Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

1768 Take That

The eighth layer was very peaceful compared to the others. The space might have been much smaller, but those that made it here were all exceptional talents. Each one was wary of battling the others and there was no need to provoke one another if they had a choice not to.

The ultimate result was that the layer with the most danger had somehow also become the most peaceful.

Unfortunately for them, Ryu simply didn't care.

…

Ryu didn't move very fast. With his wife on his back and standing on his summons shoulder, he had already killed three people.

He was sure that the Demon Kings outside were furious. These were their best geniuses, but he didn't spare them either.

Unfortunately for them, the best among their geniuses also happened to be the absolute most likely to have designs on his wife. As such, it could be said that almost everyone in the eighth layer now was on his kill list.

Killing everywhere he went, Ryu slowly approached Wunikai's location. And soon enough, he had made it to her.

The beauty sat meditation before the ninth layer, trying to use every moment to break through.

They wouldn't be able to stay here forever. If time ran out, there would be no chance of reaching the legendary ninth layer.

Despite knowing that her odds were small, much like everyone else, she was pushing as hard as she could.

Ryu had already realized that the reason she gathered such a large entourage was to deal with the chaos of the sixth layer. After using them, she dropped them without hesitation, continuing on her own.

Ryu didn't interrupt her. He simply stood there, his aura slowly growing.

Wunikai was startled awake, and she looked back with sharp eyes. When she saw Ryu, her heart skipped a beat, then there was fury, and then there was wariness.

Seeing Ryu standing there, so silent and unmoved, when he could have easily sneak attacked her, there was a heavy lump in her throat.

Was he stupid? Or was he truly that confident?

"You know, I originally just wanted to kill you." Ryu smiled lightly, looking at Wunikai.

Wunikai almost immediately took these words the wrong way. A fury bubbled up in her chest, but they were immediately doused by Ryu's next words.

"Don't flatter yourself. Do you think I would lie with any woman? Don't you think too highly of yourself?"

Wunikai froze. She couldn't even be angry. The words were so foreign that they didn't even compute.

A man didn't want to share a night with her? What sense did that make? It didn't even sound like a coherent sentence.

"But, after seeing you here," Ryu continued, "I've realized that killing you might actually be too easy. Plus, how enraged would your people be if you became my summon?"

Wunikai's eyes opened wide.

"You—."

Ryu waved a hand, and a wave of Bloodline Resonance echoed.

His Bloodmancy churned to a new level, and the Dominance path co-opted the rotting blood in the surroundings. Soon, an entire Domain had formed and Wunikai felt that she couldn't even move.

Her pupils constricted into pinholes. She had just barely managed to grasp some Bloodline Resonance after making it this far. How could Ryu be so powerful?

How could these people know that Ryu was relying on a secondary profession that didn't even exist in this world?

"I will never—!"

"You talk too much, do you know that? Your Dao Heart is strong, but a senior once told me that one like yours is also very brittle. She happened to be wrong about me, but her analysis from back then is spot on for you.

"You're jealous. You allow the achievements of others to burn your flames, and that means that if you ever come across a challenge you can't surmount, you'll shatter to pieces.

"Think very clearly. Will you ever truly be a match for my wife? Are you the disciple of a Dao God? Did you receive the Blessing of an entire Plane? Are you as beautiful? Do you have a husband as powerful as myself?

"What aspects do you think you're worthy to compete in, exactly?"

Wunikai trembled.

Her eyes turned red and the beauty almost became rabid. It looked as though she would bite a chunk out of Ryu's neck with her own teeth if she could just reach.

"Look at you now," Ryu looked down with disdain. "This isn't the sort of bearing a genius should have at all. You're pathetic."

The words seemed to pierce through her heart, and Wunikai felt her world collapse.

Before the entire world, an echo of a shattering Dao Heart echoed.

Seeing this, Ryu's lip curled.

Ever since their first interaction, Ryu had noticed that Wunikai's hatred of him stemmed from Mae's existence.

Originally, he did just want to directly kill her. But after some thought, he realized there was something far more interesting to study.

The Dao Heart.

Ryu had shattered his Dao Heart once before, so he had personal experience with reconstructing it. But the problem was that the way he had broken it wasn't exactly… conventional.

The problem he faced was more physical than mental.

What Ryu wanted to study was exactly the relationship between temperament and strength was.

When Ryu thought about it, he had been relying on his temperament to bolster his combat prowess for a very long while.

Ever since he stepped onto the First Heaven, his talent had been far weaker than those around him. He was always lagging behind in this aspect.

Originally, he thought that he had always been bridging the gap with his comprehension alone. But was that true?

It could be said that for a long while, his only exceptional talents were his Spacetime Soul Nature and his Chaotic Silk Meridians.

But he couldn't even use the latter in combat for a long while without fear of being captured and dissected, while the former was its own problem for several reasons.

First, affinity did not equal application. Ryu had to spend a lot of time learning exactly how to use this Soul Nature, and even to this day he hadn't perfectly grasped how to use its time aspect well. Plus, there was still a long way to go before his application of space could even begin to reach the limits of the affinity I had.

The second issue was that the Spacetime Soul Nature was always limited by his Perfect Blackbody Soul, which, while having a great deal of potential, needed time to grow as well.

When this was set aside, the picture became clearer.

His Ice Jade Crystal Body wasn't even a God grade talent. His Bloodlines were always in fierce, clashing competition. His Spiritual Foundation didn't even listen to him properly.

When all of these things were stacked one after another, it didn't even make sense for Ryu to be able to battle the geniuses of the First to Sixth Heavens in the first place.

So how had he done so?

Ryu was still hesitant to say that it was entirely his temperament. After all, though his talents weren't perfect, they still weren't bad. He also made great strides to improving them as time went on as well.

But how much of it was his talent and how much was his temperament?

This was what Ryu wanted to study, and Wunikai would be the best experiment.

He knocked her down, and now he wanted to see what changes she would undergo as he built her up again.

With this thought, Ryu reached out a hand, and Wunikai was sucked into his palm. He grasped her throat and then tossed her down on Empana's enormous shoulder.

"Let's go. It's time to enter the ninth layer."

The last genius in the eighth layer was the Black Thunder Wraith, but Ryu had no issues with him. He didn't feel a need to kill for no reason.

"Is it… possible?" Empana asked.

He could feel that it took a level he didn't have to enter the ninth layer. Although his talent had increased substantially, it still wasn't complete.

He had some aspects of the World Serpent's strength, but not all of it. The best example was his stomach. He felt that he could devour all flames, but he had no luck with anything else. A true World Serpent could devour an entire world if it wanted to. How could such a creature be limited by the elements?

Of course, with his Dao Heart, Emapana still felt that there was no longer a genius in this world that he had to fear.

But that and his raw talent, which this Rotten Sea relied upon, was a different matter entirely.

Ryu nodded. "It's fine. Meditate on it first. There should still be about two weeks left in this Rotten Sea trial. See how far you can get on your own.

"I will guide from the side."

He gestured toward Empana, and Selheira slipped down from his back.

Ryu took a deep breath and actually began to meditate as well.

Until now, he had somewhat been cheating, relying on Bloodmancy to breakthrough. This was a similar, but more potent, version of what the blood crystals could do.

Of course, the reason Ryu did this was because he never took these layer barriers seriously. There was nothing in this world that he couldn't comprehend.

Before, he had just wanted to save some time. But he felt that this ninth layer would be the key to raising his Dao to an entirely different level.

So he would take that opportunity.