Grand Ancestral Bloodlines
chapter-1971

Something about it still seemed off. Plus, he was having a hard time wrapping his mind around how time could possibly work like that despite his Time affinity.

How could he become the man that was capable of reversing the flow of time in the first place if he needed the help of his future self to even pass the trial in the first place?

It was like a chicken and the egg situation, but even worse than usual because it was just an outright paradox no matter how you answered...

The only way this would make any sense was if the purpose of his future self wasn't just to help him pass, but rather to speed up the process.

In fact, now that Ryu thought about it...

Before, he had thought about creating a technique that would allow him to reforge his foundation. What if this was similar?

But if that was the case... he was doing a very bad job. There were still many holes in his foundation now, and it felt like too little had been done in that regard.

Was it that his future self couldn't be too hands-on?

Maybe. It hadn't been too obvious to him that someone was helping until now.

But Ryu still felt that it was likely more complicated than that.

Ryu realized that he should probably focus on recovery. Although he had brushed off a lot of what Hope had said, she wasn't exactly wrong. He couldn't underestimate the Fiends or else he would end up suffering for it.

However, there wasn't much he could do right now other than shielding them from detection and focusing on undoing his wounds.

He was in one part trying to control the False Dark Shrine to pull the damaging qi away from his body, and another part using the Embryonic Qi to quickly heal himself.

He didn't dare to ask Hope to help because the qi that was rampaging around right now was the strongest Dark Qi in Existence. The only reason he was still alive was because he had the False Shrine and limited control of the Seed of Darkness.

In fact, had it not been for the fact he was limiting himself to using as little of it as possible, he might have even been able to wield it to kill the likes of Reverend Dark Claw.

Though, that was more of a pipe dream than anything else. If he had gathered up so much of his Dark Seed Qi, he wouldn't even be alive to flirt with this little wife of his.

Hope continued to ramble, mostly trying to distract herself from her own worry. However, it was hard to when Little Silk wasn't even flying toward the rainbow. Instead, they were flying diagonally away from it, slowly going deeper and deeper into Fiend territory.

She knew that this was the smartest thing to do, but that still didn't make it any better.

Therein lied the elephant in the room, though... If Ryu was wrong about all of this and he really was the Phoenix Sky God, how would he face Hope?

After all, that would mean that he was the one who destroyed her world and put her in the situation to suffer like this in the first place.

Ryu took a breath and closed his eyes. It seemed that no matter what happened, he would just have to take it in stride.

The odds that he was the Phoenix Sky God as well as the Zu Ancestor were low. But at this point, it was hard to rule it out completely.

For now, he chose to keep it a secret, not because he wanted to hide anything from Hope, but rather because he felt that he would only be harming her by even suggesting it.

She had gone through enough for now.

When the time came-and if he was right about these speculations-he would deal with it then.

Time passed quickly and the powder keg that was the Chaos Plane only grew worse. The number of Fiends searching for the duo was only growing and even several Higher Dao Gods had been mobilized.

The importance of the False Shrine was too great, but to stack that on top of the Chaotic Silk Meridians...

It could be said that Ryu was one of one in terms of high-priority targets.

It only made it worse that one of their Fiend Childes was in his possession.

Aria was the crown jewel of not just one, but two Fiend Lineages. When they confirmed that she was still alive, both sent out three Higher Dao Gods.

This sort of firepower was something that hadn't been seen on such a scale since maybe this war began all those generations ago.

By now, much of those ashes had settled down, only for a little Transcended Sky God to flip it on its head.

In fact... even the Peak Dao Gods were alerted about this matter. If not for the fact that their positions were too strategic, they would have likely been deployed as well.

The commotion was so great that news began leaking to the Real Plane, and soon, in a matter of days, the Dao Gods of the Fey and their allies would be slowly awakened to the truth. As for how they would react, it was hard to tell.

But there would definitely be at least one person incredibly antsy about it, and that was none other than Star River...

She had never wanted Ryu to go for precisely this reason. Even if Ryu managed to escape to the Real Plane, there was simply no way that the Fiends would let this go. This would certainly lead to an all-out war, and by then....

Just how many would die?

The Human Emperor stood at the bottom of the valley in silence. He looked from one human corpse to the next and he felt his Dao Heart creaking and shuddering.

He had experienced this more than once.

Every time the Human Race was humiliated, every time they scorned or genocided, every time they were forced to suffer both at the hands of their enemies and their supposed "allies."

He took a breath and looked into the skies.

'When will this end?

Ile waved a hand and his Dao thrummed. The souls of the Humans here, shackled and suppressed, were relieved of their burden.

In one breath, they were both sent into the Cycle of Reincarnation, and all their thoughts, hopes, and memories were taken by the Human Emperor.

This was part of his Human Emperor Dao. Usually, such things would be cleansed away by the Dream Wraiths. But he had the ability to step in and act as the middleman.

Ile was then able to incorporate the understanding of cultivation that these IIumans had and use them to strengthen himself, as well as add positive Karma to himself by relieving them of the curse and burden the Fiends had placed on them.

When Fiends wanted to be especially cruel, they could do so.

It had to be remembered that the Fiends were antithetical to life and Order. As such, they were neither born through normal means, nor did they reincarnate through normal means.

The powerful among them even had the ability to taint souls that relied on Order with Chaos, making

it difficult to almost impossible for them to reincarnate as well.

It wasn't a surprise that the Race that suffered this the most in this world were the Humans. There

was a time that the Human Emperor even wanted to find out why it was they were so viciously targeted like this all the time, only to give up years ago.

Soon, the Human Emperor learned of what happened here and he couldn't help but frown.

"... A truly reckless child..."

The Human Emperor sighed before he realized something. Was this Ryu the same one he had been stopped from helping almost 27 years ago now? He had survived?

The Human Emperor frowned. This was troublesome. Why would such a hope for the Human Race come here?

He didn't blame Ryu for not saving the humans. He had simply seen too many die. Although he thought Ryu was a bit selfish, in this regard, he felt that it was only right that he be exactly that. Such a talent, with a Founding Dao so high at the Transcended Realm, had an excellent chance of becoming a Dao God so long as he could break into the Lord Realm. Ile was too valuable. But by the same token, if he didn't take such risks, he would end up heavily suppressed by the Fey, Before, they didn't take him seriously because he was a mere True Sky God. But now that he had stirred such a commotion and given them such a good reason to target him....

Well, the result could be guessed.

The Fiends might not be Ryu's only enemies very soon.

What the Human Emperor didn't know just yet was that Ryu's current actions would unravel a mystery that had caught them in a web for generations to come... and the other foot would fall very

shortly.