As Ryu moved forward, the heat constantly threatening to burn him to a crisp as he moved.
In truth, the Favor Alchemy Sky God would probably have the answer he wanted in regards to this significance of the Nine Pillars and whether or not they were related to the Nine Pillar Flame Sky God, but considering the state that woman was in, he didn't quite feel like communicating with her. Plus, she had said those words about not wanting to expose herself.
Ryu felt a strange case of dejavu in this instance. The Favor Alchemy Sky God was quite the beauty, but much like that day he learned of the truth of Sarriel's Dao Heart, he couldn't find himself feeling very attracted to her right now.
She felt more despair toward his Fate Star than even he did, and though he could guess at the reasons why, he simply didn't care. He simply couldn't understand giving up so easily, not when you still had the strength to fight.
To Ryu, cultivation was a beacon of light. He couldn't fathom having the strength of a Sky God at his figure tips and shuddering at the sight of a few chains.
In his eyes, the Favor Alchemy Sky God was even worse than Sarriel. That was because Sarriel was suppressing her true nature for the sake of a greater good, or what she thought was the greater good, and her family.
He could tell that the Favor Alchemy Sky God was carrying a similar sort of burden, and yet the moment she ran into a roadblock all she could do was cry and sulk. Ryu hadn't even been able to sense her cultivating since the day she saw his Fate Star, she had legitimately given up.
If it wasn't for the sake of his promise to Flowing Frost, he really wouldn't want to have a child with this woman. He wouldn't even know what to do with himself if his child was born without a backbone. What kind of failure would be as a father if he allowed such a thing to happen?
Ryu shook his head, taking a sidestep and avoiding a pillar of flames that erupted from the ground. Keeping his promises was really going to screw him over this time, this woman would be like an anchor in his life. Given her current state, he didn't even know if she would still agree to have children.
If she really made such a choice, Ryu would be forced to act, though he wasn't sure how he would deal with such a situation. After so long, she had already returned to the False Sky God Realm. The current Ryu couldn't even face off against Fragmented Sky God, let alone a False one. And that was one of normal caliber, while the Favor Alchemy Sky God was presumably a woman of great talent.
Ryu's steps came to a pause. Several paths laid out before him, Ruins seemed to love to implement these sort of diverging paths, but it was also the easiest and simplest way to add complexity and truly te the affinity you had with those trying to gain what you had left behind.
He could see with a glance where the others had entered, and the matrix seemed to say that this was the right path to take as well, but Ryu didn't move immediately despite the fact there wasn't much time at hand.
If this was a Taboo Power Ruin, then there would presumably be something here that was outside the general norm. He couldn't expect every power to be like the Unbalance Art Sect and have all sorts of chaotic practices and unreadable restrictions, but how could a Taboo Power be Taboo if everything it did was in line with the norm?
Until now, the Ruins were quite straight forward. The first challenge was withstanding the heat, something that Ryu was mostly relying on his Rebirth Flame to do. After his Bloodline had entered the True Grade, his Flames had likewise strengthened a great deal.
His Rebirth Flames worked much the same way they did in Sacrum. That meant that with a True Grade Rebirth Flame, and given that it was currently at the First Cosmic Grade along with his Dao, or in other words the Peak Dominion Grade, he was immune to all True Grade Flames at and below that Fragmented Grade flames two steps above, so on and so forth.
His Inheritances improved quite conveniently now after he had tied them to his Dao with his eight trigram diagram. So whenever his Dao progressed, especially given its nature, his Inheritances automatically progressed as well.
Of course, this was just Ryu's guess. Even he hadn't quite nailed down what level his Dao was at currently. Although he was certain that he had formed a Founding Dao, as for its current grade... that was a bit murkier.
He had made the initial assumption that it was still at the same level because that was what generally happened. But what he found interesting was that though he could feel the searing heat of the flames, it wasn't quite as hot as it should have been.
'I see... My ignorance regarding my Dao Grade threw my judgment off a bit. It isn't this direction, it's that one!
True Grade Flames at the Dominion Grade was probably around what a genius flame cultivator of the Fourth Heaven would have around Ryu's cultivation level. It made sense, but that was also why Ryu had neglected quite an obvious point.
That was around the standard of the Fourth Heaven, but was this Ruin a normal Ruin of the Fourth Heaven?
If the just over 10% chance that this wasn't a Taboo Power Ruin was true, then yes, everything still made sense. But if it wasn't...
How could it be that the current Ryu could resist these flames so easily? Something wasn't adding up.