Ryu did nothing as Taedra was enveloped by this light. It was only that the fatigue between his brows grew heavier.
Given the current strength of his mind, one could imagine what he had to go through to decipher the perfect words to speak.
Handing soone comprehension was impossible. You had to guide them to
eventually reach the proper conclusion themselves, even if that conclusion was a little biased toward yourself.
Taedra's original path was trying to seek a thod of tying the vast origins of the world into the quaintness of a little pen and a few lines.
But quaint was the operative word. Although it was often used as a replacent for words like "small" and "tiny," the root of the world itself didn't just refer to size, although it often could. It carried a sort of style with it as well.
When Ryu read the word, he had felt all sorts of possibilities rolling through his mind. It could refer to an ancient family, the quaintness carrying the confidence of a lineage confident in their wealth and not finding the need to display it so grandly themselves. And yet, every one of their actions exuded that hidden elegance and confidence nonetheless.
It could refer to a true state of humility and returning to one's origins, distilling an elegant sense of gentle style into a small region that held a great deal of character. There were many other roads to take this down, but it was precisely because of that that Taedra didn't know where to go.
She was pushed and pulled in all sorts of directions, but Ryu was able to find it in the midst of the jargon...
Guile.
It was a word that stood out the most prominently, seemingly almost out of place like it didn't belong at all.
"Tempting with their guile...'
It had felt out of place from the start, especially since the poem started off with praising the "quiet" of nature.
But then Ryu understood.
Taedra was trapped in her own world, allowing herself to beco lost in this stream of nature that she couldn't break out from.
She thought that by imrsing herself in this world, she would be able to reach the state of enlightennt that she was chasing after all this ti, but the ultimate result
was that she only sank deeper.
As she had said... silent and lost...
The world was ultimately too vast for her to capture. At least, it was too vast if she insisted that it was while likewise doing nothing to try and suppress it.
In the end, Ryu gave her a little nudge.
Was there a thod of solving this without going down the path of domination and arrogance?
Sure, there probably was.
But Ryu was a glutton for punishnt. He not only took the harder path, but he also had a feeling that he knew how this matter would end as well.
What was another arrogant wife to add to his rolodex? Maybe if his wives kept causing him problems, his father would be less likely to berate him.
He could deal with a few "I told you so's," but if his dad insisted on giving him the side eye instead, he just might die on the inside.
Taedra's aura soared, but it was an incredibly gentle process, almost as though the hands of angels had descended to massage her body.
Ryu watched this rare process from the sidelines, his gaze bright.
The path of a mortal becoming a Sky God in a single bound was sothing rare throughout history. If not for the fact Taedra was already sowhat close on her own, and for the vast improvent to his ntal capacity and the improvent to his Dao, there was no way he would be able to help her take this step.
As he watched the process, though, Ryu couldn't help but chuckle. That was because Taedra's appearance wasn't changing very much at all.
Though she was becoming more perfect, she wasn't becoming any younger, which made little sense considering her aura had already soared into the Immortal Realms.
Just a normal breakthrough into the Immortal Ring Realm should have made her look not much different from a 20-year-old. Although she was showing so signs of age, it wasn't as though she had lost a step or had a foot in the grave.
But she didn't.
And the only reason that that would be the case is if she didn't want it to be the case. The Heavens sensed her resistance and obliged. The extrely faint wrinkles remained as her cultivation continued to grow.
The process took months, a gentle flow of qi massaging her body and increasing her strength step by step.
It was as though the Heavens themselves were cultivating for her, but Taedra herself
She continued to stare at her own words, the voice of the Heavens still echoing in her
cars.
And then, there was a sudden rush as her aura vanished.
Like a drop of water into an ocean, even Ryu could hardly sense her. It was as though she had truly beco as vast as the world, vanishing into it.
Taedra continued to stand there, her expression blank and the simple clothing she wore only gently swaying in the wind from the door to the cabin the both of them had
left open.
After a long while, she turned to face Ryu.
There, a woman nearing her middle ages stood. She had a delicate, subtle, elegant sort
of beauty to her. What pride she had was buried deep within her body, as obscure as
her pen itself.
Even standing there, it was like she might as well have not been there at all.
Ryu smiled. Soone else would have felt a great deal of pressure from this woman, but he treated it all like a calming spring breeze.
"Congratulations."
"... I didn't do anything..." Taedra said softly, looking into Ryu's eyes. ... With how vast the world is, I don't think this counts for much..."
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