Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

1755 Wealth

Ryu was speechless for a moment. This woman was actually so infuriated? What did she think husband and wife did, exactly?

After a moment, despite the attack coming toward him, he began to laugh.

Each wave of laughter caused another boom to echo across the black waters. Even without moving an inch, the Ice Queen was rebuffed and sent flying backward. The dichotomy between her fierceness and the result was so striking that the others didn't know how to react.

"Let's end this as quickly as possible, shall we? My patience for those with thoughts about my wife is lower than the Ninth Plane itself… and the price to pay is death."

Ryu took a step forward and punched out three consecutive times. He aimed for each one of them just once, as though he couldn't be bothered to use more than a single attempt for them.

The Ice Queen was in the worst position, her body having been sent flailing backward. Facing Ryu's sudden fist, she found it difficult to even stabilize herself first. Her thoughts were consumed by how fast she was moving backward despite the density of the waters…

Were they truly still in the seventh layer?

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The Ice Queen crossed her arms, cracks of ice akin to fissures in space appearing before her in a vain attempt to block.

The shield shattered instantly. Her daggers trembled for just a moment, managing to hold their form. But the rest of the energy travelled up her arms, shattering the lovely pair like broken glass and cracking ice.

The Fire Giant had brought out a hammer of ages, one with a head as large as his own. When it swung down, the waters in its way didn't have the time to move. In the end, it looked as though the Rotten Sea had become a part of its strength.

But in Ryu's eyes, this was just the very same trick Vense had used. It looked good, but it lacked substance, lacked strength.

The moment the hammer and Ryu's fist aura collided, the former was blow out of the way, the Rotten Seas that had become part of its strength incorporating into Ryu's strength instead and gathering into an all out assault on the Fire Giant's chest.

Blood and bone exploded. The Rotten Sea absorbed them instantly, sapping it up and even latching onto the Fire Giant. The viciousness was akin to a parasite sinking into its prey.

The Ash Treant seemed to be in the best condition, but this was only because it didn't seem to be a being of flesh and blood. Its branches and bark littered the waters. Despite how much of its body it used to block, it was like the energy of Ryu's fist was endless, breaking through them one after another.

Ryu took a step forward, appearing amidst the constantly snaking branches of the treant. He moved with a fluidity that touched upon a realm these few Demon Kings had simply never seen.

He appeared in front of its main trunk, stretching out a hand slowly and almost gently placing his palm on it.

The Ash Treant froze.

"Afraid?" Ryu asked softly. "I really want to know, though… did an inconsequential plant like you really think it had a chance in this game? I've out-competed even Life Partners before. Who do you think you are?"

A dull BANG! echoed. Ryu didn't even seem to put much strength into it. He had been suppressing how pissed off he was for a long while. Now that there was finally a string of individuals on his kill list right in front of him, how could he not lash out?

Yaana had a Life Partner herself. It was a Black Rose. But hadn't she chosen him in the end? This Ash Treant really thought too much of itself.

No one could have any thoughts about his wives. Not even if they were Life Partners.

Ryu vanished and appeared by the Fire Giant's hammer. It had lost control of it after the initial strike, and the blow to its chest only made it worse.

He casually picked up the heavy weapon as though it weighed nothing at all. The flames that licked at his hands tried to rip him apart, but he was entirely unmoved.

He took a glance at the Fire Giant struggling to stand to its feet.

"Trash."

BANG!

His wrist gently waved and the Fire Giant exploded. It wasn't even clear where the attack came from. It was as though Ryu had gained control of his Spacetime Soul Nature once again and did the impossible, controlling even the inside of the Fire Giant's body.

Ryu looked at the weapon and shrugged. The materials were decent enough. He was still a bit broke. Maybe he could make something out of it.

Now that he thought about it, maybe he should be stealing the spatial rings of these geniuses.

He had never got into such a habit because he was used to being rich. The last time he had stolen a spatial ring was probably way back when he participated in the Ember Clan's tournament. That was the day he had found the tome wrapped in human skin.

He chuckled to himself, wondering how many had taken advantage of his kills over the year. But that was part of his pride. He didn't kill to rob people. He just killed people who pissed him off or were in his way.

"Sure, why not?"

Ryu spoke to himself as though the Ice Queen wasn't still alive. He waved a hand and the spatial rings of the Ash Treant and the Fire Giant both came toward him.

Surprisingly, the Fire Giant's was the only gigantic one. The Ash Treant's spatial ring was of a normal size. It had clearly hidden it on one of its many branches.

'I do wonder, though. How does the Ash Treant coordinate its attacks? It must be difficult to control that many limbs at once.'

The mental capacity of Gods was exceptional, but that didn't mean it was infinite. Also, everything was relative.

Sure, a True Sky God would have a far greater mental capacity, but they also needed it. It served a purpose. The complexity of God Grade techniques were on another level entirely, not to mention what was needed to sustain God level comprehensions and wield God level weapons.

It wasn't as though Sky Gods had a ton of excess mental space they just didn't use.

Then, there was also the fact that the Ash Treants had quite a number of branches from their youth as well. How did they control them back then?

'Worth exploring. Might be yet another path to improve my Inner Matrix…'

The Ice Queen was shivering with fury, trying to reform her arms and having decent success.

The Ice Queen Demon King Race looked quite a lot like humans did aside from the ice crown perpetually hovering above their heads and their unnaturally pale skin.

However, their bodies were almost entirely constructed of the ice element. Due to this, so long as they had qi, healing from even the most grievous of injuries wasn't difficult at all.

It was just unfortunate that it didn't matter.

Ryu appeared before her.

Finally, her eyes showed signs of panic.

"You-you can't kill me! I'm a woman! What kind of man are you?!"

"Yes, I can," Ryu replied simply.

He flicked a finger, and her head and crown shattered.

While it was true that she could replenish her body, that didn't mean it didn't come at a cost. She had put everything into trying to heal her arms because that was the only way she could have any hope of fighting back. But that also meant that her qi was completely diverted to the task as well.

She was the easiest to kill of them all.

Ryu took her spatial ring as well.

He didn't waste any time. He picked the direction he sensed Selheira in and shot toward it, his speed blazing. It wouldn't take him more than a few dozen seconds to reach her. His speed was too fast.

As he moved, he took a look at the rings and didn't find much interesting other than precisely what he was looking for: wealth.

The three of them were quite rich. Their wealth piled into the tens of millions of Mid level True Nether Crystals. It was orders of magnitude beyond what Ryu had on him now since all his wealth was in the lower level of the kind.

Other than that, there were just some secondary treasures and some life-saving measures. Even of the latter, there weren't many. Presumably because these three usually walked around with Dao Guards.

There were also some techniques, but Ryu had gotten used to using his own self-created methods. That said, they would be interesting reference.

'Hm?'

He spotted something interesting in the Ash Treant's ring that made his lip curl. It was a technique, and it happened to be related to something he was just wondering about.