Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Another robust and proud man stood forward. His hair was a bright shade of white, so bright that he looked like a sun himself. This was the head disciple of the Stalwart Sun Sect, Reykian. He was the final disciple to appear, the Fading Star Sect members nowhere to be seen.

In truth, the gathering of these three was quite a sight to behold, and an extremely rare one at that. That was because these were three of the four members the most radiant in the Seventh Heaven despite their youth. They were known as the Immortal Deities. Though... behind their backs, especially behind the backs of two of them in particular, they were known as the Immortal Couples.

Why was that? That was because the fourth, and the only member not currently present, was none other than Selheira.

But many took this to be a joke. Reykian, who had always pursued Selheira, was widely known as not being a match for her despite the fact the two had never fought, and that was because Litaor, who had always pursued Jojo, couldn't last even three moves against her. And yet, Selheira and Jojo's battles were widely known and praised.

Reykian and Litaor's battles were also widely praised and they were well established as equal to one another, and yet the latter couldn't last three moves against Jojo, who Selheira could fight for days and nights on end. It was clear who was superior.

Normally, when two women were so much more superior than their so- called male counterparts, they would never be matched together. It would elicit a rain of toads eating swan meat comments. The problem here, though, was that Reykian and Litaor, though not yet Sky Gods, were widely accepted as the two best bachelors of the Seventh Heaven.

Though there were many men more powerful than them, in the years of the Seventh Heaven, it had been a very long time since existences as talented as them had appeared. It was just a shame that "their women" were even more monstrous than that, practically dinosaurs in such excellent, elegant figures. One might be wondering, then... where was Starlight in this equation?

He, himself, was also exceptionally talented, it was just that he was too young. As such, he was a bit off from being compared to these four... at least in the past. But once more time passed, and the gap of their cultivations closed, there would likely be a fifth Immortal Deity of the Seventh Heaven.

It was just unfortunate that this Immortal Deity had been vanquished before his legend could even take form.

When this was understood, maybe it was obvious why the Fading Star Sect hadn't appeared.

For one, their head disciple was a bit young and his momentum was lacking to his senior currently. Although he was the very best they had, if they trotted him out, it would diminish their prestige as the most powerful Sect of the Seventh Heaven.

Secondly... who could understand Ryu more than they did? If no Sky Gods appeared, it would be hard to say just who would be suffering a loss.

These three deities, aside from Jojo who wanted to see how this amusing matter would play out, weren't even entirely focused on Ryu at all. In fact, even Jojo was only paying attention to Ryu because of Selheira and nothing else. Although she knew that Ryu had Fist God Aura, it was too unrefined and lacking in comparison to her own, and whether he could continue to hone it was up in the air.

It made sense for her to be so arrogant. After all, her goal wasn't even the Seventh Heaven anymore, she already had her sights on the Eighth. It was just that the gap between the Higher Heavens was each more enormous than the last. This was actually why despite the fact Litaor and Reykian were so lesser to them, no one suggested that the two women just marry up. To the people of the Seventh Dimension, the Eighth Heaven was even more of an supreme ruler than they were to the Sixth.

The Sixth and Seventh Heaven were separated by the Heavenly Path, but there was nothing but space separating the Seventh and Eighth Heavens.

Though there was much communication between them, interaction between the two was far easier than it was in the former case... and every time it would remind the people of the Seventh Heaven just how lesser they were.

There was a very obvious reason why the supreme ruler of the Seventh Heaven was a Sect that had fallen out of grace of the Eighth.

However, what the three didn't notice in all their nonchalance, was that Ryu hadn't looked at them even once from the very beginning either. It was hard to say who truly took the other less seriously. In fact, Ryu was focused on something completely different.

The reason that many didn't take Ryu seriously was because even if he somehow managed to make it past the initial barrier, he was likely relying on a treasure. But the chains that tied Isemeine to the pillar weren't something that could be waved away...

"Oh, that's what it is," Ryu uttered lightly, ignoring Isemeine's ravings.

He reached out a finger and a dense grey fog took shape and wrapped around an end of the chains.

CRACK!

The atmosphere froze and they all turned over at once.

The yelling and screaming Isemeine fell into Ryu's arms weakly, but she continued to curse.

"-you damned, limp dicked bastard! Just you wait, just you wait!"

Unfortunately, it was hard for her to continue to be red faced and enraged when she was suddenly being cradled like a baby. She somehow felt both humiliated and calm at the same time, it was a truly frustrating combination of emotions.

"Hush," Ryu uttered lightly. He took out a robe and covered Isemeine. Then he put a finger in her mouth and sent a drop of Embryonic Qi into her body.

Isemeine's eyes widened. Setting aside the fact she felt like a baby sucking on a pacifier, her body, which had been beaten and worn, suddenly recovered in a flash.

All of a sudden, all of her strength and elegance came back.