Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu was like a specter of death, and Wunikai quickly realized that her method of command wasn't working. If she didn't take action, Ryu would truly...

"Retreat."

To Ryu's surprise, Wunikai actually made such a choice. It seemed that even if she did have a great hatred it wasn't yet to the point of forgetting about everything else. But... what did that have to do with him?

Ryu sneered.

Coming as she pleased and also going as she pleased? How could he ever allow such a thing?

At that moment, Ryu reversed his pulse of Bloodline Resonance. This time, instead of hiding from beasts, he called them forth once again.

Wunikai's expression changed, but it was already too late.

"I'll remember this." She said coldly.

In the carnage, Ryu was easily able to slip away. He had no intention of getting tangled up in so many beasts.

Before, he had held back a bit, so only six appeared. But this time, he had summoned over 20 of them.

With a quick pulse, he checked out which of the beasts had blood crystals in them. Since there were so many Demons around covering for him, it was easy to sneak up on these beasts and kill them in a single strike.

Ryu slipped away with another two blood crystals, narrowly avoiding the rampage that happened when the black waters illuminated. He was practically like a fish in water.

Then, he vanished toward the fifth layer's barrier, chuckling all the while.

Since this woman held such a grudge, he would be sure to teach her this lesson slowly. Honestly, even with his character mellowing out a bit, it still wasn't his preference to let people who wanted to kill him go.

But there was something particularly dangerous about that woman, and until he had more strength, it was best to teach her a small lesson and then slip away.

Well, to him it was a small lesson. To Wunikai, he had probably just destroyed years of preparation. Who knew how much she had to do to pull so many of those men to her side? And now more than 80% of them were likely to be dead.

Ryu didn't know what she was planning, but whatever it was had to be ruined by now.

'Interesting enough... Is it as simple as wanting to find more blood crystals? Or does she have other intentions?'

Ryu wanted to believe that things were that simple. But he had a feeling that they weren't.

Soon, he made it to the fifth layer's barrier. The true geniuses were on the other side, likely divided between the fifth and sixth.

If he was correct and this trial world was in line with how the cultivation realms usually did things, then there were nine layers and there was a watershed every three.

It was highly unlikely that there was anyone who had managed to enter the seventh layer just yet, and in Ryu's estimation, every time the Rotten Sea opened to such a large population of people, there would likely only be a handful.

If you factored in the fact that the Demon Kings hadn't brought their best geniuses, it was unlikely. Though the Demon Princes had done so.

Ryu felt around the fifth layer for a bit and nodded to himself.

'It'll bring me closer, but it's still not quite enough.'

He waited for a while. If he broke the barrier now, he and Selheira would be separated again, and he certainly wouldn't leave her in the fourth layer alone with that succubus running things.

As he waited, he observed the barrier, feeling it though not quite resonating with it just yet.

By now, he was starting to understand more about this world.

This Rotten Sea was an amalgamation of bloodlines and it seemed to have the unique ability to allow Demons a deeper connection with their own.

What was interesting was that it was using principles of both human and beast cultivation to allow this to happen.

Beasts couldn't easily change their bloodlines, whereas humans could easily-relatively speaking-swap out their own. Then there were Demons who sat right in the middle of this, not being fully constrained by their bloodlines, but also not quite having full freedom with them, either.

Normally, this was a huge detriment. This was why Demons could become the summons of Necromancers to begin with. Their bodies were easily exploitable in this fashion, both having a strong connection to the Heavens and the Earth.

What the Rotten Sea did was exploit this connection as well. When you entered, there was a seal placed within your body that wasn't much unlike a Summoning Seal. However, rather than being used to control you, it was an opportunity.

This was why Ryu was so well suppressed. It was because it wasn't an external item suppressing him, but rather a cognitive control that was influencing his body. His mind had been suggested that he was suppressed, and his body was restrained in this exact fashion. The result was him actually being suppressed. It was the exact same as how a Summon could have all aspects of its life controlled by suggestion as well.

The reason why Ryu shouldn't be able to break the barrier was that as a Human, he lacked the natural affinity for the Heavens that a Demon should otherwise have.

To make a complicated matter simple, in this world, the Rotten Sea became the new "Heavens", and by descending into its depths and breaking through its barriers, one could resonate with it deeper and fundamentally change or amplify their talent.

Every time one broke through a barrier, they would undergo a baptism.

Unfortunately, this wasn't a baptism that Ryu could undergo. He lacked the final connection point that Demons and Beasts would have.

However, he was progressing on a different path entirely. Not only was he refining his Bloodmancy to a new level with every step he took, he was learning new applications of Vital Qi and most importantly...