"She's hidden deep underground, deep enough those lizards can't sense her. I will use my remaining power to help move her to the surface. When that happens, create a distraction to attract the lizards so I can move her somewhere safer," he said but Ryekr shook his head.
"That plan has too many flaws. First of all, while I could outrun the lizards, can the princess of yours move fast enough, as even with you helping her, your assistance is likely limited to this peak.
Secondly, said we are all able to escape, what will happen next? You are in the Human Realm and if a dragon princess suddenly appeared, the number of experts going on a dragon hunt would be too much for you to handle.
Thirdly, if you have ways to hide your princess's identity, can she act human enough to not get unwanted attraction? If she acts like a princess, she might reveal her identity so everything you do will be for naught,"
Hearing Ryker poke his plan made the dragon spirit both speechless and glad. The way the human acted makes it look like he's not only doing his part of the deal but going all out to make sure the princess would be fine after their escape.
"In that case, do you have a plan?" he asked the young man.
"Yes, first of all, can you protect me while I absorb the energy in the room?" the dragon spirit nodded, not seeing what that had to do with anything.
"Secondly, can you cause a distraction after getting your princess outside," the dragon nodded again, still not seeing how it would help his princess.
"The first part of the plan is to get me to break through. After my breakthrough, the chances for me to escape the lizard beasts will be higher. Because you cannot leave the area, you will cause the distraction where I will take the princess and run away as far as possible.
After that, until the princess becomes strong enough to go to the Monster Realm, I will act as both her guard and guide until she is ready," hearing the plan, the dragon thought about it and nodded, the plan was well thought out and looked at each party ability, the only part he worried about is the fact the young man needed to breakthrough.
What if he left after breaking through the next realm? In the end, he was desperate enough to try it as it was either to gamble on the young man's capabilities and honesty or lose his princess without a fight.
"Alright, I agree to your plan." the dragon said before the two exited from Ryker's Inner Realm.
-x-
Ryker opened his eyes only to see red all around him. He was about to touch the barrier when a voice inside his head stopped him.
"This barrier is something I created to protect you when we were talking. I will be using this barrier to move you to the center, near my heart. The lizards won't sense anything if you remain inside this barrier," the dragon explained, Ryker stopped moving as a result.
Soon, he watched as the barrier seemed to rise by a bit before inching forward. "Walk at the same pace as the barrier. I want to spend as little energy as possible before helping the princess escape,"
Ryker merely nodded, walking at a very slow pace, the dragon likely could move them faster but decided against it. Besides, if they moved faster, the lizards might detect them and things will get nasty.
As he walked, Ryker decided to have a conversation with the dragon. "This enemy of yours, the one responsible for the death of the royal family you served, who are they?"
The dragon remained quiet for a while before answering, "They are from a rival Dragon Clan, one that has similar strength to our clan. But, we have a traitor inside the clan, and the rival clan has several other powers helping them, so we, unfortunately, lose,"
The silence remained for a moment before the dragon took his turn to ask, "Why are you asking this?"
"I just want to know possible threats when the princess travels with us, in case your enemy has any influence in the Human Realm," he replied.
"In that case, you didn't need to worry. While we are considered a superpower in this backwater region, we only have several Earth Source Realm experts, a power that is not strong enough to have a connection or influence with people from other realms.
Only those great powers with World Source Realm experts can build influence in other realms though they have to be sneaky about it or the great powers in that realm would stop their attempt," the dragon explained, reassuring that traveling with the princess wouldn't lead to possible danger in the near future.
"What is the realm your princess is right now?" Ryker asked. He hoped that she would be weaker than him so he could control her somewhat.
"She was at the Genesis Source realm before she was sealed, but with how long time has passed, her cultivation had regressed because of the seal, making her current realm should be at the Genesis Condensing realm," Inside, Ryker let out a sigh of relief.
With them being in the same realm, he believed he would come out on top. This would allow him to stop her from doing things that might kill them.
"We here," the dragon said, Ryker looked in front to see the beating heart, powerful energy constantly emitted by it.
"I'm going to cover you, so take the chance to ascend to the next realm," the dragon urged.
Ryker took a meditative position before closing his eyes, circulating both Celestial Energy Art and Sacred Beast Art, an art specialized in absorbing the powerful monster essence. Using it in conjunction with the Celestial Energy Art would give the best result when absorbing energy from Wild Beast and Monster Race.
He began to absorb the surrounding monster essence, the red cloud formed from the heart slowly pulled towards him before being refined, his cultivation slowly rising. He continued absorbing the essence before he reached his bottleneck.
He concentrated, the energy he refined transforming to his qi, his Inner Realm reaching the limit of his current cultivation. He focused inside his Inner Realm, the qi cloud inside him could not be held.
He took a deep breath before concentrating. There is a reason why the third major realm of the Genesis Grand Realm is called the Genesis Condensing Realm. When one reaches the limit of Genesis Formation, to ascend to the next realm one must condense their qi.
This process requires the person to compress their qi, transforming it into a liquid state. While it may seem like it would make the qi reserve of a person decrease, in fact, it is not the case.
A drop of condensed qi would have as much qi as a large clump of cloud-like qi. In essence, a transformation from quantity to quality.
He could feel his qi slowly condensed, being turned to liquid as he absorbed the monster's essence to power his breakthrough. The process took 3 hours, a long time for an average breakthrough to the Genesis Condensing realm but it makes sense for him as his qi reserve is massive.
However, even after breaking into the next realm, he didn't plan to stop there, as he needed as much strength as possible for his part of the plan.