Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu had a few targets for this seclusion.

In a short time, his Bloodline wouldn't be able to undergo another drastic change, neither would his other raw Talents. What he had now would have to be enough.

However, he didn't mind this. The improvement he had made in the Heavenly Path had already solidified.

With his Heavenly Pupils back, it was even easier for him to see the path of the Bloodlines. He could pull out their true power with much greater ease.

Right now, there was no doubt that his Bloodlines in their current state could display the strength of the Lord Grade individually. When he fused them and insisted on using them as one, they could only display the strength of the Omniscient Grade.

However, Ryu didn't care much about these Grades anymore. That was because the latter so-called Omniscient Grade was far stronger than the Lord Grade of his individual Bloodlines.

That was because although his Bloodlines could only exhibit the strength of the Omniscient Grade when together, the power when fused out-weighed the loss when they were separated.

It was these sort of oddities that Ryu needed to parse and understand thoroughly. As he had many of them in his body.

This was just one of the many oddities, and it was at moments like this that Ryu wished he had Ailsa by his side, or at the very least, a master.

He had the guidance of the Heavens, but he didn't want to follow that path precisely. In addition, much of his strength, that being the Unbalance Mantra and the Nine Pillar Flames, were both unable to be deciphered by the Heavens and could only be understood by himself.

Then there was the issue of his weapons of choice. The Heavens could likewise not give much guidance about great swordstaffs because there were simply far too few experts that had used it in their path, none of whom had reached the pinnacle.

The Heavens weren't just some unopened encyclopedia that was all-knowing and all-powerful. The guidance that it had given Ryu was based on the success of other powerful cultivators.

In fact, according to the Heavens, he should abandon weapons entirely and become a master of close combat skills, unleashing all of his strength in a barrage of fists, palms, fingers, knees, and kicks. With the way it was described, Ryu had to admit that he was actually somewhat intrigued by the prospect.

After some thought, thought that lasted for much longer than Ryu wanted to admit, he finally decided on what to focus on first.

It had to be his weapons.

He seemed like an expert, able to easily swap between weapons, and even gain God Aura with each one of them. But Ryu didn't feel like this.

Pulling out his Weapon God Auras felt like he was trying to breathe through a straw. He had so much potential, but he could only pull out small bits at a time.

After he formed his Internal Matrix, this had changed somewhat. That was because his Dao could see through the secrets of these weapons up to the False Grade, so as a Fragmented Sky God, it made it look like he was infallible.

But he still remembered his battle with Starlight. His great swordstaff had been suppressed and he had been forced to abandon it.

'Should I really abandon it?'

Ryu was reluctant. It wasn't because he had such an attachment to the great swordstaff, but rather because it was the weapon his wife had picked out for him.

Back then, it took a lot of courage for Ailsa to bring up the idea to him. Ryu had been so dead set on using spears, glaives, and halberds. He was a Tatsuya, and at the time he believed himself to be the last Tatsuya, how could he abandon the path of his family?

Now, it wouldn't be so exaggerated. Ailsa was his wife, a woman he loved dearly. Even if she cursed at him in a fit of rage, he would laugh it off while someone else doing the same thing would be cosigned to death.

Ryu took a breath and exhaled.

100 years. That was how long he had. If he was swimming against the tide of Faith that entire time, he would end up shooting himself in the foot.

Why had Ailsa made him choose the great swordstaff in the first place? It wasn't because she was so enraptured by the idea, it was rather because he was so obsessed with sticking with pole arms that she found an alternative just for him. That didn't even necessarily mean that she believed it was the best path for him either.

He had too many things to focus on, too many things to perfect.

He couldn't try to be perfect and rebellious at the same time.

That moment of enlightenment he had had back when he returned to Sacrum came back to benefit him once more. This time, he wasn't abandoning perfection again. No, he appeared still seeking it, he was just flexible in how he chose to rise to that peak.

In addition, he no longer hated the Heavens. He had grown past that feeling a long time ago.

The Heavenly Favor within him possessed given him many paths toward weapon mastery, but it was very clear that it too felt he would be best suited to becoming a close combat expert. So why not listen to it for now? If it didn't work out, he could always change his path in the future.

'Close combat expert, huh?' Ryu thought. 'The idea... isn't so bad.'

Ryu had always felt that everything flowed more smoothly when he used his body to attack directly, and this created sense.

Of the paths of combat, fist techniques, finger techniques, palm techniques, and others of the like, were the most common, but they were also the most flexible.

The body appeared ultimately under the control of the user, and a user could always exert the most direct influence onto it. Even if you attempted to follow an unconventional path, the resistance you would meet would be far lesser on the spectrum.

He, Ryu Tatsuya, would make his body his weapon. He would like to see if anyone would dare to suppress him like Starlight possessed again.