The Innkeeper
Chapter 2276: Perspective I

The couple spent a few more days within the capital, pondering over the connection between Karev, Pearl’s ancestor, and the Oolin. Even among the noble races the Oolin were well respected because almost no one wanted to provoke them.

However, that also meant that anyone willing or capable of provoking them was similarly formidable in strength, backing or both.

That made them feel pressured... for a time. Whether it was the design of the capital itself, or the energy that pervaded it, River and Pearl found it incredibly difficult to stay worried or stressed there. Thus, they instead turned their thoughts towards more practical matters, such as figuring out what kind of resources would most benefit Pearl’s cultivation.

"Since the Oolin seem to specialise in isolating certain energy types, is there a specific kind of energy that suits Pearl’s cultivation?" River asked Cliff, causing the oddly dressed man to rub his chin as he observed Pearl.

"The cultivation technique itself has no energy affinity," Cliff explained. "At least, in the lower levels it has no affinity, so you don’t need to worry about it. Pearl herself, however, has a strong affinity for flames. It might be inherited from her family.

"Let me see... yes, her cultivation will speed up in the presence of high temperature, flame related energies. You can ask the Oolin if they have anything related to that. A lava field of some kind should do just fine."

As he said those words, Cliff felt like between River and Pearl, Pearl might have a greater affinity with him as a student. If he ever decided to take on a disciple or something, she would do better than him. Then again, they were both on completely different cultivation paths, so both of them could technically qualify.

That was just a random thought, though. Taking on a disciple or two was the exact opposite of trying not to sow any karma. Maybe after he’d recovered and beaten Daekol, he could consider such things. For now, though, that was off the table.

Soon after, River talked with the Oolin, and for the remainder of their stay, River and Pearl were brought to another place for cultivation. The delegation didn’t care because they had no idea, for they were too occupied with other matters.

Over the next couple of weeks, Pearl cultivated near a literal magma field where the Oolin grew and harvested some Demon Flame berries - a type of berry which, when ruptured, produced a type of fire called Demon Flame.

Her cultivation grew smoothly, and by the end, she entered the 8th level of Qi training.

When they left, the Oolin elder from earlier hinted that they would be contacted when the Oolin discovered something. The rest of the delegation, though, dispersed.

The situation had developed in the worst ways possible. Not only had the allies suffered numerous defeats time and time again, the Abyssals were relentless. In the end, Mount Decius took some drastic measures and no longer went for the mild approach of negotiating and working out deals with the various races.

A forced conscription was imposed on all vassal races of up to 60% of their armed forces, and even the noble races had to send 20% of their forces. It was no longer up for negotiation, thus the delegation was no longer needed.

River and Pearl followed the elves, naturally, and made no mention of what the Oolin had revealed to them. To begin with, River didn’t even know if the elves were even going to actually investigate.

Once they had left the lands of the Oolin, and the other races were no longer around, River tried to hand over the techniques to the elves, but they still denied him. They claimed that since they had promised to help investigate his family, they would certainly keep their word and would not accept any kind of reward undeservedly.

Clearly, the elves were strict in adhering to rules, even amongst themselves. This was a bit different from the elves Lex had met within the Origin realm, so he could only conclude that this was a cultural thing, and was only the case in the Land of a Hundred Rivers.

It made sense. The development of any race would be affected by the personality and nature of its leaders, so in this case it was obvious that the leaders of the elves cared a lot for the rules.

It took the group three months to reach the lands of the elves, for they had to travel all the way to rivers 13 and 14. During the journey, they witnessed many lands, and saw that most of the lands were occupied by the noble races. This meant that unlike the humans, who only had a small territory within two rivers, the noble races occupied lands between many of the rivers.

The vassal races were situated according to whichever noble race favored them, affecting the development and relationships between many races.

Most of the time, it was a relationship of direct hierarchy, with indifference often being the best kind of treatment the vassals could hope for. Most of the time, the vassals were treated like dedicated servants.

Some of them, like humans, who could at least muster up decent strength got treated better. But many of the vassal races, such as fairies, gnomes and halflings were basically treated as dedicated staff. Even among the staff, whether they were treated with respect or not was usually up to the individual person.

It was... quite an educational journey, for more than one reason. During the first half of the journey, River felt incredibly indignant though he hid it well. He felt like there was a tremendous amount of mistreatment for the vassal races - not that his opinion could affect anything.

The second half of his journey, however, gave him a different kind of perspective on the noble races, mainly because one day while crossing dwarven territory, they ventured close to the border, and he got to see the never ending war of the Land of a Hundred Rivers.

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