Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

1229 Heavy as the Skies

After a few moments of silence, the region around Ryu seemed to disperse entirely. Everywhere around him, people circled, but none was closer than two to three meters. They all looked toward him with a varying range of expressions, but it could clearly be stated that reverence was more definitely not one of them.

Most of the participants were in the Cosmic Seed Realm. Those that had the greatest chances in the combat stream were all in the Higher Cosmic Seed Realm at worst. Of course, it wasn't yet clear if Ryu was an alchemist or not. Theoretically, he had somewhat of a chance if he was an alchemist so long as his soul was in the Lower Soul Ascension Realm at the very least.

Though having a stronger soul than one's Qi Realm cultivation was rare, it wasn't unheard of for secondary profession geniuses. About 3% to 5% of them would be at this standard, so if Ryu was so bold, it wasn't difficult to assume that his soul was also at that standard.

Of course, the Soul Ascension Realm, at least the Lower Soul Ascension Realm, was the Cosmic Seed Realm equivalent. But unlike Qi or Body Realm cultivation, it was harder to sense Mental Realm cultivation without a cultivator taking it upon themselves to release their Spiritual Qi.

They were correct about that, Ryu's Mental Realm was long since at the standard of the Soul Ascension Realm... it was just that he hadn't actually stepped into that Realm yet. He was still at the Soul Refinement Realm, and because his body had recently strengthened, he still had more room to strengthen his soul as well.

Even so, while they had heard of arrogant alchemists, they all came from one of the two Pavilions, Ryu was very clearly not one of them...

That meant that it was either Ryu was challenging as an outsider alchemist, or just as bad, he was participating in the combat stream.

No matter how you looked at it, he seemed ridiculous.

"Hey!"

A young man with a bold voice stepped forward. He was from the Fifth Heaven and was already at the Peak Cosmic Seed Realm. Just judging by the boldness of his Vital Qi, he was clearly a Body Realm expert alongside his Qi Realm cultivation. In addition, he gave off an aura that was familiar to Ryu, an aura that came from Akura.

A descendant of the Fire Giant Demon Kings, the Draco Race.

"Your words are quite bold. Are you an alchemist or a combatant?!"

The young man was immediately recognized by the crowd. He was among the "new comers", though he couldn't quite fit into that category. Honestly, this so-called "new comer" category just encompassed all those that weren't well known Sixth Heaven geniuses, and as such, Galloth of the Draco Race was among them.

Ryu turned a cold gaze over, the grin on his face making Galloth narrow his eyes.

He could sense an undisguised excitement in Ryu's eyes, a look that only the madmen of his race had. The flickering black flames seemed to want to spill over, the earth beneath his feet cracking and ruining the beautifully paved roads.

"Both."

The echo of Ryu's words seemed to cause their hearts to come to a stop. Despite the fact he had spoken softly, for some reason, it roared in their ears like the bellow of a dragon. Their minds went entirely blank, and by the time they had reacted, Ryu had completely vanished.

Almost instantly, there was nothing but an uproar, the loud voices of the cultivators that were left behind matching the booming of the fireworks shooting through the skies.

When was the last time someone had taken both streams upon themselves? The answer to that was at the forefront of all of their minds, it was none other than Fairy Claire. Back then, not only had she taken both streams upon herself, but she had come back with a first place trophy in both streams.

Since then, there had been quite a few who had tried to replicate the feat, and there were many more who had tried before her, but none had been able to replicate the dual first place feat.

The alchemy discipline took much too much effort to perfect, to also be a strong combatant on top of that took a genius of all geniuses. Without mastering three Dao Charm techniques of the Mystical Grade and having a Dao of at least the Hegemonic Grade, you couldn't even hope to replicate such a feat, and that was the minimum standard.

How could you have time to do such a thing?

Even if you considered all secondary professions, there would only be a handful every few generations that could replicate such a feat. The worst part was that even if by some miracle Ryu was indeed one of these geniuses, he would need to be at the Peak Cosmic Seed Realm to claim the victory he sought after, how could he possibly do it an entire Realm below?

Not even an hour later, the New Comers List updated once again. There was only a single question and a single one word reply.

"Both."

...

The simmering prelude to the event began to boil over. The next day seemed to pass like a flash, and the existence of Ryu became like a flashpoint.

When the day came, Ryu, who had been meditating on the top of a building, flashed and vanished.

His white and blue robes fluttered as he appeared in a landing square that rocked back and forth under the roars of the crowd. A single cultivator was already enough to fill the skies with their voice, let alone the millions of them that were present.

High above in a sky box of sorts Ronelis and Fairy Claire stood. They seemed to look over at the same time, their gazes indifferent as they saw Ryu's appearance.

Their exposing of Ryu's words seemed to be innocent, just a few changes to his words. However, what was important wasn't the words themselves, but rather the implications.

If Ryu failed here, it was very likely that he would never step into the Sky God Realm in his lifetime. This was no longer about probing the Radiant Star Sect, this was about Ryu protecting his Dao Heart.

The pressure was as heavy as the skies above.