Ryu entered a cave region and began tapping the walls. Every time he did so, a ripple would occur in space, deforming the region.
His skill had already increased after just a few minutes. With a thought, he could make a maze of space. With every pat, he layered another maze on top of another, making the array more and more complicated. Even if someone of the Sky God by some miracle managed to sense him, they would take quite some time to rip through the protections he had left behind.
After he was done, Ryu made a final stack of space.
In the end, although the length of the tunnel was just a few dozen meters, it would feel like traversing hundreds of kilometers. This could still be considered a small distance to high level cultivators, but it was a different story if that distance was a maze.
Ryu flung the sleeves of his robes, pulled off the golden moon world ring, and buried it underground. Then, he entered it and sat in complete silence, adjusting his state of mind as the qi slowly circulated around his body.
His Realm Heart pulsed silently and slowly as his breathing became deeper and deeper.
As his mind calmed, Ryu felt that the path to the Third Heaven wasn't the only one that he could sense. In fact, he could even sense the other Planes. If he wanted to step into the Ethereal Plane right now, he could. He could also do the same with the Chaos Plane that he felt all too clearly. However, for the remaining two Planes, he felt that stepping into them was actually beyond his current self.
However, this made sense.
The Ethereal Plane was the closest Plane to the Real Plane, it was practically a mirror image and the two were layered atop of one another, so the difficulty in crossing them wasn't high.
As for the Chaos Plane, he carried around a connection to it everywhere he went thanks to his Chaotic Silk Meridians.
However, for the other Planes, the Abyssal Plane and the Nether Plane, he had no such connection with them. The only line he would have to the former was during his breakthrough into the Path Extinction Realm. As for the latter, maybe only if he found a Summoner Necromancer Inheritance here would he be able to establish a connection with it again.
Still, the feeling that he had right now felt quite special.
Although he couldn't enter them all, he could still feel all of the Planes and their relations with one another. It was almost… beautiful. A delicate balance of five that made up all of existence, each of which seemingly extending into infinity.
Eventually, Ryu had sunk into such a deep state of relaxation that for the second time in his life, he entered a State of Meditation naturally. In a single step, he entered Breath of World, the fourth State of Meditation.
pαпdα-ňᴏνê|·сóМ Ryu's breathing came out slow and steady, fully prepared to enter the Path Extinction Realm.
He had done it once before, however back then, he hadn't completed his first Extinction, he had simply established a connection with the Abyssal Plane. He hadn't been willing to do his first Extinction immediately because there had been a problem with his Inheritances. But now that he had experienced it once before, he knew that his Inheritances would recover as soon as he progressed forward so he planned on completing his First Extinction immediately.
In his Breath of World state, Ryu's Inheritances quickly approached perfection. Thanks to his Realm Heart, reaching perfection in the Ruler Realm was far easier than it had been in the past. Although he would no longer delay his cultivation, that didn't mean that he wouldn't take perfection when it was presented to him on a silver platter.
In just a few minutes, Ryu had shattered and reformed his Inheritances hundreds of times, bringing them to the pinnacle of perfection in just a moment.
A rustling aura rushed about him, an enlightened feeling flooding his veins. His body sung, his Wind, Water, Mountain, Thunder, Fire, and Life Inheritances never feeling clearer to him than they did now.
Ryu's chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm, his connection to the Abyssal Plane being established in a single moment.
However, right then, he felt a subtle pulse in his Chaotic Silk Meridians and a flash of inspiration hit Ryu like a speeding train.
What happened every time he took a proper step with his Chaotic Silk Meridians versus when he didn't? Just like Ailsa had said, a proper step strengthened his connection to the Chaos Plane and an improper step weakened it.
Why was it that Ailsa had made Ryu wait until he was ready to enter the Immortal Ring Realm before he re-established his connection with his Spiritual Foundation back then? It was because if he reconnected with it too early, then he would lose his connection to the Chaos Plane.
Just now, when Ryu was about to break into the Path Extinction Realm, he felt his connection to the Chaos Plane weaken slightly. It was very slight, so slight that he would have never sensed it before. It was only because he was both in Breath of World and because of his new Space-Time Soul Nature that he could sense such a subtle change.
However, this alone wasn't helpful. Ryu already knew that this was the improper way forward, he was just taking it anyway. What good was telling when he was taking the wrong step if it was impossible to find the right step through it? There were simply too many potential methods of breaking through for Ryu to be expected to go through each and every one of them.
This time, though, Ryu felt something special when he established the connection.
Right at the beginning when he was preparing to choose the Plane to project his soul presence to, the connection to the Chaos Plane had actually strengthened by an exceptionally small margin, it was only after he chose to go with the Abyssal Plane that it weakened.
What did this mean…? Could it be that the proper way to breakthrough was to undergo his Extinctions in the Chaos Plane instead of the Abyssal Plane?
When Ryu thought this, he nearly fell out of Breath of World.
Such a thought was too dangerous. In fact, it could potentially kill him.
The reason the Abyssal Plane was used to undergo your Extinctions was because it was the only Plane where the laws were in limbo. This made it relatively safer, albeit still dangerous, to shatter your comprehensions and reform them.
The Chaos Plane, though, was the exact opposite. Not only were the laws not in limbo, they were as its namesake claimed… In chaos!
To try an undergo your Extinctions even in the Real Plane would be suicide, let alone the Chaos Plane.
What Ryu didn't know was that there were some exceptionally special cultivation methods in existence that insisted their users breakthrough on the Real Plane. Unsurprisingly, the mortality rate of such methods was exceptionally high. However, likewise, the monsters that managed to survive and come out the other side were experts among experts.
At that moment, Ryu's Dao Heart shone like a beacon within the darkness.
Without the slightest hesitation, he severed his connection with the Abyssal Plane and re-established it with the Chaos Plane.
Ryu's aura flourished.
First Extinction.
Begin.