"Human, do you know who we are?" 

"This is disrespect."

"The humans have gotten arrogant."

"Let's give him a lesson."

Auras emanated from the surrounding statues as they started crashing down on Ning to punish him for his insolence. 

Ning's knees caved in a little when the aura of so many beasts in the 9th Nascent Soul realm fell upon him at once. 

However, that was only because Ning was caught off-guard. Once he realized what was happening, he slowly stood back up straight and contested the many beasts' push. 

"You can go on as long as you like; I can do this all day long," Ning said. "Although, given how much you must have sacrificed to live for so long, are you sure you want to fight me right now?" 

The aura disappeared as soon as it came. 

"Who are you, human? The humans alive in our time were in no way this strong. Are all humans like you now?," one of the beasts said. 

"No, I am an exception for sure," Ning said.

"I see. Then would you say who is the strongest in your world right now?" the beasts asked. 

"Hmm… I'm not really sure, but I should be considered one of the strongest ones now," Ning said. 

"Is that so?" one of the beasts said.

"The world is not ready yet."

"They need more time."

"We don't have more time."

"We must endure."

"For our children."

"Yes, for our children."

The beasts suddenly started talking amongst themselves and Ning just stood there listening to everything. 

"What do we do now?" 

"Send the human back."

"Should I ask him if he's seen my descendent?"

"Everyone, don't forget to focus. You're getting distracted."

"Yes."

"Brother Drake, please tell the human to leave."

Ning listened to the beasts continue speaking. He was curious as to what exactly they were talking about. 

"What's going on?" Ning asked. 

"Nothing, you should go back that way and fly out of here while you have the time, human. The seal doesn't stop you from leaving out," the Drake spoke. 

"Okay… what was that about the world not being ready though? What is the world not ready for?" Ning asked.

"Huh? Where did you hear that?" the Drake asked in surprise. 

"What do you mean? That silver-horned Deer just spok— Oh, right. I forgot I can easily understand the beasts. So, I sometimes forget that you are speaking a different language altogether," Ning said. 

"You can understand our language, human?" the beasts asked in surprise. 

"Yes," Ning said. "So, do you mind telling me what is happening in here?" 

"That's… not something we can reveal," the beasts said. 

"Okay… then tell me how you are alive. I remember learning that you were all killed by this one beast that came out of nowhere with the power of many legendary beasts. Was that false?" Ning asked.

The beasts went silent for a few moments after hearing Ning's questions. Finally, one of the beasts asked, "Where did you hear about this?" 

"I have a beast of my own with some knowledge about it," Ning said and called out Aegis, Night, and Blue. 

The three of them looked around and were surprised that nothing was there. They were fully expecting to fight someone right now. 

"Why is one of my brethren out there?" the Golden Shelled Beetle's statue suddenly spoke. 

Aegis looked to the statue that just spoke and was even more confused. "Master, that thing jus spoke," he said. 

"Junior, don't call me a 'thing.' I am your ancestor," the Golden Shelled Beetle statue said. "Also, did you just call him master?" 

"Yes, he is my master," Aegis said.

"INSOLENCE!" the beetle statue cried out. "How dare you enslave my kind?" 

"Hey, don't speak about my master like that," Aegis's aura exploded when he got angry. His peak Nascent Soul realm cultivation base exploded. 

"My child, are you brainwashed?" the beetle statue asked.

"Brother Beetle, I don't think that is the case," one of the other beasts spoke. "He seems to genuinely care about the human."

"So do they all," another beast spoke.

"A flood dragon… but you have the bloodline of the True Dragons. How is that possible? Your aura is stronger than mine. Has the world healed?" the Drake asked.

Blue looked around, not answering anything immediately. 

"You!" the Dark Emperor Crow cried out when it saw Night. "How is that possible? How do you carry that bloodline? It should have gone extinct long before me."

"What are you talking about?" Ning asked. 

"Can you not see it, human? That kin of mine has the bloodline of our ancestors," the Dark Emperor crow statue spoke.

"Oh, yeah. I knew that. Is that so surprising? I thought you all had it," Ning asked.

"We do… but the amount in him is way too high," the statue spoke. "But how? Are our ancestors back? Has the world truly healed again?" 

"You guys keep saying that. What do you mean by that exactly? Was there something that happened in this world that wounded it?" Ning asked.

"We don't know," the beasts that. "These are just memories of ours from our ancestors. All we know is that our world was wounded and that counteracted the Origin,"

Ning's eyes suddenly went wide. "The Origin! What is that? I read about it somewhere. Someone wrote a book that said that the only way to break through to the spirit transformation realm is in the Origin."

"A human did?" the beasts asked.

"Yes," Ning said. 

"Did he happen to be a bald man with a yellow and red cloth?" the beasts asked.

"Uhh… I don't know about what he wore. I only know the book he wrote," Ning said. "His name was Nergo Vansmith"

"Oh, so that human lived to tell a tale huh?" 

"That weakling actually wrote a book, haha."

"Who is he?" Ning asked.

"The creator of this seal and the person in charge of creating the tomb outside," the beasts said. 

"Since the world was favoring the Humans, we decided to give one a very important task."