Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu soared through the skies and appeared over the battlefield in just a few seconds. 

With a sweep of his Spiritual Sense, he found much of what he expected. The ground had been dyed red and the number of corpses outnumbered the trees. It was a devastating sort of sight that carried none of the beauty the forest once had. 

However, there was an odd aura in the air. 

'Oh?'

Ryu's brows raised. 

The blood of cultivators was quite valuable. When this much of it was spilt, it was quite likely that this region would become quite amazing in the future, at least in terms of the kind of Spiritual Herbs that grew here. The bodies and blood of cultivators were simply excellent fertilizers. 

Given the situation here, even though those that had died here were all below the Sky God Realm, it was still enough for quite a few high level herbs to grow over the next few decades to centuries. It was also due to this timeline, though, that most couldn't be bothered to worry about this currently, especially since it would only be a boon for whoever could win this war in the first place. 

However, there were other circumstances where this could cause a more immediate and shocking change, and that was if the resources present here were great enough to begin with and just needed a small push to evolve to a new level. 

What Ryu hadn't known was that their Sect had actually landed on maybe the most valuable piece of land the Metal Work Sect had, whether by coincidence or not. And this valuable piece of land held their most important ore deposit. 

Not only was this ore valuable to use in the making of weapons, but the Sect also relied on it to cultivate their preeminent technique and the one they were most well known for, the [Metal Work Mantra]. 

This unique metal could have its essence infused into their bodies and could be used to directly temper themselves. It was an exceptionally difficult process, and its practice was part of the reason those of this Sect all shared a similarly brutish kind of personality as it took a certain kind of madman to submit themselves to such a thing. 

What was interesting, though, was that it was the very same characteristics that allowed this so-called Metal Work Spiritual Ore to be absorbed by the disciples of the Metal Work Sect that also allowed it to absorb blood itself. 

The sudden influx of blood allowed the ore vein to push past a certain level of evolution that it had reached and transcend to an all new level, increasing its value by tens of times at the very least. 

It had to be known that this Ore was valuable for the Metal Work Sect even into the Sky God Realms, although ores that valuable were rare within vein, they did exist, and now that the entire vein had been triggered to evolve, these ores had touched upon a transcendent level of value, especially for the Second Heaven. 

It had to be known that at these low levels, even Heaven and Mystical Grade resources were especially rare. The best of these Ores could be considered to be at this Mystical Grade. 

One might wonder, then, how could they be useful to Sky Gods of this Heaven? But it also had to be remembered that not all Sky Gods were created equal. 

The Sky Gods of the Second Heaven had all been astounding geniuses of their Era, but they were still mostly Heaven Class talents. To them, Mystical Grade resources were still very much useful. 

What was truly fascinating, though, was that this was only part of Ryu's deductions. From what he could see, some sort of source had opened up and one of the greatest secrets of the Metal Work Sect had been exposed. From what it looked like, the origin of this special metal wasn't so simple. 

The triggering of the ore veins' evolution caused changes deep below the Sect to be exposed. 

'I see, it should be something similar to a Legacy World, but not quite. It also manifests like a Ruin, but also not quite. It feels more like the closed cultivation grounds of an expert, so it's much different. Their Dao, or the comprehension of their Dao, should be what triggered the formation of this Spiritual Ore Vein. They couldn't be bothered to deal with the aftermath, so they just directly left after they were done. How interesting…'

Ryu was able to see through all of these things with a glance, his deductive abilities being at a completely different level. Just by reading the flow of energies and using his Dao to peer into the secret of things, not to mention his own skill as a Ruin Master, he could guess at many things. 

Likewise, he could tell that the Metal Work Sect would be far more antsy now even in comparison to the past. 

"Kill all of them on sight!"

As though on cue, several booming voices sounded and just as many auras locked onto him. 

The battle on the surface had lessened, but this was only likely because the battle underground had taken its place. Clearly these individuals were here to make sure that the Radiant Star Sect didn't interfere, but judging by the fact that there were still no Sky Gods amongst them, it must mean that the elders of the Radiant Star Sect had already interfered. If not for this, there was no way the Sky Gods of the Metal Work Sect wouldn't have acted by now. 

Ryu raised his head, seeing several Dao Pedestal Realm experts surging toward him in full force. 

Clearly, these disciples had only just returned and hadn't been there during the time Ryu had been fighting. Many of the Metal Work Sect disciples had been returning in droves after receiving a signal that their Sect was in danger. 

To these people, all they saw was an Immortal Ring Realm expert who overestimated themselves. 

If they took a moment to realize that Ryu was using a flying sword, though, their reactions wouldn't have been so foolish.