Ryu looked down at his hands. He could feel the strength surging through his veins.
At that moment, the impurities within his body were pushed out faster, drenching his body in a foul smell.
'The Realm Heart reacts to my Qi Realm cultivation? Or maybe it's just my cultivation in general…'
Ryu didn't spend much time thinking about this because he instantly felt that his strength had increased by more than several dozen fold. Even with the constant leakage of his qi, he felt that his power had leapt past even his own understanding.
'This is the Divine Vessel Realm…'
The truth was that the leaking of his qi hardly affected Ryu. His qi density was already comparable to a Half-Step Divine Vessel Realm expert while he was only at the Half-Step Spiritual Severing Realm. Now that he had entered the Divine Vessel Realm, he was comparable to a Connecting Heaven Realm expert even with the leakage taken into account.
'I never expected to reach this stage so quickly. Had I known this was possible, I would have skipped the Spiritual Severing Stage from the very beginning, then used the influx of qi to form a larger Qi Blade without relying on Essence at all.'
Unfortunately, neither Ryu nor Ailsa were omnipotent. The idea of skipping a cultivation realm was unheard of. There were godly Spiritual Herbs that gave one the ability to leap Qi Realms, but that was only the optics of it. The reality was that these Spiritual Herbs simply quickly pushed you through Qi Realms, they didn't really skip Qi Realms.
For context of how astounding this was, the absolute geniuses of the Shrine Plane only reached the Divine Vessel Realm at twenty years old. That mark was the threshold for any true genius. Only once in a generation talents were faster than this.
But, Ryu was only eighteen years old! And, he hadn't begun cultivation at seven as he was meant to, he hadn't begun until he was already fourteen!
Ryu gripped his fists. 'I've caught up… Now it's time to surpass them…'
As Ryu was becoming accustomed to his new strength, Ailsa had sunk deep into her own thoughts.
'Little Ryu's qi density relies on his three Six Star Cultivation Techniques, and most importantly, a sturdy foundation. Logically, even if he relied on his Chaotic Silk Meridians to skip the Spiritual Severing Realm, his advantage should have fallen at least slightly.'
Ailsa's concerns made sense. Ryu had skipped an entire cultivation realm, so why was his advantage in qi density the same? Sturdy meridians weren't the only thing one gained in the Spiritual Severing Realm, one also gained more qi. In fact, if one took into account that the gap between cultivation realms increased as one progressed, than his advantage had actually… increased?
Ailsa peered into Ryu's body. But what she found shocked her to the point of causing a splitting headache.
'How's this possible?!'
Ryu was shaken awake from his daze.
He almost made it a point to not read Ailsa's thoughts, but let her do as she pleased with his. But when it came to visceral reactions, he had no way of blocking his senses from them.
"What is it?"
'… Look for yourself…'
Ryu blinked. He assumed that Ailsa much be referring to his body, so he projected his senses internally. But what he found not only shocked him but… he couldn't make heads or tails of it.
If he had to describe it… It felt as though a lawless universe had invaded his body.
"How can my meridians have the character of another Plane without its connection to my Spiritual Foundation?"
Ryu suddenly understood the odd feeling he had felt. Meridians were meant to gain the characteristics of one's dantian over time. The Spiritual Foundation was the connection to the Heavens while the meridians were the source of the body. It was a symbolic fusion of sorts, but it also allowed meridians to house far more qi than their outward size would deem fit.
But somehow, Ryu's meridians had gained this ability without his Spiritual Foundation. In fact, it seemed more potent than it should be as well.
Technically, Ryu hadn't entered the Lower Divine Vessel Realm fully yet. There were six Qi Vessel. One for entry, four for the Lower, Middle, Higher and Peak stages, and a the final sixth for the Half-Step Connecting Heaven Realm.
This meant only one thing: Ryu's advantage of qi density had actually grown exponentially.
"Ailsa, what is this?"
'It's… a new path.'
These words were simple on the surface, but they made Ryu tremble.
How many countless epochs of existence had already passed? How many cultivators had existed? How many Clans and Sects had risen and fallen? How infinite was the number of Realms that existed?
Something like a 'new path' hadn't been created for countless generations. Doing something that no one had ever done before, that no one had ever thought to do before… It was unheard of!
'It seems that even the records of my Cultus Clan were wrong about your Chaotic Silk Meridians. Actually… it seems that maybe everyone was wrong about them…
'On the surface, your meridians seem to be great enough. Though their function is simple, it's potent. You can hold and sustain far more qi than practically anyone in existence. In addition, your cultivation can be far more violent than others without worrying about injury.
'But it seems that this is only the surface ability of the Chaotic Silk Meridians. The true abilities won't manifest outside of extreme cases… extreme cases where you ignore the Order of the Heavens…
'It seems that your failure wasn't actually a failure at all, but a heavenly blessing.'
Ailsa's gaze shone with a complex light. She should be happy, but she was actually conflicted. She wanted to lead Ryu to the becoming the best he could be, but in the end, it was only because of her failure that he would have this opportunity.
Were the Heavens playing a game with them? The very Ailsa who believed Fate's grasp wasn't so easy to escape was now lamenting that this was in fact true. She couldn't understand it.