When the light disappeared, Ning found himself standing on top of a desolate land with barely any grass beneath his feet.

He looked around and didn’t find any of the others that had been teleported along with him.

‘Was everyone sent to a separate location?’ he wondered as he looked at the surroundings.

To his left was a vast expanse of desert that seemed to go on for as long as his eyes could see.

To his right was grassland that seemed to lead towards greener areas. Having no system at the moment, Ning decided to go towards the location that was easier to hide in.

So, he made his way towards the grassland, with his destination being the forests that were far away.

“I hope I can find those monsters that might hold the crown,” Ning said to himself while his feet moved.

Along the way, his focus quickly dwindled as he started thinking about what was going on.

A system had appeared in front of him. Given how Genesis was acting, it was likely that he was the one that created the system.

‘Doesn’t my system hate other systems and system creators because of what they do to a normal soul? If it knew I was going to come here, why did it shut itself down?’ Ning wondered.

‘Does it not want to get found out?’ he wondered. That seemed like a proper guess. Maybe there was a reason for the System to hide. Maybe he wouldn’t have been able to get here and find such a competition taking place if Genesis had sensed his system.

‘That’s a sound guess if any,’ he thought to himself. Then, his thoughts moved on to the warning the system had given to him at the end.

‘What does that mean?’ Ning wondered. ‘If the system is already shut down and all energy absorption skills were shut down with it, is it even possible to absorb energy anymore?’

As he thought that, Ning’s feet came to a slow halt as his eyes started to widen.

‘Can it be?’ he thought as he closed his eyes to slowly feel the air. At first, he felt nothing, but a few seconds later, Ning felt something enter his body.

A thin strand of what looked like a wisp of light. Ning almost forced his body to pull in more instinctively, but the logical side of his mind forced him to stop immediately.

Ning breathed heavily as he looked at his surrounding.

“I can feel Qi,” he thought to himself. With a little more effort, he could also feel Aether.

He finally understood what the system meant by its last warning. There were energies he could absorb here not to collect them, but to rather grow as someone with the power of those energies.

Ning frowned.

‘I’m not allowed to collect these?’ he wondered. ‘Why?’

It was very likely that it wasn’t just Qi and Aether that were available on this planet. Given how many different people were in this place, it was very much likely that all sorts of energy were available.

“And I’m not allowed? Goddammit,” Ning thought. It was like throwing a child into a sea of sweets but making sure to gag his mouth first so that he couldn’t eat anything.

Ning felt really frustrated, but since the system had warned him, he wasn’t going to do something stupid and cause a problem for himself that even the system was afraid of.

‘Sigh, let’s just go find that stupid crown for now,’ he thought and started walking towards the forest.

Along the way, Ning started taking into account what he could use at the moment.

‘I have a strong body,’ he thought. ‘That should help me under most circumstances.’

‘Since energy-related skills are gone, I guess I’m stuck with half telekinesis again,’ he thought. ‘Other than that… I can use Aether right?’

Ning brought his hand forth and suddenly fire burst out of it. “Yes, I can use it,” he thought. That surely helped him a lot.

Other than that, he also had access to his storage space. ‘So the system didn’t get rid of everything. I guess it’s not punishment after all,’ he thought.

Ning continued to search for his skills, and he found that all of his different vision skills were also freely usable.

Finally, he could use his body cultivation techniques. Since it only tempered his body instead of absorbing energy, he was free to use it as so.

“Alright, as soon as I find a crown, I will start cultivating,” he thought and suddenly lifted off of his feet before flying away.

Super Flight allowed him to fly at a speed of 20 meters per second. While normal cultivators and likely even other power users didn’t find it impressive, for someone who wasn’t using any power, this was plenty fast.

Soon, Ning reached the forest, and even before he entered it, he saw a small bird fly toward him. 𝗈𝔳𝑙xt.𝗇𝓔t

The bird had caught his sight because of how fast it was and that concerned Ning. ‘Is this a monster?’ he wondered.

Before he could even think of anything else, he saw the bird blink out of existence and at the same moment appear in front of him with no warning.

Ning dropped his head just in time before the bird’s wings grew by nearly tenfold as a green aura radiated from it that nearly cut Ning.

“What the hell?” Ning shouted as he flew further away. He had never seen a bird do that before, and from what he could see, this bird didn’t use Qi.

Meaning, he had no idea what it was capable of at all.

“What energy is it even using?” Ning wondered. The bird didn’t stop until it was far away and turned around back towards Ning.

Ning’s eyes got serious as he prepared to fight this bird. If his luck was good, he would obtain a crown from this as well.