Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu stepped out from the depths of the Radiant Star Sect and took a seat on the edge of their tall walls. Looking down, he observed the situation, but the more he saw, the more amused he became.

There was nothing going on. Send their Fragmented geniuses after Ryu? Why? They were content to just sit by and wait. Would this make them look like cowards, maybe. But what would happen if they actually followed Ryu's orders? Wouldn't it make it look as though they were following the word of a mere Fragmented Sky God?

Plus, their true geniuses weren't wasting their time in these encampments. Their cultivation momentum was precious. So most of the disciples below were just men and women who basically had no chance at reaching the pinnacle of the Seventh Heaven. Of course, that wasn't to say that they were useless. If they were, they would have never been allowed into the Sect to begin with.

In order to differentiate, the concept of "cultivation momentum" had to be explored. This was basically referring to how swiftly one could move through levels, how many bottlenecks they might face along the path, or if their energy accumulation would slow or speed up with time.

When Ryu first entered the True Martial World, he was much older than he should be given his cultivation Realm, even by the First Heaven's standards. Now, he had firmly caught up, at least with the standards of the Seventh Heaven. He had yet to come across any bottlenecks either.

However, the youths below were already mostly slowing down. Although it wasn't exaggerated, and most of them below would still become True Sky Gods at worst, it would take them many years to accomplish this feat. This was unlike the geniuses with momentum to likely become Perfect Sky Gods or even Transcendent Sky Gods. And definitely not like the youths with a small chance to become Omniscient Sky Gods.

As one could see, there was no percentage chance placed on becoming a Dao Lord because it was nigh impossible to predict. Many were hesitant even to claim that one would certainly become an Omniscient Sky God too, only the greatest of geniuses on the level of Jojo and Selheira could be given such a label.

But given the fact that Jojo had lagged behind in her breakthrough, one could see the trouble that being supremely talented brought you. Jojo wasn't like Selheira, she didn't have some secret lineage that was pressing her forward. She just occurred to have excellent comprehension abilities, and as such she was suffering the blow of her talent much more than Selheira was.

This was all to say that the Raging Inferno Sect had no inclination in calling back their true geniuses, and with those that remained here, they were even less likely to put themselves forth to be slaughtered by Ryu.

Instead, Ryu noticed that their encampments, while they hadn't changed locations, seemed to have a larger flow of traffic to and from each other.

At the same time, there were some encampments in the back that had suddenly gained an additional True Sky God whereas before each encampment only had one.

Ryu grinned.

This was exactly what he expected to happen, and it was also the game he wanted to play the most.

Ryu's Dao, namely the Dividing Chaos half of it, was greatly suited to political warfare. The first time Ryu awakened it, he had had thoughts that he no longer even needed to hone his battle prowess. Just the existence of his Dao alone would be able to manipulate people on his own puppet strings.

Of course, that wasn't in his personality so he instead focused its intentions on reading and reacting to the flow of battle instead.

But now, he wasn't so inflexible.

This sort of Battle of Faith... wasn't it precisely what Dividing Chaos was most suited to?

He was going to have some fun.

Ryu jumped off of the city walls.

There were countless individuals observing him, and each was on high alert. Unfortunately for them, Ryu had already disappeared into the void. Because the highest cultivation present was of the True Sky God Realm, they couldn't even track him either. It was like he had truly vanished into thin air.

Nothing seemed to happen for several hours. But then, the traffic between encampments seemed to slow and their Core Elders began to take some notice.

They frowned and swept their Spiritual Senses around, not finding anything with any sort of immediacy. But then their eyes widened.

Their numbers? Why were they so low all of a sudden?

They stood to their feet, looking around, and yet still not sensing anything.

Half a day later, Ryu appeared on the city walls again, sitting there as though nothing had happened, the same shit-eating grin on his face.

"I gave you all an opportunity, but it seemed you didn't cherish it. In that case, I'll make it quite simple for you all.

"For every quarter of an hour my challenge isn't accepted, I'll massacre another encampment."

The Core Elders frowned for a moment and then scoffed. Did he think that-

"I knew you all might not believe me, so I seized it upon myself to buff up my resume a little bit."

Ryu snapped his fingers and at that moment, a dozen encampments suddenly went up in flames.

The Core Elders in charge of them suddenly rushed out, looking haggard and beaten. Behind them, only a handful of Core Disciples managed to make it out, but in most of the dozen few, the Core Elder was the only one to survive.

The expressions of the Core Elders were frighteningly ugly. Not only had their encampments been wiped out, but Ryu had even picked to use flames to do it. It was a complete and utter humiliation.

"You all look very angry," Ryu uttered in an understanding tone. "Don't worry, so long as you comply, we can stop all of this from happening."