Mae didn't know if Ryu was just saying this to save face or if he meant something else.
"The weapon is designed specifically for me, I personally forged it. It's probably heavy in your hands, but it's as light as a feather in mine."
Mae blinked when she heard this. She had never heard of a weapon changing its weight depending on who was holding it. That seemed like something only a weapon that had birthed a spirit could do, but such weapons were...
Ryu pierced his great sword staff into the ground and placed his hands on the gate. He felt a pressure weighing down upon him. But to his surprise, it vanished into thin air a moment later and the gates just swung open on their own, all nine tiers, in fact.
Ryu blinked before he understood. It wasn't a gate that relied on strength, but rather on the amount of Heavenly Favour you had already accumulated before coming here. He had a large amount, so the trial was child's play to pass. In fact, not only this, but the moment the gates opened, a surge of Heavenly Favour descended.
High in the skies, the ancient cube shifted, and Ryu moved up exactly one place. His score of 9999 began to shimmer, radiating a beautiful rainbow colour before it began to tick down, zooming down from 9999 right down until there was just a flashing 1 on the leader boards.Ryu's gaze flickered. He couldn't see the amount of Heavenly Favour he had as intimately as before, but he felt that the amount he had just gained wasn't small. At the same time, he realized something.
Before, he believed that he needed 10% more before he had enough to unshackle his Spiritual Foundation, but he realized now that 10% felt like a far vaguer proposition. If Ryu was correct, he would need at least 2 before he had enough.
Ryu suddenly pressed a hand to his forehead, a piercing headache taking hold of him. He had been worried that thinking too much would harm him, but he didn't expect it to be so exaggerated. His thoughts felt jumbled, and his previous conclusions felt like nonsense. Come to think of it, he had originally thought of the 10% figure when his mind was already clouded by the fog of low Focus Qi. How far away was he really?
Ryu shook his head. He realized that thinking was useless right now as he took a step forward, entering the city limits.
"Try to follow after me", Ryu said before the doors slammed shut.
Ryu waited on the other side, and very soon the doors began to open once again.
The city itself wasn't too interesting, at least not in comparison to what Ryu thought he might find. It looked like all the other cities he had been to just much larger and much more... shimmering. Even the roads were paved with rainbow-coloured gems that had made just walking feel special.
Much like the other cities, there were many shops and amenities in the vicinity. This city probably had the best resources to trade for in comparison to the other cities. Of course, since Ryu had a ton of capital, there was probably nothing he couldn't buy. But if he wasted his Heavenly Favour here, it would be too much of a tragedy.
The main destination was probably that tower in the city, the very one that seemed to connect the ancient cube and the city into just a single existence.
The doors shut after Mae, and she looked around with a hint of sparkle in her eyes as well.
Seeing that she was here, Ryu turned and started heading toward the tower in the distance. Mae had only been able to open six tiers of the door.
Although she spent most of her time following after Ryu, she had been able to make up a lot of ground thanks to the second phase, she had accepted quite a few inheritances herself.
Even so, she couldn't bridge the gap.
Ryu had a feeling that most of his originally 9999 gold Heavenly Favour hadn't come from his attempts in the first phase, or even the second phase, they had instead come from rejecting the Dao Sovereign. Without this, he probably would have only been able to open to the sixth tier as well, maybe seventh.
"Do you know them?" Mae asked, pointing to the skies.
"Them?" Ryu was a bit slow to understand what Mae was talking about due to his current state, but when he realised, he smiled, "Titus Tatsuya is my father."
Mae was taken aback. She didn't know that Ryu was even capable of smiling a smile like this one. Any time she had seen his lips curl upward, it was in some sort of malevolent grin. She couldn't help but feel that her heart was threatening to beat out of her chest.
"Your father? Why are you...?"
Mae wanted to ask why Ryu was here instead of in a higher Heaven then, but she was worried that it might be a sensitive topic.
"I don't know. He should have been in my world's Nether Realm; I have no idea how he ended up here and why he hasn't come back yet. I assume he has a good reason; he wouldn't leave my mom for so long without one."
"Then what about Primus..."
Mae stopped talking because she saw Ryu's smile vanish. There wasn't any anger, there was just a clear indifference and even a hint of disdain and disrespect.
"He is my Ancestor."
Ryu didn't say anything more, so Mae didn't ask anything more on the subject. Though, she could quite understand. Ryu seemed like one who didn't respect his elders, but he obviously respected his father, so why didn't his so-called Ancestor get the same respect?
Beyond that, if she knew that Primus was Ryu's great grandfather, she probably would have been even more weirded out. Usually, when the relationship was that close, one wouldn't use the term Ancestor...
The duo made it to the bottom of the tower quite quickly. Although Ryu couldn't do much, the Northern Heavenly Wind was a treasure that was directly on his body, he didn't need Focus Qi to use it so his speed was still excellent.
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