“I’m going to give you one chance,” Ryker suddenly said lightly.

The air seemed to freeze, a subtle [Soul Ripple] spreading out into the surroundings and sending a chill into their bones.

“Retract your order now, or I’ll bathe this palace in blood.”

Ryker looked toward the Crimson Regent with calm, indifferent eyes. Every word he spoke was akin to another hammer on the latter’s soul, a might that was somehow body subtle and oppressive weighing down on the man.

The Crimson Regent’s pupils constricted. He felt that heavy weight more clearly than anyone else. In fact, it was as though Ryker had reached a claw forward and wrapped it tightly around his neck, pressing down with the might of a viper.

ROAR!

Phoenix’s heads leaned forward, hot breaths and smoldering spittle coming from their maws. An acrid scent that reminded the Crimson Knights and Regent of death filled the air as Spirit Energy rippled into the air.

A primal sort of fear rose through their throats like bile, some feeling their knees go weak as the very foundation of the Palace shook.

The Crimson Regent’s heart was threatening to beat right out of his chest. He couldn’t fathom what he was experiencing right now, and yet he was right in the thick of it.

What storms had he not experienced in his life yet? And why did this somehow feel so much different?

At that moment, a booming aura walked over from the distance. The Crimson Supreme didn’t seem to be in a rush, his hands clasped behind his back and his posture tall and strong.

The Crimson Regent seemed to realize that there was little more he could do for now, comforting himself with the thought that it was the Crimson Supreme and not Ryker who stopped his actions despite the fact even the well-trained Crimson Knights seemed to have forgotten their orders to attack.

The Crimson Supreme stepped into the encirclement, his red eyes flashing like lightning as he observed the situation.

“… Since when were my Palace Grounds a place where you could act as you please?”

It was hard to tell if he was talking to Ryker, or if his target was the Crimson Regent or the Crimson Knights, and maybe that was somewhat the point. Whoever folded first would be the one to take the blame.

Ryker gave the man a glance filled with disgust. He was entirely unable to hold back his emotions from appearing on his face. The matter with Sofia had agitated him again, and feeling the stench of politics fill the air churned his stomach with memories he didn’t even want to remember.

Saying such bold words, one filled with such awe and majesty, when his own daughter couldn’t even enter their personal library without being harassed by elders he supposedly commanded respect from was the pinnacle of irony.

And Ryker let him know it with his glance.

“Let’s go, Patience.”

Ryker took a large stride through the Crimson Knights who parted like the sea, the looming figure of Phoenix too large and imposing for them to have thoughts of stopping the trio.

Then, they walked right into the library.

The Crimson Supreme watched without a word, his eyes sweeping over the Crimson Regent. He didn’t say another word, but the pressure over the latter doubled and then tripled. Without Ryker here, he suddenly had to withstand the full brunt of it and he felt his knees buckling.

The Crimson Regent barely managed to hold himself together, a half-hearted and indifferent smile curling his lips as he pointed toward his cheek.

“It seems that the Crimson Supreme has a new Heir in mind. I wonder what the people would think.”

The Crimson Supreme looked away, looking toward a far off window and the sun that hung high in the skies.

“Your intelligence is an asset, Regent. It’s unfortunate that this is a world of martial strength.”

The Crimson Supreme turned and walked away.

“Do it again, and I’ll have you head on a pike.”

Beads of cold sweat ran down the Crimson Regent’s brows.

…

Patience watched as Ryker went through the body cultivation methods on his own. She wanted to say something about what happened earlier, but it truly seemed like he had already focused on this task, so she chose not to disturb him.

There were actually only three main manuals, and everything else was derivatives of it, simplifications to be used at the hands of those without access to the purest Crimson Lions or Lion Spirit Beasts in general.

The three so-called “Root Techniques” were [Lion’s Majesty], [Infernal Judgment] and [Razor’s Edge].

[Lion’s Majesty] was the most surprising to Ryker because it used novel methods that he hadn’t even quite considered before.

It was a sound technique. Essentially, you would circulate your Combat Type Spirit Energy in a way that you would unleash a lion’s roar.

Whenever one shouted too loudly or for too long, one’s throat would be injured and filled with abrasions. This was essentially a method of doing exactly that, but instead of just harming the throat, it would tear apart the whole body. Then, through mending it, one would become stronger and stronger, withstanding more boisterous and thunderous roars.

It was particularly dangerous, though, especially because the sound technique relied on concepts of resonance. Essentially, it was treating your body like a glass cup, one where if you hit just the right note, it would shatter.

This was fine enough if you were able to perfectly target certain areas, but what about your brains and your heart? One wrong step and you could end up killing yourself.

[Infernal Judgment] was more obviously masochistic, and it was one that made Ryker’s eyes light up for an entirely different reason: and that reason the fact it reminded him of the methods the Spirit Beasts had just used to make use of Time Type Spirit Energy.

[Infernal Judgment] essentially flooded the body with Fire Type Spirit Energy until it pooled over into one’s blood stream. Then, you would use them to temper your body, quite literally, through fire.

The little quirks and details of this technique had Ryker completely enraptured, that was because with some tweaks, this method was definitely far less crude than the methods the Spirit Beasts used.

Rather than just filling the Meridians to the brim and hoping there was some uncontrolled spill over, this technique made use of the valves in the heart and different checkpoints in the body to separate it into parts.

These parts would be controlled individually, carrying their own unique pressures so that the Fire Type Spirit Energy would be more perfectly distributed. In fact, it was even recommended that the technique not be used on all body parts at once, and to instead take it slowly, either focusing on one part first, or cycling between them during a session.

These two techniques were enough for Ryker.

Objectively, they were weaker methods than [Razor’s Edge]. However, because of their unique quirks, they were actually the much better option for his situation.

“Excellent,” he mumbled beneath his breath before putting the techniques back.

“Finished already?” Patience asked.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Mm,” Ryker nodded.

“Do you want to come back later?”

Ryker chuckled. “You’ve underestimated me. I’ve already memorized them all, there’s no need.”

Patience’s eyes shot up, not quite believing, and yet feeling that Ryker likely wouldn’t lie to her.

“Really?”

“Of course. Your man is quite amazing, you know.”

Patience blushed, but she had to admit that it was. She was pretty sure part of the reason her father had let Ryker enter so easily was because he didn’t expect this.

For one, he felt that Ryker might be a spy from a much stronger power, so their techniques wouldn’t be all that enticing to him. And second, he would never let Ryker take the manuals away, and memorizing one usually took years of effort and at least as much practice with them.

The Crimson General probably never imagined that Ryker would only need to flip through them a few times.

“How?” Patience couldn’t help but ask. “Is it a memory method? Like that Spirit Energy control training regimen you gave me yesterday?”

“There are memory techniques, but I don’t use them, no. My soul just naturally allows me this ability.”

“Ah, I see,” Patience was both a little disappointed and also a bit prideful.

She had only been practicing using that training plan Ryker had given her for a day, and she already felt huge changes to the way she sensed and used energy. It was amazing.

“Let’s return to the arena. I’ll guide you in some things and help the others out as well, but my focus for now will probably be applying these methods. I think I’m on the edge of something good.”

“Alright,” Patience said brightly.

…

And so return to the arena they did. Ryker pretended like his little spat with Sofia didn’t happen, something he found far easier to do after finding exactly what he needed. His previous foul mood was replaced with optimism.

‘That’s a good technique to internalize,’ Ryker thought to himself. ‘I’m taking the attempt to control my emotions more seriously, but maybe I should take it a step further.

‘All this time, my episodes have been caused by memories and the emotions tied to them. I remembered the memories so clearly that the emotions I had during them began to stack atop of one another, making it harder to reach the same emotional highs.

‘After I broke through and even experienced my Soul Resonance for the first time, my emotions were likewise released like water from behind a dam, almost like a perpetual Episode. But because the outbursts are so much more frequent now, the spikes in emotions are also less volatile, making them easier to control, more predictable, and I might even be able to counter them.

‘I think I might be able to create a sort of pseudo meditation technique around this…’

Ryker mulled over his thoughts. He was already planning on creating a new branch of Spiritual Cooking to help himself out, so this didn’t seem like a far stretch either. In fact, it might even allow him to lay a foundation that only helped.

‘Hm?’

Ryker looked up to find Sofia taking out her frustration on a poor beast, and it was a poor beast indeed.

The improvement to her Innate Battle Genius was drastic and her fist were like heavy boulders. She didn’t even use her duck Spirit Beast at all, laying on the poor beast as though it owed her money.

Watching this, Ryker found it a little bit amusing, though maybe he shouldn’t.

Did he understand Sofia’s emotions? He did. He was just still annoyed that she snubbed her nose at him and made false assumptions about his intentions. Maybe as an act of discipline, he should also apologize…

He shook his head, feeling a spike of annoyance.

‘Maybe just one step at a time, alright?’

He could only deal with so much annoyance at a time. He already had a hard time looking at Rosemary without that feeling of anger welling up inside again. This was a woman that had tried to kill him over what was, once again, a misunderstanding, after all.

‘Let’s focus on more interesting things…’

A low grumble came from Ryker’s throat and he could feel a hint of it shredding apart. But at the same time, there was a hint of [Soul Ripple] just barely hanging on the edge of it.

‘It really does work,’ Ryker thought, a wild grin spreading across his face.

The reason Ryker needed the methods of the Crimson Federation was because he had no foundation in body cultivation methods. While he had been in the Valorian Clan, without meeting certain strength markers, he wasn’t allowed to even look at certain techniques, let alone trade for them.

This had never been much of an issue to him because he was confident that he would one day have a meteoric rise, he just never thought that he’d end up stranded in this land first.

However, it could be said that Ryker’s foundation was second to none. His understanding of the human body and its anatomy was extremely deep, and with these methods as a reference, he could easily create something that suited him more.

That said… even he didn’t expect that it would work so well.

Ryker took the sectioning methods from [Infernal Judgment] and the resonance methods from [Lion’s Might] and combined them into a method that used [Soul Ripple] as the foundation.

[Soul Ripple] was ultimately Soul Manipulation method and seemed to be the furthest thing from a body cultivation method. But Ryker wasn’t actually using it to cultivate his body.

Circle Talent decided one’s Spirit Energy capacity and Spirit Energy affinity. Soul Talent decided how easily one could communicate with and relay orders to their Spirit Beast, as well as how good their Spirit Energy control was.

Ryker’s Spirit Energy control had always been exceptional, and he had refined it to an extreme after almost two decades of carrying his Silver Mirror around everywhere, so for him to go so far to try and bolster his Spirit Energy control even further, one could imagine just how crazy what he was attempting was.

Ryker was using [Soul Ripple] as a foundation for the resonance methods of [Lion’s Might]. He was essentially using the former too long in the resonance of his Spirit Energy into a very particular frequency, one that was almost indistinguishable from his blood.

Then, he was using the methods of [Infernal Judgment] not only to separate his body into different sections, each with their own unique valves and pressures, but also as a method of pouring his Spirit Energy into his bloodstream.

He took these steps calmly, choosing to meld his Wind Type Spirit Energy into his blood as it was the most docile and predictable.

Then, once this was complete, he began to circulate his Time Type Spirit Energy.

With the sections of his body separated under the methods of [Infernal Judgment], his Time Type Spirit flowed a bit oddly. Usually, he would just have one target for it, but now it filled one space, and then it pooled over then filled another, then another.

Suddenly, under Ryker’s delicate control, his blood stream was filled with Wind Type Spirit Energy on one hand and his Meridians were filled with Time Type Spirit Energy on the other.

‘Not quite, a little bit more…’

The reason the beasts kept losing their lives was clear. When Time Type Spirit Energy interacted directly with the blood, it sucked up a large amount of vitality, effectively shortening one’s lifespan. The only way to avoid that was to have a technique that could separate vitality from life force, or one that had the ability to create large amounts of life force.

Unfortunately, Ryker didn’t have such a method. What he did have, though, was this method of resonance and maybe the best Spirit Energy control of anyone in this corner of the universe.

Under his careful [Soul Ripples], his Wind Type Spirit Energy didn’t just form pockets in his blood, but rather began to slowly fuse with it.

This was a method of the [Infernal Judgment] technique. It was specifically designed to burn through the blood, using it as a vehicle to rid his body of impurities.

The method itself was crude, but the vehicle portion was perfect for Ryker…

Because it allowed him to perfect coat his blood in his Wind Type Spirit Energy energy until it almost looked like one, homogeneous mixture. Except the truth was that his blood was coated in a sheath of Wind Type Spirit Energy, completely separated from the touch of Time Type Spirit Energy.

Ryker slowly opened his eyes, trying to check how well he could maintain this form.

At first, he found it somewhat awkward. It was a heavy task for his mind, almost like he was constantly juggling dozens of things at once.

But his soul suddenly seemed to expand to occupy it. As though it had been tired of the mundane tasks he had always given it and was looking for a deeper challenge, it greedily stepped up to the plate.

It felt like Ryker was massaging himself, slowly relaxing a muscle that had grown extremely strong and yet had shortened as a result.

The moment he put it under some stress, it began to lengthen again, expanding to accommodate his demands of it.

The process became easier and easier until Ryker could walk normally, and then he could run normally. Soon, he began to practice some simple martial forms, his technique becoming sharper and sharper.

He found that the Wind Type Spirit Energy had next to no impact on how his body functioned, which was very interesting. It was as though his blood vessels weren’t the proper vessel for it.

But this wasn’t a bad thing at all. In fact, it was excellent. It meant that he could store his Spirit Energy in his blood for extended periods of time without worrying about it dissipating through the use of other things.

The drawback was, obviously, that he could only use one Spirit Energy at a time with this method and even if he got extremely familiar with swapping one out for another, it would still take an extra split second in battle, something that could cost him his life.

The even deeper issue would be that the only way for this to work would be for his Time Type Spirit Energy to constantly saturate his Meridians with energy. Obviously, then, if he was swapping energy, he would have to drain himself of Time Type Spirit Energy first, and only then would he be able to swap the Spirit Energy in his blood.

Essentially, swapping in battle was a no go.

However, was that strictly necessary? Did he have to swap from Spirit Energy Type to Spirit Energy Type?

Ryker suddenly flashed and his Spirit Energy flashed. His hand pulled out his whip and he unfurled it in a single motion.

BOOM!

It should have been a crack, and yet it thundered like a roar of a dragon. The whip in his palms shattered to pieces and a scythe that towered dozens of meters came out from him, tearing into the seats of the arena and shredding it to pieces.

Ryker’s eyes opened wide, barely registering the shattered whip in his palm as he looked at the devastation.

Half the arena was completely destroyed. Even the surrounding dense metal and formation designed specifically to stop any carnage from affecting the rest of the Palace was in shambles. Had Ryker not subconsciously realized his attack was too powerful and dissipated the concentration somewhat, he would have cut through the entire foundation of the Palace.

‘… Wow…’

Ryker realized at that moment that that strike could definitely kill someone above the Enlightenment Realm.

Time Type Spirit Energy had been ruining his life for longer than he knew…

But it was actually capable of displaying this kind of power just the moment he got the faintest control over it.

He was floored.

It wasn’t just this, but he felt that there was a secondary benefit of flooding his bloodstream with Spirit Energy like this…

Instant casting.