Ryu shot out from a tunnel in the ground, but he almost immediately stopped running.
He landed atop a branch, one of the very few that still remained intact after the initial phase of the war. Considering how sparse the forest was right this moment, it provided no concealment whatsoever and it would only take Brune a single sweep of his eyes to find him.
BANG!
A towering pillar of earth and soil shot into the skies before raining down. In its midst, the shadow of Brune could just barely be seen.
Seeing such a scene with his Spiritual Sense, Ryu sneered inwardly. He couldn't help but think that this idiot was truly lucky,
Clearly, Brune had lost his patience and didn't want to rush through the winding tunnels he had originally taken to reach the surface. But rushing through the earth like that, although it wasn't as dangerous as the core region, was still very dangerous. If this idiot had run into a node of the formation, he would have died before he even realized what had happened. By then, Ryu's efforts in waiting for him would have been a waste.
If Ryu had wanted to run, he could have already entered the Radiant Star Sect. By then, even Brune wouldn't casually dare to enter for fear of alerting a Sky God.
Even beyond that, had Ryu just wanted an easy kill, he could have made use of the core region. Considering that he was the only one who could navigate it with ease, he could also make clever use of it to kill Brune before he even understood what happened as well.
But instead, not only had Ryu left the ground he had the greatest advantage on, he also waited for Brune to come out. His goal was already clear.
Brune rushed for Ryu as the latter spread out his arms and opened his palms. With a flash, Ryu's great swordstaffs zoomed out from his back, entering his hands like a clap of thunder.
BANG!
Ryu activated [Magnetic Blade], a defensive Dao Charm sword stance. In that moment, it felt as though the one with a net of qi around him was himself rather than Brune. With every movement of his sword, the surging tide of hair Brune had used to attack were attracted to his blade and ripped to pieces.
For a moment, everything went silent, and in the next instant, the crisscrossing of blades blotted out the skies, shaving down Brune's hair until it went from hundreds of meters long to no more than a few inches from his scalp.
Brune was caught off guard by the sudden change, but Ryu had already shot forward.
Brune's expression warped and his palm flipped over to reveal a bow. He plucked at his rapidly regrowing hair with one and, forming it into a shimmering arrow of white light that he shot toward Ryu.
The sound barrier shattered, the arrow reaching Ryu in no more than a breath of time. However, Ryu, who shouldn't have been able to maneuver in the air, lightly tapped at the wind, his position shifting and his blade rising into the skies.
[Rising Crimson].
Ryu's saber qi rushed forward like a tsunami, an impossibly tall tempest causing the skies to split and the earth to tremble.
By this point, the two Sects rumbled and shook. A battle at the level of the World Sea Realm was enough to change the landscape of the Second Heaven, and the fact that two Sect with merely 20 kilometers between them were so close by made it inevitable that these vibrations would be felt.
Such a distance between experts of this caliber might as well have been a single step away. There was no doubt that the Sects would be ravaged.
Brune watched as the wall of qi surged toward him, his expression impossibly ugly. This was already the third Dao Charm technique Ryu had used in his presence, just what kind of monster was this exactly?!
Releasing a roar, Brune no longer held back his own Dao. He realized that if he took Ryu too casually, he might really fall here. However, he didn't feel fear in his heart. Such a genius, just what kind of secrets would be on their body?! Ryu himself might be more valuable than any Ancestral Grade material.
Brune's hair grew explosively in size. In a single blink, his hair was already ten times as long as when Ryu initially cut it, exuding an aura of countless arrows blotting out the skies, each and every one being coated with a tremendous sharpness.
The sun was eclipsed and the only light left was light controlled by Brune.
His Dao went by a Restrained Growth and it was a True Dao. His hair, his qi, his techniques, their growth were all controlled in the palm of his hands. Cutting off his hair? Who cared, he would just grow it back even faster and stronger than before.
As Brune's hair outshone the sun, his bowstring pulled back as well.
TWANG!
An arrow shot toward Ryu, but it, too, grew inside. From a small dot, it became hundreds of meters long and dozens of meters thick, rushing forward not to pierce Ryu through, but to crush him into minced meat.
BOOM! BOOM!
The arrow ripped into Ryu's [Rising Crimson], the collision causing a wild tempest of qi and wind to shoot into the surroundings.
The ground below collapsed into a crater that only grew with each passing moment and the skies above rumbled.
At the same time, Brune's net of hair encircled around Ryu, many of its strands being destroyed by the tempest of qi and wind, but it was persistent nonetheless, wrapping around back and piercing toward Ryu's back.
Ryu silently lamented his lack of a true defensive technique once again as his body flickered, dancing on the edge of life and death.
BANG!
Brune and Ryu's attacks shattered into a rain of qi and Brune prepared to move forward with another attack, but Ryu's great swordstaff had already raised for the same attack.
[Rising Crimson].