Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu didn’t move. He didn’t rush the man; he didn’t even seem to be doing much other than thinking. The entire world disappeared to him as he thought through something.

And then it happened.

Iam grinned as though he felt it before it came. And then, a palm descended from the skies above, smashing him into a bloody pulp.

Iam was no more. His body, soul, and even the Karmic Flames that had once been burning him to ash from the inside out were all gone.

Ryu continued to stand there, staring at the palm that ripped through the platform.

That aura…

Was that him?

He certainly hadn’t moved just now, but he could feel when something was himself and when it wasn’t.

Had that palm come from the future? Or the past? And… why?

Iam’s words all seemed to imply that Ryu would kill him for some reason or another, but Ryu himself had a hard time fathoming why it was that he would just fall into the schemes of someone else just because.

Logically speaking, Ryu didn’t have the strength to do what was just done now. So it didn’t matter if the palm came from the past or the future. Regardless, to the current him, it was some time in the latter. That was because even if the palm was from the past, it could only mean that some future version of himself had decided that going backward was worth his while.

Ryu himself already knew that he would go to the past at some point as well. He had already figured out the Zu Clan Ancestor was him. What he didn’t understand just yet was why he had done that or what forced him to.

Part of him felt that the likely answer was to save his master. He owed that man who helped him so much at the early part of his journey a great deal, and there was his wife as well—Eska—whom he likewise felt that he owed a great deal to. Maybe not in the same way, but he definitely cared for Eska in a way that a husband could only love his wife. He wanted her to be happy.

After she had given up so much for the sake of the Zu Clan, how could he allow their memory to just fade without a word?

He definitely needed to do something, and much like he planned to help Sarriel revive her Clan, he planned to do the same for Eska.

In the future, while the Tatsuya name would be the umbrella that brought them all together, he didn’t mind those Clans flourishing on their own either.

Ryu had never had the ambition to be some Clan leader or Emperor. He cared little for such things and didn’t feel like he had the temperament to be a good leader at all. He was too willful, too arrogant, and too self-reliant on his own strength. He didn’t care for anything a Clan, Sect, or Empire could give him.

But if that was what his wives wanted, when he grew powerful enough to stand at the peak of the world, wouldn’t it just be a matter of a wave of the hand for him?

But it was precisely because of all of that that this made so little sense.

Like he had said, whether this palm came from the past or the future, it was most definitely some later version of himself regardless. That meant that that version of himself should have some recollection of this conversation.

All of this meant that he recalled this conversation, knew Iam’s words, and yet still decided to do… exactly what Iam wanted him to do?

It seemed like something that he was far too arrogant to do. He would probably rather die than do something like that. Unless…

Ryu’s placid expression, steeped in thoughts and heavy contemplation, cracked into a chuckle.

Knowing him, there was one thing that could lead to such an action. No… there were two.

The first was that he knew of Iam’s scheme, had figured it out, and couldn’t be bothered to give a damn.

The second was that Iam had pissed him off so much that he couldn’t be bothered to care. In this latter case, he wouldn’t care about the thoughts of anyone else; he wouldn’t even care that he knew of Iam’s scheme either or that this was precisely what Iam wanted him to do.

He would just act according to his heart and do things as he pleased.

That certainly… sounded like something he would do.

The question was, which one was the truth? And why did Iam want to die in this way?

Ryu’s gaze slowly shifted until it landed on the Title Stele.

At that moment, silently, and without even the slightest hint of a fluctuation, a new Title was being etched into being.

Ryu’s smile slowly faded as he saw it manifest, his eyes blazing with a fiery light.

It was happening now?

In that case, that meant that he not only remembered this conversation with Iam, he had seen it happen in the future, and yet he had still ended up making this decision in the end.

He knew that it would elevate Iam to a whole other level, and yet he had still made the choice.

“Ha…”

At that moment, Ryu exhaled a breath and then began to laugh so uproariously the skies quaked. It was a laughter that came from the depths of his belly, the sort of vibrant, joyful laughter that belied the curse of death that hung over his head right at this moment.

That was because right then, he had confirmed something that had been nothing more than speculation to him before. Now he knew that it was certain, now he was confident that his previous deductions had been nothing short of correct.

It was then that the Title finally finished etching into reality, standing above even Ryu’s own newly formed Title at the very top.

A Title that was surely Iam’s own, and no less peculiar than his cryptic words.

Grand Ancestral Bloodline.

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