Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu felt his consciousness tingling. It was hard to describe, but it was as though he was looking at something larger than himself, far larger. No matter how his consciousness enveloped the Spiritual Foundation, he couldn't seem to see to the end of it. Even he couldn't see the limits of his own Spiritual Foundation.

When Ryu learned of the first ability of his Spiritual Foundation, its capability to turn Chaos Qi into Essence, he had obviously wondered what other things it could do this with. But now that he was here, standing in its presence, Ryu laughed to himself.

"What an arrogant Spiritual Foundation."

Without even trying, Ryu could feel that this one wouldn't listen. Even when it came to turning Chaos Qi into Essence, this was something that happened passively because he had anchored it within the Chaos Plane to make it his "second" Spiritual Foundation.

"You allowed yourself to get shackled while I was an infant but now you want to be arrogant? Don't you think you're a bit hypocritical?"

Ryu didn't seem to be enraged, which was actually quite odd for him. The idea of his own talents rebelling against him was something that Ryu had hated for a long time already. But truthfully, this didn't really feel like rebellion to Ryu, it wasn't that the Spiritual Foundation refused to allow him use it, it was more so that his current self was incapable.

It was said that the Dao Pedestal Realm was the point where one would begin to learn about their Spiritual Foundation, but this was just the beginning. It wasn't guaranteed that one would learn what they needed to, and even if they did learn something, there was no guarantee that they would be able to use it immediately.

A Living Spiritual Foundation was the perfect example of this. Usually they were unusable until the World Sea Realm and even then one would still need to slowly learn about them. For a Spiritual Foundation like this one to have such high demands wasn't surprising at all.

In response to Ryu's words, the Beyond Perfect Extreme Spiritual Foundation vibrated.

"Hm?"

Ryu's brows jumped. At that moment, a large amount of illusory chains suddenly rushed forward. Although they moved like they wanted to swallow Ryu up whole, he didn't seem to be panicked. He could feel that his Spiritual Foundation didn't want to harm him.

The selection of a Spiritual Foundation was a relatively unknown process and happened without the knowledge of the cultivator, but as a Ruin Master, Ryu knew a few things.

Compatibility with a Spiritual Foundation was decided from conception, but which one you would end up with was actually decided amongst the Spiritual Foundations themselves, or at the very least, this was the leading theory.

This meant that Ryu's Beyond Perfect Extreme Spiritual Foundation had to fight off other Spiritual Foundations to become his Spiritual Foundation. Having gone through all of that, and after being chained for almost a billion years, how could his Spiritual Foundation turn on him now? That was why Ryu had just mostly been teasing his Spiritual Foundation earlier on.

What he hadn't expected was for it to actually react.

The illusory chains built up around Ryu before coming to a stop.

"These..."

Ryu's brows jumped. How could he not recognize these chains, they were the very same chains that had held him from his Spiritual Foundation for so long, keeping it sealed away for over nine cycles of a hundred years.

Ryu blinked. "You can produce these chains?"

The Beyond Perfect Extreme Spiritual Foundation vibrated.

Ryu's pupils constricted. He reached out and touched the illusory chains.

Almost instantly, he felt everything within him "die". It was as though his entire connection with the world had been severed, a chilly wind kissing at his neck.

Ryu hurriedly pulled his hand back, his expression paling somewhat.

That feeling... had been absolutely horrible. It truly felt that he was dying. No... It felt like he had truly died and that his life was over. He couldn't sense the Heavens, he couldn't sense the Planes, he couldn't breathe, and he felt as though the reaper had tapped on his shoulder, ready to take him away.

The Beyond Perfect Extreme Spiritual Foundation vibrated again.

Taking deep breaths, Ryu eventually calmed down and he slowly began to understand.

His Spiritual Foundation couldn't do anything for him right now, at least not without him getting much stronger. If not for the fact he had planted it within the Chaos Plane, even forming Essence for him would have been impossible.

However, the one ability his Spiritual Foundation did have was this copying ability. It was able to take in Chaos Qi to produce Essence, and after so long being chained, how could it not also be able to produce the very restrictions that had suffocated it for so long?

Ryu's Spiritual Foundation could pump out a near endless number of these and Ryu simply couldn't believe that there was any area control ability that could possibly be stronger than this at his cultivation level.

Ryu could manage to wrap an enemy with these chains, he didn't believe that beneath the Sky God Realm could shrug them off. And, as he grew stronger, the replication of these chains would only grow more perfect until the point he could reform the real thing.

When that time came, he would allow the Martial Gods to have a taste of their own medicine.

When he could produce an endless amount of these chains and restrain Spiritual Foundations as he pleased, he would be able to cut off the talent of entire Clans with a single thought.

While the Martial Gods likely spent an enormous sum of resources and effort to chain his Spiritual Foundation, he would be able to produce the same results as easily as breathing.

Ryu's gaze flickered with a frighteningly cold light.

After a moment of silence, Ryu reached toward the chains again. Just now, he had actually felt fear, he refused to allow his heart to have such a thing. He wouldn't leave this place until he was unmoved by these chains.