Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

1322 His Own Pace.

Ryu sent an indifferent glance toward the three individuals. He didn't recognize any one of them, but he had already been here long enough to recognize their clothing. These were individuals of the Soul Wind, Soul Earth and Soul Body factions. It was amusing because even though he hadn't appeared personally, Rogryll was still to prideful to even send a person of the Soul Fire Faction.

All three individuals were on the older side, but they were completely unlike the members of this garbage unit. They had reached the end of their potential, that was true enough. But unlike these garbage units who didn't have any hope of stepping into the Sky God Realm, they were instead stuck in the Sky God Realm.

If Ryu had to guess, he would say that they were at least in the True Sky God Realm, likely the Perfect Sky God Realm. He was getting better at pinpointing the cultivation of Sky Gods, but he still didn't have full and complete assurance, especially not with his Dao sealed away currently.

The three seemed to have expected the juniors before them to greet them first, however Mae's trust in Ryu had reached the point where she didn't act unless he did, and Ryu didn't seem to have any intention of saying anything.

The garbage units, who had had a gloomy atmosphere around them from the very start, felt suffocated at the moment. They didn't dare to say or do much of anything in front of Mae, let alone these Sky Gods. Although they too couldn't tell their level of strength, in their eyes a Sky God was a Sky God, anyone of them could kill them with a flick of the finger, what was the point in parsing them?

Eventually, the elder of the Soul Body Faction opened his mouth to speak. Of the three of them, he seemed to have the softest aura.

This made sense, the Soul Body Faction was led by Mae's uncle, and considering Kelcyne's approach to dealing with this situation, it reflected some of her husband's opinion as well. At the very least, Mae's uncle wasn't as infuriated as the others, but that made sense. It wasn't as though Mae was his daughter, and he cared little about his son's infatuation with his own cousin.

"Little Mae, is there a need to be so stubborn? This was just a small punishment, so long as you return and apologize, everything will be fine."

Mae's brows shot up. She wanted to speak, but she then suddenly felt the strong pillar of support to her side. Her partially opened lips closed and her grip around Ryu's arm tightened. It seemed as though she was fully prepared to allow Ryu to speak for her.

Ryu looked this elder in the face, he was still looking at Mae, but he was slowly starting to become more and more uncomfortable as it seemed that Mae had no intention of answering. Without a choice, he could only look toward Ryu.

Upon doing this, his gaze was much sharper and the heaviness of the atmosphere increased. Even so, Ryu didn't hurry to speak, scanning them one by one as though he couldn't feel a single thing.

The garbage units, who hadn't had much of an impression of Ryu to begin with, and didn't have nearly enough social credit to have information about what happened in the meeting all those days ago, were shocked.

They were certain that Ryu wasn't a Sky God. The collapse of Ryu's Dao Heart made it even more difficult to read his cultivation level, but even so, the dividing line between the two states was clear enough even for Dao Pedestal Realm experts to be able to tell.

So how was he standing so unaffected?

They had remained in line earlier because of Mae's presence, not Ryu's. Given their culture, they had just assumed that he was some sort of boy toy that Mae was letting play around for a bit.

Never in their wildest imagination did they actually believe that Mae would be leading their garbage units. They were well aware of their current situation and they didn't think that the daughter of the current Patriarch would be thrust into such a dangerous situation with them, especially not when it was because of her all this was happening in the first place.

They had thought that Mae was only here to help Ryu establish some prestige before she would go off and die. In reality, many of them held some contempt and disgust for Ryu, while others felt some pity for him. In their eyes, he was probably trying to lead troops in order to prove himself to Mae and gain himself a higher position in her heart while not knowing that he was likely going to get himself killed.

But this situation and the appearance of not just one, but three Sky Gods, left them confused... Just what was happening?!

"If that's all you have to say, you can go back now," Ryu uttered calmly.

Ryu's sudden words shook the garbage unis to their core. They could never imagine speaking to someone even a single partial realm above them like this, let alone someone an entire Realm above, and most definitely not someone in the Sky God Realm while they were still within the World Sea Realm!

A flash of sharpness passed through the eyes of the Soul Wind Faction elder. He sent another glance toward Mae, but he saw a hint of anger and unwillingness in her eyes. She had clearly felt very wronged by this arrangement, and now she was being stubborn.

The Soul Wind Faction elder shook his head, forcing himself to calm down.

"Little Mae, please reconsider. There's no need to allow this moment to-"

Ryu's aura suddenly flared up. The formations in his eyes flashed into and out of existence, the cracks and fractions within them clear for all to see. A billowing fog formed as he suppressed it, a looming illusory shadow appearing to his back.

At that moment, the hidden dangerous aura that Ryu was exuding became blatant.

"Don't delay us with this nonsense any longer. My patience is limited."

"You..." The Soul Wind Faction elder, no matter how amiable, had a limit to his patience as well. When he saw the Birthed Phenomena struggling to form behind Ryu, he felt a sort of helplessness, but very soon he recovered, realizing that the aura flickering in and out like that diminished its greatness by a large margin.

He took a breath, ready to make a comment about Ryu's crippled status when a grey fog coming from Ryu suddenly flooded into the body of the Phenomena.

In an instant, the flickering aura vanished and it solidified. A towering, pillar- like pressure that seemed as though it could uphold the skies took shape.

The cracked formations within Ryu's eyes fused and his wavering aura stabilized.

"If you don't want me to reveal the matters of the Dream Asura Race to your subordinates, I would suggest that you return. Even if Rogryll himself came before us, my answer would be just the same. This will be a final repayment to the Dream Asura Race. Following this, I will take Mae away."

There was a reason Ryu insisted on doing this. Despite the fact he didn't particularly care about the emotions and investments of others, he still had the natural thought that those born into a Clan owed it, especially if you were at the highest levels of nobility.

Mae had received a lot from the Dream Asura Race, so as her husband, Ryu would pay it back then take her away. In his mind, things were that simple.

In reality, Ryu's thoughts aligned with the bigshots of the True Martial World far more than most knew, but his way of life was to always walk as he saw fit. Quite frankly, he didn't even care if he came off as a hypocrite to others, nothing could shake his heart.

BOOM!

Ryu's Manifested Phenomenon raised its hands, a large surge of energy moving toward it. In that moment, Ryu's inability to cultivate seemed to have vanished into the wind. The qi was rapidly converted to Spiritual Qi and flooded into his mind as though there was an endless abyss waiting for it.

Ryu turned around and ignored the three elders.

He hadn't revealed his Manifested Phenomenon to show up. Rather, given the current state of these garbage units, they could accomplish nothing. But without control over his qi, there was also nothing he could do to help. But luckily, he had a work around.

His Manifested Phenomenon could communicate with the Heavens in place of his Spiritual Foundation, but it too was reliant on his Dao Heart to a certain extent. However, he realized that he could solidify it using his Cosmos Fog, allowing it to rely on his Bone Structure to manifest rather than the Heavens.

Although his current Manifested Phenomenon was only about 10% as strong as it would usually be in this state, it was good enough for his needs.

Without a care for the Sky Gods behind him, Ryu's alchemy cauldron flew from his Spatial Ring, but rather than sitting before him, it appeared between the large hands of his Birthed Phenomena. The cauldron looked like a speck of dust between its palms, and yet the control over it was absolutely immaculate.

He didn't care about making the Dream Asura Race regret their actions, nor did he care to explain to them that they had made a mistake in the first place. In truth, he didn't expect them to let him take Mae no matter how much he contributed to them.

But he was Ryu Tatsuya... He did things at his own pace.

BOOM!