Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

The most basic ability of the [Unbalance Art Mantra] was increasing the strength of formations. According to Ryu's previous calculations, the application of this method could make even Heaven Grade formations as strong as Fragmented Sky God formations, a huge leap.

Of course, these were calculations he had made off the standard of the Third Heaven. While the gap between Sky God Realms was justifiably huge, there was still a gap between the standards of Heavens, especially when it was a comparison between the Third and Fourth Heaven, or the Sixth and Seventh Heaven, and especially so between the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Heavens, which arguably had the largest gaps between them all.

For the Formation Core Visualization, which allowed Ryu to create formations on the fly without the use of Formation Flags, this was huge.

The Formation Core Visualization was ultimately one created by a Sky God of Sacrum. Due to that, it was weak, and the level of formations that it could withstand the creation of was likewise weak.

Ryu had barely managed to allow it to form formations up to a World Sea Realm standard, but even that success was a bit skewed.

For one, he had been using the Unbalanced Formations when he did this. The nine unique formations of the Unbalance Art Sect were much stronger than they should be given their level; this was their greatest strength to begin with.

Simply put, if Ryu tried to use the Formation Core Visualization the normal way, he could, at best, create Mystical Grade formations with their help, a step beyond the Heaven Grade.

However, this wasn't the worst sort of outcome. In fact, it was perfect. The reason being, this should allow him to use these Mystical Grade formations to create support structures for formations about as powerful as a weak False Sky God.

It also had to be mentioned that formations, especially large-scale ones, tended to be much stronger than Sky Gods of their equivalent grade.

For example, the Raging Inferno Sect's formations could even deal with Aika to some extent, but it certainly wasn't a Sovereign Grade formation. They didn't have anyone with the prerequisite skill to craft such a formation.

'No, I can't base this off of calculations I did so long ago; I'll need to redo them myself with all the knowledge I have now.'

Ryu trusted himself, but not that much.

After partially succeeding in reforming the [Unbalance Art Mantra], he began to do some tests.

'I see.'

The result was a little bit worse than what he had expected, but when he thought about it, it made sense.

Heaven Grade barely met the standard of Lower Fragmented, as Ryu had expected, but Mystical Grade only met the grade of Higher Fragmented.

Still, he felt that could make great use of this. If he was going to challenge the position of Throne, he would need to set aside and carefully choose which Mystical Grade formation he would go with to maximize his chances.

As for why he didn't just use the Unbalance Formations that would probably work well with the [Unbalance Art Mantra], it was because they all had weird quirks. Despite being powerful, he couldn't easily rely on them in battle. He wouldn't always have the luxury of spinning three times in place and hopping on one foot.

Of course, the requirements weren't actually that bad. But sometimes that was what it felt like.

Plus, the boost toward formations was only one aspect of the [Unbalance Art Mantra]'s strength. The other aspect was its boost directly to himself.

There were namely two separate kinds of boosts. First was to his soul, and second was to his body.

When Ryu first got his hands on the Unbalance Art aspect of the inheritance, he could use his understanding of calligraphy to draw those amplification runes to directly increase his strength.

However, as time went on, he drifted away from its usage because of two main reasons.

For one, it wasn't nearly strong enough. It required many stacks to be effective, but that led to the second issue: the more it was stacked, the more painful it was, and the worse the backlash was.

However, with the completion of this change, things were different.

In the past, a boost of about 20% was his best, an improvement of a fifth. But now, in short bursts, he felt that he could increase it even by five times in a sudden instant.

Honestly speaking, this sounded great, but given the gap between cultivation Realms, a five times boost wasn't enough to make Ryu shudder with wonder. Much of the reason his combat strength was so high wasn't even because of his raw strength, but rather in how good he was at using this strength.

Ragash was an excellent example. In terms of raw strength, Ragash was definitely beyond him. But after the claws of his Dividing Chaos sunk into him, Ragash couldn't even last a few moves.

What Ryu needed wasn't a great boost to his raw strength; what he was more looking toward was the second aspect here, the boost to his soul.

Although Ryu had an Internal Matrix, if not for the fact he had a Perfect Blackbody Soul, his soul would be no different from anyone else's. His Internal Matrix only helped him to more quickly and efficiently process information, having the greatest effect on his Dao. But it provided no direct boost to his soul. In fact, he used up a large amount of Spiritual Qi every second as a result.

Luckily, once again, he had the Perfect Blackbody Soul. His spirit stamina was so far beyond that of others that he never really cared to think about how much of it was wasting.

And this here was another opportunity to "waste" some more.

Soul Quintessence was different from Spiritual Qi; Ryu could no longer use quantity to make up for the gap between himself and higher-tier Mental Realm cultivators. But this would alter everything.

With the [Unbalance Art Mantra], he could now display the strength of a Soul Quintessence a tier above him, allowing his spirit to firmly match his body in displaying False Sky God level might.

This would be helpful because of another plan he had in mind, one related to the Magus Sky God.

He didn't need to put a great deal of effort into it as he didn't plan to follow the path of the Magus. He had just become a Close Combat Expert, diverting his attention toward a long-ranged attack system would just weaken him and waste his own potential.

However, if he could blast out with a ton of attacks on the level of False Sky Gods and add some more variability to his attack style, he could benefit greatly. Matching this with the increased strength of his assemblies and he could do some great things.

Ryu didn't expend his time on any external matters to hide his combat strength. Meaning, for example, he didn't try to unearth any new qi types like the Resonance Qi that he had used in the past.

He was under no illusions. He couldn't hide his force and survive this. He had to go all out and use his Chaos Qi. He would just have to hope that he could truly trust Aika.

All he was focused on right now was consolidating his strength, and he felt that he had mostly succeeded. There was just one more matter that he needed to parse properly...

His Living Spiritual Foundation.

He didn't really know what to think of it. Sometimes it felt like a ticking time bomb, at other times it felt that it held a wealth of mystery. Sometimes it would listen to him just fine, but at other times it would take advantage of his weakness and ignore him entirely. It was nothing short of frustrating having something in your body that didn't listen to you the way that it should.

As much as he wanted to ignore it, though, he couldn't. Right now, it was the foundation of his Chaotic Silk Meridians. If it went down, he would lose access to his Chaos Qi, something he had learned the hard way back when his Dao Heart shattered.

With a thought, a large white phoenix appeared around Ryu, enveloping him in its wings and standing tall and proud. It was a beautiful creature, but Ryu saw it as little more than an annoyance as he carefully observed its changes. Quite frankly, this was the first time since he entered the Fragmented Sky God Realm that he gave it little more than a cursory glance. He knew, though, that he couldn't continue to be stubborn.

The White Phoenix was much larger now, and every breath it took drew in a large amount of qi. Ryu never cared much for this ability, though. He had access to an entire Plane of qi, so he never really needed to replenish himself.

'Hm?'

Ryu's eyes narrowed.

His heart shuddered and then he put his thoughts into action immediately. He passed a single drop of Embryonic Qi to Phoenix, and its White Runes activated.

In an instant, Ryu was back to a flawless bill of health.

'This phoenix... It broke the rules of my Embryonic Qi.'