Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Iroh's gaze flashed with rage, his chest heaving. He seemed to hesitate, and then he closed his eyes in resignation. Before Ryu could even react much, he released the Protector Spirit that the former was targeting and allowed Ryu to take it.

Ryu's fighting spirit dampened, but he didn't say anything. Even after defeating the four others, he was still not 100% confident in dealing with Iroh. The logistics of fighting in a team made it so that even if you were extraordinarily powerful, it was more important for you to fit in than display some outward showcase of strength.

Iroh had been greatly restricted in the battle because he not only had to cover for his teammates, but he also had to restrict the kind of attacks he used so that he only targeted Ryu and didn't harm his allies. He was quite confident in his own strength, but if he wanted to maximize the chances of his people and his Sect, the best thing to do was to avoid this battle.

It was impossible for Ryu to not be disappointed. At the same time, though, he also knew that it was a bit foolish of him to waste so much time here. He had a feeling that things wouldn't end so easily, but that only made his lip curl into a smile.

He was technically in the wrong for this event. He had targeted them, and he was trying to steal the fruit of the labor. But Ryu had never been the kind to care about things like this. If someone did it to him, he would just directly kill them, and if he couldn't at the moment, he would survive and then kill them the first moment he could. As for doing it to someone else, he wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Beaten and groggy, the four other members of the Twin Earth Dragon Sect followed Iroh's lead. Though they were reluctant, they were in the worst position to resist at the moment. Their hearts clenched and they seemed to want to burn Ryu's face into the memories, but the latter didn't seem to notice them.

Without a word, Ryu turned and left, somewhat catching them off guard. They half expected for Ryu to demand the rest of their spirits as well, in fact it was a risk that Iroh knew he had taken, a risk he might not take with anyone else. But he had sensed the dragon's pride within Ryu's heart. Since he had already spoken about what he needed, he wouldn't take more if he didn't have to.

All things considered, this had gone far better than they had hoped. But that didn't mean that the rage in their hearts had lessened. Watching Ryu leave, they burned the humiliation into their hearts.

"That bronze aura is far too strong. We cleared a few dozen Bronze Protector Spirits, and that was only because it had to be split between us! Indeed, they had wanted to get to Silver Protector Spirits as fast as possible, and the only reason they defeated a few dozen Bronze Protector Spirits in the first place was because there were five of them.

"Iroh, we need to kill him. My blood won't stop boiling until I do, I don't care who his Ancestor is!"

SLAP!

Iroh slapped a palm on the top of the head of his senior brother. His eyes were burning as well, but they also carried a hidden sternness with them that overrode that fury.

"Keep your mind about you. He's in the Heavenly Path now, the best place to advance. The only reason why there isn't a constant stream of breakthroughs right now is because everyone is at the limit of the World Sea Realm right now. Everyone except for him."

Iroh's senior brother snapped up in a rage, but when Iroh's words sunk in, he shivered. In fact, it reminded him of something else as well.

The Seventh Heaven geniuses wouldn't just sit idly by, waiting to be crushed by stronger existences in the Sky God Realm like they had. The only reason they hadn't sent such geniuses of their own was because they had miscalculated and things seemed to be moving in a completely unpredictable way. However, that wouldn't stop those that were already here from doing what they needed to do to break through into the pseudo Sky God Realm as well.

Many of those that had come from the Seventh Heaven had suppressed themselves for a long time already, they were just waiting for the perfect opportunity. This was to say that the greatest advantage they would have was here and now.

If they wasted that time going after Ryu, how much regret would they feel once the others caught up. Any advantage they had now would become a disadvantage the further along they went. They had to maximize their time now and build up a huge lead, if they couldn't do that... There would only be regret.

The worst part was if they squandered time... what would happen if Ryu entered the Middle World Sea Realm? The Higher? Each step was meant to take years even to the most talented, but in this sort of environment, just how much faster would it be?

At least for now, Ryu didn't seem to have any excessive ill will towards them and let them go. Their injuries were heavy, but they weren't lethal. If they wanted revenge, they had to keep their heads low for now, and only strike when the time was optimal.

Iroh's senior brother balled his fists.

Iroh stood to his full height. "Let's go. I think we've neglected something here and it might be a key to us closing the gap."

.....

Ryu didn't wait around for the revenge of the Twin Earth Dragon Sect members. Did he think that they might target him later? Sure, but he did the very same risk assessment that they had. Going all out to defeat Iroh, just so that he could make sure they all died would waste too much of his time. He wasn't particularly worried about his stamina. His qi was endless, and the Spiritual Sea was larger than even a Sky Gods, and his Embryonic Qi was slowly becoming a flowing river again. His great commodity this moment was time, and he wouldn't waste it on this.

As for their attacking him for revenge, they were free to. The situations in which they could do so would be limited, and the few situations there were... he would have plenty of methods to deal with them. He was looking forward to it.

His focus was on clearing out these Silver Protector Spirits, but as expected, the number of them was much lower than it had been for the Bronze Protector Spirits, and because very few people spent time gathering Bronze Protector Spirits, eager to progress, there was a far larger number of people hunting at this level as well.

This made it not only more challenging for Ryu to find the exact kind he needed, but he was also forced to offend quite a number of people... Not that he cared.

After fusing with a Silver Protector Spirit, his strength doubled and the ease with which he crushed these people, and the next Protector Spirits he came across in the rare instant he found one unoccupied, was exceptional.

His numbers continued to climb even as the number of infuriated parties did, but Ryu's smile was just the same.

Very quickly, the rumors of Ryu running away were overshadowed. The individuals who had moved on to Silver Protector Spirits had much more backbone than those that had remained to target Bronze Protector Spirits, this resulted in far more clashes. That said, when they felt Ryu's strength, they still ultimately chose to take a step back, making the very same choice that Iroh had.

This led to many half fought battles and extremely resentful individuals, but their rage was mostly met with a chuckle by Ryu.

If the situations were reverse, what would he do? Quite frankly, he wouldn't give a damn about a Dao Sovereign and their great grandson. Was it his fault that these people were cowards?

Regardless, it was better for him, less time wastage.

Even so, his pace was far slower than it had been against the Bronze Protector Spirits. The latter had only taken him a few hours at worst, but even after three days, he was only about two thirds of the way through to the 999 number he needed.

Even so, he could feel his physical strength increasing. His combat skills were sharper, faster, and it wasn't just a matter of the Protector Spirits, it was his Martial Forms.

He realized that the act of comprehending and sharpening his four Martial Forms, and even more importantly the act of trying to fuse them into one, was making his senses incredibly sharp. No, that was the wrong way to look at it, it was more so that his body was finally catching up, albeit slowly, to how keen his mind already was.

He hadn't acknowledged that there was such a huge gap. But the act of calculating, and then having his body react, rather than calculating and having his body react in tandem was huge. His battle prowess relied too much on his raw strength, and not enough on his actually, well... battle prowess.

He also acknowledged just how much his Mysteries of Heaven and Earth Pupils had masked this weakness. It was also somewhat embarrassing that it had taken him so long to realize this, but he had been too concentrated on other things. He had thought that his greatest weakness was his lack of talent, but there were more ways than just increasing his talent to strengthen him.

Ryu clenched and unclenched his fists, shattering the head of another Silver Protector Spirit with just a single blow.

It was time to move on to Gold Protector Spirits, but this was likely where the true trouble would begin.