Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu took a breath, his body entering a state of focus. It was incredibly hard to do so when he knew quite well that there were a whole host of people rushing toward him, though. Even so, the first thing he did was check on the state of his body.

His qi could move, albeit slowly. His body was a bit languid and his reflexes were shot. But the greatest change was in his mind, it was practically shut down, as though a business that was boarded up and closed off for the day. Its full effort was placed behind assimilating with this coming information.

Then Ryu understood. The reason his thoughts were so slow and his reflexes so shot was because he could only control himself with a sliver of his mind right now, only barely enough to remain conscious. He had a feeling that if not for the Origin Flame, he wouldn't be awake right now at all and might even fall into a coma for an extended period of time, leaving the others to do whatever they wanted with his body.

He didn't even have the mind to spare for computing exactly how long this would take and for all he knew, it could end either in the next second, or take several years to finish.

Ryu snarled inwardly. This didn't make any sense. The Origin Flame was a God Treasure that stood at the pinnacle and its greatest reliance in the help it provided to bolstering the mind. Plus, he had just made great headway into his self created cultivation techniques, his mind should be the sharpest it could be.

Ryu grit his teeth and disregarded it all. Figuring out the reason this was happening would take a mental capacity that he simply didn't have right now. There was no use in trying to figure out when, very soon, he would have some unwelcomed guests.

He gripped his remaining great swordstaff and closed his eyes. Relying on his mind right now would be impossible. He exhaled a breath and white scales manifested all across his body as his Bloodlines thrummed with life. A wide pair of wings spread and horns that arched toward the skies grew from his forehead.

He took another breath, this one slower than the last, and then a third even slower than the second. His breathing became so rhythmic and lethargic that it seemed as though he had begun to sleep.

Adlael's eyes widened. He stood on a mountain range in the distance and he was among the first to reach this location because he had never gone after Ryu in the first place, he had been able to distinguish between Ryu and the true Diamond Protector Spirit. However, Ryu still got here before him.

That was fine, because Adlael's goal was never to personally defeat the spirit, that would cause him some... issues. Instead, he much preferred someone else to do so, and then he could wait his time. The only reason he had insisted on getting here first was because it would only benefit him. The less he missed, the better chance he would have to be fully prepared.

He didn't know what Ryu had done, but the powerful spirit he was sure he couldn't defeat actually fell to a single strike. And then, instead of immediately imploding due to the influx of energy, he actually withstood it, and now he seemed to be preparing for a fight as though he knew what was coming.

Adlael didn't know that Ryu had the Origin Flame, or a Founding Dao, and he definitely didn't know that Ryu had just succeeded in creating his own cultivation method, at least up until the World Sea Realm of the soul. But what he did know was what absorbing that spirit meant.

The Complete Heavenly Path was different from the Incomplete one. Rather than having a set path it took every time it opened, it rather had a pool of challenges, of which were randomized and then picked from. Usually, there could be anywhere from a single round up to three, there were even some instances of four or five and it was difficult to tell exactly what triggered the differences.

Even so, after so many cycles of opening, all of the rounds had pretty much been logged, though no one dared to say this for certain. On top of this, there were certain patterns that were unearthed as well.

The fact that round one was a single elimination style round was a sign of the path this Heavenly Path was taking, and it was a bloody one. Usually rounds

like that one, so straight forward and ruthless, only appeared when the Heavenly Path had a great reward to give out and it only wanted a chosen few, or even just one to benefit from it.

But what didn't make sense was that this single elimination style round was followed up by a team battle style round. It was completely inconsistent and it didn't line up, it was as though the Heavenly Path was confused...

Or was it?

What if, the entire time, this was the outcome it wanted? For just a single person to gain all of the benefits? Were they just naïve in assuming this was meant to be a team battle round just because the introduction of the rules had uttered so? But in that case, why had the Heavenly Path said so at all? Adlael was certain that if it had simply said nothing, most people would try t work alone until they were forced to do otherwise. But in this situation, mos had teamed up first, and then begun to battle.

This wasn't the only oddity either.

Usually, the Heavenly Path was only open to World Sea Realm experts and below. Those that had come from the Seventh Heaven, and even himself and Ramon, had remained in the World Sea Realm as a result of these thoughts. But this time, Half-Step Sky Gods had entered, many forgoing their foundations to force this change upon themselves, and the Heavenly Path had allowed it.

Beyond that, it seemed that most of the World Sea Realm experts had been purposely matched up against the Half-Step Sky Gods of the Sixth Heaven just to gain a right to enter this "team battle" round....