Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

It was a difficult choice to make. Unlike with potion and pill making, he couldn't just casually meld the completely separate practices together, at least not without spending a ridiculous amount of effort and time creating an entirely new path.

This would be something that Ryu would be willing to do as he wasn't afraid of a difficult task. But the question was whether or not it would be worth it, and he wasn't 100% certain of that.

As much as Feng Shui spoke to him, it really was too difficult to find naturally occurring regions of such quality, and even rarer if you needed a very specific kind.

In order to succeed, Ryu would need locations that were absolutely perfect as he refused to take in any Heavenly Favor that wasn't at the pinnacle. However, the shackles of the Feng Shui method were far too heavy.

Even if he fused it with other methods, such problems wouldn't just vanish. He would have to make sure that he could use a separate method to make up for it.

Suddenly, Ryu froze once again.

'Maybe…?'

Finding Feng Shui locations wasn't the only method of taking advantage of Feng Shui. For example, even the arrangement of furniture or plants within one's house could create a balance that could be taken advantage of. Feng Shui was just, ultimately, the oldest form of Formation Mastery there was, one that relied on the simple to form the complex.

In fact, the eight trigram diagram within Ryu's eyes was very much connected to Feng Shui as well.

It had to be remembered that the eight trigram diagram was among the simplest and easiest formations to deploy. It was only as one progressed as a Formation Master that you could make it increasingly complex and profound.

This process was very much rooted in Feng Shui.

According to the history of Sacrum, Feng Shui came first, then the eight trigram diagram, and from the eight trigram diagram countless other formations were birthed into the world taking inspiration from it.

Did that mean that Ryu could just use his eight trigram diagram in place of his Feng Shui?

The answer to that was no. Ultimately, there was a reason why the eight trigram diagram was so simple. It was a foundational method, but it wasn't appropriate to be used in every case. In fact, the reason it was so perfect to use to fuse his Daos and Inheritances was because Ryu could be confident that it would remain bland enough to allow his own talents to shine through.

Like this, the eight trigram diagram wouldn't allow his thoughts to deviate, and thus cripple his Dao.

However, when it came to Ryu's Bone Structure, it needed something more rigid and real in structure, something that wouldn't be so flexible.

This sounded counter-intuitive since Ryu had just learned that one of his Bone Structure's best abilities was its adaptability. But there was a fine line between being adaptable and being too easily influenced.

Ryu's Dao and Inheritances were what gave the eight trigram diagram a rigid structure to follow. However, if Ryu used the eight trigram diagram for his Bone Structure as well, it would be a clash of two easily manipulated spheres of influence.

Rather than helping, this would actually make Ryu's Bone Structure too flexible in what it accommodated, making it possible to deviate down any path rather than taking direction from him and him alone.

The only way to fix this would be if he reforged the eight trigram diagram again with new representations of Wind, Water, Mountain, Earth, Thunder, Fire, Life and Heaven. Maybe if he forged a new alloy matching with such, then it could work.

But if he was forging an alloy before even using the eight trigram diagram, then wouldn't it defeat the purpose of needing the diagram in the first place?

It was a huge, circular mess.

That was, unless… Ryu created his own Feng Shui environment, not with the eight trigram diagram which was ultimately a false representation of Feng Shui, but instead with…

Herbology!

After embarking on the path of alchemy, Ryu's past as an Origin Grade Herbologist was ever present, but still mostly forgotten. His skills helped his Dao to analyze and comprehend Spiritual Herbs he had never even seen before with far more speed than it alone would have allowed, but beyond that, it wasn't very useful to him.

Of course, only Ryu would casually say such a thing. Although an Origin Grade Herbologist of Sacrum was only really about at the level of a Heaven Grade Herbologist at best on the True Martial World, Ryu wasn't a normal Origin Grade Herbologist. In fact, he had long since left his peers behind. If it wasn't because of the lack of information on Sacrum, he would have leapt far beyond such a level long ago.

Being a Herbologist wasn't just about identifying herbs… One of the main responsibilities was the growth and nurturing of Spiritual Herbs!

In his first life, Ryu had already lost count of the number of extinct Spiritual Herbs he had resurrected, but that was even the important part.

During his Herbology Trial back on Sacrum, the very one he took before meeting Ailsa, one of the final test questions was extremely difficult for most others. He was given an environment and his task was to allow a Spiritual Herb that would usually never appear in such a place to grow in it.

In the end, Ryu's answer was so perfect that even the overseer at the time was shocked into silence. What he had done back then wasn't herbology… it was much closer to terraforming!

Using his skills as an Herbologist, Ryu's ability to manipulate and twist the environment into following his whims was on a level maybe even many Herbologists of the True Martial World couldn't even fathom.

Ryu's thoughts were simple. What if it was possible for him to form his own Feng Shui environment? If a perfect environment didn't exist… He, Ryu Tatsuya, would make one!