What should have been Ryu's living quarters was obstructed by an enormous pile of manure tall enough even to obstruct the door. The stench was foul and potent, traveling so far that it definitely affected those with living accommodations nearby. However, since this had been done by those with much higher rankings, there wasn't much they could do but turn their rage toward Ryu instead.
Those individuals, though, only met Ryu's gaze one time before they suddenly found they couldn't say a word.
Ryu's expression didn't seem to give anything away, and yet there was such a frigid cold in the surroundings that they were shaken. At that moment, Ryu's lip curled into a smile, but the air only seemed to grow colder.
Ryu flickered and vanished, his hand appearing around the throat of a disciple who had just been viciously glaring at him. It wasn't until Ryu's coldness reached him that he froze, but by then, it had already been too late.
Ryu was interested in those who retracted their animosity only because they now felt they couldn't harm him even if they tried. Such people like to prey on the weak and bow to the strong, he wasn't a fan of them, nor would he give them the benefit of the doubt.
"Speak quickly."
Ryu didn't even bother to ask a direct question. Anyone with half a brain would know exactly what he was asking about and he didn't have the patience to waste on trash.
"M—me—me—Merrick an—and Snyder!"
Ryu dropped the fool into his own pile of piss. With the Origin Flame, he had only needed to glance at the disciple rankings once to memorize all of the names on it. Both of these names were in the top 1000, and neither was below 700. They could be considered to be in the top 10% of Inner Disciples. From that fact alone, they were probably around the Seventh Stage of the Path Extinction Realm, maybe higher.
Such strength was beyond the current Ryu with his current restrictions. But his steps didn't seem to pause as a result of this.
As he walked slowly up the mountain, large amounts of qi surged toward him. The commotion was enough to shake many awake from their cultivation, causing them to peek out of their abodes only to realize that something big seemed about to happen.
At the same time, though, they couldn't fathom how Ryu was absorbing so much qi. Where was it all going?!
What they didn't know was that if Ryu wasn't restricting his Ice Jade Crystal Body, let alone this much qi, he could absorb a hundred times this with ease, even a thousand times wasn't an exaggeration.
CRACK!
The sound of a barrier shattering resounded. Ryu's Peak Soul Birth Soul broke through its limits, and yet instead of entering the Soul Refinement Realm, he remained firmly rooted in the Soul Birth Realm.
When one had a Perfect Blackbody Soul, when you reached saturation in preparation for a breakthrough, there were two choices you could make. The first was to step into the next stage and the second was to gather your breakthrough momentum to expand your Spiritual Sea. Obviously, and with a shred of doubt, Ryu had taken the latter option.
Since he could endlessly expand his Spiritual Sea, he would keep going until he reached the limits of his body.
In Ryu's first life, the only man who ever dared to humiliate him to his face was the only man he would call friend in these two lifetimes of his. But this humiliation didn't come from a place of malice and it was just two boys butting their heads together in a testosterone fuel tirade.
In Ryu's second life, he had experienced endless torment from the time he was a baby to the time he was 14. These were memories that he had always thought were a separate part of him, memories that he never cared about when he reawakened… Until the Valkyrie of the Martial Gods forced him to acknowledge that that wasn't a separate man, a separate life… That was him. That was the person he could have been had he not grasped power.
Since he awakened that day on the Higher Mortal Plane, he hadn't allowed anyone to disrespect him, even the slightest slight was returned a hundredfold. He didn't have time for words, for talking, for listening to the nonsense of others.
And maybe that was because he had subconsciously always known that that helpless little boy was him, and it could very well become him again.
The True Martial World was so large. From the first moment Ryu stepped in it, he realized that the mountain peak he wanted to climb to was much further away than he had originally thought.
On his first day, he was forced to freefall from the skies to avoid the tracking of a young man who was barely one or two years older than him.
On that same day, he faced a forest of Common Grade beasts he had to fight for his life to escape from.
And then, when he steeled himself and no longer allowed his thoughts to think of stepping back, even coming to the very same Sect of the young man who had forced him to escape in the first place, he was struck down by the Heavens and he was now only alive because Old Wan saved him.
CRACK!
The limits of Ryu's Spiritual Sea shattered once again, the raging storm of qi growing like the towering tempest. The thickness of it all almost grew to the point where it could be visibly seen with the eye, very faint and pale colors riding in the wind, colors that Ryu had once been able to see without even the slightest effort.
But now, that ability had also been stripped from him.
"Hehe…"
Ryu's smile turned into a cold grin filled with malice and darkness.
One might say that this event wasn't a big deal. No one had died. In fact, it was just a harmless prank. With a cultivator's skill, it could be cleaned away in just a few seconds.
However when you lowered your head once, you would lower it twice, and then a third time. This world seemed intent on getting Ryu to bend.
This True Martial World was indeed a cruel place.
But Ryu would show it who was crueler.
CRACK!
Ryu's palm flipped over, pulling a technique jade.