Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

The area wasn't exactly densely populated. It was a region not too deep into the High Tier either. However, densely to mortals versus what a cultivator might expect it to be were on entirely different levels. In a world like this one, even if the homes were dozens of miles apart, it was a matter of a glance for the various home owners to check on what was going on, let alone the fact these homes weren't nearly so spaced out.

Janus' home was a mansion that squared off what was at least 50 meters longitudinally and latitudinally for itself. But for experts like them, this matter was hardly the effort of a single step.

Usually, privacy in these regions was protected with the use of formations, but as Janus had said... his own had just shattered, causing the senses of the entire neighborhood to fall on him...

However, even before that, Ryu's entrance was far too prominent. He descended from the skies riding upon a beast whose aura was infinitesimally close to the Lord Beast Realm, and shattered a formation that should have taken some time to deal with in an instant.

But even more eye-catching than that... It was Elena.

Elena was someone that most knew. They knew of her standing, and it made many wary of her... but it also made others much more antagonistic toward her as well. Status was always a double-edged sword, especially when you were weak.

While most would avoid her entirely, there were some that would go out of their way to harass her and make her life a living nightmare.

Even so, she was undeniably beautiful, and her rise in recent years, after almost a millennia of dormancy, could be said to be meteoric, bringing more attention to her when even those who might have some animosity toward her would have ignored her before simply due to how weak she was.

However, at this moment, she was hanging from the arm of a young man. His momentum might have felt frightening at first, especially considering the beast he rode upon. But when he took a step forward and landed in the courtyard on his own, his true aura was on clear display for them all to see... False Sky God?

Was this a joke?

Ryu stood there in silence, his hands clasped behind his back. The air gently swayed with frigid air, causing his hair to sparkle with icy shards and his eyes to glow a slightly more blue than silver color.

Janus ran out and was stunned by what he found.

BOOM!

The instant he stepped out, his home was flattened to the ground by a single gust of Little Silk's wings, the air slicing across his hair and clothing, carving them into shreds but leaving him unscathed.

Janus' gaze sharpened, his fury almost spilling out. He grabbed onto his outer robes and pulled them away from himself, revealing a chiseled and perfectly sculpted physique.

He gave Ryu a look, then looked up to the beast and then finally to Elena who stood on its back. Finally, he looked back at Ryu and sneered.

"Dear sister, is this your 'husband'?"

Hearing these words, Ryu finally understood. So Janus was Elena's half-brother. It was no wonder Elena had tried to make things seem more complicated than they were.

Unfortunately, he didn't give a damn about much else but two things.

Ryu looked back toward Elena.

"Do you care about his mother?" Ryu asked, meeting Elena's gaze. He turned his eyes away from Janus as though he didn't matter in the slightest.

Elena's eyes sparkled. "No. I hate her."

Ryu's lip curled into a smile. "Do you care what your father thinks about his death?"

"No. I hate him too."

These were words that Elena had never dared to speak to anyone but herself, words if she usually spoke would end in a world of hurt for her. Even though her father's prestige couldn't completely shield her, she would be naive to think that it wasn't part of the reason she was still alive, the reason why her enemies had to bend the rules rather than outright breaking them.

But with her husband here...

Why should she care anymore?

"Good. Then, he dies."

Janus was stunned for a moment before his booming laughter echoed through the skies. He was so enraged that a crown flickered into and out of existence on his head, the aura of a Holy King radiating outward and making the blood of many roll in reverse, even Ryu's own.

Ryu's gaze slowly turned back toward Janus, his complexion paling and rosing as his blood raged out of his control. But all the while, the calmness in his eyes didn't seem to fade in the slightest.

"You come here, with a beast of unknown origins and want to kill me? Who do you think you are?!"

"My beast will not attack," Ryu said lightly. "It will be me who crushes you."

BOOM!

The skies shook and formation after formation shattered like glass as the aura of a Founding Dao descended with the might of a mountain.

Twin trigram diagrams appeared above and below Ryu, as well as in his eyes. His Birthed Phenomena rose high into the skies, its looming presence suffocating the qi in the region.

Ryu had always had a great weakness... it felt like his abilities were always auxiliary and never directly increased the foundation of his strength.

However, what once might be seen as a weakness had become a great asset.

He realized that his Dao was tens of times more powerful on the Ninth Heaven. His Birthed Phenomena was likewise even more oppressive and mighty. And...

BOOM!

Ryu's Dao Vessel loomed like the only sun in the skies as the light dimmed around him. It was his light, his radiance that suppressed the world.

QIIIIIIII!

The cry of a White Phoenix shook the clouds, runes exploding around him as his aura continued to climb. The resonant cry echoing through the qi and amplifying it.

Ryu's Spiritual Quintessence rippled and one after another, Visualization of Formation Orbs took shape and [Absolute Domain] soared as he took a step forward.

All of this happened in a single instant, so quickly in fact that most didn't register him shrinking the ground.

His fist appeared before Janus' face as the starlight rippled in the surroundings. His movements were akin to a beautiful dance, one that somehow also suppressed and oppressed.

BANG!

Janus' head whipped to the side, the astonishment still clear on his face. He was still trying to process everything that was happening here when Ryu hit him.

A stinging pain erupted on his cheekbone and he couldn't help but raise a hand to it, still slightly slow to react.

When he realized the situation he was in, he struck out with a haphazard palm, blocking Ryu's next blow and making him take a step back.

Even so, the astonishment in his eyes deepened even further. Just what the hell was going on here?

According to his information, Elena's husband was from a mere small world, so he wasn't surprised by his low cultivation. He was more surprised that he could even step onto the Ninth Heaven in the first place.

However, how could a False Sky God make him feel pain, let alone take a single step back after his counterattack?

He was a Perfect Sky God, and a genius at that. There were two whole Realms... no, it was practically three because Ryu was clearly still a Lower False Sky God.

He... had been hit by a False Sky God?

The crown flickering above his head suddenly solidified and the world came to an eerie stillness.

Ryu looked down at his fist. He had actually broken his hand on that attack. It was the first time since he had gotten it that his Boundless Cosmos Bone Structure had collapsed under pressure.

It wasn't just the hardness of Janus' body, that was secondary. Rather, it felt like anything that came in contact with Janus was under his own laws and regulations, even to the point that just contact with him at all was blasphemous and had to be punished.

"So that's the Holy King bloodline, huh? Interesting."

Ryu shook out his wrist as though he couldn't feel the pain, snapping his bones back into place before circulating Embryonic Qi and healing it completely.

Then, he looked at Janus.

Everything in the world truly had stilled. His Birthed Phenomena and Dao Vessel were struggling to maintain control over the qi in the region, and he could even feel that his Bloodlines were more than just rolling in reverse now, they were practically rebelling as though they wanted to rush out of his body and pay homage to Janus rather than him.

"Since you've come here today, don't think of leaving. I will crush you until your worthless pride is nothing more than a shattered pile of bone."

Ryu met his gaze, looking at the shimmering gold that took shape within them.

His Dao Heart suddenly glistened. Like a reflective blade catching the sun's rays, it sparkled and the hold Janus had on his body seemed to have disappeared.

"I've never had much respect at all for the Martial Gods," Ryu said lightly. "You speak of pride a lot, but I don't think any of you actually knows what that means. You lower yourselves to the most grotesque of standards, then puff out your chests like a herd of gorillas.

"Let me show you what true pride is. In the face of even the greatest odds, it does not break nor fold."

Ryu's eyes shone with a resplendent light.

"[Heaven's Gate]... Open."