Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu strolled slowly. The land beneath his feet wasn't dry, nor could it be considered lush. It carried a brittle sort of consistency to it that gave way to softness the more weight you pressed down. The trees in the region had been cleared, and the ambience of nature was suppressed by the brazenness of these encampments.

Walking forward so boldly as just a single person inevitably brought many eyes on him, even more so when his palms turned over and a twin pair of daggers appeared in them. He balanced the tip of one blade on a finger, spinning the other one on his palm. His steps never paused, but his Silver Runes began to appear around him with every time he took.

The air seemed to grow stiller and stiller, the rustling of the leaves of the few sparse trees that did remain falling into silence as well.

"It's been a long time," Ryu said softly.

He didn't project his voice with qi, but the Heavens seemed to resonate with him, carrying his vibrating tones ahead as though it insisted that the world must hear him.

The Core Elder in charge of this encampment narrowed his eyes. He could feel immediately that Ryu wasn't a normal Fragmented Sky God, but did it matter? He could be the greatest genius and still not be a match for a True Sky God like him.

But when he looked around, he found that more than half of his Outer Disciples were frozen, their momentum entirely crushed as though they had forgotten what kind of backing they had.

The subtle hints of Ryu's Dao fused into the Heavens themselves, bearing down on their psyches and ripping at their heartstrings. Every step he took felt like it echoed right through their chests, their blood flow slowing and their faces paling.

Core Elder Briza was ranked 20083rd amongst Core Elders. This middling rank was one that he was very proud of, and he wore that pride on his sleeve. Watching these disciples under him react in this way made his teeth itch with rage, but he forced himself to calm down.

Reprimanding them would be a hit to morale, and he also couldn't attack Ryu directly or else Aika would have an excuse to make a move.

A Fragmented Sky God dared to appear in their midst, and yet, despite having over 50 of the same rank on their side, they hardly dared to move?

What kind of nonsense was this?

"Humph." Core Elder Briza stomped a foot that shook the earth. The boundaries of Ryu's Dao were rebuffed.

This sort of subtle action wasn't enough to elicit the rage of higher-ups, and it was subtle enough that it couldn't be used to attack him.

"Kill him." Core Elder Briza commanded coldly.

The Inner Disciples seemed to snap out of their stupor, their gazes flashing with rage of their own as they came to "understand" what had happened.

"This bastard," an Inner Disciple cursed under his breath. "I'll handle him."

He could tell that Ryu was just a Lower Fragmented Sky God, but he was already a Middle Fragmented Sky God. Ryu daring to appear here was just him courting death.

The young man rushed forward, his speed enough to cross the distance of barely a hundred meters between himself and Ryu in less than an instant. Even so, it might as well have played out in slow motion in the eyes of others.

Ryu pinched the tip of the blade he was balancing on his fingers, his wrist snapping forward.

PUCHI! The speeding young man froze, his steps coming to an immediate stop.

Those behind him didn't see what happened until he suddenly fell backward, a dagger sticking out of the center of his forehead.

Ryu beckoned with a finger, and as though a magnet was attached to the dagger, it flew back toward him, its tip once again balancing on his finger.

"Not nearly enough," Ryu said lightly.

The eyes of the youths bulged. This was the first time since they started their oppression of the Radiant Star Sect that one of their own had died so terribly.

Casualties were inevitable, and they had already suffered many. But this was... it felt like not a battle but an execution.

The Inner Disciples roared in rage, a group of five sprinting ahead at their fastest speed. They only took a single step and yet had already closed the distance.

Ryu took a step and slid out of the way of a fist, the hand he was using to palm a dagger's blade whistling ahead once, then again.

He took another step and emerged to the side, his dagger-balancing hand flicking its wrist again. The dagger vanished in a blink, but Ryu didn't seem to care, flicking his free wrist again as though he was controlling air.

He came to a stop, standing behind the last disciple who was looking around in confusion. He could find Ryu at all and had no idea where he had gone. He couldn't believe that someone could move so fast as a Lower Fragmented Sky God.

But then a spurt of blood came from his throat at the same time as two of his companions had a similar spurt come from their foreheads, while the last two were split cleanly down the middle, falling as though they had been hacked in two by a great sword rather than a small, six-inch dagger.

"Still not enough," Ryu said lightly.

Core Elder Briza's eyes bulged, red veins popping out.

This didn't make logical sense.

It had to be remembered that Sky Gods were a completely different level of existence. Battling five at the same level wasn't anywhere near as easy as it had been in the lower Realms. There were plenty of examples of young geniuses falling to ambushes of less than even a dozen.

This was the cruelty of the Sky God Realms, and it was also because of this that it was even harder for individual geniuses without backing to rise up on their own.

But at this point, he was starting to believe that Ryu was hiding his real cultivation.

"You scum!" He roared. "What is your real cultivation! Is that why you're wearing a mask!?"

Core Elder Briza's words made everyone's eyes bulge with the same fury.

Ryu sneered. "If you want to attack, just do it. It's unbefitting a True Sky God to need such excuses."

Briza no longer cared what Ryu said. The moment he had planted that seed of reasonable doubt, he signaled everyone.

"Attack at once, take this scum down."