Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

The current level of Ryu’s Dao wasn’t something that Lords could fathom. Blurring the line between animate and inanimate was far more powerful than the words to describe it alone suggested.

When facing an expert like the young man, he could even take a concept that the latter only vaguely held onto and make it as real as life itself in the target’s body.

The fact that the young man thought it alone was enough. By the time he realized that he should be guarding his mind against Ryu, it was already far too late. The thoughts had weaved their way too far into his brain.

The irony was that it was precisely because Ryu was using words to do it that made it all the more impossible for the young man to extricate himself. He was stuck in a loop.

On the one hand, he didn’t believe his position that words were precious all that much. But because Ryu was constantly proving how precious words were with every step, he was actually forced into believing it because the facts were playing out right in front of him.

But then that forced him to accept his position that words could be scarce all the more, only for Ryu to continue to use a flood of them to continue to attack his Dao Heart.

The cycle was vicious and endless, so unrelenting in its mind warping that the young man hadn’t known which way was up and which way was down by the end of it.

He only got to launch a single attack, and the rest of the way, it was as though he was walked down in a game of strategy.

If this young man wasn’t the most powerful Lord in Existence, he would have at least been top five. And yet, he didn’t even get a chance before his head was shattered to pieces.

Maybe if they had managed to make it here before he formed his Title… they might have had a small right to make him sweat.

But now?

Impossible.

Ryu was untouchable at even a quasi step beneath Lord, let alone at the same cultivation level. He wasn’t yet at the mountain peak he had been looking toward all his life…

But he could feel that he was close.

And once he left this battle, he would more than prove that.

Right now, however, his thoughts were swirling with the words of the now-dead young men.

Quiant.

It was the pivotal word in Taedra’s poem, but he hadn’t expected for it to be her Title. More accurately, he hadn’t been paying attention to such a thing because he never linked the two.

Were Titles the secret to mortals becoming Gods in a single bound? In that case, just how important was a Title on that level if it was paired with someone that had already become a God through normal cultivation?

What were Titles anyway? Did he really understand them to begin with? Was it really just the ultimate application of Fate?

That seemed to be the correct answer, and yet still just half of it all at the same time.

It was making him wonder just what he was missing here.

Thoughts swirled in his mind until it all eventually drifted to Primus’ late wife.

He had learned that his great-grandmother was a human who became a God through the Arts long ago. What he hadn’t known was how she had died…

Until this moment.

It was almost certainly related to the Heavenly Court.

Ryu had no love for Primus. He didn’t care for the man at all. However, his great-grandmother was the matriarch of the family, the one that had given birth to his grandfather, the man that sired his own father.

For him to find out that her death was at the hands of these people…

A fire suddenly blazed in Ryu’s eyes as he looked toward where the Heavenly Court doors had vanished.

For Ailsa, he would already raze them to the ground. For them to ask him to hand over Taedra, if for no other reason than his ego, he would humiliate them down to the last man, woman, and child…

To have killed his grandfather’s mother? To be the reason his Clan had likely suffered so much? To have jaded Primus to the point he forgot what it meant to be a patriarch, a man at the head of a household, a true Tatsuya…?

Ryu would show Primus what the Tatsuya name really should have represented.

SKREEEEEEEEEE!

Silent Quibus finally broke free of the sword that pinned him to the ground, launching himself up at Ryu.

Ryu looked over casually, the auras of the Griffin Prince and Qilin Prince suddenly flaring up as the Faerie passed through them.

‘Interesting.’

He finally felt Silent Quibus’ Dao clearly, and he could see now why he had taken such a risk to capture Nemesis of all creatures despite knowing how important he was to Ailsa.

It seemed that everyone really wanted to piss him off today, but he was long past the point of calm and patience.

Ryu’s aura returned to the Lord Realm seamlessly as though he had never left it. To him, the battle against an enemy rarely, if ever, got harder after they brought out their Dao…

It only got easier.

Even so, this time, he brought out far more strength. He could feel the fatigue from what he had done with the Heavenly Court’s Gate earlier and he felt that it was only about time he ended all of this.

Empyrean Warframe.

The cultivation of the Griffin Prince and Qilin Prince were stripped from them, pooling into Silent Quibus’ body in a torrent. It was strong, violent, and ruthless in a way.

It was no surprise, though, that someone like Silent Quibus would have a Dao no less grotesque and twisted. It was clear to Ryu at a glance that he had been after Nemesis’ Adept talent.

But somehow, even in a state of mental confusion, Nemesis had been able to stall his cultivation to the point that Silent Quibus had never gotten the chance.

The question, though, was why the Adept Body talent would be of any use for a Faerie. While beasts had bodies that grew exponentially in size with their strength, often making them cumbersome to use and actually dispersed their power more than they should, humanoids obviously didn’t have the same problem.

But that was when it became clear to Ryu that Silent Quibus wanted it not for his body, but rather his soul.

Silent Quibus looked small enough, but behind him…

If one had eyes like Ryu, one could see a sea of souls chained to him. Bad Karma swirled like the nightmares of a child, endlessly black and twisted, latching onto his shadow and refusing to let go.

He wanted to shrink that Karma, not to get rid of it, but rather to concentrate it into a more powerful mass that could summon Corpse Poison with greater ease.

It was a unique path to be sure, and maybe even one that could be said to be somewhat similar to Ryu’s Perfect Blackbody… if it was the case that they were even remotely on the same path of cultivation.

SKKKRRREEEEEEE!

Ryu reached out a hand.

Silent Quibus’ arm practically screamed through the air, the laws of the world struggling to keep up. But…

Pa.

Ryu caught his wrist, the world falling into silence for a moment before all of Silent Quibus’ momentum caused a wave of air to rush out in all directions.

Even now, Ryu really couldn’t decide. How… how could he kill this man? Somehow, even forcing him to undergo all the tortures he had forced on those before him wasn’t enough.

But now… he felt that he finally knew exactly what to do.

“You want to concentrate them? How about I help you?” Ryu asked, his voice almost gentle.

For some reason, even in that state, Silent Quibus’ pupils trembled.

Unfortunately for him, Ryu had already acted.

Reaching up with his other hand, Ryu spoke oh so lightly once again:

“[Lines of Fate].”

The world turned into a sea of black, white, and grey lines in his eyes.

There was a ripple as Ryu moved his wrist in a wave-like motion, his eyes sharpening.

Making him suffer the same Fate wasn’t enough. He would replace Silent Quibus’ past lives with those of those whose lives he had ruined. Then… he would make him undergo the same test the Dream Wraiths had forced him to withstand.

That was a form of concentration… wasn’t it?