Ryu's gaze narrowed. There was definitely a secret here, he didn't believe that things were so simple, however it felt like it was entirely beyond even his Dao to see through. It was likely that whatever secret was lying in wait here was too profound for his Third Immortal Grade Dao to see through.
This wasn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, if it was so profound, then that meant that the treasures of this Ruin were even beyond what he had assumed them to be. This wasn't a simple Ruin, and the Heavenly Favor associated with it shouldn't be small.
However, what was baffling was that even after several moments, Ryu didn't feel any influx of Heavenly Favor, leaving him frowning.
To him, the use of this Ruin was secondary. The most important thing to him to gathering up Heavenly Favor. In fact, the only reason he was willing to waste a few hours with Mae was because he felt that the reward of this Ruin would be able to offset the time he spent.
'Completely unorthodox…'
After the reality settled in, Ryu understood that this end result was ultimately impossible to avoid. This Ruin invested so much into a path not widely accepted by the Heavens, so how could it have a great amount of Heavenly Favor associated with it? In fact, it was somewhat odd that the Heavenly Path would even allow such a place to appear here.
Ryu looked down at the three jades in his hands again, his brows furrowed in thought.
Suddenly, the ground rumbled and the three pillars that once held up the jades sunk into the ground. The process was slow and deliberate.
The moment the pillars reached ground level, they rotated, the patterns on their surface adjusting themselves until they lined up with a complex formation on the ground.
Right then, a blinding light shot up toward the ceiling. For a moment, it felt like the ceiling vanished and all Ryu could see was the vast expanse of a starry night sky. It was like the entire room had been transported into the depths of space.
The stars connected one after another like a series of bouncing pinballs before the lines of energy converged into one and shot fused into a single beam that streaked down through the skies.
It was simply too fast from Ryu to react. Before he could do anything, the beam fell upon him and penetrated his forehead. Ryu's pupils constricted and his body twitched.
The feeling was all too familiar. The last time this happened, he had been branded for nothing other than forming a Hegemonic Dao. But now he was being branded once again?
Ryu's expression turned malevolent, his aura erupting.
"PISS OFF!"
Last time he was caught off guard, but this time, the moment he saw the beam, despite the fact he was too slow to react, he was prepared.
Ryu's Dao flared up, his eight trigram diagram lighting his irises ablaze with an ancient jade colored light. However, as soon as it appeared, a dark gold appeared, layering the eight trigram diagram with another formation circle that rotated in the opposite direction.
In that moment, it looked as though Ryu had gained another layer of irises, shifting the ancient jade color of the eight trigram diagram to a bright gold and causing the pair of irises that layer atop of them to radiate a blinding dark gold.
At that instant, despite the fact Ryu only had a Hegemonic Dao, if others familiar with Daos so powerful were present, they would feel an aura no weaker than an Ancestral Dao, a Dao the likes of which only the pinnacle existences of the Eighth and Ninth Heaven could possibly even gain an inkling into.
Ryu roared, his body erupting with white-gold Heavenly Patterns, a pair of blinding white wings spreading out from his back.
"I SAID, PISS OFF!"
White flames rose like a tempest from Ryu's body, a suffocating pressure that caused the Ruins to nearly tremble to the point of collapse exuding from him.
BANG!
A harsh bang followed by the sound of shattering glass resounded and the feeling of a brand vanished before it could properly form.
The starry skies above turned crimson as they trembled. It was almost as though the skies had become sentient, realizing that they had actually failed to brand a mere Path Extinction Realm expert. However, at that moment, despite not being able to see, Ryu glared up into the skies as though he would soar up to personally rip it apart with his bare hands.
His headband fluttered wildly, threatening to fly from his forehead. He was almost goading the skies into attacking again, his fury rising like a tempest.
Unfortunately for the skies, the energy of the formation flickered and weakened before winking out entirely. It was entirely incapable of striking a second time.
According to the original design of the formation, it was meant to be able to target the "three" successors from any location in the True Martial World and even beyond into wider Existence. As such, it needed to establish a connection with the starry skies of the Abyssal Plane first, and only then would it find the location of the successors and brand them.
Upon being branded, the three successors would always be able to sense one another and they would thus target one another until the inheritance came together as one. As Ryu had thought, this was the unorthodox path that the individual who formed this Ruin wanted to go down.
However, what the creator of this Ruin didn't expect that all the effort would be wasted. The formation connected with the starry skies just to come all the way back and target Ryu who hadn't even left the Ruin yet. It was like circling an entire planet to the right just to take one step to the left.
If it had targeted Ryu directly, it would have had enough energy to attack continuously. In such a situation, no matter how indignant Ryu was, there would be very little he could do about it. But with things like this, it only had the strength to attack once.
One might wonder why it was so important for Ryu to not be branded if he had skirted the rules to begin with and was the only successor.
Aside from his own personal pride, Ryu felt that there was something particular sinister about that brand. It was definitely more than just about having him target the other successors.
The moment Ryu had released all four parts of his Dao, he felt everything so much clearer. There was something more sinister at play here.
If he was correct, this brand didn't only allow the successors to be found by one another, but also by an unknown third party. He didn't know who this party was, nor where they were, but he knew that they were probably enraged by the failure of their plan.
Ryu looked down at the jades once again as the starry skies above slowly faded away.
He realized the mistake he had been making all this time. He was subconsciously using the Heaven half of his Dao to make deductions, but from the very beginning, this was an unorthodox Sect and couldn't be seen through using normal means.
After Ryu entered the Path Extinction Realm, his connection with the Chaos Plane touched an entire different level and his Dao multiplied from two parts to four.
The first two parts were known as Dividing Karma and Dividing Tribulation.
The second two parts, birthed from chaos, were named Dividing Sin and Dividing Dharma.
Together, they fused to become Ryu's Dividing Heaven. But this time, the weight behind these two words were far beyond what they had been in the past.
Dividing Sin was the mirror of Dividing Karma. Dividing Karma parsed the strings of Fate wrapping around an individual, reading them and even giving access to a window to influence them. Dividing Sin was far more direct. Not only did it see through these strings of Fate and Karma, but it could more directly influence them, even forcing change on the mental state of a target.
Dividing Dharma was the mirror of Dividing Tribulation. Whether it was Tribulation or Dharma, both were the representation of consequences for one's actions but via different methods. One was the punishment of the Heavens and the other was the result of one's Karma. One assumed the judgment of the Heavens, and the other broke free of the constraints of the Heavens and placed the rights solely in the hands of the actor.
Together, Dividing Sin and Dividing Dharma could fuse and become Dividing Chaos. Once they entered this state, their ability to see through the unorthodox path of this Sect skyrocketed.
This time, when Ryu looked toward the three jades, things that hadn't made much sense before seemed to become all too clear.
'So it's like this… This Sect… Truly wants to see the world burn.'
