Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

It took Ryu about a month to reach his destination.

In reality, it shouldn't have taken so long, a few days would have been more than enough. With the robust teleportation network of the upper Heavens, travel to anywhere but the most remote regions was actually quite easy.

However, Ryu chose a slower path for two reasons.

Firstly, he wanted to make sure that once the Shadowless Sect inevitably investigated this region, there wouldn't be any obvious tracks leading to his next destination. Every teleportation platform used required payment, and such things were always registered. In addition, with the memories of high level cultivators, the odds they would forget Ryu's face was next to zero.

The second reason he chose to do this was to better acclimate himself to the environment of the Sixth Heaven and to further consolidate his cultivation.

In this month, Ryu had crossed the Middle Dao Pedestal Realm and entered the Higher Dao Pedestal Realm and was already a small measure away from the Peak Dao Pedestal Realm. The White Phoenix seemed to grow exponentially everyday, however Ryu couldn't seem to feel very happy about it.

His cultivation was fast, blazingly so. The last time he experienced this sort of speed was back in Sacrum where every step felt extraordinarily easy. But now that he was lacking the same combat prowess, this speed made him uncomfortable.

One would think that this was because his foundation was shaky, but this wasn't the case at all. Even if he wanted an unstable foundation, his Embryonic Qi didn't seem capable of allowing it. Every step he took was incomparably firm.

Even so, Ryu felt that every step he took forward was another lost opportunity.

His steps might be firm, and his foundation might be incomparably solid, but even two people with perfect foundations could have differences between them. If a Common Grade talent had a perfect foundation, how could they compare to an Ancestral Grade talent with the same? And what about someone even more powerful?

The further you went in your cultivation, the more difficult it was to change these things and the more set in your path you would be. This was why experts of a certain caliber would only allow those beneath certain cultivation realms to become their inheritors.

In truth, Ryu was overly worried about this. He was aware of this as well, which was why he didn't slow his cultivation speed just yet. The Dao Pedestal Realm, especially to the True Martial World, was just considered to be the beginning, the situation wasn't yet helpless.

His greatest weaknesses were his Bloodline and Bone Structure. Both had their own difficulties.

His Bloodlines were at the Ancestral Grade, and though it was difficult to tell, after some back and forth with The Compendium, Ryu had concluded that his Bone Structure was firmly within the Fragmented Grade.

The easy solution, depending on how this expedition went, was to rely on the Heavenly Favor pills to elevate them both.

However, to use such valuable pills right now when they could potentially be extremely useful to him in the future felt like a waste.

Therefore, Ryu hoped that he could use The Compendium to make as much progress as he could first and only use the pills when he truly had no choice any longer. In fact, he also had thoughts of using the pills to create a weaker pill formula that was better used by him now.

How possible that would be just yet, he wasn't sure, but it was a possibility.

In this last month, though, Ryu had run into many issues, the first of which was one he never thought would be one, and that was the issue of separating his Bloodlines.

The first time he dropped his blood on The Compendium, the results were... less than satisfactory. That was because the unique combination of his blood led back to karmic ties related to him and him alone.

Ryu should have probably expected this, but he hadn't thought so far ahead.

The Compendium was a God Treasure, ironically of the Omniscient Grade, but it wasn't actually Omniscient. When it took in Ryu's blood, who else could possibly have such a unique combination of blood? Rather than analyzing each one like Ryu had expected, it took them all as a single whole and gave Ryu little to nothing.

How could it come back with something? How many people in existence had five Ancient Beast Bloodlines in one body? It treated Ryu like an all new creature instead of a product of five separate entities.

This was a hurdle that Ryu was still struggling with climbing over. He had never thought that something seemingly so simple would actually be so difficult.

Activating one Bloodline at a time in his body was easy to him. But that process was just suppressing, not true separation. His body had long since become one. No, it was more accurate to say that it had always been one since he was conceived.

After a month of attempts, Ryu was getting absolutely nowhere and he had even already made it to the outskirts of Heavenly Dew Pavilion territory. Every time he thought he had succeeded, he would realize that this was far from the truth.

By the end of the month, Ryu realized that it might very well be impossible to begin with, and ironically, his Bone Structure probably only made it more difficult. Because his Bloodlines were so perfectly balanced, separating them was extraordinarily difficult.

Ryu stood in the middle of a field, swaying bundles of wheat surrounding him as he took a breath and exhaled.

Suddenly, his gaze flashed.

'Maybe?'

What was the reason Ryu felt so close to The Compendium before? It was because it reminded him a lot of his Heavenly Pupils, and even beyond that, his Dao. The ability to see through Karma and take advantage to deduce information...

He had tried all conventional methods in an attempt to separate his Bloodline, but why had he never tried to use Dividing Karma on them?

If he separated his Blood from his body, and then used Dividing Karma, wouldn't it give him the results he wanted?