Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu had already expected this. This first barrier was nothing more than a checkpoint, one probably 100% of the geniuses who dared to enter would pass.

The only reason he had triggered the appearance of the anglerfish was because he had almost "stepped out of bounds". And the reason he had felt that the anglerfish's attack was weaker than it should have been was precisely because it was. It wasn't trying to kill him, it was trying to knock him back in bounds.

However, that didn't mean that things would continue to stay the same. There would almost certainly be problems soon. It was just that for Ryu the trouble came instantly.

'False Sky God, much more manageable.'

Ryu was already quickly deducing how this place would work, and he also realized that the density of the Rotten Sea was probably another test.

False Sky God was weak to most of the geniuses here, but what if you were in water that not only restricted your movements but also your senses, and seemingly your talent as well?

Now that was a different beast entirely.

Ryu calmly blocked the rotten, mutated tentacle with his forearm, but without the footing of the ground to stabilize him, he found himself shooting through the water, having been blown back.

He had never battled in water before, so he noticed quickly that many of his Close Combat methods didn't quite work the same.

He couldn't passively take attacks just to counter in this situation. He would end up soaring away just like this, even though his body was still entirely unharmed.

He had to meet forward momentum with forward momentum. Attack was the only defense in this place. Everything else was too useless.

The attack of the tentacle sent him flying out of the range of the tentacle beast and even further out of range of his senses.

However, Ryu's limits didn't seem to apply to the creature that lived in this Rotten Sea year-round.

It quickly caught up, swiping down at Ryu from all sides. It realized that Ryu's body was much too strong for a single strike to work, so it could only use quantity to make up for quality.

Ryu shook his head. 'This is an annoyance. Not because able to use my Spacetime Soul Nature feels like a hand is being tied behind my back. He would almost think that someone was targeting him purposely, but everything he sensed clarified that the Demon Kings were actually being quite fair.

'Overwhelming power it is.'

Ryu's gaze flashed, and his arm bulged.

BANG!

A swirling vortex appeared in the depths of the water, forming a vacuum that ripped a hole right through the creature's colossal head.

Ryu was about to turn and leave when he faintly caught something out of the corner of his eye.

He rushed up to the rotting corpse and pulled something out of its body.

His Spiritual Sense picked up as a red crystal shard, almost like someone had shattered a ruby like glass. Well, if that ruby was also enormous.

The shard was over two feet long and Ryu couldn't quite wrap his hands around it.

"Put it down."

The voice came from the side, projected through the dense waters and drilling into Ryu's eardrums.

Ryu ignored it, continuing to analyze the ruby shard. After breaking through the first barrier, the range of his senses hadn't increased, but he had changed his method of sensing.

Rather than using Spiritual Sense or [Third Perspective], he was sensing the shifts and changes in the water. Sound also traveled much better in water as well. It could be said that he was relying on very mortal senses.

However, his senses were anything but mortal.

With the strength of his body, those senses were on an entirely different level. He just never used them because he never had a need to.

'This shard, it's likely related to Bloodline as well, but what exactly about it?'

Ryu turned it over in his hand before he understood.

Breaking through the internal shake was much more difficult than breaking the outer one. Not only did you need to make it to the next barrier, passing through hoards of beasts and likely idiots like the guy bearing down toward him now, just to even sense it... but you also needed sharp intuition and feel for your Bloodline as well.

This shard could help to amplify that feeling, and judging by the reaction of the Demon coming his way, it was more likely than not that not every beast you killed would have one. It seemed he had gotten lucky.

Ryu put the shard away and suddenly punched out.

BANG!

Two fists met in the blackened sea. Ryu didn't move back even a single inch, but the Demon took three steps before forcefully stabilizing himself.

Ryu looked at him with his [Third Perspective] and shook his head.

"You're not on my kill list, you can scram."

"You-"

"Scram."

BOOM!

A sound wave echoed through the water, and the Demon felt his eardrums shatter. He became disoriented and dizzy in an instant, but Ryu had already shot by him.

It wasn't that Ryu had suddenly become such a merciful person. Quite frankly, he would have much rather killed this person.

But right now, he was not only trying to prove a point, he would also like to do without becoming the enemy of the entire Ninth Plane if he could help it.

Ryu killed three more beasts on the way, but as expected, not a single one of them had a Bloodline Shard.

His feet rebounded against the second barrier not even an hour later, entering a calm state of meditation once more.

The elders on the outside watched this scene with a frown, still not having recovered from what happened the first time around. None of this really made any sense to them. How was Ryu doing it? Was he actually a Demon?

CRACK.

Ryu made it through the second barrier and he suddenly sensed Selheira more clearly.