Ryu's skin glowed with a delicate blue light as he surged forward. The qi in the surroundings were suddenly agitated by the appearance of Trembling Star Qi. Suddenly, Mae found it difficult even to control the qi in the surroundings, cutting down a significant portion of the strength of his Dao Charm technique.
Her expression changed once again, but by then, Ryu had already closed the distance, swinging down with a mighty momentum.
All of the qi that seemed to have been stripped from Mae's control accumulated along his blade, a menacing strand of saber qi suppressing her saber technique at the same time.
It was as though Ryu had a counter for everything she brought out. The longer the battle went out, the harder it was for her to believe that this man truly came from the First Heaven.
Mae retreated and leapt atop a pillar, glaring down at Ryu.
"Which Clan are you from?"
Ryu wouldn't normally come to a stop in the middle of a fight, and he most definitely didn't like when others were looking down on him, but the question Mae just asked intrigued him. In fact, it seemed to imply something far greater.
Mae frowned when Ryu didn't answer.
"Don't you understand the rules? You didn't know of my identity and yet you started using your Soul Nature immediately. Just be the grade alone, it's definitely above the Sovereign Grade, did your elders not inform you properly?"
Hearing this, Ryu's gaze flickered with a peculiar light. For Mae, though, she only became more and more dissatisfied.
Not only had Ryu ignored the rules, but he even goaded her into bringing out more and more of her power. If it wasn't for the fact that he seemed to continuously suppress her, forcing her to pull out more and more of her hidden strength, she might have gone overboard.
Stepping over the bounds of those rules a small bit was still fine, but if she went all out and others found out, she could be punished and lose out on quite a bit.
"Also, you entered my jurisdiction and stole my benefits on the Second Heaven as well. Don't you think you've stepped over the line too much? If you don't give me an explanation, I really well ignore all the rules and kill you here."
'Interesting…' Ryu thought to himself.
This all pointed toward the fact that the higher Heavens weren't just aware of the Convergence, they were taking advantage of it, even splitting up the benefits amongst themselves. This was probably why Mae was on the Second Heaven to begin with, whatever benefits there were to be had were probably gobbled up by her.
Ryu hadn't found much on the Second Heaven to benefit from outside of that hidden experts former spot of seclusion. Originally, he hadn't thought much about it, but now hearing Mae's words, it might not have been that there was nothing to find, but rather that the benefits had been split between Mae and unknown number of other people.
In fact, what Ryu gained from that excursion was probably a fraction of what Mae had received during her stay in the Second Heaven, which was why although she seemed cold and angry, it wasn't to the point she had to kill Ryu at all costs.
In reality, up until this point, Mae had still treated Ryu like a normal member of the lower Heavens, reason being, he was just too weak. Although his combat prowess was decent, when Mae last met him, he could barely deal with a Heaven Class World Sea Realm expert alone. Although it was somewhat impressive given his cultivation realm back then, it wasn't enough for him to be considered even average in her eyes, let alone have her shocked and awed.
However, this version of Ryu with his Soul Nature was a different animal entirely.
It was easy to see how Mae could come to her conclusion. Last time she met Ryu, he definitely hadn't displayed a Soul Nature. She would never jump to the conclusion that he had suddenly gained one, so the most apt explanation was that he had hidden it before and had now chosen to ignore the rules set so that he could benefit.
Ryu, after listening to Mae talk, could piece together some of these things after a while.
For one, it seemed that displaying talents and likely even skills beyond the Sovereign Grade wasn't allowed for whatever reason. And secondly, there were others aside from Mae.
Ryu's lip curled and he suddenly chuckled.
"I'm not part of whatever treaty, alliance or agreement you're talking about."
Mae, who was starting to lose her patient toward Ryu's lack of a response, was caught off guard by these words and her brows furrowed into a deep frown. It didn't seem that Ryu was lying, and even if it had seemed like it, it wouldn't benefit him to lie.
If he was part of the agreement and broke those oaths, when he was found out, he would be severely punished. What good was there in lying to her when she wasn't the one who needed to be convinced? The old fogies pulling the strings in the background would deal with him when the time came.
Anyone with even a single braincell would be able to understand this, so she couldn't fathom why Ryu would even take the chance to lie.
"All I want is a good battle. I don't like to repeat myself, but I'll do it once more. Bring out your true strength, or die."
Mae's gaze turned malevolent when she heard this. This Ryu was provoking her again and again, her patience was wearing thin.
At that moment, strands of crimson qi began to emit from Mae's body and her aura began to grow larger and larger.
Counter-intuitively, though, as her aura grew, her cultivation began to slowly fall, from the World Sea Realm, she fell to the Cosmic Seed Realm, and from the Cosmic Seed Realm, she fell to the Dao Pedestal Realm.
The flicker of red in her irises became denser and denser.
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