When the three pillars of light became clear to Ryu, his eyes narrowed.
Much like every other branch of Necromancy, Summoning Necromancer's were separated out into numerous branches. As the most powerful of Necromancers, one could easily expect that even though these branches might not be as infinitely variant as the other two main branches, they each had an overwhelming power of their own.
However, unlike other branches, rather than being separated by the way their corpses were prepared and the corpses they chose, Summoning Necromancers were separated by the branch of Nether World creatures that they formed contracts with.
From Ryu's limited understanding, weaker Summoner Necromancers would form contracts with individual creatures. Though they would always be considered weaker than their other branch counterparts, it was widely accepted that it was far more difficult to build up your repertoire along this path.
Those who formed contracts with individual creatures had two methods.
The first was to use a random summon. This would pull out a Nether World creature to you on whatever other plane you might be on. The strength of this creature would be dependent on your pool of qi, the quality of your death qi, and your talent and skill. But, even if strength could be guaranteed to a small extent, the rest was a completely random draw.
It could be very possible to summon an extraordinarily large creature when you were in a small space. Or, it could be possible to summon a spirit when you really needed physical damage. The possible follies were endless.
However, if one was willing to be patient, it was possible to randomly summon these creatures for as long as your stamina could last. Then you could ignore the one's you didn't want, sending them back. And, you could battle and defeat the ones you did want, thus assigning them contracts so that you could summon them with purpose in the future.
This, though, came with its own set of problems.
For one, finding creatures with good potential was nearly impossible. They were too rare and the pool of lackluster creatures was far greater. To make things worse, the powerful creatures one might be looking for had protections against random summons, making it even more impossible that one would ever get lucky.
This, then, brought one to the far more dangerous second option, and that was to travel to the Nether World personally to find the Nether World creatures you wanted.
Much like every other Plane, creatures, species and races of certain kinds always flocked to certain locations. It wasn't a coincidence that both the toxic Rotting Wolves and the petrifying and grotesque Falx would appear in this putrid forest.
In addition, the deeper one traveled into the Nether World, the more sure one would be to find more powerful creatures of a certain caliber. The further down one went, the more talented, more intelligent, and more potential they would have.
Of course, the downside of this method was, obviously, the danger. But, those in this category were willing to take one or two trips once every few millennia to not only temper themselves, but grow their strength.
Obviously, with this method, it was possible for your unsummoned creatures to work for you in the Nether World and gather creatures at your behest. But, something like 'trust' in the Nether World almost didn't exist at all. So, whichever summon you tasked with such a thing had to be powerful enough to do it by force.
This line, though, should make it obvious just how inconvenient it was to be a Summoner Necromancer of this branch.
While your summons were unsummoned, there was no guarantee that your contracted creature wouldn't die any number of ways in the Nether World. This wasn't exactly a very 'safe' place.
As powerful as Summoner Necromancers were, it became very obvious very quickly that they had their own troubles to deal with as well. There was no such thing as free strength in the world of cultivation. Everything needed to be fought for.
That said… The most powerful of Summoner Necromancers existed on a realm all to their own.
Rather than signing contracts with individual creatures, these pinnacle existences could even sign contracts with entire Clans of Nether Realm Races! These contracts would allow a Summoner Necromancer to call forth any number of individuals from such a Clan and under special conditions, even summon their Clan Head him or herself!
However, these were simply the weakest members of this branch of pinnacle Summoner Necromancers. Those that could stand atop their heads were individuals who could sign such contracts with multiple Nether World Clans. Then beyond that, there were the Summoner Necromancers who could target particularly noble bloodlines!
Any Nether World creature that could form systematic Clans were already the cream of the crop. To have such intelligence, coupled with their natural strength, made them existences the likes of which couldn't be underestimated.
However, just how there was with everything else, there were hierarchies. Within the Nether Realm, the Common Clans were separate from the Noble Clans. And, these Noble Clans had separations among them.
Baron Clans. Viscount Clans. Earl Clans. Marquess Clans. Duke Clans. Prince Clans. And finally, King Clans.
Clans that could be given such titles were known as the Demon Clans. The tales and stories of the most horrific creatures of the night were all pulled from them.
These rankings not only represented the Clans themselves, but also the creatures within them. If the current Ryu came across a Demon Baron… His life would be forfeit. Such Clans are not to be trifled with and even a Baron Clan alone could turn a mid-sized world to ash. To put this into perspective, the Moon World, a world where the peak existences were of the Dao Pedestal Realm… Was still considered a small world!
The issue with all of this and why Ryu was so shaken after hearing word about his father was because of the legends of the Reincarnation Pool. Those Mythos stated that one's soul must travel through the layers of Nether before reaching it…
If his father wanted to resurrect him through such forceful means, he would have to make it past the deepest layers of this purgatory world…
And face the Demon Kings himself.