Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu's dragon claw trembled, his mind feeling as though an explosion had gone off within it. It was as though a wave of towering lust he had been suppressing for countless years came exploding outward all at once.

At the same time, waves of pain assaulted his senses as he felt as though his soul was being shredded apart beneath his faint resistance.

In that moment, Ryu gained an inkling into the sort of horror Jenneless had experienced for several months. Pain to the soul seemed to distort all your senses, crippled your will power and even twisted your personality into something unrecognizable.

If Ryu had used his Emperor Phoenix Heavenly Patterns to defend his soul in the final moments, there was a chance that he might have been able to resist such a terrible injury. But unfortunately, in order to dodge the physical effects of Mae's blade, he had already exposed the aura of the dragon race. If he then exposed the aura of a phoenix race right afterward, the situation might have gotten far too out of hand.

By this point, Ryu had absolutely no confidence in ensuring the death of Mae. So if he was going to expose something, he could only choose one fight, and between his head being chopped off his shoulders and an injury to his soul, one of which led to an instant death and the other of which could be managed, the answer was all too obvious.

Although Ryu no longer had an Indestructible Soul, his current soul was much better in a number of ways. Not to mention all of the auxiliary abilities of the Perfect Blackbody Soul, its greatest strength was its plasticity.

The Perfect Blackbody soul was designed to perfectly shape itself down whatever path its owner wanted. With this came certain advantages that stemmed even beyond just being able to gain Soul Natures at will, and that was the ability to recover from injuries.

Ryu didn't need to scour for soul healing treasures like others, which was of great benefit to himself considering just how rare such treasures were. All he needed to do was cultivate a bit and his soul would mend itself.

The trouble was that doing so in battle was nigh impossible. If he was facing someone far weaker than himself, he could take the chance. But Mae was clearly an exceptional threat to him. Just in this battle alone, he had smelled death several times.

And now, he smelled it again.

His Dao could feel that this was an illusion, an attack on his mind, but his soul wasn't strong enough to shake it off. No, it was less accurate to say that it wasn't strong enough, and much more accurate to say that he simply couldn't. It was akin to someone who had torn their bicep try to curl their arm, the feat was nigh impossible.

Ryu grit his teeth.

Even with his mind compromised, he knew that he only had fractions of a second. The moment he watched that bead of sweat fall down her breasts, he knew that he had fallen into a mental attack. That scene was too perfect and everything else seemed to fade away in the face of it. It was akin to a hypnotist's swinging pendulum, replaying in his mind again and again.

Compared to the bewitching techniques of the Bewitching Charm Sect, Mae was on a completely different level. He felt as though his entire mind had been co opted by thoughts of her naked body and feeling of her lips.

Ryu's mind went through multiple possibilities, but even thinking made his head feel as though it was being split in two. His will power had never felt so weak before, and it was only now that he understood exactly what Ailsa had meant all those years ago.

She had said back then that someone with Ryu's Dao Heart and determination couldn't possibly have such weak soul talent, and now that seemed to come full circle at this moment. Just from a single injury to his soul, he didn't even feel like himself anymore.

Suddenly, Ryu settled on a ridiculous thought he couldn't even bring himself to properly think through. He didn't feel like he had any time remaining, and even if he did, he mind felt like it was at the end of its rope.

With a roar, Ryu just barely managed to squeeze out a small corner to himself, using the minor breath of freedom to drop his great swordstaff and flip over a palm to reveal a memory jade.

Almost instantly, he read through it, flooding his mind with the words, images and videos.

In one moment, Ryu's mind was filled with Mae. But, in the next, it was filled with Elena in all sort of compromised positions.

His mind flashed and he was transported into a scene of Elena taking a back. She raised her legs onto the ledges of her porcelain white tub. She positioned herself right beneath the streaming water, the lids of her eyes half closed and moans of pleasure left her lips. Her breasts undulated and beams of soapy water fell to the side, gently caressing those gorgeous pink protrusions.

The image shifted once again and Ryu found Elena standing on the tips of her toes wearing nothing but a pink lace thong that left almost nothing to the imagination from behind. She stood by the edge of a desk Ryu recognized all too well because it was his desk, he had lost count of the number of hours he had spent reading and deducing at it. However, this desk that was once meant for only work was being used as a stand-in for himself.

Elena grinded into its edge, the folds of her pink lace panties tightening and loosening with every forward and back motion. In one moment, Ryu could just barely see the defined outline of her treasured place, and in the next it would vanish.

A moistness continued to build up as Elena shuddered, nearly falling backward and she barely managed to grip the sides of the desk.