Ely wanted to laugh out loud after seeing Ning there. The person she was so curious to find out about had turned out to be none other than him.
The other 2 principals looked around in confusion not knowing what was going on. Not even Jivon knew about Ning due to him being a very reserved figure in the Alchemy wing for the last hundreds of years.
Yola on the other hand didn't know what to think. She knew a little about Ning, especially the truth about him being old. But other than that, she hadn't bothered looking into much information about him.
"What are you doing here, teacher Ning?" Yola asked. "Didn't you leave for somewhere before us?"
"Ah, it seems your academy's people are here, senior," Tsado said when he saw Yola. He then looked at the rest and said, "Good to see you guys have made it here quite fast. Let me introduce you to senior Ning."
Tsado then went on to introduce him to the other 2 principals as a very important figure in the entire continent.
Yola couldn't understand how that was possible.
"Wait, I thought your disciples said you were with someone from a different continent," Jivon asked.
"Oh, that was just a misunderstanding. Senior Ning was actually with people from the northern continent, so I assumed they were together and told my disciples so," Tsado said.
"Alright, you guys continue talking. It seems my academy members are here, so I will go over now," Ning said.
"Oh, no senior. We can't let to stay in such a crowded place. Let us prepare a place especially for you," Tsado said.
"Oh no, it's not necessary. I will just go stay with the other teachers. After all, I'm a teacher too," Ning said.
"Are you sure, senior? We can easily prepare a place for you," Tsado insisted.
"It's fine. I like being with other people," Ning said. "Alright, I will see you tomorrow then."
Ning then walked up to Ely and said, "Let's go."
Ely nodded and started walking for a bit before stopping and looking back. "Yola, you're not coming?" she asked.
"I will stay with them for a while," Yola said.
"Oh, okay," Ely said and walked away with Ning.
Ely and Ning flew back to their new place of stay. Ning found himself a room and Ely walked in. "What happened to 'I will get there a little later after you'? Did you teleport here?" Ely asked.
"Oh no. I came here after I was done with my task," Ning said.
"So no teleport? Also, who did you come with? They said you were with someone from a different continent," Ely asked.
"Oh, that's because I was," Ning said. "Let's see…so after I did what I had to in the Grime oasis, I was about 2 days later than you guys. So, I planned on taking my time, flying through the sky."
"But then, on the way, I saw a few people getting attacked by giant sand vultures in the sky and saved them. When I finally saw them, I realized I recognized them," Ning said.
"You recognized them? Is it someone from Klavis, or Seven Lights city?" Ely asked.
"Oh no. Uh, I took you there but you didn't get to see them at that time," Ning said. "Remember Deepskull Island?"
"Deepskull island? That sounds familiar," Ely thought. "Wait, was that Anya's home?"
"Yeah, that island. Remember how I told you I was there for about a year?" Ning said. "So, I met those guys again, the people from the Purple Beasts academy."
"After I saved them and realized who they were, I showed them that I was an alumnus from their school and was allowed to come with them."
Ely listened to his story quite attentively. "So they didn't recognize you, huh? The people you knew must've already been dead by then," Ely said.
"I left that place for over 300 years before I came to Five Professions Academy. Even after that, it's been over 1800 years. Given how those people could barely reach the gold core realm, I doubt they would survive at all."
"After Anya's father died, and the two heads and the other elders that knew her died, she started getting distant from the sect too."
"She said she rarely went back to revisit them. Even then, she would just reminisce outside and never go in," Ning said.
"I see. Anyway, continue. How did you come here so fast?" Ely asked.
"Oh right. It turned out that they had an incredible flying artifact that they were gifted a few centuries ago and were using it. However, because they didn't have a Nascent Soul cultivator, they couldn't use it properly."
"I too wanted to get here just in time to meet you guys so I sped up too. However, it seems that I may have been just a little bit too fast," Ning said.
Ely got curious this time. "I would love to see what artifact could allow someone to fly this fast," she said. "Anyway, how did you get in with Tsado."
"Oh yeah that… is an embarrassing story," Ning said with an awkward face.
"Spill it," Ely said.
"Sigh, when we reached here, I saw that there were people guarding the way. I was mostly hiding my cultivation, so the people from the Purple Beasts sect were deemed weaklings and weren't allowed entry at all."
"So… I may or may not have flared my cultivation to give them a bit of a scare," Ning said with an embarrassed face.
"And that got you to Tsado?" Ely asked.
"Yeah. He had to come himself after a few of the students in charge of security fainted in mid-air after my little scare," Ning said.
Ely started chuckling when she heard that.
"Hey, stop laughing. Everyone was looking at me. It was so embarrassing," Ning said.
"Well, congratulations. Many of the people coming here now know that you are more important than the Saint Alchemist himself."
