Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Chapter 2169  Seven

Ryu dodged back, the tip of Sarriel’s sword just barely grazing him. However, despite the fact it certainly touched him—albeit to a small extent—it left nothing but a white mark.

Sarriel’s pupils constricted. She knew the world of her sword, and she also knew exactly how sharp it was.

Likewise, she knew that if Ryu wanted to dodge completely, a mere fraction of a millimeter would be what stopped him. That meant he had let it happen on purpose.

He was showing her that the gap between them…

Was no longer there.

In fact, he was showing her something even more profound than that. He had grown to the point that if she wanted to mess around with him to test his bottom line… he could mess around with her right back.

“Fine,” she growled.

Sarriel didn’t wait any longer.

Her battles with Ryu tended to follow the same script. She wouldn’t only show as much as she had to, pulling him into an ebb and flow until he was forced to respond to her rhythm instead of the other way around.

But now, it was different.

Not only had he grown to the point where she couldn’t afford to get away with something like that anymore…

He had also truly pissed her off.

Looking at that smug smile on his face, she wanted nothing more than to rip his lips off his face.

She unleashed a shriek of fury, her black hair falling in a rain of black stars, a dark blue frosty dew flowing in the undercurrents beneath it.

Shingles of black ice coated her body as she took a step forward, accelerating so quickly that Ryu almost couldn’t react.

Interesting…

Icy Runes bloomed across the surface of Ryu’s body as well, forming nodes that linked the white scales that appeared in succession as though building worlds of snowstorms in each individual shingle.

Ninefold Frostbane.

The speed domain around Sarriel found itself countered just in time. The blade had appeared at Ryu’s neck, so sharp and fast that a layer of frost was already appearing down his collarbone.

There was a flash at Ryu’s forearm, and his great swordstaff appeared.

DING!

BANG!

The echo of metal and then a reverberating explosion of air separated the two.

Their feet dug into the ground, their bodies sliding back with a sharp speed.

Sarriel’s eyes practically popped out, red veins pooling around them as blood vessels pumped and writhed.

That wasn’t just any movement technique. It was a high-level application of her eyes and her Ice Inheritance that could influence even time and one’s perception of it.

On the one hand, her eyes distorted truth and falsehood, and on the other, her ice took hold of the laws of time, icing them over.

It was far more complicated than just this, but the important point was that even someone with Time Affinity alone shouldn’t have been able to counter it. That was because it influenced time by proxy and could only be countered through the same proxies.

Who knew that Ryu would also have an Ice Affinity Bone Structure that was capable of influencing Time?

Not only did he have one, but he had seen through her ability in an instant, knowing exactly how to counter it even with the distortion of time active.

Just… what level had he reached?

Sarriel slowly lowered her sword, her back straightening as her hair danced in the wind. Her cool, violet eyes regained a large majority of their calm, none of the previous anxiety or fury clear for anyone to see.

She took a breath and exhaled slowly. The descent of her sword split into several afterimages, and for the first time, Ryu sensed something.

Her Dao.

There were two things that Ryu had never seen from Sarriel. He had never quite sensed the full extent of her Dao, and beyond that, he was certain she had a Natural Enlightenment likely no less shocking than his Shrine Mountain Natural Enlightenment.

There were certainly other things she was hiding, but these two required the largest focus, because how powerful they were would truly make or break everything.

And now, it seemed that she had finally given up on holding back.

A grin spread across Ryu’s face as his second great swordstaff appeared in his palm.

“Don’t disappoint me, woman. All that edging for so many years… you’d better make it good.”

Sarriel’s lips parted, and she spoke.

But just like when Ryu used [— Judgment], and when Nightly had tried to speak out her Title as well, nothing came out as though the Heavens themselves had muted it.

Her face began to change expressions.

From anger, to contempt, to disgust, to fear, to happiness, then sadness, and finally surprise.

She distilled all those countless personalities into seven perfected forms.

At the same time, the afterimages of her blade seemed to also come to a stop, forming exactly seven as well, fanning downward into a beautiful array that hurt to look at—as though it was becoming more confusing to stare at the more one did.

Sarriel grew in size, six more heads and six more pairs of arms appearing on her body. But then, with a shudder, it all fused into one.

Sarriel’s aura skyrocketed.

From the Lord Realm to the Sovereign Realm.

From the Sovereign Realm to the God Realm.

From the God Realm to something that vaguely felt like it was beyond.

She stood at two and a half meters tall, her bearing just as graceful, her looks even more gorgeous, and yet now she just felt… unapproachable, an entity that stood beyond all things as they saw them.

“Ha…” Ryu chuckled a bit, his pupils trembling. Just what was this, exactly? This Dao… not only could he not see through its depth immediately, it felt that it just might stand on the same level as his own.

Sarriel opened her eyes, seven pupils swirling within in a gorgeous array, their irises overlapping like lotus petals.