An overwhelming strength hit Ryu in waves. It felt like the harder he pressed down, the more violent the rebuff. It only took Ryu a moment to understand what he was facing.
This Inheritor Disciple had the Heaven Grade Bone Structure, Reflective Impact. Such individuals were practically immune to the power of physical attacks and could borrow this power and add it to their own counters.
However, while this much was true, it had its own weaknesses, weaknesses that Ryu remembered almost instantly.
BANG!
Ryu shot back in the direction he came from, finding himself arching through the air. In a world where he couldn't fly, this made him no different from a sitting duck.
The Inheritor Disciple's eyes narrowed. He had clashed with an Immortal Ring Realm expert and he actually hadn't completely collapsed after a single exchange? For a moment he thought that he was dreaming, but in the next instant, his expression became sinister.
He was Gan the Impervious, his prestige wasn't something such an existence could encroach upon just because they felt like it.
Gan roared, collecting much of the momentum that Ryu had sent into him and beating his chest with a single fist.
At that moment, the air vibrated, forming a cone of lethal sound waves that appeared before Ryu in an instant. When fused with Gan's on Cosmic Grade Qi, its speed and lethality reached a new level in an instant.
Ryu's expression flickered. His Body Realm cultivation was slowly being rebuilt from the ground up, but it still wasn't ready to face such a level of attack head on, at least not when he couldn't enter his draconic form. His Bone Structure wasn't designed for defense to begin with, so even with it slowly returning to its original level and prestige, it was no good in this situation. In such a case, even this Gan's Bone Structure would be far better.
'It seems that I have a hole in my combat prowess. I need some defensive techniques. I'll have to either revamp [Immortal Sakura], or use a different method. In any case…'
Ryu's body became as light as a fluttering leap. In that moment, he didn't something that should have been impossible, changing his direction in mid air and gliding by Gan's roaring attack.
The moment he did, he tossed one of his great swordstaffs to his back and thrust another one beneath his feet. As though he was riding a surfboard on the wind, his feet landed on the flat of his blade, his body leaning to the side as he pulled his bow out.
"Complete Success Dao Charm Movement Technique!" Gan's eyes fluttered, his expression becoming solemn.
If he wasn't certain before, he definitely was certain now. This young man was a Heaven Class genius. No, he should be very close to the very limits of Heaven Class.
Rays of sword qi surrounded the great swordstaff that Ryu rode, his speed shooting up as he released dozens of arrows, each one more lethal and piercing than the last. Even those watching from a distance felt their hearts shuddering and their souls seizing.
Flying swords weren't something very popular in Sacrum, mostly because it was completely unnecessary. By the time you had the skill in swords necessary to do such a thing, odds were that you would have already long since surpassed the Spiritual Severing Realm. As such, it was a practice that had never been invented.
In the True Martial World, however, this was very necessary, especially as you rose through the Heavens. That said, those with the skill to use flying swords were few and far apart. It wasn't just that the coordination was very difficult, but it required having a heart that could guide the sword.
When Ryu allowed his great swordstaffs to hover behind him, he had already tapped into such an ability. This was likewise the case when it seemed as though he could telekinetically control them.
Sword qi was very unique in its ability to do this as it was a weapon qi that emphasized not only a style of combat, but also a form of disposition. Swordsmen throughout the ages had been Kings amongst men, as such, their qi embodied this as well. Only those with the disposition of Kings could control the true essence of sword qi, guiding their weapons with their Dao Hearts and soaring through the skies.
No other weapon could accomplish this.
Those that saw Ryu gliding through the skies felt their hearts quake. This sort of legendary Sword Heart… it was the first time they had personally laid eyes on it. But why did it seem that his bow was no weaker? And why did it feel like he wasn't even a true swordsman to begin with?!
Gan didn't have the luxury to think so much. He had disdained to bring out his weapon originally, but feeling the threat of his bevy of arrows made his heart pound wildly. He realized that he had no choice but to take this Immortal Ring Realm expert seriously.
His palm flipped over to reveal a towering and thick spear. It had a thickness of four to five inches, and yet Gan's palm wrapped around it with incomparable ease.
He braced it against his hip, roaring as he swept it across his body.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Ryu's arrows shattered one by one, a towering wave climbing into the skies.
Gan didn't dare to let these arrows hit his body, and clearly Ryu knew this because this was precisely one of the greatest weaknesses of his Bone Structure. It could only reflect physical attacks, which meant that Ryu's qi and element forged arrows were precisely the kind of attack it was helpless against.
Ryu's gaze flashed.
[Thirteen Soaring Azures: Singe].
Gan's expression changed, a lethal threat making his hair stand up. He slammed his chest again, releasing a roar that made even the ground quake.
And yet, Ryu's arrow seemed to burn everything in its path to ash, even qi itself.
[Thirteen Soaring Azures: Chill].
Ryu released another arrow, the faint sounds of chirping birds whistling through the air. A dichotomy of hot and cold ripped through everything, the rush of searing heat and oppressive cold made even the energy in its path expand and contract so quickly that they lost all of their structural integrity.
They sped forward, appearing before Gan in an instant.
There was already no other choice. There was only one path ahead.
Gan's entire demeanor changed. Although neither of them had been injured in the midst of this battle just yet, the reality was that Gan had felt as though he was dancing on a razor's edge from the very beginning. The pressure he felt beneath Ryu was unlike anything he had experienced before…
He had chosen not to go out to adventure because he was already well within the Cosmic Seed Realm. There was no time to improve wildly any longer and it was best if he just consolidated what he already had and put it all toward a single path.
But this interaction made him feel like he was still much too lacking.
Dao Charm technique… [Rowing Waves].
Gan took a strong step forward, his spear piercing out with the momentum of a tsunami.
His Bone Structure glowed, his bronzed skin emitting a light that formed into a solid armor a moment later.
Ryu's arrows shattered as a shimmering blue enveloped Gan's body.
"Oh?" Ryu's lip curled.
At that moment, Ryu's irises glowed with an ancient green light. Until now, it had been faint, only dancing between Thunder, Water and Fire. But at this moment, they all lit up at once and a suffocating presence rose into the air.
Gan's Dao manifested as well. It was at the very same level as Ryu's, the Second Immortal Grade. It powered a portion of his Dao Charm technique, making it quite clear that Gan had chosen a technique perfectly suited to him.
But in front of Ryu, if your Dao was too weak… it was better if you didn't use it at all.
"Burn. Cool. Scorch. Frigid."
Ryu unleashed the third, fourth, fifth and sixth tiers of [Third Soaring Azures] all at once. The moment they shot into the air, they lost the form of an arrow entirely, turning into spiraling birds that soared through the skies as though they had life of their own.
The wave of Gan's attack shattered, hardly forming before it was frozen into a pile of ice and then shattered beneath a heat wave.
The four fluttering birds, all a beautiful sheen of azure, appeared before him all at once, colliding with his chest.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Gan's body jolted. Waves of heat and cold sunk into his armor, causing it to shatter into motes of light and his body to be without any sort of protection at all.
Gan coughed up a mouthful of blood, looking down to find a bloody hole torn through his chest and four azures birds flying out through the other side.
In the skies, Ryu stood without a change in expression. When Gan met his gaze, he couldn't find any sense of accomplishment in Ryu's eyes, it was as though he couldn't be bothered to care about this victory at all.
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