Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

It was an odd feeling, almost like a new network of connections was forming through his body. And because he was aware of his Three Souls and Seven Spirits, he could feel them vaguely... awakening. They were still in a state of dormancy, but if he just pushed a little...

Suddenly, Ryu felt the feeling grip onto his Perfect Blackbody.

He had already reached the peak that was possible, that much he was certain of. For a long while, he had kept his Mental Realm Cultivation in a "weaker" Realm, just to make sure he could squeeze out all of his potential.

But in that moment, he felt a resonance between his Dao Heart and his Perfect Blackbody that showed signs of allowing it to break past those limits.

What made the feeling very novel was the fact Ryu was fairly certain that if he had a normal soul, this wouldn't be happening. It was like his Spiritual Foundation could sense the Perfect Blackbody's propensity to absorb and evolve, and it had grasped onto that.

Then he understood. It was just doing what it always did, maximizing the strengths of a talent that already existed.

"No... this feels..."

Ryu felt a deep sense of crisis within him. Everything in his mind and heart was telling him that this was good, that allowing his Spiritual Foundation to just boost his soul, and then hopefully everything else, was exactly what he wanted.

So why did it feel so wrong? What could he possibly be missing?

"It's the same pitfall as before, just in reverse order..."

Ryu's mind flashed like lightning and he realized the issue immediately.

In the first pitfall, he was bringing his soul to his Spiritual Foundation, but in this one, he was bringing his Spiritual Foundation to his soul. Even so, the result was ultimately the same.

He would suffer for it.

"No... it's deeper than that... This first pitfall was because of Chaos and its interactions with the soul, but this feels like something deeper than that."

Ryu cross-referenced some of the things he had learned from the jade with his Karmic Strings the Heavens had left behind in him.

"Beyond Perfect Extreme..."

He had never really thought of the origins of his Spiritual Foundation, but just taking a step back, it felt like it broke too many rules. In that fashion, it was a lot like the White Phoenix Spiritual Foundation. But the difference was that the White Phoenix Spiritual Foundation actually seemed to have limits.

Ryu had neglected this matter, mostly because of how hard it was to get here.

"If not for his Heavenly Path rewards, how could he possibly even afford his Spiritual Foundation? He would probably have to spend the next million years looking for resources, hoping that his lifespan didn't run out in that time..."

"But what if this was always meant to happen?"

"What the hell..."

Ryu brought a hand to his head, the confusion swirling in his mind. Where was all of this coming from? Why was his soul separated from his body? Why wasn't it just chained like the rest of his important talents?

Then there were his eyes? They had just left them alone?

"Ignoring his Bloodlines made real sense, they practically wanted to devour one another and leaving them be actually did more harm to him than not."

"The Bone Structure he had been born with wasn't anything to write home about and it wasn't even worth giving a second glance."

"Even if the Mysteries of Heaven and Earth Pupils were ranked seventh, how rare were Heavenly Pupils? Even the 30th ranked represented a shocking amount of talent, let alone one in the top 10."

"Then he thought about something else."

"The first time he had tried to reform a connection with his Spiritual Foundation, the Phoenix Sky God lashed out."

"But how come they were so silent when he tried the second time? What changed between then and that moment?"

"I regained my Perfect Blackbody Soul... I experienced Rebirth... my eyes were dormant and mostly blinded..."

The more Ryu thought, the more confused he became.

"No... there are too many convoluted threads being formed here. The only explanation is that there hasn't just been one person messing around with me before I was even born, but at least two people, each one with different goals."

"The reason I can't find a clear line of logic to any of it is because I keep thinking of them as the same person, as though all of this was done by the Martial Gods and Martial Gods alone."

"But, if I take a step back..." Ryu's eyes flashed. "... the eyes are the window to the soul..."

His heart was beating surprisingly fast at the moment.

"How had they targeted his Fate Star and Spiritual Foundation?"

"That was easy. They were all located in the Abyssal Plane, and though they were connected to Ryu, they had real, physical forms that could be visited by anyone who was powerful enough."

"When a child was being born, a Fate Star and a Spiritual Foundation would enter a state of weakness in order to accommodate the frailty of a baby, and thus would be easier to target in those times."

"But how would they target his eyes?"

"His eyes had a physical form as well.. but they were on him and in his mother's womb. Unless they sent someone to physically pluck them away, the only other method to target his eyes from worlds away would be..."

"... Through my soul..."

Suddenly, Ryu was faced with two realities.

"It seemed that on the one hand, the Martial Gods were trying to ruin him completely, and someone else, midway through that attempt, had taken action to thwart their complete success, thus giving him a small path to rise again..."

"And that person had to be the Phoenix Sky God."

"In that case, why did they stop him from fusing with his Spiritual Foundation the first time, but allow it the second...?"