Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Titus swept a gaze over everyone, the coldness in his expression deepening.

"Radiant Star Sect, huh? What a good Sect."

He waved a hand and Eska was grabbed. Even Aika could hardly resist, let alone Eska and Selheira. The two were grabbed without being able to put up the slightest fight.

"We'll see how the world reacts to this."

Titus vanished. But he had only done so for a moment before a ball of fire descended from the skies above. Clearly, it was one last parting gift.

Aika pulled herself out of the rubble. Her hair was a mess, but her body was in even worse condition. When she saw the ball of fire descending, ready to envelop the entire Sect, she shrieked, her qi spiraling into a tempest that shot into the skies after the ball of fire.

It was caught by one pillar of star qi, then another, and then another.

She poured everything she had into it, but balls of flames still fell onto the Sect in droves, burning down buildings, killing disciples, unleashing unholy hell and carnage...

Aika found herself burning everything within her just to resist this ball of fire, her mind unable to stop itself from drifting to Ryu.

If he was still here... couldn't they have stopped this?

It was a ridiculous thought, but only as ridiculous as it was that a mere False Sky God had been able to turn the tides against Black Worm like that, even costing the Fading Star Sect, the Stalwart Sun Sect, the Raging Inferno Sect, and the Azure Lightning Sect millions of powerful warriors.

At that moment, the Radiant Star Sect had somehow leveled the playing feeling against those behemoths thanks to the actions of that one young man...

And yet she, as a Dao Sovereign, couldn't even do the same.

The disgust she had for herself reached a fever pitch as she pushed through the last of the ball of fire.

She stood there in the skies, her head hung low, her hair drifting over her face. Her two small hands were charred black and her clothing was burnt through in many places. If not for the volatile aura and qi around her, she would have probably lost her dignity to the face of the entire world.

She felt such a crumbling sense of despair.

They had lost Ryu. Now they had lost Selheira, and even Eska.

They had no talented disciples left, their strongest warriors were heavily injured and maybe even dead, and now they had a judgment looming overhead from the Ninth Heaven.

And every single one was because of her own reckless actions.

She coughed, droplets of scarlet blood flying into the air only to be burnt to ash beneath the immense heat immediately.

"Let me go, let me go!" Selheira raged about like a beast, her eyes turned to slits and her usual gentle temperament nowhere to be seen. Scales grew across her body and she seemed ready to turn back into a Dragon, but Dragon Claw suppressed her completely and totally.

"Selheira, stop." Eska called out.

A whimper came from Selheira's mouth. Over these past few days, she had found herself somewhat suppressed beneath Eska's maturity and strength. There was a clear imbalance of dominant to subservient between them.

It, obviously, wasn't the same kind of relationship Ryu had with Selheira, but it was something different. More like a mother to a daughter, or more accurately, a big sister to a little sister.

"Senior..." Eska started lightly. "Are you Titus Tatsuya?"

She had realized that whenever Titus grabbed anyone in that invisible Dragon Claw, they wouldn't even be able to breathe properly, let alone talk. But after they left the range of the Sect and began ascending to the Eighth Heaven, the pressure they felt vanished and they were even able to speak with ease as they flew along under Titus' power.

Titus met Eska's eyes as they broke through a barrier.

"Does that answer your question?" Titus' head nodded toward something behind Eska.

When Eska looked, her eyes lit up. "Lord Husband?"

"Husband!" Selheira said in surprise.

The two women were released from Titus' grip and Selheira pounced on Ryu while Eska smiled from the side.

Titus shook his head. Maybe his son's charm was infinite, who knew?

With a grin, Ryu swept them both into his arms, even Eska who very much wanted to escape. But between escaping Ryu and embarrassing herself a little before her father-in-law, she seemed to choose the latter.

She felt odd calling a man a fraction her age father-in-law, and a man even younger than that Lord Husband, but at this point, this was the bed she had chosen to lie in, so she would do so.

"Father, can you give us a moment, please?"

Titus nodded and vanished, his voice echoing through the skies. "I will be going to find your mother now. I believe you'll be just fine on your own now."

Ryu nodded and looked toward Selheira and Eska.

Selheira just looked happy to be there. Eska, however, was much more reserved. He could see a light of happiness in her eyes, but it was subdued, filled with thoughts of other things and separate worries.

"Eska, I hope it's not too much to ask-"

Hearing Ryu start like this, Eska was stunned, not quite understanding what he could possibly want to say.

"-But can I see Isemeine for a moment?"

Eska's brows raised, but eventually she nodded.

"Of course."

In that moment, the soft, cloud-like waist of Eska was replaced by a more robust and firmer frame.

Isemeine's skin was just as soft and supple, but the muscles beneath were on another level compared to Eska. She was a slender, but powerfully built woman.

Isemeine was ready for a quippy reply, but when she saw the gentleness in Ryu's eyes and felt his masculine touch, her tongue went soft for a second.

She shook her head. "Finally decided to seduce me? What is it, you thought that I'd be more okay with a threesome than the big chested bimbo? Well, you'd be right, but you didn't hear it from me."

She said this and then looked away stubbornly.

Ryu chuckled. "No, that's not what I called you out for. Tell me, Isemeine, how do you see our relationship?"