Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

"Ah, we're here," Ryu looked up, a frigid landscape around him. "Go, Little Silk. Your breakthrough will be dependent on yourself."

QIII!

Little Silk shot off into the distance, leaving Ryu behind.

Ryu watched her go, crossing his arms and waiting.

His relationship with Little Silk was different from his relationship with his other beast companions. That's because he found Little Silk while she was already millions of years old, while he found the others as infants.

Due to this, there had always been a bit of a barrier between himself and Little Silk, especially since the latter had tried to kill him the first time they came across one another.

However, Ryu's father's words about his wives got him thinking about relationships in general. It was amusing that he was hesitant to contract other beasts because they might betray him, but still kept Little Silk mostly at arm's length.

Of course, there were other reasons that he did trust Little Silk. It was mostly because he extended the trust he had for his mother toward her.

It had to be remembered that Little Silk was given to him by his mother after undergoing an evolution that likely relied on the Ice Shrine. Because of that, Ryu had never really been wary of the beast.

And, none of this was helped by the fact that Little Silk was likely somewhat wary of him as well.

By now, Little Silk should have gained some language ability, but she had never tried to actively communicate with Ryu, at least not with anything more than vague emotions.

Ryu didn't believe that this was entirely out of a lack of trust. Little Silk had spent millions of years as an Eleventh Order Beast. Talking wasn't her natural baseline.

'I'll have to help her out a bit,' Ryu thought.

He looked up and then took a seat in the thick snow, allowing it to wash over him. Soon, it was as though Ryu had never been there in the first place, the snow falling so heavily that he was entirely covered up in just a few hours. It was hard to tell just how thick the snow had grown over the years.

He took a breath and exhaled, entering a state of deep meditation.

He thought about all the things he needed to do, but slowly, those thoughts faded away as well.

Ryu had only been in the territory of the Martial Gods for a short time, and it had even seemed as though he had acted with impunity, but he saw things differently.

First, the power he used to be "rampant" wasn't his own. He wasn't used to relying on others to protect his life, and even when he destroyed all those he fought with, it left him feeling... uncomfortable.

His relationship with his master couldn't be considered to be a great one, and honestly speaking, although he was much weaker, he preferred his first master to the greatest extent. His relationship with Fading Star felt like it was built on the back of too many benefits, and there was hardly the love between a mother and son like it should have been.

Of course, the main point was that he understood that if Fading Star one day found out that he had the Phoenix Sky God's Spiritual Foundation within him, her reaction would be quite predictable. Ryu was almost certain that she would try to kill him.

This aside, he had truly felt the power of the Martial Gods. In a way, their inaction was more fierce of a slap to his face than their inaction.

He had killed a genius of theirs, then crippled the path of cultivation for three Omniscient Sky Gods...

And yet they hadn't even blinked.

The reality of it was that they likely hadn't even had to grit their teeth, their Dao Lords probably didn't even react to what was happening.

And why was that?

It was because they had so many that they could afford to be so casual. They cared little about the path of cultivation of a few Omniscient Sky Gods because they were worthless. Even if they had been Dao Lords, would they have cared?

Ryu remembered when he first stepped foot into their territory... that obese City Lord... he had been a Dao Lord, and yet he was regulated to the outskirts of the outskirts, a region that could just barely be considered Martial God territory at all.

This was the reality he was in.

To them, his feats were probably more the tantrum of a child than it was any actual, tangible threat. Even Elena's mother and father hadn't done anything, and he had killed the latter's son and the former's mother.

In cultivation, how you came to understand something or how you came to feel about something was far more important than what you understood or what you felt.

The first layer of reaction Ryu should have had was a domineering indifference. Wasn't it natural? He deserved to feel pride because he had crushed so many Martial Gods beneath his feet.

The second layer was despair. This came after he shed the first layer and realized just how insignificant he was in the grand scheme.

But what was Ryu's real reaction?

It was the third layer. Once again, he felt a domineering indifference.

But what separated the two? The first layer was the same as the third? So why did they feel different?

It was because he was aware of the existence of the second layer...

He just didn't give a damn.

Trillions of Sky Gods? He didn't care.

Countless Dao Lords and above? He didn't care.

Millions of God techniques, with more seemingly created every day? He didn't care.

One way or another, he would grind the Martial Gods beneath the soles of his feet.

Ryu's heart reached a deep state of peace, his Dao Heart shimmering as though a polished gem.

Then, he began to cultivate, pulling large amounts of Chaos Qi from the Chaos Plane.

He no longer had to hide his talent. In that case, he would go all out.