Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu appeared in a dense miasma of snow. It took him a moment to realize that he was actually buried deep within a snow mound, but he didn't mind. He had known that his teleportation would be a bit crude as it was a new ability he was using and he was teleporting to an unfamiliar place, so he had designed it to send out a pulse of Spatial Qi first, that way he wouldn't find his body magically fusing with snow and killing himself.

Since it was so convenient, he decided to stay in place. The cold of this place used to bother him even with his Ice Phoenix Bloodline, but that had stopped after he gathered more Golden Protector Spirits and had improved his Martial Forms. Plus, even if it was too cold for him, the best place to be in that sort of situation was buried in the snow anyway.

He crossed his legs and began to meditate, namely focusing on what he had just learned.

"I was right," he whispered to himself.

Blacksteel Bone Structure. Blacksteel Meridians. Blacksteel Soul. Blacksteel Spiritual Foundation. And a Bloodline the name of which Ryu didn't know, but most definitely emitted an energy that melded and fused the other ones well.

A perfect set of Omniscient Grade talents and a Bloodline that supplemented them all. There were very few talents that shared a name across the six Pillars, but Blacksteel was one that did, at least across five, and Ramon was the beneficiary of it.

Despite the sound of its name, the Blacksteel talent wasn't one of purely defense, though it was quite great at that as well. Its main attribute was the first part of its namesake: blackness. This wasn't just in the sense of the color, but in terms of the philosophy of it. It absorbed, consumed, swallowed everything in its path.

Ryu couldn't help but chuckle to himself. The Blacksteel Soul was like the child of the Perfect Blackbody Soul. Although the former started as an Omniscient Grade Talent, and also had some characteristics of an Indestructible Soul, it would end as one as well. Ryu wouldn't be surprised if Ramon was suddenly very interested in his soul now, not that it made much of a difference to him.

In fact, now that he thought about it, the Blacksteel Meridians had some mirrors of his Chaotic Silk Meridians as well. It was very strong and sturdy, and was probably among the top most Meridians in terms of durability. If he had used his Chaos Qi during the battle, or more accurately, had projected it outward, there was no doubt that Ramon would be intrigued in it as well, not that that was saying much.

Everyone wanted his Meridians.

This wasn't what Ryu was focused on, though. The reason he had scanned Ramon's body so thoroughly, at the risk of exposing his Perfect Blackbody soul, was so that he could see where he was hiding his Matrix and gain a perfect reflection of it in his mind. That way, he would finally be able to perfect his own foundation.

When Ryu saw it, he couldn't help but suck in a cold breath.

It was the most complex series of connections he had ever seen. Rather than looking at a Matrix, it felt like he was staring into one of the little woman's star maps. The [Absolute Domain] technique had been just as complicated, and Ryu had to figure out a workaround just to use it effectively, so it could be imagined how complicated this Matrix was. If it was so easy to create Matrices, they wouldn't make life as easy as it seemed.

However, the Ryu of now wasn't the same as the Ryu of back then. Not only did he have the Origin Flame that allowed him to memorize this entire starmap Matrix in a single glance, but he also now had a Founding Dao.

With a thought, Ryu began to set up a protective formation around himself that kept him both hidden and secured. Then, he entered his world of his eyes. Using this method, he would likely only be gone for a few seconds even if he spent months here, but one lapse in caution was all it would take to ruin everything and lose your life.

Ryu tapped into the abilities of his Heavenly Pupils and entered Breath of World in a single bound. His focus was so flawless and whole, fusing together with his Origin Flame and his Foundation Dao, that he cut down the time he would need from months to just a few weeks.

When Ryu had entered that state of enlightenment after learning of Ailsa and Yaana's disappearance, he had understood exactly what he required for a formation that would replace his Mental Realm cultivation technique: an internal Matrix.

When he made the decision, he hadn't pondered that there would already exist such a thing, nor would it be so handy to read and copy one made at the hands of a master. But he wasn't complaining in the slightest, this would cut down the time he would need to flawless his Matrix from a lifetime to just a few weeks.

Once he succeeded, his soul itself would become his Matrix, but not needing to use a Matrix when entering a Ruin would be the least of the benefits.

Right now, Ryu's mind was like a data collector. His Dao could see through countless details and his Origin Flame helped him to memorize and organize them all with great speed. However, what he was lacking was something that could be used to parse out these details, ignore what was useless and combine what was useful into a single answer.

There might come a day where his Dao was so powerful that it would be able to subconsciously tell all of this on its own, but even when that day came, his soul would grow to the point where this Internal Matrix of his could even see through to the future.

The weeks passed by in a flash and Ryu opened his eyes, exiting his eyes' world as though only a few seconds had passed. Then, he grabbed onto the kernel of his Origin Flame and crushed it. He grabbed out with his other hand and began to use the formations to draw, writing out a formation that looked like flickering stars in the night sky, dense and vast.

The more he wrote, the clearer he felt his mind was. The larger the formation grew, the slower and slower the trickle of his Focus Qi became as though he was a machine of efficiency.

When he finished, he wanted to raise his head up to the skies and roar.

With the combination of his Origin Flame, his self-created Mental Realm cultivation technique, and his Founding Dao... His Dao functioned as though it stood beyond its station in maturity.

He saw the world with impossible clarity, and matters that he couldn't understand in the past shifted into place, slotting in as though they had always been meant to be there, and most shocking of all... that feeling that had alluded him for so long, that deduction related to his Bloodline, clicked grew, the slower and slower the trickle of his Focus Qi became as though he was a machine of efficiency.

When he finished, he wanted to raise his head up to the skies and roar.

With the combination of his Origin Flame, his self-created Mental Realm cultivation technique, and his Founding Dao... His Dao functioned as though it stood beyond its station in maturity.

He saw the world with impossible clarity, and matters that he couldn't understand in the past shifted into place, slotting in as though they had always been meant to be there, and most shocking of all... that feeling that had alluded him for so long, that deduction related to his Bloodline, clicked into place.

For maybe the first time in history, a World Sea Realm expert had a Dao no less powerful than a Fragmented Sky God.