Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

2016  Smart Risks vs Impossible Odds

Ryu's body was being locked in place by a series of complex laws. To his eyes, they looked like the Runes of the world, something that he was very familiar with as a Formation Master. But it was more complicated than just that. It was almost like the woman's pupils were instantly forming a Visualization of sorts, while also borrowing power from the world itself to strengthen it. With this sort of binding power, even a Sovereign would be locked down for a brief instant, and if she was willing to give up her eye, maybe even a Dao God. Having come to this conclusion, Ryu shook his head. That was unlikely. She didn't have any true Heavenly Pupils. Instead, she seemed to have replaced her Pupils with shocking abilities that were just a step below Heavenly Pupils, something that Ryu had never seen before. Was she trying to create them like Primus had succeeded in? That was a possibility. It was just that… She still had a long way to go. Ryu's Childe of Chaos and Order constitutions rippled only slightly for a flaw to appear. [Death Acupoint]. A needle of qi came from a simple roll of his shoulder. It pierced right through before he even had the care to look toward his surroundings again. By this point, Adlael was a mess of blood, continuously charging, and continuously getting flung away as though he was no more than a fly being swatted. His state of mind was far too fragile, and the more cracked it was, the easier it was for Ryu to read him. By this point, Ryu's [Lines of Fate] weren't just working on a few percentage points when it came to Adlael. He had seen through his heart so implicitly that his ability to predict his next actions was near 100%. So close, in fact, that it might as well have been 100%. The synergy between his abilities had reached another level. Now, he could use the Chaos half of his Dao to read people, and then use what he understood to read their Fate and Karma with much greater ease. In his eyes, they were nothing more than a bundle of white, grey, and black strings that he could pull like that of a puppet's own. The three-pupiled woman was shocked that Ryu managed to break free, but she was even more shocked when he suddenly streaked a finger across the skies. [Rob the World of its Color]. SHIIIIIIIING! The woman shuddered, and she took a step back. She didn't feel any pain, even with her eyes now bleeding. But for some reason, she felt that something had been stripped from her. If she could look in the mirror, she would have realized that one of her pupils had gone from a glossy black to a dull grey. Soon, she realized the change to her field of vision, and it all hit her at once. Ryu had severed one of her abilities. She stood in stunned silence, not understanding how this could have happened. Adlael roared again and was about to charge once more when the woman suddenly shrieked. "WAKE UP, ADLAEL!" Adlael froze, his mind shuddered as a wave of soul pressure hit him. His mind seemed to slowly awaken, and he found himself gasping for breath. He looked down at his body. He was littered with wounds; several bones had been fragmented and shattered, and even with his healing factor given to him by his Martial God lineage, it seemed that the effort he would need to fix it wouldn't be small at all. He heaved deep breaths, slowly looking up from his body to Ryu, who stood in the air almost casually. The man's white hair was without a speck of dirt or dust, his white and sky-blue robes fluttering with the same perfection. Ryu seemed unbothered by the world, uncaring for even the fact he was in the middle of a battle. He played them in the palm of his hands with the ease of someone who stood far beyond them, despite the fact his aura seemed to make it clear that he was still an Omniscient. The woman was heaving deep breaths as well, but for very different reasons. Her shock was still practically palpable, but she knew that if she didn't wake Adlael up, they would all die. Ryu casually sent a glance into the air to find that Young Master Moon and Falling Snow were still standing there. They took up separate halves of the sky as though sentries watching over his death. Ryu couldn't help but chuckle. He really hated people standing above him, but these guys didn't seem to know their place. He really wondered what made them think they had the right to do so. There was only one person here who had even a chance of defeating him in a one-on-one battle, and it was certainly not them. They were lucky that she was allowing them to gather information for her. It seemed that in the time he was away, Sarriel had only become more cautious. Despite her rage and his baiting words, her Dao Heart was exceptionally firm in its convictions. She wouldn't act unless she was absolutely certain that she could protect her life. But the irony of it was that Ryu knew she would act anyway, even if she eventually realized that there really was a chance she could lose her life to him. He was starting to understand Sarriel's Dao Heart a bit better. It wasn't that she was unwilling to take risks. If she wasn't, she would have never grown so strong. It was rather that she was only willing to take smart risks, ones that weren't up against impossible odds. Maybe that was smart. However… Ryu simply couldn't allow it. If he allowed his Dao Heart to feel aggrieved after all those years of suppression he faced for so very long, he would feel maybe even more agitated than Adlael had just now. No one was worthy of making him feel that way. Not even his own wife. Ryu reached out a hand, and the world flickered as a bow appeared in his palm.