Ryu's shot up. Even through blindness, the light in his eyes blazed with life and fury. However, when his Spiritual Sense branched outward and he realized where he was, he froze.
In the next instant, the wave of pain slammed him, threatening to send him falling to his knees. But, who was Ryu? Wasn't he a man who had dealt with the backlash of the Phoenix Sky God all those years ago? Not only did he endure it, but he even used it to strengthen his body and then made use of it to kill a False Sky God without even having stepped foot into the Path Extinction Realm.
Pain wasn't something that he was afraid of, nor did he cower in the face of it.
Ryu raised a hand to his chest. A hole had been blown through it, but this wasn't the first time such a thing had happened. So long as his Realm Heart was intact, he would be just fine with some time. The trouble was more so the lightning that had charred his body through.
Ryu had never felt such powerful lightning before. It felt like it had encompassed the world, but Ryu knew the truth. It was nothing more than a fraction of a finger width and yet it threatened to rip his life from him.
After a few moments, Ryu understood why he managed to survive. The Lightning he had begun cultivating thanks to his grandfather, a lightning he named Kunan Lightning in respect for his maternal Clan, had absorbed the more dangerous strands. By now, it was easily hundreds of times more powerful than it had been in the past, carrying with it a danger that made Ryu's brows furrow.
However, without Ryu consciously awake to refine it, there was only so much his Kunan Lightning could do. If its core wasn't formed of the greatest talent of an Ancient Beast, it wouldn't have been in a position to absorb Tribulation Lightning of this level at all.
It could be said that Ryu was very lucky in this regard. If his grandfather hadn't left such a kernel to him, there was no way he would have survived.
What a funny joke this was. He had a Lightning Spirit Body yet it was lightning that had put him in such a situation. Unfortunately, Ryu didn't find this very funny at all. What the hell happened?
Suddenly, he heard a chuckle, causing his head to snap in that direction. He realized he couldn't see, so he could only send his Spiritual Sense forward without worry about offending a person, and yet he ended up clutching at nothing, his Spiritual Sense crashing against a wall without finding anyone.
Despite this, Ryu took an enormous leap backward, his pupils constricting.
Spiritual Sense wasn't like his <Third Perspective> that could see through anything and anyone regardless of gap in cultivation. Spiritual Sense was tied to the strength of his soul and also the strength of its target.
If someone far more powerful than Ryu didn't want to be seen by his Spiritual Sense then they wouldn't be seen, it was just that simple. Not only would Ryu not be able to see them, but he wouldn't even be able to sense their cultivation either. All he would know is that the gap between them was enormous.
Right this moment, Ryu was in an Immortal Cave of sorts. To someone else, it might have looked like a normal shabby cave with grey walls and dull lights, but Ryu was far more sensitive as a Ruin Master.
The walls were too clean, the cuts too smooth, and the qi too thick. There were a whole host of oddities that shouldn't appear in a normal cave that was all too obvious here.
In addition, the altitude was way too high. Ryu didn't know a lot about this world, but he had already fallen from 10 kilometers up once before. It was enough to know that the oxygen in this place was even scarcer than it had been there.
That much was fine since the density of qi more than offset it. But, it was something he noted nonetheless.
This meant that one, Ryu was no longer in the same place he had been when he was struck, two, he was brought here by this person he could hear but not see, and three, this person was obscenely powerful to the current Ryu.
There was no doubt in Ryu's mind that this individual could kill him with a finger and on a whim. To make matters worse, the fact that he had survived such a strike to begin with had likely made a few of his secrets more obvious. If this person wanted to extract his talent, there was very little he could do.
However, that didn't change the coldness in Ryu's gaze one bit. He stared forward at the location he had heard the voice, his ears primed for the slightest shift and sound.
At the same time, he cut off all his other senses and focused on the wind and the wind alone, building up a domain around him with it. It didn't matter if this expert could hide from his Spiritual Sense, could he also hide from the wind? In fact, an absence of wind movement would be just as great an indicator of location as a blockage of wind would be.
With his Northern Heavenly Wind, his sensitivity to such things was beyond what most could hope to match.
"So on guard, how amusing. You would think that someone who dared to challenge the Seventh Heaven as a mere little pup would be braver than this."
The voice sounded like an odd mix of all and young. No, it was more like they sounded quite young, but their tone, cadence and choice of words were quite old. There were only two real options. Either this was a cultivator who had lived for a long time but still managed to maintain their youth, or it was an old cultivator trying too hard to hard to remain young.
It was unlikely to be the latter, though, since anyone like that would be more focused on making their tone sound as modern as possible, and this person clearly didn't care about that at all.
Ryu, though, was focused on something entirely different.
"Challenge the Seventh Heaven?" Ryu frowned.
He was in the First Heaven right now, no? He hadn't even stepped foot in the Second Heaven, when would he have time to offend the Seventh Heaven? Even he hadn't set his gaze up so high just yet.
"Ah, you probably don't understand, huh? I can tell by your Talent Shackles that you aren't from this world, not bad, not bad. A talent from a smaller world forming a Hegemonic Dao. Those big Clan geniuses would be rolling in their graves if they heard of this. Well, maybe that's inappropriate to say considering how young they are, hohoho."
Ryu's expression turned colder when he heard this person mention Talent Shackles. If there was any doubt before, it was all too obvious now.
"Don't blame me," the voice laughed, "blame yourself. Who so casually comprehends their Dao out in the open? Normal people go into seclusion, prepare a stick of incense, and at least make sure that their yang is not spiraling wildly out of control like yours is."
The voice seemed to laugh harder now as though his jokes were the funniest things in the world. He didn't seem to care at all that Ryu wasn't amused.
Ryu's expression darkened, but he knew that the voice was correct. He had gotten used to casually comprehending his Dao in normal day to day life, it was easy to him.
This Sect selection was far too boring to him, so how could he not use other things to occupy his mind? He just didn't expect to be struck down by lightning for his efforts.
Still, the truth of that matter was that if he was in seclusion, he would have been done in just the same. There was no way his Immortal Caves could have stopped that strike. And, judging by the words of the voice, nothing could have stopped it.
In that case, these were just useless, meaningless words.
"What do you mean by offending the Seventh Heaven?" Ryu finally asked.
"Ah, so you speak. I thought you were blind and a mute for a moment. Since you don't understand, this old man will tell you.
"It's a relatively simple matter to improve your Dao through the Common, True, Lineage, Dynastic, Sovereign and even Dominion stages. Most will never achieve such levels, but it isn't impossible for them to do so. At the very least, there are no obvious barriers.
"However, forming a Hegemonic Dao is a different matter entirely. Even in Hegemonic Clans, they will only also three to appear per generation, these generations being counted in time spans most lower Heavens cannot fathom.
"The Heavens will only tolerate a certain number at any given time and the formation of one necessitates the collapse of another.
"I'm sorry to say, but this mistake will likely be one of your last. With your Dao shattered by the tribulation of a Heaven, your lifespan is likely only a fraction of what it once was and even if by some miracle you could reform your Dao, you'll just get struck down again.
"You've been a bit too rash, young one. Even those Dominion Clans with aspirations of becoming Hegemonic Clans would first plan for trillions of years before they made the attempt you just did."
Ryu looked down at his body as a form of habit.
"My Dao, shattered?" Ryu mumbled. "So what? In fact, I just so happen to need a stronger comprehension of Heaven, I'd like to see who'll stop me."
Ryu didn't trust this person one bit. What was the best way to deal with this situation, then? Make it so that no one dared to approach him.
Reform!
Though Ryu couldn't see it, the expression of the old-young man who had spoken to him glowed, a wild grin spreading across his face as the skies suddenly went dark once more.