Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu was more than a little bit annoyed, but he chose to let it slide.

The truth of the matter was that he absolutely hated putting his life in the hands of others. A large part of the reason he was here in the first place was precisely because of that. Who else would choose to challenge a Throne when they had the full support of a Dao Sovereign like Aika?

In truth, Aika treated Ryu no differently from how she would a disciple. Who else could boast having had a Dao Sovereign hunt down meals for them?

In a lot of ways, though, taking on a Master was similar to placing your life in another's hands. Setting aside the obvious about whether or not such a person would really have your best interests at heart, just allowing someone else to guide you in cultivation was as good as trusting them with your life.

This wasn't about being suddenly attacked in the midst of cultivation. Any master that the likes of Ryu would take would likely be far stronger than him, whether he was conscious or not wouldn't really affect the end result if such a person had sinister intentions.

It was more so about trusting another person's judgment, trusting them to make decisions about yourself and things that would impact your life great hundred, thousands, millions of years into the future.

Cultivation was your life in a world like this.

But this was also why Ryu never based his decision on who to take in as a master on trust. Being fully reliant on another person would never be his style, and he had refused his fair share of much stronger guards by now purely because he felt that it would impede his growth.

This was all to say that when he took in a master, he always planned to take their teachings with a grain of salt, accepting what he felt might be useful and ignoring what had yet to be proven to be fruitful to him.

So, when Fading Star threw that accusatory glare at him after Hope's terrible retelling of their meeting encounter, Ryu practically shut down completely. He went from willing to listen to some of this woman's teachings to planning to ignore all of them.

If it wasn't for the little woman's incessant pleading and the fact they had some rapport at this point, he would have stuck quite firmly to that decision.

He might have changed, but what still fundamentally made Ryu, Ryu, was still there as the core of his being.

It was true that it made sense that Fading Star would trust Hope's words more than his own. It also made sense that given Hope's retelling of the story, Fading Star would likewise have a poor reaction to it. Fading Star already didn't like the fact Ryu had multiple wives, so she was already leaning toward a distaste of how Ryu treated the women around him.

When Fading Star heard Hope's story then, once again, her reaction could only be said to be natural. In fact, it wasn't all that baseless either.

Ryu just didn't care.

The woman had gone from treating him like she had pushed him out of her own womb to treating him like a complete stranger in the blink of an eye.

And that was why you couldn't trust people with your life so casually.

Even if she had done it for a valid reason, when would the next time be that she found a "valid" reason? With how much she dotted on Hope, what if one day she felt that Hope would benefit greatly from his eyes? Or his Meridians? Or his Soul Nature?

The odds that these things would actually happen were doubtful, but that didn't mean that Ryu wasn't thinking about them, and he was likewise well within his own rights to have this sort of natural reaction.

Well... maybe this sort of reaction was natural for Ryu who treated Dao Gods like they were just any other person.

Ryu had said long ago... if his talent was as poor as Patriarch Ember's, he would have long since died in humiliating fashion.

He would truly rather die than lower his head. Those who disagreed with him or doubted his decisions could piss off. He had already lost a world class beauty because of these thoughts of his, and he wasn't going to let anyone else sway him.

Well, he didn't lose her... more so he completely lost interest in her. Every reason he had ever had to be attracted to her aside from the flesh that stuck to her body evaporated on that day and it was unlikely to come back.

'Sarriel,' Ryu thought, his gaze becoming a hint absentminded. He was no longer very attracted to that woman, but he did owe her. Her help had been a great boon to him when he first stepped into the True Martial World.

He hadn't heard any word of her, and she was likely in the Ethereal Plane of the True Martial World. Since there was a True Nether Plane, it was only right that there'd be a True Ethereal Plane. As a Fey, there was a better than 90% likelihood that she'd be there.

He didn't plan on going there. He had no reason to actively look for her. Though he was grateful, considering their last conversation, he also knew that if he appeared to "help" her, she might hate it more than anything else.

After all, there was no way he wouldn't cause trouble after entering a new world. He had only stepped into the True Nether Plane for a few months and the world practically ended up revolving around him.

Ryu's lips curled at his own thoughts.

It was a shame, though. Such a beautiful woman and yet such a weak mind. He didn't think that she'd be able to make it far in her cultivation acting like that.

Ryu heard a sigh.

"Ryu, I can only say that I'm sorry. I didn't want to get us started on the wrong foot, but I can't un-spill what's been spilled," Fading Star said softly. "For now, I can only do my duty as your master. As for what you do from here on, it will be up to you."

Ryu looked toward Fading Star but he didn't reply. Hope, who was still by his side, pouted as flashes of guilt sprung in her eyes, but she didn't even seem to realize that she might have looked a little too... comfortable around Ryu.

"Since things have already started like this, I will try to be more straightforward with you, then," Fading Star nodded, some of her dignified aura returning. "I hope that you will not have Favor Alchemy bear your child until after she's become a Dao God. Also, I hope that you will marry her and give her proper status once you do as well. Repaying your benefactor is commendable and I would never stop you from doing so. In addition, it is because Favor Alchemy relied on others that she is in this position. But since you two seem to be close, I would hope that you'd take a bit more care of her plights as well."

Ryu didn't reply, but Fading Star seemed to have already expected this and simply continued without missing a beat.

"I can also say that I am not a fan of taking on multiple wives. In my ideal world, Favor Alchemy would be your only woman, but I am also aware that I've long since overstepped my bounds. I will not try to place such restrictions on you, I can only hope that you show her the same care and affection that you've shown your Ailsa and Yaana."

Hope's lip twitched as she knew there were more than just those two, but she did her best to hide it.

Fading Star gave her a glance but didn't say much more about the topic. Since they had already started off so badly, she felt that she should just say what was on her chest outright. If she waited until later after she had mended their relationship somewhat, then it might put her right back to square one. It would be easier to climb out of the negatives than to be on a mountain peak, fall, and then be expected to walk up an even taller peak.

"I planned on also not tell you this for a while, I wanted to build up some trust and rapport between us before I did so, but since things have gone down this route, I will also tell you quite straightforwardly.

"I took you in as a disciple because your potential is excellent. Although your talent is lacking, severely so compared to what you might face in the future, in terms of potential to expand and grow I have never seen anyone that is your better.

"But even that is only a small part of the reason.

"We have an enemy, an enemy the likes of which can't be defeated through normal means. This person goes from world to world, swallowing up their potential and turning it into their own. They're even able to swallow up their core of Reincarnation, commandeering the process and using it to create talents that can be used.

"This person is without a doubt the strongest Dao God across all of Existence and they have been obsessed with trying to find a way to step beyond that Realm even though one does not exist...

"They are called... The Phoenix Sky God."