Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu felt his mind shuttling through the vastness of space. He tore through layers of worlds, and every time he felt that he had finally reached the end, he pierced through another veil and continued onward.

He saw civilizations of all kinds as he moved, and his heart went from one of awe to shock, and then he eventually felt that it was all too incredulous. Was it even possible for the world to be so large?

He saw places so primitive that fire had yet to be invented. Instead, they huddled around steamy geysers and volcanoes to keep themselves warm, eating raw meat they peeled off the bone with their teeth like animals.

He saw many places just like Sacrum, middling of the road worlds. But some of them had extremely strange power sources, things he couldn't even fathom.

One world used water as its only source of power, using its movements. The warriors were all Water Qi cultivators, and the bottom rung of society was forced to work every day in mills, using their qi training to move large wheels day in and day out.

Another world harnessed the power of the wind, doing much the same as the water world.

There were all sorts of "elemental worlds" like these ones, but they weren't what fascinated Ryu the most at all.

He passed over several worlds where the people were as weak as children. They had souls that snuffed out with a breath and bodies so frail that even the weakest beasts of their world could tear them apart.

But what was even more fascinating was that their beasts were also just as weak, so weak that even if Ryu was feeling hungry and ate all several billion of them, he wouldn't even be able to satiate a small part of that hunger.

The entire world seemed to be lacking in substance and foundation, and yet they were able to create such fantastical things.

Granted, those fantastical things were also still extraordinarily weak in his eyes. But when they were taken as a function of how weak the people creating them were, it was enough to leave him in complete shock.

What they had succeeded in doing would be the equivalent of an Awakening Realm expert creating something that could kill a Sky God. At that sort of scale, how could it not be impressive?

Some of these civilizations were more impressive than others.

Some of them only had weapons capable of wiping out a city, but some of them grew to harness the power of their suns and were even capable of wiping out entire planets, some even entire solar systems!

If these people could cultivate, what could they accomplish?

It made Ryu wonder just how much potential was stored away in places he never thought to look. He didn't take Cultivation Realm as seriously as Radiant Star, but that wasn't to say that he didn't take it seriously at all. He was still quite focused on raising his cultivation Realm as steadily and quickly as possible. After all, he was on a time crunch.

However, the accomplishments of these weak people made him gasp in awe. It made the fact he could battle a True Sky God as a Fragmented Sky God feel almost... Pathetic.

The force multipliers these people had managed to create were absolutely astounding. Compared to them, could he even be counted as a Blacksmith? As a Formation Master? As an Alchemist?

Why couldn't he create things so absolutely amazing?

What was even more shocking about all of this was how little qi these worlds had. It made sense their people were so weak; there was no qi for cultivation. They were lesser than even a Lower World; their qi was practically poison to the point most of them couldn't even live to 80 years old.

And yet, they had extracted so much power out of their worlds!

Ryu was almost impossible to impress. But right this moment, he was truly struck dumb. He didn't even have respect for Dao Gods, but these people...

The world snapped into focus, and Ryu suddenly saw a familiar silhouette.

He lost his breath for a moment. All his thoughts of how beautiful Mae's master or Fading Star were seemed to flee from his mind. This was truly the most perfect woman in existence, his Ailsa.

She stood in silence high above a battlefield. Her golden hair stretched for several meters, her crimson eyes piercing through the veil of the world.

The carnage below didn't seem to bother her as she seemed to be focused on a singular task, a rift in the distance.

Dao God.

It was something that Ryu could only barely grasp, and yet it floored him. He was so uncaring about the Cultivation Realm of others, but hearing of Ailsa's made his heart burst with all sorts of emotions.

Pride... Happiness... Anxiety.

He could barely grasp an understanding of what was going on. They were in battle? Why? Who was fighting? And for what?

It didn't seem to matter because he couldn't take his eyes off his woman.

He knew that cultivation could refine one to their true peak, and yet it all felt like too much. Ryu of all people even felt a slight hint inferior, his firm Dao Heart being the only thing that made him still confidently call Ailsa his woman.

"HAHA! AILSA!"

A booming voice just barely managed to catch Ryu's attention. It was truly something because Ryu seemed to have tuned the rest of the world out entirely; it could only be said that this voice was capable of overturning words.

Gruff, deep, cold, and a hint sinister.

"I swore to take you as my wife, but I didn't expect you to be a whore who had already opened her legs for another man-!"

Ryu didn't hear anything else, and maybe that was for the best... he didn't even see the man clearly, all he felt was a familiar fury suddenly erupting within him.

Who dared to speak to his wife in this way?!

Ailsa's eyes widened as she suddenly sensed something familiar.

"Little Ryu?"