Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Chapter 2102: Shadow



The screams and roars of Old Wan slowly faded until there was nothing left but a black husk. Ryu was quite surprised by the result as well. He had only tweaked the method so that it would work on Old Wan's Fate Blackhole. But it had turned him into... something that was once again only vaguely humanoid.

This time, it wasn't because there were cancerous growths or anything of the sort, but rather because Old Wan just looked like a three-dimensional shadow. And yet, it ironically felt as though he had no depth to him at all, as though he was just a representation of nothingness pinned directly into the middle of the world.

Ryu removed his chains from around Old Wan's body, but the shadowy figure instantly thrust a palm that turned into an ax mid-air right at him.

Ryu raised an eyebrow before casually flicking the ax away with a finger. There was a clash that resonated through the air as though two blades had collided, and then Old Wan stumbled a step backward.

'Oh?'

Looking down at his finger, Ryu was a bit surprised. There was a nick there. But with Old Wan's current strength, there was no way that he should be able to injure him at all. This was a bit of a shock for Ryu.

What was also interesting was that this shadow should be his Corpse Puppet right now. It was refined by Ryu, and it should have his soul imprint on it. In fact, after double-checking, Ryu was certain that his soul imprint was indeed there.

But his own Corpse Puppet still wanted to attack him?

'Fascinating.'

After failing the first attack, the shadow actually got down to one knee and bowed to Ryu respectfully.

'So this is the opposite of Embryonic Qi...'

Ryu circulated a droplet of Embryonic Qi to his figure to counter the Corpse Poison.

However, he was far more interested in this Old Wan shadow's reaction. First it attacks him, then it professes its loyalty?

Ryu chuckled. "You want to devour me? I guess that makes sense. You're nothing but a bundle of instinct. I see... I've stumbled into a new form of Corpse Refinement..."

The key to the difference here wasn't the Fate Blackhole, or at least not directly. Instead, it was the Corpse Poison.

Old Wan now was a lot like the Heavenly Warriors, a bundle of instincts that had a soul, but only in part. The difference was that Heavenly Warriors were likely refined from Embryonic Qi... while Old Wan was the opposite.

The question was, was it worth it? Should Ryu try to refine Kira and Blue once again using Embryonic Qi?

'Hm...'

There would definitely be trade-offs. The Corpse Puppet wouldn't necessarily be stronger, and there would always be a hidden danger when controlling too many of them.

The main benefit of this refinement method was that the load of computation was taken off of the Necromancer's hands... But Ryu's computation was his best ability. The number of Corpse Puppets he would be able to control in the future, coupled with the fine detail he would be able to control them with, would set him far apart even from his own wife.

Eliminating the chance to use that was more foolish than not for him.

The only reason he wanted to make Summons at all at this point instead of focusing entirely on Corpse Puppets was because of their strong Dao Hearts. That was the offsetting measure that made them worthwhile.

But obviously, this method wouldn't have that.

'This method does have potential, though... if I investigate it some more, I might be able to find something interesting that's worth keeping. I know too little about Corpse Poison to make a proper assessment, while Embryonic Qi is still a mystery I have to delve into.'

It wasn't lost on Ryu that he had an entire half of his Meridian System that he didn't quite understand. Was all his second set of Meridians really capable of just producing Embryonic Qi? Or were there other secrets he didn't understand?Nôv(el)B\\jnn

The answer was possibly no. But he would have to investigate it first to find out.

"Alright." Ryu said slowly, exhaling a breath and looking up to the skies. "Go wipe out this wave. I have more dancing clowns to embarrass."

The shadow flickered, its body concentrating into a beam of black that shot over the horizon. It appeared on the battlefield of the Chaotic Space Sky God, ripping through the Heavenly Warriors as though they were nothing more than plastic dolls.

This shadow wasn't much stronger than Old Wan. In fact, because it lacked the man's Dao and Dao Methods, it was actually weaker.

But this just went to show just how much strength Old Wan had been hiding...

And also just how much stronger Ryu himself had become.

In front of him, even this level of strength was nothing more than a joke.

Soon, all the Heavenly Warriors were wiped out.

"Let them fight the Aspirants. I want to see how they do." Ryu said with a smile.

The shadow flickered and vanished, returning to Ryu's side and then vanishing into Ryu's own shadow.

'Oh?' Ryu raised an eyebrow but he didn't say much.

It hadn't literally vanished into his shadow, it had instead just made it seem like that. But what it had done was slip between the layers of space and time, nestling itself in there.

Ryu felt amused by the antics of the shadow. It seemed to have a personality of its own, which

was...

Odd.

The more curious Ryu became, the more he wondered if he should make an enemy out of this organization just so that he could experiment some more with the Corpse Puppets he could form out of them.

As he was lost in thought, the battle between the Chaotic Space and Black Worm Sky Gods against the Aspirants erupted.

The third Aspirant, formed from Old Wan's legion, was easily caught by Ryu so as not to interfere with their battle.

"Can't you see they're doing their best? Don't interrupt them."

Though Ryu was joking around, he really was evaluating their performance.

After all, he had to decide whether they were worthy of being his Corpse Puppets or not.