1313 Finally
Even after several moments, Ryu found nothing out of the ordinary. However, his mood didn't change. If finding something out of order was so simple and easy, considering how much effort most had to put into understanding their bodies in order to succeed, in cultivation, how could someone have not found it before?
Of course, Ryu had no idea if he was the first to think of this matter or not. It was very much possible that someone had figured it out and he simply wasn't aware of it at all. Or, it was very much possible that they had already tried and simply found nothing.
That said, Ryu felt that he was in a very unique position.
For one, he had experience with losing parts of his soul, evolving it and then regaining his own soul back. But what was even more important than that was something that should have been a bad thing but had suddenly become a net benefit instead....
His Dao Heart had shattered.
This might sound like an odd benefit, but if he was correct in the fact that his Dao Heart was just one of his many souls, then the fact that it had been compromised would make it easier to pick out faults.
Most others that had suffered such a fate wouldn't even have the mind to care about cultivation, let alone pay attention to their bodies to spot peculiarities. This also left Ryu with another interesting thought.
He wondered if he was able to weather the shattering of his Dao Heart so well, less because of his actual will power, and more so because he was already used to walking through life with his soul compromised? After all, it was clear that the shattering of one of these souls, so long as it wasn't the Yin Spirit, allowed one to keep their lives. So wasn't it possible that during all those years he spent without his Perfect Blackbody, and even the experience he had of his soul shattering while he accepted it once again, had primed him to be capable of dealing with such a tragedy.
Maybe over all these years, his souls had learned how to compensate for one another. This made sense, after all, if his Perfect Blackbody was stolen from him, it had to happen before he was even born. In that state, he should have still had access to Embryonic Qi, and in that case, it might have been possible for his body to adapt and learn to live without portions of himself.
The more Ryu thought about it, the more sense it seemed to make.
Time ticked by and Ryu forgot about everything around him. All he cared about was this pursuit.
Inwardly, he knew that this might be a foolish endeavor. He was actually using a work of fiction like it was truth. He very well might be setting himself up for disappointment. The more time passed, the more he realized how useless the endeavor seemed to be.
However, Ryu wasn't so willing to give things up like this. He didn't know what benefits he might gain for doing this, but at the moment, this mattered a little bit less to him. What he cared the most about was reaching the top of the cultivation world, and he felt that grasping no one else, or maybe only a small handful of individuals had, was incredibly important to that end.
'Still nothing...'
Ryu mused to himself. Even until now, he couldn't find the location of his shattered Dao Heart. It had felt like it was both everywhere and nowhere at the same time, as though it encompassed every inch of his body, and yet was its own distinct identity.
'Could it be?'
Ryu's gaze flashed, his senses focusing on his Spiritual Foundation. Not the White Phoenix Spiritual Foundation, but rather his true Spiritual Foundation, the very one that he had had by his side all this time, the very one that had picked him out from birth.
It was said, in those legends, that after one died, the Seven Corporeal Souls dissolved with the body, vanishing with it. However, the remaining three souls dispersed.
There were many tales about what might occur with the others, so many that there was absolutely no consensus at all. The only thing that these folk tales seemed to agree on was the fact that the Original Spirit would be the one that entered reincarnation to be wiped of its memories and reborn. As for the other two, there was absolutely no decided upon conclusion at all.
At that moment, Ryu had an absolutely wild thought.
What if his soul wasn't located in his Spiritual Sea at all, and was instead right here?
He looked down at his cracked Spiritual Foundation. These cracks had occurred after the Infinity Mist Cosmic Seed was planted, so he hadn't originally mused much about it. Why would he be thrown off by cracks when that was precisely what state his Spiritual Foundation should be in at the moment?
But now that he looked again, he finally noticed it.
These cracks, they were more numerous than the last time he checked. In addition, rather than giving up a large amount of rich Cosmic Qi, many of these fissures were instead giving off a deathly sort of qi that was swallowing up much of the Cosmic Qi his Beyond Perfect Extreme Spiritual Foundation was producing.
Ryu descended and touched down on his Spiritual Foundation, feeling a shudder in his heart. He could almost hear it wailing. It wasn't a real, physical sound, but he was being washed by its sadness. The hopelessness hit him in waves and all those emotions that he hadn't been able to sense previously flooded him as thoug he was facing a tsunami.
Ryu realized now. It was actually a confounding of several events. It wasn't just that he was used to having portions of his soul snatched from him, it was also that this section of his soul wasn't connected to him via normal means, and most important...
He finally realized what those weird alterations in his Realm Heart were.
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