Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

"You're saying the new Throne of the Awoken Moon Sect strolled in and took so many Fourth Order missions at once?" A tall, fiery red-haired man slammed his palm against counter.

There was no surprise that such a large commotion had erupted within the Mercenary Guilds. Missions could only be claimed once. Until the certain deadline passed, or the claimer admitted their failure and paid a penalty, no one else could accept such missions.

Not only had Ryu taken a Fourth Order mission, he took all six that had become available, leaving none for the highest-grade Mercenary Squads. This meant that if these teams wanted another mission, they'd have to travel all the way to another major city in hopes of claiming one of their own.

In truth, this was simply a matter of bad timing. Fourth Order missions weren't frequently accepted, this was why Ryu felt so comfortable taking them all for himself. Completing a single one left high-level Mercenary squads full for years. The issue was that it just so happened that one of the only two Fourth Order Mercenary Squads of Valor City had come to claim a mission, only to find that they were all gone.

This wasn't the worst part of it all. Rather, that honor was reserved for the blow to their pride. Being titled a Fourth Order mercenary didn't mean you could take on a Fourth Order mission alone. At most, a Fourth Order mercenary could solo a Third Order mission, but would need a team of able bodied individuals to tackle a Fourth Order one. Hearing that a kid of not even twenty years old was taking on so many alone was a great blow to them.

"Please calm yourself." The receptionist replied far more calmly than one would expect when faced with such a powerful man. "Our rules are our rules. He has a time limit of one month. The time limits do not stack. You may come back and claim your missions in one month should he fail. If not, I hope that you'll accept the result."

Interestingly enough, the red-haired man steadied his breathing and pulled back at these words. The reason was something only the veterans of the guild would be aware of. Though they went by a generic name like 'Mercenary Guild', this was just a singular branch of an establishment that had its roots on the Blossom Plane. The success or failure of mere Fourth Order mission meant little to them…

"Leader, what happened?" A group of seven men and women looked toward the red-haired man. He had gone to claim a mission, but actually came back empty handed.

After hearing the explanation, it was no surprise that they were all enraged, but there was nothing they could do. They could only come back one month later…

**

At the base of mount Flash Mountain, Ryu's body flickered like a specter. Though his strength output could only be said to match a normal Higher Qi Refinement expert at most when using only a single arm, his speed was such that even Spiritual Severing Realm experts had trouble keeping up with him.

The Thunder Bull was learning of these matters firsthand. At first, it disdained Ryu's attempts and simply saw him as a snack. However, Ryu's shallow, negligible slashes began to stack upon one another, growing more layered. Suddenly, before the Thunder Bull even realized it, its body had become a canvas marred by thick red paint.

It soon fell tragically, a product of its excessive blood loss and fatigue.

'Store the Thunder Bull's horns carefully. They carry a dense lightning qi. We'll use the Incubator and the horns in tandem to prime your Mental Realm. If we use this method, we can make the volatile lightning qi docile. This will make absorbing our target lightning for this trip less dangerous.'

Ryu's brows lifted in surprise as he dissected the Thunder Bull's corpse. 'We can use the Incubator in that way? Then doesn't that mean I could use it to absorb Spiritual Roots as well? That would make my Body Realm cultivation much faster.'

'That is true, but you should be wary of using the Incubator so liberally. There will be certain times in the future where the Incubator won't be able to transform challenges into a gentle flow for you. Making cultivation too easy isn't necessarily a good thing. For example, this Flash Mountain. The lightning we'll be using to expand your Mental Realm's potential comes from the skies themselves. Obviously, the Incubator can't make this energy more docile for you.'

'There will be moments like this for the Body Realm as well?'

'Of course. The fourth realm of the Body is known as the Nine Life Revolutions realm. Each step is separated into what are known as Destructions. In order to move forward, a Body Realm cultivator needs to destroy their body to its most basic building blocks before building it back up. This needs to be repeated nine times. If, up until that point, you've only experienced incredibly relaxed cultivation, you will die just attempting this.'

Ryu nodded solemnly, taking Ailsa's advice to heart.

'Don't worry though, I'm not saying we'll never use the Incubator. It will be especially useful for your Qi Realm. It's not that there are no situations where easy qi cultivation will be a detriment to you, it's just that your qi cultivation talent is so high I don't believe it will make much of a difference.'

'There is a problem though.' Ryu said, looking at the horns he just separated from the Thunder Bull's skull. 'I don't think I can control enough spatial qi to bring these horns into the Incubator.' The limitation of the Incubator had reared its ugly head once more.

But, Ailsa only smiled. 'Did you forget? Not only are our souls tied together, but don't you remember the special ability us Faeries have? We are very good at existing between reality and imaginary. Because our souls are tied together, I can use your treasures as easily as you can. And, because I can exist between realities, I can mitigate the stress high-level treasures place on you, making it easier to bring them in.'

Ailsa seemed to continuously give Ryu pleasant surprises. He had to admit… Having someone to rely on and share his burden with lifted much of the weight on his heart. Whether he liked it or not, he grew closer to Ailsa every day.

Still, while Ryu's mind was focused on his self-improvement and began his climb up Flash Mountain, the commotion he had caused in the Outer Ring was spreading. It wasn't just the Mercenary Guilds, but the geniuses of the twenty-seven Sects were greatly shaken. Though one could argue that this would happen naturally regardless, in this case, the reaction was very unnatural, as though someone or multiples someones were pulling strings in the background, ensuring that the commotion was as exaggerated as possible.

With the Inner Ring's selection quickly approaching, the shared realm of the Outer Ring would open far ahead of schedule with everyone only having a single target in mind – Throne Ryu.