Spirit Beast Enlightenment: A Beast Taming Progression Fantasy

Ryker never expected to grasp the Dao of Space like this. But what was particularly shocking wasn’t any of this, but rather the fact he felt like he could sense several paths all at once… And the number was actually more than 33.

Ryker could sense exactly 37 Paths, and the vague outline of one or two dozen more.

What was important to him here, though, wasn’t even the comprehension, but rather the sudden enlightenment toward another truth.

It was possible to use lower Daos to comprehend higher ones. If that was the case, maybe he didn’t need to wait until he found some special region of the Dao of Sealing or the Dao of Time… Maybe he could use more common regions to cobble together an understanding of higher-order laws.

What Ryker didn’t know was that while this was common knowledge outside of this prison… knowing it was one thing, executing on it was another. Even for Ryker, he had to stumble onto such a special matter to realize it, let alone those without Pure Souls.

Nine more Circles were occupied within Ryker’s dantian and he felt like the world had gained an additional layer of color.

While he could use lower Daos to comprehend higher ones… it seemed that higher Daos made lower ones easier to use.

‘Hm?’

Ryker’s heart skipped a beat. The moment his gaze regained focus, he hurried to pull something out.

It was an orb wrapped by Spiritual Patterns. But usually, Ryker knew it by something else…

It was the key to the prison. It was this very orb that had helped Ryker to sense the Dao of Time and the Dao of Sealing, but usually, he just used it to enter and exit the prison, not to mention keeping it in its miniature size instead of the usual behemoth it was.

But right now, Ryker was sensing something different from it.

Life.

Ryker’s expression became especially weird.

He knew that this key was relying on something to gather up the Dao of Time and Space he was relying on. That was because when he comprehended the Dao of Sealing, he realized that it was suppressing something within that had the Dao of Time and Space within it, using the Sealing Dao to control the complex Daos and force the prison to do its bidding.

However, what he could have never guessed was that what was being sealed was a creature. And on top of that, it seemed to be an egg.

Ryker was truly taken aback.

The problem wasn’t necessarily that it was a beast, he could accept that much easily enough. It was more the fact that it felt too… stupid.

Why the hell would anyone waste such a valuable creature on such a thing? Wouldn’t it be better to contract it? It was even clearly in egg form. Did they have water and sludge for brains?

Ryker vented a bit, happily cursing the bastards that forced his family and his ancestors into such a state, and especially because they were likely related to the illness of his mother. However, after he was done, he knew that there were really only two explanations for this.

Either the creature was so commonplace that no one cared to contract it, or… it was so powerful that this was the only way it could be used.

The first explanation was so ridiculous Ryker refused to accept it.

The cat lady had only been a 7th Circle Talent. Although this was great, it was a bit pitiful in Ryker’s eyes. And yet, she was not only tasked with such an important mission, but she was also shocked by his talent.

This told Ryker something very important: the standards he was used to and the standards of the outside world were unlikely to be too different.

That was to say that a creature this rare here, was almost certainly rare on the other side.

That only left one explanation: they couldn’t contract this beast and this was the best use they had for it.

‘Wait… there’s a third possibility…’

Ryker didn’t realize that this orb was an egg until he grasped the Dao of Time, the Dao of Space, and the Dao of Sealing. Could it be that the life in this egg was impossible to sense without grasping these Daos?

It shouldn’t be a coincidence that he had only sensed it now. Even on the other side, those with the stable of Daos that Ryker had should be rare. But could it really be that not a single person had this combination of Daos?

Ryker was itching. He wanted to ask the cat lady he had stored away for the details, but he still wasn’t confident enough in his own Dao of Sealing just yet.

At the same time, he realized that even if he knew this thing was an egg, there were two reasons that he could get to it now.

For one, if he really did, he would break the key. At that point, how would he control and carry around the prison?

While this beast was definitely special, it would likely take a great deal of effort to help it grow up. And in the meantime, he would lose access to not only a life-saving measure, but also a method of gathering Spirit Energy in large concentrations.

The prison was his gateway to fast breakthroughs. Without it, he might not be able to hit his goal no matter what he did.

Then there was a second issue…

He couldn’t even undo the seal on it to begin with. The Dao of Sealing that trapped it was beyond Ryker’s understanding. Although he had gained faint tidbits from it, it was from a Dao so much higher than his own it was impossible to undo.

After having such thoughts, Ryker exhaled a breath and calmed himself.

It seemed that he would have to put more effort into his Dao of Sealing, or else these burning questions in his gut would burn a hole through him.

Ryker put the orb away, knowing that it wasn’t going to be able to help him now, and likely not anytime in the near future either.

His gaze landed on the portal before him and he took a step inside.

…

Ryker was immediately hit by a heavy wave of gravity. Before he could react, he was driven down to a knee.

BANG!

He winced, feeling that his body was about to collapse. His leg alone felt like it was on the verge of cracking.

He took a breath and circulated his Dao of Earth with full force, and it was only then that he managed to pull himself out of that pit.

The world around him, much like the last time, was practically identical to the world he had just left. It was an endless stretch of earth with variable magnetic fields.

However, if this place was truly like the Geo Pulse world, then danger was certainly everywhere as well. That wasn’t just because of the sudden changes to gravity that could crush him like an ant, but because of the beasts as well.

The beasts in the Geo Pulse world mostly hid underground and could pop out at any time. It was extremely dangerous to walk around randomly.

Ryker, though, had no intention of exploring this world, at least not for now.

He had already filled up his Earth Dao with Phoenix, so getting another Earth Dao beast wasn’t of any interest to him.

Ryker took a seat and began to meditate. He was, in one part, observing the portal behind him and how it disappeared and came together. This would give him more clues as to how he might use lesser Daos to comprehend larger ones. As for his second purpose, it was to wait for the prison to max out its Spirit Energy again. That way he would be able to use it to reach the Second Ascended Realm.

He took deep breaths and watched the portal closely.

As expected, over time, it began to show signs of fading away, and then it suddenly collapsed.

‘I see…’

As Ryker observed it, he increased his Dao of Space Paths from 37 to 42.

‘It isn’t that lower Daos come together to form higher ones, though it can be that in some cases. It’s instead that even lower Daos, when they come in great enough quality, and when they’re given a spark, can imitate higher Daos or even mimic them in the most extreme of cases.

‘In this case, the Dao of Earth only needs to bring together only about a dozen or so Paths at once. At that point, it makes use of the magnetic fields to trigger a formation that’s already been hidden here, thus opening the portal. If you have enough of a grasp on the Dao of Earth, you can predict when and where these portals would appear.’

This wasn’t all Ryker noticed either.

While he was comprehending the Dao of Water, he felt himself touching upon several higher Daos that he had ignored. Daos like the Dao of Cold, the Dao of Ice, the Dao of Nothingness, and even the Dao of Darkness were all Daos that he had sensed at the bottom of the ocean. But he had also forced himself to ignore them. He even found them troublesome because they were interfering with him sensing the truest essence of the Dao of Water.

But now he realized that maybe he had been too neglectful of them.

These branching higher Daos that had connections to lower Daos weren’t just things to be ignored, but they could be used to enhance one’s comprehension and use of lower Daos as well.

For example, now that Ryker had grasped the Dao of Space, he could even sense the other Daos more clearly. This world seemed to only have the Dao of Earth, but hidden in the nodes of space, he could find all sorts of other Daos.

There was no world in existence that was made up of just a single element. But… there were worlds where these Daos might be heavily suppressed by a superior Dao.

‘Fascinating… but also troublesome. That means that comprehending higher Daos with lower Daos will be more difficult

than I thought. I will have to find the Paths with routes to higher Daos first, and only then can I try it… It would still be far easier to find a location with these Daos concentrated, or maybe find a way to gaze into the depths of the Dao itself.’

Back in the Federation’s Iteration, Ryker had had a moment where he gazed into the stars and could see the dance of the Daos in their light. But since then, he hadn’t had such a clear feeling again.

He realized that it was because of the Dao Seed in the violet fox that he was able to do this, and likely that it was related to the Dao of Chaos. But knowing was one thing, replicating it was another.

In the end, he would just have to wait… again.

‘It should be finished now. Time to return.’

Ryker stood and began to scan the region, looking for the location where the next portal would appear. Just as he sensed it, his eyes narrowed.

In the distance, two beams of light were approaching with great speed.

Ryker had only just sensed them when they came to a booming stop in the air. The wind around them seemed to explode and a wall of it shot out in all directions.

Both of them were riding on the same beast, a four-winged, draco-like beast that looked more salamander than lizard. And both of these creatures had a strong earthen element to them.

“So young?”

The two were taken aback when they saw Ryker, and judging by their words, Ryker knew that they were of the same sort as that timid turtle lady.

It seemed that there was monitoring of all these portals, though that made sense. However, this monitoring was quite lax, likely because after coming to these worlds, it was unlikely that whoever crossed would be expecting to be targeted, nor would they leave the region quickly because there was too much to explore here.

At the same time, crossovers were so rare that wasting manpower to keep someone stationed here at all times was a waste of time.

But still, they were in abject shock right now. That was because this was the first time someone so young had ever made it across.

Was it a mistake? Or maybe this person had managed to keep their youth?

But when they saw that Ryker was only a First Ascended, they were even more shocked. And when they noticed just the kind of gravity he was standing in, they were shocked once more.

Their beasts landed on the ground with a heavy thud, standing just 10 meters from Ryker.

Ryker observed them for a while. He was curious about these people, wondering what it was their purpose was. Of course, he could guess that it was to combat their jailers. But… to what end?

The two men looked toward one another and cleared their throats.

“Hello. You’ve probably seen how special this world is, correct? So we can just skip over all the formal stuff. How about you come to visit our Geo Pulse Sect and we’ll fill you in on certain details?”

Ryker blinked.

These guys were so… unprofessional. He even had to stifle a laugh.

It seemed that people coming here was so rare that they didn’t even have proper protocol for ushering them in.

“That’s alright,” Ryker said as he looked toward where the portal was about to appear. “I’ll be leaving now.”

The two men frowned and this was all within Ryker’s purview.

‘It seems they’re not too fond of that idea. But there’s also probably a reason that this matter hasn’t been leaked yet.’

Ryker chuckled to himself, but had already begun to walk as though he didn’t notice their expressions slowly changing.

It seemed that they didn’t realize that a portal was about to appear, so they were hesitant to act, not sure of what to do.

But when they finally saw the signs, their expressions changed.

“Stop right there!”

Ryker didn’t.

Their beasts suddenly plowed a claw forward and they shot ahead, closing the distance between themselves and Ryker in the blink of an eye.

“Geo Pulse Sect, huh…?” Ryker said casually.

He chuckled, took a step just as the portal appeared, and then vanished.

The beasts came to a grinding halt.