The reversal seemed all too sudden, most weren't prepared and even less understood what they had just seen. An odd, amorphous pressure filled the surroundings, filling those in the surroudings with an uncomfortable tingling sensation that pulled at their souls, but even so, none could pinpoint exactly where it was coming from.
Ryu, however, didn't seem surprised in the slightest. He didn't feel any sense of accomplishment injuring a genius of this caliber, no pride, no sigh of relief, his Dao Heart was as firm as it had always been and his expectations were the very same they had always been.
The arrow that had pierced through Starlight's chest had only just done its job, but even as it had been in the air, Ryu had already released another set of three, and three more followed even after them.
The skies seemed to have gone entirely quiet and the Immortal Rings to Ryu's back were suddenly unleashed from the pressure they had been experiencing. Almost instantly, they pulsed and the amount of atmospheric Qi Ryu could pull toward himself more than doubled in the blink of an eye.
The surge of Qi filled Ryu's limbs and his body, a trembling of his Spiritual Foundation bringing it all under control before he unleashed yet another barrage.
Starlight's eyes were wide as the pain shot through his body. He subconsciously tried to activate his causality ability once again, but he realized almost immediately that the energy cost had skyrocketed past a thousandfold what it had been before. Just creating a single instance might entirely drain him of all his remaining Qi!
He didn't have time to think about why this was at all as he hurriedly rushed backward, but how could he be faster than arrows? His actions were destined to fail from the very beginning, he instead just wanted a small bit of breathing room so that he could raise his shield again.
BANG! BANG! BOOM!
Starlight coughed up a moutful of blood, the power of the strikes making him shudder. His heart nearly leapt out of his throat. He had already dialed in the strength of Ryu's lightning flame, so how had it suddenly become even stronger again? The strength had, at least doubled! Again!
Even without its causality ability, Starlight's shield was exceptional in its defensive prowess. Even now, there wasn't even the faintest dent in it. But the problem was that without being able to impact causality, it was entirely reliant on Starlight to have the strength to hold it up as it didn't have the dispersal or negation abilities other treasure shields would have.
Another barrage was already heading over and Starlight's gaze couldn't help but flash with a furious light. Did he really think that he was helpless?!
Starlight's aura surged and the void split open. This time, he didn't bother to bring out one weapon at a time, instead bringing down two at once... if they could be called weapons at all.
Both were balls of rotating light. One was surrounded by an event horizon as though it was a blackhole concentrated into the size that was barely a foot or so across. The second looked like a miniature star surrounded by the arms of a spiral galaxy.
Regardless of which it was, the blackhole or the star, they each gave off the oppressive aura of a Dominion Grade Constellation, exuding a mighty push and pull.
Almost immediately, the space around Starlight distorted and twisted in unpredictable ways. The arrows that Ryu had shot, which had been following along just slighty curved paths, now began to waver and zigzag in the air, not following any sort of laws of physics that made sense to the average human mind. In fact, even with his Spacetime Soul Nature, Ryu was having a hard time understanding what changes were happening.
Almost immediately, Ryu concluded that this had to be because these distortions were beyond just space and time, there was a hint of the aura of creation and destruction within them, auras Ryu was faintly able to discern thanks to his familiarity with Chaos Qi and Essence.
He wasn't just twisting and distorting existing spacetime, he was creating and destroying them as well. While Ryu could gain a faint inkling of what was happening, due to the additionally applied affinities, it wasn't with 100% accuracy, making it suddenly very dangerous to approach Starlight, but simultaneously useless to attack him from afar.
So Ryu did what any sane madman would do.
Without the slightest hesitation, he flipped his palm and allowed his bow to disappear, taking a step forward and shooting toward Starlight like a blazing meteor.
Even Starlight was caught off guard by this choice, most would choose to be more cautious than not when facing an ability of an enemy they knew so little about. But almost in an instant, Ryu had entered a ten meter range of Starlight.
Starlight sneered and violent auras of destruction began to descend around Ryu, threatening to twist the space around him, and thus Ryu himself, to dust.
But just when Starlight was about to succeed, Ryu's gaze lit up with two eight trigram diagrams, both rotating in opposite directions, one of which was a blinding gold and the other of which was a dense, dark gold.
Almost instantly, the world which had been a blur to Ryu became sharp and as readable as a book. Using his own eyes to see the world through his Dao somehow made it all feel different...as though it had all become...
Easier.
Ryu took a step and vanished, the oppressive aura of a Dao descending as what felt like a dozens of Small Realms stacked atop of one another.
Wind. Water. Thunder. Fire.
And then as though that wasn't enough, the flickering image of a mighty mountain descended and Ryu's Trembling Star Qi made an appearance once more. However, this time powered by his Mountain Character, rather than exuding the aura of a Lineal Grade Constellation, it seemed to shoot well past that, even faintly displaying strength that bordered the Dominion Grade!
Ryu's strength exploded forth all at once.
He appeared past Starlight's shield and sword. Even standing in the midst of the twisting strength of his blackhole and star, Ryu seemed entirely unaffected. With the trigrams dancing within his pupils, he seemed as though he could see through the world, that even the Heavens themselves had to bow in his presence.
And then he punched forward.
BOOM!
Ryu rocketed an even larger hole through Starlight's chest, obliterating his heart.
However, at the same time, Ryu's own right arm splintered and spurted with blood, his stern lips leaking with a hint of crimson themselves.
One would understand what happened when one noticed the faint runes of strength swirling around his wrist.
The first time Ryu used the Art Mantra, he could only manage one for a boost of 20% without getting too injured. However, after cultivating the Shadowlight Inheritance, and entering his Drago-Qilin form, his capacity had skyrocketed. He had just stacked four of them!
The second 20% boost applied to his already 20% boosted strength, so on and so forth. Meaning, a stack of four strength runes was akin to more than doubling his strength output. It was no wonder his arm nearly exploded on impact.
The lingering pressure of Ryu's blow sent Starlight flying out like a broken kite. Even so, Ryu's gaze narrowed.
He was a Fist God, he had been able to perfectly control his strength even with it being double, especially with his Dao activated. He should have been able to concentrate all of his strength into the hole in Starlight's chest, which meant that Starlight shouldn't have taken even a single step back despite his injuries, let alone fly back like that.
The only explanation was that final distortion before his fist landed.
Ryu coolly retracted his fist.
At that moment, he looked no different from a deity. His horns pierced toward the veil of the Heavens, his eyes rotated with the formations and an oppressive aura radiated from him, all while his body was covered with scales and yet entirely unable to cover the handsome features of his face.
Tattooed runes danced over his body in the most lifelike of manners, and just like this, a man who seemed to stand not a single chance at all had reversed the tables.
And yet, he didn't follow up, his senses picking up on something incomparably dangerous.
*Cough*
Starlight rebounded against the ground and coughed.
Ryu's gaze narrowed further. A blow to the heart like that to someone who didn't have a Realm Heart or wasn't a Sky God should probably be fatal. But then again, this was knowledge he had from Sacrum...
The void to Starlight's back split once again and a strong pulse of darkness descended. As it did, Starlight's body entered its spirit form, and when he came back into being, the hole in his chest had entirely vanished.
Ryu faintly nodded to himself. He, too, could absorb lightning and fire to heal himself, it was just that he had never needed to... but he also hadn't thought that such a thing could help him survive such a devastating blow if he hadn't had his Realm Heart.
What Ryu didn't know was that Starlight had a very unique Bone Structure... He wasn't the only one who shared a talent with the Dao Sovereign. While he shared the Chaotic Silk Meridians with the Dao Sovereign, Starlight shared the Death Star Bone Structure.
Starlight slowly rose to his feet, taking deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling.
His gaze flashed with a cold light an an unbearable pressure descended.
The pressure of an Ancient Dao.
PN = Pirate Note
Yo, Erdiul here. This is the last chapter of the month, so a reset is gonna happen tomorrow. I probably won't be posting immediately starting next month, as pandanovel is gonna be making some changes. If these changes don't happen, I might start sharing chapters again, but you guys will have to wait for like a week or so. So back to stacking.
