In the martial world, high grade beasts had long since gone extinct. What many knew as "beasts" today were unintelligent and savage creatures without scruples and inhibitions.
The so-called "Phoenix" and "Dragon" blood, not to mention the Lightning Qilin heritage that ran through Ryu's veins from his maternal grandfather, were actually human bloodlines, not beast bloodlines.
Before the rise of the human race, beasts ruled the lands. Mighty Dragons could shake the planes with a single roar, the cries of the Majestic Phoenix could decide life and death, while Qilins could shatter the earth with a simple step.
However, such an era had long since come to pass. The Human Race rose so fiercely that the Shrines the Beasts once lay claim to were taken by them, one by one.
Human Bloodlines evolved and matured. Suddenly, it was possible for their souls to manifest bestial auras surpassing even that of ancient beasts.
In the end, the era of the ancient beast ended and their bloodlines slowly diffusing as they married into human clans. The result was the present system where humans retained their cultivation talent, yet gained the robust bloodlines and sturdy bodies of their beast ancestors.
Clans like Ryu's Grandmother's Ice Phoenix Clan could evoke abilities of their Ice Phoenix predecessors. One such ability was the Ice Flame. Not only did this flame have the potential to freeze all things, it also had heaven defying healing capabilities that rivalled and often surpassed Saintesses of the Light Shrine.
Still, aside from Ryu's mother, the remaining descendants of the Ice Phoenix Clan were mere average talents. Currently, Mistress Kunan took the role of Priest Saintess of the Life and Ice Shrines. However, she felt that it was time for her to retire and live out her days in peace. The problem was that the only viable successor was her daughter, but according to the Laws of the Heavens, a single person could not preside over three Shrines.
Normally, this wouldn't be an issue. However, the successor of the Lightning Shrine was also in question. Would the Kunan Clan really have to give up one of the Shrines they had protected for so long?
Mistress Kunan had hoped that the birth of her daughter's child would solve this issue, but her poor grandson didn't have any cultivation. How could he help?
Fertility rates among high class clans were simply too poor. For someone with such a dense bloodline concentration as Ryu to be born, one can imagine how low the chances were. Ryu's parents tried for tens of millions of years before Ryu was finally born.
Ryu was highly intelligent. Before he even became of age for his meridian awakening ceremony, he had seen through this problem. At the time, he had sworn to become good enough to be acknowledged by at least one of those three shrines so he could alleviate the burden of his grandparents. But… Who knew that the heavens would play such a trick on him?
Although his grandmother would never express her disappointment over the matter to him, the feeling of uselessness overwhelmed Ryu so much so that after his awakening ceremony ended in failure, he spent the next half decade in seclusion.
At the time, many jealous of the Tatsuya Clan and Kunan Clan sneered as though Ryu's plight served him right. The little boy born with a spoon made of essence jade in his plump lips couldn't handle one set back? How pathetic.
No one believed that Ryu had truly entered seclusion. After all, how could one believe that a seven-year-old could withstand such a thing?
However, when Ryu emerged, he was a changed boy. Despite being only twelve years of age, his eyes had gained the depths of the world.
For the last five years, he had spent his time within the Shrine Library which had a repertoire of knowledge so dense that it stretched for thousands of miles long and wide, and tens of miles high. This was the place a seven-year-old boy had locked himself in.
Those years fueled an endless desire within him.
Alchemy? A waste of time. Why would I read about things I can't practice? Cultivation techniques? I'll ignore them, they have no use to me anyway. Formations? I'll only learn how to crack them, I would never be able to lay them down with my handicap.
A little boy spent five years not gaining knowledge, but gaining an understanding of what paths he could take as a cripple.
When he emerged, Ryu did so with determination in his eyes. There were so many things that he couldn't do, so he wouldn't waste his time. He'd pour his energy into what he could, he'd find ways to help his family even without an ounce of power.
Ryu became a Ruin Master, learning several trillion years of history. He then learned botany – there wasn't a single plant in existence or non-existence that he couldn't recognize, not a single heavenly flower he didn't know how to grow and nurture. Soon, after, he became a master of feng shui, grasping the world's beauty in his right hand.
With his skills in botany, he revived long-extinct species, blessing the Tatsuya and Kunan Clans with resources they could only dream of.
With his skill in feng shui he built the greatest cultivation rooms to ever exist, he reconstructed Tatsuya Palace to become the number one martial world wonder, and he became famous for the heavenly laws within his paintings.
And today… After more than nine hundred years of effort, he had finally found the path to reviving the Ice Phoenix Clan. Today, he'd use this skill he toiled over to alleviate a weight on his grandmother's heart.
"Dark Phoenix Clan?" Mistress Kunan's beautiful blue eyes widened.
Ryu smiled. "If I'm correct, the key to reviving the Ice Phoenix Clan fully is in these ruins. There's even a possibility of our Clans gaining yet another Shrine."