"...Of course, you can't judge a battle by these things alone."
"Things like how far both sides have traveled down their respective paths, how strong they are, what their surroundings are like, and so on will all affect their performance."
"So, when you're fighting, you only need a rough idea of the range the other party's path falls into in terms of strength. There's no need to insist on figuring out exactly how strong it is."
Liya Norlandir paused briefly at this point before continuing,
"Of course, this doesn't apply to those exceptionally, exceptionally powerful paths."
"Like I mentioned earlier, Distortion, Order, and the like. If you see that the other party follows one of those paths, unless you're a whole major tier above them, just run!"
"That's also why I said so much earlier and kept telling you to take the path of 'Distortion' seriously!"
"If you really follow that path, you could practically call yourself invincible within your tier in the future!!"
Shen Heng nodded without dwelling on the subject. "So the World Tree and Jörmungandr, who hold the first and second authorities respectively, are the strongest and second strongest in the Ruins Realm, right?"
At this, Qin Yu paused, a faint trace of confusion appearing in her eyes as well.
"Uh, while that is indeed their ranking in terms of strength, it's not entirely based on those two authorities," Liya Norlandir said after a pause.
"Not entirely based on that?" Shen Heng asked, somewhat puzzled.
The confusion in Qin Yu's eyes deepened again.
"Mm." Liya Norlandir gave a sound of assent. "I told you last night that among the existing Ninth Tier beings, only one holds a single authority, while the other five all hold two or three authorities, right?"
"Mm." Shen Heng nodded.
Beside him, Qin