Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

The thought hit Ryu like a ton of bricks. With his Pupils fully unsealed, he could suddenly sense the vast emptiness waiting for him ahead. In a lot of ways, it was even more vacuous and heart rending than a normal pit of despair.

With Pupils that opened up the path of your Dao for you, you might never step into the Sky God Realm. But, what would happen with Pupils like Ryu's own?

Technically speaking, the Mysteries of Heaven and Earth Pupils were completely open ended, or so it seemed. It could help Ryu to comprehend anything he wanted, whenever he wanted. There was no element or affinity he wouldn't be able to master so long as he put his mind to it.

This sounded great. But… Ryu suddenly felt a looming danger up ahead. It wasn't the kind of danger that would reap his life, but it was rather his eyes opening up to a realization that things just weren't what they seemed.

The Rankings of the Heavenly Pupils is dependent on Faith. The more Faith the wielders of it in the past have accumulated, the higher the rankings, and the more powerful the Pupils become overall. It's a lot like the Heavens investing in what works and ignoring what doesn't. Of course, this is part of the reason why Sarriel's Truth Pupils, having always been ranked seventh without any sort of movement, felt odd. But, this wasn't what Ryu was thinking of right now.

As a pair of Heavenly Pupils gained more Faith, its appearances would also become rarer and more spaced out throughout history, resulting in a situation where those ranked higher on the list only appeared from time to time while those lower might appear once every few generations.

This, unfortunately, is where the first problem came in.

While Ryu's Mysteries of Heaven and Earth Pupils seemed unfettered, were they really? For a pair of Heavenly Pupils to almost guarantee an ascension into the Sky God Realm, it meant that despite its rarity, every time Ryu's eyes appeared in history, it would be followed along by a powerhouse that shook the world.

How could this be compared to the Faith that tied the spear? People from all over the universe used the spear. There were exceptionally weak individuals who used it and also many strong people who used it. But, it was nothing like Ryu's own where every imprint on his Heavenly Pupils was made by a world shattering expert!

The Faith that tied down Ryu couldn't even begin to be untangled because each was strong, sturdy and powerful. There were no weaknesses to pick apart because it was all a strength!

This might not sound so bad. After all, if you combined rarity with the fact the Mysteries of Heaven and Earth Pupils allowed you to comprehend every and anything, while the Ties of Faith might be strong, it didn't necessarily mean that they would hinder Ryu's path… Right?

All Ryu had to do was choose a path that none of his predecessors had ever chosen. And, since each of them would have likely forged their own path anyway, they would all be pulling equally in opposing directions.

When things are looked at this way, it seemed that Ryu's path into the future would be even easier than others. After all, just how rare was a balance approach like this…

But that was when the question needed to be asked again… Was this really true? Or was it something Ryu was just telling himself to make himself feel better?

The elephant in the room was large and ominous, so much so that Ryu almost forgot that he was in the middle of a battlefield, his arms lowering as Nemesis continued to weave through it all.

So many couldn't move beneath Ryu's presence and it only took a simple stomp from Nemesis to end their lives. Ryu continued to stand on his partner's back, his gaze somewhat vacant as he looked off into space, the Birthed Phenomena to his back shining brighter and brighter.

Was it really the case that the Mysteries of Heaven and Earth Pupils didn't have a desired path it wanted its owner to take?

What was the ultimate goal of these Pupils? Why was it that Ryu could gaze upon his Fate Star whenever he wanted? Why was it that he could see Lines of Fate and Karma on a whim? Why was it that he could communicate with the Heavens and enter States of Meditation on a whim? Why was it that he could read Faith and grasp a person's Death Acupoints? Why was it that he could take hold of Fate and bolster his strength to a version of his future self?

Didn't all of these abilities revolve around the same concepts?

Even with all the paths laid out before him, even with all the steps he could have taken, even with all the talent to grasp any doctrine he could have ever dreamed of….

Ryu's Dao still ended up being built on Karma, Faith and Fate.

Ryu's heart shuddered, a sudden comprehension overwhelming him. It felt like the sort of epiphany one would only experience once in a lifetime, even for him. He could see a glass ceiling above and somehow the hammer to smash through it had appeared in his hands.

Even without knowing how, Ryu understood.

Why was it that those with his Pupils always managed to enter the Sky God Realm? But why was it, at the same time, that he felt like there was a wall ahead that if he remained ignorant of, he would never be able to burst through…?

It was for the same reason he felt he could now sense Karmic Ties without even using his eyes… The same Reason Sky Gods could sense their names being used no matter how far away they were…

It was because from the very beginning, all Daos converged toward the same path. Any Dao, taken to the extreme, would begin to twist the Lines of Fate, to play with the Karmic Strings of the world, to take matters of Faith into their own hands…

If one wanted to truly reach the pinnacle of Existence, you would have to form a Dao that could mirror the Mysteries of Heaven and Earth Pupils at its highest levels. What was so impressive for Ryu now, was likely nothing more than a thought for a Sky God beyond the True Level…

If Ryu continued like this, there would eventually come a day where he met a bottleneck he couldn't surpass, a mountain he couldn't climb, a sky he couldn't transcend…

The Birthed Phenomena to Ryu's back continued to grow and pulse.

'… I understand.'