Back at the camp of the Raging Thunder Sect, Ryu had begun deducing the profound unranked skills of the Eternal Phoenix, Indomitable Genbu and Merciless Tiger. These were all unranked martial skills and coincidentally they all have core stances like the Drunken Dragon Fist. As long as you grasp the basics, their power fluctuates based on how strong your current cultivation is and how you apply them. Since you can’t recall these moves or memorize them, Ryu released three more clones to repeatedly watch the recordings from the crystals. Ryu can have a maximum of six clones at the moment, one per domain. He already released five so far.

The Eternal Phoenix has eight stances. The majority of these stances focus on overwhelming destructive Qi based attacks. The ability to use fire Qi is essential. If you can’t use fire Qi then this art’s power will be greatly diminished and most stances can’t be used. The first stance is Phoenix’s Brilliant Flames, this stance trains the user to release harmful fire Qi from every pore of their body to both attack and defend from any close range targets. The next stance, Phoenix Spiraling Blaze, creates multiple fiery tornados that will ravage the land until nothing is left. The tornados can also converge and create an infernal sphere to trap an opponent into a close range fight. The third stance, Unending Incineration, creates a unique never-ending fire that will never die out unless the source is completely extinguished. The fourth stance, Phoenix Holocaust, is the most destructive move Ryu had seen so far. It will create a miniature sun by combining two different types of flames in each hand that’ll denote and reduce everything to ashes. The fifth stance is Solar Burst which literally blinds an opponent with a brilliant flash that’ll last for a few minutes. The sixth stance, Subjugating the Nine Heavens, is a unique flying technique that will allow Ryu to traverse the sky much faster than regular flying. The seventh stance is the Deception of the Phoenix. It allows the user to create illusions and hallucinations within a person’s mind. The most profound and mysterious skill of all is the last stance, Return of the Phoenix. This one will allow Ryu to recover even a mortal wound. Unlike Elemental Mutation, Ryu can recover a flesh wound taken when he’s in a regular state. Elemental Mutation requires a constant expenditure of Qi so there’s no way to be perpetually in that state. Going into the Elemental Mutation state after taking a hit is too late.

The Indomitable Genbu only has four stances and this set of skill focuses mostly on defense and counters. These stances contain much more variations than the stances from the Drunken Dragon Fist and the Eternal Phoenix. The first stance, Impregnable Fortress, have complicated movements that deflects, blocks, or counters all kinds of attacks. Whether its physical or qi based, there is a way to prevent it. This is the core stance of the Indomitable Genbu. The second stance, Invulnerable Body, allows one to fortify one’s body beyond what regular Qi reinforcement is capable of. It compresses the Qi uniquely that makes it much denser than normal. The third stance, Ultra Gravity, is exactly as it sounds. The user create a natural phenomenon by increasing the mass of a certain area. This also allows Ryu to increase his own weight by tenfold. The last stance, Frenzied Tidal Wave, is a passive skill that allows Ryu to apply throbbing pulsations to any movements he does. Defense or attack stances can apply this move and harm the opponent internally.

Lastly the Merciless Tiger has four stances and focuses on speed and penetration. These stances can be performed with a sword or your own body! Ryu’s only sword art is the Tai Chi sword so he’s pretty eager to learn offensive sword skills. The first move, Hundred Phantoms, allows the user to create countless afterimages of themselves. These afterimages are created by Qi, carries a fraction of the power of the user and lasts for a few seconds. The second move, Baleful White Claw, allows the user to create an apparition of a tiger’s claw. However, after mastering it you can create an apparition of any tool or beast. The Cataclysmic White Tiger allows his whole body to transform into a sharp tiger-like blade, regular attacks such as a kick will have a terrifying piercing might. The concept of this stance utilizes what swordsman called One with the Sword but in this case, the user is literally the sword. The Vanishing White Flash is the last stance and is a pure movement speed technique. It allows users to run at an impossible speed in a straight line, creating an illusion of a white blur.

Ryu was amazed at how profound these skills are. The Drunken Dragon Fist is a straight forward martial skills that allows the practitioner to directly confront their opponent. It’s perfectly balanced since its eight stances covers all bases. No Qi elements are needed, if backed by a sufficient amount of inner strength its might is enough to shake the world. The Eternal Phoenix is also balanced out by eight stances but uses Qi based methods to indirectly confront the opponent. The Indomitable Genbu doesn’t focus on the attack but on defense and counters. The Merciless Tiger is all about speed and piercing strikes.

One thing that confounded Ryu was that there’s also cultivating methods to go along with each respective school. The methods were extremely odd and seems to go on a path of no return once you start. For example, the Indomitable Genbu practices a cultivating method that focuses on compressing the Qi many folds. This will make your Qi congeal so Qi condensation will be faster and more effective. The Merciless Tiger practices cultivating the Qi to be as light and not dense as possible so the release for Qi will be instant.

“Why didn’t master Du-Bai teach me the cultivating method of the Drunken Dragon Fist?” Ryu wondered to himself. Since the Drunken Master didn’t bother teaching him, Ryu trusts that he had good reasons not to so he didn’t pay much attention to these cultivating methods. His own method is already much more effective. Because he normalizes his Qi by filtering it until it’s completely pure, Ryu can alter his Qi to any type thus allowing him to perform all kinds of feats with Qi.

Unknown to Ryu, he’s starting to abstract from these profound unranked skills. This was what he did during his secluded training in the Forbidden Forest. When he was taught by Prince Na’Vi and Du-Bai, he didn’t have time to abstract and make the skills his own. Now that he has three weeks to train in peace, countless theories are forming in his mind. Wudang’s Tai Chi seems to compliment the Indomitable Genbu. His Qi blades and lightning elements could augment the Merciless Tiger’s prowess. The nature arts of the shamans could support the Eternal Phoenix’s fire based skills. Ryu was subconsciously walking down the path of a true martial artist.

“If one could use water and earth Qi manipulation, the effects of the Indomitable Genbu would be greatly amplified!”

“Frenzied Tidal Wave could be applied to the moves in Drunken Dragon Fist to increase its power!”

“The One with the Sword is similar to the One with the World technique I learned from Na’Vi…”

“The Phoenix Holocaust uses two unstable sources of fire Qi to produce a destructive blast, does it have to fire Qi though?

“Ultra Gravity… Why does it feel similar to the specialization regarding time?”

“Beast Fusion, Spirit Fusion… both requires sharing the host body but the phantom ninth stance of the Drunken Dragon Fist allows you to have the best of both worlds… does it have to be dragon blood?”

“The Vanishing White Flash only lets you run in a straight line, its downside is stopping to turn. What if I use Riding the Eight Dragons skill to lay down Qi tracks to help me turn instead of stopping?”

“Forging steel from the elements is convenient but I can’t reform them during a battle. True Alchemy on the other hand can … hmm”

“The Invincible Stick technique’s attack patterns are more profound still so I can apply them into these new stances!”

“The Baleful White Claw’s projection of Qi seems to work in the same way as the Gold Keeper skill I made but its design of the claw is much stronger than my Gold Keeper… hmm”

“The Superman Mode leaks out all my mana at once but the Invulnerable Body from Indomitable Genbu and Cataclysmic White Tiger from Merciless Tiger are able to contain the Qi into a solid form around me, perhaps I can extend the time of this skill.”

Ryu couldn’t help but exclaim to himself as he made these revelations. Thankfully his tent is sealed off by enchantments so no one could see or hear what he’s doing.

Ryu’s clones would start sparing each other once he grasps enough of the basics of the stances. His knowledge of martial skills was growing at an exponential rate. Ryu was making unprecedented progress in his understanding of martial arts. Previously during his secluded training, he was learning from scratch. This was the second opportunity he had to learn by himself and his foundation had been thoroughly solidified by Prince Na’Vi’s and Drunken Master Du-Bai’s training. When Prince Na’Vi and Drunken Master Du’Bai were teaching him, they had limited time so they didn’t see what Ryu could have accomplished by himself if they gave him enough to soak in the stuff they taught him.

Ryu’s comprehension, mental capacity and knowledge had been augmented to new heights with three Infinity Tomes. A dozen martial theories was processed concurrently in his mind. The more he understood, the more he realized he has yet to learn. A realm of indescribable joy was opened up to him as he sunk himself into conceptualizing and hypothesizing the numerous profound skills he has under his disposal.

Without Ryu noticing, nearly two weeks had passed. His advancements would shock any martial artists to their very core. He was learning these skills at a rate exponentially faster than geniuses that had existed before him. It’s as if he created these skills himself. Usually one needs a century to fully master a rank 7 martial skill if they were talented but Ryu was mastering multiple skills equivalent to rank 7 in the span of two weeks.

If Ryu had to rate himself, he would say that he had successfully grasped a full understanding of methods that Emperor Domain masters might not even have. Right now, there should be no one that could pose a threat to him in the King Domain. His Qi might be inferior to those in the peak King Domain but definitely not his skills.

“The Seven Ancient Beast Schools of the Heaven Continent are the Drunken Dragon Fist, the Eternal Phoenix, the Indomitable Genbu, The Merciless Tiger, the Unworldly Qilin, The Divine Tengu, and The Golden Frog. Master Du-Bai once told me these ancient schools formed an allegiance to protect an important treasure. The Divine Tengu is currently the sworn enemy to the Drunken Dragon Fist but that could be due to the scheming of the Eternal Phoenix. From Exoe’s memory, the Indomitable Genbu and Merciless Tiger should already be wiped out…” Ryu said slowly as he thought of something. “I don’t know much of their history but could they all originate from the same source?”

The reason why Ryu wondered about such a thing is because as he practiced the stances from four ancient beast schools, there were many similarities between them. He couldn’t explain them because due to an invisible force that seems to be obscuring these arts. One thing is for sure, the supreme skills from these schools are complimenting each other. Since he practices four of them, he could feel them enhancing each other to new heights than if practiced alone. Ryu was sure that if he trains in all seven, some secret would be unlocked!

Ryu’s clone in the Lin Province is still traveling with Exoe, the Infernal Fist School’s founder, towards the capital. Exoe had ran out of stories to tell Ryu so they discussed briefly what the capital was like and where this general that defeated him resided at. The Hundred Spears General of the Lin Empire was a prodigy according to rumors. He comes from a family that had served for the Lin Empire since its founding but reached the Emperor Domain in less than two thousand years! If you have reached the King Domain, you would have gained over six thousand years to your life! Normally people that takes less than the years granted by the previous domains to reach the next are considered geniuses.

There was a lot of political struggle within the empire. The two major fractions are led by the Left Minister and the Right Minister. The Left Minister’s fraction consists of influential politicians that had deep roots within the empire. The Right Minister’s fraction have the military might. Both the Left Minister and the Right Minster are in the Sovereign Domain. When Ryu heard this he was shocked, Sovereign Domain experts wield unimaginable power. Both ministers reside in the palace to keep an eye on each other and naturally keep each other in check.

The capital of the Lin Province, Fujin, is over a hundred of kilometer wide. Its size rivals a hundred cities combined! Ryu almost choked when he heard that, the town he grew up in isn’t even one percent of its size. The palace is right in the center while the Hundred Spears General’s residence is situated at the south wall to guard it.

After coming up with a general plan, Exoe recommended Ryu to rest his clone so they could commence their mission in the optimal state. Ryu gladly complied.

Back at the private tent within the Raging Thunder Sect, Ryu’s main body was cultivating the new resources he acquired from Exoe. Ryu’s absorption rate is faster than most and way more efficient but the unknown tree-like objects inside his reservoirs are sapping away most of his hard work.

The rest of the clones on the other hand were sparring against each other. Even though the tent was sealed by a Brown Tier Enchantment, Ryu’s clones would have definitely obliterated it if they were going all out. Instead these clones were using minimal Qi to contain the impact.

Ryu asked the Exoe about the unranked skills and the response he got was that they were rare skills that even he didn’t master. Ryu suspects that the head of the Eternal Phoenix School gave these crystals recordings to Exoe to string him along knowing Exoe couldn’t possibly master them. He would have to give up his current cultivation to start from scratch to learn just one of the ancient beast school’s art. Ryu could learn them all because of his unique deposition, innate talent and exclusive self-created cultivation method.

Just when Ryu was about to break through to the next level after consuming a massive amount of cultivating materials for two weeks straight, a strange aura spread over Ryu’s tent in the Raging Thunder Sect camp. Thanks to Ryu’s Brown Tier Enchantments, the probing senses couldn’t decipher what Ryu was doing inside. However Ryu felt how terrible the aura was, it was definitely stronger than the sect leader himself!