Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Radiant Star shook his head, not liking the enthusiasm of his wife, but he allowed it. Ultimately, they hadn't been able to have a child the conventional way because their talent was too high. It also didn't help that they spent practically generations being petty to one another. He could count on his fingers the number of nights they had ended up in each other's beds in the last thousand years. That wasn't really conducive to child-making.

As for Fading Star, she wasn't even paying attention to her husband at all. The more she looked at Ryu, the more satisfied she was, and that was despite the fact he looked like he had gone through a few garbage shoots to get here.

"Look, isn't my disciple very handsome?"

Radiant Star's lip twitched but he didn't say anything. For a man who always wore a deadpan expression, this was about as much as you'd get out of him.

Fading Star laughed, leaving her own usually deadpan expression somewhere far off in the past.

"Ah, what am I doing? Sorry, Little Ryu, I've never had a disciple before, my etiquette and understanding of the culture isn't the best. I've heard that I'm supposed to give a gift, but the truth is that this isn't my real body, I've just used an ability to firm up the connection between myself and this avatar.

"Tell you what, I can give you a gift, but it won't be the usual kind. A genius needs pressure to grow, but too much pressure comes with death. You've gone around slapping the faces of too many people, even with those eyes of yours, you could die a thousand times over and not understand what happened even as your consciousness fades.

"That's the reality of the world."

Ryu didn't refute. She was probably right, though he felt he was more competent than that. At the very least, he had avoided a Dao Sovereign like Chaotic Space, and that was before his eyes were unsealed. He wasn't as fragile as he seemed.

"Now, tell me. Where did you learn [Absolute Domain] from?"

Ryu raised an eyebrow but eventually replied.

"Someone taught me."

The husband-wife pair looked toward one another.

"Are you still in contact with this person?"

"I am, but the restrictions of this Throne Challenge don't really allow me to..."

Radiant Star waved a hand, and suddenly a torrent of sobbing entered Ryu's ears, causing him to blink in confusion. The little woman was really a little child-like, which was why he had given her the nickname in the first place. But while she was child-like, she had never been a burden as a result of it.

Simply put, aside from when his Fate Star was exposed the first time and the little woman lost herself to despair, her emotions had never really been something that annoyed Ryu.

Of course, he wasn't annoyed now, it was just to say that he was surprised she was crying like she was.

Was there a reason? Or was this just what she did when she thought Ryu wasn't paying attention?

Ryu frowned. The thought of the latter actually made him a little upset. He had spent quite a long time with the little woman by now, she was a friend at the very least. There was no one else for him to talk to in those years in the blackhole, and his current personality was much more open to forming relationships with others.

He thought she had already gotten over the matter of his Fate Star, but had she?

"Hope."

The voice drifted into the little woman's ears and she was somewhat startled, looking up with red and swollen eyes.

"Ryu?" She asked between sobs. "Hm?"

The little woman blinked and realized that the restrictions around the Golden Moon World were actually gone.

She looked one hint embarrassed, but another part... excited?

She suddenly appeared and before Ryu could react, she threw her arms around Fading and Radiant Star, her sobbing spell returning in a full torrent. As for the pair of husband and wife, they were completely stunned before their expressions softened.

Ryu watched this scene without saying much of anything.

When he first asked the little woman about the Radiant Star Sect, she had said "their inheritance wasn't bad". She seemed quite detached from the matters of the Dual Radiance Sect. Aside from her mood taking a bit of a dip, Ryu didn't notice anything else.

But it seemed that he was maybe a bit too accepting of what she said on the surface back then. Considering the pride Hope took in her own inheritance, and how much time she spent throwing away normal conventions of alchemy to forge her own path, was she really the kind of person to be enamored by the techniques and methods of someone unrelated to her?

Hope rarely used harsh words, but the first time Ryu complained about [Absolute Domain], she had even called him stupid. That was enough to paint the picture.

Still, Ryu wouldn't have imagined that it was this deep.

The three began talking as though Ryu wasn't there. Well... Fading Star and Hope did, Radiant Star was basically thrown to the side not much unlike Ryu.

Ryu didn't mind it. He might have had he not known who Hope was, but he could stand to give her a little bit of leeway.

"... I didn't manage to break into the Omniscient Sky God Realm so my life was running out... I ended up finding a method... then I met Ryu and he..."

Suddenly a pair of sharp gazes fell on Ryu, Fading Star's brows were wrinkled. But Ryu wasn't a fan of explaining himself, since the little woman was too air-headed to explain what had happened naturally, then that was just how it would have to be.

Obviously, Hope had just gotten to the part of the story where she had agreed to carry Ryu's child. The way she had explained it made it sound like Ryu had forced her to do so, when in reality how could he, who hadn't even been in the World Sea Realm back then, force a Sky God to do anything?

It was because Hope's little calculations had deduced that, with the help of her Magnum Opus pills, Ryu's appearance would give her a chance to survive. In exchange, Ryu had given her Flowing Frost's body.

Originally, he was going to give Flowing Frost's body to Eska to occupy, but he met the little woman first. He was reluctant, but she made her promises and he eventually agreed in the end.

In fact, after seeing his alchemy skill, she had asked him to be her Dao Companion. All of these things were glossed over by Hope as she was trying to summarize her story.

Well, knowing her, she was probably embarrassed to admit it as well, especially in front of these two who she obviously respected a great deal. She had been hoping that Ryu would fill in the blanks for her, but he just stood there, his arms crossed.

The tips of her ears turned red and in the end, she was forced to say it on her own. By now, she knew that if Ryu was being stubborn, no amount of puppy dog eyes would change anything.

"Please... please... please... please..."

Such a pleasing voice, and yet saying such annoying...

"Alright, alright," Ryu muttered.