Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Chapter 2061 Deeper Meaning

Ryu chuckled. It wasn't long before he was surrounded by his women.

Eska and Isemeine seemed to have undecided to unfuse, which was odd because although the situation was calm now, it wasn't to the extent that all the troubles had been handled.

The Griffins were still here, and so were the Ruin Master Guild members. Plus, there were still some powerful Fey lingering off in the distance.

However, it didn't take Ryu long to figure out why.

Ailsa's power had skyrocketed again.

It seemed that Ryu's lack of power was still holding her back tremendously. As his Life Partner, she was especially affected even more so in comparison to his other wives. In the end, a battle that she was already practically handily winning on her own became even easier in the next instant. The funny part was that Ryu continued to grow; she too would only continue to gain access to power she should have had all along.

Ryu didn't find it disheartening. If anything, he found it amusing. He didn't find that this matter bothered him much anymore at all.

Who cared?

At the end of the day, she was still reliant on him. And soon enough, the power dynamic between the two of them would be flipped on its head.

At that moment, the skies shuddered and one of the elder Griffins fighting Ailsa shook. His eyes shot up into the skies and Ryu even saw a small light of fear.

The skies split and a gorgeous griffin descended from above. It was easy to tell that she was a woman at a single glance. She had elegant paws that walked across the air as though it was solid ground, and a body of reflective white fur that made one feel as though one was staring right into the maw of a star.

On her head, a reflective gold gem lay, and a crown of feathers rose from her head.

When her white wings spread, feathers fell from above. And when they landed on the ground, ripples of white danced in all directions, healing the land and calming the raging qi.

Slowly, the world was healed by the presence of this griffin alone.

She walked forward, ignoring the battle until she was right above Ryu. Then she lowered her head until her large eyes practically swallowed his figure.

This beautiful griffin had a body that could swallow up the skies. One could imagine just how large her eyes were.

And yet, she seemed insistent on looking right at Ryu like this as though to make sure that she truly wasn't seeing things.

Ryu smiled. "How've you been, Little Gem?"

He could sense the spikes of fury coming from the surrounding Griffins in an instant. How could their Goddess have such a stupid name to bear?

Suddenly, Little Gem shrunk down and became the same size as a little puppy. She leapt into Ryu's arms, licking his face and then scurried up his head, her white fur practically disappearing into his white hair.

Ryu was a bit speechless, but he ended up laughing. It was the Griffins who looked over in complete, abject horror.

That was because this wasn't a simple shrinking. Ryu had sensed it at the first go, but Little Gem had reversed everything, going back to an existence that was still cursed and lacked any and all cultivation.

It was completely baffling. Even Ryu had no idea why she would do this. There was no need.

In one moment, she had been likely no less powerful than Ailsa. No, she had been even stronger than Ailsa as she wasn't weighed down by Ryu's Fate.

But she had given all of that up.

For some reason, Ailsa felt her heart shake when she saw this.

Ryu and Little Gem had never even really exchanged words. They had met when Little Gem was a baby; what words could she have possibly had to say?

During that time, though, Ryu didn't do much other than feed her and stroke her fur from time to time. In fact, it could be said that Ailsa had taken far more care of Little Gem than Ryu ever had.

Of course... it had been Ryu who braved the attacks of those far stronger than himself to save her egg, but she hadn't even been born then; how could she be aware of such a thing? Plus, because she was so powerful now, she only had to save Ryu once and that debt would be settled.

There was no need for her to give up all of her cultivation like this.

It didn't make any sense.

But Ailsa understood why, and so did Ryu.

When Ryu learned of the curse that Little Gem had suffered and how her Clan had abandoned her because of it, he, a man who rarely felt any sort of righteous indignation, had felt furious about the unfairness of it all.

Ryu felt that his story and that of Little Gem's had been very similar at the time, and he hadn't wanted to help her because of that.

Ultimately, it ended up being Ailsa who helped Little Gem break the curse without much of Ryu's input at all, but this seemed to have been enough for the little Griffin to be completely attached to Ryu.

Ryu looked up.

At some unknown time, Ailsa was standing across from him. It was three meters, a distance that seemed so close and yet so far at the same time.

He was about to smile almost carelessly when he saw something behind her.

Ryu stopped moving, his thoughts moving in slow motion, or so it felt.

His mind worked such that he understood the deeper meaning behind what he was seeing instantly.

It wasn't that an enemy was creeping up behind Ailsa or that there was some treasure or memento behind her, Instead, it was the very same half-dead man she had been carrying around all this time, the same man that had hurled all those insults at her

over the years.

The question then was... what was the deeper meaning Ryu saw?