Grand Ancestral Bloodlines
chapter-1961

Ryu smiled. At the moment, his heart felt light as confidence pulsed from him.

He could feel the effects of [Earth's Gate] more clearly now than ever before. He had always known that it was borrowing from his future self, but things had somewhat changed after the mutation of his eyes.

Originally, [Earth's Gate] and [Heaven's Gate] were based on years of exchange. His eyes would extrapolate Fate to see how much he could improve in a certain number of years and grant him the power in return.

This was why he had become so powerful after soaking in so many Black Vein Lilies. He had been able to tap into a potential future that was trillions of years ahead of his current time.

However, these two techniques, [Earth's Gate] and [Heaven's Gate], had their own limitations. And it wasn't just that in the past he would have them go into years of dormancy.

Though that was a shocking matter that he didn't think nearly enough about these days. Although the max potential of [Earth's Gate] and [Heaven's Gate] had decreased, the fact that he could practically use them every day without consequence now was huge.

But this aside, the limitations of the two weren't just what was on the surface.

Technically speaking, a Ryu who had experienced trillions of years of growth should have been far more powerful.

Why didn't his eyes project him a future where he entered the True Martial World and reshaped his entire foundation?

Instead, it extrapolated as though he would spend his entire life in Sacrum. Not only that, but he wouldn't find the secrets of the Shrines or any other treasures for that matter.

Had his eyes factored those things in, just how much more powerful would a trillion-year-old Ryu be? Would he have even needed to struggle against the Martial Gods at all? In fact, even if Elena's father descended, he should have been able to kill him with a flick of a finger.

But that hadn't happened.

And that was precisely the limitation of his eyes.

It couldn't just pick out the most optimal future, and it couldn't incorporate the aspect of treasures or things of the like. Essentially, if Ryu were to summarize it, it extended him the "easiest" future he could grasp, or in other words, the most likely future. It couldn't factor in shocking treasures he might find or sudden bouts of enlightenment he might stumble across.

Instead, [Heaven's Gate] and [Earth's Gate] always represented the steadiest form of cultivation and nothing else.

Now, though, it no longer worked based on years. Instead, it directly leapt him up by one cultivation grade.

The only issue was that it seemed to be having issues crossing the Lord Realm. If not for this, he wouldn't have any issues right now and there would be no need for a gamble at all. He didn't believe that he would need to fear anyone.

He didn't even need to use [Heaven's Gate]; all he should need to do was use [Earth's Gate] on his Body Realm and it would be enough.

This seemed like a huge drawback… so why was Ryu smiling right now?

It was because he could feel it. He could sense the mutation more clearly now than ever before.

He could sense his [Earth's Gate] feel out the paths for his Dao and then pick out a single one. But by extension, he could also vaguely feel what the other paths could be…

Paths that both made his Dao far weaker than it was now, or paths that made it far more powerful.

At the same time, he could feel how strained his eyes were right now.

He felt just fine, and the "strain" wasn't much more than what a mortal might feel on a light jog. However, the strain was there nonetheless.

'I understand. In order to improve my current Dao beyond its current Transcended Grade, my eyes have to complete the far more difficult path of reaching ahead of what's possible for this world…'

Ryu's Dao had transcended the upper bounds of this world. But his eyes needed an anchor for the Lines of Fate that it was analyzing.

One's Fate was always inextricably tied to the Heavens. If there were no Heavens, there would be no Fate, and thus no Lines of Fate to analyze to decide how to progress his Dao.

Essentially, much like how back in Sacrum his trillions of years of cultivation was capped by it, his Dao was currently being capped by this world as well.

At the same time, Ryu could also feel the shocking aspects of Time that his eyes were using as well. Or, rather… he could feel how Space rolled into Time, and how Time rolled into Fate… and how Fate rolled into Karma.

One after another, they stacked upon one another in a cascade of increasing complexity… and it made Ryu realize something.

This was a process that usually happened naturally. But much like he had changed the form of [Rob the World of its Color], turning it into a scythe that could slash apart the Lines of Fate…

There was no reason he couldn't take control of [Earth's Gate] and [Heaven's Gate] as well.

However, he also wasn't a fool. He realized that the only reason he could use them so frequently now was precisely because his eyes were constantly picking out the easiest path, the path of least resistance.

If he started to control it to pick harder paths, he would begin entering territories like the past where his eyes would be dormant for a long while. For a situation like this one, it wasn't quite worth it.

At least in the past, before the mutation, only the technique itself would be dormant. But now everything had changed. His eyes would become dormant instead if he was too eager.

But that didn't mean that there wasn't a balance to be struck.

If he went too far, he would lose his eyes for years. But…