Ryu completely ignored the two souls. How could their hiding methods hide from his eyes? They would have to be at least Sky Gods to have a chance at doing such a thing, and even then, their results might not be as expected.
Unfortunately, though, even after looking through their numerous rings, Ryu's found that they were quite poor. Of course, this wasn't in a normal sense. In fact, he found many things within their spatial rings that were entirely extinct in Sacrum. It was more so that their best Spiritual Herbs and treasures were still of the Earth Grade at best.
This made sense. After all, they were only Path Extinction Realm experts, how could Ryu expect more out of them? If he wanted some great watershed, he would either have to fight individuals far more talented than these two, or he would have to fight someone far more powerful, period.
'Hm?'
Ryu's brows shot up. He had only taken a casual sweep to begin with. However, the instant he took a deeper look, his expression shifted, his gaze became several folds more concentrated. This… Wasn't normal.
Ryu wasn't wrong, the best treasures these two had were just of the Earth Grade. However, the quality was so far beyond anything he was used to that what might have still passed as the Earth Grade easily rivaled what was considered Heaven Grade to Ryu now.
As though the two weren't observing him, Ryu took out a simple Black Grade sword stored at the back of one of Ariad's spatial rings, holding it up to his eyes. He carefully observed every fiber that made it up. In the end, he flicked it with his finger.
DING!
The sword began to vibrate wildly, whipping back and forth in the air before slowly, but surely, settling down.
The truth was that this sword was actually weaker than Ryu's self-forged daggers. However, compared to normal Black Grade weapons Ryu had become used to, they were leaps and bounds beyond.
It had to be considered that Ryu's forging skills were built on the basis of Heaven's Will. He 'listened' to the ores and forged them into their most perfect state. It could be said that his form of blacksmithing was the highest that there was in all of existence.
Well, maybe it wasn't so exaggerated since according to these two, Ryu's Dao was on the border of Dominion and Hegemon. Regardless, at the very least, his techniques were beyond what the people of the Hidden Blade Sect could match even with his limited experience.
The fact that this sword even came close was a testament to how large the gap between the worlds was.
Ryu immediately tested several other weapons and found the same exact thing. What was the most baffling about it all was that considering how casually Leolar and Ariad had treated these weapons, they were at best crude and at worst completely useless. They couldn't even bother to keep them organized at all.
'What about…'
Ryu acted on the thought instantly, finding strewn bottles of used pills. He brought one out, rolling it onto his palm and lightly sniffing the air.
'Black Grade pill, it seems to have the function of compression qi, probably best used for the Qi Refinement Realm. Its purity is at 82%, that already puts it in the top percentile of what top tier alchemists can produce in this world. But, its formula is far more potent than anything I've ever seen.'
Ryu took another sniff and closed his eyes. In an instant, a long list of Spiritual Herbs appeared in his mind and he sorted their images one by one.
'Three of the main ingredients are instinct, no wonder. But clearly they're so ubiquitous in this Martial World that they can so casually be thrown into such a pill, a pill that these two don't seem to care about at all, in fact.'
Ryu hadn't used pills on his cultivation journey thus far, at least not in any large way. Thanks to the Incubator, he could just directly absorb the medicinal properties of Spiritual Herbs without having to worry about it. This method also saved him from having to deal with impurities as well.
However, at some point, this would only come back with diminishing returns. There was a reason that the field of alchemy was created. If it was so much worse than just absorbing Spiritual Herbs directly, then there would instead be an industry where everyone created Incubators.
Not every Incubator would have to be of the Origin Grade. You could easily imagine a world where Common, Black, Earth and Heaven Grade Incubators were in greater circulation, allowing you to easily absorb equivalently ranked Spiritual Herbs. But, this wasn't the path the evolution of professions had chosen to take.
There was a simple reason for this. Often, the combination of Spiritual Herbs concocted into a single pill would produce exponential results that stacked upon one another. When the effects of these were compared to Spiritual Herbs alone, it was akin to night and day.
But, this much was just the tip of the iceberg. The true reason for the creation of pills was to allow for results the Heavens wouldn't allow for. Spiritual Herbs are the creations of the Heavens, and as such, their abilities are fine tuned and repetitive across a similar race of Herb. Pills, however, can combine individual abilities to form results one would never think of.
Of course, pills weren't the only methods to accomplish this. Medicinal baths, potions, and other such liquid concoctions were less advanced methods of doing the same thing as well. All of this used the basis of heat and fire, the root of human innovation, to accomplish these tasks.
The cost and return hadn't been worth it for Ryu when he was on Sacrum. But, from what he could see from just these middling pills of the Martial World, the difference was like night and day. If he could get his hands on 100% pure pills, he would definitely not mind switching his approach to cultivation.