[Bonus chapter for 250 golden tickets]
'This… This techniques potential alone is far beyond my [Immortal Sakura]…'
Eska's pride was greatly shaken. For Mental Realm Master's like them, or rather, for geniuses, that is, they began building their own techniques at a very early age. After millions of years of accumulation, a technique on the level of [Immortal Sakura] would be born.
However, it was inevitable that lingering mistakes in their youth or maybe even a lack of ambition would impede the majesty of the final product.
For Eska to be able to become a Sky God with her self-created technique, it was clear and obvious that she was among the very best. Though her technique wasn't the one with the most potential of the four of them, a title that fell to the youngest, Flora, it was the most versatile. So, for her to say such a thing about Ryu technique… It spoke volumes.
"This is an amazing technique, Little Ryu." Ailsa's eyes seemed to smile along with her lips.
"Is it?" Ryu found that his technique was still lacking in comparison to those suitable for those of the Soul Birth Realm to use, so he wasn't very impressed with himself. That said, Ryu was a man who hardly reacted even when he found the long-lost Death Shrine. He wasn't one to get swamped in his own success.
"The way you combined these four techniques is nothing sort of ingenious." Ailsa said seriously. Knowing the type of person her Life Partner was, she wasn't afraid of him getting full of himself and following a path to ruin. "The number of individuals who can even think of such a thing are a staggeringly small percentage. But the number that can execute it are even smaller."
Ryu nodded faintly, his lips barely curling. "I am quite fond of the technique."
Though he wasn't impressed with himself, he was still happy with his creation because its uses were perfect for him.
"Please… Please explain it to me."
Hearing this voice, Ryu's brows raised. His head turned back to land on Eska's gorgeous figure. Though this woman was his enemy, Ryu still had to admit that she was one of the two most beautiful women he had ever laid eyes on. Though Ailsa to him was a step ahead now that he could gaze upon her true form, Eska was still number two.
Still, this aside, for a Sky God to put aside her pride to ask such a thing, it left Ryu intrigued.
Ryu didn't believe that Eska was completely in the dark. With her cultivation realm, it was impossible that she hadn't figured out the majority of Ryu's process already. But for her to act anyway… There was a deeper level of fanaticism to this.
"What will you give me in return?" Ryu asked without much emotion.
"I see that you cultivate {Phoenix Heavenly Body]. But, only two of its four parts are within our Zu Clan's Inheritance. It's impossible to confirm since so many Eras have passed and another person may have laid hands on it already, but I can give you clues to where you might find the latter two halves."
Ryu didn't have much of a reaction to this. Eska had been dead for many Eras. Even if she had coordinates to a place, calculating its new location after so long would be troublesome.
In addition, Ryu's grandmothers' Clans had the two latter portions. Ryu was reborn with his Clan Emblems of all four of his Ancestor Clans, so if he snuck into the Shrine Plane, he could enter their Holy Lands. By then, finding this technique would be far easier than anything Eska was suggesting.
Still, Ryu hadn't asked because he actually expected anything out of her. He just wanted to see what level of sincerity she had. Since she didn't turn her nose up at his question, he didn't mind answering.
"[Ethereal Ripple] is the foundation I chose for this technique, it's fundamentally a defensive technique.
"I added in [Sonorous Roar] to counter the greater weakness it had. [Sonorous Roar] is ultimately a technique that uses changing sound frequencies to disorient an enemy. I stripped it of most of its abilities and left Runes that controlled frequencies. This allowed [Ethereal Ripple] to gain a variability that makes it difficult to collapse in a small amount of time.
"By constantly changing the frequency at which it resides, it not only makes it more difficult to destroy, even sensing its position in the first place becomes a tall mountain.
"[Earthen Vein] is a sensory type technique, but its ability lies in using resonance to feed one's Mental Realm images far beyond was one's Spiritual Sense can reach, almost like sonar, except with Spiritual Qi. I implemented this technique to give [Ethereal Ripple] yet another layer of stability."
Hearing this, Eska and even the other three Ancestors were greatly intrigued. Using a sensory technique for stability?... How?
"With [Earthen Vein], one inputs Spiritual Qi into the ground and receives feedback that can be mapped into an image. However, I reversed this process. In my [Warped Ripple], the former [Ethereal Ripple] can now take attacks and disperse the force via resonance using the same principle.
"When working in tandem with [Sonorous Roar], each of the invisible tendrils of my [Warped Ripple] can vibrate at a different frequency, dispersing even a myriad of attacks at once."
Eska's eyes widened. She truly would have never thought in such a fashion. This truly would vastly improve [Ethereal Ripple]'s… Or rather, [Warped Ripple]'s stability.
"Finally, there's [Warp]. You already know that [Warp] has the ability to shrink the earth. I've simply taken this ability, there was no need to change anything.
"When attacks meet my [Warped Ripple], it's akin to striking at a fish while standing above a lake's surface. The image will be distorted and pin pointing a location or landing an accurate attack is near impossible.
"Not only will it be difficult, but any attacks launched, whether accurate or not, will drastically slow once they meet the barrier of my [Warped Ripple]. It will seem like this attack has suddenly hit a dense sludge, but the reality will be that it's attempting to travel a long distance that appears to be a short distance to the untrained eye.
"This will both weaken an attack before it hits the true defenses of my [Warped Ripple], and give me a greater amount of time to react to any attack.
"Of course, with this, there are glaring weaknesses as well. For example, the reason [Warp] is considered a low level teleportation technique is because it's limited in what it can move. The more powerful an object, the less impeded it is by distorted space. [Warp]'s limit is the Mortal Grade.
"In addition, the resonance and frequency Runes of [Sonorous Roar] and [Earthen Vein] are too low level. So, they can be easily overwhelmed as well.
"Simply put, this defense is next to useless against those of the Immortal Ring Realm and above. But it has decent potential."
Eska sucked in a cold breath. Ryu listed out many "problems", but the reality was that these were easy to fix. There were higher level techniques in this very library that carried the higher order Runes Ryu would need to improve his [Warped Ripple].
Of course, Ryu knew this as well. The reason he hadn't was because he created [Warped Ripple] specifically because using [Immortal Sakura] all the time was too taxing. If he improved [Warped Ripple] too much, the situation was practically be the same. Wouldn't that make him a fool?
Currently, [Immortal Sakura] at full strength could block the attacks of a Lower Immortal Ring expert. As for [Warped Ripple], it could block the attack of a Peak Connecting Heaven Realm expert, and if Ryu really pushed it to its limits, maybe a Half-Step Immortal Ring expert.
However, the benefit was that [Warped Ripple] used less than a tenth of the Spiritual Qi [Immortal Sakura] did. In addition, [Warped Ripple] was much less likely to rupture and thus cause backlash to his Mental Realm. Ryu found the last few days to be worth it.
Without much fanfare, Ryu suspended the Runes of his [Warped Ripple] beside his [Vector Eagle], allowing them to hang from his [Immortal Sakura] as though they were Dao Fruits. He was determined to organize his Mental Realm far more systematically than Youkai had.
He didn't even take a pause before he placed the numerous Mental Realm technique jades to the side and focused on the Qi and Body Realm techniques once more.
He had a solid goal in mind. First, he needed a true spear, glaive and halberd technique. He was losing too much having to convert techniques from other weapons over. Secondly, he needed an improved movement technique. [Gliding Cloud Steps] was very compatible with him, but it was beginning to be a limitation instead of an asset.? He now had 999 meridian nodes, but it only used 333.
Though [White Serpent's Dance] was a spear technique, Ryu could only use [Lurking Shadow] currently. One had to remember that this legacy technique wasn't a mere Earth Grade technique. Unfortunately, as a Divine Vessel Realm technique, Ryu could only use Earth Grade techniques.
Once Ryu finished choosing, he would return to the fourth floor until he mastered them all to the Great Circle of Perfection. After completing this, he would turn his attention to Necromancy once more. If he wanted any chance at earning a Summoning Necromancer's Inheritance, he couldn't continue to be so inept. He would have to first refine the corpses of Youkai and Ancestor Basteel, but that wouldn't be too much of a problem.
Then he would temper himself for a year. There was no better training environment than the Inner Ring forest all around him, teeming with Sixth and Seventh Order Beasts.
When the time came, he would turn his gaze toward the Core Region. Another test lay in wait.