Patriarch Ember's gaze set upon Ryu, his features stuck in a sort of weird limbo between fury and apprehension. It was as though he was trying to hold himself back from doing something stupid, but his self control could hardly leash itself properly.
Instead of answering Ryu's questions, his heart steeled.
"Surround him."
Patriarch Ember had brought with him several Immortal Ring Realm and Connecting Heaven Realm experts who didn't dare to disobey his orders. Ryu was actually surprised to find that among the latter group, there was even another person he recognized.
"Oh?"
It felt like a reunion of old friends. Not only had Patriarch Ember appeared here, but so had Tae's grandfather, City Lord Loom.
The City Lord had also had a terrible experience with Ryu. The last time they met, if it hadn't been for Matteus, he would have been forced to kneel for who knew how long. But, even with the help of his grandnephew, he had still been forced to a knee by a youth who had only just stepped into the Divine Vessel Realm back then.
In truth, City Lord Loom still had no idea how such a thing had happened. The Ryu he knew had only been at the Qi Refinement Realm, he had no idea how Ryu had managed to step through from that stage to the Divine Vessel Realm in a single bound.
At the moment, though, City Lord Loom still hesitated. Ultimately, he now had a grandnephew who was a great talent and even a Throne. In addition, thanks to the resources Ryu left behind for Tae, she had blossomed into a strong warrior as well. In fact, it was no longer even obvious which was more talented… Though, this was greatly due to the fact that Matteus had vanished for over 200 years and none of the Clan had heard from him in that time.
Unfortunately, it seemed that City Lord Loom was still the very same City Lord Loom, weighing pros and cons before deciding incorrectly. Maybe it wasn't entirely his fault. After all, Patriarch Ember was a Path Extinction Realm expert and it had only been a few hundred years since Ryu last displayed the strength of a Connecting Heaven Realm expert. There was no way to bridge that gap in such a short time.
City Lord Loom concluded that Ryu must have found a treasure during that Selection tournament. Even after so long, no one had an explanation for why the Small Realm had collapsed so that must be it. But, even such a treasure couldn't allow one to progress so fast.
Reaching such a conclusion, City Lord Loom tentatively took a spot around Ryu, his jaw steeled. However, Ryu didn't even feel the need to bother with this. He had been too lazy even to raise a finger against Fidroha who had almost killed him that day, why should he care about a middling City Lord who would never amount to much?
"So you aren't going to answer my question?" Ryu raised an eyebrow.
Patriarch Ember's gaze narrowed. "Do you understand the situation the Pedestal Plane is in right now? We've already ordered all humans to enter the battlefield, this is a war that decides all of our Fates. But, not only are you not on a battlefield, you've even been found looking for a traitorous Sect that escaped from their duties? What is the meaning of this?"
For a moment, Ryu didn't respond. He just found it all to be so amusing. It had been a long time since he got into a battle of politics and public perception.
The Awoken Moon Sect had definitely vanished long before the Ancestral Beasts descended, so how was it now that they were cowardly traitors? And, even if they had escaped because of this attack, so what? With the Ember Clan hounding them, wouldn't they just be waiting for their deaths? Who would believe that the Ember Clan wouldn't take this chance to send them all to the frontlines to die?
Plus, was this the only world the beasts were attacking? The answer was no. No matter where they went, they would be fighting. In fact, due to Ryu's breakthrough back then, and the subsequently making it even worse by untangling all Faith, the situation on the Moon World was probably even more volatile than the situation here. If anything, they were diving head first into danger.
Now that Ryu thought about it, it probably wasn't a coincidence that the wielders of the World Pupils, the mighty Griffin Clan, would choose to drop their cursed little cub there of all places… Maybe they had their own particular reasons.
Remembering the events around claiming Little Gem, Ryu couldn't help but shake his head. That was yet one more person that had almost killed him that he should probably get revenge on. It seems that he had made quite a few enemies in his time.
"… I'm going to give you a chance to take those words back. I don't want to waste a lot of time in place, so how about three seconds?"
Patriarch Ember froze.
"You see, I know that you're aware that I'm the Throne of this 'cowardly Sect'. Three. So you should know that tarnishing their reputation will reflect back on me. Two. So you tell me, what should I do about this?"
A cold sweat felt down Patriarch Ember's back.
"How dare you?!"
The Immortal Ring Realm experts felt that they had found an opportunity to curry favor, causing many of them to surge toward Ryu without a care, each looking to be the first to claim his life.
p Ryu's gaze turned a frightening shade of cold.
"One."
He didn't even move from his location. Just like the beasts that came before them, all those who shot forward found themselves shredded to minces meat, their blood and flesh slowly falling from the skies.
Ryu hand reached out, causing several Soul Birth Realm souls to appear in his palm before he crushed them.
His gaze tilted upward, meeting Patriarch Ember's. But, just as he was about to act, his head shifted toward a particular direction.
Several powerful auras converged, and it didn't take Ryu long to understand.
'The Martial Gods.'
A fiendish grin spread across his face.