Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

1758 Bastardized

Ryu wasn't a fool, nor did he overestimate himself due to his own bravado.

The Ash Treants weren't just some throwaway Race of beings. They were Demon Kings, existences on the same level as the Martial Gods in terms of power and influence.

If their techniques could be circumvented just through some lower world methods and a powerful soul talent, they would have never been so lax in letting it spread to begin with.

The Perfect Blackbody Soul wasn't the only top tier soul talent with large reserves of stamina. In fact, it wasn't even that was the easiest to cultivate in this regard.

Sure, Ryu had great soul stamina, but it was at the cost of heavy efforts and long cultivation. Given the amount of energy he had absorbed through self-created pills and his new soul cultivation method, he should have long since had a Perfect Soul at the very worst.

This was because the Perfect Blackbody Soul's main ability wasn't the stamina it granted, but rather its flexibility and durability. Thus its namesake.

By contrast, there were other souls out there that specialized in stamina and large Spiritual Seas specifically.

And though Visualizations weren't common throughout the True Martial World, how often did the best geniuses travel to lower worlds to temper themselves? Could it be that Sacrum was the only one that had grasped this form of soul control? Did no one at least have anything analogous or close?

With these measures alone, Ryu could certainly become one of the very best non-Ash Treants in the usage of this technique. But the effort to output ratio would always be terrible for him, no matter what. Even if he grew to surpass the best Ash Treant there was, because he finally climbed beyond the limits of this world, it still wouldn't matter.

He would still be losing out and there would always be better techniques to use. Not to mention the fact he was a long way from accomplishing that to begin with.

But Ryu truly did have something that no other existence had.

An Internal Matrix that would do all the calculations for him.

Ryu didn't need to burden his soul with the calculations. He could entirely focus on sustaining the [Immortal Sakura] Visualization. After some modification, its enhancement to his close combat abilities would be monumental.

Not only would he be able to have one of the best defensive abilities in existence, but he would likewise fuse it with one of the strongest.

This wasn't all either.

Ryu was already thinking of methods of making the three body problem more complex.

The Immortal Sakura would be an extension of his soul. If he incorporated aspects of Spacetime into it as well, what would happen to this technique?

He definitely wasn't the first to think of this. With so many geniuses among the Ash Treants, there were certainly some of them that had space affinities as well, maybe even time affinities, though Ryu doubted that there'd be both.

However, Ryu didn't care about others at the moment because the synergies he was thinking only continued to become more wild.

He had been able to incorporate his Phoenix Heavenly Patterns into his Visualizations for a long while already. That would definitely be an extra added boost as well.

He had been making large strides to combine his talents into one single path for a long while, and it was clear that his progress in this facet was simply immaculate.

He had yet to do much other than memorize the Ash Treant technique, and had yet to begin figuring out how to have his Inner Matrix take the load for him… but the thoughts of what he could accomplish alone were truly shocking even to him.

…

Ryu continued to search, but he couldn't seem to find Empana.

He had already run into several individuals by now, but not a single one of them was him.

He didn't even bother to interact with most of them, and as for those on his kill list, they died likely without even knowing who attacked them.

Ryu simply pocketed their treasures and then moved along, not feeling much of a burden as the experts on the outside continued to grind their teeth.

This human had truly stomped on their pride again and again, and there was nothing they could do about it. There was no doubt that news of this would spread far and wide across the Ninth Plane, and some of them were even thinking of killing everyone here to stop such a thing.

However, they couldn't go so far… not yet.

At the very least, they got some sick comfort thinking of what had happened to Empana. Looking at Ryu searching around like this, they all couldn't help but release dark sneers.

…

Ryu continued to search, and another hour ticked by without any progress.

That was when he spotted it.

He almost ignored it because it didn't register as a living being, but the shape of it caught him off guard.

Ryu appeared the object and with he illuminated the surroundings, he found Empana's corpse.

It was missing a leg and both arms. His eyes were still open wide, and the Rotten Seas were compressing down around his remains.

Ryu's gaze narrowed.

He didn't know Empana very well, and he didn't very much care about his death itself. But this was a man he had designs on, even having plans for the future.

Who dared to kill his property?

Ryu's gaze flashed with a dangerous light, and he was about to leave when he noticed something else.

'He's not dead. Is this a special ability of the Lizard Demons?'

It seemed similar to shedding skin, except Empana was doing it with his whole body and his soul.

If he had to describe it in a single line, it was like a bastardized version of the Phoenix's Rebirth, but not nearly as glorious nor as effective.

And Empana had used it at the worst time because it was for the sake of survival and nothing else.