Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

1240 Impossible

Ryu rushed forward with great speed, his figure flickering several times as he surged in the direction of the Northern Heavenly Wind.

He made it to its side extraordinarily quickly, but he could already sense that the spark of Origin Flame from earlier had vanished. Even so, he was unmoved, he had already calculated that something like this would happen.

He entered the stream of Northern Heavenly Wind, inhaling with all of his might. Harsh winds whipped against his skin and cut into it. If it had been any other Dao Pedestal Realm expert in this situation, they would have been shredded to pieces in an instant.

The Northern Heavenly Wind was the embodiment of wind, and though it was the second most gentle after Southern Heavenly Wind, it was also still a force of nature. Casually entering a stream of it was bound to lead to death and destruction. Only by fusing with a curated embryo or a restrained mature version of it could one fuse with it normally.

If it was so easy to fuse with such natural treasures, doing so would have never been the test of gaining a Sky God's acknowledgement back in Sacrum.

Ryu quickly realized that this huge stream of Northern Heavenly Wind wasn't the true source of the wind, but he had no ability to make it to this source. It seemed to exist outside the bounds of reality, or more accurately, the bound of this Plane.

This made sense when he thought about it. Only small sparks of Origin Flames were making it through, so why would it be greatly different for the Northern Heavenly Wind? Even so, unlike the Origin Flame, the residual Northern Heavenly Wind didn't separate and it came out in a strong and steady stream.

The moment Ryu opened his mouth, his tongue, gums and throat were lacerated to pieces, but he continued to inhale. Time was of the essence, he didn't have time to slowly check the waters and dip his toes in. He had to absorb as much as he could, as quickly as he could.

Almost instantly, his Northern Heavenly Wind entered the False Grade, then the True Grade. The upgrade speed was so fast that Ryu almost felt overwhelmed.

As his wind improved, the lacerations he suffered began to plummet and he began to inhale even more strongly. He followed down the path against the flow, pushing himself toward the stronger and stronger streams.

He was so focused on this that he didn't realize that while the rest of his body was practically being torn to pieces, he had never had to squint his eyes even once. The most vulnerable part of his body had somehow become the strongest without him even noticing.

Perfect Grade... Transcended Grade....

Ryu felt a rush of euphoria as he reached the Omniscient Grade. His body felt so light and the suppression of the world around him seemed to vanish entirely. He felt that if he wanted to soar through the skies, he wouldn't even have to bring out his Great Swordstaffs to do so, with just a thought, the wind could lift him into the air.

But almost the instant he stepped into this level, progress slowed to a crawl. Ryu watched somewhat helplessly as the stream of Northern Heavenly Wind began to slow. Reality began to quickly repair itself and the stream slowed.

A flicker of determination flashed through Ryu's eyes as he stomped hard, surging forward.

His eyes rotated with twin eight trigram diagrams as he held out his hands.

Then, he did something maddening.

"BREAK!"

Ryu roared, smashing down against the weakest spatial node he could find. Instantly, it cracked and shattered, causing the slowing stream of Northern Heavenly Wind to suddenly erupt once again.

BANG!

Ryu was blasted backward, retreating with even more speed than he had come with. All of the skin of the front of his body was torn to shred and his bones fractured once after another. He would have lost consciousness in that moment if it wasn't for the stream of Spiritual Qi from his Runed Pill keeping him awake.

Ryu clenched his teeth that had entirely lost the protection of his lips. He opened his mouth and allowed the raging stream to enter him, shredding his throat and inner organs to pieces.

Just as quickly as the stream formed, it seemed to vanish. But just in that final moment, Ryu managed to push through.

A resonating light of golden green exuded from him as his Northern Heavenly Wind to that final step, entering the Order Grade, or as some people would refer to it as... The Lord Grade.

Ryu's eyes opened wide as though he was wide awake. He rushed out from the spatial node, taking deep breaths as he finally turned off the Unbalance Mantra and the Quivering Spectral Wings. Despite everything he had gone through, it was actually the Unbalance Mantra that had placed the greatest strain on him.

Ryu caused a drop of Embryonic Qi to surge through him and his injuries began to quickly heal. In the blink of an eye, his skin had reappeared and he waved a hand to don a new pair of robes.

He looked back toward where the Heavenly Dew Pavilion had been. In his attempts, he was already quite a long distance away. The distance he had traveled through the void, it would take a Sky God several hours to cross outside of it. He couldn't even see the beginning of the Heavenly Dew Pavilion's crowded regions even with his keen vision.

Ryu took a inhale before turning his back toward the Heavenly Dew Pavilion. He guessed that that was enough of a debut for now. But he wanted to know who had descended from the Seventh Heaven and what they were here for.

If he was correct about who these people were, then his life would become far more difficult very, very soon.

Ryu's lip curled into a sneer as he flickered and vanished, his velocity even without stepping into the void reaching seemingly impossible levels.