Though Ailsa could have guided Ryu through this precarious situation, her gaze instead shone brightly as she remained silent. This wasn't because she felt Ryu needed to improve without her, after all, Life Partners never left each other's side. Such a thought would assume that Ryu would one day be without her, which wasn't the case at all.
Rather, the reason she remained silent was because she knew well that anything she could say about qi control… Ryu would grasp infinitely faster on his own!
'I can't continue to use my spear…' Ryu's brow furrowed as he made a difficult decision.
With a thought, his spear vanished. It was no surprise that the immediate aftermath placed him in an even sorrier state.
Ryu used the most primal methods of attack, his fists and legs trying to match Host Minn's movements. However it became very obvious very quickly by his inelegant striking that he was no better than a layman in close combat.
Host Minn found Ryu's actions to be ridiculous, however his own confusion was overwhelmed by his sense of entitlement and happiness. The feeling of his fists meeting Ryu's flesh and bone… He had never experienced something so exhilarating in his lifetime.
Ailsa frowned, but she didn't say anything even as Ryu was severely beaten. Though he tried to fight back, his attacks were full of openings and his defense was xistent.
The Minn Clan was a close combat Clan that specialized in fist qi to begin with. This was truly the worst opponent Ryu could have had under these circumstances. However, he had no choice.
Trying to control this swirling qi around him that seemed intent on becoming one with him while balancing it with his spear qi was simply too difficult. If Ryu wanted to have any shot in even partially succeeding, he needed to stop trying to incorporate this atmospheric qi into his complex and multi-layered spear techniques.
'The weapon that gives me the best chance for success will be my glaive. However, even that is too tall of a task for me… Unless…' Ryu's eyes flashed.
His speed suddenly skyrocketed, a beautiful green wind enveloping him even as a green-red barrier descended into this plane.
"Impose!" Ryu's voice was forceful and deep, rumbling through the booming strikes of their battle with absolute ease.
Host Minn suddenly felt his Immortal Ring waver, but it quickly recovered. Unfortunately, its speed at gathering qi had at least halved.
"Two Impose Barriers?!"
Ryu acted quickly, a singular glaive appearing in his hand. However, this time, he pinned his left hand to his back, brandishing his glaive almost as though it was sword.
Whenever Ryu wielded his polearms with a single hand, he was entirely focused on channeling the essence of conventional polearm wielding.
The reason he could only tap into a portion of his strength when wielding with a single arm was precisely because polearms simply weren't meant to be wielded with a single hand. They emphasized stability, power and distance, however, aside from distance which Ryu interestingly gained when using one arm, the former two strong points fell drastically.
As a result, Ryu had still failed to evoke his Birthed Phenomena when dual wielding. He could only do so when channeling all of his focus with both hands into a single weapon.
Now, however, Ryu had done away with all of this. He wasn't trying to tap into the essence of the War God right now. His mind was only focused on one thing: the wild, primal nature of the glaive.
Ryu's wind qi and Rage Flames blossomed, a perverse heat that could melt suns blooming from his body.
Host Minn involuntarily began to sweat profusely. A portion of it might have been due to nervousness, but a large majority was due to the heat. He had no choice but to quickly wrap himself in a layer of qi, hoping to stop his skin from burning.
What Host Minn had no way of knowing was that this was likely the weakest Ryu's Rage Flames could be. He was simply not in an enraged state, he treated Host Minn no differently than a passing bug by the roadside. As such, he wasn't tapping into his Rage Flame's greatest ability – to turn his fury into power.
'For now, I will use my Impose flame and wind qi to make up for what I'm lacking.'
Ryu's gaze burned with fighting intent as his wildly raised his glaive upward and hacked down.
Host Minn was shocked, feeling a looming shadow of death breathing down his neck.
Ryu's weapon felt as light as a feather under this influence of his wind qi. At the same time, his attack prowess skyrocketed as a flame so deeply red it almost flickered to black coated his blade.
A flurry of attacks were unleashed by Ryu's singular arm. The were so ferocious that the clouds above split, only to be rapidly burned and singed by the wild flames.
These attacks held of Ryu's normal technique, of his normal calculations or his elegance. It was as though he had become a wild beast, his eyes reddening to match his roaring flames.
Host Minn retreated time and time again, not daring to meet Ryu's flames head-on. He was confident that his qi shield could survive through its strikes, but the problem was for how long? If he had to continuously replenish his shield of qi, even if he wouldn't run out of qi thanks to his Immortal Ring, his Focus Qi would most definitely give out.
However, his eyes shone when he noticed something peculiar.
There was only one reason Ryu had never used his Rage Flames like this before: his weapons simply couldn't withstand its strength. With his current Impose Realm flames, only a Heaven Grade weapon could last under its influence without regard.
Ryu had only entered this state for a few minutes, yet his glaive was already showing signs of completely melting. One could say that other than the fact his halberds made him too powerful to the point of making his training pointless, Ryu didn't use them often because eliciting the Dragon God necessitated activating his Rage Flames. His halberds simply couldn't withstand that state for long.
Host Minn grinned. 'His glaives won't last long in this state. What a little arrogant fool. If he was really the Throne of an Eighth Order Sect, he should have taken a weapon with him that could withstand his own talent. He must have thought he simply didn't need it. Your own pride will be your downfall.'
This wasn't the only reason why Host Minn was growing increasingly arrogant despite his now sorry, burning state. Numerous cuts were inexplicably appearing all over Ryu's skin as though he was bursting from the inside, out.
Host Minn believed that this only proved his ascertain that Ryu couldn't control his two Qi Vessel strength. However, the truth was that Ryu was continuously trying to rein in the qi that kept swarming to him, only for it to overflow and force him into a state of perpetual backlash.
Host Minn's sensitivity to qi was so poor that he couldn't even see this truth. Who knows what luck he stumbled into that let him reach the Immortal Ring Realm with such terrible talent?
Still, with every strike, Ryu's gaze grew brighter and brighter. His wild attacks incrementally grew more powerful. The process was so slow that Host Minn didn't even notice. He was no different from a turtle sitting in a pot of slowly warming water.
However, at that moment, Ailsa said something worrying.
'Little Ryu, I can continue to block the sounds of this battle without an issue, but the range to which you're pulling in qi is too wide. I can't cover such a large radius from the senses of others. Eventually, someone will notice that abnormal flow of qi and come to investigate.'
Ryu's brows furrowed at these words, but there was nothing he could do. If he could stop this flow of qi, he would have done so ages ago. How could he possibly control its range?
Ryu took a deep breath, his attacks growing even more ferocious.
The Fire Dragon blood within his veins roared with excitement. Ryu suppressed it far too often, this was the first time he had ever unleashed it, allowing it to run rampant as it pleased.
However, as the saying went, two tigers couldn't exist on a single mountain peak. The Dragon and Qilin had always butted heads throughout the history of the martial worlds. Something like them appearing in the same body might have never happened before. If it wasn't for his Ice Jade Crystal Body, Ryu would have most definitely been a stillborn…
Just as Ryu's Lightning Qilin Bloodline seemed to roar to life in response, Ryu caught the presence of two rapidly approaching auras. Even if his Spiritual Sense range hadn't been a thousand kilometers, he would still be able to guess exactly who they were.
It seemed like the two Zu Clan Ancestors hadn't given up on finding him after all…
What made them confident enough to disregard the Apostles? Ryu didn't know. Host Minn was just a fool who couldn't think even one step ahead, so Ryu never questioned his stupid actions. The Zu Ancestors were a completely different matter entirely, though.
Ryu wasn't in the least bit surprised that they were the first to notice the odd qi fluctuations. They were Mental Realm Masters for a reason… All that was left was for Ryu to figure out a way to survive this…