Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

2020 Skill and Power

Tap. Ryu took a second step back. Tap. Then a third. Finally, he stabilized himself, but the rattling in his bones echoed like cracks of thunder. And yet, he grinned. It was a wild, fiendish grin, and it was the kind of maddened smile that made Darkness Rising's pupils constrict in the far-off distance. "Are you angry you shed a little blood?" Ryu asked, his voice sounding like a deep abyssal hell and his own aura beginning to grow in towering waves. "What a worthless excuse of a cultivator." BOOM! Falling Snow's body accelerated as he slashed out again. A battle erupted between the two as their howls cut through the skies. BANG! BANG! BANG! Space rippled and then forcefully reformed around them; falling meteors nearby crumbled from the reverberating impact alone, and the Heavens seemed to whine beneath their might, not liking the fact they were forcefully making the world withstand their power. The truth was that the Heavens breaking apart and space shattering was part of a world protecting itself and letting pressure disperse. The use of Lord Control to keep a world forcefully contained was like making a vehicle too sturdy. There was no way to disperse the impact through the crumple, so the Heavens had to take on all the burden. Ironically enough, Lord Control was often more dangerous to a world than God Control because it had the power to keep a world intact to an extent, but not enough to truly take on all the pressure alone. Yet, these weren't things that these two men cared to think about. With every clash, Falling Snow's power seemed to increase as though he had touched upon a valve that was endlessly pouring power into his body. His dullness was nowhere to be seen, and in fact, it seemed like he was using Ryu as a whetstone to strengthen himself again and again. BANG! BANG! BANG! Ryu slashed out with his great swordstaff to block one saber and took a half spin to slip out of the way of a second. Every time he calculated the next path Falling Snow would take, the man would improve again and make his previous calculations worthless. It was almost comical the speed at which the man was improving, and likewise, the pressure on Ryu was only increasing as well. And yet, Ryu's fiendish grin hadn't faded. If anything, the excitement in his eyes was growing. He went from only putting about 20% of his attention into this battle to 30%… and then from 30% to 50%… and then from 50% to 90%. All of a sudden, his full attention was on the battle at hand, and he seemed to have forgotten about everything else. His blade flowed with a mastery that Falling Snow still couldn't match, but the combination of Falling Snow's powerful body and Qi Realm cultivation was like a tempest that fused and collided with one another, raising his power to another tier. BOOM! Falling Snow's aura broke through, shattering the ceiling of the Lower Lord Realm and entering the Middle. Ryu's great swordstaff was almost blown out of his hands as he was sent flying backward. Falling Snow raised his head to the skies, howling like a madman as his hair grew more jagged and sharp. Ryu's Chaos Qi flared to steady his flight back, but Falling Snow had already appeared before him again, swinging down from above with both blades. Crossing his great swordstaff across his body, Ryu blocked, but he was sent flying downward. Several blossoms and whipping tree branches appeared in Falling Snow's way to block his pursuit; however, the Fey unleashed a howl. A fox spirit appeared behind Falling Snow, carrying nine tails that fluctuated with a mesmerizing cadence. His strength seemed to hit a new tier, and he blasted through Ryu's defenses. From the side, it looked as though Falling Snow's body had become nothing more than a streak, moving so fast that his afterimages formed a long string of blurring colors in the air. Through mysterious means, his reach seemed to lengthen, and his battle tactics only became more savage. The tip of one of his sabers pierced into Ryu's body just before he could react. However, his instinct was still fast. Space fluctuated around Ryu, and he appeared exactly one foot lower, giving himself enough time to react to the blade. He knew that teleporting any further would take too much time and likely be stifled by Falling Snow's aura, so he didn't bother. After shifting that single foot back, his body spun to the side, still horizontal in the air. Flashes of starlight sparkled around him as he slipped out of Falling Snow's wild charge. BOOM! Falling Snow crashed into the ground below with his full force. Earth shot into the air like large splashes of water, and what remained grounded spread out in tides of dirt, trees, and soil that collapsed mountains in the distance. Ryu's laughter filled the skies as he saw the blood running down his collarbone. Another few centimeters and even his bone itself would have been compromised. But unlike Falling Snow, he wasn't so shocked. Instead, his booming, jovial air filled the skies and burst the sparse clouds that remained apart. Ryu loosened his grip on his great swordstaff, holding it out with one arm. His other arm flared to the side, surging with darkness as a second blade appeared. This blade had a body of black and an edge of crimson. Its polearm was likewise wrapped in embroidery of the same white, but rather than radiating the holiness of the golden great swordstaff, it only accentuated the darkness further. The moment the second great swordstaff appeared, Ryu's aura shifted, and his Bloodlines, which seemed to have been shackled until now, burst out. Tattoos appeared across Ryu's body, his now torn-up robes falling off in strips as he revealed his strong torso. Dragon scales took shape, and a pair of wings that could block out the skies appeared not long later. His wings solidified, revealing a form delicately formed of carefully carved white feathers embroidered with Heavenly Patterns of gold and dark gold. His scales were no less of a brilliant white, but each one seemed to carry a hidden world within. Together, they forged a momentum that towered. A draconic tail whipped out from Ryu's back, and he took a step forward that shattered the space beneath him. When he vanished, he was even faster than Falling Snow. The latter had only just been preparing for another attack when Ryu appeared before him, slashing down. Falling Snow blocked and swung his second saber, only to be met by Ryu's second great swordstaff. The reverberating, booming cacophony of their battle sent devastation all across the land. But this time… Ryu's arm displayed a flexibility that was unmatched. The strength of his foundation wasn't something that Falling Snow could compare to. The level of dexterity that Ryu had in dual-wielding weapons wasn't something that Falling Snow could compare to. It was the very reason he had chosen this path in the first place. And while Falling Snow had a great deal of skill, he placed strength and power first and foremost. Comparatively speaking… Ryu had a great deal of both, and he didn't have to choose. The only reason Falling Snow could even compare to his body was that he had yet to complete his Body Realm cultivation method. And as for skill… He couldn't compare at all. Ryu's strikes suddenly went from heavy to light again. As though he were wielding a thin sword, his wrist lightly flickered, undercutting Falling Snow's blade and parrying it upward. SHIIIIIIIIINIG! The grating sound of two blades grinding against one another echoed, and the chips that Ryu's blade had caused in Falling Snow's were never more obvious than now. Falling Snow twisted to the side, thinking that Ryu would use this parry opportunity to pierce him right through the chest. But instead… Ryu's wrist forcefully bowed downward. At that moment, the polearm of his dark great swordstaff displayed a flexibility it never had before, curving like the arc of a bow. The polearm bent downward, but the tip of the blade shot up, snagging a chip in Falling Snow's saber. Falling Snow's eyes widened, but it was already too late. CRACK. His saber shattered. Ryu had forged his great swordstaffs with the aid of a Dao God and two False Shrines… How could Falling Snow's blades compare to his own? Falling Snow managed to block Ryu's light great swordstaff with his second saber, but he had no answer for the follow-up of the dark great swordstaff other than to dodge. Unfortunately, what good was that? Ryu's blade cut across Falling Snow's body. Falling Snow barely managed to pull back, but his body was still half cut into. A slice extended from his shoulder to his opposite hip, his collarbone, his lungs, and his heart all being cut in two.

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