1283 Lost
Selheira looked toward Ryu's side profile, her gaze unreadable. It was hard to tell what she was thinking, but her long-time beast companion couldn't help but twist its neck back, seemingly sensing something odd.
In truth, Selheira's thoughts weren't that difficult to read.
Most men in Ryu's position, when they heard that Aika was holding a competition for her hand in marriage, would feel an unsettled jealousy and unhappiness. Then, like most others, they would jump into the fray, wanting to prove themselves.
This was how men of the cultivation were. Even with women that weren't their own, they often felt an entitled sense of closeness to them, as though their own personal feelings should dictate everything, even when those personal feelings stemmed from nothing more than pride and ego.
Ryu was clearly a very prideful person, however the way that pride manifested was more important than anything else. After she saw Ryu's reaction to Aika's "competition", she seemed to have fully and entirely relaxed.
Did she love Ryu? She couldn't say that. But she wasn't opposed to being courted by him, even though, quite frankly, he didn't seem very interested in doing even that.
Even so, she wasn't dissatisfied and was very satisfied with the current state of things. She had already done her own due diligence, and if she had her own requirements, who was to say that Ryu didn't have his own despite the fact he had many wives already? In fact, the very fact he had multiple wives, given what she knew of his temperament, actually made it even more likely that his requirements for more were even higher.
At least, this was how Selheira had felt a moment ago. But seeing so many powerful men fall because of a simple short two phrases from Ryu that could hardly be counted as full sentences, she felt her heart unexplainably pound.
She knew that this was because she had lowered her defenses toward Ryu, but for him to take advantage of this so soon to make such a sweeping display of masculine and yet reserved power left her eyes glistening.
'... How unfair...' she thought to herself. But in the end, she smiled and looked away.
Ryu didn't react much to the reactions of those around him, he felt similarly unmoved by it all. If anything, he felt that the Dao Hearts of these people were far too weak. This was likely because of that grueling half year he had put himself through, but even so, if these people had been given the same choice, would they dare to stay in contact with those chains for an entire half year?
At that moment, Aika suddenly appeared high in the skies. Ryu looked up and greeted her with a smile, she could tell that there was no resentment or unhappiness in Ryu's eyes, he had just been speaking casually, exactly as his tone had implied. At the same time, though, Aika saw something else.
Ryu clearly had no intention of fighting if the goal was to win her heart. However, if she asked him for a favor to fight on her behalf and get her out of the mess her big mouth had put her in, he would probably do so without hesitation.
At that point, it wouldn't be about Ryu being led by the nose and tested for the sake of winning a woman's heart, instead it would be him repaying the mountains of kindness a senior had given him over several years. In his mind, these were wholly different things.
Aika didn't say anything, but the mood seemed to shift again with her presence.
Indeed, it seemed that her Dao Heart wasn't even as strong as a 20 some odd year old boy's. She was too easily agitated, leading even to situations like this one, but she was too far into life to change no, too much of her strength was built on her current ways.
It would be nice if she had a husband who could take on such burdens for her, but she had never met such a man.
Samson was too much of a jokester. Old Wan was too scheming and calculative. Old Jiao, Old Xuan and Old Xu had never been very close with her to begin with and they lacked the talent Same and Old Wan had to begin with.
As for those outside of her Sect, all they had ever done was ignore her.
She sighed. At the moment, she just looked tired.
Coinciding with Aika's appearance, the battle below came to a stop. In the end, three remained, the exact number that Aika had called out previously. Of the nearly three dozen that had participated, just this number was left, and their identities weren't very surprising at all, each one of them was ranked first in their own respective factions.
Bruiser. The young man lived up to his name, wearing a pair of dense black gloves with spikes over the place of his knuckles, he looked as though he could be willing to smash even a star to smithereens if one allowed him to.
Dried blood caked his temples and streaked down his forehead. Though his hair looked black at first glance, when the sun rays hit it just right, it lit with a hidden red, making the dark bits of flesh that were still stuck in the grooves of his spiked knuckles.
He was under Old Jiao's faction and exuded an aura that was both sinister and tainted.
Robion. From his back extended a pair of dense black angel-like wings. When they flapped, a fog of blackness invaded the surroundings, making there be no doubt that this was most definitely from a special bone structure. Just from the obvious aura alone, it was at the Omniscient Grade at the weakest, and that was just its inactive state.
Aside from this, his features were quite pale and handsome. They held a sharpness, from his jaw even down to his nose, but his eyes were surprisingly dull, taking away from his sword-like brows.
He didn't hold any weapons, but the black metallic features on his wings dripped with an oozing blood.
He was under Old Xuan.
Brianus. He was the tallest of them, and also somehow held the oddest weapon. It was a rod, technically, but it looked far more like a pillar. It was as thick as his already thicker than normal waist, and just to hold it, he had no choice but to wrap his entire arm around it.
However, even so, this rod turned pillar was caked with blood and of the three, Brianus had probably killed the most.
He was under Old Xu.
It seemed that the final three who would become Aika's husbands in the future had been selected. However, rather than celebration, the atmosphere was oddly silent, maybe due to the massacre below, or many due to Ryu's words.
Aika sighed, and looked down.
This wasn't a matter that could be simply retracted. Although many of the geniuses below were only severely injured and not entirely dead, a good number of them had truly lost their lives, over half of the nearly three dozen that had participated. And of those that had survived, it was unknown if they would ever be the same again. Even if their bodies managed to escape the fate of being crippled, what about their Dao Hearts? Could they withstand such a loss?
If Aika just uttered she hadn't meant what she said, what about all of these lives? Could she even continue to command the Radiant Star Sect? How would people respect her in the future? She would be seen as a tyrant, and despite what seemed to be her personality, she couldn't bear such a cross.
But what could she do other than accept?
When her elders of the past had told her that her big mouth would get her into trouble in the future, she thought it would be at the hands of a powerful enemy. The irony that mere World Sea Realm experts had such a hold on her right now wasn't lost on her in the slightest, but it only seemed natural. Eventually one's faults would catch up with one.
Ryu looked up toward Aika as her pink lips slightly parted. It seemed that she was about to speak, but he could sense the hesitation, then the sudden determination. Her chest expanded and she was ready to bite the bullet when she was suddenly interrupted.
"That said, it's just a bit unfair if I participate now. They've all just fought a difficult battle. How about I let them rest for a week, then we'll battle. We can do a battle royale of four."
Ryu's uninterested voice echoed. Many who had been affected previously had begun to wake up one after another, and part of the reason Aika had taken so long to speak was to avoid disturbing them. It would be too bad if their future potential was completely shattered because of a few words.
Very few expected Ryu's words, but what was even more surprising was that Ryu didn't wait for the answer of everyone else as he turned to leave.
Watching his back view, for some reason, Aika felt that she had suddenly lost something.
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