Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu sat on Lu'card's back and seemed to forget the world. The Spatial Dragon's grumbling went in through one ear and out through the other. As far as Ryu was concerned, he was already hitched to this wagon and there was no getting out now.

Inwardly, Ryu couldn't help but chuckle. That was because he knew that Lu'card was exceptionally curious about how he had healed him instantly like that, but he was also far too prideful to ask.

As much as he was grumbling about Ryu's tricks and schemes, if he was really so pissed off, he would have left on his own a long time ago. Ryu was just giving him convenient excuses to stay so that he would be able to save some face.

Ryu did want Lu'card as a mount, but he also realized that it was nigh impossible to get the latter to agree to something like that. And honestly, he had only used such a term to goad Lu'card into action. He was much more curious about other things.

Lu'card was a fascinating case.

Heavenly Pupils were distinctly human things. From Ryu's understanding, they were essentially techniques created by long-forgotten experts that carried forward due to the sheer amount of Faith they had formed.

How had Primus given Ianjor the Flame Heavenly Pupils? Wasn't it by creating it? It could be said that Primus was truly an impressive man. It was hard to say exactly where his bottom line lay.

But that aside, it seemed that Lu'card was a natural example of something Primus had to form artificially... Or was he?

Ryu couldn't help but remember that Ru'cil, the Wind Dragon and Lu'card father-in-law, originally only let him go because of his lineage. Then there was Lu'card who knew of his relation to Primus even without them exchanging a word about it.

This should mean that Primus had quite some interaction with the Dragons of Sacrum. So, who was to say that Ianjor was his only experiment?

Of course, these were all just speculations on Ryu's part. He actually wasn't sure.

But even so, while he hated Primus, he couldn't help but think the man was intriguing.

Did he really need to sever Karma with Ryu and his father? Or was there another reason? It seemed that he couldn't take anything this man did at face value.

Unfortunately, he knew too little about the Lord Realms and above to make a judgment. While his master did leave some information about that to him, it had taken him so long just to deconstruct the Realms up to Omniscient, he didn't want to waste time on the details that were beyond him for now.

What he did have, though, was a vague understanding of Lord, Sovereign, and God Control, and that was enough for his purposes.

Whether or not Primus was planning something didn't matter much to Ryu at all. One day or another, he would crush Primus beneath his feet just like everyone else.

What he wanted was to grow stronger as quickly as possible, first to save Hope's soul, and then to find his wives. He didn't know what kind of strength it would take to cross those worlds... his master had said that even Dao Gods couldn't travel between them so casually.

The biggest problem on his mind now was most definitely Hope. Just being strong enough to kill Old Wan wouldn't be enough, he needed a method to retrieve her soul and not allow it to be used against him.

Even after all this time, he still didn't have a good method. And honestly, aside from his ego, this was a large part of the reason why he didn't have his father take action.

When dealing with someone as cunning as Old Wan, strength alone wasn't enough. Unfortunately this time, Ryu had gotten outmaneuvered both in scheme and in strength.

While he had always been cautious about Old Wan, clearly it wasn't enough.

'Maybe the Dream Wraiths will have something...'

The thought flickered in his mind. Maybe this time, finding Mae wouldn't just help their relationship, but help Hope as well.

At this point, it was only a matter of time before she conceived his child. It might take centuries, but it was already set in motion. Her body was missing its Primordial Yin and her soul was damaged, but the rest of her bodily functions were working just fine.

Ryu wouldn't allow any child he brought into this world to be motherless, and just by virtue of carrying his child, he considered Hope to be his woman.

And anyone who touched that bottom line deserved something far worse than just death.

Ryu settled down his heart and began to focus on cultivation. He let Lu'card handle all the trouble regardless of how much he grumbled, and every time the Spatial Dragon ended up too injured, Ryu would give him another Embryonic Qi drop.

Like this, the two formed a tacit understanding, while Lu'card was continuously in shock and awe.

Logically, no healing should be so effective time and time again. Much like pills, without a significant buffer, most healing agents lost effectiveness the more times you used it.

But this didn't seem to be the case for the mysterious milky liquid.

What was more shocking was that every time he was heavily injured and Ryu helped him out, he would actually end up growing more powerful.

Embryonic Qi was even more effective on beasts than it was on humans. Ryu had only given Veridia a single drop, but she was on the verge of a huge breakthrough now.

By this point, he had already given Lu'card more than ten drops, and his improvements seemed to be coming in leaps and bounds.

It took Lu'card almost a thousand years to re-lay his foundation. Then, in not even ten years, he went from the Dao Pedestal Realm to the Omniscient Sky God Realm.

It was said that after entering this Realm, your cultivation should slow to a crawl...

So why was he still speeding forward?!