Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu's eyes narrowed. What did she mean by that?

He had been purposely vague and didn't mention the Ruin Master Guild, only asking about Guilds in general.

But if he took a step back, what he was talking about was obvious. Just because Veridia was a beast, didn't mean that she was foolish. The intelligence of beasts with potential on the same level as Dragons rivaled and even surpassed that of many humans from birth. Even in the case of beasts that started off less intelligent, so long as they continued to raise their cultivation, they would catch up in intelligence sooner or later.

As a beast that was certainly beyond the Lord Realm, to many Veridia would be smarter than Ryu by default just due to her cultivation. Whether that was true or not still had to be geared out, but this was the reality of the world nonetheless.

Veridia knew that Ryu wasn't a fool. He had just been to the Martial Gods, so he should see that they had their own secondary profession structures. Aside from their Talent Oracles, they certainly had their own Formation Masters and Alchemists. The powerful Clans wouldn't want to share their secrets between themselves, so would there be a use for secondary profession Guilds like Alchemy Guilds and things of the like?

So unless Ryu was much slower than she thought, there was no way he was asking about normal Alchemy Guilds. Such powers would have gotten swallowed up long ago.

Of course, there were some middling powers that couldn't be placed on the same height as the Nine Powers, but Ryu had specifically mentioned the Nine Powers themselves, so obviously he was asking about organizations that would be on the same level.

If it was just this alone, it would be hard to draw any conclusions about who Ryu was actually talking about... but how could she not know that Ryu was from a small world?

Selheira hadn't told her mother much about Ryu so as not to affect his privacy, but when their conversation reached Selheira's spherical Matrix, Selheira mentioned that she gifted it to Ryu because he was a far better Ruin Master than herself.

Originally, Ruin Mastering was something that Selheira had picked up to help her find inheritances that might aid her in breaking through. Of course, the Crystal Dragons also had a decent affinity for Ruin Mastering as well, so she was better than most in those aspects. But she realized after watching Ryu that she couldn't stack up at all, so she abandoned the path.

Of course, what she didn't know was that Ryu's standard of Ruin Mastering and the common average were two entirely different things. The common Ruin Master would be crushed by Ryu several times over, and that was before his eyes had unsealed themselves. Right now, the current Ryu was on an entirely different level.

Even Ryu didn't know that his display back then just made Selheira think she didn't have the talent necessary for it all.

Ultimately, Veridia drew her own conclusions, and she wasn't far from the truth.

Even so, Ryu smiled. "What do you mean?"

He asked the question as though he couldn't glean her meaning at all.

Veridia chuckled. "Boy, you are still far too young to play such games with me. But if you would like to hear about Guilds, I can tell you about one. It is called the Ninth Alliance. It exists for one purpose and one purpose only, and that's as a simple method of banding together the powers of the Real Plane should any one of the other Planes try to encroach onto our land."

Ryu's gaze flickered. He knew that his mother-in-law was giving him a hard time on purpose, but this was an interesting tidbit of information nonetheless.

Because he spent most of his time on the Real Plane, it was easy to forget that there was more to this world than just the Nine Powers. There were the Powers of the True Ethereal and True Nether Planes to consider as well. The fact they needed an Alliance to deal with them made it quite clear that those powers were not a single bit weaker, regardless of aspect.

"Okay, you win. Tell me about the Ruin Master Guild."

The skies rumbled.

Veridia's body shook as though she was about to awaken, but in the end she settled down.

"Boy, you should really watch your tongue more."

"I didn't expect to hear such a thing from a Fire Dragon."

Selheira covered her lips with a hand. Indeed, her mother wasn't one to control her temper very well, even if it wasn't smart.

Veridia snorted. "You want to join them?"

"I would rather destroy them."

Selheira jumped and an eerie silence fell.

This time, it took quite a while for Veridia to speak again. It seemed that she was truly taking her time, realizing that her son-in-law was more of a maniac than she was. No, maybe that was only natural since Fire Dragon Blood did run through his veins.

She didn't know what happened, but somehow Ryu had come back with a Bloodline that felt both far stronger and far weaker than the last time she had seen it. In some ways it made her feel suppressed, and in other ways it made her want to snort in disdain.

Even after observing for a long while, she didn't understand what it was.

Ryu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the reaction. In fact, Veridia's caution, in general, was odd. She had spoken about the Nine Powers without much hesitation, but why had she purposely left out the Ruin Master Guild?

He had a feeling that if he had said the same words about destroying the Martial Gods, she wouldn't have reacted so fiercely.

"Just now, I had to take personal action to make sure your words didn't leak, do you understand why?"

Ryu's gaze flickered.

There was only one real explanation for such a thing. The Ruin Master Guild had to be larger than the Nine Powers, larger than the True Martial World and all its Planes.