1279 Remnants
Ryu looked over toward Brutus and Jojo's second junior brother. He seemed to want to know if he could tell anything from their gazes, but instead he saw them avoiding the confrontation just as much as he was. It seemed that they were actually quite scared of Selheira, because they didn't remotely have this level of fear when they had been interacting with Jojo alone.
This was interesting to Ryu because everyone that he had seen interact with Selheira couldn't wait to fawn over her. That meant that whatever these two men had gone through was traumatizing enough to even override the usual gentleness of her usual aura.
Ryu's lip couldn't help but curl as though he had just found out something quite amusing. He had an inkling about a deeper side of Selheira, after all no normal individual could have such an aura while playing Domain, but this was even funnier than what he had been imagining.
As for whether that changed his opinion of her negatively, not at all. In fact, it was the opposite, if anything. Gentle women weren't his cup of tea to begin with, he just had a particular fondness for Selheira that, of course, didn't cross the line into that sort of relationship. But this was far more interesting to him.
Selheira suddenly looked over. Seeing Ryu's smile, her gaze flickered and she seemed to regain her calmness. Jojo, who was very familiar with Selheira, couldn't help but narrow her eyes. This was an oddity that she had never seen before. It definitely wasn't purely because Ryu was a man, and it definitely wasn't because he was a stranger, she had seen Selheira do far worse things in the face of far more established individuals.
Suddenly, it clicked.
"You came here for him?" Jojo asked, still somewhat skeptical, but when she saw Selheira's reaction, or lack thereof, her lip curled into a sneer once more. "The mighty Selheira fell for a Dao Pedestal Realm junior? Say it ain't so."
Hearing these words, Brutus and his junior brother, Raine, shuddered. The two women had had many arguments in the past. As usual, Jojo would be the harsher and more outwardly abrasive of the two while Selheira would layer her words in hidden meanings and hidden sharp edges. However, no matter how they insulted each other, everything would remain relatively calm until one of them eventually crossed a line.
They always managed to cross this line at some point, they simply couldn't help themselves. And whenever one of them was truly enraged, that was when the true battle would begin. Once that started, it might be weeks before they stopped, and usually that would only come when they passed out from exhaustion.
Hearing Jojo try to besmirch Selheira's reputation by tying her to this unknown man, they knew that that line had been crossed. They could only brace themselves and prepare for the worst. However... what they were preparing for never came.
"He's my junior brother, you talk too much." Selheira looked from Ryu back to Jojo. "You constantly walk around with those two brutes, have you tied the knot yet? Or are you still keeping things casual?"
Jojo hadn't expected for her insult to be thrown back at her so forcefully. Usually by this point, Selheira would have already attacked, and with great force at that. She was already prepared, but now she was hearing something that even Selheira hadn't dared to say in the past.
"What did you just say to me?!"
Jojo's temper flared. The surrounding land was suddenly sliced apart into countless spiraling trenches. They were so deep that the distance couldn't have been measured even in hundreds of meters, and yet they were neat and perfectly ordered. It looked more like someone had carefully carved these patterns out over countless years as opposed to just being a sudden outburst.
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'Even in this state her Sword Qi is actually still so controlled...'
Ryu's gaze narrowed.
Earlier, when Jojo dispersed his Fist God Aura, he had already been quite shocked although his expression hadn't shown it. He wasn't very familiar with how to use such auras properly and he was practically the equivalent of a child swinging around a baseball bat that was far too heavy for him. He had simply never seen it used the way Jojo had, and so easily at that.
But seeing this, he was beginning to gain some understanding, and his thoughts toward how to use this aura were also increasing by the day, not to mention giving him ideas for expanding it. He always treated aura casually, but now that he thought about it, there was no reason it shouldn't be as carefully manipulated as qi.
Selheira ignored Jojo's outburst, another surprise to her, and she actually appeared by Ryu's side.
"You've been missing for a while," she said with a light smile. "Have you eaten?"
Ryu's brows raised and he shook his head. "Not in a while."
Selheira's smile became sweeter as she took Ryu's arm, taking him toward her beast companion.
The large white bird looked toward Ryu with a hint of curiosity in its eyes. It wasn't the same look it had given Ryu in the past, but rather a far different one. It felt that Ryu had changed quite a bit, but it still recognized Ryu quite well, leaving it feeling odd.
Even so, the large beast still gracefully lowered its head and body, allowing the two of them to step onto it.
"Where do you think you're going?!"I think you should take a look at
Jojo seemed to recover from Selheira taking a man's arm faster than the other two did. That said, she still couldn't understand what she was seeing currently. Hadn't she just said that he was her junior brother? What was she doing now, exactly? Jojo had plenty of junior brothers, she would never take one of their arms like that.
Plus, now that she thought about it, Selheira had never had a Sect, and even her Clan was quite reclusive, so much so that even Jojo didn't know what her last name was or where they had come from. They were quite a mystery even to the Seventh Heaven.
So since when had Selheira even had a Sect to gain herself a junior brother in the first place?
"I don't have time to play with you today. You've been slacking on your training too much," Selheira said lightly as they were lifted into the air.
"Excuse me?!"
Jojo was more enraged by this than even the implication that she was in bed with her two junior brothers, so much so that rather than asking anymore, she directly attacked, her Sword God Aura enveloped by a raging inferno of flames this time as well.
Selheira was ready to move, but to her surprise, Ryu extended a finger outward first, his gaze flashing with a subtle light as the aura of a Finger God manifested from him, puncturing through Jojo's Sword God Aura and dispersing it.
After losing its foundation, the flames spread out like wildfire, falling from the skies akin to motes of light and laying waste to the land below.
'Not bad,' Ryu thought to himself, nodding casually. He didn't really take this matter very seriously.
Jojo had used force and strength to disperse his Fist God Aura earlier, and he used finesse instead. An eye for an eye, as he saw it.
His mood wasn't bad currently, so he didn't even feel like pursuing this matter any further. The snow white owl vanished into the clouds and flapped its wings once, speeding into the distance.
Jojo was left stunned. What the hell had just happened?
Was that a Finger God Aura she had just sensed? Wasn't he a Fist God? What was happening?
"You've grown stronger," Selheira said with a smile.
She was quite surprised that Ryu had such strength as well. After all, Jojo was a rival even to her. That said, Ryu didn't believe that this feat was very impressive. If he couldn't find the weakness of such an attack with a Founding Dao as his foundation, he might as well stop cultivating all together.
"A little," he said lightly. "The Sect is okay, I presume?"
"Senior Aika heard that the Seventh Heaven Sects and Clans had sent people down so she was too eager to stay on the Fourth Heaven. She ascended to the Fifth Heaven and began to gather up the remnants of the Sect that remained."
"The remnants?"
"Mm... The Radiant Star Sect had many contingency plans. The original goal was to calmly and slowly rise through the Heavens again with Senior Wan as the head, but because of Senior Aika's breakthrough, everything was ignored at that point. She is very eager to see this matter through now, she doesn't want to wait."
Ryu's gaze narrowed. Remnants?
He had ignored such politics in his second life because he preferred to use his fists, but he was well aware that when it came to matters like this, they rarely went as smoothly as you would like. Some people would get their own ideas, others would selfishly throttle progress for the sake of their own goals, those that were too idealistic would be crushed.
After so many years apart, was it really so simple for them to come back together as though nothing had happened?
Aika's leadership would truly be tested. Although she seemed ruthless, Ryu knew how soft she was inwardly, especially for those she saw as her own. It would be difficult for her to see this through properly.
Ryu remained silent. It seemed that only time would tell.
