Chapter 231: Timeline

The men were shocked when they saw the man in front of them physically bend the metal pickaxe.

"ENCHANTER!" They exclaimed.

"Are you willing to speak or not?" Ning asked.

"Please! Please don't kill us," the men said as they immediately got onto their knees and started begging. Ning didn't expect them to give up so easily. It seemed they were more terrified of him than the bandits were for some reason.

'They changed their behavior too quickly,' he thought. One moment they attacked him, and another moment they were begging. 

"Who are you people and why do you know about this cave?" Ning asked.

One of the men trembled and slowly opened his mouth. "We cannot say that," he said.

Ning got ticked off. "Very well, I don't need two people to answer me anyway. Just one of you is enough. The other can go and die," He said.

"Wait, no, please. We really can not answer. They will kill our families if we tell you," one of the men said.

Ning stopped. "What?" He asked.

"Yes. They have our family hostage, and unless we do what they say, they will kill our family," the man said. "So, we really cannot say anything." 

The system had made no effort whatsoever to stop him from killing them; it knew he was going to. That meant that these two weren't innocent whatsoever. However, if they really were forced to do what they did, then there was no way he would feel good after punishing them. 

"Tsk." Just then, he thought of something. He didn't want to believe this thought as he wanted to believe that it was a coincidence. But he could not ignore the truth once it was this close to him.

Ning took a deep breath and asked, "it is Canon, isn't it? The one threatening you?"

The men kept quiet but their eyes flashed a hint of surprise. That was enough for Ning to figure out he was correct. 

'No, I need to be 100% sure he is not lying,' he thought.

Suddenly, the pores on his body opened up as a massive amount of Aether entered his body instantly filling his 640 Million caps for the day. 

While his Sea of Aether could only collect so much Aether, he himself on the other hand was free to collect as much as he could. 

Once he had some energy back, he walked up to one of the people and placed his hand on his forehead. "Don't resist, or I will kill you," Ning said. 

Supreme Domination.

The manmade no peep whatsoever as he was taken in by Ning as a subordinate. Once the domination was complete Ning asked him once more. 

"Is your family hostage?" 

"Yes," the man answered with no hesitation whatsoever. The other man didn't understand what was happening. 

"Is it Canon who has your family hostage?" he asked. 

"Yes."

Ning fell into thought and thought of more questions to ask. 

"Have you ever killed anyone from the village?" he asked. 

"No," the man answered.

Ning was surprised. 

"What do they make you do then?" he asked. 

"Every time someone from the village dies, the villagers come by to Peak of Afterlife to part away with the ashes of the dead. During that time, we are made to mine as much as we can and get out within the time limit," the man said.

"So, the reason the villagers are killed is simply so that they can open the seal to the mountain?" Ning asked with anger in his voice. 

"I believe so," the man said. The other man sat there, dumbfounded at the fact that his partner was spilling all the beans with zero hesitation. Ning on the other hand was in deep thought.

Things were finally starting to make sense. Ning formed a timeline of the events in his mind. 

'That old man's son fell and got paralyzed 3 years ago. He tried to heal him, but couldn't. He probably needed more money. Then he came to find out about this place somehow. Since then, he made a pact with Khrom to let him have free reign over the territory as long as he killed a few villagers once every month or two.'

'So, the old man must be using this cave as his financial source,' Ning thought. However, one thing still didn't make sense. The motivation didn't add up at all. 

Sure the man needed more money and so he mined this place. But he should have gotten enough money as the Aether ores sold for a lot. 

'Why did he still continue to kill the villagers?' he wondered. 'Did he have a taste of the sweet money and couldn't stop doing what he did?' he wondered. 

'Whatever, I will go ask him right now,' he thought. 

"Leave," Ning ordered the two men in front of him. The one subordinate left without any emotions on his face, while the other man was scared the entire time. 

Ning looked at the cave and sighed. He wanted to mine it too, but there were more important things to do now. So, he took in what little Aether ore was on the ground and walked out. 

He teleported over to the edge of the barrier that had brought him to the top and walked out. 

The two people he had just sent away would still take a bit longer to arrive here. While Famir and the rest had already walked away quite far. 

He looked to the distance and saw them going back to the village. With nothing to carry around this time, they would likely cut the travel time by almost half. 

With nothing else to do, he decided to go to the Canon mansion right now and interrogate the old man. So, he teleported. 

He arrived at the open room where the 2nd son was kept. However, the 2nd son was no longer there anymore. Instead, all Ning could see was pooled up blood on the ground. 

Next to his feet were two dead bodies, both of which belonged to the two maids that looked after the second son. 

"What the F*ck?"