Ryu didn't bother to wait to see what the reaction of the young woman would be. He already knew what it would be, and quite frankly, even if he didn't know, he wouldn't have cared to stay regardless.
While he could use his soul to teach that woman a lesson, whether or not he could kill her was quite clear to him. The answer was a firm no.
That woman's soul was easily within the Soul Ascension Realm, swallowing it up with his Soul Birth Realm soul would have been an impossibility. At best, he could cause her a minor injury that would impair her cultivation for a while until she found a method to heal it.
Healing damage to a soul, especially a high level one, wasn't an easy task at all. Unless she had a special Soul Talent, that is. However, in most cases, she would spend quite a while dealing with this. Such was the punishment she faced for her hypocrisy.
If Ryu had had the strength, he would have definitely just outright killed such a woman. But since he couldn't, he would settle for this.
After taking five roots, Ryu flashed out of the small spring, finding the blue-scaled serpent still slumbering peacefully. In fact, not only was it slumbering in peace, but it even seemed to have a light smile on its face.
Due to Ryu's actions, the potency of the frost had actually increased by a few folds, so the serpent was benefiting even more now than it had before. How could it not be happy in such a situation?
In addition, by the time it awoke, the Trembling Frost Fog Root would have also likely fully healed itself, reforming its roots once more, so it would be like Ryu was never there to begin with. If anything, this serpent had benefited from Ryu's actions.
Ryu stepped over its body, flashing back into the woods. Little Silk fluttered down to his shoulder and the duo shot off into the distance as Ryu's scales receded.
Ryu took off his mask after checking the surroundings and exhaled a breath. This trip had been excellent, now he only needed to return and start his alchemy journey. He would also mark this place in his memory and return once he regained some strength, this Ruin was definitely one worth exploring and the three cultivators below definitely couldn't progress any further after failing the Flowing Frost Sky God's test.
What Ryu didn't know was that he would meet these three cultivators again sooner rather than later, but even if he had, it wouldn't matter much to him. They would never recognize him to begin with.
What Ryu was instead focused on was information he had gotten several days ago. It turned out that Isemeine and Eska had come to the True Martial World as well, something that didn't particularly shock him.
Eska was a Sky God herself and a woman of great ambition. If she had known about the True Martial World in the past, she would have likely gone long ago.
If Ryu had to name a woman that was most attune with his preferences, and the woman that he would have likely fallen for first if not for Elena's boldness, it would definitely be Eska. Her aloofness, her presence and her grace were all very much to his liking.
Of course, Elena portrayed such an image to everyone who met her as well and maybe only Ryu knew her true, hidden self. But Eska was this way to the very depths of her bones. It gave off a different sort of a feeling, a feeling that Ryu quite liked.
In the past, he might have said Sarriel as an answer to that question. Sarriel had an added edge and boldness that Eska didn't have along with the aloofness. However, after their final conversation, Ryu didn't find himself all that attracted her any longer.
This was all to say that knowing Eska, this was definitely a place she would want to be. Though she never said anything due to her nature, Ryu had always felt a sort of fire light within her whenever she saw him outdo her in something, and that fire would be quickly doused when she realized that she was a dead woman and there was nothing she could do about it.
Thanks to Isemeine, though, she had such a chance.
Pairing the talent Eska had with Isemeine's talent on top of the former's knowledge base as a Sky God of Sacrum, no matter how flawed such a foundation was, they would definitely improve leaps and bounds faster than most would.
In addition, since they had a thousand year head start, Ryu truly wondered how far they had already gone.
According to Dob, he had met Isemeine a century or two ago and she stole something of his. But Ryu found a lot of issue with that statement.
If it was really only so long ago, by then, over 700 to 800 years would have passed. Ryu didn't believe that given such a large amount of time, and knowing the existence of the True Martial World, that the two of them wouldn't be able to outright kill Dob.
It was either there was an odd timeline mix up involving a specialty zone, or Isemeine had spared Dob on purpose. The latter choice was unlikely considering the kind of temperament Isemeine had, but it might be possible if the two of them had wanted to leave him a clue about their appearances.
Ryu almost laughed when he had such a thought.
Would those two women even want to see him? Their relationship wasn't exactly deep and they had practically been nothing more than sex objects. Why would they leave him of all people clues of their appearance?
Well, Isemeine definitely wouldn't. But knowing Eska, after choosing to become his concubine, she wouldn't renege.
All in all, Ryu didn't have enough information. It seemed that he would have to keep a sharp eye out instead.
But first, he would return to the Sect.