Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

1836 Dao Heart

Ryu was truly pissed off.

These days, he had been quite calm. His Temperament had mellowed out, and he had managed to control his temper to a much greater degree.

But right now, he was truly infuriated.

He felt his mind being pulled in all sorts of directions. He wanted to be calm, but he found it difficult to do so. He wanted to be steady in his steps and lay a sturdy foundation, but he was finding that he lacked the patience. He wanted to slaughter the man before him in an instant, and yet he was finding himself running into a brick wall.

He was stronger, faster. His insights were deeper, and he was holding back much more than this man was. And yet, it wasn't enough.

Frustration he had buried from the sights of his other pathetic lives, from him being helpless in the face of his missing wives, from him still not being able to get revenge after all this time, boiled over all at once.

"Die."

His mind fell into an abyss of nothingness and his power exploded.

Lord Grade Dark Spirit Body.

A black hole seemed to fall into the surroundings and the qi in the region fell into the abyss. At that moment, Ryu seemed to have slipped into a state that wanted to destroy everything.

His Dao Heart shifted and a bloody light cfrom him, and at sunknown point, he felt as though he was staring blankly at the world.

His soul seemed to have left his body, and he watched himself enter a furious rage from above as though a third-party observer.

At least, that was how someone who hadn't experienced what he had would describe it. In reality, Ryu was feeling a fear creeping into his heart. That was because this perspective felt a lot like how experiencing his other lives had.

Had this life slipped out of his control as well? Was he doomed? Had he wasted this last life of his just like he had wasted all the others?

Ryu knew that those moments had impacted him, he knew that the lingering thoughts, fear, and feelings of inadequacy hadn't just vanished afterward. But he had thought that he had them all under control until this moment.

It wasn't until now he realized just how much it affected him, but soon after, he also cto realize something that was maybe even more shocking…

He had only survived because of the oddity of his Dao Heart.

From his youth, Ryu's Dao Heart and another one of his Incorporeal Souls had been snatched from him. As such, he had survived much of his life without one, and due to that, unlike others who would collapse without their Dao Heart, Ryu could continue to live and survive. This was because his other Incorporeal Soul had grown to the point of being able to cover for any deficiencies he might have.

In this situation, not only had he managed to survive, but his Dao Heart had grown stronger during the last battle he fought on the frontlines. Because of that, he had ignored those lingering feelings and felt that he would be just fine if given enough time.

But now he knew that he was wrong.

If not for the oddities of his Incorporeal Souls, seeing his past lives like that would have truly broken him. In fact, it could be said that right this moment, he was a broken man.

His thoughts were all over the place, disorganized and without reason. He tried to take command of his life, but he often found himself doing things that he would usually never do, or take paths that weren't exactly perfect for him, but instead ones he hoped would be.

He had no real conviction in the steps he took and he second-guessed everything, wondering if it was the right thing to do.

All of this would have been far more obvious to him had he not been thrust into a dangerous situation the moment he left the Rotten Sea Trial. But instead of having tto be forced to reflect on what was going on inside him, he had been thrown into a life-or-death situation from the beginning and forced to cope.

It was only after he hit a brick wall and ran to the ends of his limits that he fell over the cliff's edge.

His fury seemed to have entirely consumed him. Watching from high above like this, it was like his body had been ripped out of his control.

It was like his Dao Heart had taken control of his body, and he no longer had the Temperament to control it. It had grown more powerful than he deserved, and it was tired of his weakness. So it had expelled his soul.

Ironically, this was like a second slap to Ryu's face.

First, he had been used as a whetstone, and now his own talent had spit in his face. It could be said that since he began his cultivation journey, this was truly the worst sort of humiliation that Ryu had ever faced.

And the worst part of it all was that it was all forged by his own hand, by his own mistakes, by his own incorrect path.

And maybe even worse than that was the fact he had no idea how to correct it.

Ryu watched his body ravage Lichen. He looked so powerful and imposing, and Lichen, who had just been barely able to hold on against him, was quickly being cut to ribbons.

The Dark Fiend's blood fell in a rain and his flesh fell even faster.

It was then that Ryu took the third blow to the gut. It seemed that this time, the slap cfrom himself.

It was as though his Dao Heart was trying to show him how much potential he already had but was completely unable to capitalize on.

It was reminding him that he was actually holding himself back.

Lichen's head flew into the skies.