The truth was that Ryu was correct, these were paths that tested ones luck. Not everyone would find a room of treasures and a path to exit immediately, many more would find challenges, and only a number slightly less than this would die, never to see the light of day again.
The Heavenly Path wasn't so kind, and it was surprisingly because of Ryu's choice that someone else was able to get lucky.
Most who were lucky enough to reach the stage that Ryu had chose to leave, they had no business here, nor did they feel the need to continue risking themselves. The large majority of them were Sixth Heaven geniuses and this was more than they had expected of themselves.
However... the Seventh Heaven geniuses, many of whom were matched up against Sky Gods along at least one path, beaten and bloodied, glared at the cube and continued forward.
These treasures that floated before them were ones that they would eventually get their hands on so long as they continued along their current path. But what they wanted as a chance to change their Fate entirely, this wasn't enough... they were more ambitious... they wanted more...
And they were willing to risk their lives for the chance.
...
Ryu's gaze flashed once again and he found himself in a lush forest. It was far less barren than the previous area, and though he was a bit tired after pushing his Dao to the limit, his smile didn't fade. This sort of small fatigue would vanish soon enough, and it was the far better Fate in comparison to the state he had been in the last time.
Feeling his Chaos Qi circulating through his body, Ryu actually felt quite vibrant. It was as though he had been forced to breathe through a mesh all his life, and it had finally been removed now. He didn't know if he would continue to use his Chaos Qi or not as this world seemed different from the last, but at least for now, he allowed it to move freely.
The truth was that despite his shift in mentality, Ryu wasn't going to rely on Primus fully. Ten years was just a short time, and if he revealed all of his cards, then he would be screwed when the time came. Also, Primus wasn't invincible, it was very likely he would cause so much trouble that there would eventually come a point that he wouldn't be able to deal with them.
Ryu wasn't worried about the Taboo Power aspect of things because Isemeine was, indeed, a Martial God. He felt that he could deal with that situation even without Primus.
But if others found out the true depth of his talent, and then found out that he also followed a Taboo Path, on top of the fact he had a Founding Dao... Isemeine and Elena wouldn't be enough of a protective shield for him.
Of course... that didn't mean that he would definitely not use his Chaos Qi. It just meant he would be cautious about the cards that he did reveal. And if he ended up in a one on one battle again in a closed off space, he wouldn't even hesitate for a moment.
This place, though... Didn't seem like that.
'This shouldn't be another one on one battle. It seems that those were only the... preliminaries.'
Ryu looked around. He had learned his lesson already. Since this Heavenly Path seemed to deviate from the normal path so much, there might be explanations for what was going on hidden in plain sight.
Sure enough, high in the skies, there was another floating cube. Ryu quickly read what was going on and then looked at a list of names.
'Interesting...'
If the time he spent healing himself was neglected, Ryu would have definitely been one of the first to reach this stage. But because he had to hide away for so many hours to heal himself, he was lagging behind.
This region was similar to a test of the Incomplete Heavenly Path, but far more straight forward. Rather than cities, there were territories. These territories were the home to a Protector Spirit that tested certain aspects and they were separated into bronze, silver, gold, and diamond.
Unlike the cities of the past, once one cleared a territory by deteating the Protector Spirit, it would become attached to the person. If one wanted to claim a defeated Protector Spirit, one would have to defeat the person that carried it. If the target had more than one Protector Spirit on them, then you would gain them all.
Of course, the obvious choice seemed to be to target those with the most Protector Spirits and relax in the beginning. But if you did so, you would only be shooting yourself in the foot. That's because the Protector Spirits could add to a person's power. If you waited too long, you could find yourself without a Protector Spirit and suddenly not a match for even those that were once far weaker than you.
Ryu was in the high four digits, close to five digits, in terms of his current ranking. It seemed that almost 10 000 cultivators had entered this region before he had, but he still didn't feel worried.
'Interesting. So it encourages team work, too? How potent are these Protector Spirits?'
Ryu's eyes narrowed as he read the last of the rules. He was a bit stunned because he hadn't expected such a thing.
The cube floating in the sky recommended that Protector Spirits above the Bronze Grade be attacked in groups. The group that succeeded would be rewarded evenly with the strength of the Protector Spirit.
Ryu couldn't help but frown when he perused this. That was because the challenge of this Heavenly Path had already been modified to accommodate for the stronger specialists of the Seventh Heaven. If that was the case, then this warning wasn't one that could be ignored.
But... he really didn't feel like teaming up with anyone.novE.LB.1n
His head turned toward a certain direction.
The only way to find out whether he was assured or unwise was to fight a Bronze Grade Protector Spirit first. He really wanted to see just how potent they were at this level.
He took a step and vanished.
