Ryu didn't bother with anything else and simply entered his Immortal Cave within the Inner Disciple sector of the Sect. Once he was inside, he entered the golden moon world and stood in silence.
The white grass was soft against the soles of his feet and the moon above was particularly beautiful.
Ryu opened his palms and his great swordstaffs flew from his back and into his palms. One by one, he went through his chosen Dao Charm techniques.
Until now, he hadn't gotten a chance to try them out as he had placed most of his focus on forging in the last month. But now, he finally had time.
The snap and crackling of Ryu's bones resounded one after another, the fracturing all too obvious and the sound of his shattering Dao being even more obvious. But the Ryu of now couldn't be compared to the Ryu of the past.
Before, the Dao Charm technique's backlash was especially bad because his body was, quite frankly, weak. However, after recultivation of the Pulse Tempering Realm, the sturdiness of his body couldn't be compared to the past.
Whereas before a single forced circulation would have caused him to be unable to walk or move, as of now, they only caused small fractures that were quickly healed thanks to his Bone Structure and Flowing Frost Yin Water.
Ryu's healing factor was on a level most couldn't comprehend. Healing had always been one of the four main aspects of his Ice Jade Crystal Body, while his Ice Phoenix Talent allowed him to take the oppressive cold of his Yin Water and turn it into just as much Life Qi.
While Ryu couldn't withstand the full strength of Flowing Frost's Yin Water and much of it was sealed, it was impossible to ever have too much Life Qi. Life Qi could be considered to be right behind Essence in terms of how docile and easily absorbed it was.
Thanks to this, despite being in the Immortal Ring Realm, Ryu had a healing factor that could put even more Sky Gods to shame. In fact, unlike most at his cultivation level, he could heal from strikes from even Perfect Sky Gods.
It had to be remembered that the more powerful the individual that harmed you, the more difficult it was to heal from. Higher forms of qi were difficult to dispel for those at lower levels, and that was especially true when the enemy was a Sky God.
This was why it was so difficult for Ryu to heal from the Phoenix Sky God's retaliation against him for trying to reconnect with his original Spiritual Foundation. If it wasn't for him unlocking that legendary ability of his Heavenly Pupils, maybe only his Rebirth could have healed him.
But now, this shouldn't be too much of a problem. After all, Flowing Frost was a Perfect Sky God and her Yin Water was, likewise, at that level as well. This meant that the amount of Life Qi within Ryu was of astronomical proportions and the stronger his body became, the more of it he could tap into at once.
Of course, this was all just theoretical. Who cared if he could heal from the strike of a Perfect Sky God if such a strike would instant kill him to begin with?
What was important was so long as he could withstand it, even those who wielded Cosmic Qi shouldn't think of harming Ryu indefinitely.
Likewise, when working with the backlash of Heaven Grade Dao Charm techniques and their Daos, Ryu was even quicker to heal. This made him even faster than before at comprehending what he needed to. He didn't need to take breaks, he could simply brute force it, forcing his own Dao to incrementally increase in strength with every step.
Of course, it also had to be acknowledged that Ryu's Dao was now much more powerful than the last time he had gone all out to learn Dao Charm techniques.
Not only had he formed a Hegemonic Dao, whereas previously he had a Dominion Dao, his Dao had also strengthened from the First Immortal Grade to the Second Immortal Grade, and was now only a small step away from the Third Immortal Grade.
The Second Immortal Grade was absolutely perfect for learning Heaven Grade techniques as it was the equivalent Grade to the Path Extinction Realm, which was the Realm that allowed you a chance at learning the strongest Heaven Grade techniques there were.
These two factors made Ryu's speed faster.
After forming a Hegemonic Dao, Ryu had taken only two months to go from Initial Success to Complete Success in [Thirteen Soaring Azures], [Roaring Sky Serpent] and [Whispering Petals].
For context, it had taken him three months just to reach Small Success in all of them with a Dominion Dao. In addition, it also had to be understood that each subsequent step was an enormous leap forward. The gap between Small Success and Complete Success was thousands of times larger than the leap between Initial and Small Success, yet Ryu had completed it in less time!
Now, Ryu not only didn't need to pause to deal with waiting for his injuries to heal, he also had a much stronger Dao.
It only took Ryu a single day to reach Initial Success in all seven Dao Charm techniques. A week later, he had reached Small Success in them all and could even seamlessly switch between them all.
In addition, it had to be remembered that because his Great Swordstaffs were personally forged by himself, he could display the might of Great Success in all seven of them. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that with this, Ryu's strength hadn't just increased by a fold or two, maybe even five folds wasn't enough to describe it properly.
However, even with such rapid improvement, Ryu didn't feel that itchiness in his heart going away.
He wanted to fight, to fight someone who could make his blood boil.
If he knew that Old Wan had robbed him of this chance, he would probably react just the same way as Aika.