1265 Simple
On a one person scale the distance through which Ryu tried to meditate was always moving. Depending on how much he tried to observe at once, he would be moving his observations relative to space, and thus experience distortion.
On a planetary scale, worlds were constantly moving in relation to one another, shifting and moving themselves through space. Even if by some miracle Ryu managed to nail down the parameters of his observation, it wouldn't matter because the very land he was standing "still" upon was moving.
On a solar system scale... on a galaxy level scale... on a universe's scale... Everything was constantly moving through space.
Time was even more obvious. Even if Ryu sat still for the whole of his life, time would continue to move. Even after he died, it would continue to move. It was the most relentless force in all existence, it stopped for no one, and even after the whole world had died and all beings ceased to be, it would continue to move forward.
To add an even further layer of complexity, both concepts were relative. Depending on a whole series of complex variables, whether it was time or space, both could be considered to speed up or slow down.
These things were constantly changing, shifting and moving. The larger your perspective, the more complex it became and the more difficult it was to nail down properly.
These thoughts washed over Ryu like a violent sense of enlightenment. His body trembled once and the entire world seemed to have become still.
Ryu knew what this feeling was. He had experienced it once before. It was a Natural Enlightenment.
He thought for a moment that the Infinity Mist would be able to stop even this, but it seemed that he had greatly underestimated the Ninth Heaven. No... He had underestimated the Greater Universe.
The void's layers seemed to expand like a balloon. All of a sudden, Ryu's bubble, which had only been able to accommodate himself and maybe two others, was granted nigh infinite range. In fact, Ryu's heart couldn't help but skip a beat when he saw the floating inheritance in the far off distance.
He could see much further in the void than he could on the Real Plane. There wasn't the obstruction of qi or landscape or the curvature of the land to stop him, even seeing out for billions of miles, something impossible even for Dao Gods, was suddenly possible and he spotted the inheritance clearly ahead of him.
Of course, Ryu knew that this wasn't his own power. This was the result of the Heavens descending.
BANG!
Ryu's body was suddenly ravaged by a wild light. Despite how violent it had initially felt and appeared, his entire being was invaded by a comfort feeling, as though the soft hands of countless goddesses were gently caressing his body.
Ryu had had many breakthroughs since coming to the True Martial World, but never had he experienced something like this. Even back on Sacrum when his cultivation used to increase by leaps and bounds just because of his insights, he had never experienced such a thing.
That was when Ryu seemed to understand something.
This wasn't a normal baptizing. This was...
'It's giving me a talent?!'
Ryu's pupils trembled. This beyond just a Natural Enlightenment, or maybe this was how Natural Enlightenments were bestowed upon the people of the True Martial World?
Ryu could feel that his Bone Structure was being shattered, and yet he didn't feel even a single ounce of pain. It was a mysterious feeling, almost as though he was in his mother's womb once again, but this time, he had the awareness to watch his body grow and mature.
This was the last thing Ryu had expected to happen. He was only trying to figure out a method to observe the Infinity Mist and he believed that he had.
All he had to do was manipulate the flow of space around him until it reached a level of distortion that he could read. In fact, if he manipulated spacetime instead, the results would be even more perfect. He even believed that if he applied this sort of comprehension, then even if he entered a state of time dilation, he wouldn't be affected by it at all as long as it was within his abilities to unwind.
Since the space here was so stable thanks to the Infinity Mist, he had an even easier time unwinding the distortions and as such, he felt that it would be very easy to observe the Infinity Mist like this.
Ryu did know that he had opened up a door, though. He had a faint inkling that if time and space were distorted at once, almost like two sides of the same core, the effect on them would be minimized. In fact, he even had the idea that if he unwound the distortion of space and time that was natural to the world, he would be able to comprehend concepts even faster than he could now.
But what he didn't expect was that this casual comprehension would cause such a big change. Even so, the more he thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense.
While it was true that he had casually thought of this, this deduction was world changing. While it might not be comparable to inventing fire, it honestly wasn't too far off. Such a fundamental comprehension of space and time, as long as its distortions and where they came from, hadn't been grasped by anyone yet.
The idea that cultivators were always experiencing distortions in the laws they observed was something that made obvious sense once one thought about it, and it was so simple that even a child would be able to grasp it if it was explained slowly, but it was simultaneously a fact that could flip the world on its head.
And of all the cultivators to ever exist, it was Ryu who had comprehended it.
Not only that, but he had birthed a new talent as a result of this comprehension.
