that is empty enough. I might have to take over a city or something."

"Oh, is this the best world out there? Did I luck out by coming here?" Ely asked.

"One of the best," Ning said. "There are thousands of planets with Qi in this galaxy, and of them, hundreds have Immortal Qi. Even amongst them, there are exactly 13 planets that have the maximum Qi a planet can hold in this universe. This one happens to be one of them."

"So, what exactly are you looking for?" Ely asked. "You must have a list of criteria or something to select the land right?"

"I do. First of all, it had to be large enough to host an entire city's worth of people while being far away from any other city so they can live in peace. I want some sort of natural defense like the Origin was in Kumia, but—"

Ning paused. "Wait, can I maybe turn the Origin of this planet into the same?" he wondered.

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"Oh, that's not a bad idea," Ely said. "Where is the Origin?"

Ning shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "The system won't tell me. It's one of the few things it still won't tell me still."

"How did you find the last one?" Ely asked.

"Trial and error," Ning replied. "I will have to go look for a place with a lot of Qi to see if it is the location or not."

"You have somewhere to start then," Ely said. "Let's just go find such a place."

Ning thought for a moment and asked the system a series of questions to figure out something. When he did, he frowned a little.

"I found 2 locations that have the potential to be the Origin," Ning said with a sigh.

"Why do you sound dejected instead of Happy?" Ely asked.

"Well, it's because the locations are quite dejecting," Ning said.

"What? Are they in a graveyard or in the middle of the ocean or something?" Ely asked.

"No," Ning said. "They are in a more troublesome location."

Ely was very curious now. "What exactly is this place that makes you act this way?" she asked.

"Well, one of those locations is right in this continent, at the heart of the continent too, in the Nightfall City," Ning said.

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"Nightfall city…" Ely thought for a bit. She felt like she had heard of the name before somewhere. "Wait, isn't that the Capital of the Blackspire dynasty? That's the capital of this entire continent."

"Yes," Ning said. "And if what I found out is true, then the Blackspire Dynasty's royal palace is built around the secret realm that holds the Origin of this planet."

Ely gasped when she heard that. "No way!" she said. "Doesn't that mean that you will have to… "

"Kick them out? Yes," Ning said with a bitter smile on his face. "I will have the make the rulers of this continent leave their home if I want to find a place for my people to live in."

"That… doesn't sound very fun to do," Ely said. She didn't doubt if Ning could do that or not. There was no question regarding that. However, the problem came with the fact that if Ning did evict the rulers from their own land, the other people would notice this and realize that someone else must be living there.

Not only that, the Blackspire Dynasty itself would want to go back to their ancestral land and would thus launch an attack on his people frequently.

It would be hard to keep them safe if people were constantly trying to look for them and entered this secret realm. if someone did manage and learn how great the Origin was, it would be disastrous for anyone living there.

"But I'll still have to check," Ning thought to himself. "If it's not, great. If it is… then we will have to persuade the Immortal Emperor to let them stay there. Dammit, should I just dominate his mind and make him my servant? I wonder how much energy I will have to spend if I ever tried to do that."

Ely grabbed his palms. "Let's think about it when we get there, okay? There is nothing you should be worrying about, anyway," she said.

"Sigh, you're right," Ning said. "I don't have anything to worry about."

From the carriage, they switched over to a boat after reaching the next city, which flew through the night to arrive at the Nightfall city before dawn had even arrived.

Ning went around the city to find them a room to stay in. "Let's just rest for now," Ely said. "You can check out if the Origin is there or not tomorrow."

"I know," Ning said and lay on the bed. "I wasn't planning on going there right away. I will go later once the sun comes up."

Ning's mind still worked to find a workaround if the situation did come to be true as he imagined.

'Sigh, I am overthinking this. I will find out tomorrow anyway.'

:)