Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

The final golden ball snapped into place and the region Ryu stood in fell into complete darkness. The refraction was so perfect that there wasn't a single leaked bit of light. Despite the fact they were all in the same room, Ryu could only rely on his Spiritual Sense to see the other light. Even if he hadn't been blind, the situation would have been the exact same.

At that moment, the sound of gears and mechanisms began to whine. Ryu felt the floor beneath him shifting and moving slowly, his own body shifting with it.

He stood completely still, allowing the mechanisms to push him forward as they pleased. Even so, he maintained a large amount of his focus on his Matrix, ensuring that the situation didn't change at all.

By the time Ryu could finally "see" again, he once again stood in a grand hall. But this one, especially in comparison to the last, was most definitely where the true treasures lay.

There were no large vaults of precious jewels or Qi Stones, or a large library of techniques and mantras, but what there was were three pedestals, each of which had just a singular jade. Although Ryu didn't know what these jades held, what he did know was that they were most definitely related to the secrets of this Ruin.

Ryu took a step forward, ready to pick at one before he suddenly stopped.

He looked down at the Matrix rotating in his hands and his eyes narrowed. If his calculations were correct, he could only pick one of the jades before the other three would completely vanish. This realization left him at a bit of a loss.

Even after a while, he could pick out any differences between the jades, and neither could his Matrix. It only took him a few minutes after that to understand that there simply wasn't any difference to pick out.

The Matrix wasn't some magical item that could pluck out a future possibility without data. There might be some extremely high level Matrices that could accomplish them, but even if he had one right before him, Ryu's cultivation wasn't anywhere near deep enough to even think of using them.

Simply put, he needed information to make predictions. If there was no data, there was no way to draw conclusions. So, if the creator of this Ruin had gone out of their way to make sure there was absolutely no difference between the three, then there was nothing Ryu could do but do exactly as the creator wanted…

Pick randomly.

Ryu stood in silence for a long while, his mind spinning.

There were indeed some Ruin Master chronicles that he had read of where the Ruin Master would run into such things. Normally, there were just two possibilities, each possibility of which had several variations within.

The first possibility was that the creator of this Ruin didn't want to put their trust in one successor. There were too many variables along the path of cultivation and trusting just one man or woman, no matter how talented, to definitely reach their full potential was a hard ask. Who could guarantee such a thing?

The most talented wouldn't necessarily reach the pinnacle of the world, neither would the least talented most definitely not accomplish anything. As such, Ruin Creators like this one would do their best to place their eggs in as many baskets as possible, hoping that at least one would pan out the way that they hoped.

Of course, there were variations within this possibility, and the first of them usually happened in demonic or unorthodox paths like this one… And that was a Sect or Clan that split their inheritance into several pieces before demanding those that gained these pieces to fight among themselves to fuse the ultimate inheritance into one. In this approach, they would also be ensuring that only the very best gained their full legacy.

The other variations were usually just combinations of these two. Regardless, they all came back to the same root, and that was hoping that the best successor would come out on top.

This led to the second possibility, and that was a more enigmatic one and infinitely more annoying. Compared to the first possibility, this one was far more ridiculous. Although annoyed at the first possibility, Ryu could potentially understand it despite how much he hated to be tested, this second possibility would make a cultivator want to pull their hair out.

This definitely said a lot. After all, to Ryu, anyone who would take the first approach was just trying to make him run around in circles. He had already passed all of these tests and yet these individuals wanted him to prove himself more? Who did they think they were? He would rather just spit in the face of such an inheritance and leave without it. In truth, the only reason why Ryu was even still here was because he had wasted so much time getting here.

In any other situation, he would have turned and left. But while he was on a time crunch, trying to gather as much Heavenly Favor as possible, wasting time and not receiving anything in return was a big no.

This was why the second possibility was even more annoying than the first, because if it was the case, he could very well leave here with absolutely nothing…

And that was the possibility of Karma and Fate.

Powerful existences, especially extremely powerful existences, placed a lot of stock in Karma and Karmic Ties. The more powerful you became, the heavier those chains would feel and the more cautious you would be in forming them.

For Ruins and inheritances from extraordinarily powerful existences, they didn't just test your pure skill, they also tested something more enigmatic.

In simple terms, they tested whether or not you were lucky enough.

By this point, one can see what the issue was here. If this second possibility was true, then that meant that two of these jades were blank and only one of them held the true inheritance. Or, if this Ruin Creator was more sinister, then two of these jades contained fake or incomplete inheritances that might even lead to cultivation deviation, while only one of them would contain the true, pure and unrestrained inheritance.

Thinking to this point, even someone far less prideful and arrogant than Ryu would be pissed off. No matter how you looked at it, whoever left these jades here were playing games and toying with the lives of those who had entered.

Ryu's expression turned frighteningly cold. 'Since you want to play games, then—'

"Hm?"

Ryu's gaze sharpened and his head turned toward a certain direction straight ahead. At that moment, an exceptionally beautiful woman with a frighteningly cold countenance was slowly shuttled into the room. When her vision cleared, she, too, looked up.

Fairy Mae's expression flickered. Although the emotion disappeared quite quickly, Ryu's Spiritual Sense was sharp enough to catch it. However, he was caught off guard by what the emotion was because… it actually seemed like Mae was… surprised to see him here? That shouldn't be the case considering the fact he was the one who had led them all here to begin with, if anything, he should be surprised by her appearance, unless…

Unless she was so extremely confident in herself that she felt such an emotion was warranted.

Mae looked away from Ryu and her gaze landed on the three jades, flickering again. She didn't move immediately, seemingly going through all the same thought processes that Ryu had before an annoyed look flickered deep within her cold and beautiful irises.

Ryu raised an eyebrow again.

As arrogant as he was, he was also very self-aware. There were very few people who would dare to be annoyed right now even though the situation warranted it. There were only two possibilities. Either Mae was no less arrogant than he was, or her view of the world was far beyond the scope of this Ruin.

As for which it was, Ryu wasn't sure.

At the very least, he wasn't sure until she suddenly flipped a palm over, manifesting an inky black whip as she walked toward Ryu without saying a single word.

Although Ryu didn't move or even have a change in expression, he knew what was happening. This woman actually dared to fight him. In fact, not only did she want to fight him, she very clearly wanted to kill him even without exchanging a single word.

The situation was so surprising that Ryu even wanted to laugh, his lip curling into a slight sneer. That was, until Mae suddenly struck out with her whip, causing hairs to stand on the back of Ryu's neck.

It only took a split moment for Ryu to realize that this woman couldn't possibly be from a Second Heaven Sect. That strength was far beyond a Heaven Class genius.

In an instant, it clicked for Ryu.

This Mae must be one of the geniuses who had regressed to a lower Heaven for a chance to enter this Heavenly Path.

After realizing this, a wild grin spread across Ryu's face, catching Mae entirely off guard.

This was a genius from the Fourth Heaven? Potentially even higher?

His fists suddenly felt incredibly itchy.

Ryu's fist shot out like a canon ball as he flipped his other palm to put his Matrix away and reach for his great swordstaff. He had been waiting for this opportunity for too long. He wanted to see just what kind of strength these real geniuses of the True Martial World had. 

BANG!