Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu looked over Selheira's body twice and then thrice over as though he didn't trust his senses. In this sort of environment, he didn't want to miss anything, and he didn't trust Selheira to be honest with him about her situation right now. There was no other choice but to check himself.

"What are you crying for?" Ryu smiled. "A mighty Dragon can't shed tears so easily."

These words had the opposite effect to what they intended. Selheira's tears came forth in a stream, and she buried her head into Ryu's chest. Feeling that her arms alone weren't enough, she wrapped her wings around him as well, practically swallowing him up whole.

Ryu's expression softened, his hand rubbing her back. He could feel that there was a great amount of weight on her chest, but...

"Isn't this what you wanted?" Ryu said softly. "If your Bloodlines are still dictating your actions to this extent, doesn't that mean there's still a long path ahead for you to follow on your own?"

Selheira froze when she heard these words.

She had never looked at things like this, but Ryu's words had repositioned everything in her mind.

This sort of impulsiveness wasn't normal. The moment they entered the Rotten Sea, it was like a strong compulsion had overwhelmed her, forcing her hand.

What was odd was that she wasn't a Fire Dragon, she was a Crystal Dragon. She had never drawn the connection because she had been forcing herself to act and be unruly all her life, trying to separate herself from the moniker that had tagged her Crystal Dragon Race all its life.

She believed that the Crystal Dragons had been pushovers, so she became the opposite, even putting the man she loved through a countless series of tests to the point of almost pushing him away.

All this time, she had thought that those actions were her own will, but was it?

"You're human now," Ryu started, "at least in part. Human Bloodlines do not work like Dragon Bloodlines do. Even if there is one superior Bloodline, the second will be dormant somewhere else within. Humans always carry the Bloodlines of both parents.

"You do not have to force yourself to be something that you are not, and part of controlling your impulsiveness is likewise part of controlling your Bloodline... or Bloodlines."

Selheira lay on Ryu's chest as though there was no battle going on around them. She felt safe, and she wondered why she had ever wanted to be separated from him in the first place.

Even now, it seemed that her Bloodlines were, indeed, still influencing her to a great extent. How silly of her to think her journey was finished. In the path of Cultivation, was there any end destination? Didn't even Dao Gods spend endless days and nights in seclusion?

"Thank you, husband," she whispered.

"What are you thanking me for?" Ryu smiled, picking up her chin and looking down into her eyes. "Didn't I tell you before? My wives are allowed to be as willful as they desire. If you want to poke a hole in the skies, just tell me."

Selheira's heart fluttered. She was fairly certain that this was the first time Ryu had called her his wife, or at the very least, this was the first time he had done so right to her.

She had never assumed herself to be a main wife. But now...

Selheira wanted to kiss Ryu, but the qi barriers that separated them made it particularly annoying. It was hard to be romantic when you were surrounded by rotting currents of blood.

That was when she felt Ryu's lips on hers. She didn't know how it happened, but the rotting smell vanished and so too did the rest of the world.

By the time she came up for breath, her eyes were a hazy mist and her breathing was slightly hurried. Her hips wiggled a little bit, coming with a blood boiling jiggle, but she caught herself in those last moments, remembering where they were.

Selheira pouted. "You did this on purpose," she spoke in a soft, coquettish voice.

Ryu grinned. Right here, in this moment, he could see through the layers of Selheira's facade, down to her true self.

She was a gentle, caring woman. He had known that for a long while. Their first few interactions were her just sitting by and watching him eat, as though his own satiation was more important than hers.

It wasn't until after she felt she was falling for him that her actions changed subtly, going from a gentle and caring woman to someone who was still gentle, but far more aloof at the same time.

Now, he felt he could see down to her true self.

The waters exploded around them, shattering the illusion of romance they had been lost in. When Ryu killed the creature, he had taken the blood crystal for himself, of course. Considering how this treasure illuminated the surroundings, they couldn't hide even if they wanted to.

Ryu gazed at the coming enemies. They seemed to have only now noticed Selheira, and judging by how they looked at her, Ryu could tell they saw her as his weakness.

This was enough for his expression to run as cold as the blood through his body. If they had noticed that it was Selheira earlier, what would they have done instead?

No one on his kill list was present, but since they wanted to touch his bottom line...

They could die.

Ryu took a step forward and threw out three punches.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three vortexes spun through the water, appearing before three Demons in quick succession. They were so fast that they all seemed to land at the same time without a hint of variation between them.

Ryu took a breath. "Still not enough. What am I missing?"

Water qi didn't work even though this was the sea. When he tried to strip himself of all qi entirely, the result was even weaker. At least when he used qi, there was something fueling it outside of his body alone.

His body was powerful, but not to the point of looking down on everyone.

Ryu's eyes widened. 'That's it.'

Suddenly, Ryu's skin glowed with a slight sheen of red.

"Yes, this is it," he spoke to himself, taking another step forward.

He punched out again. This time, he was slow and deliberate, almost as though he were struggling with the weight of the water.

But the moment the Demon Kings on the outside saw this, they stood from their seats. Their eyes opened wide and their hearts beat from their chests, releasing resonate howls.

Bloodline Resonance.

BANG!

Ryu's punch accelerated, a clap of thunder resounding through the water.

Rather than a vortex vacuum forming, the waters seemed to become an extension of Ryu's body, forming a spiralling whirlwind of water as it appeared before his enemies in an instant.

'Good.'

BANG!

A head exploded into a rain of blood and gore.

Ryu was already preparing another strike, calmly taking another step forward. This time his fist was just a hint faster.

BANG!

The result replayed itself, their blood and bone being incorporated into the Rotten Sea as though they had never existed in the first place.

With every step, Ryu killed another, but by the time he was done, he felt a drain on his body like nothing else he had ever felt before.

He circulated a drop of Embryonic Qi, but it was slow. It took five before he finally calm himself, but he found that the stacking effect was poor. The only way to make it a bit better was to allow them to work on separate sections of his body.

'This is...'

Ryu took inspiration from his battle with the giant.

There was a good reason his Water Qi didn't work. This wasn't water, it was blood. If it was blood, didn't that mean that it didn't work with qi, but Vital Qi instead?

When he punched out before, he wasn't satisfied with the result. Too much of his strength was wasted pushing the water away, so by the time it got to any enemy, it didn't even have a fraction of its true strength.

He had been trying to tune his fists so that it could be in line with the waters, but the problem with that was the fact the waters didn't seem to want to bow to his will.

The Rotten Sea was a mixture of countless Bloodlines with countless more variations within. Although it looked uniform, the changes were drastic from one place to another.

Resonating perfectly with them all at the same time, and even at a considerable distance, was too difficult. It required a fist with just as many variations, and complexity was practically the bane of close combat.

But what if he took a different approach? What if he used Vital Qi as the conduit instead?

Ryu had unwittingly, and to the shock of the spectators, stepped into a Realm of control so rare that it was the minimum requirement for reaching the bottom of the Rotten Sea...

A place no one had been in countless generations.

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