Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

1316 Qi?

Ryu stood in silence for a very long while, his mind trying to figure out where to take his next step. He was quite confident in himself, but even he knew that it was very much possible for him to make mistakes. He wouldn't be foolish enough to believe himself infallible.

If he had his Founding Dao currently, it would have been a small matter to do this. In fact, if it wasn't because of the situations he had been thrust into recently, he might have already chosen to do it long ago. But now, it was difficult...

The only potential way forward seemed to be to form a stopgap measure, re- establish his Dao Heart, and then make changes later. But this issue with that was that he had no idea if that would even be possible. For example, if he tried to change the path of his Qi Realm Refinement now, it wouldn't be a simple matter. It would require a purge and an entire overhaul.

The only reason it had been relatively easier to change his foundation the first time was because the gap between Sacrum and the True Martial World was absolutely enormous. The idea of reworking the former in place of the latter was too easy.

But, if he had to do it now, he would either need to create a new system with a gap that was just as significant, or he would need to undo his previous work first before he could lay down a new foundation. Although it was said in so many words, this was essentially like crippling himself.

When you were talking about the body and the qi, it was still relatively easier to do this, but now Ryu was working with the soul.

Any method that he chose had to take into account all 10 of his souls, fusing them into an entirely new method, a method that was invulnerable by other soul methods. However, in doing so, it would be extremely difficult. This went almost without saying.

'In the end, I still don't understand enough about these matters. Without my Dao to peer through these secrets, it would take far too long for me to slowly understand it, probably at least centuries. Maybe...'

Ryu's gaze sharpened as he turned his attention back to his Spiritual Sea. He gazed upon the damaged embryo of his soul.

This embryo no longer looked like a child. It looked like a toddler, slowly inching toward its teen years. This was the creation formed after Ryu entered the Soul Birth Realm, and it has been here ever since.

A flash of inspiration hit Ryu.

His Perfect Blackbody Soul was an existence with an endless amount of flexibility. Theoretically, so long as his body could accommodate it, its strength could increase into infinity. Although this meant that it was quite weak in comparison to similarly ranked souls in the beginning, over time, it very well might become Ryu's strongest asset, even beyond the Beyond Perfect Extreme Spiritual Foundation.

The reason that Ryu wasn't afraid of the damage to his Spiritual Sea was precisely because of this soul of his. So long as he cultivated it properly, he would be able to make up for what he had lost and then some. Although what he had lost couldn't be recovered easily, it didn't matter. Even if he made no attempts to heal it, the new growth of his soul would be able to more than make up for it.

This was the power of having a soul that didn't have a natural cap in strength. It could grow so long as his body could accommodate its strength.

So the question was... could he take advantage of this?

If his Perfect Blackbody Soul had this much flexibility, maybe it could actually deal with the rebuilding of a foundation far better than the other pillars of his cultivation. In fact, it would likely be the very best at it, even more so than hi Spiritual Foundations which were precisely created for the sake of adapting to their users.

If he took advantage of the characteristics of his Perfect Blackbody, he coul easily create and then recreate his foundation as he pleased.

One only need to look at his current Spacetime Soul Talent to understand. He hadn't even been born with this talent, his soul had absorbed it and then adapted. This was what it was built for.

But this left a question...

What was his Perfect Blackbody Soul?

This question was more important now than ever. If it was just one of his 10 souls, then this technique wouldn't work. The damage to the other souls wouldn't be something that he could recover. But... Ryu had a feeling that it was something different.

Just take his Chaos Qi for a moment. His Chaos Qi wasn't actually a part of him, it was just a byproduct of his Meridians. The more Ryu thought about it, the more he believed that his Perfect Blackbody Soul was similar.

Rather than actually being one of his souls, it was a projection of their abilities. It was also the anchor the connected his corporeal souls with his incorporeal souls.

The problem was that this was just a hypothesis, Ryu had no way of validating just yet. He needed more time to research.

Luckily, he had the Inheritance of the Magus Sky God, but would need to take his time to comb through it properly and find the information he needed.

"This will take some time, but I should come out far more potent on the opposite end. I'll set this aside for now, but there is something else that's captured my attention...'

Ryu appeared above his Beyond Perfect Extreme Spiritual Foundation once again, his gaze sharp. He looked toward the eerie energy surging out of it. It swallowed up his Cosmic Qi, annihilating it and leaving nothing but a foul smell of death.

Ryu looked at this qi deeply. Even when he tried, he couldn't manipulate it at all...

What qi was this? What did it mean?