Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu suddenly felt comfortable all over.

This was the first time he experienced the Chaos Qi of the True Martial World. It felt both familiar, and yet completely unfamiliar at the same time.

Even with his ability to deduce having been nerfed by his weakened Focus Qi, he could immediately see the benefits of having power qi.

Back in Sacrum, Ryu had never been too focused on using high level qi, he had used neutral qi over 90% of the time. After he learned the secret of his Meridians, he began to use Chaos Qi almost exclusively, but due to the fact that this change had come right after he skipped over the Spiritual Severing Realm entirely, it was hard to tell if the boost in strength had come from his new cultivation realm, or his Chaos Qi.

Ryu wasn't sure about Sacrum, but he knew that here, in the True Martial World, suddenly being able to use Chaos Qi wasn't just a small game changer. He felt as though all the strength he could display by fusing all of his talents into one could be matched by his Meridians alone.

Ryu swung his great swordstaff out once again. He mindlessly pushed forward, relentless in his pursuit of speed and higher achievement. He forgot about everything else, swinging again and again. He didn't spare any thought.

toward battle tactics or where he was going, he threw all other thoughts from his mind, letting his body instinctively react to everything before it.

Ryu's Heavenly Chaos Bone Structure began to react to the sudden influx of Choas Qi.

When Ryu had originally constructed it, he was before the senses of the Dao Sovereign, so how could he not be incomparably cautious with how he utilised Chaos Qi? It could be said that while the Heavenly Favor aspects of his Bone Structure had gotten the chance to perfectly saturate his body, the same couldn't be said for his Chaos Qi.

One would think that due to this, Ryu only had access to half the strength of his Bone Structure due to this, but the reality was far more exaggerated than this.

The strength of the Heavenly Chaos Bone Structure used the clash of two elements as its foundation. If one was lagging behind another, the results would inevitably be lackluster. Even so, Ryu had experienced a great change. But now, compared to what was happening now, the previous shift could only be said to be a joke.

Ryu's bodily strength took large leaps forward in strength again and again as it greedily soaked up the excess Chaos Qi that Ryu lacked the Focus Qi to properly control. Ironically, it was precisely this lack of control that allowed him to benefit so much.

As though a dry well was finally graced by rainfall, Ryu's Bone Structure began to display its truest state. From an inferior form, it greedily increased in strength, taking large leaps forward again and again.

At the same time, Ryu found that his vision was becoming clearer and clearer.

If he had reached the pinnacle of what natural eyesight could be at his cultivation level before, he blasted by that barrier. It very quickly became something entirely unnatural, and yet oddly enough, Ryu couldn't feel the presence of his Heavenly Pupils.

As his eyes became sharper and sharper, capable of seeing things far beyond the realms of what normal eyes should be capable of, he felt that his Heavenly Pupils were actually becoming more distant. No, it wasn't that they were becoming more distant, but rather that his sense of when they would awaken was becoming clearer with the strengthening of his eyes. And he felt that...

He wasn't even close.

He didn't know what the Black Veined Spirit Seeking Lilies had done to him, but whatever mutation it had caused was taking far more effort to unseal than even his original talents had been. Even with his current brain fog, Ryu knew that this wasn't actually a bad thing. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that Ailsa and Yaana were trapped within, he would only see this as a good thing.

The more effort it took to unseal his eyes, the more powerful they would be when he finally undid the final seal. In fact, if his Spiritual Foundation wasn't immediately important to his breakthrough into the Dao Pedestal Realm, he might consider aiming all of his accumulated Heavenly Favor toward his eyes instead.

If his eyes took too little effort to unseal, it would instead be a disappointment. If he survived to the day he could see the world through those eyes again.

He didn't believe that anyone would be able to stop his steps.

Ryu roared and slashed out with his great swordstaff. The tattoos that coated his body began to squirm, some roaring like swimming dragons, some soaring through the skies like crying phoenixes, some burning like an internal flame and others striking down like mighty tribulation lightning.

However, as soon as these images appeared, they would vanish into a complex network of Runes as though they had never changed in the first place, making it seem like nothing more than a trick of the eye.

Radiant Dark Gold and White Gold energies swirled around Ryu.

Suddenly, the sound of a shattering barrier echoed. However, it wasn't a normal breakthrough. With the current state of his mind, it took Ryu several seconds before he realized that the change actually came from his eyes.

It was said that the eyes were the window to the soul, and at that moment, it was as though the figurative had become literal.

Ryu didn't have the words to describe it, but it felt like his Soul Nature had transferred to his pupils. No... maybe transferring wasn't the right way to describe it. It was more like they had suddenly gained a shared link between the two of them.

Even without trying, Ryu could suddenly see arcs of space and trails of time. When the two layered on top of each other, a surge of complex information threatened to overwhelm him entirely. But shockingly enough, rather than depleting the small hints of Focus Qi he had left, it was immediately processed by him with the ease of breathing, as though it came naturally, as though...

It was his Nature, his Soul Nature.

Suddenly, Ryu's instinctual reactions became faster. He peered into streams of causality with ease and without spending even the slightest hint of effort or even qi. While he couldn't change them, just the ability to see them increased his battle effectiveness by what felt like over 100%.

The battle almost became effortless. He glided forward, his blade seemingly appearing in the weak spots of his enemies as though it had teleported there.

The endless stream of blue armored warriors wasn't coming fast enough so Ryu began to sprint forward, his speed touching seemingly impossible realms as he rode on the currents of air, his body bounding forward as light as a feather.

"Get out of my way!" Ryu roared, echoes of dark gold energy shooting out from his mouth.

Every one of his actions was fueled under the power of Chaos Qi, its destructive energies crushing everything in its path.

It seemed to form a domain around Ryu, crippling the normal qi that the armored warriors used. In the past, Ryu's control of his qi would be so precise and timely that such a thing would never happen. But due to this, he had never noticed just the kind of destructive capabilities Chaos Qi had on others when used.

In retrospect, this should have been obvious. Most couldn't step into even Sacrum's Chaos Plane without protective items, let alone the True Martial

World's Chaos Plane.

Just using it in a wild and an unbridled manner such as this was enough for Ryu to feel stronger than maybe he had ever felt before.

He hacked and slashed at everything in his path. There was no technique, no thinking, just instinct and reaction, not to mention a vicious, raw power.

Ryu's limbs crackled and popped, his skin shimmering. The pores on his body expanded and contracted, his skin, bones and flesh restructuring themselves.

Ryu didn't know how much time passed or how many enemies he killed. Still worried about his Focus Qi, he didn't dare to spend any thought on miscellaneous matters, he just had to keep going, he had to gather enough Heavenly Favor to unseal his Spiritual Foundation. He didn't care if he truly died the moment he stepped foot out of this place, but so long as he had a single breath in him, he would do his absolute best.

Outside of the tower, Mae still sat in the center of the formation, her beautiful and delicate features derided by paleness and dripping sweat. The corner of her pink lips drizzled with droplets of blood, painting a particularly tragic scene.

Even so, she sat in silence, not making a single sound as attacks continued to bombard her formation from all sides.

At that moment, in the skies, the names on the ancient cube glowed and Ryu's number finally shifted, ticking up from 1 (rainbow) to 2 (rainbow).