Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Chapter 2101 I Swear - I Swear - I Swear

At that moment, invisible sparks of Spiritual Quintessence were forcefully condensed and the countless pieces of Old Wan\'s soul were pulled together until they were trapped into a small, vaguely humanoid form.

As early as the pre-Sky God Realms, a soul should have already gained its final form. But the fact that Old Wan\'s was only vaguely humanoid and not entirely so painted a different sort of picture.

The man had several heads coming out of his soul, grotesque, cancerous growths pulsing like flesh inflamed flesh across it. One\'s soul was meant to be the truest reflection of one\'s self, and it was often the purest part of the body.

But for a wielder of Corpse Poison, it would be the reflection of all their wrongs. Just the appearance of the soul itself was enough to make people keel over and gag. Even Ryu\'s own disgust was on full display.

Not wanting to look at it anymore, the chains rippled and Old Wan\'s body was wrapped by them, forcing his soul back into his body. And now, with the Divine Chains present, there was no chance at all to escape with his soul once more.

Old Wan tried to break free of the chains several times, even self-destructing his own soul again in a bid to escape, but everything failed.

With every new idea that was ruthlessly shot down, it felt like he was watching all his ambitions light up in flames.

To make matters worse, everyone had seen his true face now.

There was no denying the form his soul had taken. No amount of in-built trust or years of manipulation could hide what he had become. Even those that didn\'t know of what Corpse Poison was would likely never trust Old Wan in their lives again.

There was an ingrained disgust for such an aura that couldn\'t be explained in just a few words. This was instinct....

Beneath the chaos, there was a single hollow echo of laughter that almost no one heard.

Samson, leaning against the Sect walls on his last breath, was the one who laughed this sad chuckle.

Although he had never truly sided with Old Wan or co-signed his actions, his inaction might as well have been an endorsement.

Many people heard throughout their lives about matters like this one... how it was never the perpetrators who carried the sole blame, but how those that sat by and watched deserved just as much culpability.

In truth, Ryu would never cosign such a thing. He didn\'t feel a need to beg Samson to stand on his side or not be a fence-sitter. He always planned to get revenge for himself and his wife personally.

Even so, that didn\'t mean that he would accept Samson\'s actions either. When he did things, he acted based on his own moral compass. The world was filled with way too many shades of grey. He was too focused on reaching the top of the world and didn\'t. have the patience to care or consider the points of views of others.

As such, though he didn\'t bring Samson along to experience the same Fate as Old Wan, he didn\'t plan on sparing him either.

What maybe no one expected, though, was for Samson to raise a palm to his head and shatter his own skull and soul before Ryu\'s blow could take his life... the last bitter chuckle hanging in the air for only a moment before the booming cadence of the Tribulations above swallowed them up.

Ryu\'s gaze swept down from Old Wan to the now headless man below. He didn\'t react much to this at all, but at the very least, in his heart, he gave Samson a slight tick upward.

As for how useful that was... it wasn\'t at all. The man was already dead and there was no coming back.

"SAMSON!" Old Wan\'s roar layered with the voices of thousands. Some were the voices of women, some of children, and some of men with both high and low pitched cadence. It sounded less like a single man had spoken, and more like an entire stadium of people had roared out.

The fury and sadness of Old Wan\'s voice sounded real. But whether it was or not... Ryu couldn\'t be bothered to care very much, even when tears began to stream down Aika\'s face.

Both Aika and Ryu knew quite well that it wasn\'t just because he was embarrassed that Samson had done this. Taking his own life also gave Aika her own way out. It was a way to justify it to her in case she really wanted to follow Ryu after all of this.

It was clear and obvious that whatever chance the Radiance Star Sect had left would be on Ryu\'s shoulders. At the end of the day... he was still their Throne.

It was also precisely that that made Ryu\'s victory against Old Wan so shocking. As a Throne, Ryu was able to use his Throne status to suppress those of the Sect. Old Wan was probably prepared for such a thing, but... Ryu had no need of his Throne to deal with the likes of him.

Rvu turned his attention away from the dead Samson toward the writhing Old Wan. He seemed to have truly lost his mind, even going as far as to try and use his teeth to take a bite out of Ryu\'s neck.

"I almost don\'t want to turn you into a Corpse Puppet. Wouldn\'t that be a stain on my name? But I\'m also a man of my word."

Ryu smiled as the lance dispersed from his hands.

He pressed his two palms together before his aura surged.

The chains around Old Wan constricted and clamped down, suffocating his airways

and Meridians. Even his blood didn\'t flow as he wanted to.

"Tell you what. Maybe I won\'t ever use you as one of my puppets. What do you think? Would that make you feel better or worse?"

Old Wan snarled at Ryu, the veins in his eyes having turned entirely black.

"A damning non-answer if I\'ve ever heard one." Ryu clicked his tongue as his vision blurred. Soon, he had sights on Old Wan\'s Fate Star and he was planning on using the Bloodline Refinement method as well. After all, Old Wan\'s Bloodline should be decent as he had at least half of the Dual Radiance Bloodline, the very Bloodline Aika was born with both halves of

Old Wan\'s Fate Star, though...n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

It wasn\'t a star at all. It was a dense blackhole that seemed to have lost all life, and yet carried such strong suction forces that Ryu\'s consciousness was almost torn out of his

body.

\'Interesting... is this because of Corpse Poison? Or is it because of something else...\'

Suddenly, Ryu was a bit eager to try.

\'No, something feels off. This won\'t work properly!\'

The methods documented in the human skin Tome couldn\'t seem to properly latch on

here.

\'Interesting. This is related to the Chaotic Reincarnation that triggers the appearance of Corpse Poison. So the refinement method isn\'t perfect... but...\'

The Nether Spiritual Quintessence in Ryu\'s Spiritual Sea churned. He hadn\'t used it much since he got it, but now he seemed to have found the perfect opportunity to do

exactly that.

The Fate Blackhole pulsed out, nearly blasting Ryu\'s soul apart. But Ryu only grinned when the faint cracks appeared across his Perfect Blackbody Soul. These injuries were

nothing at all.

BOOM!

A white flame danced in the depths of Ryu\'s eyes as he rapidly changed the foundations of the Refinement technique in real-time. His mind moved far faster than his hands despite the latter leaving nothing but blurs and afterimages in their wake.

Everything flowed so smoothly that even Ryu himself almost couldn\'t believe just how

easy it all was.

There was a shudder across time and space before Old Wan\'s body began to convulse. Soon, the roars of fury and sadness became ones of pain and rage. "Don\'t let me get my hands on you, RYU TATSUYA! I swear, I swear, I swear-!"

Old Wan\'s curses filled the skies, but with every moment, his life only further slipped

away.