Ryu stepped outside of a warp in space, his expression cold. The image of that symbol danced around in his mind, but he quickly forced himself to forget about it as harping on it without information would get him nowhere.
After a moment, he took out the three Beast Crystals and the Dao Bone, looking at them without a hint of happiness in his eyes.
All around, snow billowed and rampaged about, but the cold here was decidedly less than what it had been previously.
Ryu took a breath and calmed himself, the coldness in his expression receding from one that might boil over at any time to one that was well within his control. There was no use in being so infuriated when there was nothing that he could do about it.
There were simply too many things to be enraged about if he really looked at things like this. This was simply what happened when you were weak. It was impossible for him to do and act as he pleased when there were so many individuals who could kill him with the snap of a finger.
Objectively, Ryu knew that these things were true, as he had always known that they were true. But he had no intention of changing himself. He was the same man back when he had no cultivation to speak of, and he would be the same man now that he had a small bit of power to grasp for himself.
Ultimately, things would always be like this. Until the day that he could stand unmatched on the Ninth Heaven, he would always face such things.
This was why he couldn't agree with the way Sarriel viewed the world. If he did, by the time he reached that peak, all of his sharpness would have vanished. In fact, without that sharpness, the likelihood that he would reach that peak at all was minimal. Maybe if his talent would supersede any and everything, it would be fine. But he had already learned of just how far he was from such a Fate.
Ryu didn't believe that it was possible to reach the pinnacle without your own arrogance. If you lowered your head once, you would do it again, and then again. By then, one day you'd look up a million miles from your dreams and with no time left to reach them, wondering what the hell happened along the way.
Were those youths destined to reach the top holding back their arrogance? Were they lowering their heads and biding their time?
Of course they weren't. With their talent, they would be sons and daughters of Heaven from birth, proud as phoenixes and dragons, standing their necks stretched out and their noses pointed to the skies.
As they cultivated, their arrogance would progress along with them, fueling them with confidence and reinforcing their Daos. This feedback loop would make them stronger and stronger, further distancing them from the "trash" beneath them.
The way Ryu saw it, if he didn't even dare to hold his head up proudly in the mere Second Heaven, how would he do so in the further Heavens beyond? How would he reach his goals? How would he protect Sacrum? How would he reunite his parents? How would seek revenge for his grandfathers and grandmothers? How would he unseal his eyes? How would he see his wives again? How would he be able to protect them?
Ryu simply didn't believe in biding your time and waiting for opportunities. This would give others initiative over your life, this would allow the people riding atop your head to pull at your puppet strings and make you bark to their tune.
The only way to control your life was by doing exactly that… controlling it.
Others would say that it was just smart to lower your head before the strong, after all, at some point in their lives, they had likely had to do the same thing in the face of someone who was also far beyond them.
However, in Ryu's eyes, this was nothing short of foolish. If he had no aspirations to reach the pinnacle, he just might be willing to accept it. However, anyone who truly wanted to stand on that mountain peak, anyone who truly wanted to look down upon all the living things of Existence without the slightest fear, couldn't afford to take even a single step back.
Not a single one.
Even if you didn't look for trouble, trouble would come to find you.
Did you have treasures that you shouldn't have? Talents that you lacked the backing to protect? Women that were too beautiful for the size of your fists?
What right did you have to do these things without strength? They would all be ripped from you one by one until there was nothing but a single beating heart left, but even that would be ripped from your chest.
Ryu could have lived a life of leisure. In fact, he should have.
He was the Heir to one of the most powerful families of Sacrum. His life was easy even while being a cripple. He had a loving family, a loving fiancée, a carefree life… In truth, the only thing that caused him dissatisfaction with that lifestyle was his own personal dreams and aspirations.
However, in the end, wasn't it all ripped away?
There was nothing in this life that he could claim without taking it in his own hands. To be complacent was to hand your autonomy over to the hands of another… And he refused to do so.
Ryu squeezed the Beast Cores and Dao Bone in his hands, the coldness in his eyes dancing like weeping willows.
He had had enough.
If he wanted to continue holding onto his arrogance, he couldn't simultaneously want to have everything remain optimal. Something would have to give, and that something would be the perfection of his cultivation path.
To Ryu, nothing was more important than his mentality, it was the foundation upon which everything was built. Compared to it, everything else was meaningless.