Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

1822 Spirit

Ryu seemed to be paying more attention to the weapons in his hands than the army before him. Staring at them, a thought kept swirling around in his mind. Was it better to use a weapon? Or not?

He took a step forward, and his wrist flickered. A whirlwind of Heavenly Phoenix Patterns and fluttering ashen snow fell around him. He didn't speak a word, he didn't ask who they were, nor did he wait for their explanation. He simply slashed.

It was a simple strike, and yet it seemed to carry a myriad of changes. As though they were staring into the abyss of reflective black ice, it pulled them in and trapped their souls.

Vespera and Vespa's expressions hardened. They tossed away their other thoughts, and their auras flared. Together, they rose into the skies above the army, and the silvery blue moon behind them shimmered as a gorgeous backdrop.

Suddenly, the skies were filled with reflective swords and sharpened spears. Each one looked like delicately carved ice sculptures that exuded the air of crystalline majesty. Then they rocketed down from the skies above.

Ryu's aura bloomed, a pair of eight trigram diagrams appearing above and below him. The presence of a Founding Dao suffocated the Earth and suppressed the skies. His arms suddenly moved, and the rain of weapons was parried one after another, gliding off the sides of his weapons and slamming into the ground below.

They erupted in a rain of ice shards that splintered the world in all directions. But just as quickly, the air frosted over, and the craters formed becenormous ice ponds that blanketed the world in a chilling cool.

Ryu was still paying closer attention to his weapons than the armies around him, so he noticed immediately that this rain of weapons was trying to coat them in ice. And yet, just a single swirl of Dark Phoenix Heavenly Patterns put them in their place, crushing them.

The expression of the twins flickered, but by this point, Ryu had already cto the vanguard of the army.

However, this time, it was Ryu's turn to be surprised by a change. The front line raised their shields, and the moon in the skies danced with a beautiful light. The moment it did, their shields beccoated in an ice wall that quickly grew into a solid front.

From side to side, an enormous wall was formed, linking from shield to shield until it seemed impossible to penetrate through. At the stime, they readied spears, met Ryu's gaze with murderous intent, and then thrust them forward.

The spears passed through the ice wall as though it wasn't there at all, or so it seemed. In reality, the formation gathered up all their momentum until the soldier right before Ryu was graced with the brunt of it.

Then, a piercing strike that was the combination of hundreds of True Sky God elites ripped through the veil of space, appearing before Ryu in an instant. Indeed, facing such a formation, even a Transcended would feel as though their life was on the line.

Even Ryu couldn't ignore the danger it posed. Under normal circumstances, even his hair would stand on end. But instead, his gaze beca frightening shade of cold as though the abyss of hell was hidden within them.

SHUUUUU!

The spear strike ran right through his body, but before anyone could think that the battle was already over, there was the sound of cracking ice.

At that moment, Ryu's body becakin to fragmented ice, almost like a crystalline sculpture that was about to crumble. But then he began to magically reform himself.

Ice Spirit Body!

The eyes of Vespa and Vespera lit with shock and jealousy.

There was a hole in Ryu's chest where the spear had just passed, but it was clear that he had opened it up himself. It passed right through him as though he was never there at all, and his figure flickered.

His body fused into the wall of ice before anyone could react, and suddenly the formation shuddered.

The twins panicked, thinking that the formation was about to collapse, only for what looked like dozens of great sword staffs to appear one after another, cutting into the vanguard and ripping them to pieces.

The change was shocking, and blood rained down from the skies.

When Ryu appeared again, he was already in the midst of the army, his gaze tranquil, and his great swordstaff dancing like the fluttering snowflakes in the skies.

There were too many ways to use ice. It could be used as an ultimate defense, or it could be used to attack others with a frigid cold. It had a rigid structure that could be used as blades, but it could also be light and flexible if one used it as a snowflake. If you took the much more abstract route, the paths you could take were even more endless.

It was like a mirror, reflecting all things. It was also an energy container, capable of absorbing a great deal, dispersing it, or even using it for itself.

When Ryu entered a focused state of meditation just for the sake of improving this one ability, it was no surprise that he had made great progress even if he wasn't satisfied with it.

In the end, he had ended up awakening the Ice Spirit Body for the first time, and equally for the first time, he was beginning to notice that not all Spirit Bodies were created equal, and just awakening them wasn't the end of the road either.

There was a reason it was among the most sought after talents to awaken, and at that moment, Ryu felt like he could tune himself to the world itself.

What did it mean to have a Spirit Body?

It sounded like just the ability to turn yourself into the elements and back again, but Ryu had never truly thought about the actual process.

What did it mean to be a spirit?