Chapter 457 - The Slums

Ning controlled the air around him with his Aether as he pressed down on Fiona.

Her body uncontrollably shuddered as it fell to the ground. She gasped for breath, but none of it entered her lungs.

Ning was using his Aether to command his air after all. She looked at him with fear in her bloodshot eyes. 

"Will you try blackmailing me again?" he asked. However, she couldn't speak. She couldn't even move from the air around her.

"I came here on a whim to help a couple who seemed to be having trouble. I stayed here because I wanted to help them survive the unfairness. Did you really think I was here because I fell in love with a little girl? Pathetic!"

Ning undid the air around her, letting her breathe once again. Fiona breathed heavily on all four. She was shaking a little as she looked towards him in pure terror.

"Get dressed and leave my room," Ning told her. "Oh right, about this little incident of ours, keep it a secret, okay? Don't go around telling people how strong I am. I want to live peacefully."

"You…" Fiona snarled. "You think I will keep quiet about this? I will tell the Emperor. He will deal with you."

"Oh," Ning said with a surprised face and looked at her. "You'll tell the emperor, is it? Go ahead then. Go tell the emperor everything, including all the lies you can concoct. Then you may see if I'm bluffing when I tell you that I will unravel this whole empire overnight."

Fiona's eyes went wide. There was no way what he had said could be true, but… those eyes, they held no fear of any consequence.

Either he was really good at bluffing… or he had the strength to back up his claims. Given the demonstration he had put on just a second earlier, she decided to believe he wasn't bluffing.

She quickly dressed and started to leave. Before she did, however, she turned around one last time and said "Sorry" before leaving.

The door closed behind her and Ning was left alone. "Sigh, what am I doing threatening a little girl?" 

He laid back on his bed and collected his thoughts. He remembered Ely and thought, 'I wonder what she's doing right now?' 

Ning had already learned that Kumia was safe, but beyond that, information of a planet so far away cost him way too much energy. 

"What's her cultivation base now, System?" he asked.

<Spirit Transformation 5th Realm>

It cost him a bit of energy, but he was fine with that. 'It took her 300 years, if she cultivated in the Origin, then 3900 years to go up 4 realms in Spirit Transformation huh?' he thought.

That should have been the normal amount. Maybe she wasn't spending all her time in cultivation as well, and may not all years was spent in the Origin. 

"Well, I'm just happy she's doing fine," he thought. "Alright, time to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day."

Ning pulled up his blanket and fell asleep. He cared not for what happened next. He didn't care if Fiona came back with an army to apprehend him. 

He didn't really care about anything other than living a simple life until he could gather enough energy to go back to his friends in Kumia. 

Very early in the morning, before the sun even rose, someone knocked on his door.

Ning woke up and walked up to the door. When he opened it, it was Fiona on the other side. 

"What do you need?" he asked.

Fiona fidgeted a little as the words didn't leave her mouth at all. "W-we need your help," she said.

"My help?" Ning asked. "What do you need from me?" 

"We need to go check slums and areas for any unusual activities before the princess is set to depart for there," Fiona said.

"Aren't the other guards involved in this?" Ning asked.

"Yes, everyone is," Fiona said, unable to maintain eye contact with him.

Ning sighed. "Is this something every guard is doing?" he asked.

"Y-yes," she said.

"Then why did you say you needed help? Just say there's an order to do that. Or did you forget that I'm still a guard?" Ning asked.

"I… I don't think I can give you orders anymore," Fiona said. 

"Stop acting like that. I don't want people to notice anything wrong about me," Ning said and walked. "Let go on the patrol then."

Fiona nodded and quickly followed.

About 12 palace guards and quite a few soldiers, dressed in civilian clothes got out of the palace to check the slums. 

They walked there separately and intermingled to not look very suspicious.

The slum was right outside the commercial district on the eastern side of the city.

Ning walked around alone in the slum, looking at the pure joy in the poor folk's faces. 

'They are happy that they are getting to eat,' Ning thought. Such was the life of the impoverished. 

Ning felt a bit bad when he saw the elderly, the disabled, the single mothers, the little children, all of whom had barely anything to eat or wear. 

Their houses could barely fend off the sun, let alone wind and rain.

He wished he could do something for them, but… there wasn't anything he could think of doing without causing an upheaval that spanned the entire empire.

It wasn't just this empire either that had such people. He was sure there were plenty of other places with such a situation.

Ning shook his head and casually used his analysis on one of the people, and shook his head.

He then turned to another one and used it. 'Hmmm…' his eyes sharpened a little when he saw the same, or rather, lack of the same information.

He moved on to another person, then another one. And another one. 

After analyzing through many people, he came to understand one thing. The people who were poor and looked beggarly all were similar to each other in one way.

None of these people were Aether users.