Chapter 1416 Begin

Chapter 1416 Begin

Iroh's gaze flashed with rage, his chest heaving. He seemed to hesitate, and then he closed his eyes in resignation. Before Ryu could even react much, he released the Protector Spirit that the former was targeting and allowed Ryu to take it.

Ryu's fighting spirit dampened, but he didn't say anything. Even after defeating the four others, he was still not 100% confident in dealing with Iroh. The logistics of fighting in a team made it so that even if you were extraordinarily powerful, it was more important for you to fit in than display some outward showcase of strength.

Iroh had been greatly restricted in the battle because he not only had to cover for his teammates, but he also had to restrict the kind of attacks he used so that he only targeted Ryu and didn't harm his allies. He was quite confident in his own strength, but if he wanted to maximize the chances of his people and his Sect, the best thing to do was to avoid this battle.

It was impossible for Ryu to not be disappointed. At the same time, though, he also knew that it was a bit foolish of him to waste so much time here. He had a feeling that things wouldn't end so easily, but that only made his lip curl into a smile.

He was technically in the wrong for this event. He had targeted them, and he was trying to steal the fruit of the labor. But Ryu had never been the kind to care about things like this. If someone did it to him, he would just directly kill them, and if he couldn't at the moment, he would survive and then kill them the first moment he could. As for doing it to someone else, he wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Beaten and groggy, the four other members of the Twin Earth Dragon Sect followed Iroh's lead. Though they were reluctant, they were in the worst position to resist at the moment. Their hearts clenched and they seemed to want to burn Ryu's face into the memories, but the latter didn't seem to notice them.

Without a word, Ryu turned and left, somewhat catching them off guard. They half expected for Ryu to demand the rest of their spirits as well, in fact it was a risk that Iroh knew he had taken, a risk he might not take with anyone else. But he had sensed the dragon's pride within Ryu's heart. Since he had already spoken about what he needed, he wouldn't take more if he didn't have to.

All things considered, this had gone far better than they had hoped. But that didn't mean that the rage in their hearts had lessened. Watching Ryu leave, they burned the humiliation into their hearts.

"That bronze aura is far too strong. We cleared a few dozen Bronze Protector Spirits, and that was only because it had to be split between us! Indeed, they had wanted to get to Silver Protector Spirits as fast as possible, and the only reason they defeated a few dozen Bronze Protector Spirits in the first place was because there were five of them.

"Iroh, we need to kill him. My blood won't stop boiling until I do, I don't care who his Ancestor is!"

SLAP!

This made it not only more challenging for Ryu to find the exact kind he needed, but he was also forced to offend quite a number of people... Not that he cared.

After fusing with a Silver Protector Spirit, his strength doubled and the ease with which he crushed these people, and the next Protector Spirits he came across in the rare instant he found one unoccupied, was exceptional.

His numbers continued to climb even as the number of infuriated parties did, but Ryu's smile was just the same.

Very quickly, the rumors of Ryu running away were overshadowed. The individuals who had moved on to Silver Protector Spirits had much more backbone than those that had remained to target Bronze Protector Spirits, this resulted in far more clashes. That said, when they felt Ryu's strength, they still ultimately chose to take a step back, making the very same choice that Iroh had.

This led to many half fought battles and extremely resentful individuals, but their rage was mostly met with a chuckle by Ryu.

If the situations were reverse, what would he do? Quite frankly, he wouldn't give a damn about a Dao Sovereign and their great grandson. Was it his fault that these people were cowards?

Regardless, it was better for him, less time wastage.

Even so, his pace was far slower than it had been against the Bronze Protector Spirits. The latter had only taken him a few hours at worst, but even after three days, he was only about two thirds of the way through to the 999 number he needed.

Even so, he could feel his physical strength increasing. His combat skills were sharper, faster, and it wasn't just a matter of the Protector Spirits, it was his Martial Forms.

He realized that the act of comprehending and sharpening his four Martial Forms, and even more importantly the act of trying to fuse them into one, was making his senses incredibly sharp. No, that was the wrong way to look at it, it was more so that his body was finally catching up, albeit slowly, to how keen his mind already was.

He hadn't acknowledged that there was such a huge gap. But the act of calculating, and then having his body react, rather than calculating and having his body react in tandem was huge. His battle prowess relied too much on his raw strength, and not enough on his actually, well... battle prowess.

He also acknowledged just how much his Mysteries of Heaven and Earth Pupils had masked this weakness. It was also somewhat embarrassing that it had taken him so long to realize this, but he had been too concentrated on other things. He had thought that his greatest weakness was his lack of talent, but there were more ways than just increasing his talent to strengthen him.

Ryu clenched and unclenched his fists, shattering the head of another Silver Protector Spirit with just a single blow.

It was time to move on to Gold Protector Spirits, but this was likely where the true trouble would begin.