Ryu did a quick scan of his surroundings and found that the smokey fog in this region was especially dense. It didn't take much time for Ryu to realize that this was most definitely a result of the Carving Ice Sect's machinations. But what surprised him was that due to the density, even he was beginning to feel somewhat languid.
However, as soon as that feeling came, Ryu's Bone Structure glowed, his Yin Water also beginning to circulate. When it came to poisons, although Ryu wouldn't dare to say that he was immune in the True Martial World, he probably wasn't very off from it at least when it came to poisons targeted toward lower life forms.
With a step, Ryu flickered and vanished, moving even deeper.
The cloaked figure's estimates were well off. Ryu hadn't teleported 100 kilometers away, he had teleported over 10 000 kilometers away relying on a combination of formation and his visualization. Of his Visualizations, the Silver Star was the only one that didn't seem suppressed in the True Martial World. In fact, it only seemed to get stronger even with Ryu's minimal insights into it.
Ryu quickly found a secluded area, took his ring off of his finger, carved a piece out of a thick rock, buried it inside, and then disappeared into it.
Once Ryu entered the golden moon world, he got to work immediately.
His plan was simple: create his own large scale teleportation array.
Ryu was missing two things to accomplish this, one of which was far easier to fulfill than the other.
The first thing was resources. Each large scale teleportation array required a solid foundation of resources, but most importantly, it needed Qi Stones for activation. The better resources one used for their teleportation array, the less Qi Stones you would need to use.
Of course, this was relative. After all, even if you used exceptional resources, if your goal was a destination trillions of miles away, you would still need to spend an enormous sum for each teleportation.
Regardless, Ryu didn't worry much about this. He planned to use a weaker foundation and make it up with more Qi Stones. Although he had the resources to use, he would eventually need to bring this formation outside to set it up and then abandon it. How could he invest a great amount into a formation he was about to abandon? That would be ridiculous.
The second issue, though, was more difficult to deal with, and that was having the requisite insights into the laws of space.
Setting up certain formations would always require a foundational understanding of the Fundamental Runes used to build it. Without this understanding, it was impossible to properly set up a formation, and using a formation like this would be asking for death.
Most of the large scale teleportation arrays in the Second Heaven were set up by Sky Gods. It was one thing for Ryu to use a small scale teleportation array which was designed to send him up to 1000 kilometers away at best. However, for a large scale array which could send him hundreds of thousands to millions of kilometers away, it was impossible to do so casually. In fact, even accomplishing the former without a great deal of training was impossible unless you were a genius on Ryu's level.
Still, Ryu had the utmost confidence in himself. The only question was if he would be able to do it in time.
Anyone who could make it to the Sky God Realm, especially in the True Martial World, was most definitely not a fool. He could shake them off for a small while, but most definitely not an infinite amount of time.
If he could just teleport away from within the golden moon world, things would be fine. But doing so was impossible for a few reasons.
The first and most obvious was that this would require leaving the ring behind and thus all of the Frost Clan's techniques and resources behind. This was an absolute no-go and Ryu refused to do it. The Frost Clan was far too helpful to his future path.
The second and less obvious reason was that teleporting from one world to another, which is what would effectively have to happen in this situation, was even beyond large scale teleportation. If Ryu had the chance to accomplish the latter, he had absolutely no chance at accomplishing the former with centuries of research and time.
This meant that he needed to exit the world to leave. However, setting up the array would cause fluctuations of qi to appear in the air, which meant that if he wasn't fast enough and the Sky Gods of the Carving Ice Sect began to look deeper into the mountain range, he would end up exposed and very dead.
Ryu reached out a hand and caused a jade to snap into his fingers. This was the weakest large scale teleportation array the Frost Clan had in their arsenal.
According to its introduction, on the Sixth Heaven it could only send one about 1000 kilometers. But on lower Heavens, even if deployed at an Initial Success level, it would display far greater range. From a cursory glance, Ryu believed that even a 500 000 or so kilometers wouldn't be impossible if he deployed it at Initial Success.
Thinking to this point, Ryu began to study the individual Fundamental Runes and how they fit together. He mumbled to himself, drawing in the air with one finger while his mind flipped between the bits and pieces of the array with astounding speed.
Ryu's gaze sparkled. He realized that as he continued, he found that bits and pieces of the Silver Star Visualization were also becoming clearer to him.
His eagerness increased, his finger moving faster.
…
While Ryu was in a race against time, a massacre of epic proportions had already begun in the mountain range.
Carah and Amanrah showed no mercy, even deploying the other Sky Gods of the Sect to help.
Beneath the Sky God Realm, all cultivators were ants. Once after another, innocents had their lives ripped from them.
However, even after so long, their target was still not found.