Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu found a place of seclusion not far away. By this point, Lysander had already left and only Veridia was left behind. The Dragonness didn't have any intentions of leaving anytime soon because there truly wasn't much else she could do.

Dao Gods didn't have all the time in the world to just lounge around and do as they pleased, or more accurately, human Dao Gods didn't. Many human Dao Gods, or humanoids in general, spent a lot of their time in secluded cultivation.

Beasts, however, didn't go into "closed door cultivation". If there was anything analogous, it would be the long slumbers and hibernations they tended to go into from time to time. Then there were those who spent long periods of time in battle to hone themselves.

Pyrothos was among those who had spent much of his time embroiled in battle. Though Beasts didn't form Daos in the same way that humans did and they also didn't have the same "Six Pillars", they did still have Dao Bones and Beast Crystals. It was just that they functioned differently...

Whereas a human's Dao would be based on often esoteric comprehension, a beast's Dao Bone was almost always forged through battle and was almost always just a raw increase in either one of their talents or their general physical prowess.

Pyrothos' title, the Undefeated, was forged because his Dao Bone was on a completely different level. If it were to be translated into human terms, he would definitely be the equivalent of a Founding Dao.

The battle scars that covered his body were almost all a product of his youth, and often against those with cultivations far above his own. He never bothered to hide them, nor did he put any effort into healing them because in his opinion, scars were a dragon's pride.

When he appeared, he exuded fear in those around him and he suppressed the very world. And when his Dao Bone activated, he could burn down worlds.

It could be said that Ryu's assessment that Lysander could battle Pyrothos for years on end was incorrect, one of the very few false assumptions Ryu had ever made in his life.

Simply put. If Pyrothos wanted to kill... there was likely no one in the whole of the True Martial World that could stop him.

It could be said that Ryu had just laid eyes on one of the three strongest existences on the whole of the Ninth Heaven, a monster incarnate. What he had done to Veridia could be considered mercy...

And that was precisely why Veridia could not return.

Their saving grace was that Pyrothos had better things to do than to watch out for someone he had already taught a lesson. And since Lysander had already returned, there was likewise no need for him to return to this place either.

These matters, though, weren't really enough to sway Ryu. They were just a reminder that his fist was still too small.

Ultimately, it was something as simple as a breakthrough that had triggered such a thing. A mere breakthrough from the Fragmented Sky God Realm to the False Sky God Realm.

To Pyrothos, such a thing was inconsequential, and yet it was still enough for him to do what he had done.

So casual. So uncaring. So vicious.

All for a petty slight that was hardly a slight at all.

These thoughts seemed to calm Ryu into the embrace of the universe. He sunk into a meditative state far more quickly than any time before, but it wasn't just due to his current state of mind... it was rather due to the environment of the Ninth Heaven itself.

He sunk his mind deeper until he sensed the Karmic Strings his master had left behind.

...

"Little girl, I leave you for just a few years and you go off and get a husband? Did you get your father to properly vet him? Why didn't you introduce him first? I don't even know his last name!"

Veridia's barrage of questions and glares descended onto her daughter. The narrowed eyes of a Fire Dragon were truly menacing... but all Selheira could see was her adorable mother.

She smiled widely, sitting on one of her mother's claws as the Dragonness curled up around the mountain Ryu had chosen to enter.

"Look at you, giggling like a love struck fool. I've wasted my time raising you."

"Aren't you the same with father?"

Veridia snorted. "How can these two things be compared? Do you know how much hardship your father went through for my hand? How many tests did you put him through? It can't be that many since I saw you last just ten years ago. How can you get to know a person in such a short time?"

Selheira blushed. Let alone ten years, she had only known Ryu for barely five, and he had vanished into thin air for 90% of that time.

"And also, how can a human please you? Won't he be too small?"

"Mother!" Selheira wasn't shocked by her mother's crassness, that was a given. But even so, wasn't talking about her husband's endowment a bit too much?

"Look at you, already defending him so vehemently. If you've already done the assessment and feel that it's worth it, mother won't try to change your mind. But I will tell you that while a Dragonness can be happy with mediocrity for a decade, maybe even a century, our lives are long. If he can't please you, it will begin to wear on your after a millennia, two... ten..."

Selheira didn't even know how to respond. How was this not trying to change her mind?

"Mother! I'm a human now, the proportions are different!"

"Ah! Right," Veridia said as though she had forgotten this. "Even so-"

"You don't need to worry!" Selheira said quickly. "If it's the ratio of body to endowment, husband does very well for himself. Very well.

"Also, you may not know this mother, but human love-making is very special. They can do things that feel even better than just being big!"

Veridia snorted with laughter and Selheira laughed along with her.

Ryu was oblivious to the crass mother-daughter conversation.