Ryu’s body emitted a faint glow, the lines and veins of his muscles clearly visible, but what was especially pronounced was the beating of his heart. As though a war drum being pounded, its every vibrations sent the water around Ryu tumbling and rolling despite the fact he didn’t move a single inch.

Ryu took deep and steady breaths, feeling the power coursing through him.

He knew he couldn’t continue cultivating the Blood Tempering Realm because he didn’t have the latter portions of Phoenix Heavenly Body yet, but right now it didn’t feel like it mattered.

His strength ballooned to 5 500 000 000 jin, an advancement of ten times for crossing the barrier. His mere presence alone could shattered the polished stone he sat upon if not for his immaculate control.

What once was a small change of 50 million jin had suddenly become one of ten times that now. Such a strength was already equivalent to one of Ryu at the peak of the Vessel Tempering Realm.

Even though Ryu could feel that Isemeine’s Primordial Yin was running out, he didn’t mind. This sort of improvement was more than he could have asked for and he had not expected to reach such a level so soon.

For Ryu, the quicker he could exit the realms of pure cultivation and reach the ones of comprehension, the better. While others might dread those cultivation Realms, tediously laboring millions, billions and even trillions of years just for an inkling of enlightenment, with his Pupils, Ryu would be like a fish in water.

Even now, he had already touched the threshold of building his own Dominion. Though the limitation of the Embryonic Origin Flame had shone through, resulting in him forgetting a large portion of the feeling, he still felt like he had been able to stop the door from completely closing with a toe.

It was a small advantage, but Ryu, this would only snowball.

This aside, the changes to Ryu’s Bone Structure felt even more prominent now.

During his battle with Isemeine, he felt something within his snap. His bones completely shattered and reformed themselves, integrating with the fusion of his Rage Flame and Qilin Lightning.

Ryu couldn’t focus on the changes back then, but reflecting on it, he felt that his transition into Spirit Body was even smoother than it had been in the past. It was the kind of result Ryu would have expected only after he completed his master’s Skeleton Stage and reformed his soul, something that shocked him greatly.

Ryu understood immediately that this was definitely a mutation of awakening two Spirit Bodies at once.

The bad news was that he felt his Phoenix Spirit Bodies being locked away in a place he might never reach them. But, the good news was that the fluidity of his Spirit Body made it so that he could even make a fool out of even the likes of Isemeine in battle.

‘I can also feel that my body is finally ready to awaken my Storm Talent. That will be when the true strength of Qilin Lightning makes itself known. But, I will need to wait for Ailsa to awaken before I can act on this…’

He also felt that he had been neglecting his Phoenix Talents too much. Maybe when he strengthened and reformed his soul, he would finally be able to take advantage of them. But first…

Ryu turned his attention back toward Eska’s Primordial Yin. Quite frankly, Isemeine’s Primordial Yin was simply too good toward his Body Realm, so good in fact that it became the only logical choice. With Eska’s Primordial Yin, though, the answer wasn’t so clearcut.

This all ultimately meant that no matter what he wanted to do, his choice would be slanted toward his Qi Realm no matter what. Luckily… That was exactly what Ryu wanted to begin with.

The Connecting Heaven Realm. This was the foundational realm and set the stage from crossing over from mortal to Immortal.

As the title implied, one was forming a connection, a cycle through one’s body to reach a higher power. In this case, the cycle would be formed between ones Qi, Body and Spiritual Pulses and Vessels.

This was why Ryu could not enter the Soul Birth Realm all this time despite having been at the peak of the Spiritual Vessel Stage for so long. If he broke through, he would lose access to his Spiritual Vessel and thus be unable to complete a perfect Immortal Ring.

This was the most fundamental requirement to create the best Immortal Ring you could. As for the rest, it was all dependent on your talent.

This, then, left Ryu with a choice to make. He had chosen the most neutral techniques he could, emphasizing the accumulation of qi to benefit from the sturdiness of his Chaotic Silk Meridians.

But, as one transitioned into the Immortal Realm, the amount of qi one could hold in their meridians became less and less important as atmospheric qi and one’s Spiritual Foundation began to play larger and larger roles in your strength.

Luckily, Ryu and Ailsa had long since formulated a plan. Or, it was more accurate to say that Ailsa had long since made one, while Ryu, who had become more comfortable with sharing their minds as one, had stumbled onto it as well.

It could be said that it was exactly the kind of maddening plan that Ryu would choose and it was perfect for someone who had chosen such neutral techniques to begin with.

Ryu began to prime his Pulses and Vessels, circulating his qi through them one after another, reviewing the plan in his mind multiple times and taking steps with Eska’s Primordial Yin to make the future as easy as possible… Because he was under no illusions that this would be simple.

Why?

Normal Immortal Ring experts split the Immortal Ring Realm into Lower, Middle, Upper and Peak. Genius Immortal Ring experts split the Immortal Ring Realm into stage 1 through 9.

As for Ryu, he would split it into 1 through 13.

This sounded innocent enough, except for the fact things wouldn’t end there.

Normal people had just one Immortal Ring. Ailsa planned for Ryu to have 13 times that.

This was already clinically insane, but it was still just the surface level.

In order to accomplish this maddening goal, Ryu would need to complete the Connecting Heaven Realm 13 times as well.