Ryu spent several of the next few months in complete solitude. Back in Sacrum, he rarely had the time to sit in silence and cultivate like this as the was always running from one troubled ground to another. However, this time, he was learning of the benefits of having the backing of a Sect. He actually had what could be considered time for "leisure".
Of course, if others knew that Ryu's so-called leisure was just continuous and arduous cultivation, they might very well look at him as though he was a madman.
Half a year passed just like this.
As Ryu progressed through his recultivation, it took longer and longer periods of time to reach the levels of perfection he sought after. In fact, if it wasn't for his Realm Heart raising his comprehension of the Immortal Realms by such a large margin, it would have taken him even longer than just half a year.
Still, the time was worth it to Ryu. Whether it was his Qi Realm or Body Realm, his strength increased by leaps and bounds every day. In addition, as his Body Realm increased in foundation and strength, the size of his Spiritual Sea vastly increased along with it as he squeezed more and more potential out of his soul.
The [Swallowing Darkness Mantra] displayed more of its prowess everyday and its inherent compatibility with Ryu's Perfect Blackbody Soul also shone forth. Despite the fact Ryu only had the cultivation method and not the accompanying techniques, he could still vaguely feel the outline of what those techniques would have been had he had the pleasure of using them. This was a sign of just how well he and this technique worked together.
The results made Ryu in even less of a hurry to begin recultivating his soul, it simply wasn't necessary. By the time he recultivated to the Immortal Ring Realm, his Spiritual Sea was already far vaster and stronger than the World Sea Realm experts of the First and Second Heaven. In fact, Ryu was fairly certain that he had outstripped the World Sea Realm geniuses of the Third Heaven as well.
The World Sea Realm equivalent of the Mental Realm was known as the Soul Ascension Realm. In fact, this was the very same Realm that Ailsa had been in as well.
The Lower Soul Ascension Realm was the Cosmic Seed Realm equivalent, the Middle Soul Ascension Realm was the World Sea Realm equivalent, and the Peak Soul Ascension Realm was the Sky God Realm equivalent. Or, at the very least, this was how things had worked back in Sacrum, with the legendary Soul Quintessence Realm being entirely unreachable.
The True Martial World wasn't too different, but here, the Soul Ascension Realm was divided into four stages: Lower, Middle, Higher and Peak. The first two were Cosmic Seed Realm equivalents while the latter two were World Sea Realm equivalents.
Finally, the so-called Soul Quintessence Realm was split into Nine States of Quintessence, each of which was related to another stage of the Sky God Realm.
The current Ryu felt that the vastness of his soul far outstripped individuals at the Lower and Middle Soul Ascension stages, and could be a match for those with soul talent beneath the Ancestral Grade at the Higher and Peak stages.
This was, without a doubt, Ryu's greatest trump card.
The Mental Realm was quite special. After the formation of the Spiritual Sea at the Soul Birth Realm, the Spiritual Qi used wouldn't have any fundamental difference all the way through the Soul Ascension Realm.
This meant that while Ryu had to contend against Cosmic Qi when he faced powerful opponents of the World Sea Realm and face quality suppression, he didn't have to face the same thing when it came to his soul, or more accurately, not to the same degree.
The qualitative change in Spiritual Qi wouldn't come until the Nine States of Quintessence, so jumping levels to do battle in terms of the Mental Realm was even easier.
This same logic also applied to the Body Realm as well, but Ryu had to be far more cautious with displaying his body's talents in comparison to his soul talents because it was much easier to hide the latter.
Still, this didn't stop Ryu.
In these six months, he recultivated to the pinnacle of the Immortal Ring Realm and the pinnacle of the Vessel Tempering Realm.
With his current state, he felt that he could be able to crush World Sea Realm Heaven Class talents and be a match more World Sea Realm Sovereign Class talents, theoretically. Ryu had never met a talent of the latter quality, but he knew that the gap between the two Classes of geniuses should be enormous. In fact, said gap would only increase as you moved further up as the difficulty in meeting the requirements would only increase.
Ryu knew that since so many Heaven Class talents could appear in the Second Heaven, that the Third Heaven would definitely have even more of them on top of at least one or two Sovereign Class talents. As far as Ryu was concerned, these talents would be his real challenge when the Heavenly Path opened.
This was all to say that he wasn't sure if he could face such a Class of talent head on if they had so many Realms of cultivation on him, but he felt that even if there was still a gap to close, it probably shouldn't be too large.
Ryu opened his eyes for the first time in a long while.
The ground around him had been completely ravaged by lightning, but it was also quickly healing.
His eyes could finally make out more than just vague movements. He could see shapes and point out shadows, and he could differentiate what was bright from what was dark. Seeing this progression, he nodded to himself.
Although he couldn't feel any of his Heavenly Pupil abilities coming back, he knew that he was on the right track. The closer to perfection he brought his body, the closer he would be to seeing what his Heavenly Pupils had in store for him.
Much like his Chaotic Silk Meridians, Ryu hadn't been able to learn much about Heavenly Pupils in his place. It was hard to tell if the True Martial World simply didn't have them, or if they only existed on the highest tier of Heaven.
Regardless, Ryu was looking forward to seeing what sort of mutations his eyes had undergone, and most importantly, he couldn't wait to see Ailsa and Yaana again.
Ryu smiled lightly before stretching his body.
All sorts of cracks and pops resounded and he seemed to stand even taller than before. His skin was far more lustrous and his muscles were countless times more defined.
The recovery of most of Ryu's talents were complete. Or at the very least, they had caught up to what they should have been if Sacrum's grading system was accurate.
His Fire Dragon, Lightning Qilin and fusion Phoenix Bloodlines had all returned to the Ancestral Grade. The same was true of his Bone Structure and Meridians.
Of course, this probably wouldn't be their cap. After all, Ryu's beast Bloodlines had come from overlord creatures of even the True Martial World and they had far more potential than just that. In addition, his Bone Structure had already mutated and his Meridians spoke for themselves.
If Ryu wanted to improve the state of his Bloodlines, he would have to continue "Returning to Origin". After his trip to the Mortal Planes, he had awakened many memories in Bloodlines that he had yet to have a chance to meditate upon.
When he came to the True Martial World, those memories had seemingly vanished, but he could now sense them clearly once again. With time, he was sure to slowly progress his Bloodlines.
As for his Bone Structure, there was probably very little he could actively do about it aside from continue to use the [Refinement Sutra]. The response Ryu's bones received every time he absorbed Heavenly Favor for his Body Realm was great. He had a feeling that he had not only chosen a good path, he had chosen the perfect path.
Now, Ryu felt that he could be a match for those pinnacle geniuses of the Fourth Heaven at the same cultivation level. But that thought didn't fill him with satisfaction. Instead, it filled him with longing and eagerness.
He really wanted to meet those geniuses that could force his steps to slow.
"Little Silk."
With a flutter, a familiar butterfly came over and wrapped Ryu in beautiful white and sky blue silks before landing on his shoulders.
Ryu nodded and with a step, he vanished and appeared above the Radiant Star Sect.
At the moment, the battles were still raging on, but the auras of the Radiant Star Sect disciples had completely changed. Many of them had died, but those that were left had become like tempered iron. Maybe not long from now, they would truly become steel.
Gliding on his great swordstaff, Ryu shot into the distance, leaving the surroundings of the Sect in the blink of an eye. His speed was simply on another level.
As Ryu charged toward the depths of the Second Heaven, somewhat aimlessly, his mind wandered.
He had thought about entering the Path Extinction Realm before leaving, but he had still hesitated. Something was brewing in his mind, something that just might change the trajectory of his future.
On a mountain range a great distance from Ryu's back, Selheira stood with a gentle smile on her face as she watched Ryu vanish over the horizon. She had a feeling that by the time he came back, the Second Heaven would have experienced quite some commotion.