He was finding methods of breaking his Dao past the artificial cap it was placed under. If he could reach the end and regain the abilities of his Inner World. And, of course, accumulate enough Faith to withstand it... he was confident that his Dao would break past the pinnacle of the Found Dao Realm. He couldn't help but wonder what would happen then. Would there be a qualitative change?
Ryu actually wasn't certain of this. That was because he wasn't sure if Peak Founding Dao was an official metric, standard across all worlds... or if it was something else. Take the Dao God Realm, for example. He had only just learned that not all of them were created equal and that there were large gaps that broke laws of reason.
Could it be, then, that breaking through his artificial cap would just be like inching forward? Maybe the change wouldn't be huge, but rather incremental, just like those Dao Gods took millions to billions of years to slowly push past the limits their world had placed on them.
That wasn't all Ryu thought about, either. If there were other worlds out there on the same level as the True Martial World, maybe worlds like the one Ailsa was stuck on, or the world the Ruin Master Guild called home... who was to say that the True Martial World was the pinnacle?
What if two equally graded Daos from different worlds actually had vastly different strengths because one world was more powerful than the other?
Ryu hoped that he was thinking too much. But it felt... suspicious that the True Martial World could only withstand the birth of three Peak Founding Daos.
Selheira suddenly shifted on Ryu's back and slowly awoke from her state of enlightenment.
"How is it?" Ryu asked.
"fortable." She said, a bit muddle-headed.
Ryu laughed. "I meant the enlightenment."
Selheira blushed a bit. Her might was still a bit foggy, so she hadn't understood Ryu immediately. It wasn't really her fault, though. This entire time, regardless of how violently Ryu moved, she hadn't felt a thing. She hadn't even heard the motion outside.
"I think I'm getting there," she started, "but every step I take forward seems to elucidate an even longer path ahead. It feels like I'm not making any progress at all."
"That's good." Ryu nodded seriously. "What you should fear is not a long road, but rather not knowing where to go. That's where the real trouble can start for you. You're only a False Sky God right now. It's nowhere near time for you to feel like you've run out of rope."
Selheira nodded, a beautiful smile blooming on her face. Ry really helped put things into perspective for her, even though she knew he would never take his own advice.
Her husband was obsessed with being stronger. Even now that he could flaunt many of the lower Sky God Realms when others couldn't cross even minor realms to do battle... she could tell he wasn't satisfied.
The couple began to break through the fifth layer together, and this time Selheira was much faster. She got the hang of it quite quickly.
Ryu timed his breakthrough with hers and they soon entered the next Realm together.
Selheira made no movements to get off his back, so Ryu just smiled and let it happen.
'I should be able to tweak it like this,' he thought, refining his Bloodline Resonance to a new level by incorporating the insights of the barrier. 'Hm?'
Ryu's head turned, and he headed in a specific direction. He sensed a familiar aura a long distance away. The range of his senses had already increased to 20 kilometers. If he sent out a pulse, even touching ten times, that wasn't impossible now.
In this vast sea, this was actually still a pitifully small distance, but it was good enough for Ryu.
He moved swiftly and soon the vaguely familiar aura in his mind sharpened into the image of Empana.
The lizard race young man was still dressed like a prim and proper pimp, the color of his red shirt popped for extra effect. There was even a tuft of scales on his chest that seemed to take the place of what should have been hair.
However, he was locked in battle with two Demon Princes. Ryu didn't understand much about the situation, but from context clues it seemed they had a grudge with Empana.
Ryu didn't have any hatred for Empana. Instead, it should probably be the other way around, if anything at all.
He had ruined Empana's chance of being the Fifth Plane's Chosen, instead helping his wife to claim that title instead. In fact, Ryu had flipped the whole board, causing the benefits Mae received to be likely more than even what the Ninth Plane's Chosen had received simply by virtue of performing so much better than everyone else.
However, what was interesting was that Empana never really showed any hatred for this. freё.
The young lizard demon was solid in his conviction and took losses in stride. He never strayed from his baseline of confidence and even though he seemed to be hiding it for some reason, he certainly had the Heart of a Hero.
It was just unfortunate that as someone born and raised on the Fifth Plane, Empana's talent was lacking pared to the others. He had the Heart of a Hero, but rather than being at the second tier of genius, it just barely allowed him to be at the first tier.
His temperament was equal to someone just below the monster tier, but his actual genius level was at the same level as the Fire Giant Ryu had crushed in the arena.
It was something that couldn't be easily changed.
'Hm, maybe I should... but would he be willing?'
Empana didn't show his hatred, but that didn't mean he didn't have any resentment. In fact, he had probably buried it deep within, using it as fuel for his cultivation.
Even if he accepted such a suggestion, wouldn't that just put out his flame? At that point, he'd bee useless.
'Seems I'll have to force him to submit by force then. That way, he can keep that fire and make it burn brighter.'
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