Ryker sat in meditation on Phoenix’s back. The movement of the master-beast duo was quite fast. At this point, even without actively using any ability, Phoenix was already much faster than most 9th Enlightenment Realm beasts of this world.

With every breath he took, a great amount of Spirit Energy rushed toward him.

These days, every spare moment he had was spent on experimentation. There were simply too many notes in the prison’s research halls.

Most of it was useless, just meaningless drivel or poor attempts at cleverness that came from Clans that didn’t know better. But even so, if you looked deeply enough, there was always some kernel of truth to be found in them here and there.

Ryker remembered that when he looked at the Echo Clan’s techniques, for example, they felt like they were built off the backs of fragmented techniques of an ancient past. Some of it was extraordinary, but there were large portions of it that made it feel like a child was trying to scribble in their thoughts on a master painter’s canvas.

There were a lot of examples of that.

Originally, Ryker thought that it was maybe because echoes from previous iterations had slipped through the cracks. But the more examples of it he saw, the more he felt it was on purpose.

If he put himself in the shoes of the jailers of theirs, would a hard reset really be the most beneficial? How much time would be wasted? How often would humans not even find a foothold before they were destroyed by beasts?

Even if you were going to experiment, you had to set off parameters.

The first parameter was, obviously, the changes to what the cat lady called the “Dao”. The second parameter should be these tidbits of information the jailers released to help speed up their evolution.

Maybe these fragmented segments of information were parts of a whole that the jailers particularly wanted to see completed, as though they wanted a fresh pair of eyes on something they had worked on for far too long.

Ryker felt that it was possible.

In the end, though, he was just one person. After his huge breakthrough in creating a soul cultivation method, he was being a bit greedy by trying to find something else.

He had already gained the largest benefits.

Ryker opened his eyes and pulled out a bundle from the prison. It was none other than the hub.

It radiated out with a suppressive aura, the illusory chains that wrapped around it almost feeling hot in Ryker’s palm.

He was still interested in what was hidden within this thing, but it was a bit difficult to make the decision to try and unravel it. After all, this hub was what allowed him to so freely control the prison. Without it, the prison traveling in and out of the prison would be impossible.

‘Or would it be? Technically speaking, if I comprehend the chains around this hub enough to unseal them, then I should also be able to comprehend the function of the hub enough to recreate it. At that point, it won’t really be a problem…’

There was another benefit to comprehending the chains as well. It would allow him the ability to use his Divined Chains on a deeper level. Whatever principles that were used to control the prison were clearly on a level far beyond his understanding.

Ultimately, the prison was just a convenient transportation tool for now. It was only really worth the materials it was made out of to Ryker. Anything else was just extra.

The real question was if he destroyed the hub, would he alert those people ahead of time?

‘Hm… I won’t try to unseal it for now. I’ll just study it.’

Ryker immersed himself and lost track of the time.

…

‘Hm?’

Ryker looked up, his eyes somewhat bloodshot. He hadn’t been paying attention to everything around him and had ended up going for too long. His original intention was to rest before they approached this region, but the hub had been too fascinating.

He still didn’t quite understand what a “Dao” was, but he had picked up on quite a bit when the cat lady translated it to “Law”.

A Dao should be a law of the world in some way, shape or form. If he was correct, the hub in his hand was a dense amalgamation of the Dao of Space and Time. But what was interesting was that it almost felt like a… cheat of sorts, almost as though it was comprehension by proxy.

If he had to make a guess, the hub was actually constructed based on the Dao of Sealing, or something similar. It was whatever was on the inside that contained the Dao of Space and Time. However, by virtue of sealing the latter, the Dao of Sealing was capable of exuding certain characteristics of the Dao of Space and Time.

This absolutely fascinated Ryker. It made him wonder if this meant that the Dao of Sealing was actually beyond the Dao of Space and Time.

But he wasn’t certain.

If the Dao of Sealing was beyond the Dao of Space and Time, then why did it need to rely on an object with the Dao of Space and Time to execute what the Dao of Space and Time could do alone?

When thing were framed like this, it seemed that the Dao of Space and Time actually surpassed the Dao of Sealing.

Of course, Ryker had no idea if these were actually the names of things, he was just spitballing. These were the terms he used in his mind to keep things organized and it helped guide his thought, while also stoking his curiosity.

While his question seemed inconsequential, especially since the Dao felt so impossibly far away from him, Ryker felt that if he could understand this question, he might actually make a large improvement.

But before he could immerse himself more, he found that he was already close to the border of the Enlightened Wilderness. This made things troublesome.

There should be a perimeter of defense around here put up by the Shadow Clan. This wouldn’t just be one or two people, but rather an entire army.

He took swift and decisive action against the Shadow Clan precisely because he didn’t see himself as infallible.

Grimshell saw him take out a hundred 9th Enlightenment Realm experts and panicked, but an attack of that caliber, even after Phoenix’s improvement, could only be used a little over a dozen times before Fire Phoenix’s throat was scorched beneath his own power.

This was far more than the past, but it wasn’t enough to face off against an army of tens of thousands.

Ryker realized that this was mostly his fault. He should have begun to cultivate more beasts to help support Phoenix. But he was still stubborn on this front. He hadn’t waited all this time to waste his potential on inferior beasts.

That was why he had to take this risk.

It was unfortunate that Phoenix still couldn’t fly. By Ryker’s calculations, the big guy would have to enter the Ascension Realm first. Only then would the strength of their wings finally offset the enormous increase in size they gained per level.

By now, Phoenix was already over seven meters tall, and their weight was proportionally enormous.

If they could fly for an extended period of time, this would be a nonissue. They could just rain down a fiery hell from high above and the army would be able to do nothing to them. This was why Ryker had always wanted a flying beast—a true flying beast, not those small little birds like Morgrim’s raven.

“Slow down big guy, let’s take a rest first.”

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Phoenix obliged, feeling quite hungry. The big guy let Ryker down and nudged at him, groaning and growling for food.

Ryker smiled. Luckily, he had prepared a large meal. Plus, Nyx, Vexen and Morgrim were nice enough to provide him their beasts for Phoenix’s sustenance, so how could he not take advantage?

According to his plan, he didn’t actually want to weaken the Shadow Clan too much. He still wanted them to become the new backbone of the Federation and allow Patience to truly grow into her own.

However, sealed or not, he’d never leave such a ticking time bomb… not until they were well and truly subdued in both body and heart.

Plus, how much more shock and awe would they feel if he took their Ascension Realm beasts away in one breath, and helped raise their other contracted beasts to the same level in the other?

Ryker and Phoenix rested for the night before Ryker stored the big guy in the prison. It seemed that soon Phoenix would break into the 7th Enlightenment Realm, and the higher concentration of Spirit Energy would only help.

Plus, it would be easier to sneak around without such a huge target.

Ryker’s gaze flickered as his gaze landed on the Silver Mirror. In combat, the Silver Mirror was mostly useless right now aside from some illusion tricks, but when it came to reconnaissance, it was on another level entirely.

In just a few minutes, Ryker had a perfect layout of the Shadow Clan’s army for dozens of kilometers. He could even take a glance at exactly what they were doing right this moment.

The stronger his cultivation, the stronger his soul, and thus the longer range the Silver Mirror had when he used [Soul Ripple].

Soon, everything was reflected in his mind.

‘Even so, sneaking around it damn near impossible when there’s nothing but a large plain between here and there.’

Ryker shook his head.

He would just have to stay hidden for as long as he could, then use speed the rest of the way. After he entered the Enlightened Wilderness, it would be easy to lose them. After all, a large army was almost useless in a dense forest.

…

Ravenna was the only female Ascension Realm expert of the Shadow Clan. Her skin was a sickly pale color and her stature was quite small. Her frame, while being petite, was still quite stout, and her face had the faint lines of age that couldn’t quite hide her former beauty.

In this entire world, there were only two other Ascension Realm women. It was much rarer for women to become Mythical Masters due to the changes of the Dao in this world to begin with, so it wasn’t a surprise that the number to reach this step were so few.

In fact, aside from her, the other two were both experts of the Enlightened Empire who already had so many experts to begin with that it seemed only natural that some of them would be women.

Ravenna could be said to be a national treasure of her own, and yet here she was, on the frontline of a never-ending war.

She had long since become numb to it. Something seemed to perpetually weigh heavily on her consciousness, and the irony was that those thoughts only seemed to make her Dark Type Spirit Energy even stronger.

The gaze of a young man flashed in her mind and she slowly closed her eyes. She saw those two eyes too often nowadays. The guilt seemed to never go away.

She was already so old, yet she had snuffed out the life of a budding youth for what? For the right to continue being in this endless war? To constantly play second fiddle to the Enlightened Empire? Even that was overblowing it. Did they even have the right to play second fiddle to that behemoth? They could only barely manage to survive if they banded together.

‘Hm?’

Ravenna stood and walked out of her military tent. A bird was only just descending from the skies by the time she had already stepped out.

She reached up a hand and grabbed, the latter landing in her palm.

‘The six troops spotted someone approaching? Fast? Ascension Realm?’

Ravenna frowned.

“Beatrice…” she spoke lightly.

Ravenna’s voice was quite beautiful, but it carried not even the slightest hint of emotion. It was as though she had already been drained of all life.

A fluttering butterfly with spots of green, violet and black on its wings landed on Ravenna’s shoulder after she spoke. It was larger than a normal butterfly, but much smaller than what one would expect from an Ascension Realm beast.

“Order everyone to stand down. If they really are of the Ascension Realm, they’ll only be sending themselves to their deaths…” she said lightly.

The Spirit Beast butterfly fluttered and a mysterious energy seemed to ripple out in all directions.

…

Ryker realized that he had been spotted already. As the Enlightened Wilderness approached, he didn’t really have anywhere else to hide. Between him and the line of trees in the distance, there was nothing more than flat land and some military encampments. Of course, he had already dodged those encampments, but quite soon—

He looked up.

‘What the hell?’

At that moment, Ryker spotted a middle-aged woman surfing on what looked like a board of black fog. A butterfly sat on her shoulder and she was closing in the distance on him quite rapidly. At this pace, she would intercept him before he made it in.

‘So strong?’

Ryker’s eyes narrowed.

This woman was in the Peak of the Second Stage of Ascension.

There were the three Ascended Realms, the three Elevation Realms and then the three Mythical Realms. She was in the second of the first set of three Realms, but not just that alone, she was at the Peak of it!

The other Ascension Realm experts of the Shadow Clan had all been in the Lower First Ascended Stage. Only Nyx had been in the Middle First Ascended Stage.

To suddenly meet a Peak Second Ascended Stage expert here was so…

Ridiculous.

The Shadow Clan was more foolish than he thought. He already thought that they were idiots for just protecting this perimeter and not trying to take advantage of the Enlightened Wilderness. But to think they would send their strongest expert here instead of having them guard their Clan. If Ravenna had been in the Shadow Clan during his attack, things wouldn’t have nearly been so easy.

It had to be understood that every minor Realm in the Ascension Realm was an enormous step, but a major realm like the gap between a First and Second Ascended was even more exaggerated.

This gap was akin to the gap between a 1st Enlightenment Realm expert and a 9th Enlightenment Realm expert. In fact, this was a fundamental reality.

In order to cultivate in the Ascended Realm, you had to basically reforge the progress you had made in the Enlightenment Realm but to the “Ascended” level.

That meant that in order to become a Second Ascended, you quite literally had to complete the Enlightenment Realm a second time.

As such, though it looked like Ryker was just two cultivation Realms away from this woman, in reality he was more than 18 cultivation Realms away because she was already so close to the next Realm!

‘I really hate these stupid people,’ Ryker groaned inwardly.

People thought that smart people were hard to deal with, but Ryker didn’t agree. The largest variable to any plan would almost certainly be the stupid people.

Smart people acted predictably. When they were given a choice, the one they would make was obvious so long as you were smart yourself.

But if you placed the same choice before a stupid person, who knew what foolish reasoning they might use to justify their choice?

To think that he would not just run into a Second Ascended, but someone that was already so close to becoming a Third Ascended.

After Ryker got his curses out of the way, his expression became serious.

He waited, and just when Ravenna was about to intercept him, her mouth even opening up slightly to question his appearance, he activated Temporal Weave.

BANG!

The ground beneath Ryker’s feet suddenly exploded as he shot out like an iron ball from a canon.

The effect was exactly what he wanted.

Ravenna was caught off guard by Ryker’s sudden increase in speed. He blasted by her and shot into the distance, suddenly halving the gap between himself and the Enlightened Wilderness.

She blinked, not quite understanding. When she spotted Ryker, she realized that he was only at the 9th Enlightenment Realm. It was odd that her subordinates would confuse him with an Ascension Realm expert… until now.

How could a 9th Enlightenment Realm expert be so fast?

After catching her bearings, she turned her surfboard of darkness and shot toward Ryker. Now she just found herself feeling curious. It had been quite a while since anything had shifted her baseline of emotion.

Ryker felt his hair standing on end.

This woman was not normal. Controlling Spirit Energy like that was an exceptional feat of control, and it wasn’t even something that Ryker could do.

Ryker had spent 18 years honing his Spirit Energy control, and he also had exceptional talent. But he had done all of that training with gaseous Spirit Energy. It would take a bit of adjusting to get the same level of control with liquid Spirit Energy at the level of the Ascension Realm.

At least with this tangible form of Spirit Energy, this woman’s control was beyond his own. Flying should only be something that God Realm existences were capable of, and even then most wouldn’t choose to waste their Spirit Energy like this.

But here was this woman, casually dumping it away without a care in the world.

Even so, maybe she had the right to be so arrogant. She likely hadn’t had a battle that lasted more than a single exchange in years.

‘Her Soul has to be at the Rush Soul level at the worst, maybe even a Vibrant Soul to exhibit this level of control. She’d be a monster even in the Valorian Clan.’

Ryker’s gaze flickered before he tempered down his desire.

He didn’t have a propensity for being weaker than his women, and that was probably why he had pushed Jaana away for so long.

Plus… now really wasn’t the time to be thinking about this stuff. She was already hot on his heels. There would be no romantic rendezvous if he got caught. In fact, she’d probably filet him if she knew he was having such thoughts at all.

‘Welp, seems I have to go all out.’

Ryker grinned and suddenly his legs pulsed. His pants almost exploded beneath the pressure of his muscles as his Time Type Spirit Energy poured into his body.

He layered his Temporal Weave Spiritual Resonance and his self-create Time Spirit Energy amplification method into one.

Time seemed to slow for but a moment, and just as Ravenna's hand reached forward, forming a palm of darkness to envelop him, the air around Ryker seemed to warp.

BOOM!

A clap of thunder echoed as Ryker’s speed more than tripled. He covered another large distance in an instant and entered the forest.

Ravenna was stunned once again, her hand stuck in the air.

A 9th Enlightenment Realm expert had just…

Her gaze flickered, a hidden flame smoldering within as though it was about to be rekindled.

A familiar pair of eyes flashed in her memory again, but this time she didn’t shy away from it.

This time, Ryker had wronged the Shadow Clan. Not even Nyx knew that Ravenna was already a Second Ascended, let alone the fact she was close to becoming a Third Ascended. Ravenna had never deemed it necessary to tell them. Plus, it was probably better if less people knew to begin with.

As such, though, Ravenna had always been holding back much of her strength. Now, she just wanted to see how long Ryker could evade her.

Suddenly, her body seemed to warp as well, a boom of thunder echoing as she shattered the sound barrier too.