Ryu suddenly felt that his pores were being invaded from all sides, but he resolutely pushed it out and away, allowing his body to sink further and further down.
His clothing was ripped to shreds and burnt to ashes, his skin beginning to glow a bright red.
Ryu dove deeper and deeper, feeling that the blood around him was growing denser with each passing moment.
It felt that hours had passed. Cutting through the heaviness was difficult and speeding things up took a lot of effort on his part. If it wasn't for the heat searing his sweat away, Ryu would have been drenched in it, his body becoming heavier and heavier.
And then, it all suddenly vanished.
BANG!
Ryu fell heavily, suddenly crossing a hundred meters of air to land on another marbled ground.
When he looked up, he found a ceiling of viscous blood, of which not a single drop had followed him.
'The Shrine…'
Ryu lowered his gaze, looking ahead to find the very Shrine that should have been the true center of this place. However, what he found upon it left him stunned to the point of being without words.
A soul sat in meditation, shimmering with a dense blackness. It was unlike anything Ryu had ever seen before. A white soul was normal. A golden soul represented the pinnacle. But, what was a black soul, exactly? What was going on here?
But that was hardly the most shocking part. That body, that expression, those lines and features…
Was that… Him?
Ryu's heart skipped a beat. It was difficult to see the face of this person because its entire being was a dense blackness that blended into the surroundings all too well. On top of that, it seemed to swallow all light, not reflecting back anything for Ryu to see. It was a perfect Black Body without a doubt.
This shocked Ryu greatly. A Perfect Black Body was a concept in the cultivation world that many sought after but none could touch upon. Even Ryu, with all his talent, was unable to replicate the feat.
A Perfect Blackbody swallowed everything like a blackhole and released nothing back. It was the representation of perfect efficiency, the kind that couldn't be matched.
A theoretical Perfect Blackbody set of Meridians, for example, could absorb qi without any loss. As much qi as you swallowed was as much as it could take. Likewise, a Perfect Blackbody Bloodline was practically an endless abyss of Vital Qi, with one you could probably eat an endless amount of food and swallow the nutrition from it all.
A Perfect Blackbody soul… Well, it spoke for itself.
If it wasn't for Ryu's special eyes, he would have seen nothing at all. It was only because he could see the flow of qi and an outline of a human absorbing it all that he saw that something was here at all. Anyone else, without his eyes, would find themselves looking at nothing more than empty space.
'Is it really me?'
Ryu slowly walked forward, his hand reaching out. However, the instant he touched against the barrier of the soul, his body jolted and his heart stopped beating entirely.
BANG!
The Perfect Blackbody soul shot into Ryu's brows, sending him flying. Before he could react, his body slammed into a wall of art. And maybe, just maybe by coincidence, his form seemed to slide perfectly into the depiction of a fallen hero.
At that moment, the ceiling of blood surged, slamming against Ryu without giving him a chance to recover. His mind had already gone blank, but now it felt as though he couldn't move a single inch even if he wanted to.
The blood formed countless little drills, piercing into Ryu's skin and down into his bone. If it wasn't for the fact that it had also forced itself into Ryu's mouth, he would have roared out in pain and agony.
The white flame flickered and danced wildy.
Within Ryu's Spiritual Sea, the looming canopy of the Immortal Sakura, Divine Chaotic Annihilation, and the rest of Ryu's Visualizations all seemed to cower. The only one that seemed to remain unmoved was the Silver Star Visualization, but even it seemed to pulse a brighter light, as though it was prepared to protect itself at any moment.
The Perfect Blackbody soul shot forward like a beam of light, ramming into Ryu's Indestructible Soul.
If anyone had been able to witness this, they would have been shocked to an extreme… That was because the supposed Indestructible Soul, an existence a mandate of the Heavens protected… actually cracked and then shattered.
The pieces of Ryu's golden soul scattered before a violent pull of gravity with the Perfect Blackbody soul as the center suddenly caused them to whip back in the direction they came from.
One after another, the pieces stuck to the Perfect Blackbody and sunk into it, vanishing into an endless darkness.
The Perfect Blackbody began to glow with complex golden runes, but soon, even they vanished.
Its head tilted upward, looking toward the construct of <Divine Chaotic Annihilation>.
Flora's Visualization trembled in fear, but it was already too late. A violent pull caused it to shoot forward.
The Perfect Blackbody soul seemed to open its mouth, swallowing it whole. Its stomach bulged for just a moment before it returned to normal.
By the time all of this finished, the white flame had slowly floated up Ryu's golden Spiritual Sea. However… What was a beautiful and gorgeous lake of white-gold was slowly becoming a sea of black. Soon, it was a perfect mirror image of the pool of blood outside, reflecting light and having a depth that was impossible to see through.
The white flame rose up, shrinking again and again until it flickered just before the Perfect Blackbody soul's forehead.
The two seemed to resonate, pulsing in unison.
At that moment, an ice-blue flame flickered to life, followed by a red-gold flame. And then, following a low rumble, a dense black flame formed.
The three flames began to encircle the white flame, forming a delicate balance.
Just like this, all four flames formed a resonance, becoming a crown for the Perfect Blackbody soul.