As Ryker wandered deeper into the secrets of the ocean, he couldn’t help but wonder if comprehending the Dao was truly meant to be so easy.

It all came to him so seamlessly that it was hard to feel a sense of accomplishment, and it also made him wonder if this speed of improvement meant that he still wasn’t very much before those powers lurking outside of this prison.

His worst fear was that even if he entered the God Realm, even if he managed to do it in his desired time frame on top of that, it would still all be worthless.

Ryker took a breath and exhaled.

No matter what, it seemed that he would have to take the risk of taking the cat lady out soon. She was his only source of real information about the outside world, so he had to take advantage of that even if it came at a risk, because ignorance was an even worse fate.

The good news was that Ryker was fairly certain that there was a time dilation between this prison and the outside world. So it was hard to say if even after weeks had passed, that the woman’s body on the outside had been in meditation for very long at all.

But what that time dilation was, how much time he had, and any of the other details, were just vague guesstimates on his part based on little to no information.

Ryker shook his head and made a decision.

Once his Dao of Sealing reached Tier 3, he would take the chance. That would likely have to wait until after the Glory Path Challenge.

This so-called “Tier 3” was just another vague guesstimate made by Ryker.

He had noticed during his first stints of meditation on the Dao that his Dao of Fire had become stronger than the others, as though it had undergone some sort of watershed.

After some observation, Ryker realized that all of his Daos could undergo this evolution, though some had a far more difficult time than others in improving.

For example, his Dao of Sealing and Dao of Time were both still at Tier 1. But, his Dao of Fire, Water, Wind and Earth were all at Tier 2 already.

And, Ryker felt that very soon, another watershed was coming from his Dao of Water.

This was part of the reason he felt that it was all too easy.

It felt like just immersing himself in the water was enough to grasp endless secrets.

However, that was when Ryker also began to realize that he could actually follow down different paths.

‘I can make more than one Dao of Water? This is so odd…’

To him, a Dao felt all encompassing, and like it should define the meaning of an existence.

How could the Dao of Water mean anything other than water? It just felt… wrong.

Ryker frowned.

After being immersed in these deep waters for so long, he had already sensed several opportunities to form a new Tier 1 Water Dao that followed a different path.

‘What does a different path mean? And which Dao of Water am I following right now, then?’

Now that Ryker thought about it, he didn’t know much about water before, aside from things he had heard in passing from Jaana and the rest of her Clan.

So, he had built his Dao of Water on those principles.

The Rivarius Clan’s Spiritual Resonance was a Domain of Water, it was a control-type, not much unlike the Valorian family’s.

So, Ryker had subconsciously drawn on this comprehension. So, his current Dao of Water had a restraining and patient sort of feel to it.

But in the time he had been down here, he senses a Dao of Water that was oppressive and filled with pressure, one that seemed to embody the heaviness of these depths.

He had sensed another that was much closer to the Dao of Cold or the Dao of Ice. Down here, the sun was so far away that everything was shrouded in darkness. This Dao of Water suffocated all things, including light and heat, slowly stripping away everything.

He had also vaguely sensed a fluid and current-like Dao of Water, one that focused on flexibility, choosing the path of least resistance, and once again, patience.

There was some overlap between these paths, but they all had their own distinct flavors and thoughts.

And yet, they only made Ryker frown all the more.

He only had 81 Circles. Of course, if others heard him, they would probably try to beat him to death. His number of Circles were already more than practically everyone else in existence. If he had been a 1st Circle Talent, he would only be able to learn three of these lower Daos at best, and if he insisted on choosing the Dao of Sealing or the Dao of Time, he would only be able to benefit from one of them and not both.

Even so, Ryker was never careless with his Circles. That was why he never just went out of his way to Contract beasts even though he could afford to waste a few Contracts and be just fine.

And it was the same reason he ignored these Daos of Water…

He felt like he was missing something.

‘Is it possible to fuse them? Would it create a higher Dao of Water? Or would it just strengthen my current Dao?’

Ryker made an attempt, but they instantly rejected each other. In fact, he felt his original Dao crumbling.

However, rather than being downcast, his eyes actually lit up as bright as torches.

‘It’s possible, but it’s very difficult. This is good.’

Ryker was afraid when things were too easy. But if there was some difficulty to them, he could finally rest assured.

The reality was that he was confident in his talent. Even in the outside world, if he used the cat lady as a reference, he was still the cream of the crop. Her words about his Pure Soul told him everything he needed to know.

However, if he couldn’t find a method that pushed him to his limits, it would instead mean that he wasn’t using his talent to its fullest extent. In that case, even if his talent was shocking to those people, it would be worthless.

‘What an unexpected find.’

Ryker almost forgot that he was supposed to be looking for beasts. He was already in Blue Seaking territory, yet he wandered around like an aimless fool, leaping to any currents of dark water that caught his attention.

His eyes seemed to be able to peer through the universe, and finally, he had a breakthrough.

First, he stripped down his current Dao of Water, returning it to Tier 1. It was surprisingly easy, almost like a different form of cultivation.

Thanks to this, he came to understand something else.

The Circles weren’t just a method of resonating with Spirit Energy to cultivate, but also a method of communicating with the Heavens to peer into the Dao.

The runes that appeared when a Dao was comprehended were like the Spiritual Patterns of a treasure, but far more profound.

If the comprehension was there, these Spiritual Patterns could be added or restrained at any time, allowing advancement and retreat.

But now, Ryker was wielding these runes like puzzle pieces.

‘Dao of Water… there are actually so many aspects... Some of them are contradictory and repel one another too.

‘And, when I try to comprehend the cold and dark path, it touches on the Dao of Darkness and the Dao of Ice, and higher than that, the Dao of Cold and the Dao of Nothingness.

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‘Comprehending what I need, and then peeling back the layers to associate it with the Dao of Water alone and nothing else is very difficult. Defining those barriers is where the challenge lays… those blurred lines are pitfalls that can actually leave flaws in your Dao… fascinating…’

Ryker had a thought and ignored the paths that clashed with one another for now. Since he had started with the control and restraining abilities of water as a base, he picked a second path that was well in line with it.

The path that touched on darkness and cold was perfect.

To swallow everything in their depths and not allow anything free.

As expected, the two paths came together quite well, and Ryker felt a shudder go through his body.

Suddenly, the surrounding water became several times more docile, and the ease with which he controlled it felt all the more obvious as well. He hardly had to think to get it to move.

‘It should also be because water this deep is also very much in line with what I’ve just comprehended. I wonder if water from a different location would have a different effect.

‘What’s also interesting is that my Dao of Water still only takes up three Circles. Is that because I didn’t evolve it enough? Or is it the case that no matter how powerful it grows, the Dao of Water will always only take up three Circles?’

Ryker decided to test it to see.

While he was lost in thought, the world shifted, and he sensed something.

He looked up and realized that there was a Blue Seaking that had locked onto him.

However, it was only in the First Ascended Realm.

Ryker wasn’t shocked by this. In his world, such figures weren’t rare in the slightest. And for beasts, they tended to protect their youth fiercely before they reached at least this stage.

So it could be said that he had already expected that the first beasts he met would at least be at this level.

At the same time, he could see some light coming from the distance even in the depth of darkness, which meant that there was certainly a tribe or village of Blue Seakings ahead.

Ryker was curious about his new Dao, so he stretched out a hand and visualized Jaana’s Spiritual Resonance.

He had seen her used it many times before, sometimes even on him as a form of punishment. So, at the very least, copying its form was difficult.

At the same time, he felt that it came naturally to him as well. Trapping and controlling was what his own Divined Chain Spiritual Resonance was best at.

The Blue Seaking was instantly caught, the surrounding water almost solidifying.

The blue cloud that made up its lower body shimmered as it tried to control the water to burst away, and Ryker didn’t do anything to retaliate, wanting to check something.

However, to his shock, the creature actually couldn’t do anything to combat him.

Soon, it had run out of strength and it stood frozen there, panting, its body hardly shuddering.

Ryker’s eyes narrowed, and he applied more pressure, leaning into the suffocating presence of his current Dao of Water.

The Blue Seaking, who had grown used to the cold of the bottom of the ocean, suddenly began to shake and tremble more fiercely. It was as though all its body heat was being zapped away, along with all the light in its eyes.

At that moment, it suddenly died, its heart stopping.

Ryker’s eyes narrowed.

He didn’t mean to kill the creature so cruelly, but he realized something in that instant.

This Tier 1 Dao was far more powerful than even his previous Tier 2 Water Dao… yet he had only added a single extra path to it.

Ryker became obsessed. He skirted around the outside of the Blue Seating’s territory, fighting one battle after another.

It had to be remembered that humans were at a huge disadvantage in the water, and Ryker was facing off against Ascended Spirit Beasts, not humans, the former of which was obviously on an entirely different level.

On top of that, he was facing off against 7th Circle creatures, stronger in talent than any beast he had ever come across in Patience’s Iteration aside from the violet fox and Prometheus.

And yet, as he grew more powerful, not a single creature in the Ascended Realm could even put up a fight.

At first, all he did was restrain them and then kill them swiftly.

But then, his methods became more stunning, not only as his Dao strengthened but also as he realized various methods of controlling the Dao.

There were many unique applications of the Dao he had seen. He could use it to heal himself, and he had even used it to blend in and hide his presence.

These were all miraculous methods, and the strength seemed to come from being able to communicate with the world.

But clearly, there were varying levels of control that came with this as well.

At first, Ryker was actively controlling and micromanaging everything.

But after he managed to incorporate the path of fluidity into his Dao of Water, he found that he only had to command a small portion of the water, then rely on the principles of water in general for larger segments of it to react.

His stamina consumption plummeted, and he became capable of battling several powerful existences at once.

Three hours later, he had successfully fused nine paths into one, but his Dao showed no signs of taking up other Circles.

Even so, the dominance it radiated faintly surpassed even his Dao of Sealing and Dao of Sealing by now.

Ryker realized that doing the same for those Daos would be almost impossible. He could only progress so fast because he was entirely immersed in water right now, and doing the same for the other elements would be easy enough.

But these more abstract Daos…?

It would be difficult.

‘Not necessarily. If I’m correct, Ancestor should have left something even more profound about the Dao of Sealing that I’ve just yet to see. As for the Dao of Time… is there still the core of the prison? It should be an exceptionally high level application of both the Dao of Time and the Dao of Space. If I could use it as a reference, what I can grasp should take a huge leap forward as well.’

Ryker nodded in satisfaction, but he reminded himself to take things one step at a time. For now, he would immerse himself in the Dao of Water.

Another three hours later, he had managed to incorporate another three paths, for a total of twelve.

In his dantian, the three Circles occupied by the Dao of Water radiated the brightest lights.

‘Yeah, there are no Blue Seakings of interest. If there were, the sundial would have alerts me.’

Of course, this wasn’t to say that the sundial hadn’t sensed any eggs, because it had. It was just that most of them were entirely uninteresting to Ryker.

Unless humans, Spirit Beasts were usually given a blanket Circle Talent, and almost all of them would be at this level. However, that didn’t mean that there wouldn’t be variations among them.

Most would trip over themselves to get the egg of a Blue Seaking even if they weren’t a Water Type Mythical Master.

But Ryker already somewhat disdained 7th Circle Talent beasts to begin with and was only checking out of necessity.

In the end, he had found nothing, but his gains were immense, nonetheless.

If his comprehension of the Dao had been as powerful then as it was now, maybe he could have left that battle with those two creatures less injured.

Of course, it also helped that those elemental creatures were also far too dimwitted.

Ryker shook his head and continued along.

He went to one tribe after another, seeking out an egg that could catch his attention.

But as his Dao of Water grew in strength, he felt less and less willing to hand it over to a useless beast.

The situation around the Draconic Sapphire Whale and the Emperor Crown Octopus was far more dangerous, but by the time Ryker got to the former, he had integrated a total of 15 paths and he was quite unhindered in the water. He seemed more at home in the water than even these oceanic beasts.

By the time he got to the latter, he had integrated 21 paths and was finding it more and more difficult to add even one, but to his shock, he just kept sensing more paths.

It also made him wonder.

‘If I finally find this beast that I’m looking for, what will happen to the empty Circles?’

Until now, his Water Dao was still only taking up three Circles, and it made him wonder what would happen to the other five once he contracted an 8th Circle Beast.

However, it seemed that he had thought too much because in the end, he couldn’t find an egg of interest in the Emperor Crown Octopus territory either.

‘I should have known. A creature as rare as Phoenix would only appear once in a generation. Maybe that’s not even doing the big guy enough justice. A mutation like that is as rare as a real phoenix’s feathers.

‘If I’m using Prometheus and Phoenix as my yardstick, I’m never going to find a beast of interest. It’s my job as a Mythical Master to elevate my beasts as well. The street isn’t one way.’

Ryker’s eyes focused when he had this thought, and he shifted his thoughts.

If he couldn’t elevate his beasts, then wasn’t he too useless as a Mythical Master? What was all that training for if not for this exact situation?

He had always known that finding beasts that could satisfy him would be a tall order. He had read about a lot of beasts, but he had never heard of a 9th Circle Beast, much like he had never heard of another 9th Circle Talent like him.

Because of that, he had always geared his training toward auxiliary matters, becoming the best informed Mythical Master he could be, while also becoming the best Spiritual Cook he could be.

A baseline of talent was important, but that wasn’t the end-all, be-all.

‘In that case, maybe I should change my approach. The 7th Circle has the baseline of talent I need, so I need a creature that will adapt to my fighting style well. Not all Water Type Beasts are frail on land, it’s just that some of them also have other affinities and are variant type beasts.’

Ryker suddenly thought of a beast and his eyes sparkled.

It was a funny type, one of Water and Ice. He didn’t really think much about the creature because it was only 7th Circle and beneath his standards, however, its adaptability was excellent.

It was perfect for a non-Water Type Mythical Master like him.

The creature was known as the Three-Eyed Ice Tailed fox. Interesting enough, it had both three eyes and three tails.

The creature was small and most definitely not a Combat Type, its raw power was extraordinarily weak.

However, it could battle with great ease both on land and in the water.

Ryker had always found it interesting that it had both a Water and Ice affinity because Ice was seen as the superior element in combat, and it was natural that Ice Type Spirits Beasts could use water, but Water Type Spirit Beasts couldn’t do the vice versa. So it seemed like a worthless distinction.

But Ryker didn’t think that his predecessors were fools. On the contrary, he had learned everything he knew from them. He stood on the shoulders of giants.

They had to have a reason.

He had never looked into it much again, because the creature was beneath his standards. But…

Ryker made a decision.

‘I need to take beasts beneath the 8th Circle more seriously and see if I can find anything interesting among them. There’s a reason why Talent isn’t the defining metric for who can and cannot enter the God Realm. Many weak talents have succeeded before.

‘But first, I want to see what’s in these ocean’s depths…’

Exploring the ocean was very difficult, and just this pressure alone would have crushed Ryker, and even Mythics, under normal circumstances. If not for the improvement of his Dao, this was a region that only God Realm existences would dare to travel into.

And that only made Ryker more curious.

The Three-Eyed Ice Tailed Fox was an adorable creature that lived in the tundra, so Ryker would have to go to Planet Rivarius’ north or South Pole to find it, and it certainly wouldn’t be here.

So he would satisfy his curiosity first, and then go to scout out his new contract.

…

As Ryker was making this choice, a group of hoods figures appeared at the shores of a rocky beach, seemingly waiting for something.