Ryu's Immortal Sakura vibrated. In the next moment, the transparent petals fell. The scene was just as beautiful as usual, but there was something different this time.
The branches of the Immortal Sakura shook with more vigor. Soon, the change became apparent.
Slowly, the transparent petals were replaced one after another. The blossoms they came from soon became pure white flowers, exuding a purity and untouchable beauty. If before, the falling petals seemed like falling snowflakes, now they embodied that image perfectly.
The new white petals crackled with lightning just like their predecessors, but they were far sturdier. Ryu, even in his sorry state, could tell that it wasn't impossible for these petals to withstand the strike of a Qi Refinement Expert now. With a bit more maturity, blocking the attack of a Spiritual Severing Realm expert wouldn't be impossible.
According to Eska, [Immortal Sakura] had seven stages. The first stage was a sort of primer stage, while the remaining six were connected to the six Mental Realms. The primer stage was the Translucent Stage, representing the transparent petals that just fell from Ryu's Immortal Sakura. This stage was the White Stage, the stage that was officially tied to the Spiritual Entrance Realm. The following stages were the Cherry Stage, the Red Stage, the Violet Stage, the Purple-Gold Stage, and the Gold Stage.
In truth, the White Stage was meant to only be capable of blocking the attacks of Pulse Opening and Qi Refinement Realm experts. However, that only referred to the base abilities of the Immortal Sakura. There were two main reason Ryu's had such great potential even though he only recently entered this stage: Firstly, his Mental Realm which had been his weakest point had suddenly grown past the level of even geniuses. Secondly, he had mutated the Immortal Sakura by infusing lightning qi into its being.
Though Eska had said this was possible, she also mentioned that this was a very advanced technique that even she took a long time to master. For her, it wasn't until she reached the Red Stage that she perfectly fused a new element into her Immortal Sakura, making it stronger.
Obviously, this didn't mean Ryu had suddenly become more talented than Eska in Mental Realm cultivation. He had both the [Tribulation Nine Clouds] and his Origin Flame to thank for luck. The reason infusing a new element was so difficult was because one needed to stabilize the Visualization at the same time, but Ryu found this very easy thanks to his Origin Flame. On top of this, the [Tribulation Nine Clouds] provided a unique opportunity to infuse his Mental Realm with lightning qi.
The most poignant point here was that Ryu used a continuous Visualization within his Mental Realm, something which Eska, who was from ancient times, wasn't familiar with.
Ryu snapped awake to find himself once more within a damp and hard floored cave. He could vaguely remember dragging himself back out from under the barrage of lightning to come back here before completely collapsing.
He had gone further than he thought. Reaching the true peak of Flash Mountain was a foolish dream for him who was so weak right now. That was a place even Sixth Order King Beasts didn't dare to venture, how could he make it there?
But, he had been able to form all three first stage Thunder Formations. From Ryu's understanding, the forming of the formations was the actual difficult part. Once the formation was created, any form of lightning qi could be taken up.
For example, it was impossible to create the next Thunder Formation with true tribulation lightning. However, once the formation was formed, Ryu could absorb regular lightning qi to grow it to its limits. Though, obviously, trying to satiate tribulation lightning with regular lightning was a tall task.
When Ryu sent his thoughts toward his Mental Realm, he was ecstatic due to what he saw. His Mental Realm had actually expanded to thirty kilometers, and he had yet to fully satiate the third Thunder Formation!
Of course, Ryu knew that it was only so easy to break his limits now because the realm was so low. Once he began tackling greater realms, breaking the shackles that bound him would become even more difficult. But, he couldn't help but be happy that there was a path forward.
'So you're finally awake. You're going to work Big Sis to death.' Ailsa grumbled, but the expression on her face was actually quite happy. Ryu hadn't awoken for three days, and she practically exhausted herself trying to heal him appropriately.
Ryu came to himself, hearing Ailsa's voice. "How much time do we have left?"
'For the one-month time limit? There's still a little less than three weeks left.'
"Good… I only need a day to finish them anyway. Let's continue."
'You can't mean…' Ailsa couldn't even finish her grumbling before Ryu shot forward once more and into the sea of lightning.
In the end, Ailsa couldn't bring herself to stop him. She knew the journey ahead was too grueling and too cruel. Ryu would soon learn why it was that fighting against one's own lack of talent was so difficult.
Those true geniuses of the Mental Realm path Ryu was chasing after? Once they entered the Spiritual Endowment Realm from the Spiritual Entrance Realm, their Mental Realms would explode outward by ten times, making their ten-kilometer limit stretch to a hundred kilometers. However, once Ryu broke through, he wouldn't receive such good treatment. Since he artificially increased his limits, aside from an increase in Spiritual Qi quality and an improvement in his Spiritual Sense's ability to pick up fine details, his Mental Realm might even shrink instead of expand.
Once the Spiritual Qi increases in quality, it will actually collapse in on itself, becoming thicker. This is the final step before the Spiritual Qi becomes your Spiritual Sea. Essentially, the fog that had once been in Ryu's Mental Realm would begin to thicken to nearly the point of becoming liquid. Others could offset this reduction by their Mental Realm's expansion, but Ryu wouldn't receive this, his Mental Realm might actually shrink by as much as half, if not more, by Ailsa's calculations. He had to work this hard…
Ryu continuously charged further and further into the sea of lightning. Without a mind for himself, his only focus was on satiating his third Thunder Formation.
Forty kilometers… Fifty…. Sixty… Seventy….
Ryu reached one hundred kilometers by the end of the third week. It was then he saw an opportunity, one to break into the Spiritual Endowment Realm. He had so much more Spiritual Qi than one should have in this realm, so he followed his instincts and shattered open his Spiritual Vessel, only to witness the cruelty of reality… He could only watch as his Mental Realm rapidly shrunk before his eyes…