Chapter 550 Cold
Isemeine pouted her lips when she heard Ryu's words. She knew that this was what he had said he wanted to do, but she hadn't thought that he was actually serious. Shouldn't he be doing his best to hide himself away? Why did he want such a spotlight now?
When Ryu had been speaking to Zenavey, Isemeine thought that he was just fooling around. But now it turned out that her wagon had been hitched to a madman.
"This…" The Elders were stunned.
Isemeine cleared her throat, trying her best to force an ingratiating smile.
"Can you change your mind?" She said with as sweet a voice as she could muster.
"No." Ryu said plainly.
"But…" Isemeine bit her lip. "… We already have a Throne…"
How could the Martial Gods not already have a Throne?
Imagine for a moment that you were a hostile threat to a new world you were trying to take hold of. What would you do in that instance?
The first thing you would do is take out one of your greatest threats if you could manage it. The Martial Gods had already done this. But, what maybe came even before this was the gathering of information.
If the Martial Gods could learn of the existence of the Chaos Plane before most of Ryu's world, Ryu had no doubt that they were well aware of all of their customs and how their Karmic Strings and Fate worked. As a result, how could the Martial Gods not also know the kind of detriment a Throne would pose to their cause?
If you were the Martial Gods, what would you do in that case? Obviously, you could give the position to someone you could either trust or control, hopefully both. That way, your Fate wouldn't have to be in the hands of an unknown variable and your resources would still be managed by yourself.
It was the best choice one could make in this situation. However…
"So what?"
Ryu's words caused Isemeine's next plea to get caught in her throat.
She felt like she was losing her mind. Did Ryu understand what it was he was doing? Truly?
It could be said that Isemeine didn't really understand what the goal of her Martial God Clan was. In fact, while Ryu saw them as outsiders, to Isemeine who had only been born a few thousand years earlier, this was the only home she had ever known.
However, this didn't mean that she was completely ignorant. Due to her standing, there were certain things she could understand that others at her level weren't privy to. Among those things she did understand led her to the conclusion that if Ryu did this… He would be pointing himself out to be the clear enemy of the Martial Gods.
And all of that was even setting aside whether or not he could do it. Not only was this going to be Ryu's attempt at claiming a second Throne, it was a Throne of an Eleventh Order Clan that already had a Throne of their own to begin with!
As difficult as claiming a second Throne was, snatching one from another Throne would only compound the difficulty.
One had to remember that a Throne existed to accumulate Faith for a Clan or Sect. This meant that if you wanted to claim more than one, you had to prove you had ample enough talent to carry not just one but two Clans or Sects. Likewise, if you wanted to claim a third, the difficulty would grow exponentially once again.
At the same time, though, there was an increase in difficulty when it came to snatching a Throne as well. Just like a Ryu had gained certain protections as a Throne so that the Awoken Moon Sect couldn't lie to him about the resources it had, so too would there be protections against his position being snatched too easily.
Over the years that the Throne system had existed, how many Clans and Sects had tried to wiggle their way out of it? After all, an increase in Faith wasn't something the current generation could benefit from, so there were no shortage of selfish individuals who cared only about the present.
Because Thrones could make use of resources with very few restrictions, it wasn't a surprise that these selfish individuals would do everything they could to hold onto these resources for themselves.
There were many loopholes in the Throne system that had been abused over the years, one of which was contracting a genius from a higher power to snatch your Throne back. Such geniuses wouldn't be interested in the resources of these smaller Sects and Clans and would only care about the small boost in Faith and prestige they could receive. They would then pay a price to hand their Throne down to another the small Sect could more easily control.
There were all sorts of minor and major loopholes like this that forced the system to evolve.
Ultimately, the Throne system was a construct of both Heaven and man. No matter what hoops the latter wanted to jump through, the former would usually close them or add protections for them.
One such protection was the increased difficulty in snatching a Throne from another.
The Martial Gods likely believed—and rightfully so—that the combination of the genius they had chosen plus the difficulty in snatching a claimed Throne would give them more than enough protection. After all, the added difficulty would scale with the one who claimed it to begin with.
However… Unfortunately for the Martial Gods… The one universal truth that would never change about Thrones and claiming them was that it would always be based on a ratio of age to combat prowess…
Ryu was a 21 year old with the combat strength almost surpassing the Path Extinction Realm. He was unmatched in this aspect and there was nothing that could be done about it.
"Bring me to the Martial Plane."
Ryu spoke plainly once again. Every time he had to say Martial Plane instead of Shrine Plane left a bad taste in his mouth. He wouldn't repeat himself again.
Isemeine grit her teeth. She knew it was useless to say anything more. If she really continued to fight it, it only meant that Eska would just take control of her body again and force her to do what Ryu wanted anyway. With that being the case, what was the point? She had no choice.
"Fine. Fine. Fine. If you want to die, go die then."
The Elders didn't know what to do. They had been randomly assigned to deal with an influx of new recruits coming from the Silver Touch branch's trial grounds because the location of their Sect was a bit special. The space in the surroundings was stable, but also very malleable due to their being not to far and also not too close to Shrine … Or rather Martial Mountain.
However, none of them had expected such a scene to play out before them. Even long after Ryu and Isemeine had left, none of them knew how to react.
They looked toward one another feeling as though they might have heard something that they were never meant to.
…
When Ryu and Isemeine reappeared, the latter was still grumbling, but once again, Ryu didn't hear a word she was speaking.
The air was filled with a frigid cold. It could be said to be the exact opposite of the Deep Eruption Sect. However, the difference lied in the fact that Ryu didn't recognize anything in his surroundings… Except for the feeling of the air touching his skin.
He took a deep breath, subconsciously circulating his Ice Phoenix Martial Form.
The air in the surrounding tens of kilometers suddenly all surged toward Ryu. Isemeine, who was still grumbling about how her life was over now, was almost swept off her feet completely.
A cyclone of raging winds swarmed, threatening to collapse what seemed to be Isemeine's personal home.
Ryu's chest expanded, his skin glowing a light blue hue that flickered in and out of existence.
When he had his fill and settled down into a slow exhale, two jets barreled out from his nose. His hair fluttered, his robes loosely flapping.
In all this time, Ryu had never neglected his Martial Forms even for a single day. By this point, his mastery was leaps and bounds beyond where he had begun, and the results spoke for themselves.
Every fiber of Ryu's being wanted to roar at this moment, but he knew that he couldn't. The moment he did, bits and pieces of the four Clans he represented would be awakened. It would cause a phenomena that wouldn't be ignored.
So, he suppressed it, his veins bulging out as his heartbeat slowed.
Ignoring the state his breathing had put Isemeine in, Ryu stepped out of the elaborate, once well decorated home.
He stepped into the air, rising his way into the skies and soaring above it all.
There it was, right before him. After so many years, he could finally see it again. No matter where you were on the Shrine Plane, you would always be able to see it… That Peak he wanted to sit upon once more.
Shrine Mountain.
It felt so close and yet so far at the same time… Right there and yet displaced in both time and space…
The frigidity of the air only grew more pronounced after Ryu stepped out. He realized then that in this environment, even normal Immortal Ring experts couldn't casually survive. However, it was completely unable to match the coldness in his heart.
Isemeine rushed out of her home, her expression warping. This idiot! Didn't he know that you couldn't just fly about randomly wherever you pleased?! Wasn't he a Scion of the Tatsuya Clan?! He should know at least this much! These rules were even more fiercely enforced the more noble the region!
Wait, no, how was he flying at all?! Even Isemeine couldn't fly in this place! In fact, unless you were in the World Sea Realm, it should have been impossible!
The Martial Plane had been covered by a perpetual winter for hundreds of millions of years. The cold only became worse the further up you traveled because it originated from the Peak of the world: Martial Mountain.
The cold qi hadn't done just a small bit to restrain things on this Plane… But, it had ironically also helped those of the Martial God Clan to bolster their strength by staying in such a harsh environment year 'round. It could be said that Isemeine was among the youths who had benefited from this, allowign her to have an exceptional foundation.
However...
"Get down! Quickly!"
Isemeine's expression changed. It was too late. She could already sense that Ryu had been locked onto.