Zulfiqar appeared in the skies, his aura alone causing the region around him to freeze. For a moment, it felt as though he was the center of the world and everyone and everything else revolved around him.
Esme retreated to Ryu's side before he had even appeared. While everyone else was enamored by the arrival of an Inheritor Disciple, Ryu was making sure that he didn't lose the only corpse puppet he had.
Though he could bridge the Immortal gap with the help of the Oneness Realm, he was definitely asking for too much if he thought that he could also use Esme to battle Zulfiqar, a true blue Path Extinction Realm expert.
Ryu lazily looked up into the skies. Under normal circumstances, Zulfiqar would have long since attacked him. This was a man that had no qualms about sneak attacking a person so much weaker than him in Ryu, the fact that he was speaking all this nonsense spoke volumes.
The reason was simple. Zulfiqar had no way of knowing if Ryu had brought the Tri Key with him or not. In his mind, there was no way Ryu was foolish enough to come here, cause such commotion, yet also be stupid enough to bring the key with him.
The fact that Ryu had come here with such bluster definitely meant that he likely didn't even have the key on him at this moment.
However, in Zulfiqar's mind, this was maybe the most foolish thing Ryu could have done. Did he really think that by hiding the key, he would be safe?
This was a Sect of Necromancers. Not only were they among the most adept at torture, one mustn't forget that the basic requirement to be a Necromancer was a modicum of Mental Realm talent. With such a truth being so obvious, Zulfiqar had lost count of the number of methods he had to make Ryu whine and plead.
'A piece of trash Divine Vessel Realm brat actually dared to look down on me and not hide his killing intent. It's clear that you were never properly taught by your parents.'
However, just as Zulfiqar was in his own dreamland, the words he heard next infuriated him to an extreme.
"Not going to sneak attack me this time? Or do you plan on standing in the air like a clown?"
Zulfiqar, who had yet to look toward Ryu directly since he got here, looked down for the first time. But, what he found instead was a streak of blue lightning.
In the blink of an eye, Ryu had appeared before him. Zulfiqar couldn't even react before he found a fist approaching his face.
At that moment, Zulfiqar's mind went blank.
A weakling… Actually dared to attack him? Was he seeing this right?
He was so stunned by the reality before him that he forgot to react.
A fist collided with his face, twisting his neck back and turning his face to the side.
Scorching marks of harsh yang lightning danced across his skin, leaving what was once pristine and elastic, charred and cracking.
Ryu pulled his fist back. He hadn't expected Zulfiqar to go flying back, but it was quite a surprise that the latter hardly moved.
Of course, Ryu didn't exactly go all out either. He knew very little about hand to hand combat, so the fact he attacked with his fists at all was a testament to fact that he wasn't planning on going all in. Still, Zulfiqar's strength was quite intriguing.
Zulfiqar stood in the air in a long, drawn out silence, his head still turned away due to Ryu's punch.
Eventually, he brought a hand to his face. A light press caused a squirt of blood to drizzle down his fingers and bits of burnt flesh to fleck off like ash blowing in the wind.
Zulfiqar's head finally turned, looking toward the blood dripping from his fingers as though this was the first time he had ever seen such a thing.
What was maybe even more shocking to Zulfiqar, though, was that instead of running after seeing the failure of his attack, Ryu simply continued to stand in the air, not more than even three meters from him.
To a Path Extinction Realm expert, even three kilometers was nothing, let alone three meters. To call it the matter of a blink of an eye was almost an insult, he wouldn't even need that long. Yet, there was Ryu, standing before him as though he didn't matter in the slightest.
In fact, at the moment, Ryu was looking at his own fist that also happened to be bleeding. Despite his strength, and the tough skin his bloodlines gave him, the face of a Path Extinction Realm expert was actually so …
"Your face is pretty thick." Ryu commented off handedly.
Ailsa sputtered with laughter when she heard Ryu's words. It was a shame, though, that no one but Ryu could see such a beautiful scene.
Ailsa almost felt like it was an injustice to the world. Even at his coldest, Ryu's snarky comments and witty comebacks were practically a staple of his personality. It was just unfortunate that Ryu spent so much of his time cultivating that he rarely, if ever, interacted with others.
Somewhere deep inside, Ailsa hoped that Ryu could find friends to share his life with. Maybe they would be able to help him turn back into the smiling little boy that appeared in her memories from time to time.
But for now, she would take his slow progress toward opening up. She quite liked the path her Little Ryu was taking.
Zulfiqar fumed at such words. But very soon, he broke out into a smile. And not long after that, his smile became uproarious laughter.
"Good! Good! GOOD!"
His aura blazed, a towering darkness threatening to pierce the 18 moons that hung in the sky.
In response, Ryu's lip curled, his aura also blazing. But, unlike Zulfiqar, his body began to change.
Beautiful blue scales raced into existence along Ryu's pale skin. His eyes grew slits, deepening from the silver hue to a robust sapphire color as though his irises were carved of gems.
Two protruding, proud horns rose from Ryu's forehead, his white hair whipping about wildly as blue arcs of lightning crackled around him.
Ryu's robes burst apart under his violent, raging energy, revealing a toned torso covered with just as many scales.
Ryu slammed his palms together, concentrating a large amount of yang lightning between them.
As he slowly pulled them apart, the crackling shaft of a weapon began to appear.
"Impose."