Ryu had been completely caught off guard earlier and his eyes were also sealed. His ability to read and react to the situation was severely limited, so how could he possibly ready himself for something he didn't even know would come?
Ryu had never heard a concept of limited Daos before, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. There were only so many powerful titles to claim, only so many paths to follow, and only so much energy to claim.
In Sacrum, the world could be considered quite large, but just how much of it was nothing more than empty space? There were vast swaths of blackness, and large gaps between stars, plants and worlds, and even some of the most powerful organizations had territories Ryu could easily cross in a few hours.
But then compare that to the True Martial World.
In this place, the region was nothing but land, filled to the brim with Clans, Sects and nature. There wasn't a hint of empty space anywhere. Just a single Prefecture probably had a larger population than the entirety of Sacrum.
To make matters worse, none of this even mentioned the fact that there were countless smaller worlds, all with aspirations of stepping foot onto this place and making a name for themselves. The competition was fierce and constant to the point that someone like Ryu wasn't even an oddity here, there were several individuals who could easily guess that he had come from another world.
Yet, despite the small scale of Sacrum, wasn't it still the case that Sky Gods ran out of energy to cultivate their Godhoods? A large reason it took so much time was precisely because of just how scarce energy was, there wasn't enough to go around.
But, that didn't even consider the fact that the Sky Gods of Sacrum were at best as strong as the Path Extinction Realm experts of the True Martial World. The energy the Sky Gods of this world needed was on an entirely different level!
This was all to say that the True Martial World was constantly being squeezed dry by its cultivators. As a world, it too had to protect itself. Without balance and limitations, how could it continue to exist? If there were no barriers, then wouldn't this world die out after a few more generations?
Ryu being struck down like this was just an introduction to the various limits the True Martial World had placed on others. The Seventh Heaven just happened to be the arbiter of Hegemonic Daos. Meanwhile, the Eighth Heaven oversaw Ancient Daos. And, finally, the Ninth Heaven oversaw Founding Daos.
However, Ryu also had a benefit others did not have.
As the old-young man grinned, he too seemed to understand something.
If Ryu cowered and chose to wait to break through, he would only be harming himself. The reality was that it wasn't just the Seventh Heaven that could react like this.
The First Heaven oversaw Common Daos, the Second Heaven, True Daos, the Third Heaven, Lineal Daos, the Fourth, Dynastic Daos, the Fifth, Sovereign Daos, the Sixth, Dominion Daos… So on and so forth.
However, because Ryu had formed his Dominion Dao in Sacrum, he hadn't received such punishment as it had occurred under the jurisdiction of Sacrum. When the old-young man had said that forming other Daos was simple… He had purposely lied to Ryu.
As for why he would do such a thing? He wanted to give Ryu the illusion of simplicity, to goad Ryu into thinking that this was just a simple step to take.
What the old-young man hadn't realized was that Ryu simply didn't care. Whether it was a single step or ten, it was all the same to him. He had formed his Dao but others wanted to take it away from him? Did he really seem like a person who was easy to take advantage of? Did he look like someone who took things lying down? Did this so-called Seventh Heaven believe him to be an easy target to bully?
The old-young man had done this because he knew that this was Ryu's best chance. Forming a powerful Dao in a lower Heaven had its benefits. Because the tribulation had to travel through so many Heavens to reach this place, it was severely weakened. However, this was just one reason.
One might wonder why others wouldn't just travel to lower Heavens to break through, then? Wouldn't that make things easier?
However, the reason this wouldn't work was connected to the second reason, and that was the residual markers of a higher Heaven.
Why was it that Ryu's Bloodlines were so weak currently? It was because they had only been nurtured by Sacrum, a world severely lacking in fundamental runes and high level energies.
If he traveled to higher Heavens, just by virtue of his appearance in such a world, he would begin to slowly strengthen. Even now, being in the First Heaven, such a thing was happening, albeit very slowly.
When someone was attached to such markers, it was easier for the Will of a Heaven to lock onto you. While it was the Seventh Heaven that initially launched the attack against Ryu, it was the First Heaven that facilitated the attack.
If thing didn't work this way, then wouldn't a hole be torn from the Seventh down to the First Heaven? Such a thing wouldn't just punish Ryu, it would punch everyone. At worst, the skies of the Seventh and below Heavens would just turn dark for a moment.
If someone from the Second Heaven descended down to the First Heaven to endure a tribulation of forming a Hegemonic Dao, the lightning would pass down through the Sixth to Third Heavens, when it reached the second, it would help lock on and re-amplify the judgment. Then, when it got to the First Heaven, where you were, it would amplify again.
The sum would make the tribulation far more powerful than it would have been if you had just stayed in the Second Heaven!