The bad news was that the progression of his Meridians was tied to his cultivation. The only reason he would be able to reach the Heaven Grade was because he was in the Immortal Ring Realm. In fact, he would only be able to reach the Middle Heaven Grade quickly because of this.
If he wanted to break through this cap, he would have to enter the Path Extinction Realm. And, if he wanted to enter the Sovereign Grade Realms, he would have to break into the Dao Pedestal Realm. Only upon becoming a Sky God would he be able to return to the Ancestral Grade.
But, one had to remember that the true path of the Chaotic Silk Meridians was unlocked by Ryu previously. This meant that his Meridians were no longer of the Ancestral Grade, but were actually of the Origin Grade.
As for how far Ryu would have to go in the Sky God Realm to finally fully unseal his Meridians… He, quite frankly, had no idea. The book didn't have such information for him.
Aside from this bad news, though, there was also great news as well.
Ryu's Spiritual Foundation and his soul all didn't seem to require such dire straits. For the former, Ryu believed that this might be either related to the fact he had succeeded in completing all 13 Rites, or it just might be related to the secrets of the Phoenix Sky God. As for the latter, his soul, he couldn't even begin to understand what was going on with it at all.
He didn't know what his soul had been doing in the Death Shrine, who left it there, or who had managed to unshackle it completely. He simply didn't have such answers.
If it had been his parents or grandparents, they would have let him know. But, the fact they said nothing meant they were in the dark about the matter.
Ryu shook his head and refocused his attention. Now, he finally understood what was going on with lower worlds and how that related to his soul.
The talents of lower worlds formed and passed on could be considered to be fragmented. This wasn't fragmented in the sense that the talents themselves were incomplete, but rather in the sense that a lower grade Heaven didn't have the ability to provide any and all talents. This was where the concept of Favored Races came into play as well.
Because the Ancient Beast won over the Fey, the Heavens of Sacrum favored Beasts. This not only allowed Beast Bloodlines to be more easily passed down, but it even led to a result where Ryu could be born with four!
It had to be understood that just because your parents had a Bloodline, didn't mean you would receive it. And, even if you did receive it, it didn't mean you'd receive a high concentration of it.
Someone like Ryu could only appear in a lower world where beasts were favored.
Likewise, it was exceptionally rare for soul talents to appear in Sacrum. This was why Soul Natures were almost unheard of. In fact, the only few with Soul Natures Ryu had ever meant were members or descendants of the Martial Gods, a people rejected by the Heavens of Sacrum to begin with!
Ryu came to understand that this was why Sacrum didn't know more about soul talents. In fact, the truth was that to the True Martial World, there were Six Pillars of Talent, not just Four like there were in Sacrum.
Spiritual Foundation. Bloodline. Meridians. Bone Structure. Soul. And Dao!
To the people of Sacrum, a Dao didn't even become important until the Sky God Realm so it wasn't considered a Pillar, and disregarding the fact Mental Realm Cultivation had been banned for a large segment of their population, Soul Talents were too rare to be considered a Pillar either.
It was only after reading the information here that Ryu came to realize that Soul Natures, the very same talent that he, Ailsa and the rest of Sacrum held in such high esteem…
Was actually the lowest rung of Soul Talent there could be!
Well, lowest rung wasn't exactly accurate since even Soul Natures could appear as Sovereign, Ancestral and even Origin Grade talents here. Rather, it was more accurate to say that they were the more common type of Soul Talent.
As for Ryu's Perfect Blackbody Soul Talent? He didn't even have the words to describe how rare it was even in this place.
The Perfect Blackbody Soul Talent was considered to be Ancestral Grade on its own. But, what was especially special about it was that it had the ability to take on the character of its owner, and especially their Dao, Inheritances, and Soul Techniques.
In this way, the Perfect Blackbody Soul Talent was a lot like the <Refinement Sutra>. It wasn't a lower grade because it was useless, it was rather a lower grade because its abilities were heavily reliant on its owner!
Why then was the Perfect Blackbody Soul Talent considered Ancestral Grade and not Common Grade like the <Refinement Sutra>? That was because even if you were useless in all other aspects, the soul cultivation speed of someone with this talent could be considered to be godly!
Not only was cultivation speed godly, but someone with the Perfect Blackbody Soul Talent could endlessly expand their Spiritual Sea without breaking through to the next Realm. Meaning, theoretically, so long as the walls of your mind and your body were strong enough to contain it, you could make your soul both infinitely powerful and have infinite stamina.
The best part was that if the Perfect Blackbody Soul Talent was born into a wealthy family, even if you were lacking Dao, Inheritances and Soul Techniques, you could feed it an endless amount of treasures.
What was the purpose of this?
Simply put, the Perfect Blackbody Soul can take on any Nature you want it to so long as you nurture it!
This was why this soul went by two other names in the True Martial World…
The Infinity Soul Or…
The Infinite Soul Nature!