Ryu hacked, but nothing ca out.
His body was empty, his soul was dry, and now even his Spiritual Foundation didn't seem to have anything left to give, having collapsed and given up.
Ryu's head hung low, his body having fallen to its knees and his back rounding. It looked like he might tip over at any mont, but his fra, or what was left of it, had barely reached so sort of balance.
He knew, honestly… he knew that trying to brute force his way through wouldn't work…
But he had tried to do it anyway. This was probably what Ailsa feared the most… the combination of him overestimating himself and rushing so that she wouldn't get here.
And this ti, his Dao Heart had shattered not just because of so poorly calibrated treasure, but well and truly because of himself.
It was a pain that was entirely different, a far heavier cost that weighed on more than just the soul, but Fate and life itself… if there was any life left to begin with.
"… Annoying." Solara said coldly.
A flash of her true feelings, an anger that rested in the depths of her heart, flashed for the briefest instant before she suppressed it. If she had to wait, then she would just wait.
She raised a finger and a beam of concentrated law ca from its tip. It sliced forward, piercing through Ryu's forehead and sending him sprawling to the ground, unmoving.
There wasn't even the slightest hint of blood, and why would there be? Ryu's body had nothing left, and even if it did, her control was far too high to suffer from such a thing.
Solara turned to the Title Stele, a frown on her face.
Whatever, she didn't have the ti for this and she wouldn't let her ego get in the way of what she had to do.
She was disappointed in the fact that she couldn't fight soone she thought was worthy of her, but she wouldn't waste her ti on small fry in so vain attempt to make up for that.
Since she was here, she would just claim her Title and end all of this.
…
Ryu's eyes glazed over, staring into the skies as he felt himself slip away. There was an odd sort of finality to just how silent it all was. There wasn't the sort of fireworks and fanfare one would expect at all…
Recalling his life, the one life he wanted to be the truest of them all, he wondered if at any point he truly thought that he would ever fail.
But then there was a split in his mory.
Was this his truest life?
Was this the man he was supposed to be?
Just how easily had he ignored his supposed "first" life. Hadn't he beco another sort of pathetic man by then?
There was little he had wanted more than to reach the mountain peak of the cultivation world. And yet, he had reached the silliest of conclusions when he faced his truest roadblock.
This was his only life? The only one that mattered? Well, hadn't he had pathetic experiences in this one too? Or was he only going to count the monts after the Phoenix Sky God intervened on his behalf?
When he thought about it in those last fleeting monts, it was hard to feel that it was anything but pathetic.
He felt a sort of somber sadness to it all.
It wasn't rare that he reached conclusions that were incorrect. He had made many mistakes before in the past only to end up pivoting toward new directions when he picked up on them.
But this still felt different from the others. Because it just felt… pathetic.
It reminded him that he was only able to make it past the last hurdle, the only true hurdle he had ever faced, by ignoring the obvious conclusion…
That he was never all that special to begin with. Even in this life, he was only one cultivation level away from being the sa pitiful worm.
If not for the fact he had his Heavenly Pupils in his first life, maybe the few accomplishnts he did have would have never happened. What if he had to watch his body atrophy away without any unique abilities to rely upon?
Was he anything at all without his talent?
It was just a sha… all the people he was letting down…
His wives… he had promised them that they could be as willful as they wanted. If he wasn't the strongest… if he died… hadn't he just been lying to them all this while? Blowing out air from his mouth?
His unborn child… he was ready to promise them to the world, to hopefully be as good a parent to them as his own parents had been to him. And yet, he would never et them…
His parents… his grandparents… He wanted to see what the forr could grow into without the shadow of the Martial Gods looming over them. The latter… he had promised revenge… they had died protecting him, protecting their legacies, their Clans, their Bloodline…
They had such pride in him, such hope… every one of their last monts replayed in his mind. Only his Grandma Tatsuya had said it out so explicitly, but they all wanted him to win, they all wanted him to rise to the potential they knew he had and claim the heads of those that had made their Clan suffer so much.
He owed them that…
He… had owed them that…
His mind went blank for a mont, and then as though to remind it, it dredged up mories he had long since buried, mories that he separated from himself as though it wasn't just a lifeti ago, but wasn't his life at all…
mories of the Tor Clan… of the humiliation he suffered, the constant defeats, the constant horrors…
Being blinded as a child… never being given the chance to cultivate… being publicly whipped in the arena… being forced to watch Granny Miriam die right in front of him because he was too weak to do anything…
So of the mories were so shocking that he wondered how he had even made it through them…
But they were also a reminder. A reminder of what could happen when you had no strength, no power, when you had nothing more than a sharp tongue and a will to bloviate.
In that despair, Ryu had missed the obvious.
In that life, as little as he had had… he had still very much been Ryu. That little boy… that little boy that he liked to pretend hadn't been him at all… probably represented what should have been the proudest monts of his life…
It was that little boy alone that represented all the things he hoped he would be even if he had no strength at all.
But he couldn't find himself taking pride in it at all. It wasn't the sort of pride he wanted, it wasn't the sort of thing that he wanted.
Looking through the shades of his life throughout ti, he had had his monts of that pride, that arrogance… but it didn't manifest in the way he thought it should an.
He didn't have the talent, he didn't have the strength, so it only appeared in short spurts before flaming out.
Who knew, maybe in that life too, as his so-called parents and the Tor Clan wore him down, he would have reverted to the sa pathetic state he had in all his other lives.
What the difference?
'I don't know… what is the difference…'
He had already thought of it. He just didn't want to admit it. Even now, his mind was too flexible.
Solara's blow hadn't even injured him. It hit him in his incomplete third eye. Being born from his Heavenly Pupils, although it wasn't yet as powerful as them, its sturdiness was sothing to behold. For others, their eyes were the most fragile parts of them. For Ryu, it was probably the exact opposite.
Much like Solara was ignoring everyone else, Ryu had practically ignored her, lost in his thoughts, uncaring of what she might be doing at this very mont.
His thoughts, his focus, his heart was on that one answer…
Support.
In that life, he had Granny Miriam… in his life, he had his parents and grandparents…
But it wasn't the answer he wanted. He wanted to reach the mountain peak on his own. He wanted it to be by his own rit. He wanted to be strong because he said he was strong, not because he had been coddled and received love as a baby.
He felt that it was just so… so pathetic…
So human.
He and this Naless Immortal God were not the sa… they had never been the sa… they would never be the sa…
But Ryu was asking for the impossible… he was essentially enraged with himself for ever having been a child that needed the protection and affection of others to begin with…
That weakness, any sort of that weakness…
Infuriated him like nothing else.
The sa way his wife had to coddle his emotions during his first ti infuriated him.
The sa way having to take his own life just to hope the Phoenix Sky God would choose him infuriated him.
The sa way a lifeti that he should have taken pride in because it was filled with far too much weakness infuriated him.
He hated to be weak. He hated weakness. He would rather die. He would rather sever his own life than be weak.
'I will never… never be weak… again… I will… rewrite… rewrite my na...'
BOOM!
Solara's head snapped back toward Ryu.
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