Ryu heard the question but he didn't have any intentions of stopping. What a joke, his existence was on the line right now, did he have time to converse idly with this person?
The youngster looked quite young, but it was impossible to discern without his Void Spiritual Sense. He could very well be an old monster, but Ryu had to pretend to be just the same. His saving grace was that he had come out from deep within the region. Because of that, only a fool wouldn't be wary of him, especially since it seemed that he was the cause of the change to the region.
But there was a weakness in Ryu's attempts: his speed.
For someone who was supposed to be a powerhouse, he was simply moving too slowly. Even though he was throwing everything he had toward escaping this region, and he had no choice but to do so, to the eyes of an expert like the young man, he was practically doing a snail's crawl.
This was part of the reason why the young man hadn't yet escaped. He felt that he was still capable of dealing with the situation here before even saying his velocity was a thousand times that of Ryu's wasn't doing it justice.
Obviously, the fact that he even dared to speak to an "expert" that was coming out from deep within this valley of judgement just went to show that he was already skeptical. With his decisiveness, he would have already attacked as for why he hadn't...
He could feel it. Ryu could see him.
Someone with Ryu's velocity would only be a World Sea Realm. But someone in the World Sea Realm should have never been able to spot him, let alone stare him down.
The second reason he didn't take action immediately was because of the golden runes floating around Ryu. It was clear to him in an instant that Ryu wasn't relying on a treasure like he thought. Those runes were the natural occurrence of a constitution. He didn't believe that a treasure could replicate such a thing.
But that just made him more confused. Even a heavenly injured Sky God capable of going so far into the valley shouldn't have been so slow. Just what was going on?
Suddenly, Ryu vanished.
The eyes of the man opened wide. 'Lightning Spirit Body!'
In an instant, like a flash of lightning through a rod, Ryu appeared outside of the valley. But the moment he did, he coughed up one mouthful of blood, and then another. He could feel his consciousness waning, but he bit his tongue, hard, forcing himself to remain awake.
He could have done this from the very beginning, but he had truly not wanted to, the reason being his current state.
He could unseal his talents now, so long as he used his Bone Structure to keep the other Bloodlines in line. But the issue wasn't that, the main issue he faced was that his Lightning Spirit Body didn't make him immune to Lightning that was stronger than himself.
That meant that he still had to rely on his Child of Order constitution and his One with Self state to make it out. The only benefit of using his Spirit Body was that he could ride a wave of lightning and exit the valley near instantaneously.
Knowing this, one could see the problem. His Child of Order constitution had to buffet all of the pain, and it was able to do so for a small while. Unfortunately, what could be considered instantaneous was all relative. To Ryu, it was, but to a Dao God, it was practically an eternity.
Why this matters was that Ryu's Focus Qi had run on empty about 90% of the way through the journey, and he had to rely on his Spirit Body and Bloodline to deal with the rest.
As a result, he was both mentally drained and heavily injured.
"Here."
The voice echoed in Ryu's head again and a pill appeared in his hand. When he smelled it, his eyes opened wide.
"This... you succeeded?" Ryu was astonished.
"Who do you think I am? You gave me such an easy blueprint to follow, even a child could have done it."
Ryu shook his head. The reason he had given the task over to the Favor Alchemy Sky God in the first place was precisely because a child could NOT do it. Even he couldn't do it, let alone a child. Though, it was possible that the little woman saw him as someone even younger than a child, a baby, maybe. n(-OVelB1n
What he was talking about was, obviously, the circulation pathway that he had recalled from the Prayer Mat, the very one that allowed him to replenish his Focus QI.
He had wanted to create a pill capable of recovering it, but he didn't have the time or the skill, so he handed the matter over to the little woman. It had already been months since then, over a year, if he recalled correctly. He had almost forgotten about the matter, not because he could forget things, but simply because it hadn't been on his mind. But this...
Ryu's eyes brightened. This changed everything, he actually had a chance.
"Do you have some healing pills in there?"
The little woman fell silent and he could almost hear her grumble. She was more skilled in alchemy than even Dao Lords. In fact, even better than most Dao Sovereigns. The only thing limiting her was her cultivation, though, she had already returned to the Transcendent Sky God Realm and was making her final strides to the Omniscient Sky God Realm.
Was she someone who could be the personal pill concocter for a World Sea Realm expert? Even a Dao God would have to give her very good benefits.
Ryu, though, saw it very differently. Even if a Dao Sovereign was here and touted as the undisputed number one, he wouldn't allow them to concoct for him. Reason being, he refused to consume any pill beneath 100% purity even if his existence was one the line.
This pill that the little woman had given him, though, was not only 100% pure, but it was a partial step from forming a rune.
"Your current situation is unique," the little woman finally grumbled. "The main problem is the tribulation lightning and your Spirit Body and Tribulation Seed are barely suppressing it. I've never treated such a problem before, give me a moment."
As she spoke, Ryu tossed the Focus Qi Restoring Pill into his mouth. He had expected the little woman to take at least a couple days, but he hadn't even swallowed yet when a pill came flying out.
"Eat that too."
Ryu was speechless. Was this how people felt when he was concocting?