8: Chapter 8 The Ning Family's Prodigy Descends the Mountain

"Then it's settled, off to the Great Xia Martial Academy!"

Ning Jianghe made the final decision.

Everyone agreed without objection.

Ning Yuan suppressed his inner excitement, keeping a calm expression on his face.

"However..." Hua Qingyue opened her optical computer to check, "I recall that the official enrollment period for the Great Xia Martial Academy this year seems to have already passed."

Hearing this, Ning Jianghe waved his hand nonchalantly.

"No matter. My young disciple, Jiang Baihe, happens to be one of the academy's deans now. I'll just give him a heads-up."

Upon hearing this, Ning Dashan immediately became excited.

"Senior Brother Jiang has also stepped into the Martial Emperor Realm!"

Ning Jianghe nodded with a smile, his face full of pride.

Including Ning Dashan, he had a total of ten disciples, all of whom were now Martial Emperors.

Ning Yuan felt incredibly satisfied hearing this.

It's good to have connections in high places!

A place others would break their necks to get into, and for him, it was just a matter of a quick word.

He waited secretly for a moment, but the system in his mind didn't react.

He mused to himself that the mission rewards probably wouldn't be issued until he officially enrolled.

Thinking of those unknown, bountiful rewards, his heart filled with anticipation.

Although brother tongzi was a bit dull, he was never stingy with rewards.

Seeing Ning Jianghe's smug look, Hua Tianchi couldn't help but curl his lip.

"So you have a Martial Emperor disciple, big deal."

He hadn't taken many disciples in his life, preferring peace and quiet.

Then, he turned to look at Ning Yuan, his face instantly switching to a kind and amiable smile.

"My dear Grandson, since you're heading to the Great Xia Martial Academy, your grandfather doesn't have much to give you. I'll gift you this for self-defense."

With that, he held his fingers like a blade and made a light stroke across his brow.

A blade seal containing a terrifying sharp edge slowly emerged from between his brows, condensing into form.

The moment the blade seal left his body, even the face of Hua Tianchi, this Hua Tianchi, turned slightly pale.

With a flick of his finger, the blade seal turned into a streak of light, instantly merging beneath the skin of Ning Yuan's arm and vanishing.

"With this, your safety should be guaranteed."

What he didn't say was that this life blade seal was enough to withstand a full-strength blow from a Saint-level expert.

Seeing this, Ning Jianghe couldn't help but snort coldly.

"Using your life blade seal—aren't you afraid of severely damaging your vitality? When you go back to guard the Star Pass and the pressure mounts, let's see what you do then."

Hua Tianchi straightened his neck, sounding perfectly justified.

"I only have this one precious Grandson. I'm happy to do it, so mind your own business!"

Then, he solemnly warned Ning Yuan, "Yuaner, remember, this blade seal will only trigger automatically when you encounter a life-or-death crisis. You must not become dependent on it in your daily life."

Ning Yuan nodded heavily.

Seeing this, Ning Jianghe shook his head helplessly and took out a warm, dragon-shaped jade pendant from his robe, handing it to Ning Yuan.

"Take this jade pendant. Once you reach the Transcendent Martial Artist Realm and need to sense cosmic particles, it will be of great use."

Hua Tianchi's eyes suddenly narrowed.

"Old Ghost Ning, you're certainly generous, even willing to part with the nine dragons spirit nurturing pendant?"

Ning Jianghe said proudly, "Nonsense! This is my own Grandson!"

Clearly, this item was not so simple.

With that, the two elders, who had lived for over ten thousand years, began glaring at each other again, looking ready for another fight.

Ning Yuan watched from the side with a helpless expression. His grandfather and maternal grandfather couldn't see each other without bickering. They were rivals in the past, but who would have thought they'd end up as in-laws?

Bai Xiuning gave the two old men an annoyed look, then gently took Ning Yuan's hand.

"Yuaner, come, Grandma will get you some candy... oh no, I mean pills to take with you."

The dimensional bracelet on her wrist flashed, and jade pill bottles appeared in her hand one by one.

"This is the heavenly bear pill. It can boost your vital energy and blood. Since you need to push the limits of a high-level martial artist now, keep some extra. If you can't finish them, it's fine to eat them like candy; they taste quite good."

"This is the Mystic Mechanism Pill; you can use it once you reach the Transcendent Realm."

"This is the Heart Clearing Pill, this is the Spirit Concentrating Pill, this is the Aura Breaking Pill, this is the Nine Star Pill..."

She listed them like family treasures, stuffing them into Ning Yuan's hands handful after handful.

Any one of these pills would be enough to make external martial artists fight to the death, and even Martial King or Martial Monarch experts would be driven to jealous madness.

Before long, the space in Ning Yuan's dimensional bracelet was nearly half-filled with these bottles and jars.

"Enough, enough, Grandma, it's really enough," Ning Yuan hurriedly stopped her.

Bai Xiuning still felt it wasn't enough.

"It's fine, just take them. If you run out, tell Grandma anytime."

Everyone watched in stunned silence.

This wasn't giving pills; it was clearly wholesaling them like jellybeans.

A Pill Saint is just that overbearing!

Even Ning Dashan looked a bit envious, muttering softly, "How come I didn't get this treatment when I went out to train back then?"

He was immediately given a rap on the head.

Hua Qingyue stepped forward and pressed a card made entirely of black gold into Ning Yuan's hand.

"Son, since Mom won't be by your side, swipe this whenever you want to eat or buy something. This card has no limit."

A casual sentence, yet it was equally filled with an overbearing aura.

Ning Dashan leaned in eagerly.

"Wife, look... how about giving your husband one too?"

His response was a sharp roll of the eyes from his wife.

Ning Dashan walked up to Ning Yuan resentfully, clearing his throat to put on a fatherly air of authority and give a few serious instructions.

However, as soon as he opened his mouth, he felt several burning gazes shooting from behind him, and his momentum instantly vanished as he wilted.

"Ahem... anyway, you brat, don't go causing trouble for others all the time once you reach the Ancestral Star. Your old man is very poor; just take this old spear I used in my youth and play with it."

He took out a blood-red spear with a ferocious dragon pattern coiled around the shaft and handed it to Ning Yuan.

The dragon slaughter spear!

Ning Yuan grinned and took it without hesitation.

"Thanks, Dad!"

Looking at the many elders who had fussed over him so much, Ning Yuan's heart was filled with emotion.

Going to the Ancestral Star, they certainly wouldn't be able to see each other again for quite some time.

For a moment, the sorrow of parting welled up in his heart, making him quite reluctant to leave.

"Woof woof woof!"

Heaven Swallowing Beast Wang Zai jumped out at the right moment, nudging Ning Yuan's leg with its head, breaking the slightly somber atmosphere.

It looked at Ning Yuan pleadingly, terrified of being left behind.

Ning Yuan was just about to kick it away when his mother, Hua Qingyue, chuckled, "Better to take Wang Zai along; it'll be good to have company on the road."

Ning Yuan nodded.

He had raised this little fellow for so many years; naturally, he would keep it by his side.

He took a deep breath, looked at his family, clenched his fists tightly, and made a solemn promise.

"I will definitely work hard in my cultivation!"

Everyone's faces lit up with gratified smiles.

Grandma Bai Xiuning warned, "Cultivation is important, but your own safety is more important than anything."

Ning Dashan waved a large hand.

"Alright, alright, stop being so sentimental and just go. I've already activated the teleportation array to the Yanxia Star Field."

Every activation of an inter-star-domain teleportation array consumed a massive amount of resources.

But for the Ning family, this was not an issue.

Ning Yuan took one last deep look at everyone, then scooped up the Heaven Swallowing Beast at his feet and waved his hand vigorously.

"You all take good care of yourselves!"

With those words, his figure vanished into the light of the teleportation array.

Hua Qingyue leaned on her husband's shoulder, her beautiful eyes filled with reluctance.

"Do you think Yuaner will be okay out there on his own? Will he be bullied?"

Ning Dashan sighed deeply upon hearing this.

"That little brat... if he doesn't bully others, I'll be thanking my lucky stars..."

Before he could finish, he gasped.

His arm had already been pinched black and blue by his wife.

Hua Qingyue's eyebrows shot up in anger.

Ning Dashan grimaced in pain but didn't dare make a sound.

Nearby, the helpless chuckles of Ning Jianghe, Hua Tianchi, and the others echoed slowly across the mountain peak.

...

Inside the inter-star-domain teleportation array, it was bizarre and kaleidoscopic as time and space shifted.

Ning Yuan didn't know how much time had passed before he arrived at the Yanxia Star Field from the Xuanhuang Star Domain.

Next was an inter-galactic teleportation array, sending him to the Milky Way Galaxy.

Finally, through an intra-planetary teleportation array, he at last stepped onto that ancient land that carried the origin of the human race.

Feeling the solid soil beneath his feet and breathing the slightly thin air that was thick with the weight of history, Ning Yuan tossed the Heaven Swallowing Beast into the air and raised his arms with a shout.

"Ancestral Star, Great Xia Martial Academy! Your young master is here!"