After moving the Death Worm Immortal Cave a good distance away, Ryu realized that it had stalled. He would have liked to move it further, but there were two main issues.
Firstly, it hadn’t been maintained in hundreds of millions of years. Its joints were stiff and its moving parts were definitely in terrible condition. Secondly, movement required energy. After shifting the Immortal Cave’s place several dozen miles away, what remained of its energy was completely drained.
Ryu would feel very foolish right now if it wasn’t for the fact the Ruin Core allowed him to teleport directly to the closest point on the surface. If not, he would have to dig his way out…
Because of the Immortal Cave’s structure, it was able to chew up dirt from the front and pass it to the back, perfectly concealing its trace. But, this also meant that without the Ruin Core, one could be buried alive if they weren’t careful enough.
This much was fine for Ryu for now, though. He wasn’t very deep below the surface, but he was deep enough that he didn’t believe any random individual could find him. Plus, the Immortal Cave was still protected by an Illusory Array of the Heaven Grade. Not just anyone could see through it. At least not without a Ruin Matrix.
Now that he wasn’t worried about being found in a short time, Ryu turned his attention back to Hecate’s Legacy. He still had the words of Delonte in the back of his mind, but for now, he ignored the treasure that started the feud between Amarice, Delonte and Morake. Ryu was sure there were likely some clues within his spatial ring about where he hid it, but for now, he couldn’t be bothered.
In truth, had Ryu had the Ruin Matrix before choosing Hecate’s Ruin, he likely would have chosen another target. He had only chosen Hecate because he believed her Ruin had fallen to a manageable Fifth Order and was mildly interested in her perspectives, but that was all.
Still, he seriously considered the information she left behind.
‘Do you know anything about necromancy, Little Ryu?’ Ailsa asked.
“Not much… I’m only familiar with its superficial knowledge, like its three main branches and the numerous sub-branches. Of these, Hecate falls within the Refinement Necromancer Branch and created her own special sub-branch known as the Living Refinement Necromancer Branch.”
The three main branches of necromancy were Soul Necromancy, Summoning Necromancy and Refinement Necromancy.
Soul Necromancers were masters of reaping souls. In terms of difficulty, they were actually ranked second among the three. This was because the only souls that could be reaped were ones that had undergone Soul Birth, meaning the minimum requirement of a corpse puppet a Soul Necromancer was that it had to be fresh, no more than a few minutes, and that it had to be the corpse of an Immortal Ring expert at the very least.
One can see from this minimum requirement that one must already be powerful to even think of choosing this path.
Summoning Necromancy, though, proudly stood at first ranked in difficulty. Oddly enough, it didn’t have such a high minimum threshold, but the danger was several times more apparent… This was because Summoning Necromancers communicated with the Nether World.
When Ryu spoke with Monalise, the very place they didn’t dare to speak of, the very place Ryu’s father had entered to try and pull his dead son back… Was this very Nether World.
Summoning Necromancers communicated with the Nether World and formed contracts with demons and devils of the Nether World, bringing them to the world of the living to fight for them. Even if some looked down on Necromancers, none dared to look down upon Summoning Necromancers. These individuals were without a doubt some of the most powerful experts to ever exist.
Unfortunately, with power, came rarity. It was quite ironic. Ryu had found the entrance to the Nether World, something countless Summoning Necromancers of the past tried and failed to do, because he located the Death Shrine. But, he didn’t know of a single Summoning Necromancer Ruin… This was because experts of that caliber would definitely form Legacy Worlds. Though an eccentric who forewent forming a Legacy World to create a Ruin might exist, Ryu hadn’t found him or her.
Finally, there was the most common of Necromancy paths, the Refinement Necromancer. These individuals were the most often thought of when necromancers were mentioned and directly created their corpse puppets from either the full bodies or skeletons of experts.
Usually, top tier Refinement Necromancers could create corpse puppets that retained seventy percent of its original fighting ability, but most could only maintain about thirty percent. This dip was then made up for by further refinement to strengthen the puppet, sometimes resulting in an undead stronger than its living original.
According to Hecate, there were many different ways to refine corpses. Some used spiritual herbs, others used natural resources such as volcanos, while others preferred to turn their corpses into undead weapons, integrating precious metals into them.
Strictly speaking, comprehension of death qi wasn’t necessary to control corpse puppets, but it was an integral part of the refinement process. In addition, comprehension of death qi greatly lessened the mental burden of controlling corpses as well, not to mention prevented corpses from rotting.
In order to control a corpse, one needed to form a Death Seal. Some were more complex than others. The prestige of a Death Seal is usually what decided the prestige of Necromancer. Famous Necromancy Clans and Sects had extraordinarily deep legacies revolving around their Death Seals.
Hecate’s Death Seal was quite good. In fact, it was fairly impressive. She had a legacy capable of sealing corpses up to the Eighth Order. This was quite good for a Refinement Necromancer.
What was more impressive was that Hecate’s seals mandated the manipulation of death qi. Though simpler Death Seals skipped over this requirement, more complex and intricate seals made it a necessity. The fact Hecate’s mandated it was more proof that it was quite a good Death Seal.
The issue that remained was that… Ryu had no idea how to manipulate Death Qi.
Seeing through the essence of the seals and remembering their structure was as easy as breathing for Ryu. But, he had no idea how to form them.
There were only two options. Ryu had to either become a Death Heir and learn to manipulate death qi through it… Or he had to use the cultivation techniques Hecate left behind to accumulate death qi… Not wanting to comprehend just any Inheritance, Ryu had no choice but to choose the latter.