Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu's gaze flashed, the forward motion of his hand becoming a swift downward slap. There was no hesitation in his actions, no pause, and it almost seemed as though this was what he had planned to do from the very beginning. 

In one moment, an incisive knife that hid within the darkness was blazing a trail toward him. In the next, it had been pierced into the ground at Ryu's feet down to the hilt. It wasn't until a moment of silence that the air suddenly exploded apart, a cacophonic boom spreading throughout the region.

Ryu's robes fluttered beneath the impact, but he remained unmoved. His gaze looked up from the dagger in the ground through the now open doors of the inn. Within, he caught sight of a young man sitting at a table. Though he was expressionless eating as though these matters had nothing to do with him, Ryu's eyes couldn't be fooled in the slightest. 

Maybe it was because he was so distracted by his thoughts, or maybe it was because this young man was that good at hiding his aura and intentions, but Ryu almost hadn't reacted in time. 

Of course, had the dagger landed, it would have rebounded off his skin as though it had collided with a steel wall. The current Ryu had already stepped into the Blood Tempering Realm. Whether it was his bodily strength or defenses, they were all elite even without him activating his Spirit Bodies. 

However, that attack would have likely blasted apart his clothing and left him in a sorry looking state. Though he had formed his current robes with his master's Visualization technique, making them far more durable than normal clothing, he hadn't invested a lot of Spiritual Qi into them. As a result, they weren't as sturdy as they needed to be for Ryu to take part in a high-profile battle. 

What was truly odd about this was that Ryu didn't recognize the young man at all. 

Usually, Ryu wouldn't care about this. For attacking him with such ill intent, he likely would have taken this young man's head off already. He couldn't be bothered to wait for an explanation or anything of the sort. 

However, in his current mood, he was still in a partial daze. He had just spent the last several hours strolling around aimlessly and lost in his own thoughts. To suddenly be thrust into such an odd situation didn't just catch him a little off guard. 

At that moment, a clerk or bartender or receptionist—Ryu couldn't exactly decide right then and there—suddenly shot up. 

"There's no fighting allowed in my inn! Scram!"

Ryu blinked, his mind still somewhat foggy. Had he really lost his mind? Or was this big bellied worker actually speaking to him? 

Ryu shook his head. He must of heard wrong. 

Even after reincarnating, Ryu had rarely met individuals so stupid. He had half a mind to go back to being as cruel and cold as he usually was. Clearly, people thought that this more amiable version of himself was easy to bully. 

He took a pause, willing to wait to see if this fat clerk was really speaking with him. But, unfortunately, the gods of intelligence were greatly disappointed that day. 

"Did you not hear m—!"

The fat woman couldn't even finish her next words before her head was separated from her neck. Her last sight was of a room rotating around a headless corpse… her corpse?!

Ryu rubbed his forehead. He really wasn't in the mood to deal with such nonsense. 

He looked up and toward the young man who had thrown the dagger. 

"You heard the woman, there's no fighting allowed in this inn. Are you going to scram? Or do you want me to make you scram?"

The young man finally looked up from his food, first he gazed toward the fat woman's corpse before he panned over toward Ryu. 

One might be wondering at this point why all this was happening. Many within the inn were doing their best to mind their own business, but there were a few others who were having a hard time not laughing. Obviously, these were individuals who didn't care about giving the dagger throwing young man any face. 

When Ryu had been making his way to the inn's entrance, he had walked by several windows. He hadn't been paying much attention at all. However, that didn't mean the women at the young man's table weren't. 

One he had taken a fancy to had gazed at Ryu for a fraction of a second too long before looking away and the result was a woman losing her life. It seemed that within the martial world, life really was so fleeting. Such a benign, ridiculous matter had reached this point. 

Of course, one could say that Ryu had taken thigs too far. But as far as he was concerned, he had taken things just far enough. The penalty for weakness in this world was death and this inn keeper was clearly trying to drive him out so that someone else could backstab Ryu later. It only took a glance for Ryu to see through all of that. 

Still, what was maybe the most ridiculous matter was the fact that the young woman hadn't even been looking at Ryu for reasons the young man thought. Instead, it was because she recognized him. 

The young lady who sat that the dagger throwing young man's table was none other than Alote Till, the Throne of the Night Terror Sect that Ryu had met during the Core Region tournament. She had clearly grown greatly in that time. But, this much was expected for a Throne, even if it was only for a Sixth Order Sect. 

Alote obviously had a lot of pride of her own. She had gazed at Ryu a hint longer only because she had a flash of those moment from several hundred years ago. 

But… As far as she was concerned, Ryu's arrogance in choosing not to partake in the training the Apostles bestowed upon all of them was the greatest mistake of his life. If Byrine learned that he was here, there would be blood to pay. 

By now, she was confident she had left him in her dust which was why she only spared him a single glance. But, who could have thought that things would end up like this?