Chương 2: Nuri

How could Elena be unaware of how Ryu was feeling? Although they hadn't completed the traditional ceremonies and melded their souls together as husband and wife, Elena still felt like she could read her fiancé's mind just by looking into his eyes.

In her mind, she would rather a few hundred years of bliss with her love than a few billion years of emptiness.

Elena was a very pragmatic woman. While Ryu only reached his thousandth birthday today, it wouldn't be very long until her millionth year of existence. Unlike Ryu, she was very much aware of how rare it was for her heart to be swayed.

'So what if you can only be by my side for a fraction of my life? These are moments I'll never forget…' Elena thought to herself.

Matching her thoughts, Elena didn't dwell on sadness. Today was meant to be a day of celebration!

"How about I allow you to take a concubine? Aren't I magnanimous?" Elena said with a naughty grin.

Ryu nearly choked on his breath, shattering his elegant demeanor. He had known Elena since he was born, yet he still couldn't combine her public persona with her private one.

To the world, Elena was a holy princess, lofty and beyond mortal impurities. But, to Ryu, she was a lewd prankster and bonafide pervert. Ryu often found himself having to protect his chastity from her, it was almost depressing.

Ryu could still remember the day Elena decided that she fancied him. She infiltrated his room at night and stripped down naked. Without any cultivation to speak of, how could Ryu have stopped her?

Then, standing proudly without a hint of shyness on her face she said: "You're the first man to see my everything, now you have no choice but to take responsibility. Come, put a child in me!"

Cold sweat matted Ryu's back when he recalled the memory. He still had no idea how he managed to weasel out of that situation. Still, in the end he took her as his fiancée. It had already been six hundred years since then.

"There are many beauties comparable to me in the Shrine Planes. In fact, there are many with outstanding potential that we could pluck from the lower realms as well." Elena continued to rattle on as though Ryu's opinion didn't matter.

"My Holy Shrine alone has three subordinate clans and sects within the Blossom Plane who each have eight or so more extensions within the Pedestal Plane. If I recall correctly, there are nine Holy Winged Saintesses born to them within the last hundred thousand or so years, they have great potential!"

Ryu frowned. "Nine? That many?"

"Now that you mention it, nine is quite a lot. Usually, even one in ten times that span would be pretty good…" After acknowledging Ryu's point, Elena continued to ramble on about what must have been hundreds of viable candidates.

While Elena spoke, Ryu looked up at the receding night sky, the faint flicker of stars just barely visible.

His eyes flashed with a fierce light. Their silver hue waned, giving way to what could have been confused with the very depths of space itself.

The stars became reflected within Ryu's eyes as he held his fiancée's delicate frame to his body.

Fate. It was something even the greatest masters of karma struggled to understand. However, in the martial world, those who could read the alignment of the stars were all highly respected.

It was this fate that gave Ryu almost unrivaled intelligence and constitution, yet also an inability to cultivate. Ryu found that the heavens had quite the sense of humor due to this. That said, it didn't mean he took the alignment of the stars any less seriously than anyone else.

The moment he heard Elena's words, something fierce stirred within him. A normal individual might not understand what it meant to be a Holy Winged Saintess, but he did.

Within the martial world, the pinnacle of cultivation was found on the Shrine Plane. This namesake was earned due to the various hundreds of Shrines that graced these vast lands, together representing the vicissitudes of life and death.

Elena's Holy Wing Clan presided over the Shrine of Light. To be named a Saintess of any clan required acknowledgement of at least one such shrine. One could imagine just how rare it was for the representation of all Light to choose you as an arbiter of its will. Yet, this happened nine times in a hundred thousand years? It was too ridiculous.

Ryu didn't like looking at the alignment of the stars. In fact, despite being born with the first-ranked heavenly pupils: Mysteries of Heaven and Earth, he had only used its ability to read the lines of karma two times before. Once when they were awakened and once when his meridian awakening ceremony failed.

The moment Ryu sunk into this state, the first star he saw was his own. It was larger than all those in its near vicinity, blazing with mercury-like fires and beautiful silver hues.

Ryu sighed when he saw it. His Fate Star looked dazzling, but he knew what it represented. It would burn brighter and larger than the rest, but also dim and die sooner as well.

Shifting his attention away, Ryu's view expanded, widening his scope.

'This…' Ryu's breath hitched in his throat.

"Ryu? Is something wrong? I just remembered that we don't need to go concubine hunting in the lower planes, I know of one lady here that would die of happiness if you took her into our bedchambers." Elena's sparkling pink eyes flashed with a hint of deviousness. Bringing up this lady was clearly her plot all along. "Don't you remember your Death Guard? Nuri, I believe her name was."

Hearing this name, Ryu was stunned out of his thoughts. In fact, he wasn't the only one. A shadow hidden in the void choked on air as well despite the fact there was no such thing to speak of within the void!