The rippling waves of qi surged around Ryu, his hair fluttering in the air as a delicate sort of force wrapped around his body.
Ryu watched as his vision became clearer and clearer. From just shadows, he could finally see some light, the changes feeling just as shocking to him as the novel blooming sensation in his soul.
Right then, the world shifted again and the shadows and lights disappeared, the entire world becoming like layers of space stacked on top of another. The minor fluctuations in these stacked layers of space became precisely the outline for objects and people.
Ryu blinked several times before the sensation vanished and his vision went back to the blurry layers of shadows and lights it had been before.
He took a breath before looking down at his hand, his hand. He couldn't make out his fingers, but he could at the very least tell that there was a hand there outside the sensation of his proprioception.
Ryu lowered his hand, looking off into the distance before taking a step forward.
The ground seemed to shrink, a rush of landscapes whizzing by until his foot contacted the snow once more and it all came to a stop.
Ryu's pupils constricted, his Void Spiritual Sense spreading out in all directions. He was absolutely certain, with that one normal step, he had crossed an entire kilometer, and that was just casually. If he used his movement technique, how much further would he move?
Ryu's heart couldn't help but shudder.
Reaching out a hand, he stretched out his finger and pulled down.
The sensation of passing through layers of space was so strong that he almost felt as though he was passing his hand over the surface of a calm lake. He had never felt spatial qi so clearly in his life before, so much so that everywhere and everything seemed to be formed of it.
Just being able to feel this sensation alone made Ryu feel that without even taking into account the improvement in his soul, his combat prowess had increased by at least a factor a hundred.
His pointed finger came to a stop, suddenly pointing toward a hill in the distance.
In the blink of an eye, the space twisted and a hundred meter diameter of the hill was swallowed into what looked like a blackhole.
Ryu flipped over a palm and a snowball fell into his hands. However, this seemingly ordinary snowball weighed thousands of pounds. The entire section of that hill had actually been concentrated into the size of a palm!
In that moment, Ryu truly understood the fearsome nature of Soul Natures. He didn't even use any techniques. He just thought about what he wanted to do and it all happened so naturally around him. It was as though his talent in the subject of space was so high that he could casually create a technique from his thoughts and will alone.
This sort of realization was a huge surprise to Ryu. He had read a lot about Soul Natures. In fact, he had planned for the [Refinement Sutra] path he took to coincide with the chosen Soul Natures he had decided on for his soul. However, just reading about them didn't prepare him for actually experiencing their strength.
It couldn't just be Soul Natures that were this powerful. He had once crushed a young man with multiple Soul Natures. It must also be that the grade of his Soul Nature was also incredibly high, something that was greatly helped by the foundation of his soul itself.
Ryu gripped his fists, feeling the power coursing through him.
Ryu unclenched his fist, patting at the air with two palms.
He could feel something deeper, something lurking within the cocoon of space.
At that moment, it felt as though the air had become a rippling surface of water. Energies spread out in all directions getting faster and faster until they suddenly came to a grinding halt.
Ryu's heart trembled. No, it wasn't a grinding halt, but the surroundings had slowed considerably, but the pace forward was so slow that it really felt as though everything had come to a stop.
Time. He had just slowed time to a ridiculous degree.
The ripple of energy recovered rushing out in all seconds as a bead of sweat fell down Ryu's brows. However, compared to what he had just done, the drain on his stamina seemed completely negligible. He had almost stopped time for a full second and it had just cost him a single bead of sweat, it didn't even feel particularly difficult.
Of course, he hadn't had any target but the general landscape, but Ryu couldn't see it being much more difficult against a real person or beast. Maybe only someone who had formed a Godhood could resist, but how would they continue to resist when he had formed his own Godhood in the future?
This wasn't a normal boon, it was unfathomable. If Ryu had known that this would happen after swallowing the Silver Star, why would he have bothered to wait so long.
Looking up, Ryu's heart shuddered again.
The path between the Heavens, he could see it with a single glance. If he wanted, with just an extra bit of effort, he could cross the divide and enter the Third Heaven right now. It would drain him to do so, but the fact he could do it at all felt almost unfathomable.
Ryu lowered his palms and slowly clenched his fists again.
He was even more certain now that the path he had taken was correct.
He had a Chaos Grade Soul Cultivation technique by his side, how much more did he need? Why had he lagged behind so much? So long as his body could withstand it, there was no reason to hold back his soul cultivation at all.
So long as the foundation of his Dao Heart remained powerful, any other imperfections could be dealt with in the future. From now on, he wouldn't hesitate.
Ryu began to walk forward, crossing a kilometer at a time with absolute ease. Once he found a secure location, he would break into the Path Extinction Realm, nothing would stop him, not even himself.