Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

The Ice Phoenix represented Life. The Fire Phoenix represented Rebirth. The Dark Phoenix represented Death. The Emperor Phoenix represented Creation. The Fire Dragon represented Rage, the truest kernel of fire, of Kingship and Emperorship, of rulership. The Lightning Qilin represented Judgment.

As Ryu continued to battle, he continued to think about what it truly meant for his Bloodlines to be fused into one, but even more important than that, he wanted to understand how he could match it with the rest of his talents, but he had made little progress, mostly because he couldn't understand the first question.

He stood just outside the territory of yet another Golden Protector Spirit, one of his great swordstaffs was held out, trembling with a surge of micro movements. The condensation of Spatial Qi upon it was enough to tear through the void several times over.

Suddenly, he moved.

When he appeared again, he stood to the back of a gorilla spirit beast, slowly lowering his blade.

The gorilla spirit beast was completely frozen in place, space pressing down around it until it exploded. It was shredded to pieces by countless sharp blades of qi that looked like swirling disks of concentrated galaxies. And then, the spirit fell, broken into pieces.

Ryu turned back with an indifferent expression.

Space was said to be the sharpest qi there was, but Ryu felt that this was the analysis of the ignorant. It was all dependent on several factors, and ultimately there was no sharper qi than blade qi. The sharpness of space was dependent on creating a space of nothingness that everything else was forced to bend around or disappear within. When this was used cleverly enough, and with enough skill, it could match up and surpass a blade.

However, it was also easier to deal with, at least in Ryu's opinion.

The only way to block blade qi was to either physically block it or meet it with an attack of equal or greatest strength. However, an opening in Spatial Qi could be dealt with in a number of ways.

A Domain could be used to solidify space. A Domain could be used to disrupt space. It didn't even have to be something as constructive as a Domain either, pulses of wild qi could disrupt space, a strong solidified shield of qi could disrupt space. Even Daos of a certain level could crush openings in space, while just regular neutral qi of a high enough grade, when backed by strong enough laws, could rip it open or pull it closed.

The stronger a person was, the more control they would have over dealing with such attacks. Spatial Qi was actually the only qi in existence that one could casually gain access to so long as they grew strong enough in their own path. After all, that was why Transcendent Sky Gods were able to step into the Void at will and even collapse space with a thought.

When it was put like this, a Space Soul Nature might be rare, but it didn't seem so special, nor so powerful as it seemed at first glance.

Time had even more of the same similar restrictions. He couldn't even use it on himself without a great deal of sacrifice, and while he could use it on techniques, the moment his enemy released any sort of AOE attacks, the burden on him would increase severalfold.

It seemed that this "ultra-powerful" Soul Nature had more limitations than not, and was only an active benefit when his opponent was far weaker than him, and could only be used as an auxiliary ability when his enemy was equal to or much stronger than him.

When Ryu reached this conclusion, though, he didn't despair. In fact, he grinned. Because unlike his Bloodlines where he couldn't even understand the "first question", let alone answer it, this breakdown of his Spacetime Soul Nature was exactly the answer to the first question he was looking at... that being what the core truths of his gift was.

If you took a step back, it was true that so long as anyone grew powerful enough, they would gain great control over space, and time would have even less effect on them. But that was based on one thing: sheer power, not skill, not talent.

The distinction was important and it was a clue to Ryu making his Spacetime Soul Nature truly powerful.

While using his Spacetime Soul Nature casually had an alluring appeal, it was too easily crushed. What he had to do was layer it in complexity, shroud it in mystery, and take advantage of his talent so that his enemies wouldn't be able to see through what was happening easily.

When he jumped through space, it was foolish to only open a single tunnel when opening many would be just as easy for him. When he was distorting time, why only speed things up or slow them down? Why not stratify them with countless minor changes, each stacking atop of one another either both positively and negatively to form holistic change? And....

When he was slicing through space, why only use one blade? Why form a simple line that could be followed even by a child? Why not rely on the chaos of space, the raging fury of a blackhole?

Looking toward the pieces of the gorilla spirit beast, he felt like he had comprehended something else once again.

For once, chasing effortlessness was leading him down the wrong road. He had to take advantage of his sight, of his sharpness in the ways of space and time, and crush everyone else with sights they had never seen before.

It had been over three months since he had started hunting Golden Protector Spirits, and he had finally felled one in a single strike. His spirits brimmed with power and his combat prowess could only be calculated on an entirely new scale.

Ryu took a deep breath and closed his eyes, absorbing the new insights. Then, he moved.

"Hm?"

Ryu came to a stop not long afterward. Down below, he saw the cadavers of three individuals. He didn't know exactly who they were, but he recognized the emblems that rested on their chests. This was Iroh and the others, but they were part of another segment of potent Sixth Heaven.

There were two main alchemy powerhouses, the Heavenly Dew Pavilion, and the Tranquil Hand Pavilion. From Ryu's understanding, these three should be a part of the latter, and they should be no less potent than Iroh.

The fact they were dead, and seemingly not with the ability to struggle at all was... curious.