Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu didn't seem to know fatigue. His body moved without pause, every strike adding to the layers of muscle memory that were practically ingrained within him.

From a perfect rush of Heavenly aura, it seemed to be slowly gaining an edge of chaotic patterns. His movements became more unpredictable, and even a hint more jerky. However, he didn't stop or pull back.

He dove headfirst into the feeling, his movements becoming faster, sharper.

Fists that painted the skies suddenly vanished at the last moment and became elbows that landed on the wind like claps of thunder. Knees flickered, seemingly phasing out of existence and becoming overhead, whipping kicks.

As the predictability became more wild and harder to track, the jerkiness was slowly weeded out, becoming just as fluid as it had started.

PA! PA! PA!

Cracks of dark gold began to appear in the air, almost like crackling embryos of lightning. The energy of the world flowed along with Ryu, gathering a strength that seemed to exist beyond him.

It was truly beautiful.

Ryu's progress oscillated, moving from complex to simple, and then from simple back to dense layers of complexity. Every time he added a new layer, he retreated to the safety of simplicity and then added yet another layer.

He was building a Martial Art all to himself, one that forged his body into a lethal, unprecedented weapon.

Ryu's thoughts drifted, his movements becoming such an embodiment of who he was he no longer needed to think about it. Instead, his mind was consumed with one thought.

The Bow.

It was the one weapon he had yet to incorporate, and probably the true reason he was the most reluctant to take this path.

His grandfather's bow was still with him. He didn't know if he should take this step or not, but after over half a year, he had come to a decision.

His palms left a beautiful arc in the air. Streaks of bright silver and dark silver left a layer of what looked like magic circles in their wake.

Ryu took a breath, and these circles pulsed along with his Domain, filling his body with power.

PA!

He suddenly punched out, but the sound came much later than his strike stopped, echoing through the void and appearing several meters away.

He punched out again, this one traveling even further. It was as though his fists extended far beyond his body, as though his range was unlimited.

His movements started off slow, but they quickly grew in power and frequency. A series of echoes came long after Ryu's strikes, but they seemed to lag behind his actual movements.

It wasn't just wind pressure; it was something far beyond that. Even if a child stood between Ryu and his target, their hair wouldn't even lift from their shoulders. It was truly as though Ryu was bypassing the laws that governed the world themselves to reach his target.

To the side, a combat puppet stood. Ryu never used it because he simply didn't need it. But at that moment, it inexplicably imposed, a destructive might pooling out from within it and expanding outward in a violent tempest.

At that moment, Ryu knew that he had reached some Great Realm of Perfection. Indeed, this was the only thing his Martial Art was missing.

He made a plucking motion at the air with his fingers, a large amount of energy suddenly gathering in them.

His stance shifted, and the energy flowed like a wave through him as he sent out a finger strike with his other hand.

The already imploding puppet was eviscerated, leaving nothing but ash.

The materials that constructed that puppet were on the edge of the True Sky God standard of the Seventh Heaven, and yet it was torn to shreds.

Ryu exhaled a last breath.

His blood rushed through his body like a tsunami, the thumping of his heart causing the air itself to tremble.

'Nine months...' He thought to himself.

He had never spent so long meditating on anything. However, the results were proportional.

It could be said that the only thing he hadn't incorporated properly were the Nine Pillars of his Body Realm. However, that wasn't something he would need to actively think about; it would move along with him naturally.

In fact, Ryu felt that with enough resources, he could progress his body forward a great number of steps.

The Body Realm of the Mortal, Immortal, and Cosmic states didn't really require much comprehension. Honestly speaking, it wasn't necessarily required for the Sky God Realms either. At least not directly.

For example, in order to form a Cosmic Seed and enter the Cosmic Seed Realm, one needed to give form to their Inheritances, and they also had to keep in mind the compatibility of these Inheritances with their Dao so that they wouldn't run into issues come the time to become Sky Gods.

Nothing of the sort was required for the Body Realm. However, it could be said that there was some comprehension necessary by proxy.

When one completed a Life Destruction, for instance, it was important to understand the very foundations of one's body. The more one comprehended, the more thoroughly they could destroy themselves before succeeding in a Destruction. By the same token, the more thorough the foundational Destructions, the further one could progress.

The God Realms of the Body Realm were similar. Although there were no longer any Destructions, comprehension was a key benefit to faster progression.

The reason it seemed that this wasn't the case was because of the heavy reliance on pure talent and grit in the Body Realms.

Someone with weaker comprehension could make up for it by suffering or having great talent.

Essentially, what was of the most importance in regards to the Body Realms was an ability to control a large amount of Vital Qi. Without meeting this bar, it was easy to implode. Just now, though, Ryu had made a great deal of progress.

He felt that he could probably step through and enter another Realm. However, now wasn't the time.

He had only fixed one of his many issues, and it wasn't time to be so eager.

Ryu didn't have to worry about such resources because he could just ask Aika. Right now, he was worried about his other Taboo Cultivation Method.

It was about time he fused the pieces of the Unbalanced Art Sect's Core Teachings together. In the past, he was unable to firstly because of the time investment needed, but secondly because his eyes were sealed.

Due to having not fused Unbalanced Art and the Unbalanced Mantra together into one cohesive whole, the techniques had pretty much been phased out of Ryu's battle style. As they were, they just weren't useful enough to him.

Now, however, he didn't believe that they might stop him.

As for whoever that menacing bastard of the Unbalance Art Sect that had tried to mark him originally, they could go kick rocks.

Ryu was fairly certain that when he succeeded, he would be sensed. But he would like to see if this person dared to appear when the whole world most definitely wanted them dead.

Ryu sneered.

It wasn't that he was incapable of being thankful for a legacy that was left behind; it was just that people like the ones that ran the Unbalance Art Sect pissed him off.

First, they used the worst kind of inheritance method: testing their inheritors' luck. Then, as though that wasn't bad enough, back then they had tried to only allow Ryu to inherit a third of the inheritance, presumably to make him fight it out with the two who would gain the other thirds.

He was thoroughly disgusted by the people of the Unbalance Art Sect.

Not only had they pissed him off, but unlike the Nine Pillar Flame Sect, Ryu had no intention of sowing any Karma with the Unbalance Art Sect.

They could rot in the annals of history.

Usually, a person wouldn't dare to do this. Accepting an inheritance and then doing nothing to complete the cycle of Karma was incredibly dangerous. If not, why would Primus go out of his way to follow Ryu for ten years and even thoroughly offend the Martial Gods?

Ryu, though, didn't even waste a thought on it.

He did as he pleased, and no one, not even the Strings of Karma, might stop him.

As Ryu meditated on the technique, his Dao Heart shone like the only star in the sky.

At the same time, the Prayer Mat, hidden deep within Ryu's Inner World, glowed as well, pooling together Focus Qi and pouring it into Ryu.

Unfortunately, the Prayer Mat was not as useful to Ryu now as it had been in Sacrum. Back then, Ryu couldn't run out of Focus Qi even if he tried.

However, that didn't mean that it was useless. So long as he was burning through a large amount of Focus Qi in short bursts, it might maintain up. How else could Ryu focus on refining his own Martial Art for nine months straight?

Now, it was acting on his behalf again. Ryu would make certain that this seclusion counted.

Suddenly, his aura began to shift. Irregularly shaped Runes began to dance around him.

From time to time, his strength would inexplicably explode before just as quickly weakening again.

At that moment, a familiar Visualization began to appear around Ryu, forming all sorts of formations, shifting and changing between them, dancing and flowing through the air.

The Unbalance Mantra.

Unbalance Art.

Together, they were the [Unbalance Art Mantra].