Everything seemed to elevate from the ground. A single swing reaped lives and severed the earth, causing a slight pause to overwhelm the world.
And then came a rush of wind.
The trees that had been separated from their roots were suddenly chopped into countless pieces. A wave of sword qi filled the skies, pushing back those that were further away and mincing those that were too close into chopped meat.
The gazes of the Radiant Star Sect disciples glowed with a fiendish light. Suddenly seeing such a scene, they felt as though a fire had been lit within their hearts.
If even an Immortal Ring Realm expert dared to charge into such a battlefield, wouldn't they be too pathetic if they didn't choose to do exactly that?
At that moment, the 20 kilometer diameter between the two Sects erupted into a bloody battle, but it was as though Ryu didn't notice any of it.
His Great Swordstaffs widly thrashed about. Sometimes they were like swords, swift and elegant. Sometimes they were like glaives, might and unrelenting. Sometimes they were spears, piercing and strong. And yet other times they were like halberds, menacing and violent.
He seemed to switch between styles as seamlessly as breathing, countering every enemy he came across with the ease of an expert and the grace of a master.
His skill was far too oppressive. The number of forms the great swordstaff could embody were simply too many. And to make matters worse for the enemies Ryu came across, some of these forms were the likes of which they had never seen dual wielded before.
Despite the fact Ryu used nothing but Basic Stances, they had reached a level of refinement where they dwarfed even techniques of the same caliber. His killing pace was so swift and unrelenting that more often than not, the 100-meter radius around him was completely devoid of life, a shower of blood raining from the skies and yet not touching even the hem of his clothing.
It was exhilarating, almost too much so.
Ryu had been in his fair share of large scale battles, but there was something about this that felt decidedly different in a way that he hadn't been expecting.
He was very used to facing hundreds of enemies at once, many of whom assumed that he was much weaker than them. It shouldn't have made much of a difference that there were others fighting with him to his back. But unexpectedly, there was a bit of a difference.
In his youth, Ryu had always dreamed of fighting side by side with his father. As much as he loved his grandparents, his relationship with his father was probably the closest and he was the male role model he looked up to the most… He was the man that Ryu least wanted to let down.
He couldn't help but wonder if this was similar to the feeling that he would experience when that day finally came. Would this be the same feeling?
He surprised himself quite a bit. He didn't really care much for the Radiant Star Sect, at least not initially. However, after Elder Aika's display, he had formed a bit of a connection that he had never experienced before. He suddenly felt the will to make certain that the name of this Sect didn't fade into the annals of history. In fact, he wanted to see the day they shone even more resplendently than they ever had before.
Ryu stomped his feet and roared, his two great swordstaffs crossing about his chest and whipping outward.
The force behind his strike was so grand that the twin pair of polearms bowed wildly, curving to the point they even looked as though they might break in another second.
A surging 'X' shaped attack buried itself into the land and wiped out large swaths of Working and Outer Disciples. It felt as though Ryu was practically invincible and that the sturdy bodies of the Metal Work Sect's were nothing more than thin sheets of paper.
Above, the Patriarchs had long since left but there were still some elders watching to monitor the situation. Their expressions couldn't help but turn ugly when they saw such a scene. They couldn't say anything either because Ryu's cultivation was actually lower than that of their own. In fact, there wasn't a single Immortal Ring Realm expert in their entire Sect.
It was originally amusing to see Ryu charging, but the moment he swung his polearms, it was as though a hellscape had descended.
The only saving grace was that the Inner Disciples were coming.
The weakest of the Working Disciples were in the Path Extinction Realm and even the weakest of the Outer Disciples were nearing the peak of this Realm. By the time one became an Inner Disciple of their Sect, you were already in the Dao Pedestal Realm.
No matter how elite this Immortal Ring Realm expert was, he wouldn't be able to jump two cultivation levels to battle, especially since even average talents of their Sect had at least one Earth Grade talent.
Plus, while Ryu was performing astoundingly well, the others of his Sect… couldn't be said to be so lucky.
The disciples of the Radiant Star Sect had charged onto the battlefield, having their hearts lit on fire by Ryu. But when they actually began to fight, they realized just how in over their heads they were.
Many could only last a few exchanges before they were slaughtered, never to rise again. Although the killing speed in the opposite direction wasn't as grand as Ryu, that was also because Ryu was killing so much that he alleviated much of the pressure.
And yet, even with that being the case, the Working and Outer Disciples of the Radiant Star Sect couldn't take advantage, finding themselves dying off one by one.
BOOM!
At that moment, thunderous booms rang out as the inner Disciples of the Metal World Sect crashed down from the ground, their knees bending and their bodies radiating a bronzed light.