Ryu was baffled.
His previous two uses of <Intuition> had been so useful to him that he would have been lying if he said he wasn't looking forward to the third. He had been prepared to wait millions, billions, even trillions of years for it to trigger. After all, there were many of the previous owners of these Pupils that might not experience a single call to <Intuition> in their lifetimes. Ryu was definitely the first to have not only used all three, but to have actually experienced a fourth in a previous lifetime!
Even though Ryu knew that he was luckier than others in this regard, wasn't this shift a bit much? It didn't lead him to a treasure or a massive boost in cultivation, it just told him… to not cultivate? If he didn't know better, he would be asking for a refund. As for who he would get it from, he didn't know. But he had already fought against Heaven's Incarnation once, he could do it again to find out who was responsible for this sick joke.
Ryu shook his head. Despite his thoughts, and despite the recent developments, the one thing that was true was that he did still trust his eyes. If they deemed it fit to use <Intuition> in this aspect, then he trusted them. It was very likely that in due time, he would come to understand why.
If he was stuck at the Path Extinction Realm for the foreseeable future, though, he would need to make himself stronger in other ways, namely his body and his soul. In addition, just because <Intuition> had given him this information, didn't mean that he should stop looking for the reason why.
Ryu could think of a great many possibilities.
The first could be that this was related to his Meridians again. Maybe there was a step he was missing to properly use it. This was maybe the greatest possibility.
The second possibility that Ryu could think of was an issue with his cultivation technique. It had to be remembered that Ryu had chosen to stack three cultivation techniques atop of one another to be used in unison. The original goal of this was to maximize the greatest strength of his Meridians and ensure that he stuffed as much qi into himself as possible.
But, now that Ryu thought about it, was that still the greatest strength of his Meridians? It was clear that the Chaotic Silk Meridians were beyond just what they seemed on the surface and they were far more than just a robust set of Meridians like everyone else seemed to believe.
It was very possible, then, that Ryu had chosen poorly all that time ago. Maybe he was using an inappropriate cultivation method and he should switch to another one?
It wasn't impossible to do this. After all, Ryu cultivated neutral qi. In addition, he had already deviated from the traditional path those techniques laid out for him by forming 13 Immortal Rings instead of just nine like most peak geniuses did.
Beyond this, the further along your road of cultivation you went, the more important your cultivation method became. But, Ryu had always thought that while your cultivation method became more important, your actual cultivation technique itself became less and less so.
These might sound like the same thing, but they were functionally different. A method was like the deviating path Ryu had taken to form 13 Immortal Rings. The technique, though, was the route Ryu had taken to facilitate his growth, the one he chose at the very start of his cultivation journey.
As you transcended Realms, cultivation would become more individual as it began to rely more and more on Comprehension. Often, by the time one reached the Sky God Realm, the original technique would become so unrecognizable that it would be like the cultivator had self created a new one all to their own. If Ryu thought of things this way, could it be that his <Intuition> wanted him to consider a new approach to cultivation?
There were simply far too many variables. Even after rifling through all the cultivation techniques he had on hand, of which there were hundreds to thousands of high quality ones, Ryu didn't find a single one that called out to him.
The bad news, then, was that it seemed that this would take a very long time to figure out. The good news, though, was that because <Intuition> had activated in this way, it was still subtly active and could guide him from time to time. Until the moment that it turned off and Ryu could cultivate again, he would have slightly sharper senses when it came to matters related to this topic. That would be greatly helpful.
Ryu took a deep breath and eventually smiled.
There was more good news as well. What had led him down this rabbit hole was a breakthrough that was very much worth celebrating.
In that moment, Ryu had understood just how broad the applications of his Dao could be. Terraforming what the Heavens had formulated into your own image… What was that if not the perfect application of Dividing Heaven?
To both understand and use the Heavens at once, it was perfectly applicable to Herbology… But, it wasn't just that either. What was Formation Mastery if not comprehending the Heavens and drawing upon its power to form powerful domains of influence? What was Blacksmithing if not understanding the materials of the Heavens and using them to form powerful treasures? What was Alchemy if not the exact same thing?!
If Ryu applied himself in this way, applied his Dao to all that it could be used to supplement, just what kind of monster would he become?
Relying on others really wasn't Ryu's style. And, since he couldn't cultivate normally anymore anyway, why not?
Ryu's hand reached forward, a strong palm landing on Bru'li's gemstone. With a strong pull, it was ripped out of the latter's corpse, revealing an enormous stone more than double Ryu's height and easily more than five times his depth.
Ryu lifted it up with a palm, his free hand flipping over to reveal a normal Black Grade metal. He suddenly became very focused on it, his intentions unknown.