Grand Ancestral Bloodlines
chapter-1825

1825 Self or Legacy

Ryu's instinct was to kill these two. He might have grown quite a bit in recent years, but it hadn't made him any less murderous.

The reason he didn't was because he knew that short-term satisfaction would only ruin everything else.

Right now, he still hadn't managed to find Mae. Of course, that wasn't because he couldn't sense her, but because he had yet to find the time to do much of anything. He was being watched like a hawk from all sides, and the last thing he needed was to offend a faction with a Dao God to the point they felt justified in hunting him down.

In addition to this, he had left Selheira behind at her insistence in the army as well. She wanted to grow on her own, and her pride as a Dragon wouldn't allow anything less, so he had been forced to oblige. Though, he had also left Empana as a form of protection for her.

This was to say that no matter what, whether it was for Mae or Selheira, he had to keep at least a basic level of decorum with these bastards.

Killing the others was fine and could be explained away with enough merit, but killing the twins would definitely cause a storm that he was unwilling to deal with right now.

Instead, he would just capture them in the name of military law, then store this debt away to be repaid at a later date.

In his current situation, he had to toe the line of not being easy to bully, but also having a bottom line. Only that way would he be tolerated.

He knew that he wouldn't be able to keep that up forever. At some point, his strength would grow to the point that he couldn't be ignored, and they would be forced to make a decision… either to get rid of him or continue to use him.

This would likely not come for a while as Ryu had already made the decision to slow his cultivation speed, both out of necessity and because he had no real other choice. After all, he couldn't use his Chaotic Silk Meridians to rocket through the Realms any longer.

That said… slowing his cultivation speed was one thing, but his actual progress was another.

He planned to refine his foundation and increase his strength to the point that it would make no difference at all.

But, because he would be stuck in the True Sky God Realm in the eyes of those fools, it would be harder to trace his bottom line and they would be more likely to be complacent.

When the time came, he would certainly be able to explode forth with all of his potential.

"Trash."

Ryu shook his head and a swirl of darkness appeared around the twins as they were sucked into his Inner World.

Of course, the Inner World was under Ryu's full control. Inside of it, they could be blind, deaf, and unable to feel anything with just a single thought. Let alone seeing his secrets or his river of Embryonic Qi, he could Dual Cultivate with his wives right next to them and they wouldn't have any idea.

That said, that didn't stop Ryu from throwing them into a cave deep underground where he wouldn't have to see their faces.

Then, he walked away, completely ignoring the rest of the army that had been blown back by their battle. He seemed to be entirely uninterested in massacring the rest of them… either that, or he almost wanted them to go back and report on this matter.

Soon, he had already disappeared into the distance, leaving them broken and shaken.

Amidst the army, there were several that had been among the planners of Ryu's humiliation. They thought that they could make him obediently sweep and mop floors. But in their wildest imaginations, they never thought that things would turn out this way. In fact, they had felt that even if Ryu actually had heaven-defying battle strength, he wouldn't dare to do this.

But in the end, reality proved them very… very wrong.

Not only did Ryu have the strength, but he dared.

Their hearts shuddered and they realized that they had to report this matter as quickly as possible.

This was bound to cause a commotion in the outside world.

…

Ryu walked slowly and found a new place to seclude himself, his thoughts churning. In reality, though, he was only thinking of one matter…

Clones.

That feeling of separating into so many people was quite magical, albeit lacking completely.

Though he had, indeed, separated into several clones, they were all of one body and one mind, so it might as well have just been him alone. Without his Internal Matrix, it would have been impossible to keep up with so many battles at once.

However, this still felt like the perfect solution for his problem. He had too many things to handle and deal with, which was why he had abandoned so many paths in the past to begin with.

But what if he could clone himself perfectly?

In truth, this was harder than it sounded, much like his idea to recultivate his foundation completely.

But at the same time, it also felt like it was something he was uniquely suited to doing. After all, hadn't he done something similar in the past by breaking a piece of soul away from his Perfect Blackbody back when he successfully escaped from Primus' clutches?

It could be said that with his Perfect Blackbody alone, he was the absolute most suited person to creating several clones of himself that were truly independent of thought.

But he also had to be cautious with this matter. After all, independent of thought when he was as stubborn as he was… could be a problem.

What if his clones became so independent that they no longer wanted to fuse with him any longer?

Finding a balance of these things would be highly important…

Should he truly create his own method this time again? Or should he try to find a legacy that was already solidified?