Chapter 713: Young Monsters (1/2)
“So it’s a monthly ladder,” Catheya muttered, but Zac barely heard her as he read through the list. “I wonder if there are any benefits in being on it.”
“What the hell,” Zac eventually blurted, far more interested in the top names than anything else. “How do those two have so many points?”
Every single person on the ladder was a real terror, but how could two people have over 800,000 Contribution Points? Even if they immediately formed a Middle-Stage Dao Branch after entering, they’d still need to accumulate another 300,000 points from somewhere. Just how many people had these two killed?
Or did they actually have one middle stage Dao Branch already, and evolved a second one? That way they’d have 750,000 Contribution points in total. Still, there was a long way between 750,000 and 932,032 points, which made Zac wonder just what kind of being she was. He did recognize four names in the top ten from his missives or through their surnames, but a full six of them were completely unknown.
That by itself indicated that this trial was uncommon. One or two supreme elites might appear from the outside for a Twilight Ascent, but six? Furthermore, one of the four names he recognized was Ykrodas Havarok, who obviously was an outsider as well.
The general power was beyond Zac’s expectations. Eighty people in the top 100 had over 250,000 Contribution Points, which meant that there might actually be eighty of them with middle-stage Dao Branches. That might not sound like a lot, but it was extremely hard to reach that point from what Zac had gathered.
It put extreme requirements on affinity in general, but more important was the time it took. Forming a Dao Branch by itself was extremely challenging, and many required thousands of years to reach that point. Even among those who had the talent to accomplish something like that, most simply stopped at an Early Branch or even Peak Dao Fragment before evolving.
Spending centuries on one’s Dao in the E-grade was only something you did if you were completely out of options, since doing so would rob you of your momentum. Zac doubted someone like a Havarok princeling would harm his future like that. This Ykrodas might be Zac’s age or even younger, which made his accomplishments even scarier.
Furthermore, the people on the list were just those who had formed multiple Life- or death-aspected Dao Branches. There were probably a large number of cultivators who were just as powerful as these rankers, who followed different paths. Some of the rankers might also hold secondary Daos like he and Catheya.
He had felt pretty confident after seeing his Contribution approach 50,000 the other day, but seeing this list was a harsh wake-up call. Even Yanub Mettleleaf should be pretty far off from being able to enter this group.
“Uona…” Catheya slowly said.
“Do you know that person?” Zac asked.
“Not really. But she should be part of the Eternal Clan judging by her surname,” Catheya sighed. “And I think Aia Ouro is a pureblood Eidolon.”
“Can you tell me about the Eternal Clan without breaking apart?” Zac asked curiously.
“Sure,” Catheya shrugged. “Their situation is a bit special. You could say they form an independent enclave of the empire with their own territories and laws, and they’re not really protected by the commands.”
“And the Primo simply accepts an independent force like that?” Zac asked.
“Apart from the Primo, the Eternal Clan has the strongest cultivator. That affords them some special benefits,” Catheya explained. “What do you want to know?”
“Are they really vampires?” Zac asked curiously.
“Vampires?”
“Bloodsuckers,” clarified. “The Nosferatu.”
“Noz’Feratu? I think that’s one of their older branches,” Catheya nodded with some confusion. “And yes, ‘bloodsuckers’ is an apt description. They are pretty unique in that way. Drinking the blood of Cultivators is a form of cultivation for them. They can absorb some of their essences, making high-quality blood something like a mix of a Dao Treasure and Miasma Crystals.”
“A bloodline talent?” Zac asked
“Apparently not,” Catheya said with a shake of her head. “They sometimes enlist elites to bolster their ranks, and they gain this ability as well. Many have tried to figure out how it works, but no one has succeeded. The method is tightly controlled by their Clan. One thing is for sure, it’s a sinister method. Those who get drained essentially get crippled even if they survive.”
“Isn’t that an unorthodox path?” Zac asked hesitantly. “Robbing the cultivation of others.”
“It doesn’t look that way. The System doesn’t seem to mind, but that might be thanks to the Blood Progenitor rather than whether it’s unorthodox or not. It makes them an enemy of all living factions though, as they see Dreamers as food. That’s how they came to us. They were being pushed pretty hard in the early days of the System, by a coalition led by the Buddhist Sangha and sought refuge with us,” Catheya explained.
“The Buddhist Sangha?” Zac asked curiously.
“Nine Mountains, Eight Temples, Four Oceans, and One Paradise,” Catheya said, some dread evident in her eyes. “The Buddhist Sangha is one of the true peak factions in the Multiverse, eclipsing even the Undead Empire.”
“What?!” Zac exclaimed with shock. “Why haven’t I heard of them then?”
“They live far from the frontier, and they mostly keep to themselves,” Catheya said. “They cultivate the heart more than anything else, and they seldom leave their temples. But when they get angry, they really hold a grudge. Two of their Temples are still fighting with the Eternal Clan to this day.”
“Two out of eight temples are as powerful as the Eternal Clan? And they have a bunch of other things as well?” Zac asked with some shock.
“They’re a scary bunch,” Catheya nodded.
Zac wondered if that’s where Abbot Everlasting Peace had been taken by 84th Fatty. Perhaps his original form was part of one of those Buddhist factions on the other side of the Multiverse. It also made him think of himself, and his Fragment of the Bodhi. The Buddhist lands would probably be a pretty amazing place to look for opportunities for his nature-aspected half. His class was even named after Arcadia.
But for now, learning about the Eternal Clan was more pressing if there was a bunch of bloodsuckers stalking the Twilight Ocean, with one of them being absurdly powerful.
“The Eternal Clan don’t eat the undead?” Zac asked.
“They can,” Catheya grimaced. “But our ichor apparently tastes beyond appalling. Like rotten food for the living. They wouldn’t dare drink our blood in either case. It’s one of the core agreements for them to join our side. Anyway, you need to watch out for those people, not just Uona. I think they might be a bit like you.”
“Like me?” Zac asked with confusion.
“You're both living and dead. They are the opposite in a sense; they’re not dead, but they are not technically living either. They have fused Miasma and their Blood Power into something unique,” Catheya said, making Zac’s eyes widen a bit. “I don’t think they’re as suppressed as others inside this place thanks to that.”
“What cheat-like existences,” Zac muttered with disgust.
“Like you’re one to talk,” Catheya snorted. “Well, there is some balance to it. Their numbers are thankfully pretty low all things considered.”
Zac wasn’t surprised considering there seemed to be a direct correlation between inborn power and the ability to pass that power on to the next generation.
“What about the other races? I haven’t even seen any Reavers in Twilight Harbor I think? At least no pureblood ones,” Zac asked next. “The closest is the Venarun clan.”
“You really don’t know anything about your heritage?” Catheya asked suspiciously. “The more I learn about you the weirder you get. I can’t divulge much about the Empire, but you could say that the four races were put in charge of four cardinal directions. The Reavers are focusing on other fronts while this Sector and Zecia are technically part of the Draugr Domains, though that’s naturally contested by the living. However, smaller clans sometimes send delegates to the frontier sectors to make some money.”
Zac understood. It looked like the closest Undead Kingdom was ruled by Draugr, allowing Catheya’s clan to move freely. Meanwhile, the Eidolon had to go through the Karabas Clan while some Reaver faction had secret deals with Venarun Clan.