Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

The woman was immediately shaken.

She felt like the first thing she should have done was refute Ryu's claims as ridiculous. But, the moment she heard them she realized that it was the only possible truth. All of her previous conjectures seemed worthless.

Like Ryu said, she initially thought that there was truly an assassin. Unlike Ryu, she couldn't just 'see' what was happening. She had to use her Sword Dao to comprehend the battle scars. The more she comprehended, the easier it was for her to 'see' what was happening. But, even then, it felt a lot like going in blind.

Simply put, Ryu was watching a movie reel while she was reading some obscure ancient text written in a long lost language. Not only did she need to translate and decode it, but there were many blanks she had to fill in herself.

The fact that she had concluded that there was an 'assassin' at all was enough to prove just how deep her comprehension of the sword was. If not for this, she couldn't have possibly comprehended enough sword scars to the end to observe such a pattern.

Often times, it would take millennia of meditation just to see one battle through to the end. It had taken her trillions of years over her accumulated lifetime to make it this far.

Of course, Ryu shouldn't be compared to her. While she had comprehended everything thoroughly, Ryu had only observed, this was why he could make it so far so quickly. That said, even if he were to comprehend, it would only take him a few months to years at most. Even a Sky God could not compare to him in this respect.

But, the current Ryu was thoroughly disgusted, disgusted to the point that he almost wanted nothing to do with this swords faction at all.

In order for this person to accomplish this, the minimum requirement was being capable of walking so far into the Holy Battle Ground. That alone would have taken at least a Sky God to accomplish, or another with appropriate Heavenly Pupils. Someone with the number two ranked World Pupils could likely accomplish it. There were also a number of other Heavenly Pupils that had unique techniques that could work.

However, this was only the beginning. Walking so far was just the first step. To actually deploy such a scheme, whoever this individual was had to have skill beyond imagination.

It had to be remembered that just unleashing an attack here could mean the end of your life. In fact, just killing intent alone would be enough to mean the end for you.

This couldn't be helped. This was a battlefield, not a playground. The qi that remained here was essentially just a step short of forming wraiths of their own. The spirit of those who had fought here, at least in part, were locked down by the ties of Fate. As a result, every strand of qi here had a spirit, or the semblance of one. However, said spirit worked on nothing but instinct.

When left alone, these 'spirits' would just continue to replay the battles they had fought again, again and again. However, if they were given new stimuli, they would react accordingly.

This was why your Sword Dao was such an important protection in walking so far. Only by blending in and becoming a silent part of this battlefield would you be able to continue to walk. The better your Sword Dao matched the level, and the more restrained your killing intent, the better you would perform.

At least… This was a short cut.

Ryu had only just begun to form his Dao, but he was already keenly aware that restraining killing intent when forming one's weapon's Dao was foolish. In fact, it would only be counter intuitive. However, this was the 'easy' method of traveling so far into a Holy Battle Ground without getting yourself killed.

The more difficult method was to comprehend every battle scar you came across to the deepest degree, only then could you 'color' and 'shade' your Dao to blend in. Like this, you no longer had to hide your killing intent. In fact, you could release it.

Once you released your killing intent, you would be attacked. But, your attacker would only be the sword qi that recognized the shade of your Sword Dao. Like this, you would be able to 'defeat' one sword spirit after another. At a certain level, it would even be possible to absorb the sword qi and strengthen your own Dao.

This could be considered the second level of difficulty. But, to do what this individual had done, it would require a third and entirely new level of skill.

This was all to say that whoever had done this was not only a Sky God, but they were likely the most skilled swordsman in the martial world. If not top three, they were at the very least top 10. This was how exaggerated this matter was.

And yet, this person, rather than being a beacon of light for the coming generation was actually this level of trash. To tarnish the whole of this battlefield for what exactly? So that others couldn't gain from it what they had gained from it?

Ryu couldn't wrap his head around how such scum managed to become a Sky God. With such a massive inferiority complex, how could you possibly form a Godhood?

Or maybe… This was just how self centered Gods were.

Ryu suddenly began to laugh, catching the woman completely off guard. His mind couldn't help but wander back to those words that Isemeine had spoken to him during their very first battle. Just how condescending and arrogant had she been? And just how satisfying had it been to put her in her place?

Ryu's aura surged. He suddenly felt the need to give a Sky God a slap to the face.

The sword qi in the surroundings began to sing, a wild fluctuation of qi soaring into the skies.