Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu came to a stop. He was a hint surprised. Honestly, he had expected to truly slice her into three pieces with that strike, but he had actually failed. In fact…

Ryu's eyes narrowed, looking down at his great swordstaffs. Not only were his wrists trembling on the verge of fracturing, but there were some hair-thin cracks on his blade.

Ryu's great swordstaffs might have only been Heaven Grade treasures, but he had personally refined them and he knew that their durability was no less than some Mystical Grade treasures. Of course, this was by the standard of the True Martial World at all.

For a treasure that hadn't even been properly activated to crack his great swordstaffs like this could only mean that it was an exceptional treasure, likely only meant to activate when Mae was truly in danger. Considering it didn't activate just now, that meant that it was well aware that Ryu's strike couldn't penetrate it even in a dormant state.

On the other side of the battlefield, Mae's head slumped, barely holding onto her sabers. She felt as though all the bones in her body were shattered and that her organs had flipped.

Of course, this was only an illusion. In reality, she had just suffered some terrible bruising that made her ache all over. Even with that strike, Ryu hadn't managed to break any of her bones, and even her inner organs had only been slightly rattled.

Even so, she had never experienced such a thing before, even in the cruelty of her Clan. By the time she could start cultivating, she had suppressed all those of her generation.

Mae slowly looked up, coughing out another mouthful of blood. At that moment, though, Ryu could only narrow his eyes because he realized the blood didn't come from Mae's injuries. Or, more accurately, at least not injuries he had caused. Instead, it looked like she was clenching her teeth so hard that her gums began to bleed.

At that moment, the cold faced Mae suddenly grinned. It was an eerie, blood curdling grin, one that could only come from the face of a demon incarnate. She didn't look human at all, in fact she looked as though she had just risen from a hellish scape and was prepared to crush all those before her.

Mae spat out another mouthful of blood, but this one was much less of a cough and a far more brutish behavior.

At that moment, she began to slowly rise to her feet, her robes being shed off to reveal a smooth plain of delicate, creamy skin. However, before anything untoward could be seen, her body was rapidly being covered in scales.

In some lighting, the scales appeared to be a pitch black, but in others, they appeared to be blinding crimson.

A pair of horns grew from her head, a tail coming out from her back even as a pair of radiant black wings appeared upon her delicate shoulder blades.

With every transformation, her aura became more oppressive, almost like a mountain slowly descending from the skies. Even though her figure hadn't grown in size at all, it was quickly feeling as though Ryu was standing before a raging dinosaur in female form.

Mae stood to the tips of her toes, her claws lengthening as her tail slowly swayed behind her. Even though its movements seemed slow, every time it finished one swing, a vicious wind would arc through the air, leaving white marks all across the seemingly indestructible walls and floors of this room.

When Mae's transformation was finished, delicate feathers grew out from her ankles, wrists and the crown of her head. Her scales covered her practically from head to toe, only leaving a path of smooth skin at her belly button and her rippling cleavage.

"I don't care anymore," Mae suddenly spoke, her voice gaining a mind piercing quality to it.

Ryu's gaze suddenly sharpened. That was because although he was still looking at Mae, her words had sounded by his ears. It was only several instances later than her afterimage faded and he could feel her sabers piercing toward his throat.

Ryu brought up his great swordstaffs to block.

BANG!

Ryu skidded backward, his wrist shattering beneath the pressure.

His gaze narrowed as the Life Character of his eight trigram diagram blazed to life and quickly healed him.

His figure flickered and vanished, using his Spatial Soul Nature once again. Since Mae was no longer holding back, neither would he.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Wild ripples of space surrounded Ryu. By the time Mae's strikes landed against his blade, they would feel as though they had traveled through a thick miasma of hundreds of meters, weakening them considerably. But even so, every time their blades connected, he would feel his body shuddering.

Ryu's Wind Character and Water Character blazed to life, stacking his Small Realms from two to four.

He swapped between them seamlessly, his great swordstaffs wrapping themselves in tsunami-like waves, hurricane-like winds, thunderous lightning and flames that seemed to want to incinerate the heavens themselves.

"Die! Die! Die!"

Mae didn't seem to care about the changes at all, nor did she care about just how much Ryu had been holding back until now. Her Dao was truly relentless and passionate. Everything that Ryu threw at her was returned tenfold, her vengeful spirit blazing with life.

No matter how many suppressive effects Ryu stacked, he still found himself being pushed back again and again.

Suddenly, Mae's tail lashed out like a whip, finding a hole in Ryu's defenses and tearing right through his Trembling Star Qi skin.

At that moment, Ryu understood why Mae's attacks always seemed to contain a hint of the whip, it was because from the very beginning, the whip was one of her main weapons. Her tail was her whip!

PCHU!

Ryu's heart was pierced through, the residual blast sending him flying back.

BANG!

Ryu collided against the very same location that Mae had, even sliding down to where the shreds of her clothing remained.

This woman was indeed spiteful. There was no doubt that she had waited for precisely this opportunity, and if she could do that, the gap between her and Ryu wasn't small at all. She might as well have been toying with a child.

Even so, with his heart leaking out large pools of blood, Ryu suddenly laughed.

Toward this laugh, Mae's gaze glowed, the fierce grin on her face turning even more menacing.

All at once, Ryu's eight trigram diagram lit up, a suffocating pressure causing the quaking of the room to sway from side to side.

The sweeping aura seemed to raise Ryu to his feet without any effort, almost as though he was just a step away from breaking through the laws on Sky Gods comprehended and soaring into the skies.

Ryu looked up and met Mae's gaze, his blindness seeming like nothing more than an illusion at that moment. His battle intent pierced the veil of the heavens, his Heavenly Favor churning like a boiling vat of oil. 

"Come, woman! Show me what else you have!"

Ryu vanished, appearing before Mae and swinging down his blade with the pressure of a world.