Chapter 716: Relegation (1/2)
There was no telling if there were some hidden downsides to his unique ability, but so far the only one seemed to be how hard it was to upgrade his Bloodline. He still held on to the [Cardinal Kernel] because of the events on the Memorysteel Mountain. He wanted to upgrade his bloodline to E-grade, but the moment probably needed to be right.
First of all, some random patch of seabed or cultivation cave wouldn't do. Just the awakening had eaten half the treasures in the mountain, there was no telling what the second awakening would require. He didn't want to waste the kernel by activating the process, only to find there wasn't enough fuel to power the whole evolution. Secondly, he needed to find a safe place, since he had been knocked clean out the last time.
What if some cultivators cropped up because of the chaos and decided to get some easy contribution points?
”I can't, and don't want to, go into detail on this ability,” Zac eventually said to Catheya. ”This mental trick is part of the agreement, so keep it to yourself, alright?”
If possible, he would have preferred using his Annihilation Sphere to take those people out rather than using [Force of the Void]. That way, Cahteya’s memories would be erased as well. Unfortunately, he had no way to use the skill as an area attack that could target all six cultivators. He might have been able to take out the leader, but then the others would have escaped or retaliated.
Or perhaps the leader would have managed to avoid the strike like he almost avoided [Arcadia's Judgement] at which point Zac would be screwed since he would have lost the element of surprise.
“I know, I’m not an ingrate,” Catheya snorted before she looked at him accusingly. “You know, it’s a bit depressing to travel with you. At first, I thought we were roughly at the same level, but now I’m finding that you weren’t even exerting yourself before. How are people like me even supposed to get a shot when there are monsters like you walking around?”
“There is ultimately balance in the universe,” Zac snorted. “Things are not as simple as they look.”
“I know,” Catheya nodded. “Heavy is the crown. I think it’s the same with my ancestor. She should have the qualifications to become a real tycoon back home by now, but she’s still maintaining her distance as her clan is falling apart. Who knows what kind of troubles she has encountered on her road to power.”
“Falling apart?” Zac asked with a frown. “Is your clan in trouble?”
“Not trouble like extinction, but trouble nonetheless,” Catheya sighed. “We are facing relegation.”
“What? Relegation?” Zac asked as he looked at Catheya in confusion.
“I once told you that conflict within the Empire is disallowed, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t competition. Strength is ultimately the most important thing. Our clan has been in a steady decline for a long time, and we’re risking being downgraded from a Middle-tier clan to an Entry-level clan,” Catheya said. “We will lose large parts of our domains, which means even fewer cultivation resources. It’ll probably exacerbate the decline even further.”
“And that is why you wanted me to send a message to Be’Zi,” Zac surmised.
“Exactly. I wanted her to tell her that Re’Zar Sharva’Zi is approaching his end. His chances at forming another step are bleak according to my father. He will leave on his final journey in fifty generations or so, and there is currently no one to take his place,” Catheya said. “We have managed to keep the news sealed for now, but it’s just a matter of time.”
“Who’s Re’Zar?” Zac asked.
“Ancestor’s lineal great-grandson,” Catheya said. “And our only Autarch.”
“What’s these steps you talked about?” Zac asked. “Is it related to the B-grade?”
“Yes,” Catheya nodded. “Gaining Autarchy is to form a ladder to Heaven, and the more steps you form the greater the foundation you build for this ladder. Each step adds not only power, but a large amount of longevity. Our ancestor is a One-Step Autarch, the lowest level. He’s already used too many longevity medicines, and a breakthrough is his only chance now.”
Zac slowly nodded in understanding. It looked like having an Autarch, even if one at the lowest rung, was enough to be considered a Middle-tier clan in the Heartlands. That probably meant a low-tier clan had Divine Monarchs and powerful accumulations, and forces beneath that weren’t even considered proper clans.
Zac also felt that probably meant that a peak-stage Clan in the Undead Empire might not even have A-grade cultivators going by the grading of Clan Sharva’Zi, or at least not too many of them.
“Ancestor Be’Zi was an above-average Two-step Autarch when she left,” Catheya added. “For her to still be alive… She has to have reached the later stages of Autarchy, or perhaps even higher. If she returns, we’d not only avoid relegation, we’d instantly be promoted.”
No wonder Catheya was so eager to find her ancestor. It was really a matter of heaven or hell for her clan whether she returned. A clan falling from grace always led to a feeding frenzy, and Zac doubted that the commandments could completely protect against something like that. It was essentially heavenly law.
“So steps are a bit like Cosmic Cores? A bottleneck?” Zac asked.
”I can feel that I'm not allowed to discuss it,” Catheya said. “Autarchs are the main power of any empire since those above rarely make a move. Knowledge is controlled.”
“Well, keep your secrets then,” Zac smiled.
“Like I have a choice,” Catheya said with a roll of her eyes. ”But I can tell you that everyone who reaches that stage has once been Heaven’s Chosen or something even greater, yet less than one percent ever go beyond three steps. You could say that cultivators at that height live in defiance of the Heavens, even when walking Heaven’s Path. Every step is met with resistance.”
“Well, I guess that's still far off from us,” Zac shrugged as he thought things over.
Catheya’s request was pretty simple; convey a short update of the situation of Clan Sharva’Zi. But Zac wasn’t sure if he could. He might be sent back to the underground cave and Be’Zi if he found the second Splinter of Oblivion, but that might very well have been a one-off thing that the System arranged for him.
“I might be able to relay your message. The question is, what can you provide in return?” Zac said after a while.
“I’ll hold nothing back when teaching you all the insights and corpse-raising methods my master has imparted,” Catheya said. “You can even keep the information crystals.”
“That’s part of the previous deal,” Zac snorted. “Do you have any other information from your clan that can be useful for me? “
“To be clear, I can only teach you things my master has imparted me with. I can’t divulge any of Clan Sharva’Zi’s methods, same as with any descendant you meet,” Catheya said.
“Your master is not part of the clan?” Zac asked with interest.
“Only partly,” Catheya said with a shake of her head. “Master Va Tapek an old friend of the third Supreme Elder of Clan Sharva’Zi. He joined us as an exterior elder, but he’s not very restrained. I’ve gained most of my methods from him rather than the clan, and he never restricted me from teaching others.”
It really looked like Clan Sharva’Zi was in decline. Catheya’s master wasn’t even a Divine Monarch from what Zac had heard, yet the clan couldn’t demand much of anything from the sounds of it. Also, there there was still one question that puzzled Zac quite a bit.
“Why you?” Zac asked with confusion. “Why would a high-tier Monarch take you under his wing and take you all over the frontier? They don't usually do that, right?”
“You should have already seen it; we are both Ice Warriors,” Catheya explained before she deflated a bit. ”Also… I happen to be the descendant of the third Supreme Elder. His youngest daughter, in fact.”
“So, your Master is kind of doing his buddy a favor by taking on?” Zac guessed, getting a glare in return.
“I might not be some dual-race indestructible weirdo, but I have my strong points as well. My Ice affinities are among the top three in my generation in the clan. I have at least five Hidden Nodes, and I natally opened one of them,” Catheya said with a haughty demeanor. “And a powerful father is a talent as well, proves I have strong genes.”