"Oof…" The old man continued to rub his back. "… Youths these days are always so fiery. Just look at the state of the city now, tsk tsk."
Ryu didn't say anything immediately. The fact the man was walking through the air without a pair of wings was enough to speak to his prowess. Though Ryu wasn't quite satisfied just yet, he wasn't a fool at the same time. He had no intention of going up against a World Sea Realm expert, even if they had a foot in the grave.
At the same time, though, Ryu wasn't star struck. How many of such experts had he seen in his lifetime? He had long since lost count. He had once interacted with them everyday, and four of them were his very own grandparents. If there was anyone in this world that could treat World Sea Realm experts like cabbages by the side of the road, it was Ryu.
"You know, it's my duty to oversee things in this particular city, what am I supposed to do with all of this mess?"
Ryu once again didn't reply despite fully well having a proper answer. In the background, Arteur continued to spit up mouthful after mouthful of blood, the backlash of his technique being shattered still not having died down quite yet.
The truth was that this city had several self repair formations in place. It would only take activating them for the city to rebuild itself. Any high level city worth its salt would have such formations in place. This was why Ryu didn't particularly care about the damage he caused.
The old man continued to sigh to himself before he looked toward Ryu. At that moment, though the old man looked amiable, Ryu felt the pressure of an entire wall fall down upon him. It didn't seem that the old man was trying very hard, but his gaze alone was worth its weight in years.
"Youths really are hot blooded these days, aiya. What to do, what to do."
Ryu met the old man's gaze, but something suddenly sparkled in the latter's eye. Without Ailsa around, Ryu knew there was always a chance that his Heavenly Pupils could be exposed at any time, but it was already too late to pretend to be blind at this point, or else he would have been pointing even more attention toward his eyes.
However, Ryu wasn't as helpless as he had been in the past in this regard. As difficult as it was to deduce his true cultivation thanks to his Chaos Qi, so too was it more difficult to piece together just what kind of talents he carried with him. The old man might be able to tell there was something special about his eyes, but as long as he wasn't using his Mysteries of Heaven and Earth techniques on the man himself, jumping to the conclusion that he had Heavenly Pupils would be a large leap.
After a few moments, Ryu cupped his fists toward the old man and turned to walk away.
"Hoho…" The old man chuckled.
He didn't seem like he was trying to stop Ryu at all. In fact, he didn't seem to be much other than amused.
"Where are you going now, lad?"
"I know my limits." Ryu finally spoke for the first time.
His meaning was obvious. He could defeat the younger generation with impunity, but if their elders wanted to interfere, there wasn't much he could do.
Ryu descended onto the building he had left Isemeine on. By now, the young woman was caught between wanting to glare at Ryu, being relieved that he was alive, and wanting to punch him.
'This shameless bastard. He came back over here to remind that elder that he's with me, huh? Do I look like a shield to you?!'
Isemeine didn't dare to say this out loud, because she knew quite well that Ryu would be shameless and thick faced enough to say yes.
The old man chuckled at Ryu's response before his gaze shifted over to Isemeine.
"And what about you, little girl. Are you trying to wash your hands clean of this too? You know, you'll be an adult very soon."
Isemeine practically choked on her air. Unlike Ryu, she wasn't nearly as used to speaking to World Sea experts.
One would think that since both of her parents were such experts, that she would at least be as used to it as Ryu was. But, this was far from the case.
Isemeine rarely, if ever, saw her parents. Her father did dote on her, but that was more so due to the competition he had with Zenavey's father over their mother. As far as Isemeine's father was concerned, Isemeine had to be protected because she was the representation of his connection with her mother, not because he intrinsically loved Isemeine herself.
The good news was that since Isemeine was tied to his pride, he would never allow anything to happen to her. But, it wasn't rooted in the same love Ryu experienced from his own parents and his grandparents…
This was simply the way of the Martial World. The greater your cultivation, the less of a chance there would be for you to spend so much time and effort on children and family who had yet to grow to your height.
Maybe if one day Isemeine became a Queen, then her relationship with her father would grow beyond just this level. But, for now, it wasn't that deep.
The same went for many others. Often, the act of an 'elder' getting revenge for the 'junior' was less about the love the former felt for the latter, and more about the face the former would be losing if they sat back and did nothing. This was the cruel reality of the world.
So, when Isemeine stood there facing the glance of a World Sea Realm expert, she felt her body freeze over. That was… until she felt Ryu's arm around her waist again.
In that moment, what once was an insurmountable wall of pressure seemed to vanish. She didn't know how he did it, or how he could possibly make her feel safe beneath the gaze of such an expert, but she actually foolishly believed for a moment that even if this old man was a Sky God, it wouldn't make a difference.
Isemeine shook her head at this ridiculous thought. Logic told her that even a Cosmic Seed Realm expert could crush Ryu with a single finger, let alone the World Sea Realm expert before them and not even mentioning someone of the Sky God Realm. What a joke.
Isemeine snorted. 'What a show off.'
After recovering, Isemeine quickly cupped her fist.
"I apologize, Overseer. My partner was overly eager to test the combat prowess of our Martial God Clan after being specially recruited by the Silver Touch branch. His temper is as bad as mine is, so he didn't seem intent on waiting around and simply issued the challenge directly. We don't mind paying the Qi Stones charge it will take to rebuild the damaged structures."
The old man's eyes twinkled again when he heard Isemeine's composed answer. But, he was even more curious about the contents.
"So, this young man has joined the Silver Touch branch?"
"No, Overseer. He has yet to choose a branch to join, he only came here to spend some time with me and ended up being overly eager…"
? ?? ??-?? ???. ??? Isemeine completely avoided the topic of Ryu wanting to become their Throne. She felt that just this knowledge alone was a ticking time bomb, so she preferred to keep it a secret. At the very least, the elders from the Deep Eruption Sect wouldn't' dare to breathe a word about it.
At the same time, this Overseer seemed very interested in Ryu. She felt that this was a chance.
An Overseer was a World Sea Realm expert that oversaw a pocket of space on the Martial Plane. It could be said that this city was just one of the many hundreds to thousands of settlements the Martial Gods had on this Plane.
Unsurprisingly, then, an Overseer held a lot of authority and power. Likewise, for an Overseer to step out personally to deal with such a small issue was unheard of.
Ultimately, the scuffle between the younger generation was exactly that… a small issue. So, the logical conclusion was that this Overseer wanted something, and it was bad enough that he didn't allow any number of his subordinates to step in for him.
Of course, this particular Overseer was a bit eccentric so it was difficult to tell what he was thinking. After all, how could you not be eccentric if you were eating on the same floor as a couple of Path Extinction Realm brats?
That was right. This was the very same man Ryu had noticed through the broken window just moments ago.
"Fascinating. Fascinating, indeed. Good then, young man. What do you say about completing a couple spars for me?"
Isemeine's brow twitched. What was that supposed to mean, exactly?