Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Silver Dance's expression changed for the first time, not toward surprise, but toward a deep seriousness.

Ryu's Dragon Roar blasted through the illusory whips she used to defend herself, forming a tunnel of flames that appeared before her in an instant. The heat was so great that magma seemed to leak from the corners of his lips, all the qi in the air being incinerated in a single instant.

Rage flames towered. The Rage came not from Ryu, but from all of the opponents that he had faced until now. He took all their fury, all their anger, all the despair and channeled it, amplifying his Rage Flames again and again and again. By the time they appeared before Silver Dance, they had already increased in strength by more than a hundred fold. Even Ryu's [Earth Gate] had undergone a subtle swap, from amplifying his whole physique to focusing on just this one Bloodline.

At the same time, the Fire Dragon Phenomena in the skies seemed to be alive. Its ruby eyes glowed, the Lines of Fate being pulled and stripped down from the surroundings, amplifying Ryu's roar further.

Silver Dance watched, her serious expression becoming one of shock. This sort of stacking of abilities... it was truly amazing. Every single piece of this puzzle required more precision than she thought possible at the mere Fragmented Sky God Realm, and it felt like this young man still had more to give.

She took a last glance at the Throne on his back. She was allowed to break the rules somewhat because of the existence of that thing, but... She was swallowed up by the flames.

Ryu frowned, his chest heaving. This woman should have given him the most trouble. He had caught onto a faint hint of her true weaknesses, mostly because of that man she mentioned that Ryu reminded her of. But it hadn't been nearly enough, especially since they hadn't exchanged any words or tidbits of information since then. She would have definitely been Ryu's most troublesome enemy, but she seemed to have died on purpose. Was that even allowed?

Ryu looked around, his frown deepening. According to how things worked, even if a true consciousness descended, they should only be able to work within certain parameters. This benefited Ryu, but it was also to the advantage of the Sect as well. On the one hand, they couldn't access abilities beyond what was fair. On the other, they shouldn't be able to casually give up and allow Ryu to kill them either.

Some of these rules could be bent because of the fact Ryu had a Throne before he came here, but even then, at best, it allowed them to access just a bit of extra power. Well, a lot of extra power.

More than why Silver Dance had done what she did, Ryu was more worried about what it meant that she could at all. Was this Throne challenge more broken than he assumed? Were her actions just now a form of a warning to him? If she could lose on purpose, then what could the others do?

Ryu remained in silence for a while. His expression was calm. There was only really one way, and that was to move forward. It wasn't unattainable to give up a Throne challenge. That wasn't to say it wasn't dangerous and you wouldn't have to give something up, but it was definitely possible. But even with the new flexibility of his Dao Heart, that wasn't something he even took seriously.

Until now, he had overcome his enemies by manipulating their minds. All but Silver Dance fell for that. As such, they hadn't been able to take advantage of any loopholes there might have been. Other than Silver Dance, Twin Reaper had been the closest, but he was too busy trying to enjoy his kill to do anything worse.

In that case, Ryu just had to continue his streak. Someone like Silver Dance who had a Dao Heart so pure and radiant that she would be unaffected by even the fall of her Sect was too rare. She might even be one of them.

Ryu wanted to see if his next enemy would venture to be so casual. He took another breath and his physique finally reached equilibrium once more. Blood dripped down his body from the various cuts he had suffered, but as far as he was concerned, it wasn't worth using his Embryonic Qi on this.

He took a step and soon, standing in the same star field, he was faced with a young man.

This young man had a face more square than anything Ryu had ever seen before. He wore bronze braces that were quite loose on his wrists and forearms, and he was shirtless much like Ryu. Though, one was covered in red scales and the other had somewhat delicate brown skin.

One would think that a shirtless man, especially a True Sky God, would be toned and muscular. But this square-faced man was quite lanky. He wasn't out of shape, but he wasn't in amazing shape either.

Everything about him was average.

He smashed his fists together. "I know a Close Combat Expert when I see one."

He grinned a wild grin, one that didn't match his face or appearance at all. It was so valiant, formed with the presence of a real hero.

"I've never fought a Dragon's descendant before. Hehe, this will be fun."

The man moved, and it was then Ryu's eyes widened.

Muscles that hadn't been there seemed to manifest. Even the braces were filled in an instant and the man grew a size.

'How's that possible...'

It was like his muscles before had been more than just relaxed, they were practically dormant.

The moment the man had the slightest desire of moving, they exploded forth, but it wasn't even all of them. One could clearly see a muscle imbalance that transformed depending on what action he was trying to perform.

Ryu hurriedly side-stepped, punching out on his own.

However, the man's fist suddenly expanded and suddenly Ryu's side step wasn't enough.