In the midday heat, Ning walked past the bustling city until he reached the shore on the other side of the island.
Far along the sea, he could see quite a few ships roaming the bay, but none dared to come on close to the shore.
Had Ning not known that there was the Royal Palace on the shore here, he would certainly have been confused why there was an open area in the sea here.
The palace looked more like a beach house than a palace. Since it was built on a small cove surrounded by cliffs, it had its own natural barrier of entry.
Ning walked up to the gate and showed his letter of introduction. "I'm from the Circle. I'm here because I was requested," he told the guard.
The guards quickly relayed the information to the king and Ning was allowed entry.
A bare-chested, tanned butler walked out and brought Ning in. Ning was rather surprised at the muscles on the butler. He was more bodybuilder than servant.
When he reached inside, he was surprised to see that everyone here was the same.
When he reached the Palace hall, he realized why that was.
The king himself was a barbarian-like man, with a sharp, angular facial structure. His clean-shaven face made him look young but his physical bearing said otherwise.
"You are the person that is going to teach my daughter?" the king asked while flexing his muscle.
"Uh, yes that is me," Ning said.
"But you're weak," the king said suddenly.
"What? Oh, my hair? Don't worry about my hair, your highness. Despite having a red hair, I can assure you that I'm a rank—"
"Not your hair," the King said. "Your body. You're so weak and thin. Do they not feed you in the Circle. I knew I should have shut that thing down way earlier. They can't even follow simple instructions."
"But… I am strong," Ning said.
"I'm not looking for people that can summon strong beasts boy. Any old person can teach that. I'm looking for strong people, physically strong."
"I want my daughter to learn from people just like me," the king said as he flexed his biceps again.
At the same time, everyone in the room flexed their biceps as well.
"I…" Ning was way too dumbfounded to say anything. Not in a million years would he have expected to be in such a situation.
It took him a few seconds to understand what was going on exactly, and when he did, he took a deep breath before speaking.
"Do you think you are strong just because of a few muscles, your highness?" Ning asked.
"Of course I am," the king said.
"Then how about a match then," Ning said. "You and me, we arm wrestle to see who is the strongest."
The king gave a confused look. "What's an 'arm wrestle'?" he asked.
"Basically, we will use our arms to try and topple each other to see who is stronger physically. Let me show you," Ning said as he called one of the members close by and placed a stool in front of them.
Once in a position to arm wrestle, Ning said, "Try and make my arm fall on this side, while I will try to send yours on this side."
"Hmph!" the court official scoffed at Ning and tried to push his arm aside. However, Ning's arm wouldn't budge even the slightest.
"Come on, push," Ning said. "Use both your hand if you want."
The court official tried, but he still couldn't do anything. "He's cheating!" he shouted. "He must have summoned something."
"Go check," the king ordered.
Some of the court officials brought out a few pearls and put them next to Ning. Even during the day, the shine of the pearls was perfectly visible, and not a single light from it moved towards Ning at all.
"No, your highness. He hasn't summoned anything," they said.
'Oh, that's a neat trick,' Ning thought. 'You can find out if someone is lacking in spiritual energy suing that and figure out if they have summoned something.'
Ning saw the problem with the technique immediately as well since one could have summoned something over a day ago and still be lacking in energy.
Had Ning been a normal person with no automatic spiritual energy absorption, this would have shown him as having summoned something when in fact he had not.
Fortunately, it all worked out perfectly in the end.
Once they figured out Ning wasn't summoning anything, they were truly surprised by his strength.
Ning then casually pushed on the man's arm and he felt his entire body move along with his arm as he fell to the side.
"I win," Ning said and turned around to the King. "Do you trust that I'm a strong person now, your highness?"
"Hmph! I will see myself," the king said as he jumped from his seat directly in front of Ning and placed his hand on the stool.
Ning smiled and did the same. He grasped the king's hands tightly and showed him his grin.
The King immediately realized he was in trouble. "You… you really are strong huh," he said as he tried to push on Ning's arms but as expected he couldn't budge it.
"What do you eat to get this strong?" the king asked.
"Me? Nothing much really. I just stay out in the sun for a bit and get this strong," Ning said.
"Is that so? Fine, keep your secrets," the king said and lurched a bit before pushing at Ning's arms.
His elbows even lifted from the stool, but Ning said nothing. "Do you give up?" he asked simply.
"Not yet," the king said and kept pushing and pushing, but he wasn't even successful as making Ning's clothes move.
Finally, Ning took pity on the king and decided not to humiliate him anymore. So, he slowly slammed down the King's arm on the stool and left him there.
"You lose, your highness."
