The world fell into silence. It wasn't the normal kind of emptiness of sound, the kind still filled with the gentle sweeps of wind and the rustling of trees. This was a true silence, like a vacuum ford in the depths of space, lacking a dium for such a thing to travel in the first place.
Ryu stood high in the skies, exhaling a slow breath. Through his lips were sealed and his expression was calm, the rapid rise and fall of his chest showed that he wasn't nearly as calm and nonchalant as he had made it seem.
And yet, it hardly seed to matter when a woman dangled from his palm by her hair.
Young Mistress Nightly hung limply, her robes tattered and torn, her wings drooping downward without nearly the sa sharpness and rigidity they had just had monts ago.
Blood covered her delicate features, her consciousness having faded to black. Her life itself hung on by nothing more than the faintest of strings, but there was a peculiar smile on her face.
Ryu recognized that smile. It was the sort of smile he had had when he spoke to the Phoenix Sky God for the first ti, the smile he had when he realized that maybe losing wasn't what he feared most, but rather the lack of a chance to try.
If he failed while on his rise to the top… then so be it.
Did he think he would?
Not in the slightest bit.
But he wasn't naive to the fact that the world was probably vaster than he knew, and the sort of challenges being painted into his future weren't the sort of things that even his Fate Soul Nature could scry perfectly.
Young Mistress Nightly's aura waned like embers in harsh, cold wind.
Ryu exhaled a final breath, his calm finally returning to him as his heart settled down.
'Dangerous indeed…'
Maybe he was too arrogant, but he had insisted on defeating Young Mistress Nightly by copying her Dao. Well, he had copied it in part and then created a new technique based on it.
This was the result of a perfect fusion of his new Dao, both the Order half and the Chaos half—one aspect analyzing the Heavens and the other analyzing the opponents that stood across from him.
When they ca together, he was able to do even this.
Young Mistress Nightly's Dao was truly extraordinary.
The six pillars of cultivation were obviously Bloodline, Spiritual Foundation, Soul Nature, Bone Structure, ridians, and finally the Dao.
Using her Dao, she was able to shrink this to just three. She combined ridians and Spiritual Foundation, combined Bloodline and Bone Structure, and combined Soul Nature and Dao, forming three pillars from the original six.
When this was triggered, this allowed her the foundation she needed to combine her Spiritual Quintessence, Qi, and Vital Qi into one, effectively taking the three Realms of Cultivation and forming them into a single ultimate Realm of cultivation.
When this occurred, the energy she could wield was actually no less potent than Ryu's Chaos Qi!
This was the weight of a true genius. To form a Qi capable of standing together with Essence and Chaos through her own path…
It was hard to see how such a person could even be capable of losing in the first place. She was right to be so arrogant to the point of turning her nose up at everything.
What was truly shocking about this was that she was so very close to Ryu's [One Above All]. But she had chosen the exact opposite Path, choosing to place the emphasis on Three rather than the One.
Ultimately, if Ryu was correct, she was probably looking for a Path that would allow her Three Pillars to be further combined into one, but the difficulty in scaling such a thing was so exceptionally high that it was no wonder she felt like she had crashed into a wall.
Without a mind on the level of Ryu's, it was impossible for her to take such a step. In fact, even if Ryu dedicated the next decade to solving this problem for her, he likely wouldn't succeed. He would need much more ti and experience for that—maybe even a sudden bout of inspiration.
Ryu had said it once before in this battle already… he was rare if ever impressed.
But in his first battle against a genius of such caliber, he had actually been so thoroughly floored.
So this… was the ceiling of the world.
Or was it?
Ryu looked to the skies, still holding up the delicate beauty by her hair as though he didn't have the slightest hint of a soft spot for her.
His gaze seed to pierce through the veil, but even with the strength of his Heavenly Pupils, he still couldn't reach that height…
The height of the Heavenly Court.
Just what was it? What was it worth? Why did it exist? And why was it so eager to make him co to it and obey?
Ryu's shoulder moved and he raised the young Devas body by her hair until they were eye level. Her breath hiccuped and a deathly aura exhaled from her cherry lips.
'Troubleso indeed…'
He said that if she survived he would make her a Summon, but this would no doubt enrage the Devas.
Ryu chuckled.
Since when had he ever cared about such a thing?
With a swirl of space, she vanished into his Inner World.
Ryu's chuckle deepened and he clasped his hands behind his back, continuing his stroll ahead as Fate poured into him.
"Fun. Fun. Fun."
He laughed so heartily one would think that he was holding his baby in his arms already. Grinning ear to ear, he could feel his blood cooling to a low simr. The boiling had cald sowhat, but he could feel that it was already prepared to pool over any second now.
Today… was truly the best day of his life.
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