Ryu was very much used to pain. It was practically his way of cultivation. Any step he had taken forward at this point required at least a half step back, if not something far worse. He had experienced all sorts of things, whether that be trials of the heart, trials of the mind, and the most frequent of them all… Trials of the body.
He had been ready for this to happen to him once more, for a heart rending pain to shear his soul into two or for him to be forced to roar out in pain, or anything else on that spectrum of outcomes to occur to him.
But the truth was very much different. He felt at absolute peace, so much so, in fact, that it was as though his soul had been bathed in a warm spring, like he was a baby once more, being cradled in the arms of his mother.
