Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

"This big sister is very beautiful."

Yaana looked toward Ailsa's sleeping figure with one part appreciation and another part complicated emotions. She understood that it was unlikely that Ryu would have had no women at all, but it still hadn't quite settled in that this was in fact true. She could clearly see by the look in his eye that he had the same care for Ailsa that he showed for her.

"Thank you for your help, Yaana."

Yaana shook her head. She had hardly done anything, it was hardly difficult.

Ryu realized just not how lucky he had been to have Yaana by his side. He alone had no method of taking things in and out of the crystalline jade. If not for the fact Yaana could enter the Ethereal Realm freely as a part Faerie, Ryu would have had no idea how to get Ailsa out of there to treat her, nor would he have had a way of bringing the Night Shade Dew in.

To call it luck almost didn't give it enough credit. It almost felt pre ordained. Though, at the same time, Ryu felt foolish that he hadn't thought of such a problem earlier. He had been so focused on finding the cure that he didn't even consider this. But, everything was fine now.

Yaana, though, couldn't stop blushing. She had to sit there as Ryu, with no other real choice, kissed Ailsa continuously.

Rather than preparing the Spiritual Herb in a special process, the easiest method was to just use the Incubator to process it as gently and perfectly as possible. The issue with that, though, was that the Incubator was designed only to be used with the person who fused with it. In order to bypass this, Ryu could only use this crude method.

After a few hours, Ryu removed his lips from Ailsa's own one final time. He had planned the original treatment to use just a single Night Shade Dew. But, he used more than ten this time, making it far more thorough.

'She should slowly begin to come out of her coma now. It's best if she does so naturally so that there's no harm to her soul.'

When Ryu was satisfied, he placed the crystalline jade on Ailsa's forehead once again. It wouldn't be long before she awoke. A few days at the shortest, a few months at the longest. But, it would more likely be somewhere in between these estimates.

By the time she awoke, she would definitely have an explosive growth in her strength. After her meridians being locked down for so long, she would be wild and free for the first time in her entire life. Ryu wouldn't be surprised if it only took her a few years or a decade at most to cultivate from the Dao Pedestal Realm to the World Sea Realm.

This might sound shocking, but Ailsa was already almost a billion years old to begin with. With her talent, the World Sea Realm was about where she should be to begin with.

It also had to be remembered that while accumulation of qi was still important at these higher stages, what was most important was comprehension. Ailsa already had comprehension far beyond her Realm, so she wouldn't experience any bottlenecks.

Aside from that, there was also the question of Ailsa's hidden talent. Even up to now, Ryu didn't know exactly what it was. But, he was sure that Ailsa would be able to grasp it quite quickly once she awoke.

Ryu took a deep breath, his emotions slowly becoming a low, simmering stream. It felt like he was teetering between erupting into a violent gaseous substance or settling down into a cooler liquid. As for which happened… Only time would be able to tell.

Ryu turned his senses toward the Incubator, finding a field of Gold Vein Spirit Seeking Lilies.

One's first petal of Gold Vein Spirit Seeking Lilies would increase the strength of one's soul and your Spiritual Sea's size by 100%. The second would fall by 10% along with every subsequent petal absorbed until one reached 1%. At this point, for every petal one consumed, you would always gain this 1% increase.

It was unsurprising then that Gold Vein Spirit Seeking Lilies were among the most valuable Spiritual Herbs in all of existence. Even calling them Origin Grade didn't quite do them justice. They existed on a plane very few other Heavenly Treasures could match. However, this simultaneously made it extraordinary that Ryu had actually found such a treasure on the Mortal Plane. In fact, it was clear that King Tor hadn't known the value of these Spiritual Herbs and just thought they looked nice, or else they wouldn't' have remained untouched for so long.

Even the Ice Phoenix Clan's remaining treasures didn't have a single one among them at this level.

Still, there was a reason Ryu hadn't used the Gold Vein Spirit Seeking Lilies and only made use of the Silver Vein ones to help his meditation. That was because he had yet to reach the optimal range.

For one, he was always worried about his poor Mental Realm talent, so he had wanted to wait until he could reach the peak of [Tribulation Nine Clouds]. Using the Gold Vein petals when his talent was piss poor versus when it was at its peak would have vastly different results, obviously. In fact, if he did so too early, the boost in his talent would render his previous uses of the petals useless.

The second reason Ryu had held back was because he had yet to reach the optimal cultivation realm.

The first problem was solved. His master's Elemental War God Legacy had used the white flame as a foundation to reconstruct his soul. Originally, Ryu had thought that the white flame acted on its own, but it was only after some observation that he realized that had he never learned Elemental War God, the white flame wouldn't have reacted like that. It was almost like it was waiting for the appropriate moment and circumstances.

As for the second problem, this was solved as well. The Soul Birth Realm, especially its infancy stage before Ryu began to cultivate it in earnest, was without a doubt the best Realm to do this.

The Mental Realm was separated into: Spiritual Entrance, Spiritual Endowment, Soul Birth, Soul Refinement, Soul Ascension and finally, Soul Quintessence.

Soul Birth was the Immortal Ring equivalent. Soul Refinement was the Path Extinction equivalent. Soul Ascension—Ailsa's Realm—was split into four levels, going from the Dao Pedestal equivalent, to the Cosmic Seed, World Sea and finally Sky God level.

As Ailsa had exposed previously, the Soul Quintessence was a legendary realm of the soul that was often conflated with the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm. The reality was that Soul Quintessence might very well not exist at all.

One could say that one's potential at the Soul Birth Realm would truly decide one's talent in Soul cultivation. It would no longer be the body acting as a proxy for Spiritual Qi, but rather the Soul itself taking action to use Spiritual Qi. In that situation, the sturdier, more powerful and larger the soul was at this stage, the greatest sort of impact it would have as time went on.

A stronger and more resilient Soul at this stage would be able to withstand the cruelty of the Soul Refinement Realm and ultimately aid to rise up from the ashes during the Soul Ascension Realm.

There was no better Realm to act than now.

The potential of one's soul was decided by how large it was when manifested out of the body. Following this, its strength would be decided by how dense and corporeal it was. At the highest Soul Ascension levels, a soul could even pass off like a real human body, not much unlike Eska's had been.

Of course, the size of Eska's soul wasn't its true size but rather a projection. A soul that was almost two meters tall had never appeared. So, this shouldn't be a reflection of Eska's potential either.

To put matters into perspective, even a soul that could manifest at the size of a thumbnail was a bit above average for an individual stepping into the Soul Birth Realm. Though, of course, such a soul was far too fragile to be projected outward and would thus rarely if ever appear. This was why Ryu had yet to come across a person who used their soul in such a way.

However, Ryu was different. With his Phoenix Bloodlines, if he didn't manifest his soul in battle, he would be ignoring a large part of his own prowess.

As for Ryu's own soul projection? It was currently five centimeters tall, a feat that would be enough to shock the masses, including the likes of his master and Eska. The real question, then, was what kind of size would it have after he consumed Gold Vein Spirit Seeking Lilies to the limit?

Unfortunately… Ryu couldn't seem to settle himself down even as he stared at the treasures before him. His mind was in too much turmoil to cultivate. If he went on like this, he would just end up destroying himself.

"Yaana, let's go."

"Hm?"

Yaana was confused but still obediently entered the Incubator. Ryu had given her a pile of resources she didn't even know where to start with, so she had her own meditation to complete.

**

Ryu appeared on the Shrine Plane, the familiar cool atmosphere calming his heart somewhat, especially now that he was certain that it was his mother.

He walked into Isemeine's home as though nothing had happened the last time he was here.

"Who?"

Isemeine, with her fiery temper, obviously wouldn't take someone barging into her home lying down. But, she very quickly found herself being lifted up and tossed onto a soft bed.

"Hey! Hey! Aren't you going to say words to romance me or something?! Hey, you—!"