Ryu appeared in a dark green wind, his body manifesting as though it was being painted back into the world one brush stroke at a time.
In the region he appeared in, there were just three geniuses remaining fighting over what looked to be an earth inheritance. It had very little to do with Ryu, however he had come here anyway.
Back when he claimed the wind inheritance, it had taken a sharp wind qi to disperse it, if he had used anything else, he would have failed. Ryu assumed that the same would be true of this inheritance as well, but he had his own thoughts on the matter, thoughts that had germinated thanks to what he had gleaned from claiming his first inheritance.
Ryu had realized that claiming inheritances like this was a shortcut to improving his own Inheritances. When he had absorbed the green shadow inheritance, or so he called it, he felt his body being assimilated with certain comprehensions.
Ryu's own wind inheritance was actually the highest form there was since he had built it on the back of the Northern Heavenly Wind, the truest embodiment of wind qi there was.
But quite honestly, Ryu rarely used his Northern Heavenly Wind and his Wind Inheritance these days. This was because the Northern Heavenly Wind simply wasn't as useful here as it was back in Sacrum.
In Sacrum, even a mortal would have speed surpassing that of a Sky God if they had the full Northern Heavenly Wind. But in the True Martial World, in order to meet that standard, Ryu still had too long of a way to go.
Right now, Ryu's Northern Heavenly Wind was at an Ancestral Grade standard. This was still one step below what it would take for him to be nigh untouchable on the First Heaven. If he wanted to display such untouchable speed on this quasi Fourth Heaven that the Heavenly Path represented, he would have to raise it to the Perfect Grade, equivalent to a Perfect Sky God.
Due to this, the treasure that was the Northern Heavenly Wind was neglected by Ryu because maturing it to adequate standards was too tall of a task for the current him, and the higher he climbed through the True Martial World, the taller the standards he would have to meet were.
Even so, this didn't mean that the Northern Heavenly Wind was useless. The [Unbalance Mantra] opened up all new possibilities for its fusion with his spatial qi. And beyond that, there was still its form as an Inheritance to consider, or more accurately, the Wind Character of Ryu's eight trigram diagram.
By assimilating inheritances that were compatible with him, Ryu found that his comprehension deepened and his Small Realm became stronger.
When this was fused with his Dao and his Realm Heart, he realized that this could be a game changer.
Ryu had reached absolute perfection in the Ruler Realm, but that didn't mean he had done the same in the Monarch Realm. In addition, currently, his Inheritances were built off the backs of work others had done and couldn't be truly considered his own yet, wouldn't this be a path toward doing that.
"Kill him first!"
The trio who were still fighting over the earth inheritance were rightfully pissed that it seemed as though Ryu was waiting for them to deal each other fatal blows before he swooped in and reaped the rewards. Unable to take his blatant attitude, they finally lashed out, attacking Ryu all at once.
In their minds, since Ryu had come from further away than them, he was clearly less talented and not worth worrying about in the slightest. The fact they were attacking all at once was more respect than he deserved.
At that moment, a domain of shadowy green manifested, dancing with faint runes.
Ryu vanished into the wind, his body being whisked away like ashes.
The three charging young men were shocked, their hearts skipping several beats. They were all in the World Sea Realm, so let alone a Small Realm, they had all already formed their Dominions. But for some reason, in the face of Ryu's Monarchy, they couldn't even summon their counter!
Ryu suddenly appeared behind one of them and his blades slashed across, severing their heads into a fountain of blood. They didn't even get the chance to scream out in terror.
Ryu landed by the earth inheritance, reaching a palm forward. When he grabbed it, felt a strong resistance, until he activated his Dividing Chaos and his [Unbalance Mantra].
The perception of the inheritance warped and the glass orb shattered to pieces.
With a swipe of his great swordstaff, Ryu activated Dividing Karma, severing the connection the original inheritance owner had and leaving nothing more than the inheritance itself which rushed into Ryu's mind.
'So it does work.'
Ryu nodded to himself and moved forward.
When he first assimilated with wind inheritance, he could clearly feel the strings of Karma pulling at his fate. He realized then that if he used one of his Daos, Dividing Karma, he could bypass the test of the inheritance entirely and snatch it for himself.
Ryu didn't plan on continuously doing this as there was no point, he would just be handicapping himself. It was better if he focused on inheritances that would strengthen himself. Rather, he just wanted a proof of concept in case he ever ran into a dead end.
He didn't like the fact he had been teleported behind such weak fodder. He wouldn't allow fate and luck to dictate whether he could truly forge ahead or not. He would grasp his own Fate in his own hands. Even a Dao Lord wasn't qualified to pause his steps.
Ryu flashed forward and he took another star path, this one infused with a strong and pulsing fire inheritance.
Several gazes turned toward Ryu who was clearly masked. Among them, there were two members of the Demonic Flame Sect. The Sect had been looking everywhere for Ryu, but none had been able to find him, and in the end, the second phase started.
However, Ryu's gaze wasn't focused on these two at all, but rather the heads of the Radiant Star Sect disciple that they hung from their hips.