1236 Interesting
Titus' eyes burned with black flames.
His father had never said anything, but if there was one person he had always wanted the acknowledgement of, it was Primus. For him to die with Primus' knowledge, and yet for the latter to do absolutely nothing to stop it....
Titus felt so suffocated that he wanted to destroy everything. Black scales faded in and out of his skin, if one peered into his body, it would be possible to see these black scales coating his inner organs and even his heart, making the centerpiece of his body look like breathing magma as the scales expanded and contracted to reveal the burning red flesh beneath.
His killing intent soared. He wanted nothing more than to rip Primus apart limb from limb, beating him to the point he had no choice but to admit his wrongs and die with grievances. But Titus knew well that not only did he have nowhere near the strength he needed to do that, even if he ever reached such a strength level, he couldn't see Primus folding even in the face of death.
In addition... He just couldn't.
Thinking of his father, Titus' heart ached, the pain no less pronounced than when he held his son's corpse. What made it worse was that he knew his father wouldn't want him to spend his life trying to kill Primus.
To Titus, Primus was just a shadowy figure. To Ryu, Primus was just an amorphous existence he had never interacted with. To Saint Tatsuya, however... He was a father and the man he respected most. Even if it was just in memory of his father, Titus couldn't bring himself to do it.
Titus looked down at the Inheritance in his hand. Not once, even after he had caught it, did he ever have the intention of using it.
'I will keep it for you, father'
Titus gripped his opposing fist hard, the rage in his eyes growing to the point it seemed to solidify. He would find his father in the Nether World and give this Inheritance to him, the Inheritance he should have had all along.
Titus put the Inheritance away without a second glance, but the fury in his eyes didn't seem to want to go away. He looked in a certain direction, his heart pounding and his veins rushing with black flames. He wouldn't be able to calm down for a long time.
He had been far too lenient. All he had wanted was to find a method to enter the True Martial World's Nether World and grow strong enough to protect himself within it. However, even when he didn't go out of his way to interfere with these Clans and Sects, they seemed to want to find trouble with him left and right.
Titus had never had the same grand aspirations as his son or his father. Not everyone wanted to sit atop of the world, especially when for much of his life, Titus had thought he was already there. If not for his son, he might have never stepped foot onto this path.
Despite his appearance and fierceness, Titus was actually quite soft hearted. It was why from a very young age, he had taught his son how to treat others with kindness and respect. Ryu was a difficult child to manage because he always had his own ideas about things, but Titus had done his best.
A prime example was Ryu's relationship with the young genius of the Deep Eruption Sect. Maybe any other father with such power, upon seeing their crippled son so injured after a bout with a subordinate's child, especially since said child could cultivate while Ryu could not, would have retaliated swiftly and harshly. This was simply the way of the martial world. And yet, Titus had never done such a thing, even though Ryu had hated that young man's guts at the time.
There was nothing Titus liked to do more than to practice the spear while his wife painted or played the zither by his side. That was the state he felt the most peace in, and also the state he most wanted, a state he could have spent his whole life in if the world had allowed it.
It was ironically because of this that his imprint on the Heavens he had travelled through hadn't been very great. He had done so many amazing things, and yet so very few knew him... And that was because he had never seen this place as his home, the thought of moving his family here had never crossed his mind even a single time.
But it seemed that his stance had made others think he was too soft, that he was someone easy to target and crush.
A pillar of black flames seemed to connect the earth and the skies.
Right now, all Titus wanted to do was kill.
With a stomp, he suddenly vanished. When he had appeared again, he was already in the depths of a snowstorm, ice and snow that had lasted for countless billions of years melting around him in a flash as he left a trail in his wake.
He had been too soft. These people will experience the terror of Titus Tatsuya on this day.
**
Ryu's gaze narrowed for a moment as he looked into the skies. He felt something odd in his heart just now, but he couldn't quite describe what it was, or even why he was feeling such a thing in the first place. He seemed to forget entirely about the number of eyes on him right this moment as he continued to look up.
To everyone else, it seemed that he was waiting for another round of lightning to fall, so they felt a great amount of apprehension that they too looked up, trying to detect something. But after several moments passed, they realized that there was nothing to see.
At this moment, though, the Sky God of the Heavenly Dew Pavilion appreciated the distraction. They were quickly communicating, trying to figure out where to go from here. These weren't rules that they could simply flout on a whim just because. They needed an explanation that at least sounded good to the ears, the idea of just allowing Ryu to win was simply impossible, they couldn't allow such a thing. But at the same time, they couldn't show too much bias either.
Fate was far more complicated in the True Martial World than it was in Sacrum, things weren't as simple as poorly received actions tanking a Sect's Faith, there were even some Sects that purposely did horrible things. However, there was still a certain amount of decorum they had to keep within reasonable limits.
Elder Bartien suddenly received a message and stepped forward. By the time Ryu looked down from the skies, the Sky Gods had already conversed and came to an adequate enough solution. With how fast Sky Gods thought, without the limitation of having to open their mouths, it wasn't surprising that they had communicated so quickly.
Clearing his throat, Elder Bartien began.
"This event is truly unprecedented in the history of this gathering. The Alchemy Council of the Heavenly Dew Pavilion has decided that this junior here has nothing left to prove, it would be a waste for him to continue to participate in the Alchemy Stream as his skills are clearly far and above that of his peers.
"As such, this disciple of the Radiant Star Sect will be given the number one rank in the Alchemy Stream and will not need to participate in the coming rounds.
"Following this, we will reset the first round and begin concocting once more before moving on to the Combat Stream. Prepare yourselves. Attendees, please prepare another batch of ingredients for these participants."
Elder Bartien moved quickly through his diatribe. He spent most of the time praising Ryu before quickly changing the subject, but there was another obvious problem here.
If Ryu was no longer participating in the Alchemy Stream, didn't that actually place him at a disadvantage even though he would gain the default first place?
These Alchemists weren't fools..
They spent their whole lives just in search of one 100% pure pill, most of them didn't even dare to hope to form a Runed Pill, and many more had targets of 80% or 90%, believing that even 100% was impossible.
Even if it was a fluke for Ryu to form a Runed Pill this time around, there was no doubt that his skill was far beyond their expectations. One didn't just "accidentally" form a Runed Pill, even if this was the first Runed Pill Ryu had ever formed before, there was no doubt he had countless 90%+ pills under his belt at a minimum.
Such a youth couldn't possibly be allowed to participate in this event, their only hope to crush his Dao Heart was in the combat stream. If he was actually allowed to continue concocting pills for himself, even that would become questionable.
Unfortunately, the crowd was too in awe of the Heavenly Dew Pavilion actually conceding, even in the face of admitting that their number one genius was inferior. Most wouldn't even care to pay attention to these minor details.
Ryu sneered inwardly, but he didn't say anything. He had secured his first place and that was all he cared about. He had never really thought about using his alchemy to shore up his combat strength before.
"Though... That is an interesting idea...' Ryu thought to himself.
While he thought about this, the Alchemy Stream competition quickly came to an end. By the time Ryu looked up again, the crowd was in an uproar.
It turned out that Adlael's plan all along was to also participate in the Combat Stream. It seemed that the Heavenly Dew Pavilion wanted to regain their face through this method.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om