Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu's thoughts were simple. With this new fighting style of his, he was relying quite heavily on the feint, but his speed hadn't increased at all. In fact, although his Vital Qi was being stabilized and controlled by the Nine Pillars, his actual explosion toward his true attacking posture was a small measure slower. His mind could pick up on this easily and it was a matter of just a small few fractions of a second. But even at the World Sea Realm, fractions of a second were the equivalent of several meters if not dozens of meters of movement. The difference was vast.

But what if he used his Nine Pillars and his Bone Structure at the same time?

It would be difficult, extremely difficult, maybe even more difficult than learning the method the panther spirit used, and that would have taken weeks to perfectly master in Ryu's estimation. But for some reason, Ryu didn't feel that this one would take him as long because this method was complicated for many different reasons. While the former method, the method of the panther, relied on control, specifically Vital Qi control, this wasn't about that. Instead, it relied heavily on timing. And with Ryu's mind and his Origin Flame, perfect timing was well within his strengths.

The panther spirit's method required splitting Vital Qi into several streams across the body, one main stream and several smaller streams of equal strength. The main stream would be used to direct the path of attack. If the attack was chosen to be followed through with, the smaller streams would converge on the point of attack. If the attack was abandoned part of the way through, the smaller streams would still converge, but rather than adding to the strength it would ebb it away, weaken it, and turn the momentum to another direction before splitting once again and repeating.

It was clear how much manipulation and concentration this took. To apply it in battle would take great talent, hard work, instincts, and an expansive mental capacity.

Ryu's method, though, was still even more complicated than that, not in explanation, but rather in application.

He planned to continue using the Nine Pillars to control the flow of his Vital Qi and stop it from ripping his organs to pieces. However, he incorporated one thing: a brief complete stop.

Stopping your movements in the middle of battle was probably a death sentence, especially if you have to be completely still. But what if it happened for only the briefest of moments in the midst of a flurry of feints? And... what if in that brief pause, you gained back seconds of momentum?

In that brief stop to his movements, he would use his Bone Structure and Spacetime Soul Nature. A split second of pause could easily gain him seconds worth of circulation, but he wouldn't even need all of it. He could pause for far briefer stints than that. He needed less than a second to circulate his Vital Qi throughout his whole body, so why would he even need several seconds in the first place?

Ryu immediately moved. He didn't rush forward or backward, he simply threw fists and kicks, his feints leaving countless afterimages in the air with a fluid motion. But suddenly, his gaze glowed bright and his movement inexplicably became faster despite the relaxation on his face remaining just the same.

10%... 20%... 30%...

Eventually, his speed of attack was twice as fast as it usually was and without even sign of slowing down. Afterimages of him remaining in place began to layer atop of one another, giving the illusion of a buddha sitting down in prayer and yet attacking at the same time. The speed was mind numbing and the powerful power was bone crushing.

Ryu suddenly began to move more actively. He shifted forward and backward, shadow boxing with a sharp speed and nimble movements. Afterimages of himself frozen in place dotted all across the terrain, the slight pauses he made remained somewhat a permanence in the scape of reality.

Ryu continued to move, his movements still getting faster and pushing upward of 250%. Then, his aura changed and his qi began to circulate. He controlled his qi and Vital Qi at the same time, the former far more violently than the latter. His Nine Pillars didn't work on his normal qi, but it didn't matter. His Chaotic Silk Meridians were nigh indestructible.

'I don't have to pause to use my qi unless I'm immediately about to activate it to perform a technique or I'm using it to supplement my motion speed and powerful power... that means...'

Ryu's speed exploded forth, his Vital Qi and his qi working in tandem to fuel the strength of his body. His pauses became slightly longer, causing his afterimages to have slightly more permanence, but his over speed rose by a great measure, his attacks becoming more layered.

Suddenly, his speed dropped again, but this time, after he left another afterimage, his body suddenly appeared in his hands and an arrow trembled to life.

It was so fast it was blinding. Not the arrow, but the formation of the technique. It was as though Ryu had manifested it from thin air.

[Thirteen Soaring Azures: Snow]

A blizzard formed in the surroundings as the arrow was released. All around, a icy cold wind of sharp qi spun, ripping the surroundings to pieces.

Ryu appeared out in the cold winds of the snowy fields, his expression calm as his hair danced behind him.

In the midst of battle, he could use those small pauses to accelerate the completion of technique patterns. Meaning, when he began to move again, he could instantly cast his techniques without the slightest lag. This definitely wasn't the only application either, he could do the same for his Mental Realm techniques as well.

If his previous discoveries had increased his strength by 50%, this was at least an boost by a factor of three. Overall, he was almost five times stronger than he had been before.

'Let's go hunting.'