Ryu's slaughter was cold and ruthless. Oftentimes he wouldn't even bother to memorize the face of the person he was coming across, the moment he sensed them, he would fire.
Many couldn't even see his attacks coming before they landed, their heads exploding into a rain of charred blood and flesh. They didn't even have the time to call out in despair before their lives were ruthlessly ripped from them and their Runes were harvested.
As for the beasts, none of them dared to bother Ryu in the slightest, and this was the real reason he had taken control of this jaguar beast.
Ryu couldn't release his own Bloodline suppression without revealing himself and he couldn't use Little Silk for the same reasons. A beast of Little Silk's caliber was too far beyond what should appear here in the First Heaven and the fact that Ryu had control of her would raise too much suspicion and greed.
However, this Earth Grade beast was the perfect shield. No black grade beasts dared to even get close to it, causing them to run away due to its sheer aura alone. This allowed Ryu to be entirely focused on slaughter.
This farce wasn't something Ryu wanted to spend a lot of effort and time on. With his current standing, he wouldn't even bother to participate in such a thing if there weren't adequate rewards on the other side.
Unfortunately, the price of crossing between Heavens was extraordinarily expensive. It took a large sum of Ryu's wealth just to come to the True Martial World in the first place, if he wanted to transcend to the Second Heaven, if he didn't use the Frost Clan's wealth, he would need to give up at least half of what his four Clans had gathered over the years.
This was unacceptable to Ryu.
Of course, wealth wasn't the only issue. Even if by some miracle you actually managed to gather enough funds, you would still need to secure certain channels and connections to complete the process.
Ryu had already looked into it previously, and there was only really one method widely available to the First Heaven, and that was to rely on the Twin Phase Merchant Group, the very same Merchant Group run by the Iunae Clan and the very one that Ryu had rented a VIP room from to come to this place to begin with.
The only other option outside of that was to have a Second Heaven power secure a channel for you, but how else would you gain such favor if not through a competition like this one?
Of course, there was still a third option, and that was to create a channel himself. But, doing such a thing would require power equivalent to a False Sky God, comprehension of space laws of the False Grade, or being a False Grade Formation Master.
All three of these things were too far beyond Ryu and he wasn't willing to waste the time in the First Heaven that it would take to reach such a standard.
Although Ryu had great confidence in his talent, after seeing the gap between Sacrum and the True Martial World, he understood just how valuable the environment was as well.
Not only did he need to match up against talents that could push him and squeeze out his true potential, if he couldn't meditate in higher Heavens, it would be incredibly difficult for his Dao to progress.
Just now, he had gotten lucky in pushing his Dao to the Second Immortal Grade, and then he even got the chance to experience the breakthrough of a Sky God which pushed him to the pinnacle of this Realm.
But that was precisely the problem. He had been lucky enough to see a Sky God breakthrough and feel the shifts of the Laws of Heaven around her, and yet the improvement, even with his comprehension abilities, had actually been so minimal.
And also, how long had Ryu been stuck at the First Immortal Dao level prior to this?
It had to be remembered that Ryu had formed his Dao over a thousand years ago. Even if the process of his Rebirth was removed from the equation, it still had to be considered that before his battle with the Martial Gods, he had entered a time dilation treasure.
Of course, it was impossible to meditate on Daos in such a treasure, but one would still be able to refine their mind and calm their spirit, tempering both through time.
There were two methods by which a Dao could be improved. The first was through comprehension of the Dao and the second was through comprehension of the Self. Ryu had managed to make a breakthrough in the latter fashion after countless years of progression toward emotional maturity. However, in the first aspect, he was making little to no headway at all.
Ryu had spent three months using [Thirteen Soaring Azures], [Roaring Sky Serpent] and [Whispering Petals] to damage his Dao and reform it. But rather than improving his Dao's Grade, it ultimately culminated in his Dao breaking through to become a Hegemonic Dao instead.
This sounded great and amazing, and it was. But it also made progressing his Dao countless times more difficult as well.
Even though a Hegemonic Dao would be able to leap levels to do battle with much stronger Daos, there would be a hard limit to this.
For example, there was a huge gap between Mortal Daos and Immortal Daos, and likewise between Immortal Daos and Cosmic Daos. Ryu's current Hegemonic Dao would still be able to barely match up to a much lower level Cosmic Dao, but that was all.
Compared to these gaps, the gap between a Cosmic Dao and a Fragmented Dao was so large that they weren't even considered to be of the same cloth.
This was why Daos below the Fragmented Dao level were known to be in the Nurturing Phase. They weren't even considered to be truly birthed yet, as though babies in gestation. Comparing the two would be like comparing an embryo to a grown adult, the gap was too massive.
If things weren't like this, just by virtue of his Hegemonic Dao alone, Ryu would be able to crush Fragmented Sky Gods who built their Godhoods with mere True Daos.
This was the problem Ryu faced. He was on too low of a Heaven right now to progress quickly in his Dao. In fact, only if he made it to the Seventh Heaven would his progress no longer be hindered by such limitations.
The skies of the First Heaven were far too low!