The gate were formed by two halves. To each of these halves there were three "wells" each, and in the middle where both gate halves combined, there were three more.
Complex geometry made up the embroidered patterns between these wells and they looked like quite beautifully designed and structured artwork. Without knowing anything else about this Clan or Sect, their architecture alone was quite beautiful. Or at the very least, that was what others would see.
For Ryu, he saw something entirely different. The complex geometry wasn't just a beautiful design, it was a formation, an incomplete formation, at that. Opening the gates required sliding the formation into place and connected the nine "wells" which were really just formation cores.
'Is this a formation Sect, then? I can't imagine that a non-formation Sect would bother to care about this so much. But even so, that doesn't explain why this gate is closed…'
Ryu reached for and spatial qi formed from him once again. Slowly, he controlled the complex geometry to twist and turn, snapping them into place. And as expected, there were hidden mechanisms within the gates that allowed the patterns that made it up to rotate and even shift in relation to one another.
In an odd twist, the perfectly symmetrical and beautiful doors became a mess. By the time Ryu was certain he had put everything into its proper place, the shapes no longer looked as beautiful or as pleasing to the eye. There were mismatched shapes, there were more circular shapes on one side and more triangular shapes on the others, and worst of all, of the nine wells, five ended up on one door and four ended up on the other.
The result was jarring and made the gaze in Ryu's eyes incredibly sharp.
None of this seemed like a big deal. After all, it was just a bit of asymmetry, what was the issue?
Rather than answering this question directly, Ryu thought of his Ice Jade Crystal Body. Why was it so beloved by the Heavens? It was precisely because it was perfectly balanced. Thanks to its existence, Ryu was perfectly proportioned even down to his blood vessels and Meridians. There wasn't a single aspect of his body that couldn't be perfectly mirrored onto the other side, bringing him beyond the realms of perfection.
In practice, this made both of his legs equally as powerful, both his arms equally as powerful, and it gave him an advantage most cultivators did not have. Even immortals would have dominant sides, but only those who were born with the Ice Jade Crystal Body would have no such weaknesses.
This was all to say that the Heavens loved symmetry, even to the point of blessing it with heavenly favor.
Whether it was the circulation method of techniques, the creation of formations, or even the concoction of pills, everything relied on symmetry. The most basic requirement for beauty and acceptance by the Heavens was precisely this.
For a moment, Ryu had even thought he made a mistake. As confident as he was in himself, he would almost believe that he had screwed up than to accept that there existed a formation that did seem to require symmetry at all.
However, when the doors rumbled and began to open, Ryu realized that he hadn't made a mistake, the calculation methods of his Matrix had worked just as perfectly as they always did, but this only shocked him more than the possibility of him being incorrect.
'This Sect…'
Ryu felt his heart beat erratically.
For the first time in a long time he thought back to the Natural Order Sect.
He owed a lot to the Natural Order Sect. They were the first boost he had gotten on his cultivation journey.
The Natural Order Sect was a Sect of the Mortal Plane that had been destroyed while Ryu was still a Prince of the Tor Clan. Back then, after Ryu escaped the Tor Kingdom, he went to their ruins and began his cultivation journey. From them, he had not only learned his first cultivation techniques, but he had even found a treasure he still relied upon to this day: the Glove of Order.
The reason Ryu thought of that Sect now wasn't because he thought that it and this place were related. Instead, he felt that the reason they were destroyed might very well have a small string of Karma connecting them.
The Natural Order Sect was destroyed for its arrogant name. What right did a puny Mortal Realm Sect have to call itself by such a grand name? Even the people of Sacrum couldn't withstand it.
This Sect here, or maybe Clan, might very well have been destroyed because it went against the Heavens as well. This lack of symmetry was nothing short of spitting in the face of the Heavenly Laws, shirking Heavenly Favor, and following a path of unorthodoxy.
Thinking to this point, Ryu's lip curled into a smile. This place… Should be interesting.
"Ah!"
With a step, Ryu entered the sliver of a crack between the gates and vanished into thin air, suddenly moving as quick as lightning. Aantha gasped and tried to rush after him, but her wrist was suddenly firmly gripped.
"This place is too dangerous, stop rushing after a man. You'll get yourself killed," Fairy Mae said coldly.
"But…"
Mae looked toward Aantha and the latter shut up almost immediately.
"Let's go. With caution." Mae said.
Mae's expression flickered as she suddenly bolted forward, catching Aantha off guard. What happened to caution?!
But just as Aantha wanted to keep up, the gates suddenly slammed closed, leaving those who were ready to rush up locked outside.
…
Ryu had originally treated this place like just another Ruin to clear to accumulate Heavenly Favor, that was why didn't care about others following him so long as they didn't block his path forward. However, the moment he saw the oddity of the gates, his curiosity had been piqued to an extreme.
This was more than about Heavenly Favor now, he wanted to delve into the secrets of this place without bothersome worms squirming around him.
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