1419 Anyway

Ryu didn't move immediately, his senses firing at extremely high rates. Subconsciously, though, he felt like he understood something, and that was that he was nowhere near the limits of the World Sea Realm. He didn't believe that the Heavenly Path was artificially inflating the strength of this Eleventh Order Beast, nor could he sense that there was nothing artificial about its strength at all. In fact, it was far more corporeal and real than the other spirits had been.

Rather than being an illusory construct, the creature was very much real, or it at least felt that way. The only sign that it was a Golden Protector Spirit was the aura around it. It was like the Heavenly Path was trying to display the truth right before his face, boldly presenting it and daring him to see through the reality.