Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Nemesis' proudly held up his neck, his body brimming with vitality. 

After several months of receiving Ailsa's nourishment, whether it was him, Little Rock or Little Gem, all of them had undergone great changes. 

It was no surprise. As Heavens favored, beasts were treated as such. So long as they had resources, they could progress endlessly so long as they had comparable talent as a foundation. Simply by virtue of his Ancestral Grade Talent, Nemesis wouldn't face any large hurdles all the way up to the Eleventh Order. Only when trying to break into the Twelfth would he potentially run into any issues. 

The reason why other beasts couldn't progress so quickly was because none of them had the impossibly vast wealth Ryu did, nor did they have the guidance of a Cultus Faerie. 

By now, Nemesis had already entered the Eighth Order and was already on the verge of entering the Ninth. If it wasn't for fear of the backlash of his Sin Talent, he would have already entered the Ninth and progressed toward the Tenth. 

However, under normal circumstances, an Eighth Order beast would have long since dwarfed the Frost Thunder Giant in size. By all rights, Nemesis should be pushing hundreds of meters already. But, with all that strength concentrated into the size of a normal horse, the combat prowess Nemesis and Little Rock could display was likely only shy of the likes of Ryu and Sarriel. 

Like this, even following by the side of a Ninth Order Demon Duke, Nemesis' aura didn't lose out in the slightest, his braying breath causing space to quake. 

It wasn't long before Ryu had entered the range of the battle. 

By this point, Godefride's father was almost certain that this masked boy was Ryu. Or, at the very least, he was 90% sure. One part of his reasoning was Ryu's white hair, and the other was the steed he was riding. 

It had to be remembered that the first time the father-son pair met Ryu was in the Inner Ring of the Pedestal Plane. That was the exact location Ryu had first met Nemesis, so the two of them were quite aware of what had happened back then. 

Though Nemesis had changed greatly, it was still possible to see the fiery crimson coat between the steel plates that grew from his body. That coupled with Ryu's brazenness and Aberardus truly felt that there was no second person who could possibly be as daring as Ryu. 

When he reached this conclusion, his speechless expression couldn't help but spread into a wide grin. This sort of wild, rule breaking was exactly what their Armament Guild needed. 

Throughout legend, there were all sorts of stories about the unfettered swordsman, traveling through the land with nothing but his blade in hand. As far as Aberardus was concerned, the sword had become the 'king' of weapons simply because their wielders were better at propaganda than everyone else. So, it was safe to say that he didn't take these legends too seriously. 

However, there was a portion of it that did resonate with the old man. 

The Birthed Phenomena. It wasn't like the blessing of the Ancestral Beast or the gifts of the Fey and Faeries. The Birthed Phenomena was something the human race had forced into being for the sake of survival, it was they who created and forged weapons, creating an all new cultivation paths just so that they could grasp power in their own hands. 

This was exactly where the root of the word Birthed came from. Depending on the ancient language you were referring to, it could cover a scope of expressions from 'breathe life into' to 'splitting from authority' and all the way up to 'laying a foundation'. 

That was what it meant to be a weapon wielder. You were inherently carving your own path, inherently breathing life into your own dreams, inherently fighting against the Heavens and the plans it had laid out for you. 

This was the backbone the Armament Guild had been built from. And yet, in all these years they had sat at the top, this fundamental truth had been forgotten. His wife had lost her life, him and his son had been chased away, and the Guild he had given his life to fell into depravity and corruption. 

Unfortunately, he was too old and didn't wield nearly enough power. His son, Sabelle and Eustis were too young and their blades weren't nearly sharp enough. 

However, Ryu… 

Ever since Aberardus had met him, he liked this young man. If he could have swapped out Ryu and his foolish, useless son, he would have done so in a heartbeat. This sort of wild, untamable nature he exuded… He saw reflections of the man he could have become had he not allowed himself to be shackled by convention and politics… 

Aberardus' expression brightened. He could almost feel the tides of the future shifting right before him. 

In that moment, the roar of the Frost Thunder Giant rang throughout the battlefield. Godefride, Sabelle and Eustis, who had been focusing on their battles, looked pleasantly surprised when they noticed a crowd of people slowly approaching. 

Their opponents, however, had a vastly different reaction, their expressions instantly coating in frowns. What the hell was going on? Was the Armament Guild so incompetent that they couldn't even hold down a line for a few minutes? Their battle had just started. 

What the three didn't know was that it wasn't that the Armament Guild was incompetent, but rather than Ryu was simply too brazen. Who other than him would purposely slap the Armament Guild in the face like this? Maybe the most brazen part was that Ryu didn't necessarily stand on the moral high ground either. After all, it was the right of the Armament Guild to do as they pleased with their territory. 

However, he simply didn't care. 

He had just battled the Heavens and slapped the faces of the Martial Gods for the whole of the martial world to see. At this point, the Armament Guild felt more like a side quest to him.