Chapter 196: Maelstrom

A minute earlier.

When Ning saw Mallus appear behind him, his heart skipped a beat. Not only was Mallus there, but even his disciples were also there as well. 

'This is troublesome,' he thought. 

As they talked, Ning realized why they were here. He first wanted to immediately teleport to a faraway location so he didn't have to worry about him. 

But then he remembered that if he left after antagonizing the strongest cultivator in the scattered isles, he would certainly show retaliation towards the Deepskull island folks. 

While he cared about Gion, Yelca, and the other folks, he was especially worried about Anya getting mixed in all of this. So, he asked the system a question. 

'Hey, System. How do you determine innocents from the guilty ones? How do I know if I can kill someone or not,' he asked. 

<Anyone who hasn't had a conflict with the host, or has no malicious intent towards the host is considered innocent>

<System will warn you if your intention ever settles on killing innocent people>

'I see… so I can consider everyone here not innocent, right?' he asked. 

<No. There is someone innocent that holds no malicious intentions towards you amongst them. Others hold to a very low degree. Only 3 people amongst the group have a very high malicious intent>

Ning looked at the group and thought, 'I can tell which 3. But who is the one that doesn't hold a malicious intent towards me?' he asked. 

The system showed a disciple from the group that surprised Ning. 'That Faran guy actually doesn't hate me enough to want to hurt me?' Ning said curiously. 

Now that that was resolved, he needed to find a way to escape this predicament. 'It's really just Mallus that I have to worry about. I need to take care of him.'

'I need to think of a way to kill him without dying myself.' Ning looked into the map and looked for places that looked dangerous. One place, in particular, stood out to him as… weird. 

'System, can my body survive here while a Golden Core cultivator dies?' he asked.

<Would you like to buy that information f—>

'Just give me a damn yes or no answer. Take as much every as required,' he said. 

<Yes>

That was all Ning needed. 

"Sigh, I guess junior Ning doesn't want to speak so easily. Then I must insist you come with us so we can persuade you a little," Mallus said. 

"I'm afraid I can't do that," Ning said. "Instead, how about you come with me?" 

He teleported to Mallus and Gai, grabbed them, and teleported again.

It didn't even feel like they were teleported. In fact, all that changed for them was the location. 

Suddenly, a large vortex of colorful lights engulfed them 3 and started to pull them on a downward spiral. The multitudes of lights in the vortex started making minor cuts on their body as well. 

Ning and the others immediately put up a barrier of their own Qi to stop the outer Qi from attacking. Mallus's barrier was strong enough to block those attacks, but Ning's wasn't. While he stopped some, some still managed to enter.

Not only that, Ning immediately felt very cold, far beyond what could bother a cultivator. 

He tried to move his arms, but the cold was making it hard to do. The large vortex was not only a vortex of Qi but a vortex of snow as well. 

'So, this is what the northern pole of the planet looks like,' Ning thought. 

Mallus and Gai were both beyond shocked. They tried to fly away, but the vortex kept on sucking them into the maelstrom below.

"Where are we? Where have we brought us?" Mallus shouted with a bloody face. In the fraction of a second when he didn't have the barrier up, the Qi around him had ripped away a lot of the outer skin. The same was the case for Gai who needed his protection.

"Haha, to your death," Ning shouted. The Qi was still cutting into his skin

Mallus immediately attacked Ning. He did not bother wasting any time dealing with him right now. A large yellow ball of energy left from his hands and escaped his barrier. However, the moment it left the barrier, it was completely destroyed by the ever-moving specs of Qi. 

"What?" Mallus shouted in fear. He had never witnessed anything like that. 

'Holy,' Ning thought. Even he was amazed at how terrifyingly strong the outer Qi was. And given the fact that his own Qi was continuously draining due to the barrier and he too was falling onto the maelstrom, he would no doubt have his body destroyed. 

'Was the system wrong?' he wondered. That should have been impossible yet somehow he was the one taking damage, while the person he wanted hurt didn't take any.

'Something is wrong,' Ning thought. Mallus tried attacking a few more times but none of his attacks survived the bombardment of the Qi.

Suddenly, Ning felt himself falling faster. Not only was the vortex pulling them, but for some reason, gravity also increased all of a sudden. 

It took them nearly 5 minutes of falling to reach the maelstrom deep in the planet, and there they disappeared. 

Ning felt nauseous all of a sudden he felt gravity shift.  He hadn't changed the direction at which he had moved and yet the gravity was on the opposite side of where he was going towards. Ning could feel himself slowing down a bit. 

Then, the intense gravity disappeared. A burst of force pushed him up as he was send high in the sky and then, out of the colorful vortex of light. 

Suddenly, his barrier disappeared. He fell from a massive height and landed into fluffy snow that killed his momentum. 

THUD THUD

Two more sounds came not far from him as well. The snow wasn't as cold as before and Ning could finally move. He stood up and looked at Mallus and Gai who were standing up as well. 

Mallus gritted his teeth knowing that Ning was the cause of what was happening to him right now. He immediately put his palms in front of him and shouted as he sent forth an attack, "Die."