Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

1757 How?

The technique was shocking, and though Ryu didn't know what the Ash Treants were thinking, if he did know, he would feel that their assessment wasn't entirely wrong.

Just on its surface, this technique was nigh impossible to use for anyone without both exception Soul Talent and the body of an Ash Treant.

Due to the former reason, Treants of weaker stock were unable to use this technique. While due to the latter, even geniuses of other Races were out of luck.

The reason this technique was so difficult was because of one reason: it was created based on chaos.

Of course, this was Chaos as related to the Chaos Plane, but rather chaos in reference to the scientific principle.

Ryu was shocked by the scientific advancements of the humans he had seen in those other worlds. Whether Sacrum or the True Martial World, neither progressed down this path.

However, that didn't mean that Ryu wasn't aware of some scientific principles even if he didn't necessarily look at them like "science".

For example, Aika's Dao. It was based on quantum mechanics, and Ryu understood what he was seeing the moment she used it the first time.

In this case, it was yet another principle that he understood perfectly, that being the so-called "three body problem". Though Ryu also didn't refer to it this way. He simply knew it was lowercase chaos.

The three body problem, described simply, was essentially the scientific principle that when there were two large bodies in space, both with gravity acting upon each other, it was simple to create a predictive model of where they would end up a long way into the future.

However, once a third body was added, everything changed.

In a three body system, you could reach an initial state of what was known as "chaos". Even small changes to the starting position could lead to drastic changes.

The best way to think of a three body problem was a double jointed pendulum. It had three points, each of which would move independently and force change onto the system.

The technique of the treant worked precisely on this chaotic nature of three bodies.

When the technique was active, their branches began to move in unpredictable patterns that were nigh impossible to block or dodge because they wouldn't follow the usual battle cadences. As a result, reaching their most vulnerable trunk was practically impossible.

Of course, this was all built on the principles of Nether Qi, which used destruction to reach its goals, something that was perfect for lowercase chaos.

There was an obvious question here. If it was the three body problem, then why could only the Treants use it? After all, even though most humanoid species only had two arms, they had two legs as well. If they were close combat specialists, wouldn't this be enough?

There were several issues with this.

First, most humanoids weren't close combat experts to begin with. In this cruel world, going into battle without a weapon was like putting your hand on a silver platter. Most couldn't afford to casually lose limbs like the Treant Race without a care in the world.

Second, the three body problem was only named as such because it was the simplest form of chaos. There existed a four body problem, a five body, and so on, each one exponentially more complex than the last.

To a mortal, deciphering a three body problem mid battle was impossible.

To Sky Gods, though? It might as well have been as easy as reading the pages of a book.

There was a reason that Ryu had been able to so casually reach the heart of the Ash Treant and kill it in a single blow. The number of body problems the Ash Treant could form wasn't enough to surpass Ryu's calculative abilities, even while he was suppressed.

As such, progressing through this technique of the Ash Treants required continuously raising the body problem standards of the user. Four limbs simply weren't even remotely enough.

Then there was a third and final problem, and this one was likely the most obvious…

Humanoids like Ryu had joints to worry about. How could they use such a chaotic technique?

What made the three body problem so potent was that the bodies involved could end up anywhere at any time. But Ryu and other humanoids were limited by their own bodies. Due to joints, there was a limited range of movement that Ryu could exhibit, and if he went too far beyond them, he would end up snapping his own arms and legs in half. He could even kill himself if he wasn't careful.

The Treants, by extension, had no such worries. The flexibility of their branches was endless and even if they snapped, they didn't care, they could just grow more.

This was why the Ash Treants were the only race in existence that could use this technique.

It wasn't like others hadn't tried to think of workarounds. For example, using flying weapons or formations instead. But the issue with that approach was that using this chaos method put such a great weight on the mind to being with. If you were also diverting your attention to control things that weren't direct attachments to your body, how much greater would the pressure on your mind be?

Ultimately, it wasn't even worth the exchange. You would end up with a far weaker product than what you started with.

However… Ryu had something that the True Marital World didn't have…

Visualizations.

Not only did he have Visualizations, but he also happened to have the perfect tree for exactly this process. Of all the trees in existence, the Immortal Sakura probably had the largest branch to trunk ratio, with its trunk being short and stumpy compared to the rest.

The obvious issue, though, was just as was stated above. Even if Ryu had a powerful soul, which of the Demon King geniuses didn't?

If he had to use this technique and a Visualization at the same time… even he would run into a wall.

So how?