Ning stayed on the island for over a month, trying to find a way out of there.

There was no ship or boats in that region of the ocean, so he was stuck there. He wanted to make a small raft, but he couldn't do that either as he had nothing to cut the trees with.

He simply spent his days there eating the fruit juices and waiting to see some sort of aid in the ocean. There was nothing else he could do on this small island.

Fortunately, the island wasn't that cold and it didn't rain at all, or he would have definitely gotten into a lot of problems there.

However, that was starting to get boring too, and Ning was getting ever so closer to closer to just teleporting away from this place.

That was, until one day something happened that shook the entire island.

Ning was using the sword the cut his fruit when suddenly he felt an earthquake hit the island. It was a strong shake and he couldn't remain standing at all. He fell onto the water and stayed there for a while.

"What… what's going on?" he looked around worriedly. The shaking continued for a while, making him stay there. If Ning were to guess, that was strong enough to topple skyscrapers in a modern city.

He felt himself slip away suddenly as he was pulled along with the waves. His weight however made it so that the sword slowly slipped away from the wave, falling to the sand below.

Ning tried to remove his hands from the sword when he realized what was happening. The water had disappeared from the shore and so much more of the beach was visible.

"Is it a tsunami?" Ning thought. He knew that after an earthquake, especially this close to the ocean, there was always the chance of a tsunami.

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Not only that, the water level receding meant that the tsunami was definitely coming. Ning decided to prepare for it, but he wasn't sure how he could do it at all.

How could he, a normal human at the moment, prepare himself for a tsunami on a small island with nothing but small coconut trees?

Should he climb his way to the top of the trees? Maybe the fact that they were standing meant that they were strong enough to handle these situations.

Ning tried to run for the trees but he stopped because he noticed something. About 20 or so meters from where he was in the direction of the receding water, he noticed a thin perimeter in the sand where the water simply dropped instead of moving back.

"What?" Ning thought with a confused look as he noticed that the perimeter went around the island.

As he followed the drop with his eyes, he realized something that he hadn't realized before.

It was not that the water was receding at all, but the fact that the whole land was rising up from the ocean.

"What the hell is going o—"

His words stuck in his mouth as something rose from the ocean in the distance. A massive head popped out from the water with something long attached to it.

Ning's eyes went wide when he realized that was a turtle head.

"Am I… am I standing on top of a turtle?" he couldn't help but ask himself. Was he going to die from the beast?

Just as he was feeling scared, something else appeared to get rid of his fear of the turtle. Not because he felt he was safe from the turtle now, but because his fear was replaced. The thing that appeared was a massive illusory snake that was nearly 10 times the size of the massive turtle he was on.

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Now that Ning looked at the head of the turtle, the thing that seemed to be sticking out of it was the snake's head, which seemed to have chomped off.

The snake was dead, but it was still there to fight back one more time.

The snake's illusory body hissed listlessly as it didn't know what to do. Its instinct kicked in and it attacked the first thing it noticed, the turtle.

Suddenly, 5 massive blobs of water appeared in the air next to the turtle's head and it they suddenly shot out a massive amount of water at the snake.

In the next moment, each water blast left a hole in the snake's illusory body, which started disintegrating in the air and falling on top of Ning.

Ning put up his arms in a reflex and suddenly the sword that he had gripped tightly at some point in fear came along with his arm.

The illusory light simply passed through him like bits of light that weren't there to harm him at all.

Ning was surprised and thankful that he was safe. Then, he looked at the sword in his hand and realized that he was actually picking it up.

"But how?" he wondered. He let go of the sword and noticed that his palm was bloody. "I must have gripped it too hard."

He wondered if this was the same as Qi. If only he had known that so many days ago. "I should have tried to use it so much earlier," Ning thought.

He staggered a bit as the turtle's head went underwater. And then, it started moving. Ning watched as the ocean waves moved away in the distance and he realized he was finally moving away from this godforsaken place.

The turtle remained floating at the top and thankfully didn't go underwater as Ning's journey truly began in this world.

"Oh, I should go look out for some boats now," he thought. "Hopefully I can find some."

He quickly grabbed the sword and ran away from the beach towards the center of the island where the trees were.

He climbed up the tree and arrived at the top where he sat and watched all around him.

With him moving from this location, he was sure he would definitely find a place to depart soon enough.

Ning reached below the tree and grabbed onto one of the fruit before picking it. He used his sword to give it a slight cut and drank everything without wasting a single drop of the fruit.

He threw away the skin and watched the distant horizon to hopefully see some boat or ship.

It had been 3 weeks since the turtle started moving and Ning had once again gotten bored. All he did was stay on top of the tree and watched the ocean while occasionally eating the fruit.

Thankfully, the fruit wasn't as bad to eat as it used to be the first time around. He had eaten so much of the fruit that he had gotten used to it by now.

Ning no longer had to take a dump every time he drank the juices. By now, the liquid would stay in his body long enough that he could simply pee and e done with it.

Ning jumped from one tree and landed on the other one. His body felt supremely flexible and strong, something that should not be the case unless he was improving himself with the energy.

Ning couldn't help but wonder what energy he was absorbing from the juices of the fruit. He felt like he should know the answer, but given that he had removed all of his knowledge about the other energies, he was drawing a blank each time.

"I swear I saw this energy when I was in Genesis," Ning thought, but he still didn't remember it.

A few more days passed and Ning was getting tired of everything. He was on the verge of just giving up and teleporting to the closest land when he noticed something.

There was a small boat in the distance. It looked small from where he was, so he wasn't sure if he could tell the size or not.

He immediately jumped from the tree and ran up to a pile of leaves he had prepared long ago. He took a rock he had found and struck it hard with his sword.

He could see the sparks flying in the shadows as they fell on the leaves. He tried a few more times and got a fire going. He piled a few more leaves on top and climbed back on top of the closest tree.

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"HEY! HERE!" he shouted as loud as he could, hoping the people on that boat could hear his screams in the ocean.

He wasn't sure how far his shouts could travel, but given that it was an open ocean, he had very high hopes.

Black smoke started filling the sky, trailing behind him as the turtle continued moving through the ocean.

Ning continued shouting, but it didn't look like the people were listening at all. Let alone listening, they seemed to be drifting away.

"Wait, no!" Ning shouted and piled up some more leaves to create stronger smoke, but those people were definitely leaving.

Ning was worried that they would get far away, and then he would no longer get a chance to leave this island.

As he thought that, he noticed a small land on the horizon. That was the closest he had gotten to any single land since he had arrived here nearly 2 months ago.

"Hell no," he thought. "I am not gonna miss this."

He jumped down from the tall tree, landing on his own two feet as he ran towards the shore in the direction of the boat and the land.

He waited to see the direction of the turtle and realized that the turtle had still a few ways to go before it was close to the land.

As hours passed, the land came closer and closer to him, which was still many kilometers away.

Ning looked for the boats, but most of them had disappeared already.

"Dammit, no boats," he thought and looked towards the land in the distance that was definitely perpendicular in direction to the path of where the turtle was heading.

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"I'm not missing this," Ning thought. "Not a chance."

Without hesitation, he jumped into the waves on the beach and started swimming away. The water was cold, but that was surprisingly not very uncomfortable.

After a few strokes in the water, he realized that he didn't need to do much to stay afloat. All he had to do was hold onto his sword which floated on top of the water without sinking at all.

Ning could put his entire body's weight on the sword and it still wouldn't sink even the slightest.

"Haha!" Ning shouted and started swimming with just his legs while his body was on the flat side of the sword. He had to be careful not the cut himself, but that was about it.

Everything else from here on out was simple.

"I hope no sea beasts attack me though," he thought. He remembered the snake from long ago and shuddered. The giant snake was something that could wrap around the island at least 5 times.

If such massive beasts were here as well, it would be extremely problematic.

Fortunately, no beasts appeared at all. Ning continued swimming for hours and he didn't even notice a single fish.

The sun was starting to get low by now, but there was still enough light in the sky. And with that, he noticed a small fishing boat not far away from him.

"Help!" he shouted with a tired voice. Even if his body was strong, after swimming for so long, Ning was surprised at how weak he felt. "Help!"

He shouted a few more times before the fishermen saw him. They rowed their boat towards him and pulled him up onto their boat.

"Dear lord, young man. Are you okay?" one of the men asked.

Ning wanted to nod to say he was okay, but he was surprised that all he could do was shake from the cold.

"Let the young man heat up first," another man said. "Take off your clothes. They will only make you colder. Here, take this blanket."

Ning shook uncontrollably, but he managed to sneak a 'thank you' in his shaking.

Ning was brought to the shore around twilight and was taken into the fishermen's village.

"Young man, sit by the fire," the fishermen who saved him said as they placed him close to the bonfire that seemed to be placed in the center of the village.

Ning looked around, getting a distinct feeling of deja vu. It felt all so familiar to the Klavian village he had arrived all those years ago, with people that sat by the fire at night, eating fish.

"Can you speak now?" one of them asked.

"Yes, I can," Ning spoke as well as he could. "Thank you for saving me."

"Of course," the fisherman said. "That's what we are supposed to do. Sit here, we will get you something to eat."

Ning nodded and waited. A few minutes later, the man brought back a bowl of steaming fish soup and handed it to Ning.

Ning saw a small wooden spoon and took it to eat the soup. The taste wasn't all that great, it was simply salt and maybe one more mild spice, but getting to eat the hot soup when he had been freezing cold just a few moments ago made it feel so good.

"This is delicious," he told the man who brought the fish to him.

"Haha! My wife is an amazing cook. Eat up and don't hesitate to ask for more," the man said.

People started surrounding him soon enough, asking questions as to who he was and where he was from. Ning told them exactly what he knew.

"I woke up on an island without my memories. I survived by eating the fruit there for a few days. Then it turned out that the island was actually a giant turtle, which was…"

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Ning continued telling the story and each person around him had a distinctly shocked look on their face.

He could understand their feelings too. Like, who would expect an island to turn out to be on the back of a turtle, one that killed a giant freaking snake.

Some of them started praying while others decided to move away from Ning.

"You have met the Divine beast then," one of them said.

"The what?" Ning asked.

"Divine beasts. Legend says they are beings of incredible power that can destroy the world if they felt like it. Maybe humans of incredible power wish to reach their strength as well, but very few come close," the fisherman said.

"There are humans that are as strong as those beasts?" Ning asked curiously. "Can I meet them?"

"No," the fisherman shook his head. "Us lowly humans will never have the opportunity to meet the ones who have reached the pinnacle of Essence itself."

"Essence?" Ning asked.

The fisherman looked at him weirdly. "Do you not know what Essence is?" he asked.

"I'm afraid this is the first time I'm hearing the word after losing my memories," Ning said.

"Dear lord, you must have fallen in a terrible shipwreck," the fisherman said. "Or worse, the divine beast stole you from somewhere. You did well to leave."

"Anyway, about Essence," Ning asked. "Can you tell me more about it?"

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"I can tell you a bit," the Fisherman said. "But I must say, I as well as everyone here is mostly ignorant in the ways of the Essence. The only thing most of us have managed to do is reach the Physical Improvement realm. Only us two have reached the 5-Sense Improvement realm, which is why we hunt so far out in the sea."

Ning heard what they said and thought he understood it, but he still asked them to explain it a bit more.

As expected, the Physical Improvement realm was where one's body improved significantly when compared to a normal human being. One could go anywhere from twice as strong to ten times as strong in the process.

The improvement depended apparently on the quality of the essence one took in, which not many had control over. Also, it was apparently very hard to get to the next realm without using a technique, but the poor fisherman had no way of buying any.

In the many dozens of years they had been alive, only two had managed to reach the 5-Sense Improvement realm.

As the name suggested, the 5-Sense Improvement realm improved one's 5 senses, allowing them to be far more perceptive of everything around them.

They could improve so much that they could feel the subtle change in air pressure, temperature, and humidity just by being outside in the air. They could taste the subtlest difference between two similar flavors, or smell the difference between two similar smelling odors.

They could even see the smallest movement and could in fact see many, many miles away with just their naked eyes.

Similarly, they could also hear the faintest sound once spoke and distinguish individual sounds in a crowd.

That was to say, the 5-Sense Improvement realm was a major improvement to a normal human's daily life, making them far better at almost everything in comparison.

Since these two fishermen were the only ones that were in such an amazing realm, they took on the task to go for more dangerous areas where they could fish for the village.

They talked for a while and Ning learned a bit more about Essence, but these people had nothing important to give him. Ning asked a bit about where he was and where he could go next. They couldn't even tell him much about that.

However, there was apparently a city that they would be visiting 2 days later, so Ning just had to wait around for that. They would be going to the city to sell what little they could and buy some grains.

Ning decided to spend the two days he had here and then he would go to the city to continue his journey in this world.

'Essence huh?' he thought to himself. 'I wonder if I interacted with it before. I must've since I removed the memories. Anyway, this should be fun.'

Ning sat in the front of the card where the driver's seat was. The cart itself was full of fish and was very smelly, so he was forced to sit in front, even though it was a tight fit with 3 of them there.

The path to the city took 3 hours with the cart and horses, and the path went through normal grasslands and small forests, so there wasn't much for Ning to do.

He held a small circular disc no more than an inch wide in diameter. It looked like a small, flat pebble one would throw to skip in the river. Except, this small thing was made up of cloudy white energy.

It was like someone had encased air into a small class disc.

"I see," Ning said as he looked at the thing in his hand against the sky. "So this is an Essence coin. This is the currency of this land, huh?"

"Not just this land," the fisherman to his right said. "Of all lands. This is the only currency available of course."

Ning nodded.

"Of course, this isn't the only Essence coin available," the man to his left said. "This is the Air Essence coin. They are the most widely available Essence coin because of how easy it is to find Air Essence. It is everywhere in the surrounding."

The other man nodded. "Air Essence is the most widely made and found Essence coin. The one above that would be the Earth Essence coins. Then it would be the Water Essence coins, and finally the Fire Essence coins," the man said.

"I see," Ning said. "Is there a reason why the Fire is above Water? Is it because of how abundant water is?"

"Yes," the man said.

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"What about places where water isn't available?" Ning asked. "Would they still hold Water Essence in the same regard as Fire Essence?"

"Oh, the value of the coins depends on the area you are in. This close to the ocean, the Water Essence doesn't hold as much value as the fire, which is why it ranks lower. But in other places, it would obviously hold higher," the man said.

Ning nodded. "So, are these 4 essences the only ones with coins for them?" he asked.

The two fishermen looked at each other and hesitated a little. "We've heard of other types of Essence coins, but we've never seen them so we're not sure," they said.

"I see," Ning said. 'Well, I will find out eventually.'

He continued learning more about the Essence coins and how they were made. He was surprised to hear that the coins were actually made by humans themselves. It was not like Spirit stones or Mana cores that one could find somewhere naturally.

The two fishermen did not have any idea how they could be made, but apparently, they were created by humans, which was why the four primary elements had the most amount of coins for it.

Since many people were used to the elements, they were the ones who would make the coins easily, allowing them to spread throughout the world.

Ning wondered how they were made and couldn't help but look forward to it. Learning new things he didn't just know was a different experience he hadn't experienced in a very long time after all.

The cart arrived close to the city and Ning could already see the change in people's clothes from the fishermen to the normal people here.

Ning looked at his own clothes and found that he was not so different from theirs either. At a glance, it looked like he was from here, even though the clothes didn't exactly match the style of this place.

A while later, they entered Frailheart city which was just past a small river with a wooden bridge on top.

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Many people either walked or rode on carriages, carts, or simply horses.

Ning looked at the architecture, which looked somehow very old and modern at the same time. The design itself was old, almost medieval in style, but the technique used to make the houses, and the craftsmanship behind it was very advanced.

The cart stopped outside of a moderately big butcher's shop that sold all types of meat, apparently including beasts of up to 5-Sense Improvement realm.

Ning got off and looked at the two fishermen. "Is this where your business is?" he asked.

"Yes, we will sell our fish here, and after buying some grains, we will return," they said.

"I see," Ning said as he looked around. "Thank you for bringing me here and for taking care of me for the last two days."

"Haha, it is what we must do," the two fishermen said. "Right, don't forget your sword."

"Ah, yes," Ning said and brought the sword from the back. The sword was wrapped in some loose clothes. They had tried wrapping it tightly, but the clothes kept getting cut open.

He wrapped the sword around his waist and nodded to himself. "I will be leaving now," Ning said. "If I manage to find my way home, I will try and come back to visit you all."

"Do come. You will be welcome anytime," the fishermen said.

Ning nodded one last time and left.

Even though he had said those words, he knew he would never return to these fishermen ever again. There was no reason for him too. He would continue from here on, traveling the rest of the world, so coming here was not something he was really planning on doing.

However, he was still grateful for them, and for that, he had already helped these people. While he wasn't going to use the system for himself in his travels, it didn't stop him from helping these people.

Ning had left them a very good technique to absorb Essence that would improve their speed and talent by a lot. Ning himself had no idea what sort of technique it was, except that it had something to do with Water Essence, which was abundant that close to the ocean.

"Alright then, where should I go next?"

Ning walked through the city, looking around to see what he could do there. With only a single set of clothes and a sword to his name, he wasn't sure how he was going to pay off anything without just making money with his system.

'Wait, I can't even do that,' he thought. The Essence coins were made with Essence, so it was impossible to create them with his system.

"I guess, I'm going to have to work for it," he thought.

The city of Frailheart didn't seem to be the biggest city around. Based on what he could see, not a single person seemed to have enough Essence Order to justify this being a big city.

In Ning's eyes, it was barely better than a town at all.

There were some fun things to look at but he wasn't sure how they were made. The shops all had massive boards in front of them that seemed to be made up of nothing but light. They were bright and glowed even in daylight.

Ning wondered how they were made at all. As he was looking at them, he noticed a shop that apparently sold weapons.

He stopped for a moment and looked at the shop, and then his sword. 'Hmm? Should I sell my sword?' he wondered. He had already refined the sword so he wasn't sure if he could sell it or not, but if he could, he would be happy to get the few coins from the shop.

Since he was more of a spear user than a sword user, he wasn't particularly attached to the sword he had.

He walked into the shop and saw quite a few people there, browsing the catalog. He looked around, trying to find someone to talk to.

"Greetings," a clerk walked up to him. "Are you looking for a weapon? We've had the best Essence weapons delivered to us just a couple of days ago."

"Oh, no I'm not here for Essence weapons," Ning said.

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"Oh," the clerk said. "Then we have Essence armors too. Or are you searching for regular weapons and armor by any chance?"

"No, no," Ning said. "I'm not here to buy at all. I was wondering if I could in fact sell my weapon."

"Sell?" the clerk looked at Ning and then at the sword wrapped around his waist. "Hmm, that will depend on the quality of your weapon. Please wait for a moment, I will find someone to appraise it."

Ning nodded and waited around. He looked around and something caught his eye immediately. There were weapons to the side that seemed to be made up of different Essences.

There was a sword that seemed to be burning with fire, even though it didn't give off any heat or burn the wooden stand it was on.

There was another sword that was made with water. The blade swayed and rippled, but not a single drop of water came down from the sword itself.

There was a sword that had a blade that was made entirely of air, and another one that was made entirely of dirt. Another one was made up of light, and there seemed to even be one made up of clouds.

"I see," he thought. "So these are the Essence weapons. I wonder how they are made."

Ning looked around and saw a spear as well. The shaft of the spear was up of wood, but the blade itself seemed to be made up of fire.

Ning tried to find other spears, but there weren't any. It was the only one. There were axes, bows, arrows, and other various weapons, but Ning didn't care about those.

"Sir, please come with me," the clerk arrived next to Ning and spoke.

Ning turned around and nodded before following the clerk through a door to the back. He arrived in the back room that seemed to be full of wooden crates, some of which glowed a dull red or blue color.

These boxes seemed to be full of similar Essence weapons as well.

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An older gentleman sat on a chair on the other side of the table. He looked at Ning walk in, but his eyes immediately went toward the sword on his waist.

"Come on, hurry up," the man said, gesturing for Ning to bring out the weapon.

Ning didn't react to his bad attitude and placed the sword on the table in front of him. He slowly unwrapped the baggy wrappings and showed the rusty-looking sword to the man.

The man frowned for a moment. "Is that a sword made from Rust Essence?" he asked for a second before looking closer. "Oh no, it's just red dirt."

He started appraising the sword after that.

"The design is not bad," he said. "It's an old design, but you can't go wrong with that. On design alone, I would put a price of 100 air coins for it.

'100 air coins?' Ning thought. He thought back to what the two fishermen had told him in terms of what they could get and what they could buy with Air Essence coins.

'Didn't they say they got about 50 for what they sold, and that would be enough grain to last them for a month?' he thought. That meant that his sword was going to be sold for at least 2 months' worth of food for an entire village.

'That's not bad,' he thought.

"Let me test the sharpness," he said and brought out a few things. There were leaves, papers, leather, and a small piece of metal.

"Let's see if it is sharp or not," the man said, starting with the leaf. He grabbed the sword and tried to use it, but he couldn't find the strength in him to pick the sword up at all.

"Dammit, did you claim it already?" the man asked him.

"Claim… I think I did," Ning said. "Is that a problem?"

"Damn," the old man said. "It makes it hard to appraise. Alright, use the sword and cut these things. I want to test them."

Ning nodded and picked the sword up as if it was light as a feather. Then, he started with the test.

The metal sheet cut as easily as the leaf did. There was no resistance on any of the four tests, surprising the appraiser very much.

"That… that is a very sharp sword," the man said.

"That is it," Ning replied, placing the sword back on the table. "So, what's the verdict?"

"I still need to do a few more tests," the man said. "Can you bring it out back?"

He and Ning walked back and asked Ning to place it on the ground. Ning nodded and placed it on the ground and looked around the area, noticing that it was smithy back here.

People were making weapons and armor, but it didn't seem like there was anything Essence-related happening here at all.

"Oi, you lot. Come here," the man shouted and everyone who was working in the smithy looked at him.

"What's going on, sir?" one of them asked.

"We have an Earth essence sword here. I want you to help me find out how heavy it is," the man said.

"Oh, okay," the men all gathered around the sword and started tying ropes around the handle.

"Careful around the blade. It's incredibly sharp," the appraiser told them and every one carefully placed the rope around the hilt and guard with Ning's help.

Once done, only one person tried to pick it up by pulling on the rope. His face went red as veins started popping all over his head and arm, but even then he couldn't nudge the sword even the slightest bit.

Another one joined, and he was the same. He tried moving it, but the sword didn't move a single inch.

Ning walked next to the man and asked, "what exactly are you trying to find out?" he asked. "Isn't it enough to know it is heavy?"

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"I'm trying to find out how heavy it is," the man said. He pointed at the sword and said, "see that color. That tells me that the sword was made using… some sort of rock, or pile of red dirt or something. Given how weak their essence usually is, I need to figure out how much of it was exactly used to learn just how strong the sword's output can be."

Ning nodded to himself as he heard that but he didn't exactly understand what the man meant.

"How does one make a sword like this?" he asked. "I simply can't imagine how one can control real-life things to turn them into weapons."

"Well, don't ask me. I'm only in the Essence Sense realm. I hear you have to Essence Manifestation realm to even begin to try making something like this."

The man was about to continue, to explain more about the weapons and armor, but stopped. Giving out industry secrets was not something he should be doing so easily.

"Anyway, if your sword had a lot of Essences, it will sell for more," the man said. He turned and watched the others trying to pick up the sword, but with each added man, he frowned.

There were 6 people now, and each of them strained their hardest to pull the sword up, but not a single one was able to do it at all.

"What the hell is going on?" the man asked. "How are you still failing?"

The group stopped and took a few deep breaths. "Sir, this sword is incredibly heavy," one of the men said with bated breaths. "I… I don't think we can pick it up."

"It can't be so heavy that so many of you fail to pick it up right?" the man asked. "You three, help them."

3 more people were added to the group, and they tried once again, but the result was the same.

The appraiser frowned and called all of the remaining people to help and joined on it himself. They all tried to pick the sword up, but they all failed once more.

"What the hell?" the appraiser shouted and turned to Ning. "What the hell is this sword made up of? A mountain?"

Ning didn't know what to answer. "I don't know," he said. "I just found it."

He was starting to realize that maybe the sword wasn't something he should be getting rid of so easily.

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"Is seeing a sword out of a mountain rare?" he asked.

"Rare? It's fucking impossible to imagine one even existing," the appraiser was visibly shaken and started cursing.

"Oh," Ning smiled. Maybe his sword was made up of a mountain. If not a mountain then a very large rock for sure, seeing how nearly 15 people failed to pick it up.

He walked over and picked the sword up easily, untying the ropes from its hilts and guard.

"I'm assuming you won't be buying it then?" Ning asked. "You can't even seem to be able to pick it up after all."

The appraiser frowned. "No," he said. "There's no way we can sell something that we can't even put on the stands."

Ning nodded. "Still, what would you say this sword will sell at? At the very least," he asked.

The man thought for a bit. "If the craftsmanship is even low grade, the sword can sell for at least 4 thousand Fire coins easily," he said.

"Woah! 4 thousand fire coins? How much is that in Air coins?" Ning asked.

The man thought for a moment. "Around 16 thousand air coins," the man said. "It really is a very expensive sword. I do not know how you received it, but I suggest you be very careful with it. If someone recognizes its value and decides to steal it from you, you will be in a very bad time."

"I see, thank you for the information," Ning said.

"No problem," the man said. "It will be 5 air coins then."

Ning was about to turn around to leave when he heard the words. "5 air coins?" he asked. "For what?"

"For the appraisal," the man said.

"But… my sword wasn't sold," Ning said.

"Yes, but I still appraised it. The appraisal cost would be taken from the sale, but since you're not selling, I have to ask you for it."

Ning looked at the man blankly for a moment before saying. "Umm… I don't have any money at all. Is there any other way I can pay you back?"

Ning was forced to work in the smithy for 3 hours to pay the man back for the appraisal.

He technically only had to work for a single hour, but the old man decided to give him 2 more hours so he could earn some money instead, since he didn't have any.

The task was supposed to be hard as he had to continuously beat blobs of molten metal into the shape of an armor.

The thickness had to be very much the same all the way around, and he had to make sure the metal was properly tempered.

He was used to working on metals to make items, but it was different when working with Qi. With Qi, he was capable of melting the metal and shaping it without even having to touch it. The only hard part there was putting Qi lines into them, but without any energy, he had to make sure he didn't ruin it all.

Surprisingly, he was rather good at it all. The other workers were impressed and even asked Ning to join them. They were willing to teach Ning whatever else he didn't know about.

However, Ning didn't join them. He refused to work there and after the 3 hours were done, he stopped.

The appraiser gave him 10 air coins and Ning left the weapon shop. He had wanted to buy some scabbard for his sword, but his sword was so sharp that it would cut anything he put it into.

Worst case scenario, Ning would have to put it into his interdimensional storage. He didn't really mind that idea, however, as he had also already used the storage once before.

That was the only time he was willing to break any rule he had set for himself. He walked around the city, learning more about it and soon realized that it was getting dark.

The light would disappear in just an hour or two. While that most likely wasn't bad, given how light itself were turned into the shop's signs and light posts, there was another problem with the rain.

The sky was getting cloudy too, and at any moment it would rain.

Ning found himself a small tavern and walked in. He asked for a room and was happy to hear that he could stay and get 3 meals a day for the 10 air coins. The smithy sure gave him quite a bit of money.

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It started raining outside and the tavern got rowdy with all the people that came to eat after a long day of work.

Ning sat by a table towards the wall and the tavern owner, a big woman, brought him some heavy soup with some vegetables and meat in it, and a large jug of mead.

Ning thanked her and started eating. The food wasn't delicious, or even that tasty at all. It was mediocre at best, but it was edible and the seasonings weren't bad enough to ruin the taste.

So, Ning could still eat it.

More and more people walked into the tavern, and soon people had to sit next to Ning so they could enjoy some food and drinks.

Ning finished eating and looked at the mead that was next to him. It didn't look the best of drinks he could think of and it didn't even smell all that good. But given how the people of the tavern laughed around while drinking, Ning wondered if this was fun at all.

Since his body had always been so strong and had high metabolism, he could drink for hours and hours and not get drunk. However, now that he was using a new body, he wondered if that was still the case.

Surely, he could still get drunk, right?

Without hesitation, he drank a mouthful of mead, gulping it all down at once. It burned his throat as it went down and he hated that sensation.

"Wow, that sucks," he spoke, disregarding the people that were around him, who were drinking as well.

"It is, isn't it?" the man next to him said. "It's the shittiest drink you can find in the entire city." The man took another gulp. "But damn if it doesn't make you want to take another sip."

Ning laughed and drank as well. He somehow started talking with the people there, drinking together with them.

"Is this the first time you're drinking, young man?" one of them asked.

"It sure is," Ning said, slightly tipsy but with enough control over himself to keep a clear head.

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"Haha, do you like getting drunk?" the man asked.

"It's… not a bad feeling, I suppose," Ning said.

"Haha, then you should buy another round. Buy it for us as well," the man said.

"I'm sorry fellas, I'm all out of money," Ning said. "I already spent all the 10 coins I had on renting a room for the next week. I will have to go out and look for some job tomorrow to even find a way to buy anything I want."

"What? You're goddamn broke then," the man said.

"I sure am," Ning said as he brought his jug up. "Cheers to being broke."

"Cheers!" the rest of them shouted as they laughed and drank some more.

Ning happily took another sip, only to realize he had drank it all. "Oh, I'm done it seems," he said as he chuckled a bit.

"You want another one?" the man next to him asked.

"Yes, but I don't have any money," Ning said.

"It will be on me," the man said. "Also, it looks like you're looking for a job. Do you want one?"

"Uhh… sure," Ning said. "What sort of job is it?"

"Package delivery," the man said. "You take something from one place to another, and vice versa."

"Uhh… sure," Ning said. "Does it pay well?"

"The task takes an entire day to complete, but if you do complete it, I will pay you 20 Earth coins," the man said.

"Oh," Ning grew attentive when he heard that. "If it pays that well, then I am definitely willing to do the job."

Ning went to sleep on a rather stiff bed, but it was better than sleeping on the pile of itchy leaves on the island, or the stiff and cold ground in the fishermen's village.

With how tipsy he had been last night, he ended up falling asleep rather quickly and woke up with a slight hangover instead.

'Urgh! This sucks,' he thought. He felt thirsty, extremely thirsty, and looked around for some water to drink. However, he couldn't find any at all.

He somehow found it too bothersome to go down to ask for some water, so he did what he thought was the right thing.

He reached into his storage space and pulled out one of the fruits he had taken from the island. Since he had been planning on leaving the place for a long time, he had gathered as many fruits as he could.

Since he had nowhere to keep it, he decided to use the storage to keep the fruits. Not only as a measure to store them because of how many there were but also to store to preserve them.

Keeping them outside would most likely ruin them, and Ning didn't want that. He found the sword on the floor next to him, which he quickly unwrapped and cut the fruit to drink

The refreshing taste of the fruit's juices fell into his mouth and with every gulp, he passed it along to his body. His thirst was quickly quenched, and to his surprise, Ning even found that his hangover was getting better.

By the time he had drank it all, there was absolutely no problem with him at all. He was properly refreshed.

"Woah! This fruit is seriously amazing," he thought to himself. "I should see if anyone recognizes what it is."

Ning went down to the tavern to find the owner and asked her about the fruit. The woman looked at the fruit a bit but she did not seem to recognize it at all.

She didn't even know of any fruit that had such a property to it.

Ning was slightly dejected, but not very much. We went to the back of the tavern to use a bathroom and get freshened up.

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Then, he remembered the man yesterday that he had promised to work for him. "Where did he ask me to meet again?" Ning thought.

He remembered the man's face from last night and tried to think of where he was said to meet.

"What the hell? Why is it so hard to remember?" He thought. He tried his best, but for some reason, he couldn't remember much at all.

"Shit, I forgot to buy Eidetic Memory, didn't I?" Ning thought. He had such a high cultivation base and so many memories that were permanently stored in his mind while in the other body, he forgot that he even needed to buy it.

He tried the best he could to remember. The man had a short beard, frizzly hair, and…

"Did he have a scar on his face?" Ning thought. There was definitely something there, most likely scars from untreated acne.

"Package delivery," Ning remembered. "That's what he wanted me to do. And… ah right, by the side of the green building next to the bridge."

Ning finally remembered. "That took some time," he thought as he sighed. He thought of buying the Eidetic memory to help with his adventure as a normal human in this world and realized that a normal human wouldn't have that. So, he decided to not buy it at all.

He could still buy all the memories he would lose in the end anyway, so he wasn't very worried.

He quickly left the tavern, going out toward the bridge that was toward the east.

The bridge wasn't the same one he came from yesterday, the one he crossed with the villagers. That bridge was small and was on the west side of the city.

The one Ning was going towards was on the Eastern side, slightly to the south, and was the bigger bridge, with a wider pathway.

It was far enough from the tavern that it took him nearly half an hour to walk to on foot. He was about a hundred meters away from the bridge and saw a green-colored house there that was the only one there.

As he was about to go there, a man walked up to him.

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"You there, stop," the man said.

Ning turned around and noticed the man, who was in a uniform. The blue uniform belonged to the guards of this city, so Ning understood that he had probably done something wrong.

"Yes, brother? How can I help you?" he asked.

"What's that?" the man pointed to his sword.

"That? That's my sword," Ning said. He wondered if it was illegal to walk around with his weapon. But then again, many did.

"Why is it not in a sheath?" the man asked.

"Oh, its too sharp to keep in a sheath. It would cut right through it," Ning said, without thinking much.

The man's eyes went wide. "It can cut right through a sheath and you decide it's a good idea to keep it uncovered?" he asked.

"Oh…" Ning thought for a moment. "Damn, you're right. This is dangerous."

"Find a sheath for that sword. Make sure you don't have to be told another time," the guard said.

"I will, thank you brother," Ning said and walked away. He made sure to walk away from most people, so as to not accidentally cut them.

He arrived at the green-colored house and quickly saw the man that was next to it. 'There he is,' Ning thought and walked towards him.

The man had noticed him already and waited for Ning to reach him. Just as he did, the man grabbed Ning by his collar and slammed him onto the wall.

"Why the hell was the guard talking to you?" the man shouted.

"Ow!" Ning shouted. "Get off me."

"Answer me?" the man shouted.

"Nothing," Ning said. "He was just telling me that I shouldn't keep my sword out in the open. God, why do you care? Are you a criminal or something?"

Ning wasn't sure what to make of the man's face when he asked him if he was a criminal. He had asked it offhandedly, but judging by the expression, it seemed like he really was one.

"Of-of course I'm not," the man said.

"Dude! Who are you kidding?" Ning asked. "I should have known by how shady this meeting place even is. You're asking me to meet by the side of a random house, and are worried that I was with the guards."

"No, I'm not," the man said. "Do you want the job or not?"

"What's the job?" Ning asked. "What do I deliver?"

"No, I don't think I want to give you the job anymore," the man said.

"Hey! Come on, man. I need the money. As long as it's not something bad, I'll do it," Ning said.

The man grumbled to himself for a moment and nodded. He then brought out something that he was hiding on his back. "You will need to get this to the next city. Just beyond the bridge, someone will be waiting for you. As long as you get it to them, they will give you something back, which you'll have to bring here. As long as you do that, you'll get paid," the man said.

Ning reached out to the package, curiously and the man pulled back quickly. "What are you doing?" the man asked.

"I was just trying to see what it was," Ning said.

"You don't get to see what's inside," the man said.

"What?" Ning looked at the man. "How the hell am I supposed to believe that you're not making me do something illegal if I can't even check what it is?"

"You don't need to see what it is. You just need to deliver it, alright?" the man asked.

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"I don't know, brother. You're acting really shady right now. I'm starting to wonder if you're even trustworthy in the first place," Ning said. "I think I'll give up on this job. It doesn't seem like something that's good for m—"

BANG~!

A massive explosion sounded from far away, forcing Ning to stop speaking quickly. He and the other man both looked toward the direction of the explosion.

"What was that?" Ning couldn't help but ask. "it didn't sound that far away."

The man looked in the direction of where the explosion had happened and couldn't help but frown. "Alright, listen to me. I don't have the time," the man said.

"Here is your payment, upfront," the man brought out 10 Earth coins, presenting them in front of Ning.

"No, I'm not doing your work anym—"

"I don't have time for this," the man shouted, forcing Ning to take the coins. "You are right. I am a criminal, alright? But what I'm sending with you is not something illegal by any means."

"I was going to do it myself but something's come up and I can't do it," the man said. "Take this to the other city. There will be people waiting for you to take the item there. You will recognize them rather easily after using the keywords 'loud silence', so you won't have to worry about not knowing who to give it to."

"They will test the item and give you a package as well, depending on the result. Bring back the package to me," the man said. "Do this for m—"

The man's eyes moved all of a sudden to his left towards the river from where men started jumping out at him.

"The fuck?" the man shouted as he pulled out two daggers by his side. One of the daggers had a blade that glowed bright red, while the other one glowed a dull gray.

"How the fuck did they recognize me?" the man shouted.

Ning looked to the side as well and saw nearly 6 different people in dark clothes coming towards them.

"Move and I'll kill you all," the man shouted at the newly arrived group. The group stopped and one of them go rid of the cloth around their face that was covering their identity.

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The moment the cover came off, the man's eyes went wide.

"Gerrin?" he couldn't help but ask in surprise. His daggers lowered a bit as he let his guard down for a moment before quickly picking it back up.

"Hello, Carlos," Gerrin spoke. Gerrin was a young man in his late 20s and had a rather handsome face.

"What are you doing here?" Carlos asked. "How did you recognize me?"

"Recognize you? Haha, we haven't left you out of our sight since the moment you walked into the city. Your simple face change was not going to stop us from recognizing you at all," the young man said, as his eyes drifted towards the package in his hand.

"I see," Gerrin said. "So that's the thing everyone is so after. Is it really what the rumor says it is?"

"The fuck does that have anything to do with you?" Carlos asked.

"If I can get my hands on it, everything," Gerrin said.

Carlos' eyes narrowed. "Are you going behind the boss's back?" he asked.

"Fuck the boss. If I can get that, who cares about some stupid old bastard that knows nothing but to sit around and order us," Gerrin said. "I might as well kill him after I get that thing."

"So confident, for someone that is at the death's door," the man said.

"Oh?" Gerrin was surprised. "And who's going to kill me? You and that kid over there?"

"Heh! You overestimate yourself," Carlos said. "I alone will be enough."

Carlos tossed the box to Ning who was just standing there. Ning grabbed the box and looked at the man.

"Take that to my boss in the next city. Listen for the keyword 'loud silence'. Now go," Carlos shouted.

"Kid, you better hand that over, or my men will fillet you like fish on a cutting board," Gerrin spoke. The men behind him did start to pull out their weapons as well.

Ning looked at the two men and suddenly tossed the package the Gerrin. "I don't want anything to do with this. So, just take it, and leave me alone."

Everyone that was there next to the river looked at Ning with different expressions on their faces.

Carlos was angry, Gerrin was surprised and amused, and the rest were happy if half their faces were anything to go by.

"Why the fuck did you give it to him?" Carlos shouted. "Are you with these bastards?"

"I don't even know them," Ning said. "I don't even know you. I'm not risking my life for somebody that wants me to smuggle something illegal to a goddamn mafia boss."

"It's not illegal, bastard. I told you so many goddamn times," Carlos shouted at Ning.

"Then what the hell is it?" Ning asked.

"You wanna see what it is?" Gerrin asked as he ripped open the packaging. Inside was a metal box surprisingly, which he opened simply by undoing the latch by its side. Then, he pulled out something that glowed with dull white light, that already brightened the walls of the metal box and the man's face.

The man pulled it out and showed it for everyone to see. What was inside was a white, glowing piece of crystal that had multiple long and sharp crystals growing out at the top. The main block of the crystal itself was about 6 centimeters in diameter, with the crystals growing out being anywhere from 5 to 10 centimeters long.

"Pure Essence crystal," the man said softly as he looked at the crystal in his hand. "So, it really does exist."

"You bastard," Carlos shouted at Gerrin as he looked at the crystal coming out.

"Someone leaked about the boss sending you to check on the new crystal mine somewhere around here, but I did not expect the crystal mine to actually be one for a pure essence crystal," Gerrin spoke. "No wonder you were so secretive about everything."

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Ning looked at the crystal with a rather confused look on his face. He was following most of what was being said, but he also had some confusion, most importantly because he didn't realize that such crystals existed in the first place.

At the very least, the fishermen told him nothing about it.

"This is fantastic," the man said as he looked at the crystal in his hand. "With this, I can easily reach the Essence Manifestation realm and be able to fight the boss one on one in just a year or two. With the quality of this essence, my realm break will be very smooth, and the power I will acquire would be far vaster than anyone in a thousand miles."

"You bastard," Carlos shouted. "Like hell I will let you do that."

"And you're going to stop me, Carlos?" the man asked. "I have 5 men helping me today. You will die if you try to fight me."

Ning was curious about the pure essence crystals, and especially the mine for it. But he was not curious enough to possibly kill himself for it.

'This has nothing to do with me,' he thought and decided to leave the place before it became a battlefield. There was already some explosion going on in the city, so he knew better than to stick around and find out what was going to happen next.

"Uhh… you guys do what you want, I'm leaving," Ning said and turned around.

"Stop," Gerrin spoke. At the same time, 2 of his men went around to block Ning's exit, with metal swords of their own.

"What do you want?" Ning asked with a slightly serious face.

"Where do you think you are going?" Gerrin asked.

"Away from here," Ning said. "I gave you the box. What do you want from me now?"

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"That you did," Gerrin said. "But you also saw my face. If you were to tell the boss about me before I can get strong, I will die. I can't let you do that."

"I don't even know what sort of gang you guys are," Ning shouted. "How the hell would I talk to your boss?"

"I don't care. You know too much today, so you die," Gerrin said. "Kill him."

Ning's face darkened with a frown as one of the men in front of him charged with his sword up high, ready to swing.

Before the man could swing it down, however, Ning moved and punched him in his solar plexus. The man involuntarily breathed out all the air in his lung and tried to breathe in again. He let go of his sword due to the pain, which Ning grabbed and stabbed the man through the neck.

The other man realized something was bad and moved at the same time. He attacked Ning way better than the first man, but even that wasn't enough.

Ning blocked the sword with his own and parried it before kicking the man in the stomach. The man fell back in pain and Ning took the chance to drive the sword through his stomach as well.

The man still tried to slash at him with what power he had, but Ning stomped on his arm, making it impossible for him to use a sword anymore. Then, he pulled out the sword and stabbed it through the man's heart.

Gerrin and the rest watched with wide eyes as two of their men died at once. Now, only four of them were remaining.

Carlos took the opportunity and charged with his fire and water daggers.

Gerrin looked around in time to see Carlos arrive next to him. He dropped the crystal and pulled out the shield on his back as he poured some essence into it.

The earthen shield suddenly created a highly realistic illusion of an earth wall in front of him that blocked a slash of fire and water that came from Carlos's daggers.

"You three, take care of the kid," Gerrin shouted as he brought out a fire sword of his own, one that was very bright. "I will take care of Carlos."

"I would love to see you try, you bastard," Carlos shouted as his fire and water dagger started glowing in bright colors as well.

Ning wanted to look at the battle, but his own was coming right up.

:)