Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Selheira blinked, taken aback by Ryu's contemplative demeanor. It was a side of him she hadn't seen before, at least not outside of their Domain sessions. She had some thoughts of her own on the matter, but her father practically wilted when he saw his daughter choose to hold her tongue.

Ryu chuckled. "You know, I can feel you biting your tongue. I thought it would just be once or twice, but what happened to the woman that wanted to kill me?"

Selheira panicked. "When did I...?!"

Ryu's grin widened. "You never did? You could have fooled me. Your style of playing Domain is so aggressive."

Seemingly realizing what Ryu meant, Selheira blushed. Her style of playing Domain was very... aggressive. It was the first time Ryu had seen a side of Selheira that wasn't gentle, and it was that glimpse that made him grasp her personality fully.

He rarely knew the details of his women's lives... well, except for Ailsa, Elena, and Yaana. Elena and Yaana because he had spent a ridiculous amount of time with them, and Ailsa because she was his Life Partner.

However, knowing details was one matter, but grasping their character was another. There wasn't a single one of his women that he didn't understand intimately in that way.

"I'm sorry..." Selheira said softly.

Ryu laughed almost a little too hard.

"Do you know what type of woman I like most?" Ryu said.

"Eska," Selheira said.

Ryu, who was ready for a quippy reply, was suddenly rendered speechless. In the end, he smiled bitterly. It seemed that he wasn't the only one who understood the character of the other intimately.

"Well, yes," he coughed. "But, the reasons are important. Aloof and arrogant women are the ones who stimulate me the most. You don't have to temper yourself or dumb yourself down in my presence; a man who wants such a thing is a weak man."

Selheira's lips parted, but she closed them a moment after, not daring to trust her voice at the moment. She crunched down on Ryu's back, pressing her cheeks against his traps as though in an attempt to hide herself.

Ryu smiled and didn't press Selheira for an answer as he continued to walk. After a while and some sniffles, he finally heard a familiar gentle and serene voice, not one steeped and dripping in hesitation and self-loathing, but rather the Selheira he had always known existed.

"You say that we don't have a way of passing down our knowledge, but don't we do that every day? Techniques, especially Dao Charm techniques, are a window into one's state of mind. But even if that's not what you mean, aren't Bloodlines the perfect example of passing down knowledge? You don't even have to actively teach a person and they will casually come to understand."

Ryu nodded.

"All of these things are true, but there are some subtle differences that really form the dividing line I'm talking about.

"For one, there's the problem of accumulation of knowledge. In those mortal worlds, the understandings of one person are stacked upon another, making it easier for future generations to learn them. Something that only a genius among geniuses might have comprehended a hundred years ago would, in the present, be taught to school children.

"That's where we are lacking considerably. Something that only a Dao God can understand in this world can never be ubiquitous to the point that a Fragmented Sky God could understand it, and certainly not an Awakening Realm expert, no matter how much of a genius they are.

"The second issue is, especially in the example of Bloodlines, they don't increase in knowledge, nor do they stack. In fact, over time, Bloodlines become weaker, not stronger. The only way to rejuvenate a Bloodline would be to essentially have a genius born as great as the founder, one who would be capable of re-establishing the Bloodline. But that would ultimately be a fit of recreation, not learning from one's Ancestors.

"That, of course, doesn't really apply to beasts, at least not to the same extent. But think about just how much the beast race has to give up in terms of freedom in order to maintain that strength.

"The best example of passing down knowledge is what you mentioned... Dao Charm techniques, that is.

"But they are notoriously difficult to learn. If you don't have the talent, you'll have to wait until you broaden your horizons by improving your Realm, but if you improve your Realm and surpass the standard of the Dao Charm technique, it would already be too late to go back and shore up your foundation on that front.

"So once again, it's a path limited to only the greatest of geniuses."

Selheira fell into her thoughts before responding.

"Is the gap really so large?"

"On this front, yes. But I don't know if it's because their methods of passing down knowledge are so much better, it's rather that their path is... unique. It's more conducive to being passed down. Technically speaking, in their worlds, someone could leave a child a blueprint that, should said child take it seriously enough, it would be possible to craft the strongest weapons of their races.

"However, for us, cultivation is mostly an individual journey designed to combat against the Heavens. By its nature, it should be hard to pass down and share knowledge...

"Or so I thought."

"Is it not like that?" Selheira asked.

"Well... The Heavens have a vested interest in making sure its Races are as powerful as possible. In my home world, they even picked out a supreme race to rule over all others.

"The Heavens want people to progress, it wants us to become stronger. Many of the limitations we face today are artificially crafted by powerful Clans who stand atop everyone else."

"And you have a way to fix this?"

"I've been thinking about the Four Arts a lot... I wonder about the legend of mortals transcending to Godhood in a single bound by reaching their extremes...

"And I wonder if there's a hidden secret within them... one that might help with this exact issue."