"Qi~ Qi~!"
Ryu's thoughts were snapped awake by Little Rock's sudden sonorous calls.
Ryu frowned. It seemed Little Rock had sensed several figures appearing. Luckily, these individuals floated quite a distance from Ryu and had only made it here by sheer luck. In addition, without understanding the situation, they didn't dare to move rashly.
'Little Ryu, since this is a portion of Shrine Mountain's inner workings, it's likely connected in ways we couldn't imagine. A single step might very well bring you to the Lowest Mortal Plane, or even the highest Shrine Plane… Maybe the real treasure to be found here is actually access to a region of the Shrine Realm that isn't normally so easily accessed…'
Ryu's gaze sharpened at these words. As a Ruin Master, there were of course numerous places of this caliber he could think of… Holy Cultivation Sites that only opened in cycles of thousands to even tens of thousands of years, dangerous Death Zones that were nearly impossible to transverse by normal means, Ryu was even aware of pockets of space that were normally closed to the outside world and only occasionally wafted fluctuations that confirmed their existence…
These so-called pockets of space were different from Small Realms. Though, they might be more similar to the Mortal Qi Small Realm than one might think.
The current Shrine Realm had six Planes. Three mortal and three Immortal. However, when were real life things ever so clear cut? The Shrine Realm had many incomplete Planes as well that were only occasionally accessible.
Space was a very complex thing in the martial world. True Realms, Small Realms, Planes of Existences, Planes, Pockets of Space, Legacy Worlds… They were all different things with extremely similar roots. However, there were still clear divisions between them.
Ailsa's eyes shone. 'This is likely the main crux of the Mortal Qi Small Realm mystery. If I had to guess… I believe the Mortal Qi Small Realm attached itself to Mortal Qi Mountain realizing after sensing a weakened access point to Shrine Mountain's true form here. It must have already been close to forming a Realm Heart to begin it, or else it would have never been able to make this instinctual decision…
'But, I also believe that this symbiotic relationship became beneficial to Shrine Mountain as well. If it was able to snatch this infant Small Realm's Realm Heart, it could likely strengthen itself for a time, albeit marginally. It might have even tried to make that Small Realm into its own Plane.
'Protector Spirits have their own intelligence. It would definitely want to hide this matter from those individuals who put it in this state to begin with, so instead of using one of its main Planes to siphon this energy, it likely used one of its Pocket Spaces instead! I wouldn't be surprised if this Pocket Space was the closest to becoming this Shrine Realm's next mature Plane.'
'A secretly developing Plane…'
'But what's curious is that Shrine Mountain did nothing as you essentially took away one of its lifelines. Could it be my deduction is wrong…?'
Ryu frowned. He felt he had to follow this to the end. Something was definitely pulling him…
Ryu urged Little Rock forward. In an instant, they were swept up into a vortex. Ryu had no choice but to pull the female elder and Little Rock into the Incubator, allowing himself to spin uncontrollably into the sphere of grey.
In that moment, he felt he lost consciousness. He had no idea how much time had passed, but when he awoke, he found himself in a lush forest not unlike the endless greenery that surrounded Mortal Qi Mountain.
But, Ryu could feel this place was different.
Firstly, the gravity was much weaker, only about half as much as it should be. Secondly, the air seemed thinner, but this wasn't the whole story. It was more accurately that the air was just as dense, but rather than the oxygen content was far lower than it should be. This immediately negated the ease the drop in gravitational strength brought. Thirdly, the qi he was decidedly turbulent. Even with Ryu's talent, he found it difficult to manipulate, and even more difficult to absorb.
'This place… from my understanding, its makeup is no different from the early Ancient Beast Era…!'
Ryu's frown deepened. Of the nine Eras, the Ancient Beast Era was only third. A denomination of trillions of years likely didn't do how far back such a time was justice.
It was then Ryu understood. This place must be one of the Shrine Realm's incomplete Planes. Its place along the timeline of Evolution was far less advanced than their current Planes!
...
Ryu slowly rose, checking his body. Seeing that he wasn't hurt, he nodded to himself. It seemed that his gamble paid off. Since Ailsa was also fine having entered the Incubator, he had no worries.
This was quite a curious place. It was as though he was looking into a window that sent his gaze back trillions of years.
The soil beneath his feet was exceptionally lush and soft. The plant-life, thanks to the decreased gravity, grew far taller though they seemed a bit frail at the same time. In addition, they had odd properties that made Ryu's inner Herbologist light up with curiosity. He had actually never seen such Spiritual Herbs before though he could guess their functions by sight and smell. Many of them had characteristics of Spiritual Herbs Ryu was already familiar with but were seemingly either deficient or more potent in various aspects.
The next thing Ryu noticed was that this place wasn't terribly large. His Spiritual Sense stretched about twenty kilometers, but his [Third Perspective] was consistently at least double that.
Though he didn't notice it with his Spiritual Sense, his [Third Perspective] could vaguely see the edge of this pocket dimension already.
Taking into account the possibility that Ryu had just happened to enter toward the edge of this world to begin with, Ryu believed that this pocket space was at most two hundred kilometers across, three hundred would likely to maximum upper limit.
Even to a normal Divine Vessel Realm expert, such a range was nearly negligible, let alone to someone with Ryu's level of speed. Exploring every nook and cranny of the world would at most take a very hours if he was absolutely diligent.
'There's no point in just standing here…'
Ryu thought to himself as he shot forward.