Published at 18th of August 2024 9:19 am

Chapter 1884 Fakes

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Ryu's intent churned, and this time, when he breathed, all the energy of the world seemed to have been concentrated on him all at once. In all this time, he had finally found what it was the three were looking for. Deep in this world, there was the Embryo of a Shrine. What was important wasn't the world itself, but rather the energy itself. In order to display its power, the Shrine Embryo needed energy, and the best energy was, of course, the energy of the world. For this sort of feat, the Holy Worlds were obviously the best target. This was how Shrines were created, but what Ryu hadn't considered was that… this was also how Shrines were upkept. They weren't creating a new Shrine, but they were instead solidifying the foundation of one, one that had, presumably, been damaged in some way. In order to fix it, it had actually taken so many years of planning and effort just to get to this point. It impressed upon Ryu just how valuable these Shrines were… But it also gave Ryu exactly what he needed to destroy them. Of course, if he waited for one of the Shrines to take damage, and then have to be repaired in this way, he would die of old age in this place. Well, probably not if his cultivation advanced. But he wasn't willing to waste such time. However, it opened up another path. If Holy Worlds could be used to heal… Why couldn't they be used to destroy? All it took was a little bit of ingenuity. However, that was a future matter. Now that Ryu had a Shrine right here for him, how could he not deal with it? Still, he felt that destroying such a treasure was a shame. How could he do that? Wouldn't just taking it for himself have the same effect? One way or another, the formation of the Shrines would be disrupted. After dealing with this one, there would be just two remaining. After the third Shrine collapsed, he would have fulfilled his duty to this world then he could take his wife and leave. Ryu's senses descended into the depths of the world, and soon he had laid eyes on the true form of the Shrine. And it was then that he froze. Whether in aura, in look, in feel… It was the exact same…

The exact same as a Shrine of Sacrum. Ryu's heart skipped a beat, and he couldn't understand what he was seeing. Originally, he thought that it was just a coincidence that the two items were named the same. But what he didn't expect was for him to have made such a foolish mistake. Ryu was a master of linguistics and Faith. Logically speaking, he should have already known that the word Shrine was translated in the same exact way, and even had a connection to the Shrines that he was familiar with… But there was an issue with that. For one, while he did understand that the word was the exact same, the issue that he was facing was the fact that this was an entirely different world. Who said that two worlds couldn't use the same word for entirely different things? And by extension of this, it was precisely because this was a world that he didn't recognize that reading its Fate was a crapshoot for him. When he first came here, he had to scratch and claw just to be able to use his cultivation normally, especially with his Chaotic Silk Meridian sealed away. It was no wonder, then, that he didn't have time to look into something that he didn't think had a possibility of being true in the first place. But now that he was looking at the Shrine, he was completely floored. Just what did it mean for it to be here and be identical? 'Wait…'

Ryu suddenly realized that there was something wrong. The longer he looked at the Shrine, the more that he felt that there was something… off about it. The aura had seemed identical at the start, but as he looked deeper, the changes became more obvious to him. It was like looking at the same word written in a different font. At first, Ryu thought that this was because of the chaotic leaning of this world; it would make sense for the Shrines to be a little different. But the more he looked into it, the more he felt that this wasn't exactly the case. That was when it hit him. 'They're fakes!'

Ryu was taken aback. Who could make replicas of the Shrines he was so familiar with, that were so lifelike and real? He couldn't fathom the level of craftsmanship that was necessary, so much so that it made the Feng Shui that he had been so impressed with before seem like nothing more than child's play. But more importantly than that… why? How? Ryu's heart shook as he recalled that the Ruin Master Guild was involved in the matters related to his home as well. They had even appeared during that final war as though they were in collusion with the Martial Gods. Ryu had only faint inklings as to why that might be, and now he seemed to understand that it was certainly related to the Ruin Master Guild. But the question was… how deep did this conspiracy go, and with how strong they were, why was it that they didn't just come and take it by force? The Heavenly Knights were powerful, but the fact the Martial Gods had managed to sneak by them meant that they weren't infallible. Ryu didn't believe that the Ruin Master Guild wouldn't have a method of dealing with them if push came to shove. So what was going on? It can't be that they didn't know… At the very least, Adlael was a member of the True Martial World, and for him to appear here when travel between worlds should be basically impossible, it meant that someone had to have brought him…

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