Ryu caught the heads of Merrick and Snyder by their hair, his expression indifferent as though this was what he had expected all along.
Those watching felt their knees tremble, unable to believe what they were watching.
Merrick and Snyder had just stood there, smiles on their faces, as Ryu approached and calmly cut off their heads. It was as though they had welcomed the result, as though they were embracing death with open arms. But everyone knew that wasn't what had happened.
Their eyes turned to the illusory grey skinned man that was slowly fading from view, their hearts threatening to beat wildly out of their chest.
Unlike in Sacrum where the comprehension of a Visualization and its manifestation into the real world was the foundation of "Soul Techniques", in the True Martial World, this step was the final and ultimate form of a technique. It represented reaching the Great Circle of Perfection, the very highest realm there was.
Soul Techniques were so difficult to learn that most took years just to reach Initial Success. For Ryu, an Immortal Ring Realm expert, to so easily step into such a realm and use it to kill individuals so many stages above himself…
They could hardly believe it.
But what was maybe just as shocking was the fact he could sever their heads at all!
With the understanding most had, even if a Path Extinction Realm expert stood completely still and didn't deploy their qi, even if they had a hundred chances an Immortal Ring expert wouldn't be able to leave a single scratch on them.
What should have happened was that Ryu would seal away their senses and fail in killing them, leading to a stalemate. Or, he would have to use his beast companion again like he had before.
However the result was absolutely shocking.
Ryu's hand suddenly glowed with a radiant blue light, forming two sticks of ice that stuck out of the ground.
One by one, he placed Merrick and Synder's head on one of their own. Then, without a word, he snatched Snyder's above key from his corpse and stepped into the cave, shutting the doors behind him without a hint or care for everyone else.
Those who were still watching could only stand in silence, looking at the decapitated heads that slowly froze over until they almost looked like picturesque statues.
…
The inside of the abode of someone in the top 1000 was actually very nice and much larger than the one Ryu had been planning on using. In addition, it came with added protections and wards that lower class abodes would have. Though, the most important accommodation was the dense qi in the air.
Ryu had already noticed that as he walked up the mountain, the qi only got denser and denser. From his original abode to this one, there was easily a ten times difference. But the qi inside Snyder's abode was even thicker than that, enough for another ten times different that made Ryu's pores sing.
Ryu was somewhat hesitant to cultivate in earnest here as he wasn't sure if he could be monitored from this location, but he ultimately decided that he could slow his progress down any more by being overly cautious.
Although he didn't trust large organizations to follow their own rules most of the time, the Sect should give the disciples a great amount of privacy in their own abodes. After doing a double-check with his Spiritual Sense, he decided that he would take the risk.
There was a line between being cautious and overly so. If he impacted his cultivation too much, he would never make any progress.
It also had to be remembered that Ryu was already past the golden age for cultivation in this world. His cultivation was too low for his age, even in the First Heaven, let alone the Second or his goal, the Ninth.
If he continued dragging his feet due to these concerns, the losses would far outweigh the gains. He needed to quickly catch up with those his age and surpass them before the ageing effects of the True Martial World began to kick in and wear him down.
The good news was that with Ryu's Hegemonic Dao, it was very difficult for even the True Marital World to impact his ages too much, at least for now. This was why he wasn't too worried about being too old yet. However, he couldn't continue to sit idly by and rest on his laurels.
Once Ryu made a decision, he directly acted on it.
He entered Snyder's, now his, cultivation room and sat on the stone platform at the very center after activating all of the protections.
Ryu's goal was simple. The first was to become familiar with the several alchemy techniques he had taken in. While doing this, he would practice refining with Common Grade pills and potions first. Of course, these pills and potions would be ones that he had chosen which aligned with his chosen path.
Only once he reached a certain standard would he think about activating the [Refinement Sutra] and begin to pull Heavenly Favor toward himself when he refined. It would be foolish to do so before.
Ryu was ambitious, so he wanted to reach the absolute highest standard of pill and potion refinement in a given category before moving along. There were several tiers of classification for pills and potions, and he had memorized them all diligently and calmly.
Ryu would begin with rebuilding the foundation of the Awakening Realm. He had already completed a perfect 13 Rites, but the Heavenly Blessing he had received back then was only from the Heavens of Sacrum. He would redo his foundation with the Heavenly Blessings of the True Martial World first.
Then, he would proceed to the Pulse Opening Realm where he would retemper his Pulses with Heavenly Favor, widening and strengthening them.
Following which, he would proceed to the Qi Refinement Realm. This was where the largest changes to his strength would begin, at least the ones he could measure now.
But he was getting ahead of himself. In order to perfect the Qi Refinement Realm, he would need Black Grade pills and potions. For now, what he needed the most was to focus on the Common Grade.
With a calm countenance, Ryu took out a cauldron.