Grand Ancestral Bloodlines Chapter 2225

[ … words ]

Ryu’s Dao Heart seemed to echo through the skies, but the state of his body painted a very different picture. He looked like a flickering candle about to go out at any moment, an ant that could be crushed with the slightest breeze, a cultivator that had long been devoured by his own desires, his very own darkness.

And yet, those here had long since given up on trying to paint him in that light. They stood in place with hardly any control over themselves.

Many of them had already let their apprehension and fear eat them alive. In Ryu’s presence, even if they normally wouldn’t have made any mistake at all, they would certainly do so now.

This was the pressure of facing someone you thought was perfect, someone you thought to have the entire world in the palm of their hands…

Someone willing to face off against the aura of a Dao God and not even question the Title Stele behind about how this could possibly be allowed.

He didn’t care about fairness or unfairness, he didn’t care about the mountain he had to climb or the sort of corner he was being painted into.

All he wanted was a battle to prove himself.

Not to the Heavens.

Not to his Clan or even his wives.

But to himself.

He was the man he had always thought himself to be, the man he had dreams of being, the cultivator that could hold up the skies with a palm and stabilize the earth with a step.

He was —.

A booming roar of thunder echoed in Ryu’s mind, blood spurting out of him from what were seemingly fountains of nothingness. The Heavens seemed to be targeting his very Blood Essence itself, forcing him to leak out whatever semblance of life he even remotely had left.

And then he moved as though he couldn’t sense it.

If they didn’t want to come to him, he would come to them.

Ryu seemed to lose the ability to speak once more, a manic howl coming from his lips.

Heavenly Patterns, once beautiful and shimmering in delicate hues, became more akin to cancerous growths around him, gripping onto the air and the fabric of reality, pulsing into them, and releasing a shuddering, menacing air.

They corrupted Life and even Death itself, pulling at their edges and twisting them into something entirely new.

Ryu completely ignored Iam, appearing before Silent Quibus with a claw that grew to the size of the Faerie’s body.

BANG!

Silent Quibus moved, his body becoming illusory as it slipped into the Ethereal Plane. Space folded and his steps accelerated.

Unlike Iam, Silent Quibus had regressed his cultivation. As such, he was truly at the Lord Realm.

Of course, compared to other Lords, he had touched the edges of the God Realm, so his strength was still on a completely different level. His body had also been tempered by Sovereign Qi in the past, so he was much more difficult to harm by extension.

However, he was still susceptible nonetheless. After seeing Ryu’s methods and strength, while he was confident, it wasn’t to the point of taking him lightly.

There was a calm reassurance to his expression, though, as he slipped away seamlessly. The layers and complexities of his methods would be far beyond these kids. Ryu, even with his eyes, wouldn’t be able to see through him so easily—.

A slap rang across Silent Quibus’ face, a shin slamming against the block of his elbow in his hip in quick succession, before a claw ripped through the robes and skin of his chest.

The Faerie managed to arch his back and dodge at the last moment, Ryu’s series of combos so quick that he was sent flying diagonally to the side.

The chilliness in Silent Quibus’ eyes remained the same as he somersaulted through the air. His calm gaze looked down at his chest and bruised arm when he landed on his feet.

He really shouldn’t try to get into a close combat battle. He was a Faerie, after all. Unfortunately, the only Corpse Puppets of his main lineup that he could summon were Nemesis. But now the steed had been taken from him and so easily at that.

That pissed Silent Quibus off a bit, but he could only blame himself for his own failures.

And… how could he come here so ill-prepared? He would never be.

Swirls of darkness appeared around Silent Quibus, one portal after another beginning to appear. Monsters that could have only come from the sick, twisted nightmares of a madman began to step out one after another.

Ogres with their skulls sewn together, a pair of women that had chains bolting their swinging breasts now and their necks twisted to the side, men that had iron balls hanging from their crotches, dragging them along with every step they took…

It was a sight that was hard to describe and accept even for those that weren’t of the faint of heart.

But if one looked closely, one after another, it would be possible to recognize these monsters.

These were geniuses… geniuses that the world had lost track of long ago.

Each and every one had once had a bright future, and now they were out for the world to see, out for the world to understand just how tragically each and every one of them had died.

A female Corpse Puppet with her jaw hanging by a single long ligament reached forward, ripping the spine out of an ogre that was easily three times her height.

With a screech that could make the strongest of heroes’ hearts itch with goosebumps, she swung the blood mass like a whip right at Ryu’s head.

There was a shift in the air, space warping and yet obediently remaining intact as it appeared right about Ryu’s head. It was a level of precision and Control that none of the geniuses here seemed even remotely capable of replicating.

Ryu had no choice but to dodge.