The rush of energy settled down, but the Spiritual Ore Vein beneath Ryu was a different matter entirely. In fact, it seemed as though Ryu's breakthrough had shifted the balance, causing the vein which had been on the verge of the Ancestral Grade to break past its barriers.
Ryu watched this scene quite calmly. With the wealth of the Frost Clan, he didn't actually need the wealth that was current beneath his feet. However…
'It's probably best if most don't know where my wealth truly originates from. If I can make some purchases with this ore, that would be ideal.'
The youths that were rushing in Ryu's direction had no idea what his thoughts were. All they could see was that Ryu who had been sitting idly for several days suddenly began to make a move on the very item they had been eyeing all this time.
What they didn't know without the use of the Spiritual Sense was that what Ryu invisibly took away was even more valuable than what he took under their naked eyes, and that was the presence of the energy in the air.
This energy was too valuable to Ryu and he didn't want it to dissipate any further. Luckily, he had a small world on his finger that could take this energy in.
After years of being in the First Heaven, the Frost Clan's ring had already lost the air of the Sixth Heaven that it had once had. But with this, it would gain the air of the Fourth Heaven and should be able to sustain it for a few years at least with minimal leakage.
This way, Ryu would be able to train in seclusion as though he was on the Fourth Heaven, allowing his speed to be much faster. This would be especially beneficial for his Dao.
Ryu's great swordstaffs carved into the ground. He seemed to be able to "see" the shape of the vein. His movements were fluid and quick.
Usually, the difficult part of mining wasn't the earth, but rather the ore itself. There was no doubt that even the most ordinary of Spiritual Ore Veins would be far tougher than the earth they took root in. Due to this, it would take a lot of trial and error on the part of a miner to track the path of the Ore and dig around it.
Unfortunately, Spiritual Sense was very weak in traveling through earth, and even weaker when activated near Spiritual Ore Veins which had their own protective measures. Just the same way that Spiritual Herbs could hide from the detection of Spiritual Sense and one often had to physically lay their eyes upon it to detect them, such was the case for Spiritual Ore Veins as well.
However, Ryu didn't have normal Spiritual Sense. His Void Spiritual Sense was also weakened in the face of earth or barriers, but it suffered much less in comparison to other Spiritual Senses. In addition, although Spiritual Ore Veins could also hide from his Void Spiritual Sense, what it couldn't do was hide from his Dao.
If Ryu used his Spiritual Sense and Dao in tandem, he could see through the illusions and tricks these Spiritual Ores used to hide themselves and detect their outline. Like this, he could dodge the physical defenses as well and only cut around the vulnerable and much softer earth.
In just a few minutes, the head of the Spiritual Ore Vein was revealed.
It exuded a beautiful bronze-red color, shimmering light rubies from certain angles, and like brass from others. Together, it made the scene look somewhat holy despite the fact it required the sacrifice of thousands of disciples for it to reach such a state. There was simply nothing holy about the origins of this Spiritual ore Vein.
'It's quite deep,' Ryu thought to himself, 'it seems that taking it all away will be impossible. But I can definitely take the most valuable part of it away. This should sell for a huge sum.'
Ryu forgot about taking all of it away and focused on taking the Vein Core and the Ancestral Grade Ore away.
"HA!"
He released a low roar, his body's strength surging and his pair of swords swinging down again and again with a menacing light.
It had to be remembered that Ryu's Dao originally birthed from comprehensions of the sword. Though the word Dividing had many connotations and applications in his Dao, it had originally grown from a desire to sever and cut!
Everywhere Ryu's great swordstaffs passed, he perfectly cleaved the ore, his arms moving like lightning and his blades like death's scythe.
"STOP!"
The roars came from several of the youths who had put so much effort into reaching this place over the last few days, but how could Ryu be bothered to care?
While Ryu was meditating and improving his Dao, the others thought he was waiting for the vein to finish maturing. And now that he had suddenly acted, they were even more certain.
Cultivators were too useless without their Spiritual Sense. Because they didn't dare to use theirs in this place, they couldn't sense the flow of qi and understand the details of what was happening, they could only make guesses.
As such, they had no idea that Ryu had broken through in his Dao, they just assumed that the surge of energy was caused by the evolution of the vein. And now, their precious vein was being taken away from Ryu.
However, how could Ryu give a damn about their words? He didn't pause for a single moment, his arms continuing to swing.
And then, a large portion of the Spiritual Ore Vein vanished as the first of the youths rushed into the safe zone Ryu had been carefreely cultivating in.
The first was none other than Brune whose perpetual smile had long since vanished.
His hair flared out and balls of light surrounded him. He seemed to have completely forgotten that Ryu was an Immortal Ring Realm expert as he attacked with all his strength.