Chapter 669 Worse than..
"The Chaos Era was the beginning of all things. In the time, only Essence, the root of all qi existed. Despite its name, it was the Era of perfect Order. The only reason why it carries the moniker of Chaos is because it was during this Era that perfect stability faltered and Order began to tend toward Chaos.
"The collapse of Essence and the formation of qi was the first catastrophe of the universe. The implosion of massive proportion created all that we see today and the result were the first sentient beings. Creatures of legends and ancient races of untold power were the first to be born. In such a volatile Era where Primordial Qi was the most prominent energy in the universe, only the powerful could live and breathe while the weak wouldn't survive to see even their first birthday.
"It was during this Era that the concept of conflict was birthed. With the introduction of sentience, such a thing was inevitable. The clashes of these powerful creatures displayed the true strength of Primordial Qi and without even proper cultivation systems, these individuals became more powerful than you all can imagine.
"As you might imagine, the center of this conflict were the most ancient of races, the Ancestral Beasts ruled the Real Plane, the Demon Kings ruled the Nether Plane and the Fey ruled the Ethereal Plane.
"The Nether Plane had far too many restrictions and tied its population too close to death. As a result, coming out of the Nether Plane was near impossible and might as well have been impossible. This led to the main clashing heads being between the Fey and the Ancestral Beasts. As for we small little humans, we couldn't even get a foothold. We were just trying to survive. We could only allow the strong to fight amongst each other.
"It was then that the second catastrophe struck.
"The first to collapse was Essence, forming a world of Primordial Qi. What then collapsed next? Of course it was Primordial Qi itself. The world continued to tend toward Chaos and the uncontrolled and unsystematic cultivation of the Fey and the Ancestral Beasts resulted in the structure of the universe collapsing, forming tiers of qi below the Primordial Qi Realm which resulted in many of the energies we use to cultivate today.
"While in that Era there was only a single qi for every path, moving forward, there were suddenly energies of all kinds forming all sorts of odd, twisting and winding ideologies, each seemingly just as valid as the last.
"It was this breaking up of qi into their lesser forms that resulted in the Fey, broken into just two: The Moon Fey and Sun Fey, breaking up further into all sorts of branching paths that birthed all of your Faeries and your various disciplines.
"Unfortunately, that change also seemed to make you weak."
The Faeries almost flared when Ryu said these words. But, he continued as though he couldn't see or hear them in the slightest. He was completely unmoved by it all. If it wasn't for Ailsa's sake, he wouldn't bother to say a single word.
"The hallmark of the first two Eras was survival. Only by being strong could you survive the violence of the volatile qis of that Era. However, after the end the Primordial Era, there was finally peace. Worlds began to be stable regions where the weak could finally live life without having to become strong and Faeries no longer felt the need to enter the Real Plane to fight wars and began to change their cultivation systems to no longer need the resources of the Real Plane.
"Unfortunately, the Fey could not do the same. Their situation was much different from that of the Faeries that descended from them. After all, the Fey also have powerful bodies and needed the energies and laws of the Real Plane to progress.
"But, by the time things reached a stage where the Fey were slipping into obscurity, the Faeries had risen up to the powerhouses of the Ethereal Plane and began to push a different sort of philosophy. Of course, the Fey warned you all about the potential consequences of such a thing.
"While the Ancestral Beasts birthed lower tier Beasts, each of which was willing and able to defend the honor of their Ancestors. The Fey birthed ungrateful descendants who chose not to life a finger to aid those they came from.
"It was deep into this Era that humans finally began to cultivate. With the less violent qi growing in abundance, human innovation could finally shine through and a semblance of a cultivation system began to form and take root.
"This was the Era where cultivation was truly established, where the concept of taking disorder and organizing it became the root of cultivation everywhere… The concept of taking Chaos and forming Order.
"From gaining this power, this humans began to grow in strength, but the Fey and Ancestral Beasts were too busy fighting amongst themselves to notice. The Fey continued to warn you all about the potential consequences of losing the battle on the Real Plane, but you continued to not listen until the point where the Fey finally faded into obscurity and the Ancestral Beasts claimed the Era for themselves.
"But how could they possibly have had a chance to win? How could the Fey ever think that their children and offspring would be less grateful than beasts?"
Ryu's words were biting and spoken without reserve. But, he was correct.
The Ancestral Beasts and Fey were even. However, what they both lacked in was fertility. The Ancestral Beasts were able to get around this problem thanks to their weaker descendants who formed troops of Sovereign Grade and below beasts. Their higher birthrates helped the number of Beasts to far outweigh the number of Fey.
Unfortunately, the Faeries had completely turned away from their Ancestors, choosing passivism over everything. The direct result of this was the weakening of their Ancestors and their eventual extinction.
Knowing this, wasn't it obvious that they were less grateful than beasts? But what happened next only seemed to accent that truth all the more.