Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

The Bone Serpent had clearly been preparing for this for a while. With how many battles there were going on at once, it wasn't too surprising that one might manage to sneak through with a blood crystal before anyone else could react. However, there was no hiding the situation now.

The Bone Serpent was trying its best to remain calm, but Ryu could sense that the pressure it was under was enormous. Its Dao Heart was strong, but not nearly strong enough. That said, maybe only Ryu would dare to say this. This fact that it had dared to do this when it knew what would happen as a result meant that it at least wasn't a coward.

But in Ryu's views, if you dared to do something, what was the point of feeling fear at that point? You would just be hindering yourself.

'Hm...' Ryu's eyes narrowed.

Was it still bravery if there was no cowardice? Were you brave if you jumped into every situation without blinking? Or were you a baby tiger that didn't understand the cruelty of the world?

'Temperament...' Ryu mulled this over again. He had begun to think about and integrate new methods into his Dao. Ever since he stepped into this world, he had been touching upon new thoughts and perspectives.

What was unfortunate was the fact he couldn't add to his Dao just yet. Whether that was due to suppression or due to the smaller insights being unworthy, both were problems.

His thought on Temperament just now was interesting, though. Could he say that he was brave if nothing ever really fazed him? Could he use confidence in his abilities as an excuse? Or was he that baby tiger he had just thought of?

As Ryu thought about it, he realized the answer wasn't so simple.

In his first life, his confidence came from his family and some of his own abilities. As the scion of the Tatsuya Clan, no one could touch him. He relied on that to do a great deal.

In his second life, at least in the start, he relied entirely on his own abilities and talents. But it was hard to say if his confidence was warranted.

However, when Ryu got to the core of the issue, he didn't believe that this was a problem. That was, just as always, how you came to be something, or why you believed something, was more important than what you believed or what you became.

Was Ryu's confidence rooted in his belief that he was not capable of losing?

Of course not.

His conversation with Patriarch Ember spoke volumes.

Just like he had said back then, if he was really so weak of talent, his corpse would have long been humiliated at the hands of the summer birds, picked dry of everything that had once been Ryu.

The point of those words back was to tell Patriarch Ember, the man that had once held the rights to Ryu's life and death in his palms, that Ryu would never become him...

Not because he wasn't capable of losing...

But because he would rather die than not do things on his own terms.

Was that bravery? Maybe... maybe not. It could be seen as foolish in the eyes of others, and Sarriel would certainly be among the few that fell into that crowd.

When Ryu remembered back to his falling out with Sarriel, he no longer had the same visceral reaction. And honestly, she had not only his maturing to thank, but Empana as well.

Empana's Dao Heart was the strongest Ryu had ever seen, but he had done something that Ryu himself would have never done.

Who was he to say that Sarriel's Dao Heart was weak?

If it was just the fact that she was cowardly and willing to lower her head just to skate by, he could look down on it firmly...

But was that the case?

The Sarriel he knew was no less prideful than himself, but she was willing to lower her head, nonetheless.

Considering her starting position, couldn't it be argued that her Dao Heart was even stronger than his own?

For the sake of the rebirth of her Clan, the revival of her Race, she was willing to do things she otherwise never would.

Ryu stood in his silence, his eyes glistening as he looked downward.

Suddenly, he seemed to have become a separate existence from the world around him. As though a God observing from high above, he was silent and seemed to grasp everything at once.

The Bone Serpent's body shone as the barrier suddenly cracked. Its large body surged through, and all those converging from the surroundings hit nothing but empty space.

Unhappy expressions were abound, but what was interesting was that the blood crystal remained hovering around the crack.

The region stayed illuminated and large numbers of Demon geniuses found themselves staring at once another.

A Horned Devil suddenly broke the calm atmosphere and tried to rush at the shrinking blood crystal.

The gazes of many flickered as they rushed ahead as well, not wanting to miss out. What they didn't notice was that many hung back, not wanting to get involved at all.

How could a used blood crystal be so casually taken?

Ryu's gaze slowly returned from his state of enlightenment, and he looked toward the scene ahead.

'An opportunity...'

A blood crystal suddenly appeared in Ryu's palms. But because everyone was so focused on the chaotic scene ahead, not to mention the fact the region was already illuminated by the first crystal.

The crystal trembled in Ryu's hands and he suddenly launched it.

Empana's eyes widened. What was Ryu doing? Didn't he know how valuable that crystal was?

He, of course, didn't know that Ryu could call over more blood crystals whenever he wanted.

In fact, that was exactly what he did.

A large number of beasts began to appear in the region.

The instant they did, Ryu sent out a pulse of Bloodline Resonance, obscuring him and the others from their immediate lock-on.

Those watching on the outside of the Rotten Sea could just barely register what was happening here, having a bird's eye view on the situation. But even they didn't realize what Ryu was doing until it was far too late.

"Let's go," Ryu said, taking a step and rounding around the chaos that was ensuing.

One creature ended up blocking his path, but he didn't react to it at all, sending out a fist that shattered its head.

His Bloodline Resonance was even stronger now than it had been in the sixth layer. Even though these creatures were in the Perfect Sky God Realm, Ryu had probably reached the point by now where his combat strength in the Rotten Sea was more explosive than his combat strength on the outside.

Of course, this was only in terms of raw power. He was still missing many of his usual methods, so it was hard to say if his combat prowess had caught up yet or not.

Regardless, he wasn't thinking of these matters as he approached the barrier from a vacant location.

The chaos seemed to have nothing at all to do with him.

"Break through."

"We don't have enough time." Empana replied with a frown.

If it wasn't for the chaos, they could have had a chance. But he didn't understand why Ryu felt that it was necessary to go so far.

What he expected even less was for Ryu to suddenly toss a blood crystal at him before handing one to Selheira.

Speed was the name of the game this time. The sixth layer was far too congested.

Even if they had snuck over and tried to breakthrough with normal means, it would definitely attract attention.

The sixth layer seemed narrower than the others, as though they were all being funneled into a cone as they went down.

Up above, especially on the first layer, it should have been at least several tens of thousands of kilometers across, but even then, it only took a few moments for Ryu to run into a "barrier". Or, in other words, the Omniscient God Beast that knocked him back and nearly killed him.

In this sixth layer, the distance from edge to edge was only a few thousand kilometers. For Sky Gods like this, they could cross this distance in a few jumps.

Luckily, the layer was also thousands of kilometers thick, so there was still some breathing room. But it truly wasn't much.

If they were going to break through, it had to be like this.

Selheira and Empana didn't hesitate, realizing that the timer had started the moment the blood crystals appeared.

Ryu stood calmly. While bearing much the same situation as the Bone Serpent, their Temperaments were like night and day.

He closed his eyes slowly, his breathing even and unhurried.

In just a few seconds, Selheira was already halfway there, but Empana lagged behind. He stood at around 20% of the way through.

Ryu's eyes opened, a sharpness dancing within them.

Here they came.