Enlightened Alchemy. The name intrigued Ryu, especially since, as the language buff he was, he could see several meanings for it, each seemingly more profound than the last. This path seemed absolutely perfect for his Dao.
With how many talents Ryu had, it was often him, or rather, mostly Ailsa, trying to find a method to streamline and simplify his path. He was talented in too many areas and go down too many rabbit holes to be left to his own devices. While it might sound fun for him to suddenly become a master of everything, such a title would only stick with him at the lower levels.
As he began to increase his strength and quickly rose up the peak, his so-called master of everything title would quickly turn him into a jack of all trades who had no mastery whatsoever. Even Ryu wasn't arrogant enough to believe that he could stretch himself so impossibly thin.
However, in recent days, it felt more and more like his talents were being brought together into one.
His seemingly unrelated Inheritances fit nicely into the eight trigrams diagram. Then, he managed to fuse his Daos and Inheritances together into a single form that could be divided and combined at will. Well, it would reach that point sometime in the future. And now, this Enlightened Alchemy seemed like a perfect fit for both his chosen cultivation technique and his Dao.
What was the foundation of the eight trigram diagram? Wasn't it an attempt at representing Existence itself? And this Enlightened Alchemy seemed to want to refine Existence itself. They were like to sides of the very same coin, both creating, but in different facets and down different paths.
'I need to start now.'
After Ryu had made his decision, he wouldn't waver on it. He already had the flames he needed, but he had yet to begin cultivating his Yin Water Seed. His grandfather had started his Lightning Seed for him, but now Ryu didn't have such a luxury. If he wanted to start on his Yin Water Seed, he would need a high level catalyst. Or, at least a quality one to his current self.
The ideal situation would be for him to create a Yin Water Seed that was just as robust in strength as his Phoenix Flames, but that seemed quite unlikely.
Ryu's Phoenix Flames were in the Ruler Realm currently. In fact, from what Ryu had seen, they were in the True Ruler Realm. Likely because Ryu had comprehended the Realm so many times in Sacrum, it had risen to the standard of the True Martial World.
That meant that Ryu would need a Yin Water Seed of at least that strength if he wanted to concoct to his fullest potential. If he couldn't, then he would have to lower the strength of his Phoenix Flames until they matched up with whatever Yin Water Seed he managed to grasp.
There was no choice in the matter. It was either Ryu go and find it himself, or he could go to an auction house that already had it.
Both had their troubles. Obviously, the former route would be dangerous. Such natural treasures were often heavily guarded, and that was if Ryu could find it in the first place.
As for the auction house route, setting aside the danger of accepting such a treasure without backing, even if he could afford, who was to say that there wouldn't be any families who chose to monopolize such a thing first? With how valuable it would be, it should surpass even a low level Dao Rune Beast Core in value.
Such a treasure wouldn't have its rarity decided by a grade. Even a Common Grade Yin Water Treasure of a certain caliber would be highly sought after.
Even if most wouldn't be able to cultivate a Yin Water Seed like Ryu, and only Phoenixes would be able to cultivate one with Life Characteristics like he could, Yin Water treasures had used far beyond this. So long as you had the proper affinity or foundation, they could help with breakthroughs at a critical time, they could help improve your comprehension of a Cultivation Technique, and they could strengthen your Dao or Inheritances. In fact, it could do all of these things at the same time!
'No, this is too important. I will take a look at the auction houses around here first, but if I don't find anything, I'll go myself.'
Ryu closed his book and stood.
He was confident and the root of that were the evolutions to his Spiritual Sense and the eight trigram diagram that formed the foundation of his comprehension.
This diagram, especially when coupled with strong senses, was very sensitive to treasures related to its eight cardinal directions. In fact, this was the very same diagram Ailsa used to find natural treasures for him.
Of course, back then, Ryu's use of the diagram wasn't anywhere near as good as Ailsa's. But now, all of that would change.
In the past, all Ryu could do was read. But now, he could read and put things into action. This was the charm of wielding your own power.
…
Ryu quickly left the library to the astonishment of Elder Aika, she had definitely thought that he would remain holed up here for as long as possible. But, he didn't make such a decision.
In fact, Ryu went right up to the Inner Disciple mission exchange and chose a few missions closest to areas of dense coldness and yin. Then, he unceremoniously left as though he couldn't sense the shocked and apprehensive gazes of those around him.
Ryu was a man who forced the Sect's rules to bend around him without a care. There had never been anyone like this before, how could they not pay attention?!
However, while there were those that were shocked, there were also those that felt cold and infuriated with righteous indignation. If the rules of the Sect could be so easily ignored, then how could they stay whole? How could they trust this place they had poured so much into?
Of course, there were also those who were far less righteous than this, and a few of them took note of Ryu's leaving the Sect.
Still, they hesitated. Ryu was clearly favored by the Sect, what would happen if they were caught and punished?
But, that was when the words of the Grand Elder lit a fire under them.
"Kill him if you can."