Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

The aura of a Fragmented Sky God had never felt so oppressive before. Briza felt blood rushing to his head, but he froze when he caught sight of what was around him.

Dead. They were all dead. His entire encampment of elite geniuses, they were all lying in a pool of their own blood.

As though to add insult to injury, Ryu waved a hand and a mysterious power gripped them. They were torn to shreds as their Godhoods were pulled out from their bodies.

They quickly soared out of Core Elder Briza's reach before he could do anything. He wanted to take out a flying treasure, but he froze due to Ryu's previous words. The embarrassment stalled his attempt and his feet were practically rooted in place.

Ryu smiled, waving a hand as he turned toward the Radiant Star Sect.

"Oh, right. I almost forgot. I challenge every single Fragmented Sky God of the Raging Inferno Sect. I will fight one battle every hour, on the hour. Make sure to send your best; my hands are itchy.

"If you don't dare to, well... that's fine as well. I'll just kill them all from the shadows instead."

Ryu's uproarious laughter seemed to finally unveil some of the shadows that shrouded the Radiant Star Sect until this point. They felt like some of their frustration had finally been vented to a certain degree.

...

"Senior Aika, I'm hungry!" Ryu complained.

Aika looked at Ryu, somewhat incredulously. The last time she had seen Ryu, he had already undergone his change. But back then, he learned about Ailsa and Yaana soon afterward, not to mention entered the Heavenly Path and then disappeared, so she hadn't really had time to take note of it.

But the Ryu of the past would have never asked her for anything, let alone said it in such a joking manner.

That said, she vanished in a blink. Before Ryu could even properly react, she returned with a beast as large as a small hill. In fact, it exuded the aura of a Transcended Beast, leaving Ryu a bit speechless.

"I was joking, you know."

"Well, I'm not," Aika harrumphed. "Old Wan, get to cooking."

This time, it was Old Wan that was left without words. He was a dignified Dao Lord? When had he become this brat's personal chef?

Even so, he too had no choice but to comply.

"Where's Eska?" Ryu asked after a while.

This question earned Ryu quite the glare, causing him to hold his hands up in mock surrender. He didn't expect that asking for his own concubine would lead to such a thing.

"Don't you mean: Where is Selheira?"

"Uh... No?"

Ryu experienced that Aika was really too amusing. Why would he ask about Selheira over his own woman? The last time he had spoken to Selheira, he had to put her in her place.

He had allowed Selheira to take liberties with him for a while, and that wasn't because of her beauty, but rather because of how gentle and caring she was toward him. He had plenty of beauties around him, and he wouldn't blink an eye at needing to kill a few, let alone letting beauty alone sway his opinions.

Well, in terms of being caring, all she had really done was lead him to restaurants, pay for him, and let him eat his fill. But that was enough to get into his good books.

That said, being in his good books didn't mean that you could be as willful as you wanted. She ultimately wasn't his woman, and she also wasn't like Mae who had risked her life for his sake on multiple occasions. In fact, he could tell at a glance that Selheira was hiding quite a bit from him.

Yet, despite hiding so much from him, she anticipated too much. The way she acted, it was as though she could do nothing and he would eventually fall into her lap one way or another.

He might be a man, but he wasn't so cheap.

Aika's glare solidified, and a chuckle came from a nearby bush.

Aika immediately picked up a rock and threw it hard.

"Samson! You little shit!"

"AH!"

A scream came from the bush and Samson came rolling out, in a sorrier state than usual.

Ryu laughed heartily, causing the three fellow Sect brothers and sister to look at him as though they were observing a zoo animal.

"Is that still Ryu?" Samson asked, his ass hanging over his head in an awkward position.

"I'm still trying to figure it out," Old Wan muttered.

"I think we should check if someone stole his body, just in case," Aika followed.

Ryu shielded his chest. "Senior Aika, please, some propriety. We should at least wait until our wedding night."

Samson and Old Wan were stunned speechless until they started laughing so hard Old Wan fell out of his chair and Samson rolled over three more times.

The earth shook and the mountains quaked beneath their laughter. They just couldn't believe it. Finally, someone could make fun of Aika and survive.

Unfortunately, they would soon find out that laughing was a crime as well.

Aika rushed forward as Old Wan was trying to stand and RKO'd his head into the ground. She rushed after Samson and picked him up by his ankle, flinging him into the distant mountain and leaving a human-shaped hole.

"Keep laughing! Keep laughing, I dare you!"

"But he's still-" Old Wan tried to bring Ryu into this, but Aika silenced him again with a kick.

Ryu chuckled, finding all of this amusing, but none more amusing than Aika's blushing face. Clearly, she recalled as well that she was technically promised to Ryu at this point, not that either of them took this seriously.

Soon, Old Wan recovered, and the meal was completed. But as the three watched Ryu eat, Samson still stuck in the mountain kilometers away, they were stunned.

They had thought that Aika's actions were overkill, as usual. But the more Ryu ate, the more they realized he actually had no intention of stopping anytime soon.

This wasn't a normal Transcended God Beast, it was a God Beast of the Seventh Heaven. The amount of energy concentrated within its body was tenfold that of a similarly leveled beast of the Sixth Heaven, and that might not be exaggerated enough.

Simply put, there was a reason there was more wilderness than civilization on the Seventh Heaven. God Beasts were on a completely other level here.

Aika vanished and fetched another Transcended God Beast.

She had to be somewhat careful with which ones she picked out since beasts were so strong on this Heaven. If she was honest, these Transcended God Beasts were on the weaker end of the spectrum. And yet, Ryu showed no signs of stopping.

It wasn't until Ryu ate what must have been a dozen God Beasts that he finally displayed some sign of slowing down. Or so it seemed, until Aika fetched forward an Omniscient God Beast and he ate the whole thing as well.

Ryu let out a satisfied sigh and smiled. He could finally feel his cells thrumming with energy. If before his body was equivalent to a Lower False Sky God, it was now equivalent to a Peak False Sky God.

He realized he had to be more mindful in the future about his food, or else he would be weakening himself. Luckily, he had Aika with him to help him out with this.

"So, Eska?" Ryu asked.

"She waited for you for a while before she decided to go off on her own adventures. Unfortunately, she's also too powerful to take in as a disciple. She offered to help with our plight, but I informed her that it was best she do her own thing."

Ryu nodded. This made sense, somewhat. Eska and Isemeine were Transcendent Sky Gods, this was a bit too high for a new disciple. But couldn't they just pretend like she was hidden along with the rest?

Ryu gazed toward Aika and understood. It seemed that this was a decision Aika had made on her own; she didn't want to put Ryu's life in danger, especially without his consent.

He smiled lightly. "She'll come back, right?"

"She should," Aika nodded.

"Then she'll fight with us, you don't need to worry about how I feel about it. So long as she agrees, it'll all be fine."

Aika's eyes brightened before they began to glare again. Eventually, Ryu gave in.

"Where is Selheira?"

"Selheira is also doing her best. From time to time I send her out of the encirclement, and she'll complete some feats on her own. None of the other disciples are strong enough to protect themselves the way she and you can. The fact you made it here speaks volumes.

"She will be back soon as well. For now, we are trying to hold on."

Ryu smiled. "I'm not a fan of just holding on; I prefer to bite back."

He stood to his feet, stretching. "It's about time we see how many Fragmented Sky Gods they'll send."