Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

The moment Ryu's palms touched, his hands exploded apart and the flesh of his arms practically burnt to ash, leaving nothing but a few strands of skin and muscles. His bones shone through with an ancient hue. They looked so bright, almost like crystals etched with silver and royal blue hues. Just staring at them for too long could entrap a person, shattering their Dao heart before they even understood exactly what would happen.

And then Lu'card's body seemed to explode. He stubbornly lay there, glaring up at Ryu as the black of his scales seemed to be peeled off. His scales fell like the rain from his body, and his blood flowed like rivers.

Ryu coughed up a mouthful of blood, his demeanor indifferent. At that moment, it looked as though nothing in the world could stop him, not even the Heavens themselves.

He didn't expect that hand seals would have such good synergy with his Birth Phenomena, but when he thought about it, it made perfect sense.

The basic ability of Birthed Phenomena was to essentially be akin to an Immortal Ring. It was just that this Immortal Ring was truly on a completely different level. This was because his Birthed Phenomena wasn't just an additional boost to his qi, but a qualitative boost to all aspects, even comprehension, though not in the normal sense.

Rather than improving comprehension, Ryu's Birth Phenomena made everything he did comprehend feel to be worth more.

However, much like with all other Phenomena, it took Focus Qi to manifest Ryu Birthed Phenomena. Sustaining one was a constant mental drain.

He didn't know why he hadn't thought of it before, but hand seals couldn't have been a more perfect combination. It took all the load off his mind and he could focus on channeling all the abilities of his Birthed Phenomena into his strength.

The question was, why couldn't he replicate that with his fist techniques and such?

It was difficult.

Hand seals were akin to a language themselves, they could only mean one thing. But a fist or a kick, or a finger or a claw, could have an infinite number of variations, all dependent on the skill of the user and even the skill of the opponent as well. After all, when Ryu was fighting, he wasn't battling in a vacuum, he would have to react to whatever his opponent would do.

'Under normal circumstances, it's impossible. But what if I anchor down my moves to my Inner World? It's my world, so who's to say that a punch isn't a hand seal?'

Ryu's eyes began to glow. With this sort of change, his combat strength would increase a hundred times over easily.

The problem was that his body couldn't take it.

Just forming three hand seals had caused him to lose his arms, what would a continuous barrage of punches do? He would be a skeleton before he finished a single round of battle.

That said...

SHUUU! BANG!

A single wisp of Embryonic Qi shuttle through his body and his flesh practically exploded back to life. Under everyone's eyes, he was back to 100% in the blink of an eye, as though nothing had ever happened.

At this point, Ryu's stamina was truly frightening.

On the one hand, his Perfect Blackbody Soul made his soul so much larger than those at the same level that he practically had an infinite amount of Soul Quintessence to tap into.

On the other hand, his Qi Realm was connected to an entire Plane he no longer had to hide, so it made his qi likewise practically infinite.

And on yet another, with his Embryonic Qi, his body was just a single droplet away from being back to full tilt.

As though all of that wasn't enough, he had even learned the circulation pathway hidden within his body, one that could replenish even his Focus Qi!

It could be said that in terms of stamina, Ryu probably had no equal. Even if one didn't restrict it to those at his cultivation level alone.

It would take a true monster to even begin to put a dent into his stamina. Tiring him out was simply not an option.

Ryu dismissed his armor and Ice Flames, revealing a broken and beaten set of robes and a body that was chiseled to perfection.

Every breath he took seemed to truly be one with the world.

"Do you give in now?" Ryu looked down with a smile.

Lu'card laid in a pile of his own mangled flesh. It could only be said that he was truly arrogant to the bones. Even in this situation, he hadn't unleashed an aura that was beyond his False Sky God Realm.

Lu'card coughed. It could also be said that if he was truly in the False Sky God Realm, he would have already died.

Although he had suppressed his Realm, his body's strength was still there, at least defensively. Of course, he could mobilize his Vital Qi to improve them by thousands of times over, but that would have been cheating.

"Fuck you..." Lu'card groaned.

"Where's your wife, by the way?" Ryu asked as though they were having a casual conversation. "I remember the last time we met you had a father-in-law."

"... My wife is a Crystal Dragon." Lu'card said after a snort of annoyance, the pain wracking his body.

"Ah, sounds like more reason to follow me. The faster you become the Dragon Emperor, the faster these stupid rules can be overturned. I really don't get it. Fire Dragons are supposed to be mighty and arrogant, but because they were scared they chose to banish their best aids.

"As far as I'm concerned, the so-called ruling class of Dragons isn't a ruling class at all. They might as well call themselves the Fire Dogs."

Ryu spoke entirely without restraint, his every word making them wince again and again. Everything that rolled off this man's tongue could cause a clap of thunder to echo in the skies, and yet here he was-

ROAR!

Cracks suddenly appeared in Ryu's projected world as a furious bellow echoed from the distance.

"Oh. Looks like I enraged one of the dogs."