Ryu felt as though his very spirit itself was being crushed.
Going through an Extinction was like expunging all of your accumulation at once. It wasn't a physical struggle, but it could manifest as such as the strength of the body was being forcefully torn apart.
To undergo an Extinction was to force one to question their very existence. Every aspect of your being would be assaulted and ground to dust, then amidst all of that pain and right in the middle of what was essentially an existential crisis, you would have to build yourself up again.
For Ryu who had brought his Inheritances to perfection first before doing anything, the process was incredibly painful. In addition, because he was older than the optimal age, his mind also lacked the same sort of placidity that would have made the situation easier.
As though all of this wasn't bad enough, because he was in the Chaos Plane rather than the Abyssal Plane or even the Real Plane, he had to force himself to remain conscious or at any time, an astral wind could shred what remained of his consciousness to pieces.
The good news was the harshness of the Chaos Plane made crushing his comprehensions even easier than it would have been anywhere else, this was actually a great help to Ryu whose comprehensions were at the pinnacle of perfection.
However, that was where all of the so-called good news ended. In fact, it was hard to say if even that was good news at all.
When Ryu entered the Chaos Plane and began his First Extinction, the process of crushing his comprehension happened easily, too easily. In fact, even when it neared the end, it still accelerated, pressing the gas harder and harder as though it wouldn't be satisfied until even Ryu himself vanished along with his soul presence.
Back on the Real Plane, Ryu grit his teeth, hard. Beads of sweat fell down his brows and his body trembled. If one looked closely, his body was so tense that every drop of sweat that fell carried with it droplets of blood within.
It had only been a few seconds, and yet it seemed that he was already on the verge of collapse.
Suddenly, Ryu's control was ripped away from him and his soul's presence threatened to slip into darkness forward.
Ryu's teeth cracked, a hint of helplessness threatening to bloom in his heart. He felt as though the Chaos Plane was playing a game of tug of war with his life and it was winning.
If he had done this on the Abyssal Plane, even if he failed, there was a chance of living although the odds of being able to progress again in his lifetime would be minimal. However, he was absolutely certain that if he failed here and now, his life would be forfeit, there was simply no coming from this.
Ryu's consciousness began to fade. He couldn't even sense his Inheritances properly anymore, after crushing them, it was as though all his affinity for fire, for ice, for thunder, all of it, had just been whisked into the wind, never to return.
However, at that moment, an anchor that was deep within his eyes flashed with a blinding light.
Veins popped across his body, the blood sweat falling down his skin beginning to coat his sky blue robes in their grotesque color.
Still, he held on, the light of his eight trigram diagram becoming brighter and brighter.
All those months ago, when Ryu had combined his Inheritances and Dao into a single entity, he never thought that it would be the choice that saved him today.
While his Inheritances were ripped to shreds, his Dao remained intact, becoming the anchor that could always guide him back.
The sensation became stronger and stronger, almost like he was working a muscle that he could finally feel aching and whining for the first time. His mind to muscle connection only became stronger and more clear. The heavier his Daos became, even though his Inheritances had yet to reform, the calmer Ryu's state became.
The existential crisis he was facing became less invasive. The backlash of his body became less apparent. The difficulty of the Extinction became less profound and simpler in his eyes.
After a few moments, Ryu could feel the chaotic energies of the Chaos Plane baptizing his Inheritances. It wasn't that they refused to reform, but rather that they were continuously being reformed and rebuilt instead.
Ryu had always received Essence as a reward for comprehending Inheritances. It made sense, after all, Inheritances was a process of comprehending the Heavens. Every time you grasped a truth of the Heavens, the Heavens would thus reward you.
But now that Ryu thought about it, was he really comprehending the Heavens? Or was he comprehending the laws of the Real Plane? This was a subtle but simultaneously very important distinction.
It suddenly became obvious to Ryu that it was truly his Chaotic Silk Meridians that had been holding back his comprehension for so long. In fact, it had been holding him back for so long that even though his Inheritances became more powerful with each subsequent breakthrough, the returns only became less and less until the point he could rarely use them in battle.
But now, it felt as though Ryu was learning a whole other side of the coin, a whole other side of his Inheritances. As time passed, his seemingly already perfect Inheritances doubled in power, gaining a matching half to them that exuded an aura that was no less powerful.
The eight trigram diagram pulsed out in waves. In that moment, Ryu's Dao, which had come in two halves, was slowly beginning to bloom two more, influenced by the changes to his Inheritances.
Without a choice, Ryu could only keep them separate, worrying about what changes might occur if he allowed them to fuse into one once more.
As time passed, Ryu's cultivation and strength began to steadily rise, shocking changes taking root within his body.
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