Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Chapter 2164 Tri

Chapter 2164  Tri

392nd lay gasping in a pool of his own blood. By his sides, his companions lay limply, having already bled out.
The despair in their eyes was palpable, even in death.
Never did they think that they, who had futures so bright and aspirations so tall, would fall like this.
They were Ruin Masters. Even compared to others, they would have a bright future. Women, men… money, endless pools of wealth… prestige, respect…
These were a number of things that they had already had before they were Lords, let alone now that they were Lords set on becoming the best of the best—even Dao Gods in the future.
Even if they didn't make their names ring in this Title Stele event, how many could? There were only 11 such geniuses they knew of that stood at that pinnacle before the appearance of Ryu. How could these 11 divide up the world all to themselves?
There would obviously be those who remained to pick up what scraps were left.
And now…
There was no chance left at all.
They were finished, their worlds dimming around them until they had nothing left to give, until they were worthy of gaining no more at all.
And then the vision of 392 faded away.
All the while, Ryu never bothered to learn his real name.
An interesting ability, though… Ryu thought to himself, looking at the flaking skin of the 392nd ranked Lord Ruin Master.
In the vast universe, this ranking was obviously shockingly impressive. There were trillions of people to a single star segment, let alone the fact that there were trillions of star segments themselves.
But what really caught Ryu's attention wasn't this. He, quite frankly, didn't give a damn. This so-called 392nd ranked Ruin Master was such a joke before him that Ryu had a hard time getting up to care.
If not for the fact that this was all to target the Ruin Master Guild, he wouldn't have bothered to finish the challenge in the first place, opting to just kill them directly.
However, this Dao was… unique, albeit flawed.
The reason 392's skin was flaking so much was because he had a unique regenerative Dao. This Dao went deep enough to the point that it regenerated even his soul itself—and that's right, even Focus Qi.
Ryu definitely didn't expect that he would see such a thing in the world, not after he had gone through so much trouble to find a method.
However, after some observation, he realized several problems.
First, the replenishment to Focus Qi was even weaker than the Prayer Mat's ability. This had been so useless to Ryu for such a long time that he hadn't even bothered to rely on it since re-establishing his foundation in the True Martial World, let alone now that he was a Sky God who had surpassed a shocking Heaven's Wrath Tribulation.
Second, well… just look at him.
The price and backlash he faced for maintaining this Dao were as clear as day. It wasn't just a matter of looking ugly—392 was in constant pain. Even normal movements like walking or talking spiked pain through his body, let alone something like fighting or beyond.
There was probably a reason that he had chosen to focus his attention on Ruin Mastery when his Dao was so very clearly well-suited to combat.
Although the Focus Qi replenishment was poor, 392's normal replenishment in terms of Vital Qi, Soul Quintessence, and normal Qi was actually quite impressive.
Nothing compared to Ryu, but at least halfway there.
And that was impressive in its own right.
Ryu was suddenly… very interested in the man.
It was a shame that his Dao Heart was weak. If he had a Dao Heart at the level Ryu wanted, he would have never abandoned the path of combat because of the pain.
Sure, the fact that he didn't abandon the Dao completely went to show that he actually had quite some backbone. But backbone was something all these geniuses had.
It wasn't good enough to catch Ryu's eye.
Not entirely.
And, because of that, he was unworthy to be Ryu's Summon. But because his point of interest was his Dao, making him a Corpse Puppet wouldn't be worth it either. Corpse Puppets wouldn't be able to maintain such a thing.
What was far more important for a Corpse Puppet was their baseline talent. That was why someone like Kira was so interesting for Ryu.
But…
Maybe…
Thoughts flickered through Ryu's head as he tried to figure out a method.
What was a Dao? What was it really?
Well, in the physical sense, it was the structure one grew in one's Spiritual Foundation. In that case, it wasn't nearly as incorporeal as it seemed or felt.
Hm, if I can use something like a Fate Star to refine a Corpse Puppet, there's no reason I can't do this.
Ryu waved a hand and chose to put 392 away for the time being.
His thoughts whirled around in his head as a new path opened up to him.
What if he, in the future, managed to find a way to replicate Daos and etch them into his Corpse Puppets?
He was sure that others had similar methods and paths already, but they were often pseudo or quasi versions. Anyone with enough skill would just use Summons—why bother to use a Corpse Puppet when you could use a Summon?
But Ryu had exceptionally high requirements for his Summons. He could fix everything about their talent, but their Hearts… he wanted them to be firm.
Only that way could they reach the peak he had in mind for them.
Only that way could he build an army that would surpass his wife's.
A wild grin spread across Ryu's face as his thoughts became more and more real.
He crossed into the next region, continuing to hunt down Ruin Masters one after another.
Not a single one managed to survive, and because the news was somehow being spread to them, they began to attack directly a lot of the time, some even setting up ambushes as only Ruin Masters could.
It was worthless.
…
Boring.
Ryu didn't want to be wasting his time with this at all. But his promises to his wives came first. Since he had promised Ailsa that he would bring the Ruin Master Guild down to its knees, he would do exactly that.
He just didn't know why they insisted on giving such weak Ruin Masters such lofty titles and fanfare.
102nd fell from Ryu's hand in a bloody heap, another fool who tried to attack and then apologized profusely to challenge him to a Ruin.
Ryu could tell at a glance that this "Ruin" was fake, but he still entered.
102nd could only watch as Ryu carelessly sidestepped every trap she carefully laid out, only to get to the end and grip her throat mercilessly, tearing it out.
Ryu didn't react to the corpse dropping to the ground and turned to leave.
It seems that it's about time to check out what this top 100 has to offer. I have a feeling it'll just be more disappointment.
Ryu's steps paused as he seemed to sense something. He looked around for a moment, a bland expression on his face before it turned up into a smirk.
Then he continued walking.
He crossed region after region, eventually returning to the very same region path that he had been on to begin with.
Moving lengthwise across the regions was possible. Usually, this was a method used by those who felt like they needed a better chance at accumulating more Faith.
However, there was a penalty to doing this as well. The requirements for breaking the Faith wall were lesser than if one continued forward, but it was still pretty steep.
Doing it once was fine, but by the third or fourth time, you would already be paying far more than you would have by just going ahead the normal way.
It could be said that taking this path was a final resort left to those in a group that was far too powerful.
But Ryu had used this method like he was on a leisurely stroll and had no doubt pissed off quite a number of people. In fact, he bet that it wasn't a coincidence that news of him was spreading so fast. It certainly wasn't only the Ruin Master Guild geniuses getting this information.
So, then… what was the best way to deal with him? What was the best way to turn his own arrogance against him?
Well, if Ryu was them, he would just find this "Ryu Tatsuya" and kill him. But he wasn't them.
So the real question is, what would Ryu do if he was them and shared their cowardly temperament?
Well, in that case, he would take advantage of the fact the cost of Fate was only skyrocketing for him and clear out the Regions of Fate ahead of him before he could get to them.
That way, he would have no choice but to take a different route forward as the lanes closed off, forcing him to expend far more effort.
Ryu didn't have to come all the way here to confirm this. He had already sensed it when it happened.
What he had come here to do was chuckle.
Oh…
And kill, of course.
Even if he didn't care about such petty schemes, it couldn't be that just anyone would be allowed to target him as they pleased, right?
Out from the shadow of what was without a doubt an already cleared region, an unfamiliar and yet oh-so-familiar face stepped out.
Yeger Sun.
The only Tri Fiend Childe of the Fiend Race.