1355 Weakest
A raging torrent of qi filled the region. Despite the cold expression on his face, Ryu's inner organs threatened to spill out of his body, and that was despite the fact Little Silk had blocked more than 90% of the volatile energy. Even beyond that, it also seemed that most were purposely avoiding him.
Norrian and Ralora weren't fools. They, of course, had already seen through how special Ryu was. Plus, to them, Ryu was basically inconsequential. Even if he wasn't as amazing as they assumed and it would just be a fa?§ade on Empana's part to hide the true expert that was guiding him, it wouldn't cost them anything to spare his life for now.
Ryu's gaze flickered, his pupils dancing back and forth as he tracked the happenings of the battlefield. He couldn't deploy his Spiritual Sense without involving his Birthed Phenomena, but releasing that now would draw too much attention.
Most probably would never believe that a Dao Pedestal Realm expert could possibly follow their battle even with Spiritual Sense, let alone with their eyes. But this was precisely what Ryu was doing,
A battle of thousands of Sky Gods went about exactly how one might expect, but the terrain caused a great amount of difficulty. Usually Sky Gods would just be able to level this sort of forest to the ground. But despite the commotion, they only swayed slightly, forcing the combat to be split into countless smaller groups.
What was most important to Ryu, though, was that these smaller groups were forced out of the calm region near the geyser, and pushed into the forest where the humidity was the densest. The result was them having to work ten times as hard to execute attacks they had once been able to do easily. Their stamina was quickly draining in real time.
Norrian and Ralora fought with ugly expressions. They noticed the problem immediately.
Their people were already harmed by the hazards of the rainforest, and they had been forced to expend far more energy than Empana's people in a far shorter time. But now they had triggered a battle in such a disadvantageous situation.
Others might think them stupid, but they truly had no other choice. If things continued like this, then the gap between their groups and Empana would only grow larger. By the time they reached the next set of trials, would they even have a chance left to compete?
Empana's people seemed to realize this as well. Somehow they had gone such a long way through the forest without being this harmed, and yet the Exo Demons and White Devils were actually in such a sorry state.
They had witnessed Little Silk's line of silk for themselves, they didn't believe for a moment that it was that that had caused so much damage to their enemies. The only explanation was that the danger lay in the forest itself. Their respect for Ryu shot to the skies even further. This was normally something that Empana would wear an ugly expression for, but he was engaged in battle as well. He didn't have the luxury of caring for such matters.
With the Exo Demons and White Devils allying, despite the number of people they had lost, they still had a slight number advantage of about a few hundred. He had to work hard to ensure that this number advantage didn't increase while he battled against Norrian and Ralora at the same time.
'He's hold back... A lot,' Ryu thought to himself.
He could see through with quite some ease. He might have a problem with deciphering the actual cultivation level of Sky Gods, but picking up on body language cues was something that he had gotten used to as far back as when his Mysteries of Heaven and Earth pupils were intact.
Empana was intelligent. He knew that for these families to dare to challenge him they definitely had something that they were relying on. In that case he didn't want them to know what his bottom line was too soon.
Ryu's eyes narrowed. 'Soon...'
He suddenly felt a squeeze on his hand that made him look toward Mac. She wore a worried expression, seemingly seeing the discomfort on Ryu's face. His entire expression was drained of blood.
Since Mae had broken through with her soul, she was still in a relatively better situation, but she was worried about Ryu.
Ryu smiled. "This is nothing."
Mae almost wanted to roll her eyes. This guy, couldn't he just admit when he was having trouble? Was it necessary to put up such a front all the time?
That said, when she looked into his eyes, she couldn't help but believe his words. Though she couldn't tell if it was because of love, or if he really had that effect on people.
Ryu's gaze suddenly sharpened. He commanded Little Silk smoothly and they dodged out of a region immediately. In the place they had just stood, a duo crashed. Locking in a fierce battle, neither of them seemed to notice anything wrong and just continued to fight.
'Now,' Ryu thought.
The ground suddenly began to rumble. It was far too subtle to notice. How could anyone take the rumbling ground seriously when there were explosions of countless small scale battles in the surroundings? But this was exactly what Ryu wanted.
BOOM!
No one saw it coming. The eruption was fierce and unprecedented.
Almost the instant it happened, lanjor looked toward Ryu as though he would rip him to pieces. This little bastard definitely knew that this would happen, but he didn't even give him a warning. All he saw on Ryu's face, though, was a slight smirk that vanished almost as soon as he registered.
'Shit," lanjor's expression changed and he crossed his arms across his chest. Even so, he was sent flying like a streaking meteor.
Ryu's lips moved silently and Little Silk reacted with a calm and gentle flap of her wings. While everyone else was blown away, they were only gently pushed into a curved path, riding a wave of hot, pressurized air that was far too suffocating to breathe. However, thanks to Little Silk's outpouring of cold qi, it was barely passable.
By the time the eruption passed, Ryu stood with Mae atop Little Silk's back, hovering above the geyser opening.
They were entirely conspicuous. Everyone else was at least several hundred meters away, and that was just those that survived. A large segment had directly been vaporized to ash, never to see the light of day again. This was when, though, the cruelty of the rainforest was truly seen. The blood seeped into the surrounding foliage and disappeared, the flesh was even swallowed up.
Mae's brows shot up, she looked toward Ryu again, not having expected this. But before she could think any further, Little Silk dove downward and everything fell into silence and darkness. She couldn't' even see her hand right before her face, let alone her surroundings.
Even so, Mae was in shock, her heart palpitating. Ryu's words echoed in her ears. Even if she was a fool, she would know with absolute certainty that Ryu had planned this from the very beginning.
The catacombs didn't provide a chance to deal with everyone at once. However, this rainforest was very different. There was no doubt that over 90% of them had died.
After Ryu vanished, Empana slowly pulled himself out from a ditch in the far off distance. His Spiritual Sense had been locked onto Ryu the entire time, but the moment the eruption happened, he had vanished. When he looked around, his expression turned uglier and uglier.
Ryu was dead?
The skepticism within Empana was strong, but there didn't seem to be another good answer. He didn't believe it was possible for Ryu to survive when even he had been so heavily injured. Granted, he was closer to the geyser than Ryu was, but he was also countless times stronger than Ryu was. Even his beast companion wasn't worth more than an exchange or two to him.
What Empana didn't know was that Ryu was very much alive, and maybe he wouldn't learn this for a while.
That said, Ryu wasn't scott free. He was taking quite a risk right now, separating from his Sky God buffers.
However, what kind of benefits could possibly come without risk?
...
Ryu descended with Little Silk and Mae quickly. He couldn't see anything and the only two factors that let him know that he was still with them was the hand in his and the solid body beneath his feet.
He took a calm breath, his stare glowing. He could feel the changes of the space around him. They were definitely moving across a large distance in just a short time.
Suddenly, there was a powerful flash and Ryu's stare was filled with a blinding light. He blinked once, and when his vision focused, his pupils constricted.
'.. Unfortunate.'
He had made a bet this time, and it seemed that it hadn't paid off.
He, Little Silk, and Mae stood on a tall pillar. However, this wasn't the problem.
All around them, there were many other pillars. Some were empty, but it was the ones that weren't that was the problem. And even worse than that, there were exactly nine of them, a number Ryu realized represented each one of the Nether Realm's Nine Planes.
Upon these filled pillars, geniuses of the Sky God Realm stood, each one having taken a lead in claiming the Birth Right of their Plane.
Without a doubt, he and Mae were by far the weakest here.
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