Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu appeared in the Abyssal Plane, gasping for breath. Everything about these matters was annoyingly difficult. Of course, if others heard his thoughts, they would curse him to the high heavens.

The list of natural treasures that the Heavens had given him would be worth entire Clans and Sects even on the Ninth Heaven. It was a boon the likes of which hardly had any match at all.

The more Ryu thought about it, the more he actually felt that his actions didn't quite warrant such fanfare. It was almost like the Heavens wanted him to finally complete the Beyond Perfect Extreme Spiritual Foundation.

Ryu had always wondered why the Martial Gods went through so much trouble. It all seemed that their actions had simply pushed him to this point. Maybe he would have never maximized his talents if they never interfered with him in the first place. After all, there was a point in his life where he thought Sacrum was all there was.

Of course, Ryu felt that no matter what, he would have eventually found the True Martial World. But by then, he would have likely long since become a Sky God of Sacrum. Changing his foundations at that point would have been almost impossible, or at the very least, far harder than what he was doing now.

Even if he became a Dao God, those lingering issues from using the wrong cultivation methods for so long would have made him among the weaker Dao Gods and they could easily deal with him even with all his talents.

Plus, if he had become a Sky God before coming to this place, then how would he have entered the Heavenly Paths? The main reason for most of his success until this point?

'There's likely something I'm missing...'

Ryu coughed as he pushed himself up, heaving deep breaths.

Since the rainbow wind incident, he had gathered several more treasures. By this point, two entire years had passed. He somewhat wondered how others were taking his sudden disappearance, but he didn't care enough about it to go back and check on it, especially if this might lead to Primus catching him.

Thinking of that annoyance, Ryu chuckled. He wondered, since he had evaded that man for two years, did that mean he could have eight years of protection left? Actually, it should be closer to seven due to the Complete Heavenly Path. Or, did that mean that Primus would tack on an extra three years?

Ryu threw those distracting thoughts away and looked within his Spiritual Foundation.

There was the Gaia Essence, Darkness and Light Seeds, the Northern Heavenly Wind, the Lightning Elemental, and since then he had also gathered a blackhole.

The blackhole didn't have a special name; it was just well and truly a blackhole. It was the reason he had taken an entire year and a half to get to this point; it was entirely focused on just this one treasure.

The problem with collecting a blackhole was that he couldn't even get close without dying. Teleporting directly into the middle of it would have consigned him directly to death, or sent him sprawling into a completely separate timeline depending on what theories of physiques subscribed to.

The blackhole was both the representation of time and space, warping both of them wildly. So in order to gather it, he had to likewise toy around with time and space as well.

It had only been a year and a half to the outside world, but Ryu had experienced decades. There was even a hint of maturity beginning to show on his face as a result.

Of course, decades were nothing to a World Sea Realm expert, so it wasn't like he had become an old man. But his cultivation until this point had kept him perpetually in a state of a young man who looked to be in his very late teens to early twenties. Now, however, he looked more like he was approaching his mid-twenties.

If he was in Sacrum, this would have never happened. But obviously, in the True Martial World, the trade-off for using its power was that your years weren't nearly as long as they were in small worlds.

That aside, Ryu only managed to capture this black hole after countless years of planning and only by using his Spiritual Foundation directly. That was right, he had caught this blackhole within the Abyssal Plane itself.

As for Primus not catching him in this time, it was because he used the little woman's methods and because he sat within the influence of the blackhole, bending and twisting time around himself. He was practically impossible to find in such a situation.

But, he had finally succeeded and there was just one more treasure to gather.

He had Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water. He paired that with Light, Darkness, Time, and Space. The only thing remaining to bring balance to it all was a kernel of the Heaven itself.

He needed a representation of Order. Something that could allow his Spiritual Foundation to take that final step.

Technically, the Heavens already said that he was perfect. On its list, there wasn't any such thing written upon it. Which made sense, why would the Heavens give up a portion of itself for him?

It was only during those decades in the midst of a time warp that Ryu began to feel that something was missing, that something was out of place.

Then it clicked for him.

He sighed as he stepped back into this familiar world.

He had returned to Sacrum.

...

The Clans and Sects of the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Heavens were in a complete uproar.

Over the last two years, some troublemaker had appeared at key sites, one after another, causing disturbances to their divine lands of cultivation and shifting their balance.

However, every time, this person escaped completely unscathed.

This triggered a wild legend to begin to spread, one of a thief in the night and a master that could evade the capture of even Dao Gods.

At one of these spots, Titus Tatsuya stood firmly in silence for a long period before his voice boomed with laughter.

The ground cracked, peaks collapsed, and the skies split as the skies ruptured.