Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu moved around the world on Lu'card's back, his mind elsewhere. It didn't seem as though he was doing much more than sightseeing. But at every location they visited, his gaze would become brighter and brighter. Suddenly, half a day later, he had Lu'card come to a stop.

'This is it… what an interesting feeling…'

The eight trigram diagram in Ryu's eye could be considered a sort of Feng Shui. In fact, it was the simplest Feng Shui, and it was also something that everything else, including Formation Mastery, was built on.

In his time in the Tatsuya Library, Ryu had come to realize that there was quite a battle between Formation Masters and Feng Shui Masters. Those of the former profession believed that their Arts were modernizing Feng Shui, making it better than what it would have otherwise been and improving it. Feng Shui Masters, though, believed that their path was the foundational path for all paths. Not just Formation Mastery, but also alchemy and blacksmithing which both relied on aspects of Formation Mastery as well. As the original, they obviously thought themselves to be better.

As for Ryu's opinion… well, he rarely, if ever, used Feng Shui, and that seemed to be the nail in the coffin.

However, Ryu didn't ignore Feng Shui; it was just that Formation Mastery was far more convenient, especially since he had the Formation Flag Visualization to rely upon that let him deploy them wherever and whenever.

Feng Shui, by comparison, took a great deal more effort. That was because it required causing changes to the land.

This was the same reason that Ryu didn't use his Herbology very often either.

The rivalry between Herbology and Alchemy was a perfect mirror of Feng Shui and Formation Mastery. But Ryu's ultimate opinion was that everything had its place…

Still, seeing the scope of what was being accomplished here, and the fact that the person in question didn't even have to use any other resource outside of time and patience…

It was hard not to feel like Feng Shui was the superior practice.

Unfortunately… they had run into Ryu.

'An interesting scheme indeed. The layout is both simple and complex. Simple enough to be hidden, complex enough to not be deciphered. This is a true master.

'They're relying on the natural veins of this world… but also, manipulating them at the same time.'

The Beast Domain was a chaotic hodgepodge of qis and domains. Everything felt like an amalgamation of others, as though every element in the world had been summed up and then left behind an average.

It didn't take Ryu long to realize that this was the crux of the formation.

The first thing this expansive Feng Shui diagram did was make use of one thing that seemed to be the center of everything in this world…

Chaos.

This time, it was real Chaos. And if Ryu was correct, it would be almost impossible to set up a formation like this one in any other world because Order would never allow it.

'The first step to creating this Feng Shui diagram was to form a barrier around this world, a closed system. Nothing could get in and nothing could get out.

'After a closed loop was formed, they then began to draw more dividing lines, creating closed systems within closed systems. In the future, these miniature closed systems became the "prisons" that kept the beasts locked in their territories.

'At the same time, though, these miniature closed systems also made the next step of the plan easier to manage, and that was forcing Order into Chaos.

'Everything is a cycle, and that understanding is even more important when you're dealing with Feng Shui. Order can cycle to Chaos with ease; the only requirement is that you exhaust Order to the point where nothing other than Chaos can be birthed…

'This was why they separated this Domain into so many small cells. If they were to try to do this on a large scale, it would be difficult. But if you forced a universe to run to its end on a small scale, it's much easier to manage. The fact that this world tends toward Chaos in the first place is another huge bonus as well…'

The human body could be considered a quasi-closed system in this case. Of course, there is still exchange with the world, which was why the model wasn't perfect.

However, a mortal would soon reach the end of their life, something caused by continuous cell damage and the breaking down of the body. This could be considered Order going to Chaos on a small scale.

The Feng Shui Master had reached the point of treating nature like life and treating life as air.

This was a quote that Ryu had once seen from a profound Feng Shui Master, and it was a realm that he had long since reached as well. However, observing this land, Ryu realized that those words alone weren't enough to describe the skill of this expert.

'After forcing the individual cells in this Domain to Chaos, the rest became far easier. That was because there still remained pockets of Order.

'The beasts born in certain cells were tainted with a certain breed of Chaos. Much like the Fiends of the Chaos Plane, if they tried to cross over into another world, they would be drastically weakened.

'But honestly, that alone isn't enough to explain it. The borders of these cells are the embodiment of Order. This is impossible to ignore… The very act of creating pockets of Chaos, and keeping them from bleeding into one another, is a form of Order that can't be escaped.

'This seems to be a flaw in the system, but the Feng Shui Master used it as a strength.

'If a beast wanted to cross from one region to another, they would have to first cross into Order, and then into a completely different form of Chaos. This would likely outright kill them, and beasts have a strong sense of survival.'

Ryu stood in silence, feeling that he had close to the whole picture, but he was still missing something. All of this made sense… in theory. But why was it that he could just walk around this place without noticing anything?

That was when it hit him.

Beast Souls.

From the very beginning, the target of these experts seemed to be the Dao Heart of these beasts. They were not only targeting the souls of the beasts, but Ryu only now realized that it was because this happened to be their target that they took this approach.

Compared to other Races, Beasts were the most susceptible to their environment. Their talent came directly from the Heavens and there was absolutely nothing that they could do in most circumstances to change what they had been born with.

Ryu, however, was a human. He was born to adapt to whatever environment he was thrown into. The Human Race was effectively a jack of all.

The variations to this world might begin to affect him later if he stayed here for an extended period of time, which was also probably why Ailsa had given him such a long time to deal with this. However… not for now.

But that still wasn't the crux of it.

Why, then, was Lu'card fine?

And that was the final lynchpin to this whole thing.

Birth.

The creatures that were affected by this place were born here. Their incubation periods were all forced to happen within these cells of Chaos, and that was the process that hooked them.

It was akin to a mother who got her baby addicted to substances because of what she took while she was pregnant.

Because Beasts were the most susceptible to their environment, they were also the most easily manipulated by their environment at birth.

Ryu exhaled a breath. He finally had the whole picture, but that also made things tricky.

He couldn't just undo all of this… Well, he could, but that wouldn't be satisfactory.

Not only would that not deal the blow he wanted, but it would also likewise kill all the beasts in this Beast Domain.

Ryu was the furthest thing from a bleeding heart, but Ailsa's message gave him all the clues he needed. She wanted them to survive and be brought under a single banner. And since that was what his wife wanted, he didn't need to hear anything else.

Ryu thought about this for a while… and by a while, it was all of 13 seconds at most.

"I've got it," he said lightly.

Then, he directly sat in meditation on Lu'card. He began to rapidly form hand signs as his body entered an unprecedented state of focus.

Slowly, his Inner World began to morph and change. And soon, it exuded an aura identical to the cell of Chaos they were currently in.

Ryu's eyes opened and a projection of his Inner World perfectly covered the cell.

CRACK.

The walls to the shell suddenly shattered.

Then, a chaotic chain reaction boomed across the world.

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