Grand Ancestral Bloodlines
chapter-1984

Ryu was smart enough to catch this. Ilis Dao Heart was, of course, a part of himself. It was impossible for these thoughts to escape him.

IIe had to admit that he was clever.

His negative emotions were probably something that were holding him back the most. If his Dao Ileart could suck them away for him, he would feel grateful and even let his guard down.

In the end, his Dao Heart would be able to continue its plans in silence. By the time he noticed what was happening, it would already be too late and there would be no chance for him to reverse the situation.

He had to admit that he was quite the genius.

However...

His Dao Heart, or his Perfect Blackbody, could never out-think him. As clever as they were, he was even sharper, and the steps he could see to were on another level.

Whether it was his Dao Heart or his Perfect Blackbody, they were both rigid in their thoughts and set in their personality.

Ilis Dao Heart was obsessed with improvement, and his Perfect Blackbody was obsessed with laying the perfect foundation. This was both their greatest strengths and their greatest weaknesses.

Ilis Dao Heart was willing to risk losing everything to his Realm Heart for the chance to gain a huge leap in strength in a single instant. And because of that, it was predictable.

And by the same token... his Dao Heart might be a piece of his soul, but it was missing the one thing that made his intelligence so shocking in the first place!

His brain.

Just like those Dream Wraith ancestors had said, it was the mutation to his brain and its folds that truly made his intelligence so shocking.

And unfortunately for his Dao Heart, it didn't have the support of it.

'You might be my Dao Heart, lighting the beacon of my cultivation path... but before me, even you must bow... because I am the Ego!

Ryu felt his Dao Heart quake. And contradictorily, it actually shone more brightly, polishing itself and becoming several fold firmer.

The Sky Gods to his back sensed this and their eyes couldn't help but narrow. Yet, neither one of them dared to interrupt Ryu in the slightest, feeling that he was on the verge of something shocking. Ryu never feared his "clones" even after they separated. That was because he knew that they were more like siblings in rivalry than enemies.

No matter what, his clones would never truly turn on him. They might try to trick him to reach their own ends, and they might even try to replace his Ego, but it would all be in the pursuit of getting stronger. And at the end of the day...

They all represented aspects of himself.

When his Dao Heart heard his words, it wasn't enraged at all. Instead, it was excited and even proud. This was the version of Ryu he hoped his Ego always was.

But by the same token, it didn't plan on stopping its plotting and scheming either.

As for Ryu himself, he was still in deep contemplation. He didn't have a solution for this problem just yet.

His Realm Heart was silently stocking up on Godhoods, preparing for its final push to evolution.

On the one hand, he could stall it simply by not absorbing Godhoods anymore.

But on the other... he didn't want to do that.

This was a power boost that he wanted. It might let him reach the Lord Realm ahead of schedule. However, he would need to handle this delicately.

"Troublesome. I would need a lot more years of seclusion to figure this out, but I don't have the time...'

Ryu's gaze flickered as he stood to his full height.

Ile had stirred up a storm in this place, and he couldn't just pat his ass and leave. IIe had to prove to an unruly wife of his that the problems that kept her at bay for so long weren't problems to her husband. And that unfortunately meant that he couldn't deal with this issue.

He smiled, looking off into the distance.

"Hope?"

"Hm?"

Ryu walked to Hope's side, sweeping her waist into his arms.

"What are you doing?" she hissed, trying to hide herself from Star River and the Human Emperor who still couldn't get used to seeing a Dao God in the arms of a Transcended like this.

"Let's go see your sister wives. After this, we're going to return to the Human Empire. We have some changes to make before this boils over"

Hope's gaze flickered, not understanding,

What Hope didn't know was that she was experiencing something Ailsa had in the past.

Back when Ryu first awakened his Dao, he seemed to make a breakthrough every time he breathed.

It was exaggerated to the point he could be in a meaningless battle and still progress it.

It was something that had left even Ailsa speechless. She didn't know how to deal with the situation

at all.

It had been a long time since Ryu had such rapid-fire breakthroughs, but right now, his mental state seemed to be undergoing such evolutions in real time.

He seemed several times calmer than he did even moments ago.

And how couldn't he? All of the negative clouds that had hung above his head had been swallowed up by his Dao Heart and devoured.

It seemed like cheating. Even Ryu felt so in part.

It felt like this was something that he should have worked through on a personal level... however,

wasn't this exactly what he had been refining his Dao Heart for all this time?

Every step he took along his cultivation journey was like another building block to this stage.

However, Ryu knew that this wasn't the perfect, endless solution.

Even so, he also knew that it was the light at the end of the tunnel.

So long as he could make this final breakthrough in mental state.... There would be a clear path to Dao Godhood.