Grand Ancestral Bloodlines
chapter-1913

Hrakka's eyes went wide with everyone else. They had never seen such a shocking thing in their lives.

Did time just… stop?

Ryu's coughing was the only thing that brought them back to reality. He had just suffered an injury not of the body, but of the soul.

Manipulating time was one thing; manipulating the time of another person was another matter entirely. If Ryu had tried this against Silent Quibus, let alone an injury, his soul would have shattered and he would have directly died.

To put this matter into perspective, just cutting one of Silent Quibus' Lines of Fate took practically everything out of him. He ended up half dead cutting nine of them.

Freezing someone in time was like cutting them off from all of their Fate. It was only for an instant, a brief flash in the pan, but one could still imagine the level of pressure that had to be endured when this was done.

Ryu wouldn't dare to do this at all unless he had absolute power if it wasn't for the fact he had a Perfect Blackbody Soul. He was also lucky that his Spacetime Soul Nature was, in fact, a Soul Nature. As such, it was relatively easy to direct the backlash. Otherwise, if his Spiritual Foundation was harmed instead, he would ruin his path of cultivation forever.

"Master!" Hrakka snapped out of her stunned state and caught Ryu as he almost fell over.

The world disappeared around them as Hrakka caught a wobbling Ryu with a palm, something she was more than large enough to be capable of.

Ryu blinked and frowned. He began to see double and the world was no longer clear to him.

It seemed that there were compounding effects for having his eyes and soul injured at the same time. Though, this made sense considering how connected they were.

That [Distortion] technique just now wasn't so much of a technique as it was an application of qi. It was similar to how one wouldn't call a casual sword finger a technique. It was just raw use of Spacetime Qi.

But that was what made it so fearsome. Just the capability of doing so was shocking enough.

Had Ryu had his eyes, it would have been far easier to execute. But luckily, his Inner World projection and his Cosmos Fog had lessened the burden considerably.

'Maybe next time, instead of a full stop, we can go for a harsh slowing instead…'

As he thought to himself, he coughed, and then the atmosphere began to change.

Hrakka was looking toward the disciples of the Rebirthing Cultus Sect with a wary glare. She wasn't sure who these people were or who might try to take advantage of Ryu while he was injured, so she was on full alert.

However, at the moment, all anyone had eyes for was the Throne descending from above.

It was a beautiful Throne of jade green. It had complex golden runes inscribed onto its body and it made it look particularly majestic.

At its head, there was a familiar formation. The simplest formation in existence… the eight trigram diagram. It was a slightly darker jade green than the Throne which carried the same tea green tinge as Emerald Vine.

Everything about the Throne was trimmed and perfect, but Ryu didn't even have the eyes to see it.

Hrakka, however, felt that through her connection with Ryu, she could actually feel her power growing stronger beneath its effects. She even saw a gentle energy helping Ryu to heal before he completely passed out.

**

Ryu's eyes suddenly opened. He smelled a familiar scent in the air and shot up, only to find an equally familiar figure.

His gaze flashed, but he realized quite quickly that it wasn't Ailsa's real body; it should just be a clone. She had likely left something behind to protect her Sect while she was away, and this was that contingency plan.

He smiled lightly. "You're here, at least in part."

Ailsa nodded. "And you are still falling unconscious for days at a time. Haven't you grown bored of it?"

Ryu chuckled. "This is what you get when you slave for a wife who doesn't warm your bed at night. I'm sure I would feel more comfortable with you by my side."

Ailsa gave Ryu a look. "It seems you still haven't learned how to speak to women."

"It still works, doesn't it?" Ryu grinned.

"Only because your face is handsome."

"Is that the only reason why?" Ryu blinked. He didn't seem to be implying anything, but Ailsa still took a casual glance at his crotch. Still, she was so calm and casual about it that Ryu didn't even notice until several seconds later.

"Maybe."

A silence fell between the two, but neither seemed uncomfortable with it. They were husband and wife already, and neither had a reserved sort of personality. In fact, in most cases, it would end up being a match between the two to see who folded first.

Surprisingly, though, at least this time, it was Ailsa.

"I should apologize."

Ryu frowned but didn't reply immediately.

"It's disrespectful to you that such rumors were allowed to spread. All those years ago, I was careless. Nemesis and Little Gem are the only two that made it here with me. Little Gem was taken away the moment she was sensed by a nearby Griffin Clan. We had finally managed to break her curse, but that turned her from a castaway to a talent greater than even me. I was not strong enough to stop it.

"I kept Nemesis by my side at all times back then. But when I started the Sect, I thought it would make things easier. By then, Nemesis had also grown extremely powerful.

"He was slower because, as you know, Nemesis is also cursed because of his Taboo Talent. Unfortunately, there came a day where the backlash was extremely severe. He was attempting to break into the God Realm, likely because he wanted to help me more, and Silent Quibus took advantage.

"I hadn't been there at that time, and by then…"

The rest of the story was obvious. Ailsa only let Silent Quibus go without chasing him down because he had Nemesis' life under his control, but everyone else seemed to think she was taking particular care of Silent Quibus.

It was a matter where the more you explained, the more suspicious it seemed. And because Ailsa was scared of what happened to Little Gem repeating, Nemesis' existence itself was a great secret.

Ailsa took a slow breath. "Again, I am sorry."

By this point, Ryu's gaze had become entirely furious.

"Ailsa Tatsuya, I swear if you say another word I will strip you of that last name and divorce you here and now. Do you think I fear your Godhood?"

Ryu's voice rumbled like thunder, a tempest of fury rising into the skies.