Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

[Sorry everyone, my mom's birthday is today (well, it's actually on tuesday, but monday is a holiday in canada so we're celebrating it today instead) so I'll be uploading today as though it were a weekend]

Aantha's antics were something that Thera was very much used to, plus considering the fact that she wasn't' the target of the teasing and she didn't mind it at all. What she was more concerned about was Aantha's confirmation that Mae had a Dao Companion. Since when? And how had that happened?

"Mae really has a Dao Companion? How? When?" Thera asked with a frown, cutting Aantha's animated story off.

"Ah... About this..." Aantha stumbled over her words, not quite knowing what to say. Could she even tell the truth?

Mae and Ryu had entered a ruin together as strangers, then left half a day later as Dao Companions. If she told the truth, wouldn't that make her big sis seem a bit too cheap? So, Aantha decided to embellish the story.

"Ah, right, big bro met big sis on the Second Heaven after his Sect rose from the First Heaven. You know big sis, she was very cold and didn't really care about anyone, but big bro fell in love at first sight and pursued her. Back then there was a war and big bro was basically the only vanguard of his Sect. He had only been in the Immortal Ring Realm, but he was fighting against the World Sea Realm geniuses of the Second Heaven. Big sis had to pretend to be one of them back then, so she ended up being tricked and losing out on the reward of an expert's immortal abode.

"Although big sis didn't admit it, I know her too well, since then she had big bro in her heart."

The more Aantha spoke, the more confident she seemed to become in the love story she was spinning and she even to nod to herself. However, while she did so, she didn't seem to realize that everyone else was shocked about the details.

His Sect elevated from the First Heaven? What was that supposed to mean? Was he not one of them? Or was it instead that he had joined a Sect of the First Heaven and instead of leaving them, he forcefully helped to raise them up? That was definitely against the rules of engagement.

" ... When big sis and big bro met again, for the fourth time, it was in the Heavenly Path and there was this annoying ant of the Third Heaven present. We all entered the rune together and big bro showed off his Ruin Master skills again and led us to the core of the ruin.

"I guess the tension between the two of them had built up for too long, because after they entered they ruin, big sis came back hanging off of big bro's arm. I'll leave it to your imagination what happened because big sis refused to tell me about it too."

Clearly, Aantha hadn't left out the details because she had a moral compass. Instead, she truly didn't know.

Aantha nodded to herself, satisfied with her story.

Thera, however, had a face full of black lines. How could she not be able to tell when her own little sister was talking out of her ass? But it was fine enough that no one else seemed to be able to tell. To them, Aantha was like this, they had little reason to believe it outside the fact some of them wanted to pin the blame for what happened onto the shoulders of the Dream Asura Race.

"That's enough, Aantha. Focus on the more important details. Who is this person? Where is he from? Why is he so powerful?"

Thera's words seemed to be implying something else entirely. She was a hint worried about Mae being taken advantage of. Although the family had great for her, Mae had ultimately left them all as a little girl, it was hard to tell how she might have changed away from their protective umbrella.

Aantha blinked. "You don't have to worry about that, big bro is from a small world, he only came to the True Martial World recently,"

Thera's brows shot up. It was no wonder her little sister and even Mae had their guards lowered so much. If Ryu had come from a supreme power, they would have definitely been far more hesitant. Such people always had ulterior motives.

Aantha laughed. "Don't you think it's really embarrassing that these so-called geniuses lost to big bro? It's even funnier now, right? Big bro has been here for not even ten years, yet he's already surpassed you all."

Vie's temper finally couldn't seem to hold it in any longer. "I'd like to see what he stands when the rest of us aren't suppressed!"

Aantha sneered. "Maybe you'll just lose a little less embarrassingly."

Elizaren and Hulidyr had expressions as dark as the night sky. The more this Aantha talked, the worse it all seemed to become. Their patience in this regard was wearing thin.

Just the blackhole pulsed once again. From the very beginning, they had all been paying keen attention to it and several heads snapped over all at once.

At that moment, a young woman stepped out with a cold expression. Even so, her eyes seemed to smile somewhat, as though something satisfying had just happened. Her cheeks carried a rosy glow and her long black hair glistened with life and vitality. She was truly a young woman blooming into her prime right before their eyes.

"Big sis!" Aantha called out.

Aantha started off quite excited, but she paled almost instantly as her voice was drowned out by several attacks launching all at once. Numerous Sky Gods acted in unison, seemingly wanting to grab a hold of Mae for themselves to ensure that the truth got told.

Mae hadn't been expecting this result and paled as well. As for Thera, she was absolutely furious. It seemed as though these people had forgotten the terror of the Dream Asura race. If that man found out what they were doing to his daughter, would they even be able to survive? Where did they get such boldness from?!

Thera's aura changed and sparse scales began to pop up all along her voluptuous body, even her hips and breasts seemed to increase by one size as she whipped out with a vicious momentum. The others were attacking to grasp Mae gently, but she was attacking to crush everything in her path.

The auras of the attacks only caused Mae to pale even further. She couldn't move an inch, the power of Sky Gods was too far beyond her and no amount of preparation could have had her ready for such a thing.

Thera's whip crushed everything in its path, snapping both the residual palm and claw energies of Elizaren, Hulidyr and the big bellied, jeweled monk, lloron.

With her quick reactions, her attacks managed to get there first and she quickly acted to disperse as much of it as she could before it impacted, however just before she could deal with it all and sweep Mae toward her like she had done with Aantha, Elizaren's gaze flashed and the glaive hovering to his back trembled just once.

Thera was caught off guard. She hadn't expected for someone to be shameless enough to use a God Treasure in this situation and she found her reaction speed slowed.

"ELIZAREN!" Thera was thoroughly infuriated.

A wall of energy continued toward Mae who was still entirely incapable of moving. Before it even reached her, her figure shuddered before being thrown back. She felt as though all of her bones had shattered at once, her inner organs rattling to the point they were almost shaken into a meat sludge.

"MAE!"

Mae's sped out like a cannonball, headed directly for a pillar. Given its sturdiness, if the two were allowed to collide, the end result could only be devastating. Elizaren frowned. He had expected Mae to get hurt and get flung out like that, but the direction was unfortunate. In reality, he had just wanted to get another chance at grabbing her and this was the best way, but there were too many variables to calculate exactly how she would land.

Thera's gaze went entirely red. If Mae died here, she wouldn't be satisfied until she massacred every young genius present here. She would make them all pay in blood!

Just then, no one seemed to realize the blackhole trembled once more before swirling shut.

Just when Mae was about to collide with the pillar, a figure appeared behind her, reaching out from the void and gently placing a hand on her back. The aura of a Palm God pervaded the air, descending with a suffocating presence.

With the touch of a deity, all of the force seemed to vanish and Mae was cradled into a soft landing.

At that moment, a young man with a frighteningly cold gaze stepped out. His clothes were beaten and ragged, revealing a torso that was both chiseled to an extreme, muscle fibers that vibrated like steel cords, and skin that was layered in complex tattoos of dark gold and white gold.

Almost immediately, he was the center of attention. Whether in terms of looks or aura, it felt like even the Sky Gods present couldn't be his match as his white hair fluttered in the air.

The young man looked down at the frail young woman he cradled in his arms. She looked like a single touch would cause her to fall apart.

Mae's gaze was blurry as she looked up to see the young man's face. For some reason, despite his weakness in the face of so many experts, she sighed a breath of relief. She tried to speak, but only blood flew from her mouth.

Ryu's expression darkened further, the very void itself trembling.

He looked up with a piercing gaze, scanning through the Sky Gods before he landed on Elizaren.

"When I become a Sky God, you will be the first person that I kill."

The oath was soft but it echoed like a clap of thunder, the skies above responding with a furious boom.