From the looks of it, the principles of the Eye of Prophecy and his pattern recognition system were not the same. For one, he could not freely peer into the future regarding anything. He needed data.
It didn't sound like the Silas Clan had this limitation. Of course, the limitation that they did have was that they needed to sacrifice their lifespan to accomplish the feat. That was an extremely heavy price, and Rui wasn't sure that he wanted to pay that price.
Still, when he thought about the enormous power he would gain if he added the Eye of Prophecy to his VOID algorithm…
He could not help but feel deep greed for it. Undoubtedly, it was an additional incentive for him to consider this option. This was especially true when there was a chance that he could extract the principles of the technique and mimic them to a lesser extent. In the best-case scenario, he could potentially completely get rid of the price of the technique.
If that did happen, life would be good.
He didn't count on it, though.
Unfortunately, these were the only four credible sources and avenues of pursuit. Information on the Divine Doctor was so scarce that nothing else credible even turned up.
With these options at hand, it all depended on how he wanted to go about it. It wasn't even the case that he strictly needed to pick one out of the four. He could potentially pursue all four options if he felt that there was merit to doing so.
'It all depends,' Rui narrowed his eyes. 'The cost of extracting information from these four sources is not going to be cheap.'
The Beggar's Sage would undoubtedly demand an enormous price. Any information that this was exclusive was bound to be priceless.
The same could be said for the Adventurer's Guild.
However, Rui preferred this path. He had a filthy amount of wealth at his disposal at the moment from all the donors of his campaign. He didn't really need the wealth anymore since he had brought about an end to the Kandrian Throne War.
It made perfect sense to use the great wealth at his disposal to find some initial basis for his journey to find the Divine Doctor.
What he ultimately needed was precise enough information for him to work with; after that, his personal power would be able to do the trick. He had abilities that he suspected no others did.
Unfortunately, while wealth was effective for two of the four options at his disposal, it was not enough to move Martial Transcendents or the Silas Clan. The Transcendent Emperor was the absolute ruler of a powerhouse nation. Trying to buy him was like trying to sell sand in a desert.
The Silas Clan was disconnected from human civilization. Wealth did not hold any meaning to them, for they avoided human civilization, becoming self-sufficient and nomadic.
On top of that, they were undoubtedly the most difficult of the four to find. Perhaps not as difficult as the Divine Doctor, but they were very difficult nonetheless. Rui didn't know if the remaining time he had left was enough to find them, learn their technique, and then find the Divine Doctor. That sounded almost impossible.
Regardless, he didn't have all the time in the world to make a decision. With each passing day, he grew stronger and stronger, returning back to his peak. He needed to make decisions quickly.
The best choice was to test the waters with each of the possible avenues of exploration and proceed after seeing the response to his initial attempts to pursue them.
Depending on which option seemed to be the most receptive and promising, he could invest greater resources in finding them.
"Send delegations to the Britannian Empire, the Beggar's Sect, and the Adventurer's Guild."
His staff head tilted her head in confusion. "…Regarding what, Your Highness?"
"Express the desire that I, the future ruler of Kandria, desire to speak to the Britannian Emperor, the Beggar Sage, and the guildmaster of the Adventurer's Guild," Rui calmly informed her. "As what is effectively the confirmed ruler of a Sage-level powerhouse nation, they could not ignore me due to a lack of status."
Rui had no problem using his status and power to find a starting point to search for the Divine Doctor before he personally set out to search for him. It would be stupid to try and contact these powerful individuals as a mysterious Martial Senior.
At these levels, the Senior Realm was entirely beneath their time and energy, unfortunately.
"Have the Director of Diplomatic Affairs put together qualified individuals for delegations; they are to convey a handwritten letter from me to the designated recipients and convey my desire for a meeting with each of them," Rui replied.
"Understood, Your Highness."
As for the Silas Clan, he figured it was best if he sought them more personally than as a royal prince of the Kandrian Empire. It was also best not to tediously search for them when he had reliable sources of intelligence on them. He would simply contact Sage Sayfeel and then take a trip to the Silas Clan as his father once did when the time was right.
The days passed as Rui grew stronger and stronger, returning to his peak step by step. Whatever the Martial Union must have been immaculate, for he felt his body was identical to how it had been before.
It wasn't too long before his faction whipped up acceptable delegations, dispatching them to their designations. Rui's status had risen so far that it was something that could be ignored by essentially anybody in the Panamic Continent by virtue of his unshakable claim for the throne.
Within a matter of days, the delegations had reached their dispatched locations and were promptly received with great honor and hospitality. Within a week, they had completed their tasks and conveyed everything that Rui wanted them to. Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.
Now, Rui simply had to wait and hear their official response to him and evaluate them based on it.
-