Ryu's eyes widened as he held up Little Gem for Ailsa to take hold of. Though Ryu was quite well-read, when it came to matters of health and healing, there was no way that he could possibly match up to Ailsa.
Ailsa's panic soon gave way to calm as she analyzed the situation. Panic would do them no good at this moment.
A strong soul pressure came from her, enveloping the little cub as she continued to cough.
Little Gem, hacked and wheezed, her little mouth continuously pushing out volumes of black blood.
But, after a long while, Ailsa just continued to hold her, allowing the little one to cough as much as she pleased.
Ryu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Why wasn't Ailsa doing anything?
He still hadn't quite gotten into the habit of always reading Ailsa's thoughts, so his subconscious mind caused him to leave his own self in the dark. Maybe one of these days he would be able to accept these things with more ease.
"Ailsa? What's wrong?"
"The…" Ailsa hesitated, her delicate brows furrowing. "The little one is expelling waste. But, I can't pinpoint the reason why."
Ryu and Ailsa both looked toward one another.
Expelling waste was a great sign for cultivators. Ryu still remembered spending months excreting toxins from his body after fusing with the Realm Heart. In a lot of ways, that process had helped a lot with his cultivation. If not for this waste expulsion laying out a broad path forward for him, it would have been impossible for the Essence of his Monarch Realm breakthrough to allow him such a great leap forward.
By Ailsa's calculation, if not for the expelling of waste making it easier for Ryu to traverse through the Mortal Realms, at best, she would have been able to unlock only one or two Qi Vessels with the amount of Essence that had descended. This was, of course, a striking difference compared to the four that had been opened, not to mention the breakthrough into the Connecting Heaven Realm.
This was all to say that the expelling of waste was a blessing of the Heavens and was an incredibly rare event that usually only happened in thanks to reaching certain realms of cultivation – for example the Awakening Realm and its Rites – or after consuming great treasures like the Realm Heart.
However, both Ailsa and Ryu had infallible memories, perfect and without flaws.
The little one was obviously not cultivating, so it was impossible to have reached a Realm like the Awakening Realm. And, the little griffin had obviously not ingested any treasures recently.
Well, though Little Gem had been given the greatest delicacies a little beast could ever ask for, none of these were treasures in the sense that they could cause such a miraculous event.
In fact… The only thing Little Gem had ingested was Ryu's blood. But…
Ailsa and Ryu furrowed their brows. There shouldn't have been anything special enough about Ryu's blood to cause such a thing.
It sounded ridiculous saying that a man born with four Ancestral Grade Bloodlines didn't have special blood, but this was only for this particular context. If it was possible for Ryu's blood to help strengthen the little griffin, Ailsa would have thought of it long ago, they wouldn't have waited to spontaneously stumble into this matter like they were now.
It simply didn't make any sense.
Beyond that, if Ryu's blood had such properties, he would probably be able to shoot through cultivation Realms as though he was breathing. But, obviously, Ryu's blood didn't have such a waste expulsion effect on him. It was only after he made significant breakthroughs that his body would slowly expel such waste, but most definitely not in such an exaggerated manner.
Many minutes later, the little griffin's coughing came to a stop. The little one adorably spat out a pink tongue as though saying gross. But, she was very clearly more energetic than she had been in the past, even faintly spreading her little wings as though she wanted to take off into the skies.
The sight of such an innocent, youthful life brought a smile to both Ryu and Ailsa's faces. They almost forgot about the odd sudden change for a moment.
"… What kind of training did you go through exactly, Little Ryu?" Ailsa finally asked, returning a bit of her seriousness.
Ailsa could tell that Ryu's cultivation hadn't improved even by a small measure. This much wasn't unusual for a normal person, after all, Ryu was in the Connecting Heaven Realm now. Every small step forward should take decades. But, for a genius like Ryu, it was glaring.
Hearing Ailsa's question, Ryu's gaze suddenly flashed.
'Could it be…?'
Ryu raised a finger up, concentrating a dark gold onto it. He tried to keep it as small as possible, not wanting to harm the little griffin.
Reaching forward, he held the finger out to Little Gem.
Like a curious little child, Little Gem flapped her wings hard, trying to make her way to Ryu. But, seeing that she didn't have the strength, her little paws found an anchor in Ailsa's crossed forearms, jumping forward with all the might she could muster.
The action startled Ailsa and Ryu who were worried the little one would fall to the floor.
Ryu reached out, grabbing the mischievous little griffin before she could begin to fall. But, in return, he gained a sharp bite to the finger that made him chuckle.
Unlike the half breed griffins of legends, Little Gem didn't have a beak. But, that didn't stop her bite from being quite sharp. Even Ryu could feel the sting though the little one didn't manage to draw blood.
In that moment though, Ryu's chuckle froze as the gem on Little Gem's forehead began to glow. The little one shook her body before beginning to cough up several mouthfuls of foul black blood again. This time, even Little Gem's pristine white fur began to emit a foul odor.
Ryu and Ailsa looked up in each other in shock, their minds reading out practically the same thoughts.
Why hadn't they thought of it before? If this curse was placed down by the Ordered Heavens, wouldn't the Chaotic Plane be the exact counter they needed against it?