Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Elena Reverend.

She was a woman with short-cut, platinum blond hair, wearing an outfit that came straight out from a nunnery.

One would wonder, then, how it would be possible to tell what her hair color was. If she was wearing a nun's outfit, her hair would certainly be covered.

But the thing was that while this was true, her eyebrows shared the same color, the platinum blond quality shining bright rather than fading into obscurity thanks to her milky brown skin.

A wooden necklace hung from her neck, and she walked around with its pendant in both hands, her steps light and her lips constantly parting to emit a delicate melody.

She had an intoxicating sort of tone to her voice, one that made even the trees sway in pleasure.

But then she stopped.

Right across from her, a handsome young man with flowing silver hair stood. He stared at her with a cocky smile on his face, and this nun was caught between being attracted to this man and wanting to punch that smile off of his face.

She parted her lips once more, this time to speak, but the man spoke first, hooking a thumb over his shoulder.

"Tell you what. If you can clear this Ruin before I can, I will spare your life."

Elena Reverend frowned, a sense of danger overwhelming her heart.

She took a step back.

"Oh? You're smarter than the others. They all became very offended, very quickly. But, being smarter isn't going to help this time. If you don't want to take the deal…" Ryu's gaze became malevolent. "I'll just have to kill you right now."

Elena Reverend's vision blurred and Ryu's outstretched claw was already reaching for her throat.

She reacted quickly, her lips parting and a strong melody coming out.

Lines of Fate gathered and wrapped around Ryu's hand and her legs. The two became linked and Elena Reverend's body suddenly accelerated backward as though gaining the momentum of Ryu's strike.

Ryu raised an eyebrow, suddenly coming to a stop.

Elena Reverend came to a stop at the same time.

"Fascinating…" he said slowly. "I've never thought of using [Fate Reversal] like that. Well, at least not in such a specific sort of application. Truly fascinating…"

It was the first time Ryu was facing off against someone who clearly had some affinity for Fate just like he had. But "some" affinity, and the level of affinity Ryu had were two completely different concepts.

Ryu vanished again, appearing to the nun's back and swiping out.

There was a flicker as the nun sang once more, her body seemingly shifting into another place.

The claw marks dragged across the air, severing space through the location the nun was in, but it passed right through her as though she had never been there at all.

Ryu didn't react much to this, following up with another attack just as swiftly. His fist careened through the air in a simple sort of sharpness. The ripple of his robes sounded like the harsh slapping of thick leather.

Unadorned and unmarvelous, and yet the danger signs in the nun's head pinged again and again.

Her lips parted once more and her notes sang, but she had only gotten part of the way through when her expression changed.

Rather than burrowing Ryu's momentum again, she found herself going in the reverse direction she intended…

Right toward Ryu's fist.

BANG!

Ryu's fist passed right through her chest, shattering her heart and severing her spine.

The nun coughed, blood leaking from her lips as she weakly grabbed onto Ryu's forearm, her small fingers still clinging onto her pendant.

Ryu looked down at her indifferently, watching the fight vanish from her eyes… and then suddenly come roaring back.

She coughed again, but her grip on Ryu's arm tightened, her nails trying but failing to pierce into his skin.

She didn't speak, but Ryu could read her intentions well enough. She wanted to live, she wanted to fight, even now.

"Oh yeah? And what do you fight for?"

As though his voice held a strong compulsion, Elena Reverend's lips parted on their own.

"The Faith… must be… spread… my… mother…"

Ryu grinned. "Is that so? How about you change your God?"

"I serve… no God… I only… seek… peace…"

"If you want peace, you'll need to have a fist large enough to manage it. And you… certainly do not have that. I, however… Do."

BOOM!

A rippling aura came from Ryu and the nun almost shattered to pieces beneath his momentum alone. There was a shifting to her already damaged inner organs.

"I… do not… want… to… serve you…"

Ryu raised his head to the skies and laughed uproariously.

"Your Dao Heart is good. From today on, you will be my Summon: Rev. If you want peace, I'll show you a world where no one dares to fight because I stand atop the mountain."

"I…" Rev tried to fight again. This man fought her for no reason, killed her, and then wanted to change her name…

This sort of humiliation…

What genius could withstand it?

Even a woman with such a gentle temperament couldn't withstand such a thing without feeling completely and utterly furious.

And yet, it didn't matter in the slightest. Because she too was tossed into Ryu's Inner World without much fanfare.

This endeavor was shaping up pretty well. He had found more Summonings than he expected for so early on, obviously with Young Mistress Nightly as a standout.

The others weren't as good as her… just yet. But Ryu had a feeling that it wouldn't be long before he could manage it.

A grin spread across his face.

"My oh my. I didn't expect you all to get so impatient so quickly. Is there a purpose to trying to hide from my eyes?"

SHU! SHU! SHU! SHU! SHU!

A dozen figures appeared all around.

The weakest of them was none other than 773, the one that Ryu had skipped over.

And the strongest?

392nd.

Ryu looked up with amusement in his eyes.

"I take it you all don't want to have a friendly Rune challenge? You're embarrassing yourselves here."

392nd was a young man, lanky and almost dry looking. His skin crackled with what looked like a bad case of eczema. Whenever he moved, or he scratched a part of himself, large pieces of dry skin would fall in a disgusting rain, but he didn't seem aware of his problem at all.

For a cultivator of the Lord Realm to be in such a state, it couldn't be due to a normal affair. And judging by the scent of wafting poison coming from him—something that anyone could pick up, let alone Ryu the Herbologist—that answer was all too obvious to the masses.

773rd was another woman, but contrasting the nun, she might as well have been her direct and opposing opposite.

Ironically enough, this woman wore a nun outfit too… but a very different sort of time. She wore a single slit leather mini-skirt that rode up her thighs, her breasts were certainly bouncing boobily, and the necklace that hung from her neck had a set of handcuffs on the end of it.

She was a true degenerate woman through and through, even the way she cocked her hips and licked her violet lipstick smeared lips was provocative.

Obviously, though… Ryu hadn't just skipped over 773rd because of Rev. He had done so because he sensed that this was happening and he felt that this outcome would be far more interesting.

What fun was it in defeating these losers one by one. But he was disappointed by the fact that they didn't seem to have come for a Ruin Master challenge.

If it was just a matter of killing them, that would be all too easy.

His real purpose was to defeat the Ruin Master Guild at what they do best.

"Do you think you're worthy?" 439th sneered.

BANG!

His exploded in a rain of blood and gore.

Ryu yawned slightly as the rest of the group froze.

"If you want to come here to flex some of your muscle, at least make certain that you have the right to do so. The reason I give you all this challenge is to give you a chance to live. Not a single one of you is on my level. Even if there were a million of you here, I could take a leisurely stroll through you all and slaughter with impunity.

"So I'll ask again. Do you want a chance to live? Or do you want to die right here and now?"

392nd's eyes narrowed. "We… didn't come here to fight you. We came here to bring you to someone?"

"And that would be?" Ryu shook his head.

"Number 72nd, Sakamoto."

Ryu shook his head again. "Are you under the impression that I was having trouble finding you all?"

392nd froze again, feeling his heart constrict.

"I can find you all whenever I want. I started at the bottom of the list on purpose. I'm giving you time to prepare, time to feel fear, time to know that I am coming—because I want to alleviate my boredom.

"Coming here to try and escort me to someone I can defeat just as easily as any one of you… who do you think you are, exactly?" Stay tuned for updates on My Virtual Library Empire

A cold, frostiness came from Ryu's body.

CHI.

773rd retreated fast as ice began to coat her exposed skin.

"I'll take the challenge! I'll take the challenge!" she screamed.

"Oh." Ryu's frostiness retracted and his smile returned like a spring breeze. "Why didn't you just say so, then? Let's go."