Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu smiled as Radiant Star suddenly appeared before him. In his eyes, the former Sovereign was a bundle of lines that looked like the puppet of the Heavens themselves. He was suddenly far more solid again, and listening to him and his wife argue had just made him all the easier to read.

Reading was one thing, though...

What about controlling?

Suddenly, one of the Lines of Fate became particularly tight. The Sovereign frowned for a moment, but in the heat of battle he couldn't quite react to it, he could only subconsciously move. It was just unfortunate that he just so happened to follow exactly what that taut line wanted him to do.

His finger attack was easily sidestepped by Ryu, and a fist was driven into his gut.

BANG.

An explosive wind formed around their collision, a concentric circle akin to a clap of thunder blowing out the back of Radiant Star's robe.

A slight grunt left his lips, but he absorbed the blow well, taking a step back and suddenly flickering and vanishing. He appeared ten meters away from Ryu, looking down at the hole in his clothing.

His skin and body were just fine, but the hole in the fabric themselves felt more humiliating than he was willing to admit.

"I don't think this is the fight you want," Ryu said with a smile. "At the very least, not now."

Radiant Star didn't respond immediately. After a moment, he grabbed onto his robes and pulled, tearing it away from his torso and revealing a powerful and toned physique. It honestly didn't look too dissimilar from Ryu's own.

He had to admit that he had moved with the same strength he had just now. Despite his words, he just wanted to teach Ryu a lesson. What he didn't expect was that his strength would plummet by another measure, and because his wife was being petty she didn't continue to shroud him from Ryu's Dao.

That only made him angrier. It felt like she was taking the side of another man in an argument.

Somehow, Ryu had gone from "child" to "man" in his mind, but no one ever accused a man in love of being a rational man.

"I will admit that your Dao is powerful."

"Why, thank you," Ryu replied with a smile.

"However, Daos aren't so powerful-"

"Radiant." Fading Star's stern voice suddenly echoed. It was a clear reminder that people were watching and that he shouldn't cross a line just because he was dissatisfied.

"..." Radiant paused his words, taking a look back at his wife. He really was going to say something about Ryu's eyes, but his wife might really get angry if he went so far. "... Like I was saying, Daos aren't so powerful. They're only one of the Six Pillars, and all of the Pillars are focused on one goal: the Cultivation Realm.

"Do you know why the Fragmented Realm is called the Fragmented Realm? Do you know why this Realm this avatar is about to step into is known as Perfection?"

Ryu didn't respond.

His understanding of the Sky God Realms was still limited to Sacrum. He should have thought more about it, but he was honest in saying that he hadn't.

In Sacrum, they only really had Fragmented, False, and True Sky Gods, and you could immediately jump to the last if your foundation was good enough. These words were all related to the Dao.

"Well, I'm not going to tell you. I'm going to show you. Show you a Perfect Sky God's understanding of those names."

A different sort of presence descended, and Ryu suddenly felt himself being suffocated from all sides. It wasn't in terms of raw pressure, but rather in auxiliary matters.

His activated formation dimmed, his qi wasn't quite listening to him anymore, and then his Birthed Phenomena began to waver in the skies. Finally, there came his Dao.

Ryu felt his connection with his Dao getting dimmer and dimmer.

"I can see that you've acquired a Child of Order constitution, so you should feel it much more prominently than most others would, that feeling of helplessness before someone more favored by the Heavens."

BANG.

Ryu couldn't react as a fist was driven into his own gut. His inner organs rattled and shook, blood spurting from his mouth. His white scales didn't seem to provide any protection at all, and he was sent flying back.

BANG.

He collided with a barrier that sparkled with bright silver and landed heavily on his feet.

Ryu wiped blood from his lips with a forearm, shaking his head.

In truth, he knew quite well of his limits. Finishing these battles quickly, attacking the psyche of his enemies, using his low cultivation Realm to his advantage... a mixture of all of these things were the reason for his continuous victories.

Ironically, against Radiant Star and Fading Star, he had gained his largest advantage. He understood too many of their weaknesses, and his Dividing Chaos had a strong hold on them. In conjunction with his eyes, he could play them like puppets on a string...

Or so he should have been able to.

That punch that Radiant Star nonchalantly shrugged off, despite Ryu's lack of a reaction to his surviving it, was everything Ryu had.

He was a Close Combat Master now; that punch had combined everything. But it only blew a hole through Radiant Star's clothes.

In contrast, Radiant Star had hardly tried just now, and yet the shift was so subtle.

Ryu's eyes glowed. 'Battle... is so interesting...'

In Sacrum, what decided a battle would always be who had the largest fist. But here, he felt that variables were so much more wide-ranging, and it wasn't just because his Dao and eyes could play with Fate and Karma either.

He stood to his feet, his wings suddenly spreading wide from his back.

"I'm going to need you to make a choice, Senior Radiant Star. It's either you want a real battle, or not. Which is it?"

Radiant Star's indifferent expression didn't change.

"You seem to still think you can dictate things."

"The larger the mountain, the more I want to climb it."