Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu's aura seemed to be all-encompassing. It almost felt... violent. Like he was ripping something out of the control of the Heavens rather than trying to resonate with it like everyone else did. And yet, the Heavens didn't seem to be enraged. In fact, they almost seemed to be helping Ryu, forming an odd balance that teetered from side to side-not in an unstable fashion, but rather a gentle swaying instead more akin to a breeze than an erratic gust.

The aura of Chaos shocked most, but what they felt underlying it was on an entirely different level entirely.

Founding Dao.

The moment Ryu's Dao broke through, the world roared. An eight trigram diagram appeared high in the skies and beneath his seated form. They encompassed the two Death Guards without a care in the world, and for a moment it seemed like the entire world was focused on Ryu alone.

If anyone had any questions about what Realm Ryu might be in after his performance, all of those questions went up entirely in smoke now.

It was only to fake a cultivation Realm, but faking a breakthrough was impossible. During the process, your real aura would leak out.

While it wasn't an exact science to see through a person's cultivation Realm, a breakthrough couldn't be denied. The resonance with the Heavens all had very specific cues, especially in the God Realms where Control was such a large aspect of strength.

Slowly, Ryu's breakthrough began to calm down.

There was a reason he hadn't hesitated to breakthrough right here. He knew if it came to it, Lu'card would most certainly take action. Plus, Lu'card had Ferouge's life and death in the palm of his claws. The Death Guards wouldn't act rashly as a result.

The Fire Giant Lord wouldn't act for the sake of his young master, and he would also act to stop the Ice Queen Lord as well in case her actions led to his death. It was the perfect killing of two birds with a single Fire Giant idiot.

Ryu's eyes slowly opened and a sharp light echoed out from it. A roar seemed to echo from his heart, one that made the blood of those around him freeze over, before it slowly faded as well.

Ryu took a breath and exhaled, looking toward Ferouge who was still locked into place a distance from him.

Ferouge was in too sorry a state to pay attention to anything else. He could feel that his life was hanging by a thread. If Lu'card pulled any harder, his skin would be peeled from his body in pieces. He couldn't even imagine the kind of excruciating pain that would come with.

Ryu's lip curled as his ears finally tuned in the discussion around him. Or rather... the fury.

"Release him now! Or don't blame me for being impolite!" The Fire Giant Lord roared.

In his fury, the void shook and sparks of flames danced into being around the world.

Lu'card sneered, unmoved by it all.

"You can let him go," Ryu called out.

A snort came from Lu'card and he purposely ignored Ryu. If he did so now, wouldn't it look as though he was following Ryu's orders? Now, he suddenly wanted to kill Ferouge just because he could.

Ryu chuckled and shook his head.

Lu'card was free to kill him, not only would that save Ryu the trouble of doing it later, but it would also focus the ire of the Fire Giants on the Spatial Dragon. It would have nothing to do with Ryu then he could go see his wife.

Eventually, years later, when he finally ran into a beaten and ragged Lu'card again, he'd think back to this moment and laugh.

Seemingly seeing through Ryu's thoughts, Lu'card was even more peeved.

With a sudden blast, Ferouge was sent flying into the net.

The Lord Fire Giant frowned. However, because he could tell that Ferouge was still fine, he chose not to say anything.

We waved a hand and a ball of flames wrapped around Ferouge and carried him up and away. Soon, both had simply disappeared.

Ryu was a bit surprised about this. Why did the Death Guard give up so easily?

He thought for a moment that maybe it was related to Ferouge's Dao Heart. After all, a Death Guard's job in this context wasn't just to protect their charge's life, but also their path of cultivation. If the Fire Giant Lord just went around killing everyone that offended Ferouge, then it would defeat the purpose. Before Ferouge could even grow into his full potential, he would become useless.

As Ryu had just comprehended, temperament was of huge importance to a cultivator. If it wasn't tempered, they would always be an ordinary genius and might never cross into Lordship.

Ryu honestly couldn't help but wonder if that was why the final three Realms of cultivation were named as such. Who needed more temperament than a Lord... a Sovereign... a God?

However, Ryu felt that this was probably only part of the explanation. Even if he didn't kill them, there should at least be some biting words, maybe even a small lesson.

But the Fire Giant looked like was... in a rush?

Ryu's gaze flickered as it landed on Luna, the Ice Queen. She was still unmoved and wasn't in a rush at all. That made him confused, unless...

'Oh...'

Ryu nodded. The rush shouldn't be about the fact the Fire Giant had to get to a place right this moment. Instead, it should be the case that the injuries were the main problem.

The Fire Giant only had a short time to heal Ferouge's injuries before they met some sort of deadline.

'I wonder what it is. It isn't normal for a Fire Giant and Ice Queen to appear in this location so casually. There wasn't nearly enough time for this betting arena to call them over. They had to have already been close by...'

Luna suddenly smiled sweetly at Ryu.