In truth, Ryu had been a bit dissatisfied when he hadn't seen the appearance of the Awoken Moon Sect's Ancestor. In the past, he had ignored this because he had been too weak. Even in all his arrogance, he understood that an Ancestor, especially one at the Connecting Heaven Realm, had no obligation to come to see a Throne at the mere Qi Refinement Realm.
However, things were different now. Not only had Ryu long since surpassed such an Ancestor in combat prowess, even his cultivation was leagues beyond. Let alone him calling her out personally, she should have been among the first to greet him.
The only really Ryu hadn't made a fuss about it was because he was in a good mood meeting Sephare again and learning about the Chaos Plane, not to mention having a nice meal made by his wife. Plus, technically, as a Throne, he was still somewhat equal in status with the Ancestor of the Awoken Moon Sect.
Even with all of these reasons he knew about, there were also likely reasons he wasn't aware of. For example, the Ancestor could be stalled or heavily injured. And, of these, it seemed that he just hadn't gone far enough.
"She was killed?" Ryu asked.
His demeanor seemed strikingly different. Even for the members of the Awoken Moon Sect who were very much used to being extremely cold couldn't help but shiver as the temperature continued to plummet.
Ryu didn't particularly care about this Ancestor, she was someone he had never met personally and even if he had, they wouldn't have had a deep relationship. However, he was the Throne of the Awoken Moon Sect not to mention the current sole heir of the Ice Phoenix Clan. A slight against them was a slap to his face. He really wanted to see who was so bold.
The first person Ryu thought of was Patriarch Ember. But, if it was really him, he would feel far too stifled. He had already killed that man. If he had known that he had gone this far, he would have given him a far more terrible death.
"The…" Toria took a deep breath and settled herself. "… During our escape from the Pedestal Plane, we had to stall for the formation to fully activate. In that time, Ancestor used the help of our protective formation to stave off enemies and give us time to escape.
"She managed to make it through the ordeal, but she was heavily injured. In her old age, though it wasn't quite lethal, it would still take her quite some time to recover. Unfortunately, we met more hostility upon coming to the Moon World. Before Ancestor could recover… she was forced into a battle with the Three Pupil Eclipse Sect and died as a result.
"Following this, we were forced to come to this place to help fight their battles. We've lost many promising disciples…"
In the time since Ryu had left the Awoken Moon Sect, the influx of talent they had experienced was astronomical. If given time to grow, it would only be a matter of time before they returned to their former glory as a Ninth Order Sect.
However, this war felt like an enormous setback to them. Without a care for the weakness of their Sect compared to the other behemoths, they were forced to fight. In fact, it was because of their weakness especially that they found themselves in the role of canon fodder.
If it wasn't for Guiot learning of their plight and recognizing them even after so long, their situation would have only been made worse. Let alone just losing their lives, as a female only Sect, they may very well have ended up being humiliated in ways Toria didn't even want to describe.
All she could feel was weak. Even after breaking into the Connecting Heaven Realm from the Divine Vessel Realm after so long, in large part thanks to the Faith Ryu's exploits had blessed them all with, she still felt like she couldn't accomplish anything. Their backbone all this time had been Little Sephare until Ryu's sudden and triumphant return.
Ryu's dark expression seemed to make the atmosphere countless times heavier. The oppression weighed on the heart and ripped at the soul. It didn't take a genius to understand that he was pissed.
He had been taking his time dealing with the Three Pupils Eclipse Sect and the others, not because he was planning on taking it easy on them, but rather because he wanted them to stew in their own fear. Beneath this formation, there was nowhere they could hide and there was nowhere for them to run. All of their lives ran on the palm of Ryu's hand and at his whims.
But, since the Three Pupil Eclipse Sect wanted to play games, he would play along with them as well.
"I'll be back." Ryu said coldly.
He gave Sephare's hair one more ruffle before vanishing. The atmosphere in the throne room seemed to lighten instantly and a faint sort of excitement colored their features. They had all been slowly building up their confidence over the years, returning to form. However, this blow had set them right back to step one… Having a backer again, and one so powerful, made them feel as though they were walking on clouds.
…
Ryu appeared in the skies, his expression as cold as ice.
He didn't believe for a single moment that the Three Pupil Eclipse Sect had forgotten about the Awoken Moon Sect.
It had to be remembered that absolute geniuses took 100 million years to become Cosmic Seed Realm experts. What did this mean? It meant that many took far longer to step into this stage.
Even though the cap in cultivation of this world was the Dao Pedestal Realm, logic dictated that for anyone to even have a chance at entering the Cosmic Seed Realm, the previous Realm had to give at least that much life span.
Simply put, the 900 million years since Ryu had vanished from this world wasn't nearly enough time for the Three Pupil Eclipse Sect to forget who their true overlords were. And, that didn't even mention the fact that the Martial Gods had helped them to raise experts surpassing this level.
Not only had they touched his past his bottom line, they had done so knowing full well what they were doing.
Ryu wasn't a fan of three strikes, just one was enough. And this one… Was already at two.
BANG!
Ryu's aura descended like an endless torrent.