Ning thought he heard wrong at first, so he asked to confirm, "Sorry, did you say 1800 years?" he asked.
"Yes, it's been 1800 years since you joined the academy, I'm around 2100 years old right now. Although, most of it was in closed cultivation, so I don't know if I should call it that," Ely said.
"Wait, that's… I was inside for so long. You were here for so long," Ning said. This was the most time he had skipped ever in his life.
"2100 years… that's a lot of time for a Nascent Soul cultivator. How many years do you have left?" Ning asked.
"I should still have a Millenium before I die," Ely said. "Thanks to the books you gave me of course."
"I will give you something else to improve it even more," Ning said. "Anyway, I think we should fix this misconception."
Ely nodded and cleared the formation setter and took it into her item box.
"Teacher Eleonora, what are you doing?" Yola asked.
"All of your, go away," Ely said to the students, who immediately dispersed.
Some of them showed courage and stayed behind, but they immediately left when Yola followed Ely and shouted, "Disperse."
"What is happening?" Yola asked.
"You should go to the treasury and look up his name. Believe me, he is a teacher," Ely said.
"If you say so. I will go and check," Yola said and left.
"1800 years huh… the last one must've lasted over a thousand years too," Ning said softly. "So long."
"Don't fret much," Ely said. "That's the life of a cultivator. In search for a few hundred more years, we waste away thousands inside a room."
"Sigh, what's happened has happened, let's go somewhere else and talk," Ning said before walking away.
Along with Ely, he went down to the city which had broadened itself by quite a lot. All the buildings seemed to have been changed or renewed. The culture in the city was also a lot different.
Ning just walked around in silence as he watched. "Where are we going?" Ely asked.
"I don't know. I'm just… walking around, I guess," Ning thought as he walked with Ely behind him.
They walked for a few hours as Ely followed behind Ning. Ning strayed off the path and walked into a forest too. He looked around talking a lot.
When he reached the middle of the forest, he called out his beast. None of his beasts looked different, not even Blue who was supposed to be evolving.
However, their cultivation base was certainly reaching its peak. In fact, Ning could feel that they were about to break through to the higher realm.
'Huh? But I thought breaking through to Spirit Transformation was impossible aside from the Origin. Or is it that the Beast space's feature with Qi gathering made it a good place for them to breakthrough?' Ning wondered.
"They're quite strong," Ely said as she too could feel their cultivation base.
"Aren't they?" Ning asked with a chuckle. "Guys, go around and have fun. I will find you guys in a few days."
"You are giving them free rein?" Ely asked.
"They've been couped up in the room along with me. I can understand what it feels like now. So I think they deserve at least this much," Ning said.
"I see," Ely said.
"Anyway, I'm planning on going around to meet a few of my people. Can you go back by yourself?" Ning asked.
Ely was about to say yes when she thought of something else and asked something else.
"Can I not come by?" she asked.
"Oh, of course, you can. Although only I know them, so I don't know what sort of time you will have," Ning said.
"It's fine. It's in the Northern Continent, right? I've been dreaming about going there. They fixed the teleportation formation to the Southern Continent, so I've been there. But they are still struggling to do anything for the northern continent, and it's quite annoying," Eleonora said.
"Wait, they fixed a Teleportation formation? When?" Ning asked.
"A few centuries ago. Two formation master brothers worked all their lives and managed to finally learn enough about the teleportation formation to fix it."
"The Sephyr Empire has been quite a busy place thanks to that. They were called by the Emperor of the Noetra Empire to do the same for their broken Formation too, but it seems there is something really wrong with that formation and they can't seem to fix it," Ely said.
"Hmm… a Teleportation formation to the Northern Continent huh? That's… not bad, The people there can do well visiting the other continent too. " Ning said. "I wonder what the two brothers would do if the answer to their problems were to, say, mysteriously fall on their lap."
Ely chuckled a little and said, "Wouldn't it be better if you use that information to make one for the Galyra empire? I'm sure Nilo would be quite happy."
"Nilo? He's still the Emperor?" Ning asked in surprise.
"No. He gave up the throne to his son a few centuries ago after reigning for nearly 700 years. Knowledge of alchemy helped him a lot during those times, so I'm sure he would be quite flabbergasted to a certain teacher that helped him during his young years," Eleonora said.
"It's been so long that I missed his coronation as well as retirement, huh? Well, I guess I can go meet him. As for the formation, let's talk with the folks over in the Northern Continent before we make any decisions of our own. Is that okay?" Ning asked.
"Yeah, that sounds good to me," Ely said.
"Great. Let me ask my beasts if they want to go to the Northern Continent. They were all born there, so they should be quite thrilled, honestly," Ning said.
Just as he said that the sky dimmed as Night arrived right next to Ning. After that Blue arrived and finally, Aegis came back as well. They all went back into the beast space for a moment, and Ning brought his hand forward.
"Let's go," he asked.
Ely smiled and held his hands. Then, they disappeared.
