Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

As Ryu had expected, the World Sea Realm experts were, indeed, present. They stood in a void world created by someone who must have been a master in the spatial element, watching on. They had been idly chatting but the moment the black armored warrior appeared before Ryu, many of them stood, their pupils constricting into pinholes. 

The World Sea Realm experts of the Martial Gods looked toward one another, the realization clear in their eyes.

In one particular location of the small void realm, Ryu's father-in-law, King Cultus, was indeed present. When it came to these matters, it was likely that he was only second in understanding to the Martial Gods themselves, so when he saw this change, he too was shocked. 

'As someone who has a Partner from my Cultus Clan, it isn't a surprise that the Heavens would place so much hope in him. But, to think that it would actually be so infuriated… Is this talent going to die here?'

The World Sea Realm experts rose to their feet, their expressions filling every tick on a wide spectrum. 

…

Ryu felt every fiber of his body constricting to an extreme. When one felt fear, there were two responses. One could either push one's body into overdrive, allowing a fight or flight response. Or.. You could completely shut down. 

The last time Ryu had felt this crippling fear he had been forced to take his own life for the sake of giving his family a chance in the future. Maybe the only two who knew just how horrible that experience had been for him were Elena and Ailsa. And right now, it felt like his body was trying to take the latter approach, to force him to accept his Fate and bow his head. 

At that moment, the so-called rage of his Fire Dragon Bloodline had vanished. The will of Judgment within his Lightning Qilin Blood was nowhere to be seen. The absolute defense of his Ice Phoenix Blood lay dormant while the pride of his Emperor Phoenix Bloodline had turned docile. 

Every bit of the talent of Ryu had been so proud of vanished. Even his Spiritual Foundation and his enigmatic white flame fell into silence, suppressed to an impossible extreme. 

It felt like everything that had been him was snatched away. He was nothing but a normal young man of the Awakening Realm, a pitiful Realm that even Mortals wouldn't hold in high esteem. 

Battles had broken out all around the two of them, and yet this black armored warrior only took a slight step forward. The steady growth and receding of his dark gold flames continuing to breathe and bear down upon Ryu. 

Light, clinking footsteps that should have been drowned out by the surrounding commotion resounded like thunder in Ryu's mind. There was a second, then a third, then a fourth. 

What once was a two meter distance became so close that Ryu was forced to look straight up at the black armored warrior while it looked straight down. 

The black armored warrior's scent was oddly familiar. It was the very same metallic sort of smell that hung in the air when it was about to rain… When everything that had been was soon to be washed away and diluted into nothingness. 

It was a smell that usually filled humans with fondness and happiness. But, it was so concentrated on this black armored warrior that it felt toxic and oppressive. With every breath of it, Ryu felt that his own breathing was cut shorter and shorter. He soon found himself gasping for breath without oxygen to breathe. Every time he tried to take a breath, he would be assaulted by that smell. It hung on his tongue, clung to his throat, pervaded his nose without a sign of disappearing. 

Ryu's gaze turned bloodshot, not only from lack of oxygen, but also from a realization that this metallic scent also reminded him of blood. This was the sort of experience that hung on your soul and slowly crushed it… 

An Indestructible Soul talent…? It could make that useless too. 

Ryu suddenly understood why he had felt such fear when he took his first life… it wasn't a fear that came from himself, it was a fear that came from this feeling right here. Something bigger than himself, something much larger than his own being, hadn't wanted him to take his own life. And yet… He had done it anyway… 

And now… It felt like whatever that thing was, was back for revenge.

… 

Within the void world, King Adonis' gaze narrowed. 

'My intuition was correct, he was indeed a danger. It's over now, there's no need to dwell on this. His death is certain. 

'What a joke this world is… Killing its own talent…. It still has yet to realize the true might of a Divine Race.'

Just when King Adonis finished this thought, he found his eyes widening again. 

…

"I get it." Ryu's vacant gaze suddenly sharpened. "So, this is the true strength of the Heavens? No, this can't be considered your true strength. At most, it's the small piece of it you think that's probably enough to deal with me. But, instead of aiming that strength toward the dancing clown behind me, you actually thought to aim it toward me instead. 

"I get it… I really do. You do things this way because you aren't a person, you aren't an existence that lives and breathes, you don't even have a mind of your own. You act on instinct and you move on a set of rules long since laid out for you.

"But, I already overcame you once as a mortal man with no more strength in my arms than a child would. What makes you think that now, after all I've accomplished, after all the blood I've shed and bones I've shattered, I could ever lower my head to you?"

Ryu's aura suddenly surged, a cultivation that shocked those spectating reverberating throughout the whole of the Shrine Plane. 

The 13th Rite, the Rite of Origin blossomed forth.