I know it sounds crazy but what if ryu is both the Phoenix sky God and this other fellow. Phoenix god in the past and maybe this other fellow is just him in the future. Ryu is just too blessed with talent making me think his current life is the culmination of his previous accumulation of faith.
I'm calling it now the "ancestor" the Zu's are talking about is fufuture Ryu who with the help of his pupils can travel through time. That's why the visualization reacted the way it did to his words.
