leader novel

984-998

Chapter C984: Save a Soul

Ning sensed the bamboo's cultivation base and was surprised to find it was around Golden Core.

"Now that's something you don't see every day," he thought. Even in the other universe, he had been to, he had maybe seen 2 or 3 trees that could cultivate. Normally, plants just collected Qi to improve themselves, not their cultivation base.

"Since this plant has a cultivation base, that means it is intelligent enough to do it," Ning said. "Which means… there is a soul inside here."

"A soul?" Blue asked with a fascinated expression. He had never seen a plant be able to cultivate, so seeing one was already amazing.

Ning hesitated a bit. "I can't just uproot it or cut it in half, I will kill the soul inside," he thought.

"Master, that thing is getting angry at us, it seems," Blue said.

"Hm?" At the same time, Ning looked at the top of the bamboo plant to look at the beast that was eating all the bamboo leaves. He smiled a bit when he saw the intelligent eyes of the beast and realized it wasn't a normal beast either.

"Are you worried that I'm here with bad intentions?" Ning asked. "Don't worry, I'm not here to take away your food."

The beast growled a bit. It could tell that a very strong beast was below, not to mention the fact that it was wrapped around a human who seemed to be far more terrible.

If it was anything like the other human, the beast did not want to push its luck. "Please don't hurt it," the beast said.

Ning smiled and couldn't help but think the beast was a little cute.

"Right, Golden Core should be around which most beasts are intelligent enough to talk, right?" Ning thought. "Can plants talk?"

He knocked on the meter-wide bamboo stalk. "Hey, anyone inside?" he asked.

Ning waited for a bit, but nothing really happened. "Is the soul inside here not aware or what?" he thought. "System, can plants not communicate?"

"So this one is just choosing not to?" Ning asked. That was certainly frustrating.

<No, he cannot talk. His soul is being suppressed inside the bamboo and only used to make able cultivate.>

"Suppressed? By what?" Ning asked.

Ning couldn't help but frown when hearing that answer. "His soul is being suppressed by a system? Can you explain a bit more?" he asked.

Ning got angry when he heard that. "Do we know who the owner of this system is?" he asked.

"Wait, so this system is to go back to another Universe? Can it even do that?" Ning asked.

Ning stayed quiet for a while as he thought about the information he had just heard. "Can I do anything about it? Or can I simply not interact anymore now that the system has attached itself to the soul?" he asked.

"Wait, I can do that?" Ning couldn't help but ask. "Any downsides?"

Even if Ning wanted to help this person, he had to be careful as to not weaken himself in the process. He couldn't just be a person that would let himself take the bullet for someone random.

Still, it just didn't feel right to leave someone so vulnerable when he had the ability to help them.

"Okay, what are my chances of successfully separating the soul and the system?" Ning asked.

Ning took a deep breath. There was still a chance of failure then. One in ten thousand was a very minuscule chance, but it was a chance nonetheless.

"Screw it, what's the point of having all this power if I can't help the ones in need. I have Space stones, so returning won't be a problem at all. As for the loss of energy, I will just take it away from one of the Constellations back on earth," he said to himself.

"Master, are you alright?" Blue asked. Ning had been lost in his own thought for a while now, mumbling something from time to time, so Blue was a little worried.

"Yes, I am fine," Ning said. "Can you go a little further away? I have to do something that might be dangerous."

"Okay," Blue said and flew away. He went away to outside the forest and used his senses to watch back at what was happening.

"Alright, system. Tell me exactly what I need to do. Do I grab the soul with my hand? Is there a sort of linking process? What?" Ning asked.

Ning closed his eyes as the mountain of knowledge entered his mind and to his surprise, he learned a new skill, one that he had witnessed being used by the system a very, very long time ago.

Chapter C985: World of Souls

Ning opened his eyes as a wiser man than he had been before. He understood what he needed to do now, so he took a deep breath and readied himself.

Having never done this before, it was going to be a bumpy ride for sure, but he hoped he could come out victorious in the end.

Ning let go of his breath as he was finally ready. "Here goes nothing."

He placed his palm on the bamboo and the point where he touched it suddenly started glowing. It was impossible to tell what the source of the light was. Neither Ning nor the bamboo seemed to be the cause.

The light shined brighter and brighter, and then… it vanished.

Not only that, all light vanished. The air vanished, the forest vanished, everything vanished.

Ning stood with his hands forward in a world of darkness where there were no sources of any light at all. In fact, when he focused a bit, he realized that his hands itself were illusory as well.

This was the world of souls that Ning had come to involuntarily before when he said his final goodbye to Hyesi's soul.

"Where am I?" a voice spoke from behind Ning.

Ning quickly turned around to see an older teenager look around with a confused look. His eyes were blank as he tried to think of everything that had led him to this place.

Then, he remembered and the panic flooded him again, just as it had when he died.

"Mom?" he shouted as he looked around. "Sis? Anyone?"

He looked everywhere in the darkness until his eyes fell on Ning. "Aah! A ghost!" he shouted. "Go away ghost! You can't take me. I won't let you."

Ning felt bad for the young man. As it would seem, the young man didn't even realize that he had died.

"I'm sorry, but you're dead," Ning said.

"Wha-what?" the young man asked.

"Look at yourself," Ning said.

The young man's eyes went wide as he slowly placed his hands in front of him and the thing he feared the most right now came true.

His hands were transparent as well. He too was a ghost.

"Did I die?" he asked.

"Yes," Ning said. "And you're not a ghost. Just a soul that I'm talking with. You have successfully reincarnated but as a bamboo."

"As a… what? No, wait. You said I reincarnated? How did I die?" the young man asked.

Ning looked up the information on how the young man died and he couldn't help but have his heart skip a beat.

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you," Ning said. It was for the best anyway.

"Are you... a god?" the young man asked.

Ning chuckled a bit. "No, I'm not a god."

"Right, the system," Ning thought and looked at the young man again. The young man looked the same as what the young man viewed himself as. Since he had memories of his past, he remembered himself the same way.

Except, there was something weird about his body.

At the center of his chest, right where his heart should have been was a glowing piece of blue ball that had attached itself to the soul.

"There's the system," Ning thought. He slowly walked towards the young man. "I can tell you many things afterward, but for now, I need to do something."

"Do what?" the young man asked.

"I'm sorry, but this is going to hurt. So brace yourself." Before the young man could understand the meaning behind those words, Ning's hand plunged into his chest and he grabbed the system with his bare hands.

Ning had no soul. If anything, the current vision of himself was a creation manifested through the energy he had.

When he grabbed the system, it started to burn his current manifestation. Each pain, each instance of the burn was his losing energy.

Each moment was the system fighting back against his own energy, making it impossible for him to take away the system.

Ning grabbed it even harder and pulled. The system wasn't attached to the soul as strongly as other systems would, so he had a chance at it.

The young man cried out in pain, but Ning kept on going. Even though he himself felt like he was going to faint from this pin, he forced himself to keep on going.

Harder and Harder, with each second he pulled, the system was slowly being ripped away from the young man's soul.

Ning could feel the massive drain of energy as he used all he could to pull the system out. In doing so, he was also pulling away bits and pieces of the young man's soul.

Flaky bits appeared in multiple parts of his soul, representing that his soul was starting to crumble, but it didn't. It was just damaged, and there were infinite souls like these in the universe.

"AAAH!" Ning cried out as he finally pulled out the glowing blue ball from the young man's chest, and with it some bit of soul that was still attached to it.

"System! Link now!"

The blue ball of energy slowly disintegrated from his hand as the system fully absorbed all the energy in it. When it was finally done, Ning ended up with 20 percent more energy than when he started.

"That was a good trade," he couldn't help but say while taking deep breaths as if he was tired.

The system closed off the link and the Energy cap was re-established. As Ning was thinking of closing this world of souls, the young man woke up.

"Where… what?" he couldn't understand.

"Hey, are you okay?" Ning asked him. He had to check on his soul.

The young man turned towards Ning. "Aah! A ghost!" he shouted.

Ning was a little taken aback. "Do you not remember me?" he asked.

Chapter C986: A Name

"Who are you? Why should I remember you?" the young man asked.

Ning was a little surprised. 'Did I hurt his soul too badly? Did he lose memories?' he asked the system.

'I see, that's great then,' Ning thought. He looked back towards the young man's soul and spoke. "You were ill just before, and I helped heal your soul. Something must have happened for you to temporarily lose your memory, but you will remember it eventually."

"My… soul?" the young man asked as he looked at his own hands again. "Argh! I'm a ghost!"

"Sigh, you're not a ghost, you're a soul. You've been reincarnated," Ning said. Having to explain it all over again felt annoying, but what else could he do?

"Do I have any other way to talk with him after I leave?" Ning asked.

<No. He won't be able to hear until he breaks through the Nascent soul realm where his cultivation base forms a nascent in body.>

"Then I will stay here for a bit. I have enough energy to spare," Ning said. "Besides, I am responsible for his situation in some ways anyway."

He continued explaining to the young man what was happening right now.

The young man couldn't believe that he had reincarnated into an entirely different planet than his last one, much less turn into a bamboo. How could he believe it even? After all, he didn't even remember dying.

"Do you know about my mother and sister? You seem to know a lot," the young boy said.

"I'm sorry, I do not know about them," Ning said, lying to the young man so he lived under the illusion that his family was okay.

It was better to let him live in a blissful lie than to suffer a bitter truth.

"So what is this world I am in?" he asked.

"It's called planet Diqiu," Ning said. "Let me tell you a little about this world."

Ning went on to explain about Diqiu, more importantly going into teaching him about cultivation itself. There were many different things he needed to learn about the world, and how to navigate it as bamboo. He would be fine as long as he reached the Spirit Transformation realm, but that would take a long time since plants didn't have any cultivation method they could follow.

However, Ning wasn't worried about that. Given the type of bamboo he was, reaching higher realms would be the least of his worries eventually.

He taught the young soul a fair bit before finally preparing to leave.

"You likely won't be conscious for a long while, but try to remember what I taught you," Ning said. "That should help you a bit."

"Thank you, brother," the young soul said.

Ning nodded. "Let me know if you want to know anything else. I might not be here when you need it," he said.

The young man thought for a bit. "I don't have any new parents in this world, do I?" the young man asked.

"No, You came from seed and nothing else. You have no family here," Ning said. "If anything, the only family you will have for now is the little beast you have on top that is eating your leaves," Ning said.

"Okay then, please give me a suggestion. What should I call myself?" the young man asked.

Ning thought, using his brilliant mind, and came up with a brilliant name that would shine throughout the world as one of the most unique names of all time.

"How about Zhu Zi? It fits the Chinese theme of this world and perfectly suits you," Ning said.

"Zhu Zi… Zhu Zi… rolls off the tongue quite nicely. Hmm, sure. My name is Zhu Zi from now on," Zhu Zi said.

"Great! Have fun then Zhu Zi, you will go back to sleep, but you should wake up before you know it," Ning said.

"Thank you… uhh," Zhu Zi said with a slight pause. "What was your name ag—"

The world of souls faded away and Zhu Zi went back to the bamboo that Ning's hand was still touching. The light returned and Ning finally opened his eyes.

"Haaaah!" he breathed in loudly as he hadn't done so in a while. He took a few more deep breaths and looked around.

"Did he say something in the end?" Ning thought but didn't give it much thought. "So, I can't do anything here can I?"

Since the bamboo had a soul, there was no chance of him being able to take it without killing the young man he had just met.

"Oh!" Ning thought in surprise. "Is that right?"

There were two different offshoots coming from the main stalk of the bamboo, so Ning grabbed onto one of it and broke it from where it grew.

"That's fine right?" he asked the system.

<yes. He can grow many such offshoots in the future, albeit they will take an incredibly long time.>

"I see," Ning thought. "I should leave this other one here then."

Ning looked at the bamboo one last time and smiled knowing that he had helped someone that was in need and didn't just leave him because he feared risking his energy.

And to his surprise, it paid off quite nicely, giving him some 40 Septillion more energy.

"Let's leave," Ning thought and had only turned around when he heard Blue's voice directly into his mind from far away.

"Master, please come out here fast. You need to help me!"

Chapter C987: What's Next?

Ning rushed out of the bamboo forest only to find the dragon in his original size, on the ground, cowering in fear.

"Blue? What's wrong?" he asked, quickly grabbing onto him. However, it didn't take him long before Ning realized just what was happening.

A spiritual pressure fell onto Ning, one that was far stronger than anything he had felt on this planet.

Ning couldn't help but smile when he sensed that. He pushed back the pressure, relieving it from not just himself, but also Blue who was on the ground.

"I would appreciate it if you don't go scaring my little dragon like that. He is not strong enough to handle such strength yet," Ning said.

The person on the other side was surprised.

"Who are you?" he asked. "Why are you trespassing in this forbidden land?"

"I'm not trespassing since you don't own the entire Transcendent Ruins. Also, I am Ning Ruogong, from China on planet Earth," Ning introduced himself. "And I take it you are Yanxu Qinguan?"

The man on the other side was surprised. "Did you say China?" he asked, receding his previous pressure.

"Yes, China. I hear you are from China too," Ning said. "May I ask how long ago that was?"

"It was… a few hundred thousand years at least," the man on the other side said.

"Woah, that must be a good few hundred years ago back on earth then. Maybe even more. I suppose you are a senior of mine in a way. So, as respect, I won't hurt you for hurting my beast," Ning told him.

He lowered to let Blue climb back onto him. "Do you have anything you want to talk about?" Ning asked. "Maybe you want to learn about China?"

The other man stayed silent. "No, I care not for that land anymore. It's a distant world of my memories now. However, I wish to learn how you came here. Did you die and revive like me?" he asked.

"Not me," Ning said. "But the fellow in there is. I just came here on a whim, and I will be leaving soon. Anything else you want to know?"

"Yes," the man said. "How are you so strong? I don't think I've sensed any cultivator that was as strong as you, not even the fiend I killed was stronger than you."

"That is not something I can easily explain, not that I want to either," Ning said. "Anyway, I'm planning on leaving now. Let me know if you want to return to Earth by any chance. I can take you there."

The man sighed on the other side. "No, I have nothing there to go back to," he said.

"You're not wrong," Ning said. "Anyway, goodbye."

Ning teleported away from the place, traveling all the way to the northern pole of the planet where barely any cultivators lived due to the extremely frigid coldness of this place.

Ning got ready to open a portal and asked Blue, "Where do you want to go?" he asked.

"Where? Where can we go exactly, master?" Blue asked. "Aren't we going back to that place that you have created?"

"That was my idea," Ning said. "But since there are only so few of you remaining, I thought of going through all the different planets at once instead of going there one by one."

"Oh, so you want to go to where Night is next?" Blue asked.

"Yeah, Night or Anya," Ning said. "Since those two are the only ones remaining to go through in this galaxy."

"Hmm, who is closer?" Blue asked.

"Closer… let's see," Ning closed his eyes and suddenly a star chart appeared in front of him, which Blue could see too.

"Woah! What is this, master?" he asked.

"A miniature imagination of our universe," he said. "Well, this is just a galaxy really."

"I… don't understand what that means," Blue said.

"Hmm, look… here," Ning pointed to one of the glittering lights in front of them. "We are right here."

"In the light?" he asked.

"No, not the light," Ning said and pulled the star into focus. Blue got scared for a moment as stars and nebulas flew past him in this illusory world.

The star he had pointed to got bigger and bigger until it looked nothing more than a ball of liquid fire.

"What's that?" he couldn't help but ask.

"That's the sun of this planet," Ning said. He pointed to a small ball of dirt on the side. "That is Diqia, the planet we are on right now."

"What?" he couldn't help but shout in surprise. "That's where we are? Just how big is our world?"

"It's impossible to imagine with our feeble minds," Ning said. "Until you truly see it for yourself, you will never truly understand just how vast everything is."

Blue continued looking at the spinning planet with wide eyes. "And where are the others? Night and Anya," he asked.

"Hmm," Ning thought and quickly zoomed out a little until the star itself was back to being a speck of light.

"Here," he pointed to another speck of light in the far corner of the galaxy. "That's where Anya is, and here is where Night is."

"Hmm, Anya seems closer than Night. Will it be faster to go to Anya first?" he asked.

"No, it is the same," Ning said. "But it might cost me a little less."

"Then we should go there, master," Blue said.

Ning shrugged. "If you say so. Not that the order really matters," he said and closed the star chart. The freezing cold returned back with a fury, which Ning pushed aside so Blue didn't get frozen.

After that, he put his hands forward and carved an opening in space, which split open to reveal a land with the sea nearby.

"Are you ready?" Ning asked Blue.

Blue furiously nodded. "Yes, master," he said.

Ning smiled and walked through. He and Blue had now arrived in a lone island in the middle of nowhere, on a planet that was called Ollo.

"We need to wait a few more minutes for the door to close," Ning said. "Then we can go get Anya."

Chapter C988: Water World

Ning waited until the portal closed and finally looked around at the oceanic world he was on.

"This is a world full of water with barely any land on it," he said softly, almost speaking to himself.

"Only water?" Blue asked almost excitedly. "That's the best kind of world for me, master." He flew off of Ning's shoulders and jumped into the ocean, turning himself into a large serpentine dragon that swam through the ocean.

Ning smiled and slowly flew up to Blue before landing on his back. "If you love this so much, then become my ride here."

"Of course, that would be my pleasure, master," Blue said. And started slowly moving forward on the surface of the water. "Where are we going exactly, master?"

"Hmm, in that direction," Ning pointed.

"Okay!"

Blue took off the moment he got the command. Ning was surprised at how fast Blue was. He understood that being in water gave him some advantages, but this was far faster than what someone should have been capable of given his cultivation base.

"Not bad. This is what I wanted to see since you are a True Dragon now," Ning said.

"Haha, master. I never knew I was this fast at all," he said. "I was stuck in that desert for way too long."

"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask. Why exactly did you not leave that place? You could've gone west and reached an ocean in a day or two's time," Ning said.

"Oh… was the ocean that close?" he asked. "I ended up in the desert and since then I've been staying there so I could be stronger before I left. Didn't help that I had only just evolved thanks to my breakthrough to Immortality."

"I see," Ning said. "That's understandable. Also, there is a very strong fish coming to attack us from the front. Be careful."

"Oh?" Blue quickly spread out his own divine sense and searched for the fish. As Ning had said, a 12-finned, long fish with hundreds of sharp teeth was swimming straight toward them at quite a fast speed.

"Oh, it's just a Low Immortal fish," Blue said. "It's nothing strong."

The fish arrived a moment later, and before it could do anything, Blue opened his mouth and sent a blast of water at it. The water tore through the fish's body, leaving nothing but chunks of flesh.

Ning used his telekinesis to pull something slightly blue from the fish's body which turned out to be a beast core.

"See master? I can handle Low Immortals quite easily," Blue said.

"I know exactly how far you can handle now that I've seen you fight those three," Ning said as he pocketed the beast's core. "That's why I said the fish that is coming is strong."

It took Blue a few instances to understand what Ning was saying, but when he did, his face darkened. Suddenly, a wave of power hit him, forcing him to slow down by just its mere presence.

"Hmm, Immortal Saint realm. I did hear that the aquatic beasts were what cultivated the most in this world, but I did not expect to see something like that so soon," Ning said.

He looked at Blue who was starting to slow down and chuckled. "I thought you were a True Dragon that didn't cower in front of anything," he said.

"I'm not, master," Blue said. "But even I know not to fight something like that myself. I should leave it to you."

"That's correct," Ning said and flicked his finger. A single Spear Qi flew from his fingers and flew straight into the distance. Blue did not see anything at first, but a moment later a huge explosion appeared sending water flying hundreds of meters into the air.

The body part of the fish flew into the air too, and Ning pointed towards one of them. "Go towards that portion," he said.

"Yes master," Blue said and swam so fast that he arrived there before the piece fell into the water.

Ning pulled the beast core out from that one as well and placed it inside his storage.

"Master, why are you keeping the beast cores? Do you plan on feeding it to me later?" Blue asked expectantly. Eating beast cores was one of the ways for beasts to continue cultivating, so he was quite hopeful.

"No, I might, if I find no other use," Ning said.

"Thank you, master," Blue said happily and the two of them continued on their journey.

They continued going through the ocean for hours, even fighting quite a few beasts, but they had still not reached their destination at all.

Another fish flew into the sky, attacking them. Blue was ready to attack back, but Ning stopped him.

"We are merely passing through. Please don't be worried," Ning said to the fish, who thought for a moment and let them pass through.

Blue was worried for a few moments, but after the fish was gone, he continued going to his destination, not giving much thought to what had happened before.

"It's so weird, master," Blue said. "There really is no land at all here."

"I said before, didn't I? There is barely any land here. All there are is a few islands here and there. That's all," Ning said.

"That's so weird, if all it is is water, then where do the people live?" Blue asked.

"You haven't noticed yet, have you?" Ning asked, almost mysteriously.

"Notice what?" Blue asked with a weird look on his face. Was he supposed to notice anything?

"We've already gone past quite a few human civilizations," Ning said.

"What?" Blue couldn't believe it at all. "No way! Do they live in the sky, hidden from my eyes?"

"No, they live in the ocean, preferably hidden from everyone's eyes," Ning said.

"Huh? How do they live there? In a bubble?" Blue asked.

"No, they don't need something like that," Ning said. "They can breathe even without it."

Blue couldn't understand that at all. "How can they breathe? Through some artifacts?" he asked.

"No," Ning said. "They can breathe normally because all humans in this world have the ability to transform into a fish."

Chapter C989: Deep in the Ocean

"Huh? Humans can transform into fishes in this world?" Blue asked almost unbelieving of what was being said.

"That's right," Ning said. "Or more exactly aquatic beasts. Did you think I let a couple of the fishes go away without fighting them just because I was being generous?"

"Oh… those were humans?" Blue asked.

"Yes," Ning said. "Although I did leave out a couple of intelligent fishes too. I only killed the ones that weren't intelligent enough and were acting merely on instinct."

"I see," Blue said. "But how is it possible? How can humans turn into fishes?"

"How can beasts turn into humans?" Ning asked Blue.

"Well that's… that's because we reach the Spirit Transformation realm, which is why we get to transform," Blue said.

"Spirit Transform realm merely merges your soul and body, allowing them to be malleable enough to forge into whatever is deemed necessary to survive in that world. You could turn into a human because the land of Kumia deemed it to be the best survival case for everyone. These people turn into aquatic beasts because this world deems it to be the best case for survival for everyone," Ning said.

"I see," Blue said. "So I will be able to turn to a fish too in this world?"

"What are you saying?" Ning asked. "You're already an aquatic beast. What more would you need to survive in this world?"

"Oh, right. I thought everyone would turn into fishes," Blue said.

"Fish, Squid, Octopus, whatever you need to be to survive in this world," Ning said.

"So, we are going to see Anya who…" Blue inquired.

"She's turned into a beast more certainly and is living in the depths of the ocean," Ning said. "Due to how small most lands are and how devoid of spirit veins they are, no one really wants to live on the surface."

"I see," Blue said. "Wait, how do human children even survive here? They would die, won't they?"

Ning couldn't help but chuckle at the question. "It's a do-or-die world, buddy. The human women can stay pregnant for a much longer amount of time, but in that time, the child must reach a minimum of Spirit Transformation realm for it to survive."

"Woah!" Blue was not expecting that answer at all. "Can they even do it? How does a child reach that high of a cultivation base without being able to cultivate? It's just a fetus after all."

"Don't worry, this world has thought of that as well," Ning said. "Otherwise humanity would have gone extinct eons ago."

"Hmm, I'm really curious about it now," Blue said.

"I believe you will see it very soon now," Ning said. "You can start diving actually. Start heading towards the depths of the ocean and we will reach there."

"Understood!"

Blue took a dive, delving deep into the cold water where vision slowly disappeared. Due to how deep the ocean was, at some point, there was no longer any light visible around them.

Fortunately, as cultivators, they didn't need much light to see anything. Not only did they have their divine sense, but they also could see incredibly well with almost no light at all.

Blue could see perfectly and he kept going downward, per Ning's instruction.

As they went deeper and deeper, almost 10 kilometers into the seafloor, the light in the sky was anything but completely gone. At this point, even Blue started to hesitate to trust his eyes and was using his senses.

However, just a little bit forward, he saw light coming from not far away from him. "Master, there's something there," he said proudly.

"Yes, that's where we are going," Ning replied, not with his voice, but by simply creating sound through his body.

Suddenly, something entered Blue's senses. A bunch of beasts came rushing at them at incredible speed, ready to attack them.

The group consisted of some fish, octopus, sea horse, jellyfish, and even a giant starfish. They all prepared for battle, but when they saw Ning on top of Blue, they paused.

"Stop!" the starfish at the front shouted at them and Blue slowed down. He realized that the fish in front of him was nearly an Immortal King.

"Greetings brother," Blue spoke up.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" the starfish asked. He spoke to Blue, but his eyes were on Ning who was somehow this deep in the ocean without seemingly holding his breath at all.

"We are here to meet a woman that goes by the name of Anya," Blue said.

The starfish lowered its guard slightly. "You know Anya?" the starfish asked.

"Yes, we do," Blue said. "I am a long-time friend of hers and this person on top of me is her master."

The starfish found it hard to believe, but then how else would they know Anya lived in this place?

"May we enter?" Ning finally spoke.

"Sure, but please turn to your fish form," the starfish asked.

"I'm sorry, but I have no fish form. I only just recently arrived in this world after all," Ning said.

The starfish frowned. "Alright then, I hope you can go on for long without any air down here," he said.

"Don't worry about that," Blue spoke. "Something like being out of breath won't kill my master."

"I see," Starfish said. He turned to his group and told them to be on guard while the two of them were taken in.

Until they confirmed with Anya, however, they were practically prisoners being shown around the town.

Ning got off of Blue and finally swam on his own, going towards a certain building where he had already found his little disciple.

When they arrived, one of the people guarding them went inside and called Anya. A beautiful seahorse came rushing outside to see if it was true.

The moment she saw Ning, she couldn't help but shout out loud. "Master! Blue! You are really here."

Ning saw her and smiled. "You are not the same Anya I remember."

Chapter C990: Pregnant Women

"Wait, let me change," the Seahorse Anya quickly transformed into her human form before jumping onto Ning in a tight hug. "I can't believe you are really back, master. I'm so happy right now."

Anya felt like a giddy little child when she saw Ning again. She left Ning and hugged Blue too, who was way too large for her to put her arms around.

The other people in the group looked around with a weird expression on their fish faces. They had always seen Anya as this stoic female warrior who was as good at healing as she was in battle.

They would have never believed that there was such a little child hidden deep inside. That made them wonder if the Anya they saw for so long was even her true self at all.

"How are you doing, little girl? I see that you landed yourself on a rather terrible planet," Ning said.

"It's… alright," Anya said with a dejected face. "Once you get the hang of it, you can survive. Although there is nothing else to do than just survive."

"However, I'm more worried about my children. I just keep thinking that they might be in a worse place than I am," she said.

"No worries, they are all doing fine," Ning said. "I've been to all of them and have brought them back to a single place on another planet where they can live just like they did in Kumia," Ning said.

Anya's eyes went wide. "Really, master?" she asked. "My daughters and grandchildren are all okay?"

"Yes, they are all fine," Ning said. "You have nothing to worry about."

"Thank god," Anya said as she started wiping the tears off her face. "I can finally be free of this anxiety."

"Actually, you can be free of everything," Ning said. "I came here to take you off this planet."

"Oh, you can do that?" Anya asked with a surprised face. With just her divine sense she asked, "Is your system that developed now?"

"Yes, it's good and we can leave whenever you are ready," Ning said and looked around. "Where's your husband? He should be around right?"

"Rowan is out to hunt some beasts," Anya said with a bit of hesitation to her face. "Do I have to leave right now?"

Ning saw the hesitation on her face and frowned. "We don't have to leave right now. Do you have something you need to do?" he asked.

"Actually, yes," she said. "Umm, come with me."

Anya turned back to her Seahorse form as she was starting to suffocate. Now that she could finally breathe again, she took Ning somewhere.

The other humans were worried and tried to stop her or ask her where she was going.

"I'm taking my master to the room full of women," she said.

"What? You can't do that. Men aren't allowed in there," the others said.

"Well, he's no ordinary man. I learned everything from him, so he will be more helpful than anything I could ever do," Anya said.

The others looked at Ning with a disbelieving faces. There was no way that was true. Still, they had no choice but to accept Anya's words as she was the only healer they had in this world.

Ning was curious and walked with her before going toward a massive piece of rock that was cut open to make a living space. Glowing gems were laid all around to help them be able to see, and they were living close to a volcanic exhaust vent that sent heated water through a current toward them.

Ning entered the building and saw the rock being cut up in various segments on the inside as well to make up rooms. Not all rooms were occupied, but the ones that were were full of women in them.

And every single one of those women was pregnant.

"I'm in charge of them and their help, master," Anya said. "I need to stay here and administer some healing pastes to them if the need arises."

"I see," Ning said as he looked around. "How long have they been pregnant?"

"Umm, some have been pregnant for less than a year. A few for over a year and there are 2 that are over 2 years of pregnancy. In this world, the women get pregnant for a long time and the babies come out with a full cultivation base," Anya said.

"I know," Ning said. "Here, I got these on the way here. They need it right?"

Ning took out a bunch of beast cores that he had obtained from the sea beasts on the way here.

Anya's eyes went slightly wide when she saw them. "You really do know everything. I shouldn't have doubted you at all," she said as she took the beast cores and looked at them.

"Hmm?" she noticed something. "Master, these cores… are they from a strong beast?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, Blue killed most of them, but I had to help once or twice. Most of them are from High Immortal or even True Immortal beasts, but there are 2 from Immortal Saints too," Ning said. "Although I never did see an Immortal King one. I know they are rare in this world as that's the highest possible realm, but it's still sad or I could have brought them to you."

"No master, this is more than enough," Anya said quickly. "In fact, this might be actually too much. I don't know how these women can eat something so strong."

"Well, I wasn't really thinking about them when I killed the beasts, so you can use it however you want," Ning said.

The pregnant women, since they were in beast forms, could eat beast cores and give the Qi in those cores to their children to passively cultivate while they were inside.

That was how it was even possible for them to come out as a Spirit Transformation cultivator right from the womb.

If they didn't gain the beast cores, then the only thing they could do was give birth to normal children, who would, unfortunately, die by being crushed by the sheer weight of the ocean.

Such was life in this world.

Chapter C991: Delivery

"I will go feed some of these to the women so they can get stronger," Anya said. "Is there anything else you can help them with?"

Ning looked at them. "Go ahead and do what you want to. I will need to consult the system a little before I do anything else," he said.

"Okay," Anya said and went to feed the cores to the women who were extremely late and thus needed to be prioritized with the cores.

The woman that was pregnant the longest was a lady who had turned into a swordfish. She had the outer physique of a swordfish, including gills and a sharp point on her head, but her interior was still that of a mammal.

She was resting as a lot of her energy was drained into her child, trying to force it to cultivate even faster so that when she did deliver it, it was already a Spirit Transformation cultivator.

"How are you doing, Gina?" Anya said softly as she swam close to the girl.

"Sister Anya? Hi," the woman said weakly. She barely had any strength to talk at all.

"Here, I've brought you something," Anya said and pulled out one of the beast cores. "This is a beast core from a High Immortal beast. Do you think you can handle it?"

The woman's body found some strength hidden in her when she heard that. "High Immortal? Really? Our men killed such a strong beast?"

"Not exactly, but you don't have to worry about that," Anya said. "Eat this." She fed the woman the beast core, which the woman ate gratefully.

She definitely needed the added energy that came with eating a beast core and her child definitely needed that. Not only that, but there was also the case that the core was in fact very good and would help her a ton.

The woman ate the core happily as the energy flew into her and her child. The Qi in the core was indeed a lot and it took some time for both of them to fully consume it all.

However, when she did finally consume it, something happened. She felt something.

"Oh no!" the woman said.

"Gina, are you alright?" Anya said.

"Sister Anya… I think… I think my water just broke," she said.

Anya's eyes went wide. "What? Are you sure?" she asked, but even she could check it and it was correct.

The woman was indeed ready to give birth. The energy from the core she had just eaten was the final push her child needed to come into this world.

"I… I don't think he's strong enough," the woman said with a worried face. "Sister Anya, he… he will die. Please do something. Stop it!"

Anya paled a little. "I… I can't stop it," she said.

"No, you have to do something. Please," Gina started crying.

Anya's eyes looked around searching for something until she saw her master coming towards her. "Master! S-s-she is giving birth, can you stop it?" she asked.

"No, I cannot," Ning said. "Rather, I will not."

"What? Why not?" Anya asked.

Ning looked at the woman and felt the cultivation base of the unborn boy inside her womb. It was a Nascent Soul cultivation base. The child would not survive at all.

"Turn into your human form," Ning told the woman.

"Huh? What?" Gina looked around confused and tried to look towards Anya to find some answer, but even Anya didn't know what was going on.

"Master, what are you doing?" she asked.

"Saving her baby," Ning said. "Change into your human form."

The woman still didn't know what to do at all. Anya looked at her master for a second and back at the woman. "Do what he says. He will save you and your child for sure," Anya said with a confidence that seemed unfounded but was somehow there.

With no other choice, the woman nodded. Slowly, the woman's swordfish body changes into that of a human with a bulging stomach.

Ning grabbed Anya's hand and then the woman's hand. In the next moment, they vanished.

The three of them appeared on top of a remote island, one of the few ones on the planet that had any sort of vegetation on it.

Ning laid the woman down on the grass and used his sense to check that the baby was indeed ready to come out.

The child was long overdue.

However, there was another problem now. "The child is too big to come out normally," he said.

Since the child was nearly 2 years late, he was the size of a 2-year-old child as well. It was a miracle that the woman's womb wasn't even bigger than it already was.

"What do we do now?" Anya asked.

"Nothing fancy," Ning said and pulled out a new blanket before laying it below the woman. "I will have to do this quickly."

He had to take the baby out without hurting the woman. He closed his eyes and placed his hand on the woman's body. He felt the baby inside and the umbilical cord that was attaching it to the mother.

He slowly planned what to do next and opened his eyes. The moment he did, a small Spear Qi formed inside the woman's womb that instantly cut the umbilical cord in two.

At the same time, he used his teleportation power to teleport himself and the mother a meter to the left.

The moment he appeared elsewhere, time slowed down for him as he looked to his right and slowly reached out his hand.

The baby that had been inside the woman was out now as he had been left behind during the teleportation. Ning caught him and put him on a blanket before handing him to Anya.

"Make him breathe," he said.

Anya quickly did what she was used to to make the child breathe by clearing his nose and his chest. A moment later, the child started crying.

Ning looked at the woman who didn't know what had just happened. "There is still a lot inside you that needs to be pushed out, so take your time. In the meantime, look, it's your son."

Chapter C992: Mass Transmigration

While Anya helped the woman Gina and her child, Ning looked around at the water world and asked, "do you think the people here are fed up with living in such a bad world?" he asked.

"Fed up?" Anya asked as she looked around. "I don't think so. Primarily because they have known nothing else aside from this. This is normal life for them, and they would never be fed up with normal life."

"Yes, that's true, but they must want a life where they can live more freely right?" Ning thought. "Do you think they would accept it if I offered it to them?"

Anya turned around with a shocked look on her face. "Master, are you intending to bring all of them along?" she asked.

"Yes," Ning said. "Although, I'm not sure just how many of them will accept."

"If you really want to help, you should go for it. Give them the opportunity and let them decide if they want to leave or not," Anya said.

"Yes, I should do that," Ning said as he nodded. Then, in the next second, his divine sense spread throughout the world covering the entire planet in one go.

The moment he completely captured the world in his head, he sent his invitation to every single human out there that wanted to leave. All they had to do was fly out of the ocean and he would take them to a place where they no longer had to worry about themselves or their children.

Every single human being heard him and started wondering if he was real or not. Most were confused, while some thought he was someone evil who was going to hurt them.

But there were enough of them that were desperate that they took his opportunity and ran for it.

One after another, the humans swam outside the ocean and flew into the sky. They were in their human form and were impatiently waiting for Ning. They were praying that what they had just heard wasn't in their head and was actually true.

Ning took Anya back to her small community where she helped convince everyone to leave with her.

Most of the people in the group were ones that had never seen the other world. They had been born here and had thus spent their entire life in these waters. However, they had heard of the other worlds from Anya and similar other ascended individuals who spoke of a different life. A better life.

Rowan and the others arrived not long after. He couldn't believe that Ning had returned and it was his words that he had heard not long ago.

Ning wasn't close to Rowan, or at least he didn't think of it that way. He was Anya's husband, Sonya and Tanya's father, but in some way, he felt the most distant in that family for him.

It was probably because he had spent way too much time with the others whether it was by teaching them or various other ways.

Blue was closer to Rowan than even Ning was. After Ning had disappeared, everyone was living in the Origin, so they were close to each other that way.

"Alright, let's hurry up. Gina is waiting for us," Ning said and had everyone gather up. After they were all together and were grabbing each other's hands, Ning teleported them all out of the water directly into the island where Gina was.

He dropped them all and let Blue be the defender while he went to get the others.

He teleported around the world, blinking in and out of existence for the people on the island. Every time he disappeared, he would come back a few seconds or a minute later with more people in tow.

He teleported away maybe close to a hundred different times and in that time, he brought back about 20 thousand different people. That was a number that most of these people hadn't even expected to have existed.

They didn't know about the metropolis that was built underwater in various other locations in this world after all.

Ning looked at everyone that was gathered and shook his head. "Only 20 thousand," he thought. There were easily over 3 million people living in this world, but somehow only 20 thousand had decided to leave.

"Well, what can I really do? Its their choice anyway," he thought and slowly drifted below.

The island where he had brought them was so crowded that people had to fly away from it just to not bump into each other while standing still.

Ning looked at everyone and spoke. "You all heard my voice earlier today, and it's true, I will bring you out of this world," he said.

"After I bring you to another world, I will not help you anymore. In regards to finding food or shelter, you will have to work on your own," he said. "What I can promise you is that you will get to live amongst humans and not fishes and that you will have to never live every waking hour in fear that a strong beast will come to attack you. Do you still wish to come with me?"

"YES!" Everyone shouted.

Ning looked at them all. "Good! Then follow me," he said as he turned around and opened a portal mid-air that led them to a massive grassland in the Heavens Court continent that was next to the Blackspire continent.

"Go in," Ning said. The people were a little hesitant to go in, but after the first person went in, everyone started to go in.

One by one, the people entered through the portal while Ning stayed on this side to keep the portal open while they entered.

Since there were thousands of people, he didn't want the portal accidentally closing after a few minutes.

It took them all at least an hour to go through the small portal and once everyone was gone, Ning walked through as well.

He looked back at the world of water through the portal before closing it, never to see that world ever again.

Chapter C993: Healing Varsil

Ning lifted his hand and a ball of light flew into the dark sky that suddenly exploded to turn into a map.

It was a map of the Heaven's Court continent.

"Everyone, listen up," Ning shouted toward the thousands of people who were rowdy as a flea market. They finally shut up after seeing the map and looked toward Ning.

"This is the map of this continent. There are 3 continents in this world, but this is the one I've brought you to. This is a massive piece of land so you won't have to live inside water again," Ning said. "However, as a result of coming here, you will no longer be able to become a fish anymore."

"Burn this image into your mind and go find the closest human civilization and try to find a home for you. If you can't, make one in the forests. Everything you need is up here. If you don't understand something, I'm sure there are those amongst you that understand it well, so let them explain. And if possible, try to follow the lead of someone who ascended from a similar world so you won't get lost."

"That is all I will be helping you with, good luck."

Ning took Blue, Anya, and Rowan and teleported away, leaving the tens of thousands of people there in a bit of disarray. However, these people very soon found a way out of there by following the map in the sky and walked towards the various human civilizations that were listed on it. As long as they got close to those cities or villages, they could find something to do and find a way to live in this world.

Ning arrived outside the portal to the secret realm in the Nightfall city and entered it. He walked into the Origin along with the other 3 who were immediately delighted to see such a vibrant place again.

At the same time, they all noticed each other.

Waterworks started again and Ning stood to the side as everyone got together to reunite after a long time. This was something he had seen far too many times and somehow he still smiled when he saw it.

Even Ely was smiling and crying while hugging Anya and Blue. Blue tried to appear stoic, but he was soft at the heart without a doubt.

Anya and Rowan hugged their daughters and grandchildren and one by one they started introducing their own children and grandchildren.

Ning saw Iris frightened and nervous about meeting her own Great Great Grandmother who she had never seen before. She had heard so much about her and finally, she was meeting her.

A few minutes later, one of the came and dragged Ning into their group where they all hugged each other with a happy smiles on their face.

Ning finally got some freedom nearly half an hour later and left the group with each other. At the same time, Ely came with him and started asking some questions.

"You got 2 at the same time, huh?" she said. "No wonder you were gone for so long."

"Well, that part was because I wasted some hours having some fun," Ning said. He told Ely about the matches in the arena where he fought until he was finally up against the champion, Blue.

"That sounds just like you," she said with a bit of a chuckle in her voice. "And then Anya's world must have taken some time because you were bringing so many people."

Everyone was already aware of that information as Anya hadn't stopped talking about it once she had returned.

"Yeah, I felt like letting them choose their way of life. Not many chose to leave," Ning said and shook his head. "Anyway, I need to go save someone else's life."

"Who? Night? Is he in trouble?" Ely asked with a worried look on her face.

"No, it's not Night. Night is fine, I'm talking about Varsil," Ning said. "He has been a mortal for far too long and has been waiting for me to bring him back some cure. I need to treat him."

"Oh, thank god it's not about Night," she said. "Alright, go help him."

Ning nodded and called Halios.

"What can I do?" Halios asked.

"Call Varsil," Ning said. "Tell him his bamboo is here."

"Okay," Halios said and went to call Varsil. A few minutes later, the mortal young man came up to Ning with an excited and hopeful look.

"Is it true? Did you find it?" he asked.

"Yes, I got it," Ning said and brought out the green bamboo from his storage. The bamboo was thin and about a meter long. Varsil used his alchemy knowledge to learn about bamboo but he had no idea. He had never seen anything like this before after all.

"What do I do? Make it into a pill?" Varsil asked.

"Well, no. We have to do something far more simple, but infinitely more painful," Ning said.

Varsil was a little scared. "Painful? What are we doing?" he asked.

Ning shook his head. "It's better if you are unconscious for this part," he said. In the next moment, Varsil fell to the ground after having lost consciousness.

"Well, here goes nothing."

Ning took the bamboo and drove it through the young man's stomach, cutting open the dantian slightly. He had made sure to damage it enough to release the energy held within, but not so much that it couldn't be healed at all.

At the same time, he continuously healed the young man as he knew just how fragile his body was, being thousands of years old.

The Heaven Devouring Bamboo got to work and devoured every single instance of Qi that was inside the young man's dantian. Soon enough, it emptied the dantian completely and then started draining the young man's blood and essence.

Ning quickly pulled it back out and healed the wound along the way.

The bamboo started devouring the energy from his own hand, and if he let it continue, it would certainly steal away all of his energy.

Ning chuckled and crushed it. The bamboo was destroyed and it could no longer devour any more energy.

Chapter C994: Greatest Alchemist

"Urgh…" Varsil grunted as he slowly woke up in his own room, surrounded by Marcus who had a worried look on his face.

"Father?" he asked with his head still in a daze. "What… where am I?"

"Varsil, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Marcus asked worriedly.

"Why would I be—" suddenly he remembered what he was doing. He had gone away because of a summon and had seen the bamboo that was going to…

He quickly touched himself, looking all around him. However, he found no changes. There was nothing new about him.

'Was I not healed?' he thought.

"Son?" Marcus asked.

Varsil couldn't help but be unable to hide a disappointed look. "I'm okay, father. I… I'm not hurt," he said.

"Good, now tell me. What were you doing out there? Why did that…" Marcus hesitated a bit and spoke in a low voice, "bastard bring you in here?"

"The senior brought me here?" Varsil said.

"Yes, he fucking did. What were you doing with him?" he asked.

"I… he said that he had a way to heal my condition so I could no longer be without a cultivation base," he said.

Marcus shook his head. "That bastard is a liar. He took away Halios, and now he is trying to take away you. Don't listen to him," he said.

"Since when does that make someone a liar?" Ning asked.

Marcus stepped back in fear. "What the fuck are you doing in here?" he shouted.

"God, chill man. I'm not here to hurt someone. I'm here to check up on your son. I had Halios keeping an eye on him until he woke up," Ning said and moved to check on Varsil.

He closed his eyes and looked at the wound on his Dantian. "You're still a little wounded from your healing procedure," Ning said. "There is a hole in your dantian that will be needed to fix before you can cultivate. Also, your meridians are in a terrible state, so you will need to eat some heavenly pill to fix that."

"I… I can cultivate?" Varsil asked. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Of course," Ning said. "What? Did you think I was lying when I said I had a way?"

"N-no, I-I was just… it's hard to believe something like that after being a mortal for so long," Varsil said.

"I understand," Ning said. "Anyway, regarding the pill—"

"I can make the pills. I have quite a good knowledge of alchemy," Varsil said.

"Great!" Ning said. "But you won't be making any pills. I have just brought back people that can make way better pills than a mortal like you ever can, and she also happens to be going to learn everything there is to be known about Alchemy very soon."

"Within the next 3 days, Halios will come to get you to eat some pills and get tested. Go with him," Ning said. "I don't know if I will be around during that time, but it won't matter to you."

"As for now, rest up," Ning said and turned around to leave.

Varsil remained in awe after hearing the unbelievable. Was this really happening? Was he really going to get healed?

Even Marcus couldn't help but be surprised at what he was hearing. He quickly ran after Ning and stopped him.

"Are you telling the truth? Is my son really going to heal? He can cultivate again?" he asked.

"Man, why do you not trust me?" Ning asked. "I have no reason to lie to you all."

Marcus hesitated a bit when he heard that and nodded. "Thank you," he said as he bowed a little. "Thank you for helping heal my son. I am certain that I would have been unable to do so without your help."

"Don't mind it," Ning said. "Anyway, make sure he rests, and don't let him eat anything with Qi in it. That will be very dangerous."

"Yes, absolutely," Marcus said. "Thank you again."

Ning nodded and waved goodbye. He was surprised to not hear any cursing this time around. He figured that Marcus was very grateful for helping heal his son.

He teleported back inside the Origin and went to find Anya to tell her everything. After mentioning the young man that was ill, she decided to go and make some pills to help him.

Ning gave her the most extensive piece of knowledge on Alchemy out there that not only worked for this world but in fact this entire universe.

Every single ingredient, every single beast, and every single possible pill; Ning gave Anya all that he could so she could become the best alchemy figure in this entire universe.

Anya was very overwhelmed at first, but slowly she got a handle on her fear. She was immortal and she had all the time in the world.

With Ning as her master, she had nothing to fear. So she could continue practicing Alchemy forever and ever.

"I can give this to my children too, right?" she asked.

"Yes, but only give your immediate family for now. Don't let anyone know about the existence of this book and instead teach it to them indirectly," Ning said. "Also, take this."

Ning handed her something.

Anya took what she had received and looked at it curiously. However, no matter how she looked, it was just a normal stone.

"What's this?" she asked.

"Call Halios," he said.

Anya was confused. "Who's Halios?" she asked.

"Just call him," Ning said.

"Okay… Halios?" she called out.

Halios came out of nowhere and stood in front of Anya, giving her a scare. "What? Who is he?" she asked.

"He's Halios," Ning said. "The Will of this world."

Ning had to spend half an hour explaining everything about Will and Halios to Anya, who couldn't believe that something like that even existed.

"Oh, poor soul," Anya said. "Is this right? I don't want to own him."

Ning smiled. "Then free him," he said.

"How?" Anya asked with a confused look on her face.

"Just destroy his Oathstone."

Chapter C995: Midnight

Anya's fist opened up and the powdered stone dropped to the floor in front of her. She looked back up to see the happy and proud face of her master. To the side, Halios was in utter shock, something he had not felt ever in his life.

"I… I am free," he said, unable to process what had just happened.

"There you go," Ning said. "You can thank her and go do whatever you want."

"I can leave?" he couldn't help but ask.

"You no longer need to ask. Not only are you free, but you are also the strongest entity in the world, aside from me. Go do what you want to do," Ning said.

Halios looked around with a confused and worried look. "I don't have any," he said. "I have been working for the others for so long that… that I do not know what it's like being free."

"Well, there is no hurry then," Ning said. "Just stick around for a while, mingle with the people in here. I'm sure you will figure out what you want to do soon enough."

"Don't worry, Halios. I will help you figure out what you want to do. I will have my descendants help with that as well," Anya said.

Halios still didn't understand what to do in this situation, but he did understand one thing. He was finally free.

"Thank you," he said. For this one move of destroying his Oathstone, Halios would forever be grateful to Anya.

"Now that that's settled, I will go get Night," Ning said. "Make those pills for the kid. Halios, I hope you will stick around for a while and help Anya here."

"Yes, I will," Halios said with a smile on his face.

Ning left the place unworried and went to see Ely. Since Halios was a will of this world, he was unable to hurt anyone, which dropped the risk of letting him roam freely by a lot.

He met up with Ely and told her that he was leaving again.

"Good, He's the last one and you'll be done, right?" She asked.

Ning smiled toward Ely. "I can tell you for certain that this will be my last trip for a long while," he said. He tore a rift in space, creating a spatial portal between here and a planet that was in the far reaches of the galaxy.

Ely gave a suspicious look. "What are you hiding?" she asked.

"Hehe, you will see," Ning said. "It might take me a few months, so you can go into deep cultivation for a while."

"What? Why so long?" Ely asked.

"Time shenanigan," Ning said. "I will have to be in places where time moves much slower than here."

"Oh, okay," Ely said. "Still try to be quick."

"I will try for sure," Ning said. "See you later."

He walked through the portal which closed behind him. When he arrived on the other side, the sun had already set.

He looked at the patch of the forest he had arrived in and quickly tried to find a way around it. He walked deeper into it, towards where he would be able to find Night, and at some point, he realized that he could no longer see anything else at all.

He was confused for a second before realizing what was happening here.

"Ah! I see," he said to himself before spreading his divine sense all around to look for something.

"There you are."

Ning walked in the direction where the darkness got so thick that even the plants all around had died from the lack of sunlight for many years.

No human or animal wanted to come here either due to the lack of vision and disorientation that came with being around someone of the Midnight Phoenix species.

Ning, however, had no problem at all as he arrived in front of the giant Night that sleep carelessly. Just his sleeping body was larger than most houses Ning had been around, and the soft, black phoenix flames that burned on his body made him pretty much unapproachable.

"Are you going to keep sleeping forever?" Ning asked with a rather loud voice.

Night suddenly opened his eyes and stood up. His massive body got even larger as he opened his wing which spanned nearly 50 meters from tip to tip.

Without any hesitation, he sent down a rain of feathers all of which burned with the black flame that could destroy everything.

Ning remembered these flames from back when he fought the Midnight Phoenix in Genesis' trials. He remembered how afraid he was of the strong Phoneix he had to fight.

He couldn't help but chuckle at how weak he was back then. He moved his hands and the feathers were destroyed, nothing of them remaining at all. Not even the black fire.

"Is that how you greet me after so long?" Ning asked.

Night was about to attack again, but he stopped. He heard the voice and only then did he look at who he was fighting.

His dark, abyss-like eyes grew wide when he recognized him finally. "Master?" he asked. The deep voice that came from the giant beast reverberated throughout the forest.

"Hi, Night. Did I disturb your sleep?" he asked.

"Master, you're back!"

Without missing a single beat, Night got much smaller than before and jumped onto Ning's chest to hug him. "I can't believe you are back, Master. Did you ascend too? I finally don't have to be alone."

Ning patted the bird. "You must have been lonely," he said. "It's good that you slept your way through most of the years."

"Well, there's wasn't much to do here anyway," Night said. "I already reached the peak long ago and have been stuck here this way."

Ning checked his cultivation base and nodded. "You were dealt the wrong end of the stick, I'm afraid. Everyone else went to a world with a very high ceiling, while you ended up here where the highest one can go to is the Low Immortal realm. But don't worry, I am here to fix that."

Chapter C996: Pantheon

"Fix it? How can you fix the ceiling of this world?" Night asked with a confused look on his face.

"I don't have to," Ning said. "I can instead take you to a world with a much better ceiling. I've made a place where I have taken everyone else to so they can live without worry like they did before everyone started ascending."

"Somewhere different from Kumia?" Night asked.

"Yes, another world," Ning said. "It's called Gionia and you can grow a lot there."

"Is everyone there?" Night asked.

"You are the last of the ascended group that I have to take back," Ning said.

Night couldn't help but find some happiness in those words. "I would like to go to that place, master. How do we go?" he asked.

"I have my way," Ning said. "But I would like to go somewhere else before that. I hope you won't mind if we take a detour."

"No, master. Where are we going?" Night asked.

"Well, I'm in for a bit of a surprise as well," Ning said. "Are you ready to leave or do you have anything else you need to do?"

"No, I'm ready," Night said. His body turned smaller until he could perch on top of Ning's shoulder.

"Alright, let's go then."

Ning opened a portal in front of him that led him away from this galaxy, going back to the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy.

He arrived on a planet named Pantheon, somewhere in the mountains. He wanted to spread his divine sense to check the place, but only then did he realize that there was no Qi on this planet.

"Huh? Only mana," he said and brought out an SS-ranked mana stone from his storage before starting to absorb it as he flew away from there.

"Where exactly are we, master?" Night asked. "I feel uncomfortable here."

"Of course," Ning said. "There is no Qi here after all. Don't worry, you will get used to it. Blue and Aegis had a similar problem when they first went to Vilmore with me."

"I see," he said. "Is this Vilmore?"

"No, this is a planet called Pantheon," Ning said. "I've never been here before, so you and I are on the same boat here. Well, maybe not exactly since I know a bit about this world."

Even as he said that Ning was internally getting shocked at how similar this world was to that of Earth. If he had arrived here without any prior knowledge of where it was, he would've thought it was earth.

There were cars, trains, planes, etc that were similar to Earth. There were phones and computers and other technologies similar to Earth.

In fact, almost everything was similar to Earth, as if all life in the universe were bound to reach the same state at some time during their lifetime.

"It's almost uncanny," Ning thought as he watched the streets full of similar vehicles to Earth. It was as if someone have used Earth as a model to create another planet, but decided to make it on a different geographical structure.

Ning arrived in one of the cities and slowly landed to not get people suspicious. He walked the rest of the way with Night flying in the sky like a normal crow.

Ning looked at the boards and various other places which quickly helped him learn one thing.

"Dungeons? This world has it too, huh? I thought it would be just that wormhole."

Ning had come here for a naturally formed wormhole that was somewhere in this city. He had no idea that just like Earth, this planet had dungeons in them too.

"Are there Constellations in this world too?" Ning asked.

<No. >

"Huh," Ning thought amusedly. "Anyway, let's go find that wormhole."

Ning walked through the city, making his way to a place that was not far away. Night flew through the sky while following him and he too reached the place.

It was a small park with a children's playground, but it seemed to have been abandoned since the arrival of a dungeon here too.

Ning looked at the dungeon gate that swirled with white lights. "That's… not the wormhole, right?" he asked. "That looks like a normal Dungeon."

"What are we looking for master?" Night asked from not far away.

"I don't know," Ning said. "System, where is the wormhole?"

"Wait, so that is what I'm looking for," Ning said with a surprised face. "First time I'm seeing something like this."

He walked closer to the park and saw the security that was around. They looked at different licenses from various people that went in, so Ning got a good idea of the state of the world.

"Those must be hunters then," he thought. "Or whatever they call them here. System, forge me a license too."

A small card appeared in front of him which Ning caught quickly and read. "Awakener, huh? That's what they call mages in this world."

He walked over to the gate and showed his card to get in. Night freely flew above the security and landed on Ning's shoulder.

A few people looked at Ning curiously, mostly for Night, but they weren't going to bother him.

"Now how do I access this wormhole?" he asked.

"Understood," Ning said. The system taught him how to make a key, and using his mana, Ning forged a metal key that he brought to the dungeon gate.

The next moment, the key in his hand started glowing red and so did the dungeon gate.

The people around him backed off when they saw the color. Ning, however, saw the opportunity and took it.

He walked into the crimson gate to go through the wormhole.

Ning arrived in another world, this time in a different universe. This was not the same universe that was affecting Earth, but rather the other one. As such, this was his first time coming here at all.

Until now, there hadn't even been a single instance of portals or wormholes to this universe on Earth, so Ning had no way of coming here previously.

The moment he smelled the fresh air in the forest he had arrived in, Ning couldn't help but frown.

"What's wrong, master?" Night asked.

"There's something other than Mana in this world, and that irritates me," Ning said with a sour look on his face.

"What's wrong? What else is there?" Night asked.

"Something corrupted from mana itself, Magicules," Ning said. This was proof that a form of Will was definitely influencing this world, if not present in it.

'I shouldn't absorb any energy here,' Ning thought.

"What's Magicules, master?" Night asked. "Is it bad?"

"It's not necessarily bad," Ning said. "It's only that… if there is Magicule here, then there certainly is something else here as well."

"What else?" Night asked.

"Demons."

* * * * * *

A young man with two self-made bone daggers in his hand stood in an empty hall with blood all over him. Some were his, some were the demons he had killed.

His bloodshot eyes looked straight ahead at the demon in front of him with a clear will to kill.

"I did not know there was a human in my realm," the demon spoke. "That is a surprise to me for sure."

The demon had two horns that curved backward. He had crimson skin and a batwing that was nearly 3 meters wide.

His overall body was 2 meters tall as well and his muscle seemed to be just as large.

The young man breathed heavily as his tired body couldn't do much else at the moment. He had, after all, killed so many demons before arriving at the throne room. He was tired to the bone at the moment.

Still, he needed to fight. After what he had learned the last few days, he knew he needed to fight here, even if it meant his life would have to be forfeited. For the sake of the humans that were living, he needed to do something.

That was why he had come here after all. To find the Demon King and somehow force him to take back the order he had given.

"Demon King!" He shouted at the demon in front of him. "Call back your men, or I will kill you!"

"Hah!" the Demon King laughed when he heard that. "A mere human like you thinks you can order me? The Demon King? My four generals will soon arrive in your world. At that time, everyone in your world will either submit to us or die. There is no other way out of this."

"Then you leave me with no choice!"

The young man immediately used a skill to improve his speed. His leg hurt, but he kept going.

He arrived beside the Demon King and tried to strike at his ribs. With his [Back Attack] passive skill, the dagger would deal a lot of damage if it landed.

However, before he could hit the Demon King, the Demon King's wings curled around him and the dagger struck the wing.

The young man heard a clanking sound and understood that his attack had failed.

"So you have chosen death," the Demon King said and went on the offensive.

Chapter C997: Battle in the Throne Room

The Demon King used the [Demon King's Roar] spell making the young man flinch in fear. He used a cleansing spell on himself to remove the fear and got ready for the attack.

The Demon King shot forward at an incredible speed. With his wings, he glided through the air as he arrived in front of the young man. He swung his sharp claw at the young man, nearly ripping his skin out.

The young man jumped back in fear and took out a small thorn from his interdimensional storage. It was actually a quill that came from a demonic echidna he had killed not long ago.

The B-ranked monster wasn't the most strong, but the poison in its quills was some of the most toxic things the young man had ever seen.

So, he planned on using it on the Demon King today.

As the demon king was flying towards him again, the young man threw the quill at him. The quill struck his chest and surprisingly pierced him, immediately poisoning him with the demonic echidna's poison.

However, that wasn't all. [Poison Touch], [Caustic Burn], [Decaying Touch] and other few similar skills were also activated when his quill landed on the demon king.

"Aaagh!" the Demon King shouted in pain and fell to the floor. He fidgeted on the floor like a fish out of the water while constantly shouting in pain.

The young man breathed heavily as he watched the Demon King cry out in pain. Had he done it? Was this it?

No, this was bad. If the demon king died… who was going to command his army to return? They were already on their way to his world. If they weren't stopped, such strong demons would raze each and every city to the ground with rather ease.

However, the Demon King was a figure that he couldn't just save. His death would mean that so many more would get to live.

Not even just his world, but all the other worlds that this person was attacking.

"No, I must kill him," the young man thought.

"AAAHHH!" the Demon King continued crying on the floor in pain, so the young man slowly moved forward with his dagger. Just one single attack was all he was going to need.

A single stab to the head and the Demon King would die. As for his four generals, the young man decided to spread the message of his death to force them to return.

"You will have to die now," the young man said as he arrived in front on the fallen Demon King and stabbed downward.

Suddenly, the Demon King's hands moved at lightning speed and grabbed the young man's wrist before he could deliver the blow.

"AAAAAHAHAHAHAHA," the Demon King's cries of pain turned to laughter all of a sudden. "Haha, did you really think a simple poison attack was enough to kill me? The Demon King? Do you think you are the only one with so many skills? Boy, you have no idea what it means for one to be a Demon King, do you?"

The young man looked at the Demon King with a shocked look in his eyes. He was mistaken and baited to attack the demon who wasn't even in pain. Now that he looked at it, the poison quill hadn't even done anything at all.

"No!" the young man said in horror and brought down his other dagger to stab the Demon King's head. But before he could do it, something flashed, and in the next second, an intense pain spread through the young man's body.

"Aargh!" it was the young man's turn to cry out in agony this time.

The Demon King stood back up while still holding the young man's other wrist and looked at the hand he had just cut off.

"So weak," he said while shaking his head. "What were you thinking? How strong even are you?"

He quickly analyzed the young man and sighed. "So many skills, but without any practice, those are all useless. As an S-ranked fighter with little to no experience, did you think you could kill me, the Demon King?" he asked.

The young man was losing focus due to the lack of blood but his passive healing skill was trying to help regrow his arm as well as it could.

However, the loss of mana before he had come here was the biggest problem for his healing at the moment. Even then, the Demon King noticed it and couldn't help but frown.

He slammed the young man onto the ground, creating cracks all over his floor. "It seems I underestimated you just a tad bit," the Demon King said. "Had I left you alone, you would've healed again and come back to kill me, wouldn't you? I'm not going to make that mistake."

"There are many questions I want to ask you about how you came here and why you were able to hide from my scouts, but none of that matter right now. All that matters is that you are here, and you are going to die," the Demon King said.

The young man grunted and tried to say something, but the Demon King gave no thought. "Die!"

He lifted his feet and slammed them down on the young man as hard as he could. The ground cracked beneath his foot and a small crater appeared in the throne room. However, the Demon King did not feel a body beneath him, just air.

"What's happening?" he asked with a confused look on his face. "What are you doing?"

He lifted his feet and looked at the young man, but the young man was just as puzzled as he was. He had expected to die just now, but somehow he had been saved.

"Phew!" A voice spoke from the side. "I wasn't aware I would have to save someone in here. I would've come earlier if I knew that."

To the shock of both the young man and the Demon King, a third party had arrived.

Chapter C998: The Demon King

"Who are you? Are you with this young man?" the Demon King asked while slowly stepping back in preparation for an attack.

If the man in front of him could save someone from him while not even being present in the room, then he was certainly someone to be worried about.

"Don't fear, I'm not here to kill you," Ning said as he walked into the throne room. He looked around at the room void of any flourishes and sighed. He stepped next to the young man who was hurt and placed his hand on the young man's chest.

"Get up!"

Instantly, the young man's left arm returned back to him and all the blood he had lost had returned as well. The mana and magicules he had lost had not returned, but just the rest alone was enough to surprise him.

'Who is this man? And why is he so strong?' he thought.

Ning looked at the young man with a confused look. "This isn't a place where humans can be. Why are you here?" he asked.

"I… I'm doing a dungeon clear," the young man said.

"A dungeon?" Ning asked. "You know this is not a dungeon right?"

"I know," the young man said. "But that was what I came here for."

"I see," Ning said. "Well as long as you know."

He turned away from the young man and looked at the demon king from head to toe and couldn't help but shake his head in a sigh.

"Who are you? Why are you in my palace?" the Demon King demanded.

Ning chuckled at the question. "Don't be so on guard. I'm going to tell you everything anyway," he said.

The Demon King did not do as he said at all. In fact, he got even more worried and used some spells to improve his defense.

Ning couldn't help but sigh. "Well, I should've expected this much," he said. "Although, it's truly a shame that you were born into such a world. To be a demon, to be this cruel and callous, that was not what I had expected of you."

"Who… who are you?" the Demon King asked with a hesitating voice.

"It's fine, you don't know me. You lost all your memories after your reincarnation after all," Ning said. "But I'm here now, so everything will be all right, Hyesi."

The Demon King couldn't help but frown. "Who is… Hyesi?" he asked.

"You are," Ning said. "Or you were, in your past life. You were my disciple, my friend, my brother. Here, it will be much faster if you have your memories back."

Ning disappeared from where he was and arrived in front of the Demon King before placing his palm on his head.

The Demon King tried to move back, but the moment he was touched, a massive amount of information was sent into his brain, overloading it for a second.

The Demon King fell to the ground, surprising the young man. He couldn't believe how easily the Demon King was defeated.

However, the Demon King stirred and got back up. He looked at Ning again, but this time around, his eyes had softened a lot and was even a little moist.

"Inikaka?"

Ning couldn't help but tear up when he heard that. "Welcome back, Hyesi."

"Inikaka! You came," Hyesi said with tears dripping from his eyes.

"Of course," Ning said. "I made a promise to my friend after all."

Hyesi couldn't stop himself from jumping onto Ning in a hug. Ning couldn't help but hug back as well.

After a few seconds, which felt like a long while, Hyesi let go of Ning and looked at the bird on his shoulder. "Night, you're here too!" he said.

"Hello, brother Hyesi," Night spoke. He was feeling strange as well. It was a mixture of happiness and surprise that he wasn't expecting to feel today. "Master didn't tell me where we were going, so it is a pleasant surprise to see that we were coming here for you."

"I see," Hyesi said. He grinned a demonic smile, which he couldn't just get rid of now that he had got his previous memories.

"To think you would end up becoming a Demon King, I expected many things, but never this," Ning said. "What do you even do around here? Does the Constellation make you work a lot?"

"The what?" Hyesi asked.

"The constellation? You don't know? Never mind then," Ning said. "Now, I know you don't have any family here, but are you willing to leave or not? Your previous family is back home waiting for you."

"I…" Hyesi, the Demon King thought for a bit. "I would love to return, Inikaka. Someone else can take my position here anyway. The realm appoints a Demon King whenever one is absent."

"Great," Ning said. "We should leave then."

He turned around and the young man appeared in front of him. "What do you want?" Ning asked.

"The Demon King's forces are encroaching on my world. Please make him stop them, sir," the young man said.

"Oh!" Ning turned to look at the Demon King. "You should stop them."

Hyesi shook his head. "It's not up to me," he said. "The realm orders them to move. I am only the mouth they use to receive the orders. I cannot make them stop as that is not the command."

"Fine, then I'll just kill them," Ning said.

"NO!" Hyesi shouted. "Some of them are my friends and brothers I have found in this world, Inikaka. You cannot kill them."

"Please kill them if you can, sir. Or else my world will be destroyed by these savages. We have no chance at survival at all," the young man said.

"Ughh…" Ning couldn't help but frown. Should he listen to reason? Or to his long-time friend? He couldn't decide whether he should let it be or go and kill the demons that were on their way to destroy Pantheon.

"Screw it!" Ning said. "I will go with a different approach where both of you win."

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