Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

BANG!

Ryu's fist met the beast constructs forming in the air. For a moment, it looked as though they were evenly matched, but in that instant, Ryu's Perfect Blackbody Soul thrummed.

BANG!

The beast constructs seemed to implode, becoming large streams of Spiritual Quintessence that erupted from their innards and spilled out into the surroundings.

Valerius' eyes narrowed, but his hands quickly began to form hand seals. He took note of Ryu's Perfect Blackbody Soul, deducing what had just happened in an instant and changing his tactics.

His arms spread out and his Dao erupted. The billowing aura of a Higher Ancient Dao spilling into the surroundings.

The constructs that Ryu had just blown apart seemed to reform on their own, a cascading swell of life and creation pooling. For a moment, the constructs didn't seem to just be constructs anymore, but rather real, living, breathing beasts.

Valerius pressed two fingers, holding one palm out toward Ryu and raising those fingers into the sky. Blood was pulled out from his pores, qi spilled out from his mouth and nose, and Spiritual Quintessence swirled among them, forming an amalgamation of something entirely new.

The danger Ryu sensed multiplied several times over, the creatures that had been somewhat more real now suddenly truly becoming corporeal.

The wyrms filled the skies by the dozens, roaring like flood dragons completely unimpeded by their own flight at all. They soared just as easily as Ryu did, bearing down menacingly and unleashing a torrent of their creator's fury.

The air rocked like the sea on a stormy night, the qi in the surroundings becoming so volatile that even the pair of Omniscient Sky God women found it hard to even stabilize themselves properly.

In that moment, it felt like all eyes within a thousand kilometers were stuck on this very battle...

And then there was Ryu who looked like a small fish in the midst of swarming sharks, so tiny and insignificant compared to these large, looming constructs that it seemed he would truly be swallowed whole.

Death Acupoint.

The trigram diagrams above and below Ryu, shimmering with gold and dark gold respectively, spun once and seemed to click into place.

He gathered up momentum in one of his fingers, one of his legs sweeping back as his wrists relaxed into a loose posture. For a moment, he almost looked as though he was taking the stance of a crane, a middling, mortal martial art that the grand nobles of the True Martial World had likely never seen before.

But it was nothing of the sort.

His Birthed Phenomena rose high into the skies, his Dao suddenly sharpening.

Then his finger completed a downward stroke.

BANG!

One of the constructs shattered into a rain of blood, Spiritual Quintessence and qi.

A foggy energy began to gather around Ryu's wrists, his other hand completing a beautiful downward stroke that destroyed another construct, and then another.

The Death Acupoints of these creatures pretending to be alive were so large that they might as well have been a large, blinking, neon sign that pointed them out.

Every time he moved, the constructs fell, painting a gorgeous scene of a man in tune with nature, dancing in a rain of blood and energy.

Valerius appeared before Ryu in a flash. Or, rather, a clone of his seemed to.

Many felt their hearts skip a beat. Wasn't this the Incarnation of a Dao Lord? How was it possible for Valerius to use such a thing already?

His fist exploded forth, fueled by an impossible strength. That was because Ryu could see in an instant that it wasn't just Vital Qi and Qi that was fueling this strike, but somehow Valerius was also using his Spiritual Quintessence to directly increase his strength.

It was a technique that was a perfect fusion of his Dao, his Mage Arts, and his Inheritances. Compared to the strike of his real body, this fist was hundreds of times more powerful rather than being the weaker version it should have been.

BOOM!

Fist and fist met and Ryu felt his arm snap backward under the force. Though his arm wasn't broken, his guard certainly was.

However, he used the sudden loss of momentum to step back and out of the range of the Incarnation's second blow, sweeping another finger technique out in an arc to shatter an approaching construct.

A battle that shattered the very air it took place on erupted, every clash ending in a cacophony of exploding energy and shattering reality.

Ryu realized very quickly why Valerius was able to keep up in close combat with this Incarnation. It wasn't just that he was distracted but the constructs constantly trying to rip his head off, nor was it just the fact that the Incarnation itself was outputting far more power than himself, but it was that Valerius was a third-party observer to everything as well.

He wasn't the Incarnation, he was controlling the Incarnation. As such, his vantage point was akin to a use of [Third Perspective].

'No...'

Ryu's eyes flashed like lightning. It wasn't just his main body, but all the constructs... every single one of his creations was an extra set of eyes and it negated one of his greatest advantages.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Ryu exchanged a quick flurry of elbows and knees with the Incarnation, garnering himself a small bit of breathing room to use Death Acupoint again and destroy another Incarnation.

The white scales across Ryu's body suddenly thrummed as everything clicked into place.

It was time for him to stop reacting and start taking the initiation.

'[Immortal Sakura].'

Ryu's wings opened wide as a construct of his own appeared high in the skies. The Visualization loomed so tall and mighty that it could be seen for tens of thousands of kilometers.

When its delicate pink-diamond cherry blossoms began to fall from the skies, it painted an image of awe and fascination, forming a gorgeous tapestry that was quickly assaulted by a rain of bone-chilling cold.