Grand Ancestral Bloodlines
chapter-2013

Ryu sat in silent meditation, his aura fluctuating.

The feeling of cultivating with his full strength would never not be intoxicating. The ability to access an entire Plane of energy whenever he wanted to was the kind of thing that others could only dream of.

Ryu's slow cultivation speed was only a product of two things.

The first was that he was greedy. He always felt like his Dao could continue to break through, and he was never truly satisfied with it. And time proved him to be correct. He had already shattered the ceiling of his Dao several times, and he felt that there was still more room to improve before he entered the Lord Realm.

As such, he was never too eager to progress. In fact, in these recent years, his Qi Realm cultivation had only progressed passively as his comprehension of his Dao deepened.

And now...

Ilis aura surged once again, and he crossed the final barrier of the Transcended Realm, entering the Omniscient Realm.

A deep, dark energy of sparkling black-silvers, black-golds, and black-violets swirled around him.

He felt at peace. With his wives laying around him, he felt like he had everything in the world that a man could possibly want...

Except for one thing.

He wasn't at the top of Existence yet.

That yearning, deep within his heart, to be the very best of the best, was still sitting in his depths. And no matter what else he gained, he wouldn't be satisfied until he could claim it all for himself.

Ryu opened his eyes, slowly standing as his aura continued to skyrocket around him. With a step, he appeared outside of his Inner World and outside of the Human Domain.

He didn't even look up into the skies despite all the destruction around him. It was almost as though he was only at his most peaceful state when the world was in chaos, much like this.

He reached out a palm, and space churned beneath his might.

Slowly, he was starting to get a deeper picture of what it really meant to have Royal Control.

He didn't believe that there were large, fundamental differences between Lord Control, Sovereign Control, and God Control. Putting them under the same umbrella just felt only natural.

However... he still felt like he was missing something quite profound.

His figure flashed again. When he appeared once more, he was nearer the core of the chaos.

He turned his head and found Ailsa standing in the middle of battle. He knew that she was aware that he was here despite the fact millions of miles separated the two of them. But this one look from him was enough before he looked away.

There, in the distance, was the God Grade World that he was looking for.

He raised a foot to approach it, but halfway through his action, he stopped, slowly lowering his foot.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Several powerful auras appeared around him. One attacked without saying a word, but Ryu only lightly drew a finger across the skies.

The sharpness hidden in the laws of the world flared, and suddenly, the figure that attacked him froze.

The figure shuddered in the air before falling from the skies in two halves.

The tattoo of a golden great swordstaff trembled on Ryu's forearm before settling down into a state of calm once more.

Special Runes began to float around the world as Ryu's Child of Order and Chaos Constitutions came together. The Control he had over the world skyrocketed as he drew another line through the air.

The figures that surrounded him shuddered once before they fell from the skies in two pieces.

Blood rained along with the falling meteors in the skies.

Lords fell like cattle, unable to even put up a fight before they were crushed.

Ryu took a step but ended up canceling his teleportation halfway, only making it part of the way to his desired location as several more figures appeared.

This time, they were a mix of individuals he recognized and ones that he didn't. There was Kira, the Ancient Sinew Bone Structure wielder. Adlael, a descendant of the Martial Gods who had quite a few bones to pick with them and even more to pick with Ryu. Then there was the young woman with three pupils.

Last time he had seen them, their auras hadn't been nearly so powerful. But... the last time he saw them was also over 70 years ago.

Each one was already in the Lord Realm and radiating the auras of their own Paths.

"He's mine," Kira growled.

The last time they fought, he was humiliated because of the Holy World's state of chaos. He wouldn't allow that to happen again.

Though... he had an odd definition of humiliation. After all, he had forced Ryu back, and then the latter left to escape instead of finding a path to kill him because it wasn't worth the effort when he would win anyway.

Surprisingly, though, Adlael, who should have the most grievances with Ryu, said nothing. It was as though he was willing to wait it out.

Compared to the last time where he lost his temper the moment he saw Ryu, he was completely calm this time. He didn't even try to stop Kira at all, as though he didn't mind if he was the one to kill Ryu.

But Kira, likewise, wasn't standing around waiting for Adlael's approval either. He let out a howl that sounded as though it had truly come from the maw of a beast.

He took a step, and the space beneath his feet shattered.

In an instant, a claw had appeared at Ryu's throat.

SHILING!

Kira froze, his eyes slowly turning to his arm.

A spurt of blood from a fine line came from it, and he watched as his arm suddenly fell

from the skies.

In a single exchange, he lost an arm.