Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu should have had a fierce reaction to these words. But honestly... he didn't.

What was more interesting to him was the fact that Fading Star dared to speak this person's name aloud despite their power, and there wasn't even the slightest reaction.

Now that he thought about it, he wasn't exactly skimpy with how often he said that name. And considering how wary Fading Star was about this person, it was doubtful that she could casually shroud herself from their attention.

So this meant something else.

Now that he thought about it even further, the legend of the Phoenix Sky God was so muddled that it took him years of research just to find a plausible method of awakening their Spiritual Foundation. There were so many stories and iterations of the Phoenix Sky God and their life that it was impossible to take any one of them as the truest truth.

Sometimes they were a man, sometimes a woman. Sometimes they were born in a great family, and at other times, they were pauper who rose up like a tide.

Ryu wondered how much of this was manipulation on the part of the Phoenix Sky God, versus how much of it was true... if the Phoenix Sky God was so obsessed with controlling reincarnation, who was to say that they didn't actually live all of those lives?

The moment Ryu had this thought, his eyes couldn't help but narrow.

Such a person, capable of tossing everything away and reincarnating again, and again, and again, only to still inevitably rise to the pinnacle... Just how formidable were they?

Talent alone couldn't be enough, and neither was just keeping your memories from a former life. Yaana was the perfect example, it was only a great series of events, including the use of her Life Partner, that allowed her comprehension in this life to quickly catch up with that of her last life. By now, she had likely even already ascended beyond it.

However, without that series of coincidences, comprehending something you had already comprehended in the past based on memories was many times more difficult than it would have been otherwise.

Of course, if Yaana could stumble into a series of coincidences that allowed it, it wasn't impossible that someone else could do the same. The issue was, triggering that series of coincidences again and again would be exceedingly difficult.

It had to be remembered that Yaana relied on a Life Partner to achieve what she had. Such a thing was a Blessing bestowed by the Heavens and relied on someone who was your perfect mirror image being born on the same day and at the same time as you.

Plus, only Faeries had Life Partners, even the Fey did not, as it was an evolutionary quirk of their descendants. Though, the Fey had a different albeit similar inborn ability.

This was all to say that unless the Phoenix Sky God continuously reincarnated as a Faerie, it was all useless... not to mention the fact that according to the story, he or she, most definitely hadn't. If they were true, that is.

Fading Star sighed. She had pretty much expected Ryu's response, though she was completely wrong about what was actually causing it.

She thought that Ryu was nonchalant because he didn't take anyone seriously. If she knew that Ryu had the Phoenix Sky God's Spiritual Foundation, it would be hard to say how she might react. In fact, she might do exactly what made Ryu so wary of her in the first place and try to deal with it.

Of course, it was clear that such a person was trying to use Ryu as some sort of pawn and considering how Fading Star was taking this explanation of things, she might ignore all rules of taboo and directly kill Ryu.

And this was the perfect example of why you didn't casually trust people just because they wanted to take you in as a disciple.

The world of cultivation was ultimately one of benefits. Even if someone had a pure heart, they always had their biases, and taking on a disciple like Ryu was a fortune to Fading Star as far as Ryu was concerned.

This was the sort of weight Fate and Karma held on the world.

"I only tell you this to try and be a bit more open with you so that you understand my intentions. While it is true that I have a reason, that reason is no different than a will to try and raise as many young geniuses as I can.

"Still, you are the first disciple I have ever taken in, and I will treat you sincerely. My husband and I are close to reaching the end of our potential and we've realized by now that we won't be the ones to succeed in changing things.

"Right now, the world is in great turmoil, even this world has noticed, triggering a Convergence. This is the best time for a young genius like you to rise up, and I will help you with that."

Ryu faintly nodded.

He wouldn't hate Fading Star on what he was pretty sure she would do if she knew of the origin of one of his Spiritual Foundations. He would even ignore her earlier slight, at least somewhat, for the sake of Hope.

He wasn't a fool. He might not respect Dao Gods as much as he should, but he knew they had a great deal of knowledge to pass on.

Fading Star exhaled a breath and looked at her husband. Radiant Star had his arms crossed as though the world had wronged him. He was caught between wanting to tell his wife "I told you so" and wanting to shred Ryu to pieces, but he settled for standing in place without a word.

He clearly felt that a Fragmented Sky God had no right to take such offense to anything a Dao God did, but his wife clearly seemed still eager to keep him as a disciple.

"With that out of the way, I will get right to the point. My husband and I don't come from the True Martial World, but rather a world adjacent that's fallen beneath the influence of the Phoenix Sky God. Our Cycles of Reincarnation have been torn asunder beyond repair, and it caused our people to be unable to reincarnate.

"We've been trying to find a way to breathe life into our people by spreading our Bloodlines elsewhere, but there's nothing we can do about those that have already been born..."

Fading Star looked toward Hope, a hint of pity in her eyes. But that pity seemed to be aimed toward herself and her husband as well.

"Regardless, the reason I'm telling you this is because under adverse circumstances, people shine the most. We created many methods of transferring talent, Bloodlines and the likes in hopes of succeeding. This culminated in the creation of a new profession...

"The Bloodmancer."

Ryu finally raised an eyebrow. Honestly, this explanation would have probably been enough for Ryu to take her as a master, but she seemed to have wanted to take no risks with "impressing" him.

This was more a matter of pride for Fading Star; she was clearly an arrogant woman despite her soft tone. She didn't want to risk introducing Bloodmancers to Ryu, only for it to fall flat and for her to have to try again. That would have been too humiliating.

That aside, Ryu nodded to himself.

Back then, Aika had offered Ryu the Radiant Star Bloodline so casually. It might seem that just accepting another Bloodline was easy, especially with all those vials of blood Ryu's family kept, but it was actually notoriously difficult.

The only reason Ryu could so casually make use of those vials was that he already had those Bloodlines within him. Planting them into someone else was a nightmare.

That was also why Flowing Frost had given Ryu her entire body; this was the only way she knew to ensure her Bloodline went on.

In a way, transplanting Meridians was actually far easier than doing so for a Bloodline.

This wasn't to say that people didn't have methods; there were, and they existed. It was just a matter of how crude were they and how much of the original Bloodline you could keep?

Just take Ryu, for example. He was the prime example of why you couldn't just stuff a body with powerful Bloodlines and hope for the best. It had taken him a lot of climbing to get out of the pit his many Bloodlines had put him in.

But the Dual Radiance Sect had a lot of success with transplanting their Bloodlines. He never thought much of it because he knew so little about the True Martial World. He subconsciously just thought that every powerful Clan or Sect could do so.

However... what if the Dual Radiance Sect was a clear exception?

"I can see that your Bloodlines are powerful, and the fact that so many managed to be born in a single body is a miracle. What you've managed to do with them is even more amazing.

"But I can say with great assurance that I can mold you into an existence far beyond what you are now and teach you the ways of Bloodmancy. As for the rest of my inheritance, you can take it if you want, or ignore it if you don't. I don't want to try and smother you, at least not until we've rebuilt some of our trust.

"I can help you see your Bloodlines in a completely new light."