Ryu smiled bitterly. This fiancée of his truly was far too willful. However, he couldn't say that he didn't deserve it. Even he realized that he neglected her. Why she had chosen him even to the point of falling out with her family? He had no idea.
There was a small part of Ryu that still believed she was only throwing a small temper tantrum. He would only live for a fraction of her life anyway, by the time he died, she'd have more than long enough to reconcile with the Holy Wing Clan. In fact, although such a thought caused a dull ache in his chest, he hoped that it was true if for nothing else but her sake.
"I'm sorry." Ryu grasped Elena's waist, pulling her into his arms and allowing her to rest on his chest. Despite being an immortal, Elena weighed as light as a feather. Of course, this was in part due to her special skeletal structure. It was a simple task for Ryu to lift her even with his frail body.
In his life, Elena was the only one who deserved to hear these words from him.
"Good." Elena harrumphed triumphantly, curling into Ryu. "They're all very good treasures, even the Mystical Grade one. Although its rank is low, its abilities are very interesting. I believe it would be very difficult to make a treasure that replicated its abilities but also had a higher grade."
"Oh?" Ryu would be lying if he said he wasn't intrigued. He was certain that if Elena picked these three out of the thousands that were likely given, they likely had the ability to give him an added layer of protection. Elena was obviously no less protective of him than his parents.
"Mm. The only reason it's not a higher grade itself is because its usefulness is reliant on both the skill and cultivation of the person who uses it."
Ryu smiled wryly. "I have no cultivation to speak of, how could I make full use of this?"
"Silly hubby, how could I not know that? Although you don't have cultivation, what you do have is a very strong Mental Realm foundation. This treasure can feed off this as well which was why it caught my eye."
Elena reached her arm out, not bothering to sit up as a silver ring on her hand warped slightly to reveal a black cloak. Its fabric was incomparably smooth, almost like satin fur. However, the most intriguing part was that the cloak itself seemed ethereal despite the fact it was clearly laying on his chest.
"It's also good because I know how much you like to wear black. From my tests, if you entered the Breath of Earth state while wearing this cloak, it would be difficult for even me to find you as long as you remained still."
Ryu took the cloak into his hands with a pensive expression. He knew that he could only enter the Breath of Earth state for only a few seconds because his Spiritual Qi couldn't sustain it, but to say that he could hide from an immortal as a cripple, even if it was just a few seconds, was astounding!
Of course, there were numerous caveats such as remaining still and likely not allowing any intent he had to leak, but it was still an astounding feat, nonetheless. The only thing holding this cloak back from a higher grade was the fact it relied on its user. Higher grade treasures were amazing no matter how unskilled their master was.
"Don't think of using it to peep on me in the bath, okay?" Elena stuck her small pink tongue out playfully.
Ryu shook his head, involuntarily smiling himself as he took the cloak into his heavenly pupil inner world. He had never bothered to carry around a spatial ring because of this innate ability he and all other heavenly pupil wielders were born with. Of course, this ability was a big deal in the Mortal Planes where spatial rings were rare and expensive, but here, it was inconsequential.
"That first one is for your protection, but this second one is one I think you'll take a fancy to. It's an Origin Grade incubator. It's able to accelerate the speed of growth in both beasts and spiritual plants alike by a hundred times."
Ryu raised another eyebrow. "Don't we have plenty of those already? What's special about this one? This Origin Grade evaluation seems a bit high for what amounts to only a hundred times."
Elena seemed to be enjoying this side of their interactions far too much. Usually, Ryu was the one with all the answers while she asked all the questions. She couldn't help but revel in this flip.
This aside, Ryu wasn't wrong. The Tatsuya Clan even had such incubators that multiplied maturing speed by a thousand, even ten and hundred thousand times. This seemed like a lot, but for some spiritual plants, it took several trillion years to fully mature. Cutting the time down by this much wasn't a luxury, it was a necessity.
The issue was that even those incubators didn't receive Origin Grade evaluations. One had to understand just how rare an Origin Grade treasure was. Even their large Clans would only have two or three and they were the highest existences in the Martial World! How could such an evaluation be given out so easily?
Elena smiled deviously. "What makes this one special despite its low acceleration is the fact it can one: fuse into its master's body and two: directly process spiritual plants into pure qi to speed up anything from healing to cultivation. Also, you can directly control the pace of flow of the already processed qi. With it, you'll have no restrictions on the spiritual plant grades you can intake and you won't have to worry about exploding from excessive energy."
Hearing this explanation, Ryu's heart warmed. Why else would Elena be so eager to give him this treasure if not to lengthen his life? The most troublesome part about extending a mortal's life was finding treasures docile enough to not directly kill them. This completely eliminated this issue!
This was what it meant to be an Origin Grade treasure. This incubator had no need for Ryu to be some elite expert because it covered for his flaws itself!
"But who…" Ryu suddenly said. "Who would give up an Origin Grade treasure?"
Before, Ryu had been caught off guard by the Unique Grade title. But it had to be said that the Origin Grade should have been just as shocking to him. His own Tatsuya Clan only had three under complete lock and key. Even he couldn't see them whenever he wanted. On the entire Shrine Plane, there were likely only a bit more than a dozen of them total.
Elena's eyes flashed with an angered light. "Mother and father forced the Holy Wing Clan to cough it up in exchange for that old witch's life and in apology for her actions."