1216 Give Me a Reason.
Ryu took deep breaths, beads of sweat falling down his brow.
Even now, his current limit of perfection in a game of Domain was a three layer game, up from his previous limit of two. But the complexity of this trial was at least four, approaching five. If the other three had been fighting back, Ryu didn't know if he would have been able to do it.
The requirements the Favor Alchemy Sky God had left behind were almost oddly high. From Ryu's understanding, she had only been a Transcended Sky God who failed to become an Omniscient Sky God. For someone like Ryu who had a Peak Ancient Dao so perfect for her Inheritance to struggle to this extent... wasn't she asking for too much?
Of course, there was another, more obvious possibility, and that was that the Favor Alchemy Sky God had been looking for a successor who had already become a Sky God. If Ryu was a Sky God and maintained his Ancient Dao, this would have obviously been a breeze, but there was a great deal about this that made too little sense.
It wasn't impossible to be looking for a Sky God successor, the problem was that nothing seemed to suggest this in the first place.
The Favor Alchemy Sky God had left her inheritance on the incomplete Heavenly Path, a place where only lesser geniuses would enter under usual circumstances. But let's say that she was unable to reach a level where the Complete Heavenly Path would accept her Inheritance, why was it that she didn't make it clear in the Inheritance she had left behind that Ryu should have waited until he entered the Sky God Realm first?
It could be said that outside of some geniuses of the Eighth and Ninth Heaven with similar Daos to Ryu, there was no one else beneath the Sky God Realm that could pass the Favor Alchemy Sky God's test.
It wasn't that the Transcended Sky God Realm was some inferior existence. To Ryu, who had met Dao Sovereigns before, this seemed a little low. However, to greater existence, anyone who could reach such a level was in the 1% of the 1% of the 1%. Even that wasn't enough to illustrate just how rare of a genius you needed to be.
However, the issue was that the level the Favor Alchemy Sky God was at, versus what she was asking for in a successor, wasn't proportional.
Ryu exhaled a breath, finally catching his breath. After a while, he shook his head. His Focus Qi was critically low right now, even if it cost him some time, he had to rest. He made a decision and closed his eyes to meditate.
...
Hours later, Ryu awoke. However, he didn't find himself on the pillar he had expected to find himself on. Instead, he found himself in what looked like a prayer hall.
A wide set of bronze stairs were before him, lined with sticks of essence that were above a meter tall each. A pedestal was located on the top stair, upon which a tome was open.
Ryu's gaze narrowed. He should have needed another push to get to this place, so how had he just appeared? It was almost like the Favor Alchemy Sky God was tired of waiting and just decided to scrap everything else to allow him to appear here.
Something just felt... off. Nothing alone was enough to force the oddity, but together they stacked up to the point he could no longer allow them.
"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now..."
The voice caused Ryu to narrow his eyes. It was so soft and soothing, and yet so filled with murderous intent. Even so, he couldn't take this murderous intent seriously, if she had wanted to kill him, she should have already taken action while he was asleep. Why was she so insistent on asking him this question? It was obvious she couldn't bear to kill him, not because of some superfluous reason, but because she needed him.
Ryu looked up and found a strikingly beautiful silhouette, a far cry from the wrinkled woman he had seen in so many visions before. Her hair was the most unique Ryu had ever seen, it looked black at first glance, but every time it shifted, a shimmering white underlayer could be seen almost like the sun peeking over the horizon.
Her eyes were deep and unfathomable. There didn't seem to be a start or end to her irises, her entire gaze was taken up by an expanse of twinkling stars, making it look as though she had a galaxy within her, almost as though if you cut her open, starlight would spill out rather than blood.
She stood in the air, her bare feet peeking out from her almost transparent pink robes. Her hair was so long that even with her in the air, it almost brushed against the ground. She didn't look quite human and almost felt like... A force of nature.
Even so, Ryu met her gaze calmly as his thoughts flickered. He didn't even quite understand her question, what had he done that was worthy of death?
"Favor Alchemy Sky God?" Ryu asked in the end, unable to say anything.
"Did you not hear my question?"
Hearing this, Ryu almost laughed. Why did she suddenly sound like a little girl who was enraged about someone stealing her doll?
Ryu really didn't like it when people threatened his life, but it didn't even seem like that was what was happening here. It felt like this woman was looking for a reason to let him off, the problem was that he didn't know why she was mad in the first place. What had he done?
"What's so funny?!" The Favor Alchemy Sky God all but stomped a foot.
Ryu shook his head. "I really don't know what I did wrong, so how am I supposed to answer your question?"
"You don't know what you've done?! You've snuck down from the higher Heavens to interrupt my Inheritance process and you don't know what you've done?!"
Ryu was speechless. Higher Heavens? Snuck down? He wasn't even from the True Martial World, what was this nonsense?
