Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu listened to the little woman speak for a while before he understood and grasped the situation.

The gist of it was that even though Jojo only had three talents on the same path, because they all happened naturally, although it would be weaker in the beginning, in the future she had the opportunity to far surpass those more artificial talents.

Ultimately, the only one of the pillars that should be passed on from generation to generation was Bloodline. However, these incredibly powerful Clans and Sects had found methods of forcing the other talents to fall in line as well. This made them far stronger in the short run, but their potential was more limited.

Of course, this wasn't to say that these geniuses had their potential completely cut off. Hope made sure to emphasize that though she explained things this way, the loss in potential was at most around 10%. When this was matched with the overwhelming amount of resources and advantages these geniuses were born with, the loss was almost negligible, which was why they dared to do such things in the first place.

It was likely also partly due to this reason that these Clans and Sects suppressed everyone else as well.

Ryu couldn't help but realize that Jojo had formed an Ancient Dao, and yet she hadn't been struck down with a brand. This was actually something that he had been waiting on.

But it seemed he had thought too much. The Seventh Heaven did have a limit on the number of Ancient Daos it was allowed to produce, but Ancient Daos were so rare that Jojo smoothly claimed a quota for herself without issue.

This was a good thing for Ryu, not because Jojo was stronger, he didn't really care about that. It was just that the rarer Jojo was, the more regret the Raging Inferno Sect would feel, and the funnier the fallout would be.

He was having a grand time of it. Soon, they'd probably send their experts in a vain attempt to deal with him. That would be fun as well.

His hand subconsciously rubbed Eska's ass and she squirmed a bit, moving into a more comfortable position before going back to sleep.

'A fusion of a fire-based Bone Structure and a will-based Soul Nature? How fascinating, they don't seem to be related, so why did they fuse so well?'

You would think that two talents that synergize so well would be perfectly the same in every way. Even her Dao is different, technically, since it was sword related.

Ryu fell into deep thought, realizing that things weren't exactly how he thought they were.

Fusing your talents down a single path didn't have to mean that they all shared the same element or even the same intention. There was something deeper to it, something he was missing...

'Hm?' Ryu looked up. It seemed that his fun was over for now.

He gently pulled himself away from Eska and let her rest. He didn't know what she had gone through in the couple of years he was absent, but he doubted that it was easy.

While the appearance of Primus had put a strong pause on overt methods of dealing with her, that didn't mean that it had done the same with the covert methods as well.

Part of the reason she had disappeared from the Radiant Star Sect for so long was probably to avoid bringing them any more trouble than they were already in.

Regardless, her guy was here now. She'd have to lay down those burdens one way or another. It was either she would choose to relax, or he would rip them from her shoulders.

Ryu smiled confidently, cleansing himself for a while before stepping out into the roaring commotion.

He could already hear the infuriated roars, which turned his smile into a grin.

He had sensed them from the first moment they arrived, but he had actually taken a 30-minute bath first as though he didn't have a care in the world.

"Cleaning yourself just to get dirty in battle, don't you think you're a bit too obsessed with yourself?" Hope stated with a roll of her eyes.

Ryu laughed. "I cleaned myself because they don't have any right to catch a sniff of my woman. Who do they think they are?"

Hope was speechless; she didn't even have a response for this.

Ryu flashed and vanished, appearing atop the Sect walls. Almost the moment he appeared, there was a wash of relief from one side and a tsunami of rage from the other.

"Not bad, not bad," Ryu nodded. "You all finally stopped being cowards and sent your people. Now, will you all fight together? Or will it be done one by one?"

In the crowd of Azure Lightning Sect disciples, Litaor's eyes were spitting fire, but he forced himself to calm down. Technically, he shouldn't have come at all. The Azure Lightning Sect's inaction would help to separate them from this whole ordeal.

But the problem was that that recording kept circulating, and Jojo possessed even broken through in an Azure Lightning Sect city. No matter how you looked at it, they had to come.

The only thing he repented was that he wouldn't be the one to end it.

At that moment, within the crowd of raging disciples, a young guy stepped forward.

He possessed a beard and head of red hair. He would have looked like a guy of the Tatsuya Clan if not for the fact he was too short. Though he wasn't some dwarf, he was still slightly below average for a male cultivator, standing at barely six feet. Without cultivation and body tempering, and if he was a normal mortal, he might very well have been 5'7 at most.

Even so, he was decently handsome and possessed a solid bearing to him. At the very least, although he was the center of today's drama, he managed to remain the calmest aside from Ryu himself.

This guy was Jojo's supposed fiancee, Ragash.