The flood of information hit Ryu like a tsunami. Numerous words and images appeared in his mind. At first, it was bearable, but it very quickly became painful. It felt as though a guillotine had chosen his head as its target, splitting his very soul in half.
Ryu suddenly understood what the test of this second floor was. One wouldn't be allowed to gain recognition of this silver palace unless they had awoken their Spiritual Sense in the Spiritual Entrance Realm.
When this information streams into Ryu's mind, he felt both lucky and shocked. Lucky because he would have died had he not met this requirement, but shocked because such a requirement was far too stringent even by his standards!
One had to know that Spiritual Sense wouldn't be birthed until the Soul Birth Realm.
Unlike qi cultivation which had twelve divisions, Mental Realm cultivation only had six. Spiritual Entrance, Spiritual Endowment, Soul Birth, Soul Refinement, Soul Ascension and Soul Quintessence.
Because there were so few divisions, every step was a massive watershed of its own. One had to know that technically speaking, Ryu had been cultivating his Mental Realm for practically every moment since he was viciously beat by Patriarch Agnes. He was only nine years old back then, but now he was already sixteen. It took him seven years to reach this stage!
One can see by this just how difficult Mental Realm cultivation was. Entering the Soul Birth Realm was the equivalent of becoming a Divine Vessel Realm expert! This meant that this hidden civilization's test was analogous to asking an Awakening Realm expert to accomplish something only a Divine Vessel Realm expert could!
The scariest part was that Ryu hadn't succeeded due to any sort of talent of his own. The only reason he managed to do this was because he had the Origin Flame, a treasure so valuable that it was almost impossible to even name something that was its match in value.
Ryu could hardly finish his thoughts about how ridiculous the requirements were before his mind seemed to shatter and everything went black. By the time he awoke again, he found himself sprawled at the bottom of the Spiritual Qi pool. Luckily, it was now empty.
Rubbing his forehead, Ryu sat up. To think that just the information about the silver palace and its uses caused him to black out. What would happen if he wanted to learn something more useful? Wouldn't his Mental Realm collapse in on itself?
'Oh?' Once Ryu's mind cleared, he found a pleasant surprise. His Mental Realm had actually largened by a small bit. The amount was miniscule, barely a few centimeters, but this benefit couldn't be underestimated. Now, his Spiritual Sense's range was thirty meters and three centimeters.
Ryu paused, trying to decide what to do. He was certain that the remaining three fragments were being held with the Viri, Lantes and Tor Kingdoms, but he also knew that this matter couldn't be so simple. If it was just a matter of wasting a few years to collect them, Ryu would do so in a heartbeat. But, there were too many still lingering questions…
Why was something so important left to these weak Kingdoms? Why was it that the Opes Kingdom never touched theirs, but the King Tor seemed to frequent his?
This wasn't even what worried Ryu the most. The actions of the Immortal from all those years ago was truly baffling. What reason did he or she have to come to this Higher Mortal Plane? Could it be related?
Ryu steeled himself and re-entered the crystalline jade. In just a moment, he had made his way back to the silver palace's library, something he now knew was called the Zu Palace, after the Zu Clan that built it all.
Having a map of the area in his mind now, Ryu surged forward, or rather, his mind did. Because he only had to think to perform an action, he could have been able to reach his destination in an instant, but the Zu Library was so exaggeratedly large it still took Ryu several minutes to reach its center.
There, Ryu looked up to see a magnificent scene.
Beautiful, wide, four-sided silver stairs greeted him. At the very top sat four thrones, each facing the its own cardinal direction.
Atop these thrones sat two Emperors and two Empresses. The women were exaggeratedly beautiful, even a step above Ryu's own mother, a feat he thought was impossible. Their white hair shimmered with a golden hue, and their silver eyes pierced through the veil, a gentle smile resting upon their soft, pink lips.
As for the men, they were several steps above Ryu in looks as well. They shared the same eye and hair color as the women, but their faces were stoic and lacking emotion.
The pressure these four life-like images placed on Ryu was unimaginable. Even just looking at them made Ryu feel as though his mind was being tested.
"Visualization technique!" Ryu suddenly understood it all. The reason this crystalline jade had such a good effect on his Mental Realm was because it was entirely designed as a Visualization Technique. While Body and Qi Realm cultivation had their own methods of improvement, so too did the Mental Realm. Ryu took such a long time to improve because he had no Mental Realm cultivation technique, yet here, even the floors beneath his feet were cultivation techniques!
Ryu's way of cultivating his mind in the past was the crudest form. He would place himself under pressure then use his will power to breakthrough. However, Visualization Techniques streamlined this process and vastly improved its efficiency. The concept was simple: Visualize a difficult image. The more complex the image, and the more detailed your visualization, the stronger your Mental Realm became.
"Someone finally came here, but their Mental Realm talent is actually so weak? Fate seems to want to play tricks on our Zu Clan once more."
Ryu was startled out of his thoughts. Firstly because he hadn't expected one of the male statues to speak, and secondly because this was the first time in his life that he had been described as a weak talent. This was definitely a new feeling to him.
"Well, he met the basic requirement at least. Most couldn't even do that."
"Isn't it obvious? He was only able to do so thanks to external help. Your eyes are failing you.. Plus, the pitiful thing actually called furniture a Visualization Technique, isn't that too wretched? Kick him out."