Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

It was a pair of man and woman.

The woman had skin as dark as night and eyes as radiant as the stars. In that way, she reminded Ryu a lot of Starlight, but as handsome as Starlight was, this woman's beauty was even greater. In this regard, she was on the level of Mae's master, truly unblemished in all regards. Her shining blue eyes and waterfall-like white hair was in sharp contrast to her dark and delicate skin, giving her an untouchable sort of temperament, one that only an Empress or a true Goddess should have.

By her side, there was a man. His skin was as white as snow and his eyes were black as a starless sky. His hair flowed quite long as well, but it was a dense black instead.

The both of them complimented each other well, whether that be temperament or looks.

Even without moving or saying anything, the power of the Stars seemed to swirl around them, shuddering with an immense, hidden strength.

Ryu felt that this had to be the warning Silver Dance was trying to give him. For some reason, the difficulty had ramped up considerably in these last couple battles, and though Ryu had grown out of his "everything is unfair" phase long ago, he still couldn't help but feel that this was getting a little ridiculous.

Throne battles were based on age. He was still almost half a decade from 30 years old. The Eighth Heaven shouldn't have any geniuses at the Half-Step Perfect Sky God Realm at not even 27 years old.

Now, if he took a step back and made the assumption that it was because he already had a Throne, he might-MIGHT-be able to understand it. But even then, it was a far-off stretch.

The best genius that Ryu had seen from the Eighth Heaven was that young man he met in the sea of lightning, the very same location he retrieved the Lightning Spirit from. He was almost 40 years old and had just stepped into the Perfect Sky God Realm.

For a single Throne, he would expect a bump of a Sub-Realm, maybe two. That was why it made sense that he was fighting Lower True Sky Gods until now. He could even accept the fact that the swordsman was in the Peak True Sky God Realm.

But the gap between the Peak and the Half-Step Realm was enormous...

And none of that even mentioned the fact there were two of them!

Whatever was happening here, they weren't even bothering to try and hide it anymore.

'Breaking rules... who could break rules to this extent...?'

Ryu thought about it for a bit, but it didn't take a genius to grasp it. The Fading Star Sect, obviously, still had a huge influence on the Throne. All of the geniuses that had appeared were from the Dual Radiance Sect, which meant the Fading Star Sect had just as much a claim to what was happening as compared to the Radiant Star Sect.

But how was the question?

'Interesting...' Ryu thought to himself.

If not for the fact that he had grasped onto such a weakness of these former experts, and that his Dao was capable of taking advantage of it, he would have already died during the first battle.

Maybe they wouldn't have gone all out had he not revealed his Dao so early, but who asked that guy to piss him off? That was probably the reason for the huge bump in strength.

Luckily, even they couldn't pull out a Perfect Sky God. This was as far as they could go. But they had still truly gone all out.

These two were without a doubt the founders of the Dual Radiance Sect, Sovereign Fading Star and Sovereign Radiant Star.

Even Ryu knew about these two, what Sect wouldn't have a documented annal of their history?

These two were a pair of Dao Companions that formed up a Sect from nothing together. However, it was also said that in the waning years of their life, they grew apart. It was unknown why, and it didn't cause much drama either, nor did they ever confirm it.

However, the rumours speculated that while they continued to rule together, even sleeping in the same Immortal Cave to keep up appearances, they had fallen out of love with one another.

Then they quietly passed away.

As Ryu saw it, those subtle fissures between them near the end of their lives had ended in the ultimate destruction of the Sect they worked so hard to create many generations down the line.

And the fact he knew this also made this battle very easy.

The destruction of one's Sect was one thing, but the destruction of one's marriage...

Ryu's silver irises flashed and the Lines of Fate around these two shone with a shimmering clarity, one so bright it could be said that they were the clearest he had seen since Sacrum. They were practically an open book to him.

Sovereign Fading Star frowned, her delicate brows furrowing. A delicate dark gold energy swarmed around her and she was suddenly thrust into the shadows.

Ryu's heart skipped a beat. 'Founding Dao?'

The once couple didn't even look at one another. When Fading Star took action, Radiant Star replied, a bright silvery energy hovering around him.

'Two?'

Ryu chuckled bitterly in his heart.

He had never met another Founding Dao in his life, and though these were two Lower Founding Daos, he had actually met two here.

The fluctuations were subtle, and those on the outside probably didn't even notice, but how could they escape his senses?

He felt the two before him pulled out of the world, standing in a separate existence altogether. The clear Lines of Fate faded and it was suddenly hard to get a grasp on either one of them.

"Fine." Ryu said.

"Take Form and Conquer the World."

BANG.

The shadows of ancient creatures began to appear in the skies one after another, a radiant white-gold flooding out of Ryu's body.