Ryker dodged out of the way of a claw. He didn’t even unfurl his whip and chain, focused on the creature before him, or rather, its innards.

One of the reasons Spirit Beasts were so much more powerful than humans wasn’t just because of their bodily strength or power Spirit Energy, but rather their instincts toward using them.

Unlike humans who had to train heavily, the ratio of training to mastery a Spirit Beast had to go through was much less. This wasn’t because they were more intelligent than humans, but rather because their instincts were much sharper.

Now that Ryker thought about it, this was the first time he was actually observing the Spirit Energy usage of a Spirit Beast. He felt that he might gain more out of this than just a better understanding of Time Type Spirit Energy.

However, it didn’t happen immediately.

He saw the beast struggling. On the one hand, it had become used to using Earth Type Spirit Energy, it was what it was born to do, what its bloodline yearned for. But now there was another energy within it pulling it in a completely different direction.

Its Meridians were reflected on the Silver Mirror. Ryker’s [Soul Ripple] resonated with it, making the image sharper and clearer in Ryker’s mind.

The beast suddenly came to a stop, and so did Ryker. His blue eyes flashed like lightning as he grinned. Indeed, the beast was using the Time Spirit Energy now.

It was odd, though, Ryker was never frozen when he used Time Type Spirit Energy. The problem wasn’t being locked in place, he could move just fine. It was rather that the energy moved so slowly that it took seconds to reach its destination. Due to that, it left him vulnerable in battle.

Humans had far weaker bodies and physical abilities overall. If he was stuck without the use of Spirit Energy in battle, he’d be a sitting duck.

Of course, it was possible to just rely on Phoenix and hang back until he was ready, but Ryker didn’t like this plan.

It wasn’t because he didn’t want Phoenix to fight on their own, or that he didn’t want Phoenix to be the vanguard. These were just natural parts of being a Mythical Master.

What he didn’t like was that it didn’t really work in the flow of battle.

While he could continue to use his whip and chain as the Time Type Spirit Energy circulated, they would lose their strength without Spirit Energy to support them. The process would inevitably make his battle strength far weaker, and predictable at that considering the precise time intervals.

But this beast actually came to a complete stop. It was…

Ryker’s gaze flashed and he suddenly exploded in retreat.

Patience covered her gasp with a palm as the ground suddenly exploded. The wolf beast had just been at a complete standstill when it seemed to vanish. She couldn’t even react to its speed, and if Ryker was just a moment slower, they would have all had to watch him die.

The ground around the wolf exploded with spikes. They layered atop of one another, almost forming an entire shell.

Ryker continued to retreat, his eyes wide.

At this level, an attack of that scale should be impossible. The amount of Spirit Energy the wolf would have to use should have drained it over 70% of those spikes ago, and yet it was forming a carpet in the arena, one quickly unfurling toward his direction.

He tapped the ground as he activated [Divined Step]. With a single movement, he appeared atop of one of the spikes, tapping his foot downward again just as it was about to skewer the sole of his foot through.

Earth Type Spirit Energy coated him and stifled the growing spikes, and yet there was still a sharpness that he felt.

This lower level beast was actually overwhelming his Spirit Energy?

Ryker’s eyes couldn’t help but widen. That was absolutely ridiculous.

Obviously, not all Typed Spirit Energies were created equal. There were the elemental Spirit Energies, the Variant Spirit Energies, and the higher form Spirit Energies like Light and Dark, followed by the rarest of them all, Space and Time.

However, even within these, there were variations. Not all Variant Spirit Energies—like Ice or Magma—were necessarily always weaker than Light and Dark. And even further within these distinctions, not all Earth Type Spirit Energies were created equal.

Simply put, the Earth Type Spirit Energy that Ryker was borrowing from Phoenix was on a completely different level. That was why he was able to use it to cancel out the wolf beast’s earlier skills, but somehow it was countering him now?

Ryker’s eyes lit not with trepidation, but excitement.

‘It fused its Earth Type Spirit Energy with Time Type Spirit Energy? That’s possible? No, it’s something more complicated than that… what is it doing?’

Ryker watched, dodging the furious pursuit of the wolf.

The creature paused again, and Ryker once again didn’t attack it, but this time it exploded forth after an even shorter time, appearing before Ryker with menace.

Its paws hardly spent more than a fraction of a second against the ground, and every time they touched a ripple of earth would move.

The ground suddenly softened and all the spikes in the surroundings dug into the ground as though pulled by quicksand.

Ryker was truly baffled. This scale of attack should only be possible beyond the Enlightenment Realm. He could feel that the creature was pulling at its very vitality. After the first attack, it was already running on empty, and now, Ryker could practically see its fur sinking into its bone and losing its shine.

BOOM.

The ground exploded and the air was filled with sand and dirt, it obstructed vision from all sides and suddenly hidden spikes within glimmered just once before shooting toward Ryker from all sides.

“Ryker!”

Ryker turned a deaf ear to Patience’s call, his gaze suddenly turning cold. He tilted his head to the side, dodging out of the way of a spike that would have impaled him.

[Divined Step].

He weaved and walked with grace, sometimes making his body a small target, sometimes inexplicable coming to a stop just as a spike whizzed by his nose.

After what looked like a stroll through Armageddon, he appeared before the wolf and suddenly slapped a palm downward.

BANG.

The wolf’s head was driven into the ground.

It twitched, trying to get up, but then its life force gave out and its heart stopped beating entirely.

It lay there as the earth fell to the ground, breathing out its last ragged breaths.

By the end of it, Ryker understood what the beast had done. It was an ingenious method, one that maybe only a Spirit Beast with their instincts could have accomplished, and yet this was the ultimate result.

The beast used its Combat Type Spirit Energy as a bridge. Rather than flooding its Meridians with Time Type Spirit Energy, first it flooded its body full of Earth Type Spirit Energy, filling its Meridians to the brim and to the point it spilled over into its normal circulatory system.

After saturating its blood stream with Earth Type Spirit Energy, it then used Time Type Spirit Energy, pushing it into its Meridians, once again flooding its entire body.

Due to this, it was able to use its Time Type Spirit Energy instantaneously, bringing it into contact with its Earth Type Spirit Energy. This wasn’t much different to what Ryker had done to quickly heal his arm, just with an extra step.

However, this method was extremely dangerous.

For one, Spirit Energy wasn’t designed to bond and fuse with the blood. That was why the beast had to flood its entire body with Earth Type Spirit Energy first. This action raised the pressure in its body so much that its blood stream was forced to make room for its Spirit Energy.

This wasn’t much different from having pockets of air in your blood, something that was extremely dangerous. Strokes or heart attacks were the norm in this situation.

Theoretically, it was possible to avoid this. Ryker had a deep understanding of the human body as a Spiritual Cook, so he saw things differently from most people.

If you could concentrate your Spirit Energy to have a similar consistency to your blood, it wouldn’t be impossible… The problem was that Spirit Energy would be gaseous until the next Realm, making that inherently far more difficult to do unless you were willing to use much more Spirit Energy per drop than usual.

But, obviously, as a consequence of that, every drop that came in contact with your Time Spirit Energy would likewise be far more violent as well.

This was difficult, but it was a lethal enticement to Ryker who was a 9th Circle Talent. He had more than 25 times the Spirit Energy reserves of a 7th Circle talent. Obviously, compared to this beast it was an even more exaggerated gap, especially considering they weren’t even of the same cultivation realm.

The trouble was that this wasn’t the only problem with this method.

He looked toward the wolf that was nothing but a bag of bones.

Had he really shortened the time it took to heal his arm from three days to a few seconds… or had he given up three days of his life in exchange for healing what was ultimately an insignificant wound in the grand scheme?

Ryker had over 200 years of lifespan right now due to his lineage. Compared to that, three days was truly nothing. But… what if he did it again and again?

Theoretically, the more powerful his Combat Type Spirit Energy, the less of his lifespan he would have to give up. But that was ultimately circular logic, because the more powerful his Combat Type Spirit Energy, the more powerful his body, and the more difficult it would be to harm it in the first place. As such, it would take more time to heal from such injuries.

Nothing in the world of cultivation was so simple.

It seemed that every time Time Spirit Energy came into contact with your blood, it was tapping into your vitality.

This method of using it was ingenious, but how long could Ryker use it for?

This Spirit Beast had run out of lifespan after a single battle. Granted, it didn’t have enough Spirit Energy to truly flood its blood stream, so it had ended up using much more vitality than Ryker probably would have.

There was also another matter to consider, and that was the fact the beast had only just been promoted to the 4th Circle, and its size had increased considerably in a short span of time.

The first meant that it had yet to reach the Spirit Energy reserves of a high level talent, and the second meant that its vitality had yet to catch up to its new size.

This meant that things weren’t as bad as they seemed, but they also clearly weren’t ideal.

“Patience.” Ryker suddenly called out.

Patience finally seemed to calm her beating heart when Ryker called out.

“Yes?”

“Does you family have body cultivation methods?”

“Um, yes. We…”

Patience wasn’t going to say they pretty much specialized in this sort of thing, but seeing Ryker’s sudden knowing glance and smirk, she blushed instead.

She could tell that he was thinking about her body again.

“Can you steal a few for me to look at?” Ryker asked.

Patience thought about it before answering. The real answer was probably both yes and no.

Could she, in her capacity as princess, take a look at their records and such? Of course.

But would it be allowed was a different matter entirely. The elders that oversaw those precious things might find any number of excuses to turn her down.

“It’s fine,” Ryker said. “Go. If they stop you.”

Ryker waved a hand and Phoenix appeared.

“The big guy will bite their heads off.”

ROAR!

Phoenix’s call shook the arena.

Patience’s eyes widened. But eventually, she nodded. Having support for the first time truly felt good.

Soon, Patience was gone and another 1st Enlightenment Realm beast was called out.

Ryker battled again, taking note of some new things. His mind was churning with thoughts.

But ultimately, the main question remained unsolved.

Why was it that a Spirit Energy had such weird quirks? What was limiting it so much?

Could it be that he needed a special cultivation method to use it?

There was also something else he had yet to try, but he still needed time to prep, and that was obviously to try using Time Type Spirit Energy through his mirror.

The trouble was that he had just allowed it to evolve with Spirit Energy as its main path. He would need to find Time Type materials in order to balance it out before he tried that method, or he might shatter its soul.

‘But where am I going to find that?’ Ryker chuckled to himself, dodging out of the way of the strike of a bear beast and driving a fist through its face. Its entire skull cracked, not because Ryker was so strong, but because it was already on its last legs just like the wolf beast had been. Its bones were already filled with holes from age.

Although its method was slightly different, the ultimate result was still the same.

Ryker shook his head. ‘I should try not to be too disappointed, this is still progress. This path is interesting and it has potential, it’ll just depend on whether I can glean anything from those cultivation methods to perfect it.’

“Alright, which one of you wants to go first? I’ll give you some pointers.”

Desmond, Sofia and Rosemary looked at one another.

“I don’t really feel like fighting right now,” Sofia said with a forced smile.

“Okay, I’ll go,” Rosemary replied.

“Wait.” Desmond called out to stop her, a bit worried.

“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on using that ability to strengthen competition. She couldn’t handle that right now anyway.”

Desmond only relaxed after this, but he still came down to the arena.

Ryker shook his head as he went up and plopped down beside Sofia, not caring to do the same as Desmond. He didn’t know what the guy could do without a partner anyway. Though he was in the 7th Enlightenment Realm, without a Spirit Beast, he would be hard pressed to defeat even a weak 2nd Enlightenment Realm beast.

Sofia stiffened a bit at Ryker’s sudden presence, but she eventually distracted herself by grooming her silver-beaked duck beast.

Ryker gave her a glance but didn’t really say much as Rosemary’s battle began.

She was facing off against another wolf beast, one of the 2nd Enlightenment Realm. Her bunny beast was already the size of a normal wolf, but it was mostly unmoving like its master. The two stood in a line, the bunny’s red horn taking vanguard as illusory red horns filled the air, bombarding the creature opposite them.

Ryker watched with his arms crossed and his legs up on the seat below. Eventually, he shook his head.

The way Rosemary fought, her and her beast might as well have been just one target. They did complement one another well, Ryker could give them that, and Rosemary did well to understand her strengths and press that advantage. But there was little variety and variability in her battle style.

If she met an enemy that did have such variety, she would be easily dealt with.

She only had one move: attack with those red horns.

It was effective against enemies that were much weaker than her, but against real enemies it was a problem.

“Why don’t you guide her instead of just sitting up here, shaking your head.”

An aggravated voice came from Ryker’s side as he was observing.

He frowned, a hint of irritation flashing in his eyes as he looked over.

“Can you shut up?”

Sofia was startled at the sudden blunt reply before her temper flared up. Wisps of Spirit Energy coalesced around her body and she seemed about to explode.

“Oh my, I’m so sorry. I guess since I didn’t spread my legs for you I don’t get to have any of your grace either. Maybe I should be a little slut for you, would that appease your ego?”

Ryker moved faster than Sofia could react. In a near instant of time, his hand had almost clawed around her throat.

A deep frown colored Ryker’s expression. He had been this close to killing her.

Her words weren’t barbs at him, they were clearly aimed at Patience. The moment he connected those dots, he had seen red.

Sofia stumbled backward, fear coloring her face. At that moment, she had felt a dense and towering killing intent. A soul much more powerful than her own ripped into her consciousness and ripped apart her sense of self.

She suddenly realized how large the gap between her and Ryker was. She had always known it, but it hadn’t truly settled in until this moment.

She almost peed herself and tears fell from her eyes.

Ryker took deep breaths, retracting his claw. His emotions had taken the reins just now. Quite frankly, the only reason Sofia wasn’t dead right now was because he was doing his best to control his impulses.

“There are some people you can’t afford to offend,” Ryker eventually said coldly. “I thought you would have known about the cruelty of the world already given how much of your dignity you were willing to give up to survive in it, but maybe I thought too highly of you.”

Sofia’s lips trembled, but her rage overwhelmed her fear. She was ultimately a strong willed woman, and often she would rather die than bend to someone else’s whims.

“You thought highly of me?! Don’t make me laugh. Was letting me convulse in a pile of my own shit part of you thinking highly of me?”

The irritation Ryker had worked so hard to press down came bubbling back up.

“You want to blame me for your own stubbornness? I wanted to give you an opportunity and you thought so highly of yourself that you misunderstood my intentions. Did you think I needed to go so far to con a woman like you? Do you have any idea how many 5th and 6th Circle talents I could have had in my bed if I wanted?

“What are you worth, exactly?!”

Ryker’s voice boomed like thunder, it was so loud and raging that Rosemary was thrown off, and the beast she was fighting directly fell to the ground, its soul suffering under a suppression it couldn’t understand.

Sofia was so angry that she seemed to be hyperventilating. Her chest heaved up and down and her fair face flushed an almost dark shade of crimson.

She grit her teeth so hard that the grinding could probably be heard.

“Fuck you, Ryker.” She eventually ground out. “You’re not in your great Valorian Clan anymore, there’s no women here fawning over you. Get over yourself!”

Ryker’s Spirit Energy, flared. His hair rose off his shoulders and wisps of bluish lines and fog seemed to rise from it.

But just as he was about to respond his head suddenly turned in a certain direction and a huge WHOOSH of Wind Type Spirit Energy took shape, pushing everything away from him.

Sofia tumbled away as Ryker vanished into the wind.

…

ROAR!

Phoenix’s heads roared with such force that the ceilings quaked. Patience was on their back and they were facing off against a man dressed like an emperor.

His robes were just as immaculately structured as Ryker’s, his features had a similar sternness to the Crimson Supreme, but the difference was that he was slimmer and his eyes weren’t red, but rather a rich amber.

“I’ve already made myself clear, Patience. This beast should be captured and studied. Its bloodline can have a highly positive impact on our Crimson Lions, especially its fire aspect.”

“Asking to capture another’s Spirit Beast for research?” Patience almost sneered, but managed to hold back. “I’ve heard that the Crimson Regent’s Crimson Lion is of a particular pure stock, why have you not volunteered it yet?”

The Crimson Regent didn’t seem bothered by these words.

“The Crimson Lion is a beast that has been thoroughly studied. My own Crimson Lion is no less pure than your fathers. We have already reached the truest pinnacle possible.

“This beast, though, is that of an outsider’s. Whether it’s for research, or to keep this unknown man in check—”

The Crimson Regent looked into the distance but Ryker had already appeared.

His whip unfurled without a word, appeared before the Crimson Regent with such speed that he only barely managed to dodge it.

The Crimson Regent, standing outside the range of Ryker’s whip, suddenly raised a pair of fingers to his cheek, touching it lightly and pulling it back to observe the droplets of blood.

“Attacking the Crimson Regent of the Federation. It seemed that this man is truly leading a Rebellion.”

He waved a hand and several Crimson Knights standing in the vicinity moved.