Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu's eyes widened, his heart, or rather what remained of it, nearly beating out of his chest. Primus Tatsuya? He didn't give a damn. However, when he saw his father's name, he latched onto it like a fish might water or a baby might take their first breath of air.

"Ha…"

Ryu laughed lightly. He might have laughed more forcefully if it wasn't for the fact that even breathing felt like a tall task. His father had been here, and had even done well enough to place so high, how could Ryu not be beaming from ear to ear?Ryu's gaze shifted down the list, seemingly looking for something else. But it was cut off at the top 10000 and there didn't seem to be anything else to see beyond that. He had been somewhat hoping to see Isemeine and Eska somewhere, but they where nowhere to be seen.

This maybe wasn't too surprising. It was only 10000 names whereas there were more than a hundred times that had entered just this time alone, let alone the number that had appeared across all time. It was a hard ask to expect them to appear.

"These points, though…"

There was something weird about all of this. Logically speaking, almost every single person who had made it far along the star path should be near the top of the rankings on the all-time list. This was no normal opening of the Heavenly Path, this was the flashpoint that would start the Convergence.

Just by virtue of the existence of so many geniuses, the concentration of Heavenly Favor should be beyond the vast majority of openings. The only ones that should be able to match up would be the opening that corresponded to over Convergences. And considering how rare Convergence events were throughout history, they should be pitifully few.

This was to say that the fact Ryu was first place during a Convergence event, and yet only seventh on the list, … It felt fishy, off somehow.

There were only two explanations that Ryu could see for this.

The first was that he was missing something quite big, a large piece of the puzzle was that was so enormous that it was foolish of him to try and draw a conclusion about what was happening at the moment…

The second was an extension of the first but somewhat more targeted… and that was the obvious fact that the Heavenly Path's trials were not over yet. In that case, these rankings didn't represent any sort of finality and there would be something else that tested them beyond what Ryu had assumed the third phase would be.

The third phase was supposedly a battle royale and it was the phase Aika had given Ryu the least information on. Ryu had assumed that this was because it was self-explanatory, but there was also another potential reason, and that was that the third phase was too unpredictable to give advice about.

In this case, the fact that Ryu was already in seventh place at the start of the third phase should be seen as a shocking feat. If he was correct, then by the end of this, there would be several new names on that list of ten thousand, that's the only way the Convergence would live up to its name!

Ryu completed his thoughts almost instantly, but he wasn't the only one paying attention to the list. The fact that three of the top ten shared the exact same last name didn't escape the attention of those here.

Originally, these geniuses didn't give a damn about this incomplete Heavenly Path, their goal had always been the complete Heavenly Path. Ultimately, although there were some legends of the past that would be on this ranking list, compared to the monster on the Complete Heavenly Path's list, most of them weren't worth much of anything at all.

Anyone who had to pass through the incomplete Heavenly Path to begin with was almost assumed to be inferior. After all, if you had to ascend from the Third Heaven, what could you be worth in the grand scheme of things? Convergences were very rare, so the geniuses who descended here from high Heavens were also extraordinarily rare.

Even so, because of this, their assumption had been that while higher Heaven geniuses wouldn't dominate the majority of the list, they should probably occupy the top 100 or so positions with relative ease.

Never had they expected that the top of the list would be occupied by an unknown. Not only were they an unknown, which was shocking enough, but they shared a last name with another anomaly that had appeared out of nowhere in Ryu!

All of this was difficult to accept.

"Ryu!"

While everyone was distracted, it was Mae who made it to Ryu's side first, her gaze clearly showing her hints of worry. But at the same time, her crimson irises flickered with an almost bestial light at the same time. With her expression bouncing back and forth between the two, she looked quite crazy... or sexy, truthfully the line between the two feelings was too blurred to tell.

Mae made a grabbing motion out of the air and several fragrant pills appeared in her hands before she pushed them into Ryu's palms.

Ryu's gaze flickered. These pills were all of exceptional quality, but they were unfortunately not 100% pure. Ryu had never eaten pills to improve his cultivation in the path because he didn't want their impurities to slow his cultivation speed, so he had relied on the Incubator instead.

Now, as an alchemist, Ryu could trust himself to concoct his own pills without a worry for their impurities, but he hadn't gotten a chance yet to use this self-reliant ability of his.

While he was grateful for Mae's lack of hesitation in giving up pills that were so valuable, his talent was already lacking enough as it was, he couldn't afford to muck it up any more with these external factors.

Just as Ryu was about to return the pills, he hesitated, suddenly thinking of something.

So what if they were impure? He just had to make them pure. A pill was just the result of refined ingredients. Most wouldn't have the skill to refine them down any further, but his skill wasn't something others could compare to, especially with the evolution of his Dao.

Ryu was preparing to re-refine the pills when several auras blocked his path from all sides.

He looked up coldly to find all of the so-called geniuses blocking all of his paths of retreat.

Mae's expression went cold as her head snapped up, golden flames beginning to dance in her eyes. She was already on the verge of an episode and didn't need much else to push her over the edge. Seeing so many surrounded Ryu when he had just been in such a battle, how could she not be infuriated?

"I hope you all won't get in my way," Vie said coldly. "His head is mine. If you want to taste my blade, you can go ahead and try me."

Akura sneered. "Ooo, scary. Yeah, sure, I'll let you have all his Heavenly Favor to you, my precious prince. All you have to do is crawl under my crotch once, how about it?"

Vie's gaze flashed with a malevolent light. In any other situation, he probably would have attacked Akura immediately for saying such a thing, wiping that disgusting, jagged and sharp toothed grin off of his face. However, he knew he couldn't afford to get embroiled in such a battle now.

The likes of Mano and Zed didn't say a single word, but the fact they were still here and hadn't even glanced toward Vie after he spoke those words spoke volumes in and of itself. Even if they didn't have the same methods Vie did to steal Ryu's inheritances, that didn't mean they wouldn't make their own attempts. In addition, even if there was no inheritance to be gained, one only needs to look up at the leaderboard to see the value of Ryu's head.

Within the crowd of geniuses, Jenneless' gaze flashed dangerously. But now that her soul had been healed, she had returned to her usually calm and calculating self. Ryu might have already noticed her, but that didn't mean that the others did. For now, she would bide her time and wait patiently for an opportunity.

Ryu retracted his gaze after a single moment. These people were talking about him as though he wasn't here, how amusing.

He looked down at the three pills in his hand, trying to see if he had enough Focus Qi to succeed. In the end, he concluded that he didn't have enough to reforge these as Runed Pills as that would require combining all three. He could only work on one and push it to 100%, that would have to be good enough for now.

But after that, his Focus Qi would be even more spent.

Focus Qi would never technically drop to zero. Just before it did, a person would directly faint, there was no amount of willpower that would stop it. Right now, Ryu was dangerously close to that limit. Even if he healed his injuries to 30-40% with this 100% pill, pills that could increase Focus Qi didn't exist as far as Ryu knew.

Still... one problem at a time.

A small flame flickered on Ryu's palm and suddenly enveloped one of the pills. But after that, his Focus Qi would be even more spent.

Focus Qi would never technically drop to zero. Just before it did, a person would directly faint, there was no amount of willpower that would stop it. Right now, Ryu was dangerously close to that limit. Even if he healed his injuries to 30-40% with this 100% pill, pills that could increase Focus Qi didn't exist as far as Ryu knew.

Still... one problem at a time.

A small flame flickered on Ryu's palm and suddenly enveloped one of the pills.

It was only now that the other geniuses realized that the lack of respect was mutual. Ryu didn't even seem to be aware of their presence as the pill became more and more resplendent beneath his flame.