Zabia took a deep breath. “Dyon, listen to me.”
Dyon eyes sharpened. He could tell that what Zabia was about to say was of the utmost importance to him.
“You can never go to that quadrant.”
“Wha –“ Dyon couldn’t even finish his own sentence. The sincerity in Zabia’s eyes told all. He meant his words.
After collecting himself, Dyon could only ask the obvious question. “Why?”
“Your soul talent.. Is simply too overwhelming.”
Dyon had expected to understand a semblance of Zabia’s meaning from those words, but he only came out more confused. What did his soul talent have to do with anything?
Zabia only shook his head before continuing. “If you believe that the Ragnors use of slaves was inhumane, the level my home quadrant reached would make the Ragnors look like saints, and the prime victims are people like you and your wife Clara.”
For the next hour, Zabia began to tell Dyon a history of things that froze him to his seat.
The first thing Zabia wanted Dyon to understand was that his quadrant was different. The reason why the Jafari were so close with the Lebna and Nuru, enough for them to move as one unit, was because clans weren’t the core of what formed up their quadrant. Following that reasoning, there was no such thing as a God Clan or Royal God Clan, or King God Clan or above in their quadrant. Instead, there were God Sects, Royal God Sects, King God Sects and Emperor God Sects.
By this logic, the Jafari, Lebna and Nuru used to be the core of an ancient Emperor God Sect that had now, obviously, declined heavily. As for this quadrant, Dyon only knew of one organization that followed this ranking system, and that was the Niveus God Sect, now headed by Delia.
That said, although this ranking system seemingly did away with many lines that divided families, it also came with its own problems.
In ancient China, there was a group of philosophies known as ‘schools of thought’. These had wide ranging possibilities to them, from Confucianism to Taoism, and so on. These schools of thought often shaped the backbone of dynasties and progressed ancient China from the background.
In the martial world, these schools of thought also existed, but there were mainly three and always made up the core of what a sect was built upon, although they could effect clans as well. These were split into the disciplines of body cultivating, energy cultivating and soul cultivating. Much like how array alchemy was split, these disciplines also split cultivation in three.
Needless to say, after trillions of years, energy cultivating was in the lead by far. But, the effects that such a flip had on people varied by quadrant.
In quadrants like the one where Dyon and his wives were born, this lead was hardly noticed. In fact, this quadrant could be said to be heavily influenced by the body cultivating school of thought. The Ragnors and Pakals were both known for the prowess of their bodies, although this also turned out to be detrimental to the Ragnors.
However, in quadrants like Zabia’s, this led to a clear winner versus loser situation, where the losing party suffered harsh punishments for hundreds of thousands of years…
There was no need for Dyon to guess, or even think of it. His grand teacher was without a doubt a member of the soul cultivating school of thought. However, maybe equally as interesting was the fact that so too were the Jafari.
According to Zabia, the Jafari were kin with his wife’s Lebna clan and the Nuru clan. The reason Dyon noted that those clans in particular seemed to wield such powerful wills, was because they placed such emphasis on the soul to begin with. It gave them an advantage in such things. This was especially so for the Jafari and their time specialty, as well as the Lebna and their sealing specialty.
Unfortunately, the specialties that made them so good here, also made them nothing but commodities to be bought and sold there.
The war of disciplines wasn’t so simple as one clan versus another. It was, in fact, multiple smaller scale wars culminating in a penultimate war that ultimately decided their fate.
However, the irony of the situation was despite following the energy disciple, the winning factions decided to make use of the soul factions. In fact, whenever those with soul talent were born into their own families, they were treated well. Even further, as long as you managed to gain the support of one of their large sects, you were safe.
As for exactly how they made use of them, Zabia couldn’t bear to say. To see a hulking man like Zabia unable to speak of such horrors, Dyon could only let it be. There was no need to push him.
That said, there was one thing out of this conversation that Dyon had decided on.
Within his spatial ring, there was a weapon of the 33 heavens titled The Aurora Steps. From the very moment he stole it from the elves, he had had visions of building an army of innate aurora users. The problem was that not everyone was as resilient as his Ri. This meant that trying to force less talented individuals to use such a treasure was foolhardy.
However, Zabia had just let him know that there was a population that maybe reached into the billions whose soul talent was unmatched. Just what would happen if Dyon managed to save them? What would happen if he one day led an army of billions of innate aurora wielders? Would he not sweep over quadrants?
Dyon had plans, and if one peered into his mind, they may back away as quickly as they entered. He was simply too ambitious… His thoughts were too far reaching… His arrogance too unbridled.
His first step? Reach the peak of the saint floors of the Epistemic Tower within 20 years relying solely on his body.
As for his second step, he had been searching for it all this time, but it seemed he had finally found it. He had no intention of listening to Zabia’s warning. His empire would begin with him diving directly into a quadrant that wanted nothing more than to see him in chains.