Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

The Mortal Plane shouldn't have felt so good. It was a place Immortals and beyond saw as degenerate and backwater. What good was a place where there was only Mortal Qi? To those who had already transcended beyond those limits, it should have felt like breathing in foul or contagious air.

But for some reason, Ryu felt the exact opposite of this. In fact, the air was so clean and refreshing that he felt his whole body relax.

Ryu had just spent the last year in a perpetual state of pain. Just hours ago, that pain had been completely alleviated and he thought he had already reached peak levels of comfort. But, the instant he stepped onto the Higher Mortal Plane, it was like all the pressure within him had been released at once.

Completely out of Ryu's control, a large amount of impurities began to rush out of his body. Crackles and pops sounded within him as the Rose-Silver flakes that danced within his crimson blood grew to their peak, fusing with him until his entire stream became Rose-Silver before shattering to allow flakes of Rose-Gold to begin to accumulate.

'Impurity expulsion? At his level?'

Ailsa's gaze flickered. The curiosity of a Cultus Faerie got the best of her. This was something that all the case studies in the world couldn't have prepared her for and it left her fascinated.

As the Princess of the Cultus, Ailsa had been accumulating her knowledge for millions of years. All the time she spent waiting for Ryu was used on exactly that. The same way Ryu's historical knowledge was practically endless, when it came to fields of medicine and nurturing, not to mention cases of cultivation and progression, there was almost nothing Ailsa was unaware of.

There were probably only a handful of people in the martial world capable of using a Godhood to evolve a Realm Heart, and she was one of them.

And yet, she was at a complete loss.

This wasn't even the first time. The first time was when Ryu grasped that odd Fist Inheritance that seemed like both a Natural Enlightenment and a Mortal Endowment at the same time. And now, there was this.

The difference between this time and the last, though, was that Ailsa felt like she was worlds away from even beginning to comprehend Ryu's Fist Inheritance. It seemed like an odd mutation one could only shrug their shoulders at.

However, this… this was very different.

One had to remember that the Mortal Planes were protected by Shrine Mountain. One could ascend should they have the talent or fortitude, but descending from the Immortal Plane to it was a different matter entirely.

Ryu had been right to be worried previously. If he hadn't had the Realm Heart, there was simply no way that Shrine Mountain would have let just anyone through.

To Ailsa, the distinguishing factor here was that rather than observing something that made little sense, she was instead observing something that was potentially reproduceable. The issue was that Realm Hearts were so rare, and Immortals were so uncaring of the Mortal World, that this was likely the first time in the history of the martial world that such a thing had happened!

If one thought about it, this was actually the second time Ryu was undergoing such a large expulsion of Impurities. The first time was when he fused with his Realm Heart to begin with. Back then, it had taken weeks for his body to finally return to normal.

'Could it be related to his Realm Heart again?' Ailsa didn't want to miss a single detail, even stepping out of the Incubator to observe everything with a keen eye.

She walked around Ryu in circles, observing not only Ryu's Impurities, but even how they interacted with the outside world.

To her shock, the Impurities Ryu was currently releasing were like a toxic venom to the outside world. The grasses popped and sizzled, the soil turning harsh shades of black and grey as they withered and died. Even Ryu's clothes themselves were being torn apart, burning to ashes.

'Just what kind of Impurities could possibly be so volatile?'

While she observed everything on the outside, Ailsa was also paying attention to Ryu's mind and how he was feeling using her connection with him. She could feel how comfortable Ryu was at this moment and how he was simply on cloud nine.

His blood rushed about smoother, his organs were pumping so efficiently they might have looked like machines to another, and his heart… It was so slow and steady, only pumping once every several minutes, and yet this low maintenance was more than enough to keep Ryu feeling fresh and revitalized.

'… Is Mortal Qi really so useless…?'

This thought took hold of Ailsa's mind and refused to let go.

Ryu's body released another snapping pop, the Rose-Gold fusing with his blood before allowing royal blue flakes to form in his body.

'… It doesn't make sense… How is this possible…'

Ryu was tearing his way through the Blood Tempering Realm as though it was nothing more than child's play, but the issue was that the start of the Blood Tempering Realm was the equivalent of Path Extinction Realm while the pinnacle of it was the equivalent of the Peak of the Cosmic Seed Realm!

Ryu had yet to reach the Peak of the Blood Tempering Realm because his Blood had yet to revert back to its natural state, but with his Bloodlines, every step for him was worth far more than a single step for another. By now, his body was already far stronger than a normal Peak Cosmic Seed Realm expert and Ailsa was finding it difficult to accept!

One wasn't' supposed to go through these Realms so easily, even if your name was Ryu Tatsuya. It should have taken millions of years, or at the very least, millions of years worth of resources!

The Blood Tempering Realm started from base. Then there was the Rose-Bronze stage, the Rose-Silver stage, the Rose-Gold stage, the Royal Blue stage, and finally the Return to Origin stage…

'Return to Origin!'

For some reason, those words hit Ailsa like a ton of bricks, as though someone had slammed it over her head or pierced it right through her chest.