Ryker strapped the somewhat anxious Ravenna to Phoenix’s back, while the even more anxious Beatrice fluttered along behind him. He could feel some menacing undertones coming from the cute little butterfly, but it was also much too scared about its owner’s safety to take any steps to combat them.

Toward this, Ryker was actually quite thankful, because Ravenna was a true monster.

Inside her beast pouch, there were actually four other Ascension Realm Beasts. Although Beatrice was her only Second Ascended Beast, fighting against so many at once would have been impossible for Ryker… He could only urge himself to break through as quickly as possible.

He set himself a six month timer to enter the God Realm, and two weeks had already passed.

It was an obscene ask of himself to begin with, but seeing the time flew away like water made it feel all the more real.

Even in the Valorian family, there were less than five God Realm experts, and they couldn’t even be considered to be real Gods, they were what were known as False Gods colloquially speaking.

It could be said that every step of cultivation beyond the Enlightenment Realm was a huge mountain to climb.

In the Valorian Clan, it wasn’t too uncommon for children as young as 16 years old to make it to the Ascension Realm. Usually, they would contract their first beasts when they were old enough to understand the consequences. For most that was around seven to eight years old.

Ryker, obviously, was a huge anomaly. He formed a contract at just three years old, and with an inanimate mirror at that. But it wasn’t really his parents’ fault.

The reason most could time when to allow their children to form their first contract was because you obviously had to be taught how to do so. Ryker wasn’t just an anomaly because he formed a contract so early, but also because he did it on a whim without any guidance.

Of course, this wasn’t to say that it took most of the Valorian Clan geniuses around eight years to reach the 9th Enlightenment Realm. They were actually much faster than that. The best of them could reach the 9th Enlightenment Realm around 13 to 14 years old or so. The problem was that taking the next step afterward was a huge pain and usually you would end up stuck for a couple years.

This was why despite the fact over half a month had passed since Ryker entered the 9th Enlightenment Realm, he had only managed to return to the peak despite the higher density of Spirit Energy within the prison he was lugging around.

At this pace, it would take Ryker about two more months to break through, and that was unacceptable. He needed to force the issue, and the only way to do that was with resources and more resources.

And the first target was his Silver Mirror.

Cultivation speed was obviously bottlenecked by one’s contracts, this was why Ryker was stuck in the 1st Enlightenment Realm for so young. If he could improve the Silver Mirror, not only would he add to his combat strength, but his cultivation speed should improve once again.

It was no use to just gather up a bunch of weak beasts and waste his circles. It wasn’t additive. Instead, it was multiplicative and dependent on a variety of factors. If he contracted a beast that was too weak, for example, their help would be overridden by Phoenix which was what was happening to the Silver Mirror now.

Even with all of this said, none of this was the real reason Ryker was taking this step.

He wanted to use the Earth Flame to forcefully expel the impurities from his Spirit Energy and accelerate his breakthrough. It would all ride on this.

…

The group made their way swiftly through the forest and most beasts stayed out of their way. Between Beatrice, and especially Phoenix, these creatures didn’t want any parts of it. Even when they strolled right through their territory, most pretended as though they hadn’t sensed.

“Where are you taking me?”

Ravenna finally couldn’t seem to hold back her curiosity. She realized that Ryker wasn’t as hostile as she thought he’d be, and even if that wasn’t the case, no matter what she did the chains refused to budge. She couldn’t even begin to comprehend the concepts they worked with, so how could she undo them?

“Didn’t I say we were going on an adventure?” Ryker chuckled.

“That isn’t an answer,” Ravenna replied softly.

“Don’t worry. I have no need to hurt you. You are actually quite useful to me.”

“For my beauty?”

Ravenna asked this question as though she didn’t really care one way or another. Even when Ryker had said she looked beautiful, it didn’t move her emotions one way or another. She hadn’t thought about such things in such a long time that she forgot how she should feel about them.

The implication was obvious, that being Ryker forcing himself on her. But she didn’t seem to care about this either, as though this body of hers was just a sack of meat the world did as it pleased with.

Ryker met her gaze with a smile. She was strung up like a chicken and he actually found it quite amusing. The contrast between her somewhat embarrassing position and the clear stoicism and indifference on her face only made it funnier.

“I don’t force myself onto women, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“What a gentleman,” she said blandly. She thought Ryker wanted a cookie for having the bare minimum of human decency.

“Not a gentleman,” Ryker shook his head no. “Just a man who likes his fun served as a delicacy instead of a cheap fast food. A chef, if you will. I am a pretty good cook, after all.”

“You still haven’t answered my question,” she replied, uninterested in Ryker’s flirting. He probably thought of himself as a man, but all she saw was a little boy. A genius to be sure, but a little boy nonetheless.

“The question about your beauty?” Ryker laughed.

“My question about where we are going.”

Ryker laughed again and didn’t answer. Ravenna was also too prideful to ask again, so they moved in silence until she couldn’t help but furrow her brow.

By this point, it was already into the third day and their first conversation had already been two days ago. Ravenna was familiar enough with the forest to know that Ryker was quickly headed into very dangerous territory. Soon, there would be beasts lurking around that wouldn’t just step to the side for them just by virtue of their aura and strength, and so long as those beasts started appearing…

Well, it was best to say that in their eyes, a strong beast like Phoenix wasn’t a warning sign, but rather a chance to grow stronger. What would absorbing their Beast Crystals do for them?

“This is too dangerous,” Ravenna spoke. “You’re playing with fire.”

“Finally talking again?”

“You’re going to get us both killed.”

“Interesting. For some reason, I pegged you as a person that didn’t care much about their life, but here you are wanting to keep it.”

Ravenna was startled by the words, obviously not having expected them. But she quickly recovered.

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“I don’t mind losing my life for the right reasons, but losing it like this isn’t something that I can accept.”

“Don’t worry so much, I know what I’m doing,” Ryker smiled.

With a thought, Phoenix vanished back into his Dantian and he hauled Ravenna over his shoulder.

“Take Beatrice into your beast pouch.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Do you want to die?”

“She’s my partner, not a beast I can just store away.”

“You’re quite stubborn, you know that?”

Ravenna didn’t reply.

“Put her in here, then. It’s a normal place and she won’t feel confined.”

Ravenna was surprised again, not expecting Ryker to compromise on the one hand, and completely intrigued by what she was seeing on the other. Just what kind of treasure was this?

Then she hesitated. Was this just a long ploy to screw her over? If Beatrice was restrained, Ryker might really dare to do anything to her. At that point, it would be too late to regret.

She didn’t believe for a moment that Ryker was such a kind soul. Plus, young men like him could rarely control their impulses to begin with. It would be a tragedy if she was defiled like this as a mighty Second Ascended.

Ryker didn’t say anything and just stood there. His attention was on his Silver Mirror. It might be useless in most cases, but here, it would be his saving grace.

“I can send you in with her,” Ryker said after a while. There was no need for him to carry this woman around anyway. Though, he did like having beauties by his side. Even so, his priority was always his strength. He’d never let one thing get in the way of the other.

Ravenna could see the trap that this might be, especially if Ryker could easily pull them out one at a time, but in the end, she sighed. What choice did she have?

It was either Beatrice went in to hide her aura, or they died together. Even she didn’t dare to go this deep into the mountain range.

She wasn’t sure if there were any Third Ascended here, but this wasn’t even her main worry. Even a great number of 9th Enlightenment Realm beasts could eventually tire them to death. So long as they fought one battle, the blood and energy leakage would attract many more.

Ryker nodded and placed both into the prison. As for whether they’d benefit from it or not, well… he wasn’t worried.

Ravenna’s cultivation was sealed so she couldn’t absorb any Sprit Energy anyway. And if Beatrice broke through, the backlash could shatter Ravenna’s body. The gap between each Ascended Realm was huge and it was normally impossible for a Mythical Master to withstand the contract of a beast that was stronger than them. What happened to Sofia was a perfect representation of this.

With them all gone, Ryker began to weave in an out of trees as though he was a ghost. He applied [Soul Ripple] in a novel way around him, obstructing senses. Then he used the Silver Mirror’s limited illusion abilities to hide his movements from plain view.

Having Ravenna and Beatrice along made the first leg of the journey incredibly easy. It should have taken him half a month at least to make it this far, but with the help of their deterrence, it only took less than three days. Now that it was the last leg of the journey, he could do the rest on his own.

Looking at his movement patterns, it was obvious why it would have taken him so long. He sometimes took large, curved paths, just to make sure he stayed out of the way of powerful beasts. In fact, sometimes he would even backtrack when he found a location with no way forward and try again from another angle.

In the outer ring of the wilderness, it would have been even worse. Because they were so close to the core here, the beasts were far more powerful and as such, their territories were much larger and there was much more empty space. As such, even in comparison to what was going on in the outer ring, this was still much easier.

Soon, Ryker laid eyes on an enormous dormant volcano. Upon first inspection, it didn’t even quite look like a volcano at all. Its body was covered in dense moss and greenery, the heat in the air was more humid than it was scorching, and there was a dense amount of wildlife in the surroundings that had little if anything to do with the fire element.

However, Ryker recognized it the moment he saw it.

‘Extremes giving way to extremes…’

There was a dense water element in the air that had no reason to be here. The flourishing life had a lot to do with this, and it was no doubt related to the volcano.

There had been such a dense fire element gathered here that at some point, it became the opposite.

Ryker had only read about this phenomenon in books. He didn’t think he would find it in such a small world… and it was both a good and a bad thing.

On the one hand, this meant that this volcano almost certainly had a path to the Earth Flame he was looking for. In fact, its fire element might be so rich that he didn’t need to risk himself going so deep as he might find a flame capable of melting the materials long before going that far.

But on the other… there was absolutely no way that the beasts that frequented this location wouldn’t have noticed this phenomena. In fact, he would bet everything he had on him that there was a supreme beast overlord in there somewhere. In fact, it might be an Elevated Beast.

Ryker had known for a long time that this world had about 80% the Spirit Energy density of his home world. There was more than enough to produce an Elevated expert, it was just that their cultivation methods were too crude to allow it. However… that didn’t mean that a beast couldn’t accomplish it by relying on their innate talent.

‘Shit,’ Ryker thought.

That was just the first problem.

The second problem was that it would be difficult to hide while climbing up the volcano. Not only were there much more powerful beasts around it, especially around the streams of water and rivers that carved into its side, but because there was almost nowhere to hide.

Despite the dense greenery, there were no trees or anything of the like. At best, there were some shrubs.

Ryker closed his eyes, his breathing slow and steady.

“Go.”

He whispered this single word beneath his breath before he shot forward.

He pulled the Silver Mirror into his arms and tucked it into his robes. At the same time, several ripples and illusions took shape around him. From an outsider’s perspective, he would look like a trick of the light, flickering like a glint that caught their pupils. So long as they blinked once, he would already be gone.

In just a few breaths, Ryker was already halfway up the volcano. The images the silver mirror reflected appeared in his mind one after another.

Suddenly, his heart skipped a beat.

Without hesitation, he threw the prison into a ditch and vanished into it.

“Ah!”

Ravenna screeched, caught off guard by Ryker’s sudden appearance.

Ryker looked over and chuckled. The woman was just sitting cross legged and petting her little butterfly, trying to sooth it.

After giving her a quick glance, he looked up and nodded.

“Back in a flash.”

Then Ryker disappeared.

Appearing back on the volcano, he gave a quick glance toward the beast that had just passed over this region and shook his head.

‘Third Ascended. Did they say there were only a few Ascended beasts? These fucking cowards probably didn’t even travel far enough to confirm.’

Ryker shook his head as he continued to move forward.

The song and dance continued. Ryker would avoid them for as long as he could and if he ran into an inescapable situation, he would bury the prison into the ground and vanish into it.

It was impossible for these beasts to detect the prison that was wrapped in what looked like Dao of Time and Space. So long as they didn’t lay eyes on it, he was able to continue dodging them and he was quickly making his way to the peak.

And then he saw the other side.

Ryker stood at the top of the volcano. For the last 500 meters or so, there was a complete dead zone. This wasn’t in terms of greenery, because if anything, the density of shrubs and the like was even denser here. In fact, there were even trees that he could finally use to hide himself.

Instead, the dead zone referred to the fact that there wasn’t even a single beast in the region. Not one. It was as though they all had a tacit understanding that this was a no go zone.

And that was when Ryker saw what was going on below.

The half of the volcano he had seen was exactly that, just half.

Just below here, there was a rink of ice where there should have been a bed of magma. But on the other side, the bed of magma that he was looking for was right there.

Ice and molten rock existed as one, and while this side of the volcano was filled with greenery, he could faintly see that the other side was a scorched hell on earth. The trees were blackened with bark that looked formed of pressed ash, even the soil just looked like greyed soot.

‘How is this even possible?’

This was beyond Ryker’s expectations. At the very least, he had read about extremes in books before, but this…

‘Unless?’

An idea rammed into his mind like a falling meteor. Was this caused by the tweak in this world’s Dao?

The Dao was tweaked such that women were the most affected in this world, that was why there were far fewer female Mythical Masters than they should be and they often took a backseat in this world, whereas in Ryker’s own, things were far more balanced and equal.

But the depth of male and female went beyond just their gender. There was aggressiveness and gentleness, yin and yang… Fire and Water.

Ryker wondered… in a situation where fire reached such an extreme that it formed water, would the water be weaker than it should be because of the tweaks to the Dao?

If the water was weaker than it should be, would that allow this balance to be formed? Where one extreme couldn’t fully take over the other?

Ryker’s gaze flickered. ‘There’s something else.’

Once again, he used [Soul Ripple], this time focusing on the situation below.

Although he explained these things simply, even at its narrowest point, the volcano was still over 100 meters wide. So, the sheer size of the phenomena below could be said to be enormous. It was impossible for him to get a perfect understanding of what was happening from here.

‘Son of a bitch…’

This was a rare case where Ryker hated how correct he was.

Deep within the ice, a white fox with a blue crystal on its forehead lay, sleeping soundly.

Deep within the magma, a creature he couldn’t even quite understand lay there. It looked like it was shaped of rubies and obsidian, laying in a vaguely fox-like shape as well.

Then it hit Ryker and he looked back at the white fox.

‘That thing’s not a fox at all, it just took the shape of one…’

But none of this was what really shook him.

Both were Elevated Beasts. They weren’t just Elevated, but they were Third Elevated Beasts, four cultivation Realms even beyond Ravenna.

‘Shit.’