Ning flew back up to the cave once more. He stopped before entering and looked back to see all 3 of his beasts happily interacting with the rest of the beasts.
‘If that’s what they want then who am I to say otherwise,’ Ning thought.
Without any more consideration, he walked back into the portal in the cave. He was once more teleported and arrived outside, back in the tomb of Jha’Akim.
“You’re back already?” the beasts were surprised.
“Yeah, there wasn’t really anything for me to do there. I don’t even really know why you sent me there, because I would have gone out to search for your descendants despite not going there,” Ning said.
“But… we didn’t send you there for yourself,” the Drake said.
“Huh?” Ning was surprised. “Then why else would you se— Oh, I see,” he said. “Yeah, well… your plan worked. My beasts love the place, and I’ve even left them there for a month before I return.”
“You will return back in a month?” the beasts questioned.
“Oh yeah, I will take the information about which-which children of yours have left at that time too,” Ning said.
“Oh, that’s fine… but which month are you coming back on?” the drake asked.
“What do you mean which month? I’m coming back in a month,” Ning said.
“Yeah, but which one?” the drake asked.
“How many different types of 1 month are there? I will return in 30 days,” Ning said.
The beasts didn’t speak for a moment before one of them spoke once more. “Yeah, but which one?”
Ning was confused now. “What do you mean by which one?” he asked.
The beasts went silent once more. Due to most of their body being encased in stone, Ning couldn’t even see their emotions. Finally, the drake asked, “Did you not realize it when you came here?”
“What didn’t I realize?” Ning asked.
“That the time moves differently here,” the drake said.
Ning stopped for a second. “What’s that supposed to mean? Is there a time dilation in this cave?” he asked.
“Not just this cave, but for the secret realm as well. Why else do you think we could live for thousands of years while constantly keeping Jha’Akim in check?” the drake asked.
“It’s because… time moves slower in here,” Ning asked as if he understood something.
“Yes,” the drake said. “The time dilation is about 6 hours in the outside world for every 1 hour in here. That is why we’ve lived so long. We can’t live for thousands upon thousands of years. For us, it’s only been a little over two thousand years.”
“Oh wow, I didn’t realize that. So the last 7-8 hours I’ve spent here and the secret realm will equate to about 2 days in the real world huh?” Ning wondered. “Anyway, that means you can live for a lot more years huh?”
“We may live for a thousand or so years more, but by that time, Jha’Akim might have already left his prison. We can feel his power increasing day by day. If you can, human, please gather the best of your people to prepare for what’s coming,” the beasts said.
“Okay, I shall do that,” Ning said. “I will come back in… 6 or so days to get back information about your children that left. Until then, take care.”
Ning bid his farewell for now and walked back through the cave. He looked at the markings on the wall and finally realized what those were.
“So these are the claw marks of Jha’Akim, huh?” Ning thought as he placed his palm on top of where the marks were and saw that Jha’Akim’s claws were nearly ten times as large as his hands.
‘I wonder how big he is. Being a hybrid between a man and a beast, he must be really unique,’ Ning thought. ‘However, in the first place, how did he even get conceived? Human and a beast… that’s not biologically possible.’
‘Unless, it’s because early men came from the beasts too, so it was possible back in those periods,’ Ning thought. He tried to stop thinking about it, but his mind kept thinking about it.
Once he was ready, he flew up. Soon he came upon the ceiling of the cave, but he didn’t stop. Instead, he slammed through the ceiling.
However, he didn’t hit anything. Instead, he was sent back out onto the tomb above the seal.
It was a bit after the afternoon when he was out. Ning looked around and saw the gazed of the many people looking at him.
He ignored them and looked below him. He checked for his gold coin, but someone had taken it already.
‘I will need to make sure someone doesn’t accidentally enter the seal,’ Ning thought and looked around to find the stone slab that was there previously and placed it back in the middle.
“It’s him. He’s the one that threatened us before,” a woman shouted. Ning looked back and saw that it was the same woman who had explained to him about the fake history of this place.
Many black-skinned fighters came into the tomb. Ning just shook his head and walked out of the room. The fighters ran up to try and stop him, but no matter what they did, they couldn’t stop him.
Ning casually walked outside while the fighters tried every possible ability in their arsenal to try and stop Ning.
Seeing that nothing they did could stop him, they immediately switched from attacking to begging. They begged for him to forgive them and have mercy after they realized how strong he was.
Ning shook his head and flew away without saying anything. The men were in fear and all the people there were concerned for their life now, but Ning didn’t care.
Those people had nothing to do with him. “They were supposed to reach the academy 5 days later, right? Meaning I still have quite a while. Urghh! They will start asking questions if I suddenly reappear on the boat.”
“I guess I will take my time going there then.”