1276 Borrow
Ryu felt the world before him warp and he stepped out, he was within the depths of a stretch of lava. The last time he had been here, he had felt nothing but an undying heat, but it seemed that this time, it hardly affected him.
Ryu had a feeling that this lava wasn't very hot to begin with, it just happened to be an exact replica of the world his mind had projected when he was within that golden pillar pool. This was probably a failsafe in case someone managed to make it back here without passing the test of the Nine Pillar Flame Sect. That way, one would mistake the world that had just been in their mind with this one.
Thinking to this point, Ryu's gaze couldn't help but flicker.
To him, this choice of the Nine Pillar Flame Sect was... stupid. They were already a dead Sect, and their last strand of hope could be destroyed with just a single misstep on their part. The fact that they were allowing those that had failed a path to live seemed to be a form of naivete of the highest order.
However, Ryu's gaze didn't seem to reflect derision.
In his interaction with the Unbalance Art Sect, he knew that they were quite cruel. Their original intention had been to split their Inheritance into three and have those three fight it out amongst themselves for the true successor.
This is one of the bloodiest and cruelest methods that a Sect or Clan could use, that was because such battles would never end with just three.
Such geniuses would definitely form their own cohort, their own factions. They would build up their own Clans and Sects and use them as weapons to both protect themselves and give them a larger network to deal with so that finding their targets would be far easier.
In the end, wars would be waged and entire Heavens would be laid to waste.
One of the cataclysms that ended one of the many Eras of Sacrum was sparked exactly by this. Many Sky Gods had their own kinds of Inheritance trials, of course with the Phoenix Sky God being amongst the most unique of them all. However, the Nine Demon Sky God had one that could probably be said to be as unique.
The last time his Inheritance appeared, it was split amongst nine youths. These nine youths had the task of fusing them all together for the sake of gaining the Nine Demon Sky God's full Inheritance.
By the end of it all, there were three that rose to maturity and the war of their three Clans ended an Era of Sacrum.
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It all seemed silly to Ryu now. After all, the Nine Demon Sky God probably couldn't match up to even a Path Extinction Realm expert of the True Martial World. To end so many trillions of lives for a mere weakling's Inheritance just felt... gross.
But this was the cruel reality, and if Ryu was in the position of the Unbalance Art Sect, he couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't make a similar choice. He didn't need the weak to try and restore his Clan or Sect, he needed the cream of the crop.
However, the Nine Pillar Flame Sect was different. They showed compassion. Mercy.
Did Ryu have such thoughts and feelings? The reality was he didn't, at least not toward strangers who had little to nothing to do with him. He found such compassion to be meaningless in the grand scheme and it only allowed others to take advantage of you. The largest currency in the world was the size of one's fist, that was the bottom line.
Ryu's fist wasn't big enough to even have space for compassion in his heart. And even the Martial Powers with the largest fists there were refused to show such compassion for fear of what might happen to their future generations if they allowed others to rise.
Ryu stood in silence for a long while before he slowly began to walk out.
At that moment, the suppression of the Fourth Heaven hit him in waves. He could feel these heavy sort of chains restraining his body more clearly than ever. Before, it had only been his default state, but now, with the contrast right before him, it felt mind numbingly obvious, he couldn't believe that he hadn't seen it before.
"FINALLY! FINALLY WE MADE IT OUT!"
The roar of a young man echoed through the skies.
Ryu's expression didn't change much. It seemed that while he was still within the lava pool, the Nine Pillar Flame Sect had decided to trap anyone else who had been within the Ruin at the same time. This made sense, it was best to limit the variables as much as possible when you were doing such things. It was clear that the Nine Pillar Flame Sect understood these matters, but that only made it more baffling that they actually provided a path toward escape after failure.I think you should take a look at
Ryu didn't change his pace in the slightest, walking out from his tunnel at the same time as the other three. When the latter three saw him, they were taken aback. They had been so excited to escape with their lives and even gain an Inheritance on top of that that they had almost forgotten that there was indeed another person.
When they saw which direction Ryu had come from, the young man who had roared out sneered.
"What a fool. How this person made it past our formation is beyond me, does he even have two braincells to rub together?"
Usually, upon hearing such a thing, Ryu would have already attacked. Ironically, it wasn't because he was easily triggered, but rather because he didn't like flies buzzing around his ears. Why would he waste time sitting here and listening to the insults of others, especially when they were clearly outright fools? However, his mind was elsewhere currently, he was thinking about many things and didn't have the time to spare for this sort of nonsense.
Among the three, it was only their so-called Senior Sister Jojo whose gaze narrowed when she looked toward Ryu. Despite clearly having the aura of a Divine Vessel Realm expert, this Ryu was far too... calm. He was facing off against three World Sea Realm experts, after all. Even if he didn't know they were from a higher Heaven, that shouldn't have made a difference.
Also, that tunnel...
Jojo was a woman whose hair could only be described as a river of purple-red flames. Her eyes carried the same color and she had a valiant air that reminded Ryu a lot of Isemeine. However, her features were even fiercer than that of Isemeine's, her brows flickered with bundles of flames and she was wearing a heavy armor that made it impossible to see her figure. In fact, this rose-gold armor gazed as though it was built for a man and Jojo simply took it for herself.
Even her weapon wasn't that of a woman's, a huge great sword with a half a meter width and two meter length hung from her back. If not for the clearly gorgeous and delicate features of her face, it would be hard to tell that she was a woman at all.
And gorgeous it was. The fieriness of her brows and hair couldn't hide in the slightest. Nothing could change that small pink mouth and delicate nose, nor the tender angles of her face. She looked like a woman that should be painted by a flowing river, but instead she was a heavy cavalryman who shook the earth with her every step.
The two young men with her shared a similar set of fiery hair, but it was decidedly less purple than Jojo's and far more red than not. Interestingly enough, their brows also gazed like dancing fires. It seemed that this matter might be related to the cultivation methods that they used.
All three had extremely high attainments in fire, and that probably also explained their skill with formations. If they were weapon smiths, something that Ryu could catch a faint aura of, formations could be considered a part of that discipline depending on the kind of forging they did.
It was quite surprising to see a group of individuals with such powerful bodies, who likewise had such high attainments in the soul. Now that Ryu thought about it, these three were actually quite perfect for the Nine Pillar Flame Inheritance, it was just too bad that they didn't have the skill.
Well...
Ryu gazed toward Jojo. He had felt an odd gaze on him, so instead of leaving like he had intended to, he looked over.
Jojo had two overly burly men on either side of her, both of whom were well over two meters tall and carrying a bulkiness not normal of men. It was clear to him that while Jojo didn't properly fill out her armor, the two men definitely did.
They were an entire head taller than Jojo, although Jojo herself was easily around 6'3. And yet, her aura was clearly the fiercest.
Ryu scanned Jojo's face unabashedly, but when he looked down, expecting to see more, he shook his head. Too bad, what was likely a stunning figure was hidden away. Though, it was also possible that she was a hulking mass just like those two junior brothers of hers.
Seeing this reaction, Jojo suddenly sensed annoyed. What was it, did he expect her to be wearing one of those useless skimpy armors most of those female "warriors" wore? She suddenly wanted to punch this asshole in that handsome face of his.
Sensing his Senior Sister's annoyance, Brutus, the one who had been laughing and then sneering not long after, stepped forward, the enormous sword on his back quivering.
He had already been irritated by Ryu's appearance, but his Senior Sister's own annoyance appeared to trigger him more than anything else.
"Let me borrow your head for a bit," he uttered with a surprising amount of calm before suddenly vanishing with a speed not normal for his body size.
