290 Schools
"Holy.... shit. Is that what I think it is?".
Arthur nodded, his eyes sweeping over the hundreds of Fae Masters all around them. Just a single glance and Arthur around them, and there were already dozens of Rank 1 and Rank 2 Fae Masters waiting patiently in line to enter White Corpse City.
Being the territory of a mortal Sect, it was only natural that there were several thousand members of the White Dominion Sect around White Corpse City alone. Due to the Sects proximity to the Yellow Springs Famous River, and the Enlightened Bodhi Famous River, numerous small Clans, and wandering Fae Masters made their ways over here, hoping to lay the foundations, and possibly even find fortuitous encounters near the Fae Grounds.
Despite the fact that White Corpse City was under the control of the White Dominion Sect, the White Corpse City Lord wasn't a member of the White Dominion Sect.
If Arthur's memory was correct, both his son and daughter were both disciples of the White Dominion Sect, both of which were first-tier talents.
Being so close to Fae Grounds, a place overflowing with spiritual essence and spiritual essence veins, the chances of mortals being born with Fae Master talents were much higher. And if one came from a Clan of Fae Masters, the chances of their collective talents being higher were much more prevalent.
The Winter Rain Mountains only possessed the low-intermediate stratum of the Falling Snow River. Compared to the White Dominion Sect which was built near the intermediate-low stratum of the two Fae Grounds, the difference was like the distance between the heavens and the earth.
All Fae Grounds, emit difference amounts of spiritual essence, depending on where on is currently located. With River Type Fae Grounds, the closer one is to the source of the river, the stronger the spiritual essence undulations would be.
The boundaries of a Fae Ground were usually broken up into several tiers, and sub-tiers.
The Winter Rain Mountain Region possessed a low-intermediate stratum of the Falling Snow River. The second lowest amount of of spiritual essence quality and concentration.
The White Dominion Region however, was built on an intermediate-low stratum of the Yellow Springs River, and a low-high stratum of the Enlightened Bodhi River. These two Fae Grounds, despite being relatively low quality, actually harmonized their collective spiritual essence and Laws, and could release a spiritual essence concentration far greater than what their respective stratums should be capable of.
Such an event only happened once every few decades, but during that time, the number of Fae, Fae Masters, Fae materials, unique minerals, heavenly medicines and special treasures would explode! People would come from far and wide in order to try their hand at obtaining such precious resources!
It could end up being the difference between breaking through to the next Rank or not!
No-one knew....
"Oi Arthur.... Why can those guys skip the line? Why do we have to wait like everyone else?".
Dagen pointed towards a group of Fae Masters, garbed in all white and carrying large coffins on their back. Despite the fact that a large amount of flower essence had been poured on their bodies, the stench of corpses couldn't be hidden.
This group of Fae Masters completely ignored the line, walking straight through to White Corpse City without even so much as getting a whisper or a grunt of annoyance from the people still waiting in line.
Arthur tilted his head slightly.
"They are members of the White Dominion Sect. Since the City is controlled by the White Dominion Sect, disciples naturally don't have to worry about getting hassled whenever they try to enter. There is a fee for merchants looking to sell their wares within White Corpse City. I'm pretty sure most Cities have such taxes....".
Milena perked her head up, and gazed towards the White Dominion Sect disciples. Seeing the large Coffins on their backs, her eyes glittered with an unknown light.
Normally for Milena, she just opted to keep her Corpses within a Storage Fae, and called them out whenever she needed them. She never once thought about keeping them within Coffins, similar to her Coffin Evolution Ritual.
"Keeping it in such a specialized Coffin would allow the Corpse to retain all of its energy when outside of battle. If an Inscription specialist Fae Master were to lay down an spiritual essence gathering inscription, then the Corpse, or Corpses inside could be nurtured slowly even while travelling....".
Despite the coming from a small region like the Winter Rain Mountains, Milena came from a family of gravekeepers. Most of her family were Fae Masters, and she had accumulated the entire collective knowledge of her ancestors, as well as the Kovacs Clan bloodline.
Milena had only learned about the School of Mummification, but there was still the School of Transfiguration and the School of Surgery that she had yet to even touch upon. Arthur had even known about obscure Fae and Attribute Control Skills belonging to the School of Sacrifice.
A School was necessarily something restricted to just a single Attribute.
Like Corpses, or even Ghosts, an existence could have multiple Attributes at once.
It only referred to how a Fae Master used their Fae.
Arthur himself could be considered a Fae Master specializing in the School of War, someone who used his Fae in a matter fit for direct combat. He used a plethora of differently Attributed Fae, like Wood Fae and Emotion Fae, but he also used Moon Attributed Fae and Metal Attributed Fae as well.
The vast majority of his Fae were used to fight. And the minority were used to supplement his fighting prowess.
Arthur was also researching the School of Adaptation. A specific School that researches how tamed existences can adapt to new external influences. In his specific case, Arthur was researching how to force Ghosts to adapt when faced with new Fae materials and special resources.
There were similar schools of thought all over the Thirty Three Heavens.
The School of Mummification, Transfiguration, Surgery, Alteration and Adaptation were all primarily focused on the development of Tamed creatures. There existed sub-sections, but these five schools were the basis for hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of years of research and dedication.
Arthur heard Milena let out a disappointed sigh, as she watched the White Dominion Sect disciples enter White Corpse City. They were all Rank 2 Fae Masters, and their ages couldn't be that much different from her own.
But in terms of status.... they were vastly more insignificant.
Arthur just showed a wry smile, before flicking the reins and arriving at the front of the line.
The guard, also a Rank 2 Fae Master glanced at Arthur and showed an surprised expression, feeling the undulations of a Rank 3 Fae Master. This guard had already seen numerous Rank 3 Fae Masters today, but never had he seen one so young before!
"How many of you are there in your group?"
Arthur didn't say anything, and just handed over several hundred origin essence stones, considering that Grigori, Ophelia and Titania were all just mortal babies, Arthur only needed to hand over a single origin essence stone for each of their passes.
The middle-aged guard glanced down at the large amount of origin essence stones, before nodding and lifting his head towards Arthur, slightly glancing at the numerous carriages they had.
"What is the purpose of your visit to White Corpse City?".
Arthur smiled slightly.
"We are here to trade some Fae and Fae materials".
The guard nodded.
"Have you ever been to White Corpse City before?".
Arthur glanced upwards, towards the array that had been placed between the bricks of the City Wall. It wasn't a very well known fact, but every single person that passed through these gates had their information, and their appearance recorded by this array.
Not only that, but considering that the White Dominion Sect specialised in Thought and Corpse Attributed Fae, they were also specialists at discerning lies from truth.
Arthur just shook his head.
"Not once in my current life have I stepped foot in White Corpse City".
