Ryu's gaze flickered. This changed a lot of things.
If he could enter the Crystalline Jade while it was within his Inner World, it would be able to save his life at a crucial moment.
The Inner World of a Heavenly Pupil wielder was cut off from normal space. It would take an absolute expert with a top tier Spatial Inheritance or someone above the True Sky God level to pinpoint its location without the protection of Ryu's body.
If Ryu performed this, it would be like he vanished into thin air. The residual traces would be something, again, only someone like Yaana or someone above the True Sky God Realm could trace. It was definitely a nice card to have so long as Ryu had a small buffer of time to execute it.
But still, he had Ailsa and Yaana by his side. He couldn't just up and leave. Also, he was in the business of pushing himself to his limits so that he could become as strong as possible as quickly as possible. The life saving measures his grandparents had left behind for him were already too much and could potentially stunt his growth, this might make it even worse.
Ryu shook his head and decided to focus on the good of this.
If his body could personally enter now, the third and fourth floors of the Crystalline Jade were no longer as useless as they had become.
It had to be remembered that the third floor was the Natural Order floor. It helped along Ryu's comprehension of Inheritances, speeding up and allowing him to progress faster. The fourth floor was the Battle Spirit floor. Exactly as it sounded, it was a place for Ryu to hone his battle prowess and fight against strong and worthy opponents. At the end of each level, he would have to face and overcome himself.
The issue with these floors, though, was that Ryu could only visit them in spirit. In addition, it was only a projection of Ryu's mind and couldn't even be considered to be his real soul entering, making the feeling even more distant.
Due to this, the third floor became too inefficient for Ryu. His pupils had grown strong enough in the outside world that the trade off of entering this place wasn't worth it. He could improve faster by feeling the changes to his Heavenly Winds and his Bloodlines.
As for the fourth floor, because Ryu's true body couldn't enter, it was difficult to translate the muscle memory he gained here to his real body. As his battle prowess became more exaggerated, it also became more and more difficult for the floor's projection to get an accurate read on him. Even the Mercenary Guild was forced to put down his battle prowess as 'Incalculable'.
As a result, Ryu ended up in a situation where the battles he would have to fight to gain any stimulation on the fourth floor were far too high, thus making it even more difficult for him to translate the skill and experience he gained to his real body, and ultimately making it a venture that wasn't worth his while.
But now, everything was different. With his real body here, it would be more than worth it. The only question was whether he would experience a true death or not when he entered the fourth floor this time… He really wanted to see what absolute geniuses of the Cosmic Seed Realm fought like…
Ryu took a deep breath and shook his head. He was getting ahead of himself.
As good as the fourth floor was for simulating real battle situations and forcing himself to improve, it was ultimately still a simulation. It was nowhere near as good as real life combat with all its variables and variations.
With a war between humans and beasts raging right this moment, wouldn't he be too stupid to hole himself up like this? As for the third floor, it could wait as well. Ryu had a feeling he would need it when he finally stepped into the Path Extinction Realm. There were troublesome waters ahead.
'Instead, let's get used to this ability. If another Sky God is going to come and try and claim my body for themselves, I might as well take advantage of their strength while I have it.'
Ryu shook his head. He couldn't deny that he had definitely gotten himself into this situation this time. He had no one else to blame. However, he would still make the most of it. Whatever roadblocks were put before him, he would bulldoze through.
Ryu began to focus on the Visualization that had now appeared within his mind. His current Spiritual Sea was a gorgeous sight to behold, something that even he who didn't care for such things had to admit.
His Spiritual Sea had turned into clear golden waters that seemed to expand endlessly in every direction. Right in the center of it, there was a crystalline tree with violet blossoms. Its trunk was short but extraordinarily thick, giving it the foundation it needed to carry the enormous canopy of branching branches and fluttering petals.
Above this scene now hung a silver star, reflecting the hues of gold from the Spiritual Sea below it and giving a unique blend of dynamic colors in return. Around it, a ball as dense and black as black could possibly get rotated, falling into a silent and peaceful orbit.
About the Immortal Sakura, motes of white light hovered aimlessly. They had multiplied several times over compared to the past and there were easily hundreds of them without end.
In the skies of Ryu's Mental Realm, rumbling violet clouds arched with lightning from time to time, sparks of flames dancing about as well…
Everything about this space felt otherworldly and gorgeous, not to mention peaceful and completely in harmony with a small golden soul that sat atop the Immortal Sakura. If Ryu didn't know better, he would think that this was the depiction of a land of Buddhism.
When Ryu felt for the silver star, he could already feel the space around him bending and warping. Just with a thought, it folded and multiplied, with another it dispersed and widened, with yet another it flipped on its head and disoriented direction.
Of course, this sort of flexibility was only something that Ryu could manage within his Mental Realm, just the same way the blackhole of his <Divine Chaotic Annihilation> could have so much more freedom in this place as well.
But, that didn't matter. What Ryu wanted was to get used to the limits of this Visualization and understand exactly what it could do. After a few moments, the best way he could describe it was like a Domain of Space, not much unlike Lu'card's Bloodline Talent. In fact, that was probably the most perfect and apt comparison.
However, there was a difference here, though. The foundation of this Visualization was designed to go beyond normal parameters.
From what Ryu understood about Space, it was a fundamental law that built the foundation of the world. Without Space's anchoring, even concepts like Time seemed to cease making sense. Everything else was a matter of relativity, and what gave that relativity meaning was Space. From Space, everything else could be given life.
Ryu could tell that this was the concept this Visualization was rooted in. At its highest levels, the deconstruction of space would reach such a profound level that almost anything could be distorted… even if that meant taking something tangible and real, only to convert it into something intangible and ethereal without it losing any of its properties.
'Is this what the highest levels of Sky God have in store? Just what kind of monster could make such a Visualization…?'
For now, to keep this Visualization to within parameters that Ryu's own stamina could sustain, the best that Ryu could do was use it as an extremely flexible movement technique. However, this alone, with Ryu's calculative abilities, made this ability monstrous.
Ryu felt that he no longer had to waste his time learning other movement techniques because his Visualization alone was that lethal. Within the Domain he created, he would be able to move about to any location almost instantly. It wasn't just himself who could do it, but just with a bit more effort, he could give his attacks and offense the same ability.
In addition to this, Ryu could move the location of the Domain with ease. After all, it was only a matter of moving his Visualization along with him. In that case, this Silver Star Visualization could even be used to increase his straight line speed outside of combat as well.
This discovery made Ryu even more grateful that he hadn't chosen the Northern Heavenly Wind that day. Though this Domain and the Northern Heavenly Wind would be a lethal combination when used in unison, it wasn't a 'need', it was more like a luxury.
"… I need to ask Master about who this person was… If the Zu had such a person, how did they fall to this state…?"
Ryu took a deep breath, beginning to walk up to the second floor.