The next day, Ryu woke up early, allowing the rising sun to guide his Martial Forms.
‘You’ve heard this many times before, but balance is important. It allows you to not just have strength, but to use it effectively. It’s for this reason those who have stabilized their cultivation realms are stronger than those who have just recently broken through.
‘I believe what you should be aiming for in your Martial Forms is this balance. One day, you should aim to combine them all into a singular Form, only then will truly unlock the potential hidden within your body.’
Ailsa slowly spoke her thoughts as Ryu focused on his most minute movements. He felt that she was correct once more. A Martial Form was meant to solidify the foundation of an individual from a certain Clan, changing depending on one’s lineage and bloodline. Since Ryu was the result of four Ancestral Bloodlines, his path forward to unleashing his full potential was steeper than others despite his talent.
‘I think we can hold off on training your body until we accumulate more Spiritual Roots. For now, I want to speak with you about something important.’
Sweat dripped from Ryu’s perfectly sculpted body. Ailsa’s words registered just as he completed his final stance.
“Hm?”
‘Do you think you can do all of this alone?’ Seeing that she now had Ryu’s full attention, Ailsa asked a thought provoking question.
“Huu.” Ryu took a deep breath, stabilizing himself. “What do you mean?”
‘What I mean is that your current enemies not only have a near billion-year head start on you, but they’re a network of Clans and Sects that took down your Tatsuya Clan. While it is true that absolute strength trumps everything, you have to remember that this absolute strength doesn’t have to come from a single individual, it can represent the combined strength of countless individuals as well.’
Ryu frowned. He knew that Ailsa was correct, but he truly hadn’t focused on such things. He had his hands full already strengthening himself, that alone felt like an uphill battle. Of course, that wasn’t because he had come across any staunch roadblocks, but rather because he felt that no matter how quickly he went, it wasn’t fast enough.
Ailsa sighed. ‘I know what you’re thinking. Growing your own power is challenging enough. But, the only way you could even dream of accomplishing this alone is if you become a Sky God. And, not only might that not be enough, it would take an obscene amount of time.
‘What I will tell you is that those with your Mysteries of Heaven and Earth pupils have a massive advantage. Later stages of cultivation heavily emphasize comprehension, so those hurdles will be lower for you, especially with the help of the Embryonic Origin Flame. But, even with the most giving estimates, you can’t hope to reach that realm without several million years of cultivation.’
Ryu sucked in a cold breath. He knew that Ailsa was being extremely giving even with that time frame. According to what Ryu knew, absolute geniuses, at one million years old, would only reach the Dao Pedestal Realm, a Realm still three levels from the Sky God Realm. This was why Ryu’s wife, Elena, was seen as such a genius. She had reached that Realm even before her millionth birthday. Unfortunately, even she was nowhere near the Sky God Realm.
‘From here to then, you have to cross the Spiritual Severing Realm, the Divine Vessel Realm, the Connection Heaven Realm, the Immortal Ring Realm, the Path Extinction Realm, the Dao Pedestal Realm, the Cosmic Seed Realm, and the World Sea Realm.
‘Of those, many can be forcibly passed through with resources and tenacity, but the Dao Pedestal, Cosmic Seed and World Sea Realms are all contemplation Realms. You don’t simply cross them by accumulating resources and qi. Though there are some incredibly rare herbs that can accomplish this, banking on finding them would be the epitome of foolishness.
‘To top this off, I’ve glossed over the dangers. The Spiritual Severing and Path Extinction Realms are especially dangerous. If you act rashly, you will harm, kill, or even the worst fate for you, cripple yourself.’
There were many other things Ailsa maintained her silence about even though she said all of these things. For example, if Ryu focused too much on speed, his foundation would suffer. What was the point if he simply ended up with an empty cultivation Realm?
“You want me to build up forces?” Ryu finally said after a moment of silence.
‘This is the necessary thing to do. If I was a Quibus Faerie who could lead you down the path of necromancy, maybe you really could do this alone. But, unfortunately, I have no such ability. And, even if I did, your Mental Realm is your weakest aspect. It’s impossible for you to become a great necromancer with such limited capacities.’
Ryu nodded, falling into deep thought once more. Ailsa was correct, controlling vast amounts of undead required refined Spiritual Qi control. Ryu had stumbled upon some short snippets of this truth while researching the Death Shrine.
“Is there no other way?”
‘Another way for what?’
“To become a one-man army.” Ryu looked up into Ailsa’s ruby eyes. “It isn’t that I’m so prideful that I must do it alone, the issue is both one of time and trust.
“Firstly, strengthening those beneath me will be an issue, and reeling in those above me will be even more difficult. Though, we could eliminate the latter issue thanks to your eyes, the former still remains.”
Ryu was right. As a Cultus Faerie, Ailsa could see through the talents of individuals with a single glance. Ryu didn’t need to look blindly for talents to take under his wings. The issue was, no matter how great the talent, could they ever be as talented as Ryu? No… And that answer led back to the question of time.
“Secondly, there’s the matter of trust. One only needs to look at my Tatsuya Clan being backstabbed repeatedly to understand that humans are vile creatures. Considering my goal – to topple the foremost power of this Realm – it lends to even more uncertainty. In addition… I’m not a very good leader.”
Ailsa smiled slightly at Ryu being so forthcoming about his faults.
“To become a one-man army…” Ailsa fell into her own thoughts. “There are a few options if this is truly the path you want to take… In truth, your words aren’t without logic, the issue is that the paths that give way to such a thing all focus around one thing: one’s Mental Realm. The Heavens are fair, those who focus on their minds are frail and thus need this sort of support… But, here are a few possibilities …”