Ryu refocused his attention on [Radiant Monument]. Although things had suddenly opened up for him like this, it didn't change much. His first priority was still a defensive measure that he would be able to rely on in battle.
He sunk his mind back into the jade and began to refine the details of the cultivation technique and imprint it onto his mind. Once he entered the Abyssal Plane, he wouldn't be able to reference the jade again, so this was the best time to focus on such things. It would already be too late later.
The entire technique was quite profound, more profound than what Ryu's current Origin Flame could memorize at a glance. However, Ryu wasn't put off by this. In fact, he was quite happy about it. This meant that the power of this technique wasn't small, and it also meant that the Radiant Star Sect had quite some background.
'So it's like this…' Ryu thought to himself.
Like he had thought previously, all Constellations came with their own special signifiers and strengths. There would, of course, be limitations toward which ones he could resonate with and use. Luckily, due to the uniqueness of the technique, swapping out a Constellation for another one in the future, while not an easy process, wasn't impossible.
This made sense. After all, what would limit which Constellations one could pick wasn't just their talent in using the meditation method, but it was also about their current cultivation level. For example, there were some Constellations that only produced Cosmic Qi. Even if Ryu could battle those that used Cosmic Qi, using it himself would cause his body to implode.
Constellations worked a lot like Daos, not only in their rankings system, but also in where they gained their power from. In this case, they were most similar to weapon Daos in that they built strength through the generations.
Faith was a very powerful thing, and there was maybe no grander sight to experience in life than looking up into the night sky. The older the Constellation, the more legends and stories were told about it, the larger and more prominent it was, would all lead to an outcome of a more powerful Constellation.
This was why one was able to use their Fate Stars to resonate with these Constellations as they both gained their power through the same means. However, connecting with Constellations directly was impossible.
For one, Constellations were much too far away and even existed on a separate plane. Although they could be seen with the naked eye, even if a Sky God shot into the skies and chased after one, unless you entered the Abyssal Plane and were of extraordinary strength, you would have no chance of even coming close to one of these Stars.
In fact, physically finding a Fate Star or Constellation was impossible even for Origin Sky Gods. Existence was simply too vast. The only methods possible to use were these resonance methods and by way of things as enigmatic as Fate and Faith.
This was also why all Nine Heavens, despite being stacked atop of one another, could all experience day and night, not to mention seeing the same night sky. It was all due to the Abyssal Plane.
This aside, it simply boiled down to the kind of awe individuals had for Constellations. Lore and time were both the most important aspects of a Constellation's strength, and the more of it there was to be had, the more difficult it would be to establish a resonance.
Just like with Weapon Gods, Constellation Cultivators faced the same difficulties.
For the former, the more individuals reached a pinnacle height capable of shaping the path of said weapon, the more difficult it would be for successors to surpass them and become the new Weapon God.
For the latter, it was similar. The more people observed a Constellation, praised it, had Faith in it, the more difficult it would be to make use of its strength.
Due to the similarities, Constellations were thus given the exact same ranking system as Daos were.
First there were Grades of strength: Six Mortal Grades, Three Immortal Grade, Two Cosmic Grades, the Fragmented Grade, the False Grade, the True Grade, the Perfect Grade, the Transcended Grade, the Omniscient Grade, the Order Grade, the Chaos Grade and the Origin Grade.
Then, there Grades of quality: The Common Grade, the True Grade, the Lineal Grade, the Dynastic Grade, the Sovereign Grade, the Dominion Grade, the Hegemonic Grade, the Ancient Grade, and finally, the Founding Grade.
There were some differences, though.
Theoretically, one could create a Founding Dao the moment one started cultivating and raise it from the First Mortal Grade to the Origin Grade over the course of your life. But, this was actually impossible with Constellations.
This was because a Founding Grade Constellation wouldn't be able to produce qi as weak as the Mortal Grade, and the same went for the others.
Ultimately, Daos were internal measures of strength while Constellations were external. The former could grow with you, but the latter had already grown through countless generations all by itself. Why would it lower itself to match your strength?
Due to this, in practice, the higher quality a Constellation was, the higher grade of strength it had as well.
What Ryu had to do was to find a balance. He wanted a Constellation of good quality, that was also low enough in strength that he could lose lower grade qi while resonating with it.
Understanding this and tempering his expectation, Ryu focused on Lineal Constellations. These were the highest grade of Constellations that would still produce Immortal Qi. In addition, they were also Constellations powerful enough to produce Cosmic God Qi as well, the unique qi of the Sky Gods.
Once Ryu could use Cosmic Qi, he would be able to use Dynastic Constellations, but for now, this was what he was stuck with and he would have to make due.
That said, if others of the former Radiant Star Sect knew that he planned to form his first resonance with a Lineal Constellation…
It was hard to say how they'd react.