When Ryker opened his eyes, he saw the two people he thought he would never see again. "Mother, Father!" he called out to them, the two looking at him with care.
"Ryker," Mother called out, "This is just a little soul memory, one that would activate when you almost reached the Genesis Core realm,"
Hearing this, Ryker couldn't help but have questions, "For why?" he asked, Father was the one to answer him this time.
"It's because you're about to break through the Genesis Core realm without comprehending all of the Cultivation Art we left," Ryker's brows scrunched as he tried to make sense of what his parents were saying.
"So, I need to comprehend all of the Cultivation Art first?" he asked, surprised when his parents nodded.
"Yes, because comprehending them all would mean that all of the Path related to the Cultivation Art would rise to the Elementary Understanding level. This is what you should be aiming for. Though, if you comprehend the Cultivation Art, you could get to the first level of mastery anyway,"
Hearing his Father explaining it still left him with one big question, "Why?" while he did not elaborate, his Mother seemed to have guessed what he was asking.
"We cannot fully explain it, just that you should make sure all of the Path reached the first level of mastery before you former your core, as there would be great benefit in the future. If you continued forming your core, only the Path that had reached the Elementary Understanding would benefit.
If you reached the Genesis Core realm and still have some of the Cultivation Art that you did not comprehend, even if it's just a small bit, then you need to destroy your Genesis Core and stay over again, this time focusing on increasing your mastery of different Path,"
Ryker couldn't help but sweatdrop. He had thought that he wouldn't do something like blowing up his Genesis Core, as it was the height of stupidity. To think he would have to do it if he ascended to the Genesis Core realm at the moment, was something he didn't think of much less entertain such notion.
"Because you already choose the harder choice, then you should go all out and try to do it. We already destroyed our Genesis Core to start anew before so we already knew how painful it is. If you don't want to suffer the same thing, you should try to hold off from solidifying your Genesis Core.
The moment you do so, either you have to stay on the path of mediocrity or start anew. If you don't want any of the two options, you need to hold off from advancing for now. Wait until you get every Path to the first level mastery then ascend.
Doing this will give you a lot of benefits, even when you reach a level far beyond the Genesis grand realm. So, remember, stop advancing and focus on raising your mastery realm to the highest level possible."
The constant reminder made it clear to Ryker that he had to stop his ascension or he would have to redo everything. Which means that every preparation he had made had been turned moot. He quickly stopped the forming of his core, letting it stay in its illusory state.
"Why didn't they tell me earlier?" he bitterly asked himself. If he had known it earlier, he would have focused most of his energy on learning all of the Cultivation Art instead of increasing his Cultivation Realm.
He quickly summoned his core outside of his Inner Realm, taking a good look at it. Even though it wasn't solidified yet, it still has the properties of a true Genesis Core. The power that it emitted was even greater than most Genesis Core, most likely the result of merging with those things representing his mastery of the different Paths.
He then thought of one important thing, 'Could I-, only one way to find out,' he thought to himself before putting the core back inside his Genesis Realm. He then took a deep breath before he started to fly.
"Looks like I can!" he exclaimed excitedly. What made the Genesis Core more special was that it was the major stage where cultivators could fly on their own without any assistance of flying tools, artifacts, or techniques.
In fact, flying at this stage is less consuming than using flying tools or techniques as the consumption of one's qi is less. 'At least they won't be questioning me why I don't reach the Genesis Core realm,' he thought to himself.
At least, even if they were suspicious, his illusory core would likely fool them unless they tried to take a more thorough inspection. Something he doubted they do in case they wanted him to help them in the incoming war.
His little musing was stopped when he sensed several presents coming towards him, "So those beasts sensed my ascension, huh?" he talked to himself, his head turned towards the direction of the most beasts.
While he wouldn't realize it, his ascension had caused some changes to the surroundings, from the thinning of energy concentration to several phenomena occurring near him, making the beast both fearful and curious.
This caused some of the stronger beasts to try to investigate on their own, resulting in them finding Ryker first. Fortunately for Ryker, the beasts were at the Genesis Core realm, up to the equivalent strengths of a Middle-Stage Genesis Core expert.
While there are more of them, with his current strength, he could manhandle even Genesis Source experts and its equivalent so he was not afraid of dealing with the little Genesis Core beasts.
When one of the beasts got close enough, it lunged at Ryker, believing the creature in front of him was weak based on his strength. Even though the creature in front of it was weak, it would still give the beast tons of energy from consuming it.
Ryker didn't even try to take his sword, as he punched the beast without any hesitation, not even bothering to use the Monkey Lord Fist, as he depended on his current strength instead. The beast did not stand a chance as its head exploded from the attack.
The sudden death of one of the beasts made the remaining beasts shriek in terror. While the beast that took the lead is not considered the strongest, its strength would have made it among the top three strongest beasts in the area. Yet, such an existence was defeated so easily.
Realizing the danger they were in, most of the beasts decided to have extra brain cells working together as all of them ran towards different locations, hoping to not be on the creature's menu.