Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu's senses swept through his body, his mind sharp as he checked for the changes. This Protector Spirit seemed to have the ability to change aspects of his muscle memory. He felt that his energy usage had become more efficient, and his muscles fired in a more coordinated and organized motion.

Though Ryu understood this immediately, he was still surprised. He didn't understand it so quickly because it was simple, but rather because of his now complete Origin Flame and his Founding Dao, there was very little he couldn't understand at this point, and his body was among the count that found it almost impossible to baffle him.

'Martial Forms...

It had been a long time since Ryu had thought of these two words. He had stopped practicing his four Martial Forms a long time ago because he had already reached the limit of their usefulness. But he didn't forget about them, rather they were still a part of him. It was just that he hadn't had the time to refine a newer, stronger version of them.

If he still had Ailsa by his side, she would have already probably long since done it for him, especially since he was certain that her current level of strength and understanding was far beyond what it had been in the past.

His Tatsuya Martial Form had helped him with stability and power, focusing on his lower body and his bones. His Kunan Martial Form had helped with his speed and explosiveness, focusing on his quick twitch muscles and his reaction speed and adaptation to situations. His Ice Phoenix Martial Form had maximized his endurance and durability, focusing on the efficiency of his blood flow and oxygen use. Finally, his Fire Phoenix Martial Form focused on his recoverability and flexibility. It concentrated on accelerated healing and the flexibility of his muscles and overall body.

All these things were extremely important, and Ryu would have never stopped practicing them had he not stopped seeing the benefit from them. He thought of them from time to time, and subconsciously completed some movements, but it wasn't to the point of diligence that he had reached in the past, not by a long stretch.

But this feeling... it was eerily similar to what he remembered them to be.

Ultimately, if he broke it down, the purpose of the Martial Forms was to make effective use of his body, to form a shortcut and lay the base of the youths of the family. Whereas it would normally take countless years of experience to build up that sort of muscle memory and flexibility, it now took no more than diligent practice and a fraction of the time to build up the same tolerance.

These Protector Spirits seemed to do the same thing.

This bear spirit, for example, focused on explosive power. It subconsciously taught Ryu how to gather up his strength and release it all in an instant. It took a bit of fast twitch muscles, but it was mostly down to coordination, using a powerful base and twisting through each one of your attacks.

'I can... use this...' Ryu thought to himself.

He could reform the Martial Forms of his family.

If there was one thing Ryu had never given up on, one thing that hung in the back of his mind, was the revival of his four Clans, the four Clans responsible for the talent flowing through his veins right this moment. Even until this moment, he had their treasures, and countless vials of blood that could be used to reboot their Bloodlines.

Of course, those Bloodlines were only to the standard of Sacrum, but he chose to focus on one problem at a time. Right this moment, he had a solution to a problem that loomed overhead. These Martial Forms, aside from their Bloodlines, could be said to be the very foundation of the Clans...

If he could use these Protector Spirits, he could rebuild them from the ground up, raising them up to the standard of the Martial World. When he began to have children and revive his Clans one by one, he would be able to give them all the sturdiest base there was.

He gripped his fists and his gaze flashed with a cold light. All of those thoughts about potentially working with others flew out of his mind.

Of course, he hadn't been a fan of the idea in the first place, but he had thought that working with Selheira might not have been too bad. He was the only person he had really considered as he always felt calm in her presence.

But now, he knew that this was impossible. He could tell that if he split the Protector Spirit with others, then he would also have to experience a split in this boon as well. That would fracture the insights he could gain and that would be unacceptable.

If he was going to reform the Martial Forms of his family, he would have to make them absolutely perfect. He wouldn't settle for anything less.

"In that case, I can't just concentration on a quantity of Protector Spirits, I also need to find compatible Protector Spirits, and they won't necessarily have elemental similarities... I'll have to observe their combat style."

The bear had nothing to do with the Lightning Qilin, it couldn't even use lightning, and yet it was a perfect match for the Kunan Martial Form which focused on speed and explosiveness. Although it was lacking in the speed part, it fit in perfectly with the latter.

This would make things more complicated. After all, there were only two ways to observe a Protector Spirit battle. Either to do it himself or observe others as they did so. Either way, it was trouble.

If he observed a battle and found a Protector Spirit he liked, he would have to take it.

If he fought himself, and found that the Protector Spirit wasn't to his liking, then he would have to remove himself without allowing the spirit to follow.

Ryu smiled. 'Now things are getting interesting.