Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

The two techniques Ryu had found were [Grave Digger] and [Death Swap]. 

[Grave Digger] was quite an interesting technique, especially when used either cleverly, covertly, or on a chaotic battlefield. It gave a corpse puppet the ability to dig and move through the ground quickly, almost like an escape technique. But, this was instead used to place a corpse puppet in position to attack. 

Images of skeleton hands piercing up from the ground was definitely one that was synonymous with this technique and the possible combination uses of it didn't need to be explored. It was definitely quite the technique if paired with the others Ryu had taken. 

[Death Swap] was likely the most complex technique Ryu had found to this point. [Reanimation] wasn't very difficult to use, or else it wouldn't be known as the Origin technique of Necromancers. [Death Swap] definitely left it far behind in terms of complexity. 

Maybe the simplest part about [Death Swap] was in the description of its abilities. It allowed a Necromancer or their corpse puppets to swap places with one another. The only caveat was that this swap had to occur within range of the Necromancer's Death Qi and it could only happen between properly tagged corpse puppets and the Necromancer. This meant that randomly summoned Skeleton Warriors wouldn't be able to use this technique. 

After that, all the simplicity went out the window. 

Rather than relying on pure spatial qi to achieve this effect, [Death Swap] used a Necromancer's [Corpse World] as a tether between themselves and their corpse puppet. The weeds of it all was quite complex, but the swap essentially required using this link to create the effect of teleportation. 

It was simpler if it was between two corpse puppets. One essentially had to 'call back' their corpse puppets simultaneously, using the information you gained about their position from this call back to swap their locations. 

This was already a difficult feat of timing, control and splitting your mind to do multiple things. But, it got even worse if the goal was to swap yourself as a Necromancer. 

Just like Ryu couldn't enter his Inner World or his Incubator since they were within himself, he likewise couldn't enter his own corpse world either. This was where the technique required a substitute for himself in the form of energy. Only with this substitute would the swap be successful. But, maintaining it while your body was being shifted was an even more difficult task of control and skill. 

If you happened to fail to maintain your substitute… Well, let's just say there were more than a few cases of Necromancers failing to do so, resulting in them bisecting their own bodies. And, in the worst case, there wouldn't even be a body left behind to mend. 

Still, if there was one thing Ryu was confident in, it was his qi control. In this aspect, he dared to say that even those two large Realms of cultivation above him couldn't be his match nor would they ever be his match. 

Worry about his own death? Ryu didn't need to do such a thing. 

Ryu's steps suddenly came to a stop. 

'This is the end of it… hm?'

Ryu shook his head. Originally, he wanted to come to the Tri, or rather Nether, Palace to gain treasures and find clues about Summoning Necromancers. But, after what happened to Ailsa, his priority had been to find the Night Shade Dew. 

Unfortunately, Ryu was now standing before an obvious portal out of this place and world, and yet there was no such reward in sight. From beginning to end, it had been nothing but techniques. 

Ryu couldn't help but shake his head. Clearly, the Nether Palace had been changed. It wasn't that the techniques were bad, it was just that the rewards were not nearly enough, even in comparison to what Ryu had heard about the Nether Palace in the past. 

Why would the Nether Palace have better and more ample rewards in the past but suddenly have so much less while the Martial Gods were using it for recruitment? 

The most logical answer was that the Nether Palace had never been the Martial Gods' possession to begin with, they merely cleared it out before using it as a convenient medium to bolster their ranks. Considering their connection with the Three Pupil Eclipse Sect, this made perfect sense. 

Why would Ryu believe that there was just one Nether Palace his whole life, only to suddenly find out that there were many and even spread out among so many Eras and times?

What if there was only ever just a single Nether Palace and it was the Martial Gods who opened up access to it across these timelines for the sake of recruitment just like Isemeine, or rather, Eska, had said…?

If that was the case, then this meant that Ryu still hadn't answered the truth of what the Nether Palace was…

Ryu remembered his reaction when he first learned of the name change.

Tri Palace had been turned to Nether Palace…

Three had turned to one…

Life, Death and Reincarnation had just become Death…

Death triumphed over all… 

Was that something the Martial Gods wanted? Was it something the Dream Wraith wanted? Or was it something even more powerful that they were all playing to the tune of…? 

The Martial Gods must have a home of their own, right? It can't be that they had come from nowhere, they definitely had an origin. For some reason, they had left their home and come to this place. Not only were they sowing chaos, they had succeeded in wiping one of the most powerful families to ever exist in this world from the face of it, and were still seeking more. 

Why were they still looking for more? What had they cleared the Nether Palace of, exactly? What treasures had been here that were no longer here?

And most importantly… 

What had forced the Martial Gods to run from their home to wage war here?