Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu's palms reached out, causing large swaths of ice qi to accumulate around him. The temperature continued to plummet, the surroundings becoming so volatile that even Isemeine, who had an extraordinarily strong body, began to shiver. 

In the blink of an eye, two crystalline blue Great Swordstaffs formed. Each sparkled with a beautiful sheen, faint patterns of golden veins barely hidden within their depths. 

Ryu's brandished both, the violent winds the resulted threatening to flatten the city below. 

With these two weapons, formed the of the will his mother left behind, he would sever everything that lay in his path. 

"Isemeine. Come here."

Isemeine was speechless. For one, she couldn't fly in this place. Hardly anyone could. And, secondly, HAD HE LOST HIS MIND?!

Unfortunately, Isemeine didn't have much of a choice. A strong wind qi raised her into the skies. Much like his flames, Ryu's Northern Heavenly Wind had also begun to lag behind. But, that didn't mean it was useless. 

"Why are you doing this?" Isemeine asked, exasperated. 

"I need a beauty to use to piss them off." Ryu said with a smile. 

"Are you flirting with me?" Isemeine was speechless. 

"No. This smile isn't for you." 

The curl of Ryu's lip didn't fade as he stepped through the skies, his destination toward the biggest section of this endless palace that he could spot. 

Isemeine scoffed. She had been called beautiful too many times in her life, even though the person speaking usually ended up needing bed rest for several weeks to months. She was immune to it all. If this bastard thought that he could soften her heart with a few words, he was sorely mistaken. 

'He's really treating me like some sort of trophy, how ridiculous. Well, at least --."

Isemeine's thought froze when she felt Ryu's arm firmly grab onto her waist. She was suddenly at a loss for words once again. 

When her vision cleared, she found that both of Ryu's Great Swordstaffs were hovering before him by some mysterious force. As for the man himself, he strolled through the skies as though he owned the place. 

Now that she thought about it, he technically once had… And when she thought about it further, if Ryu wanted a woman to act as a status symbol, short of those monstrous beauties who had already stepped into the Cosmic Seed and World Sea Realm, she was definitely the best choice. 

On top of that, if one was going to challenge a Throne, impugning on the dignity of the target Sect or Clan first was probably the best way. At least this way, if they tried to refuse, it would be a blow to their prestige and Faith. 

There was a deeper layer to all of this as well. If Ryu so publicly claimed her as his woman, considering how protective her father was of her, so long as Ryu wasn't useless—something he most definitely was not—then he would probably gain the protection of a King at the same time. 

This would only work because as a Path Extinction Realm expert, Isemeine was still considered to be a member of the younger generation, so there would be no problem with her father stepping through branches to help her out… 

It could be said that maybe this was the best choice Ryu could have made. Did he really think all this through…?

'No. He definitely didn't.' Isemeine shook her head, squirming due to the fact she wasn't used to having her waist held like this. 'This annoying man definitely doesn't think before he acts.'

Isemeine pouted, trying to make some distance between herself and Ryu, but his hand was too strong. 

"You know," Isemeine whispered harshly, "shouldn't you think about your wife? What is she going to do when she learns that you were strolling through the skies so overbearingly with another woman in your arms."

Ryu's smile didn't waver. 

"The Elena I knew would say something like 'it's about time'."

"And what about now?"

"She would probably ignore me."

"Humph." Isemeine's smiled with satisfaction, taking pleasure in Ryu's misfortune. 

"That won't be for long, though." Ryu spoke without missing a beat. "I'd like to see how long she can ignore me for. There's no man in this world worthy of her aside from me."

Isemeine looked toward Ryu's side profile… 

"I really want to punch you in the face."

At that moment, several auras converged from all sides. The commotion Ryu had caused had been immediate. There were no small number of individuals who had reacted almost immediately, converging with a fervor and rage only those of the younger generation could match. 

The first to make it was a man with flowing white gold hair much longer than Isemeine's own short hair. He held a massive pair of twin hammers in his hands, an almost fiery white gold aura hanging around him like the fog of a sun. 

"Who's he?" Ryu asked. 

Isemeine rolled her eyes. He really did think nothing through. 

"He is Iohne. He's at the 3rd Path Extinction Stage."

"I can already see that. I meant something more interesting." Ryu asked casually. 

"There's nothing more interesting to say." Isemeine said plainly, looking toward Iohne with disdain. "He's not good enough to be ranked on the Heir Ranks. I'm surprised he even has the balls to appear before me. I put him in a coma years ago so he's always taken the long way around me. He thought he could bully me into his bed just because I was in the Immortal Ring Realm back then."

Ryu shook his head. This woman really was too violent. Considering who her father was, who would dare do anything like she described? She was definitely embellishing the story. 

Iohne, though, finally seemed to show a bit of a temper. 

"A man's reputation is his honor. Don't dare to slander mine!" 

"Or what?" Isemeine snorted. 

Iohne's expression turned red with rage.

"What's the Heir Ranking?" Ryu asked. 

"It's a ranking of 900 youths below the Cosmic Seed Realm most likely to become Princes in the future."

"If it's below the Cosmic Seed Realm, doesn't it make sense that someone at his cultivation level isn't on it?"

"No." Isemeine snorted with disdain. "The 900 youths are divided into nine sets of 100. Each set represents a cultivation Realm from the Awakening Realm all the way up to the Dao Pedestal Realm. The 100 most promising youths at each cultivation Realm are slotted in based on their potential. He's just not good enough to make it among his peers."

Ryu raised an eyebrow. He still felt that Isemeine was leaving out something. There's no way such a list didn't take combat prowess into regard as well. In that case, it made sense that someone six stages from the peak of the Path Extinction Realm would be left off, right?

But, Ryu wasn't here to argue on behalf of a man who was obviously here to battle him. 

He reached his free hand forward, tapping the air with a slender finger.

Iohne's expression changes drastically, but he didn't even get a chance to swing his hammer. 

His body was in cased in a gem-like block of ice in the blink of an eye. He fell from the skies mid-leap, crashing heavily into the ground below. However, the ice was so sturdy and powerful that not a single crack could be found.