Ailsa would probably call Ryu crazy if she was able to communicate with him. But, she would also know that there was no changing Ryu's mind when he had made it up.
Joining a One Star Sect wasn't easy, let alone a True One Star Sect. It only made it worse that Ryu was trying to enter a Sect headed by a person he had just gone through so much trouble to avoid.
In truth, Ryu had likely made this decision because he was already tired of taking the approach that caused the least number of waves. He had already done that, and in return, it netted him a day in the depths of the forest where he was harassed by beasts he wouldn't have even deemed worthy of eating in the past.
Ryu didn't want to lose his sharpness and he felt like this world was already starting to dull his blade.
If he allowed his edge to vanish, then what was the point of coming to this world in the first place?
…
The journey to the Western Region took a month. Unfortunately, travel wasn't as fast as it had been on Astral Ships. So, though the distance was a mere fraction, it still took a third the time it took to travel from the moon system to the True Martial World.
In that time, Ryu finally broke through again, pushing <Whispering Petals> to the Small Success Realm.
Ryu had already learned that he was around the appropriate age to join a Sect.
In the True Martial World, one would usually join an unranked Sect at the Mortal Realms. Then, upon entering the Immortal Realms, before your path was fully carved out, you would join a One Star Sect if you had the necessary talent.
Usually, this happened when you were around your late teens. Reaching the Immortal Ring Realm when you were around 15 or 16 wasn't rare in the Immortal Ring Realm and could be considered a barely above average standard.
Cultivation was fast and the divisions between lower levels were hardly paid attention to. The main goal of most was to reach the Dao Pedestal Realm by 30 years of age, the World Sea Realm by 50, and the Sky God Realm by 100.
If you met those standards, then you had a good chance of carving a path for yourself into the Second Heaven. If not, you'd just have to obediently cultivate your life away in the First Heaven.
Right now, Ryu was 23 years old, his ageing process having been halted during his Rebirth. However, this was actually a bit old, he was running about two or three years behind schedule for an absolute genius since he was in the Peak Immortal Ring Realm.
Of course, Ryu wasn't very worried about this. If he started worrying about the standards of the First Heaven, he would even have time to faint at what the standards of the Ninth Heaven must be.
When Ryu first heard of these ages, though, he was a bit stunned. Reason being, they were only a fraction of the time spent alive. Could it be that these geniuses reached the Sky God Realm at 100 years old, then spent the remaining trillions of years of their lives striving through the Sky God Realms?
The simple answer was yes. The more complex answer was not quite.
Life spans in the True Martial World were very different.
When you reached the Sky God Realm in Sacrum, your lifespan wasn't dictated by a normal measure of time, but rather how long your Dao could persist before collapsing.
The longer you lived, the more doubts you would experience, and the closer you would come to an eventual death. The World Sea Realm was the last Realm with a theoretical cap in life span.
In the True Martial World, there were so many more things to force you to doubt your own path that lifespan in the True Martial World, at least in the first three Heavens, was even shorter than it would be on Sacrum!
These matters got very complex, very quickly. But from what Ryu had come to understand, this was just a Fate those born here had to accept.
On the one hand, they were born with perfect and complete Heavens, allowing their strength to be far beyond what anyone would expect on a lower level world.
But, on the other hand, they were cursed in their own way, their vitality being sucked away much faster.
Cultivation was ultimately about stealing from the Heavens, whether that was power or time.
Unfortunately, the Heavens of the True Martial World were so powerful that stealing from them was just that much more difficult.
…
When Ryu reached the Western Region, it took him about another half month to reach the territory of the Radiant Star Sect, upon which he learned that the Sect held entrance exams once every year, the next one being in exactly a week.
Ryu nodded, he got lucky with the timing. If he had to try when he was 24, things would become more troublesome.
It would be one thing if he could cultivate, but even without access to his <Intuition>, he wouldn't easily choose a new cultivation technique.
Such an approach would likely cause him some issues in the Radiant Star Sect, but he didn't care so long as he joined. If others wanted to test his patience, he would have a blade for them.
A week later, Ryu entered the range of the Radiant Star Sect only to find that the region was packed. He was probably the only person that had come alone.
Air ships of all shapes and sizes hung in the air, each with their own logos.
Of course, these airships respectfully stayed outside of the Radiant Star Sect's air space, showing due deference.
On the ground, there were a flood of disciples, a number that was easily into the tens of thousands.
They all stood at the foot of a mountain, waiting for the Sect's formation to weaken.
And then, seemingly empty space flickered before a dome of blue slowly broke apart.
Standing on a platform in the skies, three figures wearing disciple robes appeared.