Ryker thought about it for a long while. He didn’t have any specific creature in mind, honestly. His flying beast was covered by Phoenix, and other than that, he never really gave it much thought.

The temptation to dissolve his contrast with the Silver Mirror was strong, so even when his father gave him the egg, he never checked what it was. He went out of his way to avoid all thought of creatures and which ones he might want to contract for fear that he just might go and do it the day he had a particularly bad episode.

Thanks to this, his mind was pretty free and clear of all biases in this fashion. But he had to admit that the shape of the fox creature he had seen before was truly beautiful.

It made him wonder, though… Why was it that all the Elemental Spirit Beasts he had run into down here had all chosen to take on the same shape?

And why was that shape so similar to Mariah, that talking beast?

Ryker shook his head. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about this matter. It wasn’t as though he had time.

That was when the thought struck him.

‘Maybe…?’

It was impossibly rare for a Mythical Master to come across an unhatched Elemental Spirit Beast. They were rare creatures to begin with. The odds of finding one right at the impetus of birth were nigh impossible.

As such, basically all of these creatures chose their shapes on their own. And since they had to live, scavenge, and fight for their place in the world, it made little sense for them to choose anything other than the living, breathing form of a beast.

Beasts were the most powerful creatures in Existence. They had the greatest talent, and humans could only rely on their ingenuity to wrangle some of them into submission as a method of boosting their own power.

This was to say that if an Elemental Spirit Beast had any sort of natural survival instincts, becoming a beast was the logical path.

But why did it have to be as such?

Ryker made his decision and the egg suddenly cracked. He sensed excited feelings coming from the creature, but it was less so that it was excited about what it was becoming, and far more that it was excited about finally getting to see the world and also gaining Ryker’s acknowledgment.

Elemental Spirit Beasts were powerful in talent, but their intelligence was too low. Finding one that hadn’t been born like this made it easy for Ryker to make it dependent on him. It already treated him no differently from kin.

A burst of light came from the egg, and suddenly chains erupted in all directions.

Ryker was speechless as he watched the little guy form so many links that its spherical form became as large as Ryker himself.

He shook his head, chuckling.

“Okay, okay, come over here.”

The little guy complied and rushed over to Ryker’s left arm. It fit into his palm nicely before wrapping itself all the way up his arm.

“Shrink down,” Ryker guided.

The little guy complied and soon its large link of chains had come to a stop right at Ryker’s shoulder.

Ryker nodded in satisfaction.

So much of his combat style relied on chains now, and his experience in those final moment against the fox creature, especially the one where he made use of the Dao of Sealing metal, made him realize that there was so much more potential to be gained when his Divined Chains were used with the support of external items.

But even that thought was something for the future. He wasn’t quite sure just yet how it would fare in the long run, but even if he couldn’t meld his Divined Chains with the weird, chaotic Dao of his new contract, the versatility of a beast in weapon form was insane.

This chain was no different from a living, breathing creature. It could absorb organic treasures to improve itself, it could change its size and shape, Ryker could both control it and have it control itself… the flexibility was endless.

Plus, although he didn’t have a whip to match, he would never be in a situation again where he didn’t have a weapon because he was forced to leave it behind.

And, even in the case the little guy was harmed, whereas a normal chain treasure would need to be repaired with all sorts of rare materials, and likely even have to be abandoned in some situations, this little guy could regenerate itself by absorbing Water and Fire Type Spirit Energy from the air and fusing together using its incomplete Dao.

Ryker was very satisfied with his choice.

‘If the Mystery Master Alliance ever found out about this…’

Ryker sneered.

The Mystery Master Alliance already hoarded all the best treasures in the world. Or his Iteration. This was why Ryker had to rely on them to get his father a weapon that could slay the peacock beast.

An Ancient Heirloom like Ryker’s Silver Mirror was already a great danger to him. If they found out, there was no doubt that they’d send their experts to apply pressure on the Valorian Clan.

But if they found out that he had taken an Elemental Spirit Beast and turned it into such a thing, Ryker had a feeling that the level of… storm this would cause would be on another level.

“Good. I can’t wait to raze you to the ground.”

The matter of Iterations made his previous scope of the world feel small and insignificant. But there were certain things that Ryker would never let go of.

He remembered each one of their faces and he would make sure to make them each pay one by one. Whether they were part of the Mystery Master Alliance, his fiancee’s family or the Valorian’s.

“Go.”

Ryker pointed a finger toward the remaining bundle of energy that was left. This energy was the cumulative cultivation of the fox creature. And now, it would all be his new contract’s.

Ryker patiently guided the absorption.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

An Elemental Spirit Beast had a very flexible foundation. If it was a normal Spirit Beast, having it absorb so much energy at once without allowing it time to acclimate and settle down would be foolish on his part.

But an Elemental Spirit Beast, especially an 8th Circle one, were essentially beings of energy that took physical form. They didn’t need to wait for their physical form to acclimate, because their bodies were built on a foundation of energy to begin with.

The downside to that was that once their body of energy ran into a bottleneck, there would be no pushing past it, whereas a beast of flesh and blood might be able to push past those limits by evolving. This was why Elemental Spirit Beasts below the 4th Circle could never enter the Ascension Realm.

However, the other side of the coin was that when their talent was so exceptional…

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Even with Ryker taking steps to have the little guy continuously reaffirm and refine its foundations, its breakthroughs were swift and continuous.

Lower 1st Enlightenment, Middle… Higher…

Lower 3rd Enlightenment… Higher… Peak.

The moment it matured, Ryker felt like a wave of new senses hit him. It was so overwhelming that he had no choice but to grit his teeth and suppressed it. If he let this immature little guy run wild without oversight, who knew what would happen to its foundations?

‘Suppress… Suppress…’

Ryker drilled the importance of foundation and stability into the little guy’s head, reminding it again and again. Some of it was actually for himself because he felt like a universe was being born in his mind.

When Phoenix matured, something similar had happened, but on a far smaller scale. In fact, Ryker had basically shrugged it off back then.

The elements of Fire, Wind and Earth were relatively ordinary, even though Phoenix had an exceptionally high affinity for them. If not for the fact they appeared in the same body, Phoenix might not be an 8th Circle Talent.

But this… this felt like it was on another level entirely.

Lower 5th Enlightenment, Middle… Higher…

Lower 6th Enlightenment… Higher… Peak.

The speed of cultivation began to slow down considerably, but Ryker didn’t think this was a bad thing.

There were two factors at play here.

First, the fox creature he had killed clearly hadn’t solidified its foundations enough. It probably just rushed ahead, gobbling up all the energy it could find to progress.

And second, the best part was that it was clearly an inferior talent to his own contract now.

BANG!

The little guy soared into the 7th Enlightenment Realm, finally stabilizing at the Lower 7th Enlightenment Realm.

When Ryker sensed it finally slow to a crawl and stop, he finally released his suppression and his mind echoed with a BOOM!

Streams of information entered his mind, not as real, tangible pieces of knowledge or substance, but it almost felt like a new sense was awakening within him.

He finally understood what the violet energy was.

It felt like chaos incarnate.

It rejected and destroyed everything in its path…

But it was incomplete.

Ryker trembled, and he seemed to understand something.

If it was incomplete with the fusion of Fire and Water Type Spirit Energy… would it be completed with the addition of Earth and Wind? Would it need more elements than that? Was he overthinking it? Was it not necessarily the case that the fusion of elements would lead to chaos?

Even if it did only take Earth and Wind, though… how would he accomplish that?

Getting Fire and Water to fuse in this way here took changing the fundamental Dao of the world itself. Even then, it was mostly a coincidence of chance and luck.

‘Is it?’ Ryker thought to himself. ‘It was replicated so many times in this world alone. Who’s to say that it’s not possible elsewhere? Who’s to say that there isn’t an iteration elsewhere that already has the perfect environment to fuse Earth and Wind?’

Ryker could only abandon this idea as his mind opened up to something wider and far grander than anything he had ever expected.

Suddenly, he could see beyond the cosmos, not physically, but rather spiritually. It was like his soul could finally take a glimpse into a mysteries of the world and that was where he finally saw them.

“Dao!”

The word came from Ryker’s mouth without his input.

In that moment, his throat was shredded apart and blood flew from his lips. Crimson liquid dripped from the corners of his eyes, his ears, and his nose.

The world before him shattered into fragmented pieces as though reality couldn’t withstand the weight of his words.

He swayed on his feet and almost collapsed. His soul, which had just recovered, was drained almost instantly.

The shock in his heart was palpable.

What was that? It was like something had compelled him to speak. No, it was more like a true light bulb moment, one where he could finally see the world in full color and all its three dimensions. The reason he couldn’t control himself was because he had just felt like a blind person who could finally see or a deaf person that could finally hear.

The laws of the world, in that moment, had looked like constellations reflected in his irises.

Could all those outside the Iterations see the Dao like this? How powerful were they, then?

What Ryker didn’t know was that his sight wasn’t normal.

In his Iteration, the soul was only known as something that helped one to control their Spirit Energy better and communicate with their Spirit Beasts clearer.

In the real world, where the Dao was complete and there were no such experiments, the soul wasn’t just a tool that did this…

But also the method by which cultivators communicated with the Heavens to comprehend the Dao.

The reason the cat lady was so shocked by Ryker’s soul talent was exactly because of this reason.

9th Circle Talents were exceptionally rare even on the outside. Even the cat lady herself was only a 7th Circle Talent.

Of course, this was exceptional nonetheless. The Valorian Clan was a powerhouse family, and Ryker’s grandfather was still the only 7th Circle Talent in their entire lineage.

However, the cat lady had still seen 9th Circle Talents before. What she had never seen was a Pure Soul.

In the outside world, the weight of a Pure Soul was impossibly heavy. They were known as Heaven’s Favored, individuals that could peer into the mysteries of the universe with greater ease than even Gods.

Their Souls were Pure. As such, the Heavens didn’t see any separation between itself and those with such souls.

When someone with a lesser soul tried to comprehend the Dao, they would find some interference, some filtration, even some obfuscation and untruths that might trick them or distort their comprehension.

A Pure Soul didn’t have to deal with any such thing.

Just now, when Ryker grasped the special Spirit Energy of his new contract, the partial enlightenment on the Dao had come with it, allowing him to see into the wider expanse of the universe.

He had inadvertently stepped onto a technique that those in the outside world used, and that was relying on their beasts to comprehend the Dao.

In the outside world, beasts weren’t just helpful in allowing humans to use more powerful Spirit Energy, but they were also useful in this lane as well.

But that still begged the question… how had the fox creature comprehended the Dao in the first place?

If Ryker had a Pure Soul, and he was so in tune with the Heavens, how was it possible that this was the first chance he had gotten to peer into the Dao?

The problem was, of course, the change to the world’s laws caused by the overlords of these Iterations.

As for the solution, and the reason why the fox creature was the only Ryker had ever seen comprehend a Dao…

It was because of chaos.

The fusion of Water and Fire had allowed an anomaly to appear, one that couldn’t be ignored even by the Iteration itself. As such, the fox creature had been able to poke a hole in its protections, and it had managed to sense something from beyond.

However, this Dao wasn’t even complete. It couldn’t compare to a real Dao and it was also fragmented in the sense it didn’t even encompass what the full path of the fox creature should be.

The small hole that the fox creature had poked through this veil was massive.

To it, it was as though it was trying to look through a peephole from a distance. To Ryker, it was as though he had put his eye right up to it and was peering across to the other side.

Ryker even felt that it was possible for him to finally grasp the Daos that had been alluding him all this time.

Well… if it wasn’t for the fact he had just drained his soul with that odd shout just now. He would need another long rest before he could take a look again.

‘What was that… it sort of felt like [Soul Ripple], but on a completely different level…’

Ryker shook his head. First, he needed to rest. Once his soul his recovered, he could investigate more.

He would also have another idea to explore as well.

Since he could share some of the little guy’s Dao comprehension, couldn’t he do the reverse? Now that his vision was so clear, how much more powerful would Phoenix be when they could grasp the Dao of Fire, Wind and Earth?

It would no longer be just his Spirit Beasts making him stronger, but he would be able to respond in kind.

His gaze flashed.

He had found a new light of hope for growing strong. When the day came that the true Valorian Clan descended in full force…

He would be ready.