Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu exhaled a breath. There was a certain glossiness in his eyes that slowly faded away in that moment, almost as though he hadn't been entirely aware of what he was doing.

He had let his Bloodlines rampage for the moment, and they did as they pleased. It was a feeling that he didn't usually allow, even back when it would have suited him the most.

Well, not that it would have been very possible back then either.

Back then, his Bloodlines weren't exactly entirely awake. They were mostly in a deep slumber, because waking up would have meant shredding him to pieces.

Even now, Ryu was questioning whether he had gotten everything out of his Bloodlines.

Of course, if others knew his thoughts, their responses wouldn't be the most… kind.

He wasn't even a Beast, but he had just used those very same Bloodlines to destroy some of the greatest geniuses of Beastkind before the world. If his Bloodlines weren't good enough now, what exactly did that mean for everyone else?

But in Ryu's opinion, it wasn't his Bloodlines individually that were so powerful, but rather the combination of them. And that wasn't exactly the same thing.

If he just had to rely on his Dragon Bloodline, or just his Qilin Bloodline, or just one of his Phoenix Bloodlines, how powerful would he be?

When he thought about it, no matter how he simulated it, he felt that he would have probably died within the first few exchanges.

He mulled this over in his mind as he stood there, almost as though he wasn't aware that he was holding up the rest of the Title Stele proceedings.

His mind swirled with thoughts, and then he felt something.

The Beast Heir Title.

'Hm…' he stared at it. Or, rather, felt it swirling about in his body.

In truth, Ryu wasn't gathering these Titles for himself. He didn't give a damn about any of them.

These Titles were for his Corpse Puppet and Summon army.

There were a lot of people who could claim to have powerful Corpse Puppet armies. There were none who could claim to have given their armies Titles from the Title Stele.

It could clearly be seen that Ryu's ambition wasn't on a level most could even begin to fathom. In fact, even now, he wasn't quite satisfied.

But now… he was wondering if he should take this Beast Heir Title for himself.

He couldn't absorb it now, or else he wouldn't be able to continue snatching Titles. But he wondered if it would be possible to use it to shore up what weaknesses he perceived to still have.

The truth was that there was certainly a better Beast Heir Title coming, that much Ryu was certain of. If the very best Beast Title was here, then the likes of the Dragon Prince and others would have long since acted.

But there was also a possibility that the best of the geniuses here wouldn't move no matter what for these Titles, obsessed with ensuring that they could get a unique Title of their own.

It wasn't impossible to get both. It was just that you could only get one prepared Title before you fought for your own unique Title.

However, in many circles, fighting for a weaker prepared Title might be seen as self-doubt. Depending on the type of Dao Heart you had, you might choose to put all your eggs in one basket.

Ryu, obviously, wasn't such a person. He didn't care about what others thought, and he could fight for more than one anyway. The whispers of others weren't going to move him off of his game.

Either way, this wasn't what was important. What was important was the fact that this Beast Heir Title wasn't the best, so it was odd that Ryu would even be thinking about absorbing it.

The reason he was hesitating was because he was thinking of giving Kira the best Beast Title there was here. That would really shore up that Corpse Puppet's abilities and bring out the greatest strength of his Ancient Sinew Bone Structure.

By comparison, Ryu didn't think he needed much of a push. Plus, he wasn't going to use the Title in earnest. Rather, he was going to take advantage of its Fate, tear it apart, take what he needed, and discard what he didn't.

He didn't think he needed the absolute strongest Beast Title to do that.

'Dilemmas… Dilemmas…'

Ryu spent so long standing there that some probably thought he had truly overexerted himself this time.

They weren't foolish enough to think that Ryu was just at the level of the beasts he had just killed. They were all geniuses and much smarter than that. They knew that for Ryu to fight for the Beast Heir Title, he had been suppressed in pretty much all other aspects. He hadn't even been allowed to use his Heavenly Pupils in earnest.

But that was precisely what made the fact he might have overexerted himself feel more real.

Only Sarriel, who knew about Ryu's Embryonic Qi, was starting to grow impatient.

This guy was doing things at his own pace again. Hurry up and heal yourself. Get off the stage so I can fight too, my hands are itching.

Sarriel was only growing more impatient every time Ryu fought. She wanted to fight too. She wanted to show the world who Sarriel Moo—Tatsuya was.

She had barely had the Moon thought when Ryu looked over at her with a glance. A shudder ran through her body, and then she rolled her eyes.

"Don't read my mind."

"I'm not," Ryu said. "I just felt a disturbance in the Fabric of Fate and I had to make sure that a certain someone didn't forget their loving husband."

Sarriel shook her head and looked away, a slight blush on her cheeks. She just wasn't used to using someone else's last name yet. She hadn't done it on purpose.

Ryu smiled, feeling that Sarriel could be quite adorable when she wanted to be.

In the end, Ryu didn't make a decision. He just took the Beast Heir Title and walked off to the side.

He took a seat, bloodied and beaten. There was a huge gash across his side, and one of his arms looked like it was still hanging limply. Ghastly bruises were revealed across his pale skin once his white scales retreated.

Quite frankly, he looked like he had a foot in the grave already.

Sarriel only internally rolled her eyes when she saw this as well. She knew that Ryu could easily heal all of this, and yet he chose to stand there in pain instead. For what? To lure in idiots?

Sometimes the way Ryu's brain worked made absolutely no sense to her.

On the one hand, he was sometimes so very arrogant. And at other times, he was so very hypocritical.

Didn't he want to beat everyone at their best? So why was he pretending to be a pig to eat a tiger now?

The worst part was that even if she brought this up, she knew she would just get a cheeky grin and he would find a way to steamroll over her with logic you'd have to squint at to make sense of.

Ryu closed his eyes in meditation, and the Title Stele finally rumbled again.

Emperor Sword.

Sarriel stood so fast her pillar almost shattered.

Ryu opened a single eye, and then closed it as though he hadn't seen a single thing.

The timing truly was impeccable. Now he could use his wife to pretend to be even more of a pig. Wasn't it amazing how things worked out?

This was certainly a coincidence and had absolutely nothing to do with him.

Sarriel was the first to react, but she was far from the only one to do so. Explore new worlds at My Virtual Library Empire

Ryu had only just closed his eyes when he opened them again. His head shifted, landing on the group of Martial Gods and specifically… his so-called mother-in-law.

Aurelia calmly stepped into the air, her dress fluttering as her dainty feet walked across the skies. If one looked closely, it was possible to see that her ankles and the soles of her feet were actually wrapped in a silky cloth.

To her back, a sword seemed to manifest out of a ribbon of silk, the fabric dancing around it with a flare for theatrics.

Ryu's eyes narrowed. He wasn't the type of person who would ever react to such a thing… if he was the one who was personally fighting.

But he wasn't the one who was personally fighting.

If Sarriel was able to use her full host of abilities, he might not care very much. But this was a battle for the Emperor Sword Title…

Nothing but Sword Aura could be used.

Aurelia's appearance was far from the only change. That was because, to everyone's surprise this time…

The Dragon Princess also moved, her large, snaking lavender-scaled body moving through the skies with an elegant grace.