"I cannot go any further. Please proceed on your own," Yula told Ning as he stayed behind right before the stage prepared for the ceremony.
There were a few people on the stage already, so Ning walked up.
'Oh, there are quite a few more than I had assumed,' he thought. There were at least 20 people, men, and women he didn't recognize at all.
Except for 2.
"Brother Ning," Kindley called him. Seeing that he was the only person there that he was remotely familiar with and not wanting to socialize with the others, Ning walked next to Kindley and sat on the empty seat.
"I didn't expect to see you here, brother Kindley," Ning said.
"Haha, I told you I would see you later, didn't I?" Kindley said with a smile.
The other people turned around to look at Ning. Some even tried to extend their greetings.
Ning talked to them as least as he could. He quickly came to learn that these people were indeed from great noble families. When they saw that Ning didn't want to talk, they turned around and didn't disturb him any further.
Ning could see Badel far away looking at him quite annoyed. 'Is he still angry about me being disrespectful?' Ning thought.
Kindley brought up more questions about his son and Ning's general life. Ning answered as truthfully as he could.
"By the way, brother Kindley, why don't you leave for the Five Professions city as well?" Ning asked. "Wouldn't it be better to stay with your family?"
"Oh, haha… I would love to, brother Ning. But, I have responsibilities here I simply can't leave," Kindley said with a sad smile.
"I at least wanted my wife to come back, but she keeps saying that I will have to wait until our son is well enough to stand on his two feet," Kindley said.
"But he already can," Ning said.
"Sigh, but she doesn't think that. Her mother's heart won't let her see him as anything but a little child," Kindley said while shaking his head.
"Anyway, it's not like I'm really lonely or anything. So she can—"
Suddenly, the group of the audience started making excessive noise that distracted both Kindley and Ning at once.
"What's happening? Did the Emperor come?" Ning said.
Kindley looked around and said, "Oh, there he is."
Ning turned to look and saw a familiar face floating down from the sky. That was the same face that had the despair and tragedy that Trebor was feeling, yet this one was a completely different person.
The Emperor was smiling and waving gently towards the crowd.
He landed on the stage and looked around as he sent his divine sense to check everything.
His senses landed on Ning for a split second more and he realized his guest was here. He smiled towards Ning and nodded a little.
Ning was suddenly feeling agitated. The second-hand hatred he felt for the Emperor on behalf of Trebor was starting to surface.
'This was the person who destroyed an entire family for his own greediness,' Ning thought.
However, Trebor's injustice was not his to avenge. He was but a mere watcher on the side. The most he could do was watch from the side.
The Emperor walked up to the front of the stage and looked at the crowd of people and smiled.
"My fellow citizens! I hope you are having a wonderful time."
"Today is a day that doesn't come by very often in the history of our empire. In my lifetime, I have only seen 3 of these days, and only one of those was where I was standing here."
"The Medal of Honor is awarded to someone who has either done something that was previously deemed impossible or shown great bravery and protected the empire from a threat."
"Today's Medal of Honor is for the bravery a single teacher showed to fight off 70 Nascent Soul realm cultivators all on his own," the Emperor said.
Gasps rang out everywhere. People couldn't believe the number as that just seemed impossible. If 70 Nascent Soul realm cultivators fought another 70 Nascent Soul realm cultivators, even then the chances of all the second 70 Nascent Soul realm cultivators dying was impossible.
So, people naturally were very surprised when the Emperor revealed what he did. The information hadn't spread as fast as it could have and was kept under wraps for the majority of the people, so they were all pretty surprised.
"Let me introduce you to the person that did it. Please come forth, my child," the Emperor said.
Ning took a deep breath to reel in his emotions and stood up before walking up in front of everyone.
"This is teacher Ning. An alchemy and beastmaster teacher from the Five Professions Academy. He is a silver starred teacher for both of those professions too."
"And he is the man responsible for defeating the invaders of the academy and killing the 70 Nascent Soul realm enemies," the Emperor said.
"So, I award him with the most prestigious award I can…The Medal of Honor."
The emperor brought out a fully gold medal that seemed to have an insignia of the Wyan family as well as a single character stamped on it that said 'Honor'.
The Emperor took the ribbons and put them around Ning's neck awarding him the medal.
People clapped and Ning smiled slightly for the audience.
"People, congratulate teacher Ning for being the first man in the last 300 years to get the Medal of Honor," the Emperor shouted.
"He protected his academy, but he also did more than that. He protected the Empire."
People got both curious and confused as to what he was about to say.
"The invader—"
"Stop!" Ning said from the side. "You already ruined his life while he was alive. Don't ruin it while he is dead."
The Emperor stopped talking and looked towards the side at Ning with a confused look.
"What do you mean?" The Emperor asked.
Ning was getting slightly angry. "You know damn well what I mean."
