Ning teleported away from his current location, arriving on top of the vast open ocean where the Origin was.
He felt the space contort next to him, forming a spatial fold where the Origin was hidden.
"There it is!" He teleported in between the separated space and arrived inside the Origin.
The change in the amount of Qi was immediately apparent. The difference was quite high after all.
'It still is quite concentrated in here,' Ning thought. Then, he looked around and was both confused and surprised.
What he was expecting to see inside were the same old mountains that surrounded the Origin at the center. However, what he came across was something very different.
The island with only trees had turned into a small town with many people living inside.
He could see the people living in various mountains, forming a small city of their own. The center where the Origin was barricaded, but aside from that, the island was no longer different from any other inhabited island.
As Ning had expected, he could see the Klavians in here, which likely meant that the fair-skinned folks in here were Anya's people, as long as they didn't make it freely accessible for others to come here.
He was surprised at just how much it had changed since the last time, but then again, it had been many years.
It had been nearly 700 years in Kumia alone. It would be rather stupid if things hadn't changed.
"Well, they did good developing it so far," Ning thought as he looked around. "But where are the beasts?"
"You there! Who are you?" Someone shouted at him from below. They quickly came flying up to him, with a girl at the front as their leader.
Ning looked toward the group that was coming for him and smiled. "Hey!" he waved his hands toward them.
"Intruder! How did you get in here?" the girl at the front asked.
"Oh, I know how to get in here," Ning said. "Can you go call out your elders?"
The girl at the front got even more suspicious. "How did you find this place? No one is supposed to know of it," she said.
"Hm? Oh, I know of this place," Ning said. "Don't worry about me. I'm no bad guy. Just call your elders."
The girl pulled out a spear and pointed it in front of her. "You haven't answered! Who are you exactly?" she asked.
Ning smiled when he saw the spear. His childish side started showing up.
"I'm someone your elders will love to see," he said with a smile.
"That is no answer," the girl said. "I will suggest you leave before I attack you."
"That's alright, you can attack me if you want. I'm quite curious how well they've trained their children anyway," Ning said.
The girl frowned, but she didn't attack. Normally, she might've thrown some warning strikes, but this time she hesitated.
No matter how much she tried, she couldn't peer into Ning's cultivation base at all. Usually, that meant that he had no cultivation at all, which would be a lie at the moment seeing how well he was flying.
Then, the other reason was that he was too strong for her to sense his cultivation.
But then… how was that possible? If he was stronger than her, then it meant that he was…
"What? Are you not going to attack?" Ning asked the girl.
"Senior, please identify yourself so I can tell my elders of your arrival," she said.
Ning smiled when he heard that. She was quite smart to recognize that she didn't have any chance of winning if this devolved into a fight.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Iris," the girl said.
"Iris, that's a nice name," Ning said. "Are you related to Anya?"
He could see some very vague similarities between the girl in front of him and the teen Anya in his memories.
Although, they were so incredibly vague that it made him believe that she was at least 3 generations below Anya.
"You know about my Great, Great Grandmother?" the girl asked with narrowed eyes.
"Oh, that little girl is now a Great, Great Grandmother, huh?" Ning asked with an amused face.
The girl's eyes went even wider. She could not imagine anyone in this world calling her ancestor a little girl.
The only one who could possibly do so was…
The girl looked at Ning more carefully as the thought grew in her heart. She remembered those stories her grandmother used to say about the massive spider.
"It can't be…" she said softly. Instantly, she pulled out her talisman and called her grandmother.
Ning's eyes moved to the left as he sensed someone else coming up along with many others behind them.
He sensed the person's cultivation base and noticed it was close to peaking in the Spirit Transformation realm.
'Not bad,' he thought when he saw that.
The woman flew up to the group of youths and stopped. When she saw Ning standing in front of her, her eyes started tearing up at the same moment.
"Grandmother, is he…?" Iris asked.
"Yes," the woman said with disbelief. "Go back, you all."
Iris waited for a moment before turning around to leave.
"She's quite bright, that one," Ning said to the woman. "You've done well raising her, Dahlia."
"Is it really you?" she asked.
Ning smiled. "Yes, It is me," he said.
Dahlia immediately moved forward and hugged him without any hesitation. "You're finally back, grandmaster!" she shouted.
Ning smiled and patted her back. "Yes, I'm back."
"I can't believe it's really you." Dahlia moved away from Ning and wiped her tears. "So you really didn't die back then?" she asked.
"No, I was alright," Ning said.
"And senior Hyesi?" she asked.
Ning sighed and shook his head. "He had to give up his life to save you all," he said. "I hope his sacrifice wasn't in vain. I can see that it wasn't in vain. I'm happy to see that you're doing quite well."
"Yes, grandmaster," Dahlia said. "We're doing very well. I can say without a doubt that there is no one on this planet that is doing any better than us."
"Well, you are in the Origin," Ning said as he looked around.
"I should tell the others that you are back," she said as she pulled out a talisman.
"Oh, wait. I want it to be a surprise, so don't tell Ely, or Anya, or even Night, Blue, and Aegis," Ning said.
Dahlia stopped and turned around. "Uhh…" she couldn't find a way to say what she wanted to say.
Ning frowned. "What? What's wrong? Are they alright? Are they hurt?" he asked.
"No, no, they are fine. Or at least I hope they are," Dahlia said.
"Hope? Why? Do you not know how they are?" Ning asked.
"I don't, grandmaster," Dahlia said. "After all, Grandmother and many of the rest including the beasts and senior Ely have already left for another world after their ascension."
Ning looked dumbfounded when he heard that. "Wait… are you saying that in just 700 years since I left them… they achieved Immortality?"
"Yes," Dahlia said. "I'm afraid they are in the other worlds now."
