[Bonus chapters thanks to Jackson 🙂 (2/3)]

White scales danced across Ryu’s body, flashing into and out of existence in an illusory sense. They didn’t seem to be real, and yet they exuded an air of majesty and nobility that was unheard of.

But at the same time… their grade continuously plummeted.

Ryu didn’t seem to notice this at all, though, sitting in a stoic silence as he weaved together the masterpiece of a lifetime.

The Qilin was his Heaven, the Fire Dragon his Earth, his Phoenixes the cycle in between…

Together, they formed a perfect balance, feeding off of one another, learning from one another, enhancing one another.

In a way, this was the path that he had always been angling for, a path that had opened up to him after he stopped blaming the Heavens for everything that went wrong in his life and taking true control… finally understanding that it was nothing more than an amalgamation of laws and rolls of the dice.

It wasn’t that he had never understood this, but as he had learned many times before, there was a difference between knowing something and truly comprehending it.

‘A harmony between Heaven and Earth, a perfect cycle between… The Judgment of Heaven gives way to Death… the Defiance of Earth gives way to life… Reincarnation is the bridge that connects them all…’

His thoughts floated back to his grandmother. His Grandma Tatsuya was a woman whose arrogance knew no bounds. He could still remember the lofty air she had exuded when she spoke those last words to him.

…When it comes to control and understanding of Heavenly Patterns, There is no one in the past or future that has or will surpass me…

…Dark phoenix Heavenly Patterns aren’t an ultimate offense. They embody exactly what their originators did. Death, decay, destruction. At the highest order, they represent the end of all things, the final stop, the finality of Chaos…

… Ice Phoenix Heavenly Patterns aren’t an ultimate defense. They embody everything opposing to that of death, decay and destruction. They fuel life and preserve Order…

…The Emperor Phoenix’s Heavenly Patterns are beyond this. The Ice Phoenixes are often mistaken to be much more than they are because they are said to give Life, but this is incorrect. As I’ve said, Ice Phoenixes preserve life, they allow what already is to continue to be, they further what has already come into being…

… Rebirth is beyond that. Rebirth gives form, gives structure. It sparks Life. It is the bridge between Order and Chaos, not only because it is a balance between the two, but because it can turn Order to Chaos and Chaos to Order as it pleases…

… We Create! …

… This is what it means to be Rebirth, this is what it means to be an Emperor Phoenix! …

‘ “Little Ryu, I only want you to promise this Empress one thing…”.’

The memory played in Ryu’s head with perfect recollection, his Origin Flames thrumming with life and a dormant white flame rushing up.

“I will kill every last one of them…” Ryu said softly.

His voice wasn’t nearly as cold as it was the first time he said it, but the conviction was so bone deep that the world shuddered as though a Dao God had spoken it into law.

His grandmother’s final laughter echoed in his ears and it all came together.

A Qilin to rule the Heavens.

A Dragon to rule the Earth.

A Phoenix to give it meaning.

The world solidified as Ryu penned his final stroke. ꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛʀs, ᴘʟᴀs ᴠsᴛ NovlFir(e).nt

A shudder shot through his body as the grade of his Bloodlines finally hit rock bottom. At the moment, they wouldn’t even register as the most Common of Bloodlines. If he was on Sacrum, it would be said that he was born without Bloodline Talent at all. In the True Martial World, he would be trash amongst the worst trash even amongst those of the First Heaven.

However, even now, he didn’t seem to register it at all.

He sat there in silence, his eyes closed. Every time he breathed, the leaves of his world would rustle, the clouds would tremble and the sun above would sparkle.

It was a fantastical world, one where the stars above sparked with blue bolts and the grass below danced with embers of red and gold.

There wasn’t a single beast that could be seen, and yet it exuded the air of them all at the same time, a majestic bearing exuding from the most insignificant of flower petals to the heights of the celestial bodies above.

Ryu took another breath and the flames sparked and lightning danced. It looked as though a rush of wind had superheated everything before he exhaled and it all went back to normal once more.

Ryu’s body felt like one in a way it never had before. Every aspect of it seemed to be perfectly under his control, and the largest change seemed to be the fact that his Focus Qi felt practically endless, that there was an unfathomable depth to pull from the past and the future that would always leave him at the peak of his mental faculties.

And why wouldn’t it? His Focus Qi was a function of his brain’s capacity, and his Corporeal Spirits had just fused with his Incorporeal Souls, which then became a window for a world of his own…

All of which was fueled by his Beyond Perfect Extreme Spiritual Foundation.

In this sort of situation, how could his mental capacity not be endless? In fact, he even felt that his body’s stamina overall was endless.

As for whether that was true or not, he knew the answer was the latter. Even his Focus Qi’s endlessness was a mirage.

There was a limit, that was for sure.

The question was whether he would ever run into it at this stage of his strength…

And the answer to that was no.

But that was hardly the most shocking thing.

The reason why speaking earlier had felt like a Dao God had spoken it into existence… was because that was exactly what he was now.

A Dao God.