"What's going on?" Amell's eyes narrowed. His senses told him that it was no coincidence that these things were happening, but he couldn't figure out just how Ryu was doing it.
Within the desert plain world, Ryu brandished his halberd, holding onto its bloodied and wooden polearm with a single hand as the Fire Tiger lurked toward him. The once lofty arrogance in its eyes was gone, replaced a deep rage. It still saw Ryu as nothing but an ant, but it had still begun to take him seriously.
Beasts of the Fourth Order, and even the Third Order, had long since begun to gain intelligence of their own. By the Fourth Order, their thinking ability was no less than that of humans, even on this Plane. So, it knew that Ryu couldn't be taken lightly any longer.
"It's about time we begin our true fight… Don't you think?"
Ryu's voice was followed by the complete blackening of the screen. The spectators sat in shock, unable to comprehend what they were witnessing. By Ryu's words…. He had done this on purpose?
Somehow, although the visuals were completely gone, the sounds of a mighty battle filled their ears. Just what was happening?
Ryu slowly opened his eyes. A piercing, silver-blue shining within them. For the first time in months, the whole world was opened to him. He felt like he had control of everything.
Over time, Ryu had slowly pried apart some secrets of his Heavenly Pupils, but he knew he still had a long way to go. Still, that wouldn't stop him from taking advantage of what he did know.
His first ability was [Third Perspective]. Ryu's pupils allowed him to few his situation from an outsider's perspective. It essentially gave him a bird's eye view that was a step above normal Spiritual Sense. For cultivators who could only unlock Spiritual Sense after their Spiritual Sea opened at the Soul Birth realm, this sort of ability was impossible to learn.
The difference between Spiritual Sense and [Third Perspective] was like Heaven and Earth. Spiritual Sense was lacking in many areas. For example, a stronger cultivator can stop themselves from being discovered, strong Spiritual Plants and resources have methods of protecting themselves from sensed as well, and Spiritual Sense was also susceptible to damage. If one used their Spiritual Sense wantonly, it was possible to suffer backlash that would cause difficult to heal damage to one's Spiritual Sea.
However, [Third Perspective] had no such drawbacks. Regardless of cultivation disparity or Spiritual Ingredient Grade, they would all be seen through. In addition, it was impossible to detect [Third Perspective], so even if suffering a backlash was possible, the attacker wouldn't have a target.
It was [Third Perspective] that allowed Ryu to discover the flaw in [Gliding Cloud Steps]. However, it was the ability [Insight] that allowed him to correct this flaw. [Insight] drew from the abilities of [Third Perspective] to narrow down the possible avenues of response to a given situation. When used on a technique, it slowed the time to mastery or correction, but when used in a fight, it was similar to predicting the possible actions of an opponent before they even occurred.
[Insight] essentially gave Ryu that battle sense of a warrior who had already fought for thousands of years despite the truth of his inexperience. However, Ryu found that spending some time increasing his own instincts with his eyes closed actually improved [Insight] tremendously! Before, [Insight] had been useless on Fourth Order beasts, the disparity in strength was too much. But, now?...
Many would believe that Ryu had wasted four months of his talent, but Ryu knew the truth. He had refined his battle sense to a completely other level compared to those of his cultivation realm!
Ryu's white hair flew in the wind, the ground beneath his feet shattering as he burst forward. In an instant, he closed the distance between he and the Fire Tiger, dodging its sweeping metal wing to attack its leg.
In that moment, Ryu's single-handed approach changed. His left hand found its way to the upper shaft of the pole, changing his aura completely.
The faint image of an Emperor clad in red-gold robes appeared to his back. The imposing aura of the Fire Tiger seemed to shatter into nothingness, unable to withstand the might of Ryu's Birthed Phenomena.
The Two-Winged Fire Tiger was stunned. Was this this ant's true speed? Where did this Kingly aura come from? Suddenly, a keen sense of danger overwhelmed the beast. It felt like it couldn't so casually take on this strike as it had with Ryu's others. But, it was already too late.
While the glaive's strongest attack was [Sweep], the halberd's was [Slice]!
Ryu took advantage of the beast's surprise, he had no intention of missing this opportunity. His halberd swung downward in a simple, but mighty, vertical line. Essence Qi rippled through the air, filling Ryu's halberd with a heavenly glow that made the space around him distort.
Ryu's aim wasn't anything great like slicing the Fire Tiger in half with one strike. Such a thought wasn't only farfetched, it was pure stupidity. Ryu knew very well that he was no match for a Spiritual Severing expert as things stood now, and that was even more so for its equivalent Fourth Order beast rank.
However, Ryu had one trump card. That said, he had to make sure that that trump card landed without fail!
Ryu poured his everything into his strike. His blood boiled, pushing his two thousand jin strength to almost three thousand. His meridians trembled, agitating his Spiritual Foundation and pushing his unrefined qi to its absolute upper limit.
Unfortunately, the gap between him and his opponent was simply too large. The difference between a Peak Qi Refinement expert and a Lower Spiritual Severing expert was even larger than the whole of the Qi Refinement realm. The Fire Tiger forewent attacking Ryu, instead shifting its paw away to stop Ryu from crippling a portion of its movement.
Ryu's eyes flashed. The Fire Tiger's change in tactic fell well within the ability of his [Insight].
In that moment, he did something that would have shocked those watching if they could see.
Ryu forcibly stopped his attack midway. Not only would a normal individual have ruptured their meridians doing such a foolish thing, their body's bones wouldn't have been able to handle the stress. However, Ryu had inseverable meridians and a Bone Structure that was matchless in flexibility!
His body shifted, tapping into the abilities of the Northern Heavenly Wind and seemingly disappearing, only to reappear behind the Fire Tiger's hind leg. His eyes swirled with Spatial Qi, his halberd shifting out of existence to be replaced with a glaive.
[Sweep]!