Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

The improvement was more than Ryu was expecting, or maybe he was only so surprised because he had underestimated his Bloodlines too much to begin with. As he had said previously, his Bloodlines couldn't be considered to be in balance, it was far more accurate to say that they tolerated one another, almost like an unorganized bundle of items forced into a small box. They ended up entangled like long wires, and it became difficult to extricate the power they should have had individually.

In reality, Ryu should have long since guessed that this was the case.

Back when he began his Body Realm cultivation, he had already known what he should have been able to expect from his Bloodlines. At the start of his journey, his Phoenix Blood should have given him 1000 jin of strength each while his Dragon and Qilin Bloodlines should have given him 2000 jin of strength each, this was the benefit of having Ancestral Grade Bloodlines in Sacrum.

Comparatively speaking, a Common Grade Bloodline would have merely 500 jin, Black Grade 600, Earth Grade 700, so on and so forth. In this vein, Dragon and Qilins were actually considered quite monstrous in strength because even compared to most other Ancestral Grade Bloodlines that were only 1000 jin, they had double that!

Of course, now Ryu understood that the real reason for this was because his Dragon and Qilin Blood was never truly Ancestral Grade in the first place, or more accurately, that wasn't its cap. As for his Phoenix Bloodline, while they seemed in line with other Ancestral Grade Bloodlines, once Heavenly Patterns were added to the equation, they didn't lose out to those two in the slightest.

However, what was important here was that when his Bloodlines came together, the strength he should have gained dropped. His Phoenix Bloodlines gave him 800 jin of strength each instead of 1000, which was the equivalent of a Heaven Grade Bloodline as opposed to the Ancestral Grade it should have been.

At the same time, his Dragon and Qilin Bloodlines dropped to 1700 jin of strength each, and while this was still 70% more than most other Ancestral Grade Bloodlines, this drop was the equivalent of an entire Black Grade Bloodline between the two of them.

Ryu had never really thought much about this loss in strength, but after seeing a visual representation of what was occurring in his body constantly, he realized that he had been entirely too foolish in ignoring such a thing...

It was no wonder that things like this. Ironically enough, Ryu realized that if he had been born in the True Martial World, he probably wouldn't have seen his first day of life through.

It was only because he was born in Sacrum that his Bloodlines were weakened enough to fall to the Ancestral Grade, whereas even the weakest Dragons, Qilins and Phoenixes here were within the nine Origin Grades.

It was only because his Bloodlines had weakened that his Ice Jade Crystal Body was capable of "balancing" them. And it was only because his Bloodlines had been crudely "balanced" that he could live without having to suffer perpetual pain.

This was all to say that if not for these series of coincidences, Ryu would have never been born at all. And if he had still managed to be born, his life would have been a short lived one. Let alone worrying about being a cripple, he would have nothing but death to look forward to. Ironically, it was his lack of talent that had saved him. But it was also this lack of talent that would lay the foundation for the future.

Using the Ice Jade Crystal Body as a foundation, Ryu was able to catalyze the creation of a new Bone Structure mutation. After the first step, he had entered the Fragmented Grade, but sensing it now and comparing it to where it had been before, he was certain that it had stepped into the Perfect Grade.

This was a huge change, and Ryu couldn't help but wonder why that was. While the Perfect Grade was merely decent within the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Heavens. it was an enormous change for Rvu. He couldn't quite understand how he had undergone such a huge change after just a single session, until, that is, he looked toward The Compendium and sensed his Bloodlines.

His Bloodlines, all of them seemed to have entered True Grade.

Ryu understood then. The reason his Bone Structure had entered the Perfect Grade was because it had no other choice, it was forced to. It was either it adapted, or Ryu would die once he released the chains from his blood. There was no third choice.

It seemed that the clash of his Bloodlines and the Shadowlight Sky God's Inheritance were perfectly suited toward one another.

The reason his Bloodlines had entered the True Grade in one step was because this was the true baseline of his Bloodlines. Just by awakening them, he had skipped forward three Grades.

From the perspective of the Dragons, Qilins and Phoenixes, this was far from impressive, and there were many Bloodlines stronger even on the Fourth Heaven, however this was game changing for Ryu.

The obvious reason for this was because Ryu didn't have just one Bloodline, he had five of them, six even, if he counted Fire Phoenix and Emperor Phoenix separately. Numbers couldn't always overwhelm quality, but when they all gave him access to the talents of Ancient Beasts, it made excellent headway.

With Ancestral Grade Bloodlines, by using them in unison to the best of his ability, Ryu was able to match up against a Seventh Heaven genius. Of course, that genius was suppressed and an entire cultivation Realm beneath him, but this still spoke volumes.

Now that he had so many Bloodlines at the True Grade, the strength he could output was definitely not just at this level.

In the Sixth Heaven, the strongest talents were probably around the Omniscient Grade. Each step beyond was like ascending the Heavens as talents became rarer and rarer, so Ryu could disregard anything beyond that. Just with his raw Bloodlines alone, if he fused all of their abilities into one like he had against Starlight, he could probably match up against the very peak of the Perfect Grade and the lower extremities of the Transcended Grade.

Of course, this would take a lot out of his Focus Qi. But the fact he had this in his arsenal was good.

'This is a decent first step', Ryu concluded.

Now that he knew the true baseline of his talents, he could see a path slowly forming ahead. The easy progression was definitely done now since he had awakened them all and every step forward would be far more difficult, but Ryu never feared difficulty.

Rvu clenched his fists. strength coursing through his body like a stampede of horses. Disregarding his Bloodlines, just the change to his Bone Structure was enough to add a huge boost to his strength.

'I will need to find time to solidify my foundation with the [Refinement Sutra] before I step into the Cosmic Seed Realm and the Peak Blood Refinement Realm.'

Ryu looked up before calmly covering his body in a new set of white and sky blue robes. By now, he should have caused more than enough of a commotion. The qi in the atmosphere should also be sufficiently volatile and different to scry from afar, whoever wants to understand what's happening will definitely have to come in person and that should delay them.

After a thought, Ryu took out a formation flag and dropped it.

The silver flag fluttered down to the ground, however before it could hit the tall delicate brown wheat, space rippled like the surface of a lake and it vanished entirely.

In that moment, nothing seemed to have occurred. But if there had been a third party observing, they would have blinked in confusion, realizing that they could neither sense nor see Ryu any longer. In fact, they were even vaguely forgetting his existence.

This formation was one of the nine of the formation jade of the Unbalance Art Sect. Three were for offense, three for defense, and three were unique existences that were difficult to pinpoint. This formation fell into the final category of unique existences.

This formation's name was maybe just as unique as its uses...

The Sightless Eyes Formation.

It took advantage of a storm of qi and "anchored" it. This explanation sounded completely contradictory. How could you anchor a raging storm, and if you did anchor it, how could it be a raging storm any longer? Plus, once you had anchored it, what was the benefit of the raging storm any longer? Wasn't it just a calm atmosphere once again?

But it was exactly this sort of contradictory confusion that the Unbalance Art Sect was so excellent at and it was precisely this sort of confusion that Ryu would take advantage of.

He had been racking his head for a long time about how he would hide his actions from the prying eyes of others. None of the solutions he had thought of were perfect, but this method would at least give him an insurmountable head start.

'It's time to go,' Ryu thought to himself before vanishing. Within this formation, only he would dare to move so quickly.

...

As Ryu moved, the commotion he had caused spread far and wide, catching the attention of many. However, he was practically in a no-man's land. It was a region at the very edges of the Heavenly Dew Pavilion's territory, there was simply no one present.

But now, countless auras perked up all at once.