Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

[Bonus chapters thanks to Chronotitan <3 5/6]

Eska was surrounded by three Transcendent Sky Gods. The pressure on her was tremendous, but her defenses were immaculate.

In the surroundings, beautiful pink-gold cherry blossoms fell from the skies as her white hair fluttered in the wind. Every one of her movements was elegant to an extreme, her fair palms drawing arcs in the air that gathered large amounts of Spiritual Quintessence in a single breath.

Fluttering butterflies, squeaking hummingbirds, cute little foxes barely a meter tall with swaying tails... creatures of all shapes and forms appeared around her, countering the methods of the Sky Gods around her.

One suddenly broke free of her restraints, striking out at her chest with a fist swirling with Star Qi.

Eska's expression didn't change. This wasn't the first time such a thing had happened, people who thought that they could take advantage of her in close combat because she seemed to focus on the Mental Realm.

The reality was that even if that was her focus, getting close wouldn't help... not to mention the fact that it wasn't.

A pulse of white gold qi rippled around her and her face seemed to flash with hints of Isemeine's features.

Then she struck out with a palm.

BANG!

The fist didn't even connect with her palm. A rippling cyclone of cherry blossoms wrapped around her arm and palm, forming a barrier.

The attacker only paused for a single moment before being sent flying backward with such force that even without touching the ground, it was ripped apart into a deep trench.

And then Ryu's suppression descended.

Eska felt something almost magical wrap around her, and it even somewhat felt like Ryu's arms. It was a gentle and guiding sort of feeling, and it filled her with strength.

Suddenly, the butterflies around her accelerated, causing a tornado of cuts and flying blood to appear around the remaining two Transcendents as they furiously tried to defend.

However, the two found that the Star Qi they had been so proud of before was suddenly being stripped from them.

Most of the Fading Star Sect disciples were just Body Realm cultivator-equivalents with extra steps. The difference between the Fading and Radiant Star Sects was that the former directly incorporated the qi of their Constellations into their bodies, while the best of them could even fuse with their Constellations.

So, when they suddenly found it severely weakened, it impacted their bodies directly. Their movements felt sluggish and they even felt some fatigue when they tried to push their bodies to the limits they were used to.

And they suffered for it.

Those two Transcendent Sky Gods suddenly found themselves heavily injured in the blink of an eye.

The entire battlefield flipped on its head, and despite inferior numbers, the Radiant Star Sect began to take the upper hand.

The Omniscient Sky Gods, occupied by a battle with Old Xu, Jiao, and Xiao, were not only finding themselves suppressed as well, but they noticed the shift before anyone else.

The worst part of all of this was that the more Ryu put his hand on the scale, the more Faith he seemed to be able to gather, and the stronger the suppression became.

Being able to impact battles on this scale as such a weakling was its own sort of cheat code, gathering up Faith so quickly for Ryu that the Omniscient Sky Gods even felt that if they suffered this sort of suppression for another few hours, their strengths would fall out of the Omniscient Sky God Realm entirely.

Suddenly, they understood that it wasn't just about winning this battle any longer, but they also had to stop Ryu from gathering up Faith so easily.

They grit their teeth.

"Retreat!"

"You think we'll allow that?!" Old Xu scowled.

Stardust only sneered.

They were all intelligent, so they understood Ryu's weakness immediately. The Throne didn't have unlimited range. In fact, as Omniscient Sky Gods, they were the furthest from the other battlefields because if they fought with everyone else, they would end up slaughtering everyone else.

They were lucky that since this was the Seventh Heaven, the space and earth were very robust. As a result, the waves of their battle didn't travel very far. Or else they would have already leveled everything.

This was to say that if they retreated far enough, Ryu's ability would disappear. Because they were so far away, they were already the least impacted in the first place.

In addition, because Ryu was so weak, he couldn't possibly follow after them. It was fine if he was on the city walls and under the formation's protection, but if he stepped out here to help, he would lose his life without even knowing who took it.

The three elders obviously knew this, but they had to keep up appearances.

The entire battlefield entered a retreat.

High up on the city walls, Ryu had obviously seen through this as well. The fury within him was towering and a wild itch was in his heart.

BANG.

The section of the city wall he had just been on trembled wildly as he accelerated off of it.

He fell from the city walls before anyone could stop him.

He grabbed at the air and pulled out a pill from nowhere. He could hear Hope's voice berating him but he didn't seem to be able to hear her at all.

He swallowed it and suddenly a large, pulsing cloud of Spiritual Quintessence bloomed into the surroundings with a roar.

His soul's strength skyrocketed, breaking against its bounds again, and again, and again.

His Bloodlines flourished and a towering Birthed Phenomena appeared in the skies. It opened its eyes and a gorgeous silver star appeared on its back.

The pressure of a Peak Founding Dao descended with might and majesty that the bounds of space and time twisted around Ryu.

BANG.

Ryu punched out just a single time and a series of holes was blown through three False Sky Gods.

He took another step, his fist retracting and his eyes glowing.

The world seemed to roar for him.