Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Starlight circulated his qi, the void to his side ripping open as he dodged.

Unfortunately, he was a step late and a terrible ripping pain tore into his shoulder.

His arm twisted into the air. It was hard to tell if it was a sword, a drill or a flame that had attacked him. To his mind, it felt as though it was all three, the slicing, twisting and burning was all visceral. Starlight couldn't remember having ever suffered such a devastating injury before. This was in one part due to his young age, and another part due to just how weak the lower Heavens were, but regardless of what the reasons were, he felt as though his consciousness was about to fade.

Starlight released a low growl. One of the arms from his constellation was torn off. It shrunk quickly and attached to his bleeding shoulder stump. A dense bronze, silver and gold colored metal crept up half of his neck and chest before he suddenly pushed out.

Ryu's body rippled as he dodged and he vanished from where he stood. He reached out at thin air and a lance of fire coated with swirling Dark Phoenix Heavenly Patterns.

Ryu's back flexed and his gaze flashed with its fused gold and dark gold trigram diagram. It felt that just by meeting his gaze, he could see through any and everyone with just a single look.

BANG!

The lance rocketed out of Ru's hand with a world-ending momentum.

Starlight's metal arm changed its form and a towering swirl of sword qi took shape as he swung down with all his might.

Arm blade and lance met, both pausing in the air, unable to move even an inch further. But in the air, Ryu had already vanished.

Starlight's gaze flashed and his free hand formed a peculiar hand seal. Just as Ryu appeared to his side, the void was torn open once again and another constellation with Hegemonic Aura descended like a clap of thunder.

Ryu felt his body shake and quake, his inner organs rattling and his bones threatening to snap, but his gaze was still firm and resolute as he punched out. his arm vanishing into the void even as a world-splitting attack landed on his chest.

BANG! BANG!

Starlight's only remaining arm exploded on contact, but at the same time, a hole was blown through Ryu's chest, a beam of dark light seemingly reaping his life.

Ryu coughed out a mouthful of blood. It was so dense and full of life that it almost looked more black than it was red. Even so, the sharpness in his gaze didn't fade for even a single moment.

The dense corrosive energies that blew through his chest seemed to want to suffocate his healing potential, but he had already expected something like this. He knew in his mind that he couldn't allow Starlight to regain his bearings, and he most definitely didn't want to give him a chance to escape. A mistake on either front could come back to bite him.

So he took the most dangerous approach, an approach that maybe only one with the vitality of a Phoenix would dare to take.

Ryu's assault was relentless and devastating. Every single one of Starlight's counters would have been a deadly blow to anyone else, a hole through the chest, a skull shattering palm, there were even several blows to his dantian in an attempt to cripple him entirely, a fate his Chaotic Silk Meridians were enough to save him from.

On the other side, Starlight's injuries were just as devastating and much of his body was coated with the dense metals of his planetarv hand constellation.

Starlight roared in frustration in his mind. His entire battle style was built on the back of his Dao, and because he had been sent to the lower Heavens, he had only had time to cultivate the main core cultivation method of his Sect which allowed him to call down Constellations for his use.

This was supposed to be a good thing, a thing only geniuses did. Building one's own sort of Dao Charm techniques was the way of the Higher Heavens.

But he had never expected that he would run into an enemy with a Peak Ancient Dao capable of suppressing other Daos. He felt as though he was fighting with both his legs tied behind his back and a broken leg to top it all off.

Starlight roared. He was unwilling to give up the Dao Lord's Inheritance, completely unwilling! This was what he had come here for! What was the point in coming to this backwater hellhole if he couldn't get his hands on it?!A look of madness flashed through Starlight's gaze and the hands of his planetary hand constellation descended one after another. Just a single palm seemed to be capable of blotting out the skies, and yet so many of them were coming down at once.

Starlight vanished in their midst and he opened his arms out wide before slamming them toward one another with such force that all the land beneath the star nath was entirelv wined out Fven the snectators who hadn't heen able to speak even a single word, lost in their own shock, felt their hearts suddenly skip several beats.

"FUSE!" Starlight roared.

At that moment, the planetary hand constellation rushed forward, slamming into Starlight's back.

If the members of his Sect could see him now, they'd think him to be a madman. Fusing with Dominion Grade Constellations was already Starlight's limit, and that was only possible thanks to his dense Bloodline. Doing the same with Hegemonic Grade Constellations was far beyond him.

It had be remembered that Constellations represented the pinnacle. As such, it was more accurate to look at their Grades as though they were in the hands of Sky Gods. Many, upon crossing into the Sky God Realms, would find their Daos dropping an entire level even if they were incredibly talented, many might face a drop of two, three, or even four levels if they were unlucky and lacked the proper inspiration.

This was to say a Hegemonic Grade Constellation was akin to someone breaking into the Sky God Realms and managing to maintain a Hegemonic Grade Dao! The difference was akin to Heaven and Earth!

Starlight's body blazed with a black light and his Death Star Bone Structure seemed to respond to his madness as he entered a state of half-life and half- death.

BOOM!

Ryu coughed up a mouthful of blood. He crossed his arms before his body and braced himself, but he was still blown back by the aura alone.

When he managed to stabilize himself and look up, he found a Starlight that looked no different from a deity.He had grown to five meters tall, his entire body, from head to toe, covered in radiant bronze, silver and gold metals. His eyes looked like the vacant abyss of darkness while a large mass of arms came out from his back.He suddenly moved and the space around him cracked like glass. He appeared before Ryu like a towering mountain and slammed a palm down.

Ripples of tearing voids shook around his body and several palms appeared out from within them.The pressure from just one made Ryu feel as though he was about to be forced to his knees, but now there were suddenly dozens, all converging toward him.