Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu's soul presence stood upon his Realm Heart, shuttling through the skies.

According to the normal cultivation method, he would have to first resonate with his Fate Star. This resonance would cause his soul presence to immediately appear before it. Once this was complete, he could then use the strength of his Fate Star to reach out through the Abyssal Plane to slowly locate the Constellations he had fate with.

However, Ryu didn't need to do this. He found that he could freely control his Realm Heart to move about with his soul's presence. Unlike his Fate Star, his Realm Heart was tethered in place and could move at speeds that defied physics and logic. So long as he didn't enter the realm of Constellations far more powerful than his Realm Heart, it shouldn't be in any danger.

With this method, Ryu could feel the Constellations much more clearly and his speed of observing them was also much quicker.

Realizing that such a method was possible, Ryu thought of the possibility of exploring the Abyssal Plane for reasons outside of Constellations. After all, this was a place where all sorts of treasures could be born, and all sorts of mysterious phenomena of nature called home.

For example, it wasn't impossible for him to find the existence of another Realm Heart here. If he could have his own Realm Heart swallow others, then he wouldn't need to wait until he could fight Sky Gods to have a chance at upgrading his own.

If the Godhood of a mere Sky God of Sacrum could already allow it to upgrade once, what about a Sky God of the True Martial World? By the same token, what would it be like to swallow a Realm Heart that had been birthed under the influence of the True Martial World?

Ryu was in a unique situation that allowed him to even consider things like this. The Radiant Star Sect's method for dealing with the Abyssal Plane relied entirely on the Fate Star. Without the Fate Star, one could easily harm their soul by venturing this place.

Soul presence and souls weren't quite the same. For example, Spiritual Sense was an application of soul presence, so it could be said that Ryu was just extending his Spiritual Sense into the Abyssal Plane.

However, because of the connection between one's soul presence and soul, it would be easy to harm the latter through the use of the former, making the Abyssal Plane very dangerous. This could be considered another reason why making it through the Path Extinction Realm was so difficult for many.

This was all to say that unless you had a Realm Heart like Ryu's that you could use to explore the Abyssal Plane safely, you could forget about scouring this place for resources. In fact, even if your soul was so powerful that you wouldn't feel threatened by this place, you would still have no method of bringing things back to the Real Plane without a connection something like the Realm Heart could provide.

After all, moving qi from the Abyssal Plane and Real Plane through the use of Constellations was very different from bringing a physical object back. However, if Ryu wanted to circumvent this, he only had to allow the object to enter his Realm Heart and then use that connection to bring it out into the real world.

Realizing this, Ryu made a mental note to check what information the Frost Clan might or might not have about Realm Hearts. But considering their rarity, he didn't hold out too much hope. He would likely have to rely on himself.

As he thought, Ryu passed by and ignored many Constellations. Although many he had passed by were able to apply quite a bit of pressure on him, he couldn't be bothered to care.

What he needed was something absolutely perfect, something that would seamlessly fit into his battle style.

Using the methods of [Radiant Monument], he was able to lock into all sorts of defensive type Constellations. But as time passed, they were all pretty much the same. Shields, armors, there were some rare and unique ones like bells, but none of them really caught Ryu's attention until he suddenly came to a stop.

'It'll be you…' he thought to himself.

The Constellation before Ryu radiated a mighty aura. It was formed of 27 stars, just shy of the maximum 30 allotted to Lineal Grade Constellations and it took the shape of a mountain. It was the very first of its kind that Leonel had seen, at least when it came to Constellations that fell into the defensive category. All of the other mountains that Ryu had seen on the way here usually fell into the control category, but they weren't right for what he was looking for.

Ryu felt that with this Constellation, he would be able to form a nice resonance with this Natural Order which had its own control characteristics. If this defense was fused with that control, the output would be even more powerful.

Once he resonated with his monument and projected it using the technique methods of the cultivation technique, the ultimate result would be far larger than the sum of its parts.

Ryu exhaled a breath and stood in place, his soul presence reaching out toward his Fate Star.

Ryu had forgotten when the last time he looked at his Fate Star was, but it was really no different from what he remembered. It was an enormous, resplendent ball of smoldering hot silver gas, however it didn't move a single inch from its location as though it was locked and chained in place.

Without sparing it another glance, Ryu began to tether the Trembling Mountain Constellation with his Fate Star, feeling the resonance coursing through his soul presence.

In the real world, the golden moon world began to tremble, the skies opening up as beams of silvery light came down from above.

Unfortunately for those on the outside, it was impossible to witness this moment as the illusory manifestation of a mountain formed around Ryu.

Slowly, but sure, it turned more corporeal and Ryu began to feel the presence of Trembling Star Qi descend from above.