Chapter 535 They Call It...
"Ailsa Tatsuya."
Eska blinked, not quite understanding.
"Her name is Ailsa Tatsuya, not Ailsa Cultus," Ryu said lightly.
Eska opened her mouth to say something, but took a pause instead. Now that she thought about it, Ryu did indeed have a Faerie Life Partner, he had entered the library with her once before. In fact, it was because of her that Ryu had become confident enough to enter the second floor at all. Before, he had stuck to the first, third and fourth floors, not wanting to take the risk of putting his life in their hands.
And, if Eska thought about it at a deeper layer, it was indeed quite rare for a normal individual to reach Ailsa's level of strength. It wouldn't be too surprising if she was, indeed, royalty. It seemed that she had accidentally said something she shouldn't have.
But, once again, Ryu continued to eat as though nothing had happened.
World Sea Realm, who cared? He would get there eventually, and probably faster than anyone in history. Plus, considering his strength, he might not even need to go so far to deal with such a person. If he didn't understand his place, Ryu would just have to show him where it was.
"… The Silver Touch branch seems to be trying to sink its claws into the Ethereal and Nether Realms. But, they are far more interested in the latter and seem to mostly be using the former in order to keep them neutral.
"The Ethereal races are often passive and indecisive, wishing that things could be solved through means other than war. As such, they are the most susceptible to these sorts of tactics.
"Of course, these are just my own speculations from things I've gathered from Isemeine's memories as she has never been expressly told such a thing. But, it's an easy conclusion to come to when you compare the hard line stance the Martial Gods took against our Shrine World and the Nether World, then compare it to the soft gloves they've been using with the Faeries and the Tree Folk."
Ryu nodded faintly.
The beginning and end of every Era was demarcated by a disaster. Ryu was well read on them all and it could be said that while they were all different in some way or another, there was one thread of commonality that strung them all together: The inaction of the Faeries.
One of the reason Ryu and Ailsa clashed when they first met was because of how vastly different their cultures were to begin with.
Ailsa's people didn't place the strongest at the head. If it was about the purest output of strength, how could a Cultus Faerie ever match up to an Elemental Faerie? In fact, even the strongest of the three King Faerie Clans, the Quibus Faeries, didn't even hold this power to themselves. Rather, they relied on their manipulation of death and death qi to display this strength.
As though this wasn't different enough from the human world, Quibus Faeries didn't even become Necromancers unless their partners led them down this path. Noble Quibus Faeries weren't powerful Summoning Necromancers like one might expect despite the fact they had more right to be than any other species in all of existence.
They were more accurately described as pacifist monks who 'studied' the mysteries of life and death. Just thinking about it made Ryu gag.
Pacificism was about as far from him as you could get. Even now that he had reached a calmer state, he still wasn't 100% confident in controlling his temper, let alone living a life of silence and non-violence. He found it all to be ridiculous.
It would be fine if the pacifism of Quibus, Cultus and Ficia Faeries didn't bother anyone else, but of the eight disasters, Ryu could make a good argument that three wouldn't have happened as long as they agreed to raise a hand.
Of course, as shaming as Ryu was of their culture, he wasn't in the business of moving people through pity. This was the martial world, no one had an obligation to do anything for you, and that would always be true. It was just that you would think the Faeries would have gotten tired of watching history repeat itself like this.
Or maybe they simply didn't care. Every time something like this happened, they would just continue to live on the same way they always had, completely unaffected.
It was hard to blame them, especially when the only instance of one of their kind stepping up—the Fey—resulted in their eradication as well. There was simply no good argument to force them into doing anything.
"Then, if we look at the Nourishing Soul branch, their actions find themselves on the Real Plane as well, but rather than targeting the Shrine World like the Berserk branch, their goal seems to be surrounding the several Guilds, especially the Armament Guild."
Ryu paused, his eyes narrowing.
Even now, on his fingers, there were three rings. One was a normal spatial ring he mostly used as a cover. It was too odd for a cultivator not have at least one, so he kept it for appearances even though he much preferred to use the Inner World of his Heavenly Pupils or his Incubator as they both gave him far more space and far more flexibility.
The second ring was from the Mercenary Guild. Ryu had been hesitant to re-enter Osiris all this time and sometimes found himself wondering if Violet Olive was doing alright. But, he felt he had done enough for them. Even though the Mercenary Guild gave him the best shot at finding the Spiritual Herb Ailsa needed, it wouldn't be worth it if he ended up getting tracked down by the Cultus Clan.
Of course, Ryu had a personal timer set in his mind. If he really couldn't find what he needed, then he would just have to take the risk. But for now, it wasn't worth it.
Finally, the third ring… It was more of an illusion. Rather, sometimes, he felt as though it was there, but most of the time it wasn't. As he grew more powerful, he realized that this was just a trick of that old man and his son to make sure he never forgot the Armament Guild, and most importantly didn't forget the favor he had received from them.
If not for the actions of the old man, Ryu wouldn't have survived to this point, something that he realized much later. He had a feeling what the old man wanted him to do, likely beg to join the Armament Guild or something to that effect. But, Ryu wasn't sure what doing such a thing would net him.
Unlike the Mercenary Guild, the Armament and Necromancy Guilds weren't as free and liberal. Though they were still less restrictive than Clans and Sects, they still had their own rules.
Ryu might join the Necromancy Guild just because it could provide something to him. But, the Armament Guild didn't have enough benefits for him.
That said… The mention of them made Ryu think of that father-son pair again. He had wondered why two such powerful people were loitering around in the Inner Ring of the Pedestal Plane of all places, but if they were experiencing pressure from the Martial Gods… this made sense.
It seemed that the Martial Gods were truly stirring up trouble in every facet.
There weren't many worlds as powerful as Ryu's Shrine World, yet they had already taken it over. The three Guilds were practically the only organizations more powerful than a Clan at the level of the Tatsuya's, but they seemed to have already forced the Armament Guild into a dead end. And even right here and now, they were already imprisoning a Dream Wraith, a member of the most mysterious of the Demon King Clans, just for the sake of a recruitment.
The more Ryu learned, the more he felt the mountain he had to climb get taller and taller. If he really wanted to crush the Martial Gods, just what kind of strength would he need? Was it still possible to think of doing it alone?
Ryu inwardly decided that if he was in position to, he would lend a hand to that father-son pair. They had saved his life before, that was the least he could do.
"And the Heaven's Dew branch?" Ryu asked.
"They… Their goal seems to be a bit complicated, I can't make much sense of it, honestly. They seem to be obsessed with studying life span and extending it despite the fact their lives already rival even the most powerful Primordial Beasts I've ever heard of.
"Toward this end, they seem to be researching this Plane and are especially interested in Essence and how to reconstruct it. They seem to believe that their Heaven's Dew Vital Qi has a lot of similarities with Essence that have intrigued them.
"According to what they've learned up to now, though, it isn't possible for Essence to exist without a counterpart and they posit that a fourth Plane must exist to complete the balance of the Real, Ethereal and Nether Plane.
"They have yet to find this Plane but they feel that they are getting close, they also believe that once they do, they'll be able to increase their strength exponentially…
"They call it the Chaos Plane."