Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Selheira sat in meditation, but she found it difficult to focus her mind properly. Although she was thankful to her husband, it also felt like everything she had been working toward had been taken over by another person and she didn't quite feel the same sort of achievement and thankfulness toward success that she would have otherwise.

It felt like it one moment, she was spinning her wheels, hardly able to progress at all, and yet in the next, Ryu had swooped down on a white steed and elevated her out of the darkness. With just a few droplets of his milk, in more ways than one, she had achieved an enlightenment that she had been chasing after for decades.

It was hard to reconcile exactly how she was feeling, honestly. On the one hand, this was what she always wanted, but on the other... was it truly meant to be so easy?

In just the few months Ryu had been gone, she managed to break through from the Fragmented Sky God Realm to the False Sky God Realm, and now she was already on the verge of entering the True Sky God Realm.

If she had been a pure Dragon, or more accurately, following the true Dragon path, she would have already broken through. But because she was following a mixture of both paths, she had to comprehend a Dao first and infuse it into her Dao Bones.

Real Dragons only needed combat and sleep to progress. In fact, that was true for all talented beasts, but it was just especially so for Fire Dragons because they rooted their strength in their Rage.

Of course, this was only true if you were born with exceptional talent like Selheira. If you were a middling beast, it would be almost impossible to ever break free of those shackles.

Selheira's heart suddenly trembled as she sensed a familiar aura. She rushed outside and found Ryu descending from the skies with a happy smile on her face.

Her drooping wings regained their spring and she flapped once. She moved so fast that Ryu's eyes were the only part of him that could keep up before she crashed into him like a speeding bolder.

"Oof..." Ryu coughed, the air being knocked out of him.

Selheira's body was really on an entirely different level.

After he had helped the Nine Pillar Flame Sect and Unbalance Art Sect's inheritances to break free of their Faith shackles-at least within his own body-he had yet to find the resources he would need to reform his foundation. So, his body was only marginally stronger than it had been before his inner world's breakthrough.

And, since he obviously wasn't in a battle state, Selheira bulldozing him was almost a guarantee. Compared to the "geniuses" he had fought in Martial God territory, she was on another level.

Ryu chuckled and patted her head.

The current location was a bedrock crackling with magma. It looked like it might erupt with a geyser of lava at any time. In fact, Ryu had seen such a scene several times on his way here.

This sort of environment, if it was a Fragmented Sky God of the Seventh Heaven, they'd probably be burnt to ash before even reaching this location.

"I missed you," Selheira said with a smile.

Ryu smiled, embracing her. For a moment, they just stood there.

"Are you okay?" Ryu suddenly asked, feeling that there was something off about Selheira's mood. She was cheery, but almost too much so, as though she was trying to hide something else.

"It's nothing," Selheira said, "I was just a bit sad before that you were away for so long."

Ryu looked at her but chose not to press for the moment. He wasn't the best at wooing women, but if it was just a matter of reading a person's heart and intentions, that had never been difficult for him. He could tell that Selheira had only just given him a half truth just now.

"Let's go see your mother, I have a question to ask her."

"Okay!" Selheira perked up.

In this time, she had been quite happy, honestly. It was why she didn't want to complain about something so meaningless.

Because of her situation, it had been a long time since she had last seen her mother. But because of the Dragon Emperor's actions, she had gotten an excuse to remain by her mother's side for a long while.

Veridia was a high ranking member of the Dragon Race. Although the beasts had a looser structure than most human-led coalitions, they still had their own duties and responsibilities. She was a very busy Dragon, much like her father. But now, she got the excuse to sit around and speak with her mother all the time. How could she not be happy?

Soon, the couple had landed near a region. It looked almost like a mountain, covered in soot cooled magma. But in reality, it was Veridia.

It seemed that the Dragon couldn't be bothered to move when the geysers around her erupted, so the ash and molten rock had fallen right onto her. She even seemed to be in a deep sleep.

"If she's sleeping, we shouldn't disturb her," Ryu said.

"It's fine. Mother's body might go into hibernation, but her mind still talks to me from time to time."

"Oh?"

"I think husband's qi is partly responsible. Mother feels like she might be able to break through soon, her body just needs time."

Ryu nodded, but inwardly he was wondering how it worked. Beasts shouldn't have souls, at least not in the normal sense. It should be much more difficult to draw a line that separated their body and minds.

"You're here," Veridia's voice echoed. It was just as gentle and soothing as her daughter's, and it was hard to imagine that such a woman could have such a fiery temper.

"Mother-in-law, I had a question to ask you. You mentioned the Nine Powers the first time we spoke, but are there no guilds on the Ninth Heaven?"

A rumble echoed and Veridia didn't answer immediately.

"That's a dangerous question," she finally said softly.