There were things that had to be compromised.
Ryu wasn't a fool, he knew exactly how dangerous his mentality was and he knew that one day it might very well get him killed. As arrogant as he was, one thing that Ryu had never done was guarantee that he would reach the top of the world, all he had ever said was that was something he would strive for with all his being. In fact, he had never even claimed that he would certainly defeat all the geniuses with far greater talent than his own, he only ever said that he really wanted to meet them.
Of course, inwardly, Ryu did want to reach the pinnacle and he did want to defeat all of those geniuses in his way, but for the first time, he also had to acknowledge that his starting point wasn't as good as others. In such a situation, he had to make a choice…
And that choice was between his cultivation path and his Dao Heart. Between these two, he chose the latter.
What did this ultimately mean? It meant that he would not slow his cultivation speed down for the sake of perfection any longer. That was luxury only those coddled geniuses of the Ninth Heaven had, and a luxury he used to have as a pinnacle genius of Sacrum.
Ryu had been delaying his entry into the Path Extinction Realm for a long time. By the same token, he had also been delaying his entry into the Soul Refinement Realm as well.
For the former, it was because even though he had already made his decision about forging forward with the [Refinement Sutra], there was still a small piece of him that wanted to wait and hold on just a little longer in hopes that he would stumble into the proper way to use his Chaotic Silk Meridians.
For the latter, he was obsessed with pushing his soul as far forward as he could. Originally, he had waited until he could fully recultivate his body to its peak. But he had already succeeded in that, and now he was waiting until he decided what path he should take with his soul so that he could complete its recultivation before breaking through…
These were all smart decisions in a vacuum. The stronger his foundation, the more powerful he would be able to become in the future, so it seemed logical to wait.
But the harsh reality was that it had more bad than good points.
The longer he remained weak, the more danger he would be in and the less ability he would have to protect his life.
The longer he remained weak, the more his age would begin to play a factor and he might never have a chance to reach his full potential even if he found the perfect method to break through.
The longer he remained weak, the more chances there would be for his Dao Heart and the path he led to end up in death.
So, once again, something had to give.
The moment Ryu made his decision, he exhaled a breath and his heart seemed to radiate with a cool rainbow light.
With a thought, a barrier shattered and his soul pressure skyrocketed. He shot past the limiters of the Soul Birth Realm and entered the Soul Refinement Realm, his Spiritual Sea increasing explosively in size.
Ryu's body trembled, a pulsing power radiating out from his waves. His soul pressure almost became tangible, causing ripples in the air.
"Swallow it," Ryu said lightly.
At that moment, his soul trembled, floating upward to land atop the Silver Star Visualization.
Ryu could have swallowed this Visualization long ago and gained a Spatial Soul Nature that was impossibly powerful. However, he didn't because he was chasing perfection.
Due to the way his Perfect Blackbody worked, the affinities that he swallowed had to be balanced in order for all of them to shine through equally. That meant that if he swallowed the Silver Star Visualization, the only way to ever gain a second affinity would be to swallow something else that was equally as powerful. But how difficult would it be to find something like this?
Even after familiarizing himself with the power scales of the True Martial World, Ryu found that he had still not found anything comparable. This meant that should he swallow this Visualization, it could very well be possible that he would never be able to gain a second Soul Nature and would thus be giving up one of the greatest strengths of his soul.
However, this choice of his had also been a great detriment to him.
If he had swallowed the Silver Star Visualization long ago, how could it have taken him so long to master such a weak teleportation formation? In fact, given his soul strength, he might not have even needed to set up a formation to run away if his Spatial Soul Nature had been formed.
Now, though, he would no longer hold back. If he had an opportunity to grasp power, he would take it. If he wanted any chance at rising to the pinnacle of all that was, he had to strive for every step or there might come a day where he wouldn't have the luxury to take another.
Waves of powerful streams of qi rippled off of Ryu, the world around him becoming distorted.
His soul strength skyrocketed, breaking through the shackles of the Ancestral Grade and entering the ultimate God Grades. Every second, its foundational strength seemed to double, making it difficult for Ryu to even keep up with what exactly was happening.
The strong currents no doubt caught the attention of several powerful experts, but none of them dared to approach, believing that a powerful God Beast was undergoing a tremendous breakthrough in one of the rarest affinities there was… space.
However, very quickly, it became obvious that this wasn't just a space affinity. In fact, Ryu had barely touched the surface of the Visualization's true strength to the point where he didn't even grasp the affinities it represented.
The Silver Star Visualization wasn't just a Visualization of Space. The Visualization took Space to such an extreme that it evolved, touching upon a barrier that was both like it and yet entirely separate as well…
Time.