It was far more complex than Ryu could have imagined, it was no wonder that he hadn't understood what had happened previously, but now that he was piecing things together, it was slowly beginning to make more and more sense.
The changes in the Realm Heart began from the moment his Beyond Perfect Extreme Spiritual Foundation had appeared. What was key here, though, was that the appearance of the Realm Heart, or more accurately, the method by which it was connected with Ryu was very similar to his Spiritual Foundation.
The Realm Heart, too, was an existence within the Abyssal Plane. It, too, was an immature sort of construct that had to be slowly evolved and molded into the future. And most importantly, when Ryu had been a "cripple" in his second life, it was the Realm Heart that had replaced the function of his Spiritual Foundation and allowed him to continue cultivating as though nothing at all had happened.
Now, Ryu had just found out that his Spiritual Foundation housed his Dao Heart. Even if it wasn't precisely his Realm Heart, it most definitely housed it. Somewhere deep within this vast construct, his Dao Heart was found.
So, the question was, what would happen if an immature Realm Heart, so very similar to the function of a Spiritual Foundation, was attracted over by someone before it could evolve and gain a mind of its own?
The Realm Heart was akin to a baby in the womb, unmolded and undecided. But back then, it had been rushed into Ryu's body, fusing with him and becoming one with him. By now, the two were already an inseparable existence.
If Ryu was correct, when he reconnected with his original Spiritual Foundation, his body had suddenly gone from having three souls, to four. Better yet, the purpose that the third and fourth soul played, were very much the same, causing them to overlap.
What was even more extreme about this matter was the fact that it was the Realm Heart that had allowed Ryu to accept a second Spiritual Foundation in the first place. That meant that not only did they fulfill the same functional role, they practically took up the same location in his body, bringing them closer on both a metaphysical and purely physical level.
When Ryu had reclaimed his Original Spiritual Foundation, it was like forcing the slowly maturing Realm Heart to accept everything about him, fusing them into one existence, both together and somehow separate.
If he took this a step further... Ryu believed that what changes had been triggered in the Realm Heart were heavily related to his Spiritual Foundation. In fact, it was very likely that his Realm Heart had gained the characteristics of his Beyond Perfect Extreme Spiritual Foundation.
It had to be remembered that all Realm Hearts had their own inherent talents before they matured into worlds. In fact, this innate talent would decide the kind of people that would be born to them in the future and the kind of Protectors they would nurture.
For example, Sacrum's Shrine Mountain had, of course, been a Realm Heart in its infancy, and unlike Ryu's Realm Heart, it hadn't been found and procured ahead of time. It, thus, formed the talent that Ryu had formed, the Shrine Mountain's Natural Enlightenment.
When Ryu activated this Realm Heart, he could suppress any and everything around him. In fact, now that he had the Nine Pillar Flame Sect's Inheritance, this Natural Enlightenment was even more powerful because it was as though it had finally gained a conduit to act.
The talent of this Realm Heart was still unknown to Ryu. He hadn't spent nearly enough time observing and meditating on it, and it was difficult for this sort of enlightenment to come naturally to him because it was far too vague.I think you should take a look at
But now, even before he could grasp what it was, this talent had been mutated into something entirely different.
Now Rvu fully understood this odd feeling in his chest. It was actually twofold.
The first was that the Realm Heart that more than likely had a Natural Enlightenment that he wasn't intimately familiar with, or might not have the necessary talents or affinities to make perfect use of, had suddenly taken on a form that he was greatly familiar with. After all, the Beyond Perfect Extreme Spiritual Foundation was created to be perfectly suited to Ryu in the first place. It was as much him as anything could be.
The second was that due to this, he could feel an intimacy from the Realm Heart that he hadn't felt in the past, it truly felt like his own.
Ryu stood in silence. For some reason, all of this felt... too convenient.
It felt like every step of the way here, someone had been pulling him along on a leash.
His gaze shifted from his Beyond Perfect Extreme Spiritual Foundation to his White Phoenix Spiritual Foundation. The only answer seemed to be this mysterious Phoenix Sky God, and existence he couldn't understand even in the slightest.
This person was so enigmatic even in Sacrum, and now that Ryu was in the True Martial World, he hadn't heard a single word about this mysterious existence.
It seemed odd to expect such a thing, but the reality was that the more he learned about this person, the more he felt that it was impossible that they hadn't come to the True Martial World before. Not only had they come, but they most definitely should have put a powerful impression here.
Ryu didn't like this sort of feeling in the slightest.
His gaze turned cold, but he still returned to his Beyond Perfect Extreme Spiritual Foundation.
Now that he understood the peculiarities, the question that remained was how would he fix his Dao Heart.
Quite frankly, Ryu wasn't entirely sure how to do this. And at the same time, he was a bit worried about doing it properly.
Being unable to train was unacceptable, and a injured Spiritual Foundation wasn't something that he could accept either.