1256 Single Bound
Ryu sat in silence for a long while. Deducing exactly what had happened was difficult, but now that he had a general understanding of the process, his deduction path was far clearer than it had been before and he slowly began to feel some real clarity.
The Blood Tempering Realm was a bit unique in that it focused entirely on one's blood, but it was also simultaneously the Realm that the Pulse and Vessel Tempering Realm had been building up to.
The strength of one's body came almost entirely from one's blood. Bone Structure could play a strong or small role in this strength depending on which you had been born with, but obviously for Ryu, it was the latter. His Ice Jade Crystal Bone Structure was definitely not known for its strength.
The unique aspects of the Blood Tempering Realm was something that Ryu was looking forward to mostly because the uniqueness of the Realm would allow him special access to his Bloodlines in a way he had never seen before, almost like the Dao Pedestal Realm and what it had done for his Spiritual Foundation. If not for entering the Dao Pedestal Realm, Ryu wouldn't have been able to see his Spiritual Foundation so up close and personal.
Often, Cultivation Realms gave one unique access to certain things that cultivators would otherwise have trouble comprehending on their own, or at the very least would take much more effort. In the depths of the Blood Tempering Realm, it would be the easiest for Ryu to make the most changes to his Bloodline, is what it came down to.
Of course, this wasn't a life changing matter either. Obviously, if the Blood Tempering Realm gave such an opportunity, the Nine Life Revolutions Realm was an even greater opportunity. It allowed Ryu the chance to rebuild his body from nothing, this was an objectively better chance than the Blood Tempering Realm which was also why Ryu hadn't been obsessed with the Blood Tempering Realm either.
But it was precisely because of this that the change was so surprising. His Bloodlines and Bone Structure had undergone a huge change.
When he looked into his body, there were nine dense globules of molten gold liquid. When he probed them, he felt as though his Spiritual Sense was being burned away. If not for his powerful soul, just this action alone would have likely caused him a great deal of pain.
These nine globules acted like anchors. They were constantly burning away impurities in his blood and only allowing the most powerful of strands to survive.
Ryu realized something at that point. The Nine Pillar Flame Sect wasn't a pure fire affinity Sect, in fact from what it looked like, there was quite a heavy emphasis on the earth element... No, it wasn't the earth element, but it reminded Ryu a lot of the Earth Character of his eight trigram diagrams.
It was a character that exuded stability and represented foundation. When this character was fused with the fire element, or maybe it might even be more accurate to call it the Fire Character as well, it solidified and formed this molten metal-like substance with the behavioral tendencies of flames.
When the Fire Character and the Earth Character were fused, they gained the aspects of creation and innovation that underlied the Fire Character, and the unique nature of the Earth Character.
It had to be remembered that Ryu had built his own Earth Character on the Dividing Karma half of his original Dao, and the Dividing Sin half of the chaos half. These Daos were both related to Karma and Fate, one seeing through them and the other manipulating them.
This sort of comprehension made Ryu more compatible with the Nine Pillar Flame Sect than he had realized until this very moment.
If the Nine Pillar Flame Sect still existed, they would have been endlessly shocked by the current state of Ryu's body. That was because it was exceptionally rare to be able to sustain Nine Pillars within one's body. Only the greatest geniuses of their Sects had been capable of doing so, and throughout their history, they had only number three total.
The time the Taboo Powers had existed for shouldn't be underestimated just because they had been destroyed. Their history was already enough to dwarf Sacrum several times over. For Ryu to only be the fourth capable of them, it was endlessly shocking.
'I see. These 'Pillars', the anchors within my body, are the catalyst for future Life Destructions. They then become the foundation and help me to reform my body.'
This made the methods of the Nine Pillar Flame Sect seem far less suicidal. If he could use these globules of golden molten metal to guide the process, it would indeed be far easier. Of course, that was still relative. These globules would make undergoing normal Life Extinctions incredibly easy, but undergoing a single Life Destruction for Ryu now was akin to undergoing nine all at once.
That said, because Ryu had a perfect Nine Pillars, he was in a more unique position than most and at least the first six shouldn't put his life in any danger, only as he continued to attempt a seventh, eighth and eventual ninth would he have to truly be careful.
Ryu suddenly felt a hint of excitement.
One had to remember that back when Ryu formed his current Heavenly Chaos Bone Structure, he had to destroy his Ice Jade Crystal Body first and then reformulate it using the Runes. But that process was crude and couldn't possibly have been perfect.
Under normal circumstances, if Ryu had to undergo a Life Destruction, he simply wouldn't have the capability of focusing on so many things at once. A Life Destruction was among the most dangerous things a cultivator could ever experience, he could at best hope for incremental changes to his foundation.
But if he relied on these Nine Pillars as his foundation, if he gathered enough treasures, Ryu felt that even leaping two grades with his first Life Destruction wouldn't be impossible.
His Bloodlines and Bone Structure already seemed on the verge of entering the Transcended Grade right this moment. Very soon, if the Nine Pillars got a little push, they would likely cross that threshold.
That meant that if Ryu prepared well enough, he could form an Order Grade foundation for his body, placing him firmly on par with the best of geniuses of the Seventh Heaven in a single bound.
