The island below had exactly 27 mountain peaks. Upon each one of these, new formations quickly formed. When they vanished groups of individuals were left behind. Sometimes they were just in pairs, and the largest of them numbered as much as five.
Among these individuals, Jenneless and her junior brothers were present, commanding the space of an entire mountain range to themselves.
The 27 mountain peaks completely surrounded the floating island, sitting on its outer edges as though to enclose everything within. From above, it looked no different from a cage locking everyone in. Although none had descended just yet, when they did, it became obvious that they would have no options to escape.
Maybe in Sacrum, it wouldn't be a big deal. But to the people of the True Martial World, it was impossible to fly in the First Heaven without first being a Fragmented Sky God. There was simply no escaping.
"Chosen!"
A voice boomed from a three meter tall man below.
The moment he spoke, Jenneless' lips curled into a slight sneer. Her palm flipped over and a floating Rune appeared.
She raised her palm into the air and the silvery construct shot through the air, appearing before Ryu's forehead and floating around it.
Aside from Ryu, there were only two others who received such treatment. One of them received a silvery rune from a group of people wrapped in vines, and the other received the same rune from individuals with reptilian eyes.
To the surprise of everyone, two of these runes landed with the disciples of the Radiant Star Sect.
The first was, obviously, Ryu. But the second was someone Ryu recognized from the entrance exam, a young man with skin as dark as night and eyes as sparkling bright as the stars. However, oddly enough, no one seemed surprised that a young man who should have just become an Outer Disciple was here.
Ryu frowned inwardly.
At that moment, the young man turned toward him and smiled. But what was odd was the fact that Ryu definitely hadn't turned to look at him, what would have been the point? He was blind to begin with, it would have been a useless endeavor. So why was this young man smiling at him?
For an instant, Ryu thought that the young man had sensed his Spiritual Sense, but that didn't seem to be the case. Not to mention the fact that even Elder Aika hadn't detected his Void Spiritual Sense, it seemed that this young man was smiling at him just for the sake of… smiling at him?
Ryu's gaze narrowed, but he still didn't turn toward the young man.
This situation was far too weird. Even Elder Aika didn't seem to react to him at all. Selheira also seemed to be quite sensitive, but she too didn't seem to see an issue with this situation.
Ryu inwardly shook his head. He didn't particularly care about this matter. Since he could stand here, who was to say that others could not? It was as though everyone was freaking out about his placement either. Well… At least no one on the Radiant Star Sect side. There was one particular individual on the Iunae Clan floating island that was quite shocked.
Galemar's eyes narrowed when he saw Ryu accept the Chosen Rune. He had already heard that Ryu was forced into this situation due to Jenneless' dissatisfaction, so he had already expected this to happen. But what he was shocked about was that this Ryu was truly the Ryu he knew.
This was, quite frankly, a death sentence for Ryu. But he was greatly dissatisfied with this.
Even if Ryu died, the one with claim to his corpse and things would be Jenneless and not him. This would mean that any chance he had at taking a look to see if Ryu's talents could be used to bolster his own had flown out of the window.
The worst part was finding out that Ryu, who he had been looking for all this time, had actually been right under his nose. The fact that Ryu had survived such a fall only made him more interested in what Ryu would do for him.
But now there were no more chances. The overseers would be able to monitor everything that happened on the island and Jenneless would definitely be paying special attention to Ryu.
At this point, he was almost kicking himself.
Even though he was supposedly a member of the Radiant Star Sect, he actually spent most of his time in the Iunae Clan. Their facilities and resources were better, why wouldn't he? But that choice had actually come back to bite him today.
The silvery light that surrounded him grew more furious for a moment before calming down.
To his side, someone released a chuckle by his side.
"What is it, Galemar. Feeling jealous?"
The one who had spoken was Vanword of the Iunae Clan. In this generation, Galemar was competing with two others for the position of Clan Heir, one of which was Vanword, and the second of which was Krixian.
He had managed to take a bit of a lead thanks to the headache he had been for the Radiant Star Sect, but this selection was an opportunity for the other two to catch up quite swiftly. There was no greater guarantee to the heirship of their Clan than leading the Iunae Clan into the Second Heaven, the greatest desire of their Ancestors.
Galemar had been preparing to make solid preparations, as he always did. But for some reason, they had chosen to abruptly push up the date of this selection, making all of his preparation useless.
These two cousins of his couldn't have been happier. The three of them were about equal in strength, but when it came to strategizing and plotting, Galemar was leagues beyond. The more time he had, the worst it would be for them. So the two were in quite a good mood, one that only became better when they saw that Galemar was agitated.
Toward such words, Galemar only snorted and didn't respond.
The fact that there were only three Chosen this year spoke volumes about how rushed this was. Usually, at least half of the 27 would have chosen someone or maybe even someones. Galemar had planned to secure himself one with some time and effort, but that was clearly impossible now.
However, Galemar still saw these cousins of his as fools. Obviously, they had no idea what the true root of his dissatisfaction was.
"Don't tease him too much, Vanword," Krixian chortled. "Did you see how valiant that Sky God of the Radiant Star Sect was just now? He's probably pissing his pants realizing that the Radiant Star Sect isn't a place you can just casually toy with. Patriarch tried to warn him, but doesn't he just listen to no one else but himself?
"In fact, because of this, our Iunae Clan didn't get a chance to order any of those Runed Pills. Who do you think the reason for that alchemy genius turning us down is?"
Galemar's eyes narrowed beneath his sheen of silver.
He had, indeed, lost a bit of an edge in the race because of this and many of the elders had been dissatisfied. Luckily, Ryu had disappeared shortly after making such great promises, so the situation was salvaged by him. But the Clan was still dissatisfied that they couldn't get their hands on even one.
Even when they tried to trade with smaller Clans and Sects that had managed to get their own, they had all flatly refused, firstly because the pills were far too rare, and second because none wanted to chance offending Ryu.
"It's worse than that, Bro Krixian. I found out something interesting the other day. Apparently this Ryu Tatsuya is an otherworlder and came to the True Martial World on the same Astral Ship as Big Bro Galemar. However, there's no registry of his leaving the Astral Ship, I wonder what happened."
Galemar's gaze turned cold. He might be better at planning than his cousins, but if they had no strengths, they wouldn't even be considered for the position of Heir. Both of them were quite intelligent in their own right.
"Hoho, an interesting tidbit indeed. I wonder if this big bro of ours spent too much time putting on airs and hiding his face behind that twinkling light that he actually scared such a genius away. Say it ain't so… What kind of scandal would that cause among the Clan elders if they were to find out?"
…
While the three representatives of the Iunae Clan were having a sharp battle of words, the third and final individual to land a Chosen Rune was staring daggers at the Radiant Star Sect… This individual was none other than the number one genius of the Hidden Blade Sect, Ysemros.
If one didn't know better, one would have thought him to be a necromancer.
His robes were jet black and incredibly loose. Small gasps of dense black fog left out of his sleeves and hems. At the same time, what looked like a tail of intertwined black vines sways from side to side on the ground behind him.
His gaze seemed dull and palcid, but within, a hidden sharpness seemed to split it apart.
A bumpy deep purple tongue licked as his dry, pale lips.
He seemed eager for the event to begin.