Ryu decided to stay put until his injuries completely healed, there were still a lot of things he had to consider.
For one, he had awakened his Dragon Soul, evolving it from Dragon’s Might, and yet he hadn’t really considered anything about it since then. Of course, when he had awakened it, he had been extremely pissed off as Yaana was just a measure away from dying before him, so it made sense. But, he couldn’t very well continue to ignore it.
The feeling of using a Dragon Soul was very special. The same way Ryu felt that his soul was so much more powerful when it entered its beast form, the beast cloak that enveloped Ryu when he used his Dragon Soul felt much the same way. In fact, if Ryu thought about it, Dragon Soul was a lot like the Lightning God Talent of the Qilin.
Dragon Soul made Ryu feel as though all the skills of the Dragon were right at his fingertips. His rage went a long way toward strengthening his Rage Flames, the power output of his body felt like it practically doubled, and even doing things like using Dragon Claw and Dragon Breath became several multiples easier.
Ryu used to burn his throat through using Dragon Breath and though that sensation wasn’t much different when he used Dragon Soul, that was also because his Dragon Breath became so much stronger at the same time.
In the same way, the Lightning God Talent was able to maximize the abilities Ryu’s Lightning Qilin Bloodline inherently gave him as well, especially when it came to manipulating Lightning.
Now that Ryu thought about it, his Lightning God Talent had probably been provoked into awakening. He had originally thought that it was because he forced his Storm Talent to try and do something only the Lightning God Talent could do. But, now he felt it was likely a combination of the two.
His Qilin and Dragon Bloodlines had always been in a heated competition with one another. When he awakened his Lightning Spirit Body, his Fire Spirit Body followed not long afterward. And now, it seemed like the vice versa was occurring.
Ryu only smiled at this, though. This was perfect for him, this way, one Bloodline would never fall too far behind the other.
What was more interesting to Ryu at this point, though, was his Dividing Heaven Dao. He felt such an almost intangible strength constantly hanging around him now, as though he could see the future with striking clarity. The muddiness of his mind had disappeared and a purposeful beauty painted the coming path he had to walk.
,m Ryu actually hadn’t used a common tongue to name his Dao. Instead, he chose the original language of the humans, often known as the Origin Language.
Though it had a fanciful name, it wasn’t actually very special or enigmatic. In fact, many would rightfully proclaim it to be quite crude and unsophisticated. There weren’t many words to use, describing things often relied on the same bland and benign mixture of syllables, and things were quickly lost in translation without proper context. But, all of these reasons were precisely why Ryu loved the first language so much.
In this language, the word Heavens was probably the only one with just a single, defined meaning. There was no questioning what it meant. It referred to the intangible overseer, the rule maker, the unbiased judge of all that was and all that would be. This was what the Heavens meant. Even back then, the awareness their Ancestors had for such things was palpable and laced all throughout their culture, as it should be.
The word Dividing, though… It represented a great many things.
The first layer of explanation spoke for itself. To divide was to separate, to pull or push apart, to split…
However, the second layer was far more fascinating. It began to touch upon concepts of parsing and teasing apart. When you reached these secondary layer of definitions, the word no longer just meant to divide, it implied a certain understanding of what you were dividing, an in depth comprehension and a certain organization of what you were piercing apart.
To parse required one to analyze. It was a deeper sort of requirement, a deeper sort of burden.
Ryu was splitting the Heavens, he wasn’t fighting it or sundering it in two. No… He was coming to understand it, breaking it down into its pieces, its nuances, and parsing them apart with a hand that transcended it all.
A rumble shot through the skies, the Moon World trembling as Ryu meditated upon the meaning of his own Dao. His presence alone seemed to have transcended the limitations of this world by a measurement impossible to label. It was akin to comparing two subjects of vastly different intrinsic value.
What was maybe the most fascinating about Ryu’s Dao, though, was in the two individual Daos that made it up, each powerful to an extreme, more than enough for Supreme Blacksmith Wynhorn to feel as though she had rarely seen something that could match just a single one of them.
Dividing Karma… And Dividing Tribulation.
Ryu felt like the two fit together almost too well and built within it a fundamental understanding of the overarching umbrella that was the Heavens.
What was life if not Karma and a series of Tribulations relating to it? How could a simple two words possibly describe the Heavens more than Karma and Tribulation?
When Ryu gazed upon the foundation of his Dao, an odd pride welled up in his heart that he hadn’t experienced before. He had always been arrogant, but this pride felt different. It was almost like he was watching his child be born and grow before his eyes…
In one arm, he would wield the power of Karma, controlling Fate and gazing upon the Lines of Faith.
In another arm, he would wield the strength of Tribulation, doling out Judgment and casting his will as the final arbitrator of the Heavens.
One would Divide Karma. The other would Divide Tribulation. Together, they would Divide Heaven.
As his mother would say…
‘This one kills… But this one… Kill Faster.’