"Doctor Ning, you came back?" Yelca asked.
"Just for a little while. I came to check on my disciple and will leave soon," Ning said.
The crowd dispersed and Ning stayed in the new building sect with the sect leaders. He was asked a lot of questions, but he didn't answer any. He just changed the subject every time.
The sect leaders understood that he didn't want to answer, so they didn't ask many personal questions either.
Once the sun came back up, he disappeared. He didn't want to do a lot of work so he just stayed in Anya's necklace. He decided to pass some time with Anya before moving on.
He didn't want to miss the prime growing age of Anya.
He changed to pearl on her necklace to the marble that he had made. Then, he asked her to make the disciples hit the necklace every day.
"Make sure not to repeat the same person twice okay? Only once," he explained.
"I understand master," Anya said.
He then asked the system, "is it possible for you to awaken me when Anya is calling for me or the cap isn't filed for 5 hours?"
<Yes.>
"Ask me if you need help. Just call for me and I will come back. I need to save some time, it's too boring otherwise," Ning said.
"I understand master, you just go to sleep," Anya said.
Ning then put 4 criteria on the system for waking him up. The first was if Anya or Hyesi ever called hi. The second was if he didn't fill the energy cap for 5 hours after it was online. 3rd was if Anya or the sect was ever in danger.
The final one was to wake him up every 3 months if none of the first 3 ever took place.
Once he did that, years passed by in the blink of an eye.
Ning opened his eyes and felt the impressively strong wind on his face, or rather the front of the black indestructible marble.
"The sea? Where are we going?" he asked.
"The Hub island," a mature voice said. The speaker was a tall woman, with long flowing hair and fair skin. The stark purple color of the robe she was wearing made it stand out amongst the white ship she was riding on.
"Has it been 3 months?" he asked.
"Oh, no. I called you. I thought you might have wanted to see this," the woman said.
"Well, I didn't need to, but now that I am, I am going to enjoy this," Ning said. "Is it the tournament soon?"
"Yeah, but I don't know what to do. You said the secret realm won't accept me right?" she asked.
"Haha, don't worry about that. I will just hide your cultivation base down to the 5th realm of the Foundation Establishment Realm. That should be plenty," Ning said.
"I won't disappoint you, Master," she said.
"You couldn't even if you tried," Ning said.
Over the last couple of years, Anya had grown extremely fast. So much so that Ning was starting to worry for her the same fate as Hyesi.
However, after talking with the system, he had come to learn that while these folks would stop at the peak of the Nascent Soul realm, the body cultivation, however, would keep them going forever.
They would however need a far better body cultivation technique at a higher level. Ning had checked it out, and it really did cost nearly 50 trillion.
That too wasn't the best body cultivation technique. The system however cautioned against using that body cultivation technique without a strong body, to begin with as that would destroy the body of anyone normal.
'I will give it to them once they're strong enough to handle it,' Ning thought.
They soon reached the island and prepared. As promised, Ning helped her with reigning in her cultivation base.
The next week of the tournament went by at a blistering speed. Anya was already strong enough to sweep through the entire secret realm and defeat any and all opponents.
The round matches completed much fast. Not only that, even her brother who was just a few realms weaker than her was also strong enough to be one of the strongest in the scattered isles.
Ning saw Faran from afar and how much the Dazzling sect was and was happy at the fact that the sect was doing quite well. As for the Purple Beasts sect, it was one of if not the strongest sect in the area.
Thanks to the cultivation technique Ning had given them before he left the first time, the overall cultivation level of the entire sect had gone up by a massive amount.
The sect leaders themselves had already entered the Golden Core realm and were one of the strongest individuals around.
Once the tournament was over and they won, Anya let the elders know about her intentions to leave and go to a place with stronger people.
The elders were reluctant, but they couldn't stop here. In the end, they let her leave.
"So, where should we go next?" Anya asked.
"Where do you want to go?" Ning asked back.
"Hmmm…" she amused. "Is there any place that's popular? Anywhere really is fine," she said.
"Well, come to think of it, there was in fact a place that Hijaka told me. Let's see, where is it… ah yes, Seven Lights City. Why don't you go there?" Ning said.
"Sure," Anya said.
"Do you want to take a short way there or the long way?" Ning asked.
"I'm only 21 years old, I'm in no hurry at all. Let's just take the scenic route," Anya said.
"Alright, get on the ferry then," Ning said.
Anya quickly found a ferry on the northern part of the Hub island. She was a little sad leaving her brother and father behind, but such was the life of a cultivator. One could either choose happiness or strength.
It was very rarely possible for a cultivator to find both at the same time. The only way one could possibly have these things both ways when one was at the peak of strength with nothing more to achieve, at that time, all they could be was happy.
Anya smiled as the breeze hit her beautiful face. By now, Ning was back into his original body and had a small black bird perched on his shoulders.
He sat beside Anya and sighed a little as he realized how much the difference in their cultivation had grown.
"How far away are you from breaking through?" Ning asked.
"I can break through anytime I want to master. But I thought you told me to wait a little longer so that I could have the strongest foundation before breaking through," she said.
"Yes, but that was 3 months ago. You have cultivated for long enough and can breakthrough if you want," Ning said.
"Is that so? Then I shall do it right now," Anya said.
"Go ahead," Ning said. "I will stand guard."
Anya nodded and closed her eyes while she was still in the middle of the deck. Suddenly, the Qi around her got agitated and started moving away from her, as if they were expanding.
When they expanded to the point that they couldn't move any further, a small muffled explosion sounded and they all dispersed away. However, they soon lost their speed and came to a halt.
Suddenly, they reverse and flew back to Anya as she devoured all the Qi in the area and started forming her golden core. The other people on the deck were surprised and turned around to look at her.
A sea monster suddenly jumped up from the sea sending up water up to a couple of hundred meters up. The people who were on the ship were startled and started screaming as they ran away from the deck.
"RAAAA!" the monster shouted.
"Shut up!" Ning said, but the monster heeded no caution against a man who was barely in the 4th realm foundation establishment.
As the water slid past its body, the monster turned out to be a large worm-like creature with incredibly strong scales. Ning quickly checked its cultivation base and it turned out that the monster was in the 1st Golden Core realm.
"It must've been threatened by Anya's aura and thought we came here to fight for its territory," Ning thought. The people who were supposed to be guarding the ship against monster attacks were scared beyond belief as they had never seen a monster in the Golden Core realm around here.
Anya was still in the process of forming her core, so Ning couldn't let the monster disturb her at this moment.
"Sigh, we are not here to fight you. Just go away and we will be on our way," Ning spoke to the water worm. The water worm didn't have any eyes as its face was just a massive open mouth with teeth sticking out from all over it.
The millions of teeth at the worm's mouth clattered as it spoke, "I Don't Believe You."
"Sigh, do you really want to die? Just go away," Ning said.
Listening to Ning's words, the worm started laughing. The many teeth clattered once more and made horrifying screeching sounds as the teeth scratched on each other.
"Hahaha, Puny Human! You Cannot Kill Me!" it spoke with utmost amusement. "I Will Eliminate My Threat! I Will Eat That Human And Become Stronger!" it exclaimed.
Ning sighed once more and shook his head at the worm's stupidity. "Very well then, you chose this death yourself," Ning said.
The worm suddenly moved towards Anya. Anya wasn't the only one in danger as the giant worm crushing down on her would likely capsize the boat completely.
"Kill him," Ning ordered.
Suddenly, Night who was calmly perched upon his shoulder, asleep, opened his eyes. The pitch-black eyes were like a deep abyss where one couldn't see its true depth.
The world seemed to lose its light and color as Night woke up. Night slowly unfurled his pitch-black wings, unfazed by the falling worm on top of the boat.
He then stood up on Ning's shoulders and flapped his wings. A massive gust of air pushed Ning back as Night disappeared in the dimming light.
The next thing anyone saw was a massive black slice going through the worm and the worm being cut in half. Despite its incredibly tough scales, despite its cultivation base, and despite its arrogance just a few moments earlier, the worm was cleanly decapitated by Night.
Night suddenly changed directions and returned back in front of the worm where now its two dead halves were falling on the boat. He then flapped his wings once again as feathers shot out of his wings and struck the worm's body.
Suddenly, black flames with a hint of white light on them burst out from the feathers. The fire was so hot that Ning could feel the heat from all the way where he was.
Night then flapped his wings again. This time, instead of the feathers being shot out, a massive gust of wind suddenly blew out the fire that was burning.
People expected charred remains of the worm to drop down onto the ferry. However, when the flames disappeared, there was nothing there. Not even ash fell from the sky.
The body of the beast had just disappeared completely with not even a hint that the worm was ever there.
The massive body of Night moved once again and appeared on top of Ning's shoulder as a small bird once again. People watched in horror as they realized that this bird was the one responsible for killing the Golden Core realm monster right now.
"You really like showing off, don't you?" Ning asked with a chuckle.
"I was merely doing what you asked," Night said. Of his three beasts, Night was the only one Ning hadn't dominated using Supreme Dominance, so he couldn't tell what Night was feeling. However, if Ning had to guess, he would say that Night was really smug right now.
"You did well. Here," Ning said as he presented a handful of snakeskins to Night, his favorite food. Night ate without any restraints and Ning focused back on Anya.
Soon, Anya was done forming her core and she was safely in the Golden Core Realm.
