Grand Ancestral Bloodlines

Ryu moved with lightning-like swiftness. Though he was in Azure Lightning territory, the truth was that he didn't feel much pressure at all. The number of spatial experts were far too few, and even those that were likely had weaker affinity than himself. Unless someone locked onto his aura before he entered the void, was actively scanning the void, or he chose to expose himself, the danger he was in was relatively lesser.

Plus, he had just spent the last several chasing down treasures the likes of which even Dao Gods might drool over. If he lost his life so casually now, wouldn't it be too ridiculous?

However, Ryu was still in a bit of a predicament. He wasn't sure where the Radiant Star Sect was.

In the past, Aika had been quite arrogant, stamping down the Sect right in the middle of the Heaven she ascended to. But Ryu highly doubted that she could continue to be so arrogant after coming back to the Seventh Heaven.

Granted, it would likely be less due to Aika herself, and mostly due to the external pressure from the elders and grand elders that had returned from the Sixth Heaven as well.

Ryu wasn't too worried, though. Finding out about the first Sect to rise up to the Seventh Heaven in several generations was an easy task. He was sure that there would be some wars that had broken out, and in a territory like this one, controlled by one of the Sect's competitors, it would be even easier to find information.

Ryu hesitated for a moment and chose to step out of the void. He slipped a mask onto his face and tied his flowing white hair up.

He didn't very much like to tie his hair up like this, but the minor details would likely go a long way in a situation like this one.

The town he approached was known as Thunder Brace City. Seeing the guards all wearing brass braces embedded with azure coloured gems, one could easily decipher where the place got its name from.

Ryu didn't bother to try and sneak into the city. This was only a small-relatively speaking-city in the periphery of the Azure Lightning Sect's territory, and yet it had a large-scale arrangement protecting it that even Transcendent Sky Gods couldn't get through.

Large-scale formations of that level made it impossible for Ryu to slip in by shrinking the earth or even teleporting. Entering the vacuum was likewise impossible, likely even from within the city.

It was a nice wake up call that he wouldn't be high and free now that he was on the Seventh Heaven, and the affairs of the Eighth Heaven were likely even more exaggerated than that, so he had to be cautious.

The guards didn't say anything about Ryu's mask, but he had to pay double the fee of everyone else to get in due to it.

Ryu didn't complain and just did as he was told. He would have backtracked, honestly, but that would have only made him look more suspicious.

'The wealth of the Frost Clan is really not worth much up here. Also doesn't help that I gave most of those resources to my mother. If I enter a few more cities, I'll be a pauper.'

Ryu thought about selling his pill-making services. He didn't even consider using Hope for the matter, because for one: she was his personal alchemist, who would dare ask her for pills aside from himself? As far as he was concerned, she was half his woman already.

As for the more serious reason, displaying pills beyond his level would look too ridiculous and get him targeted.

Of course, the fact he could concoct 100% pure pills was already enough to raise eyebrows and bring in the hounds. But if they were on that level and useful to extremely high level Sky Gods, many would directly declare war on the Radiant Star Sect without a doubt.

Ryu entered the large city and it was almost as though a city of the Mortal Plane of Sacrum had been taken and expanded by a hundred times.

The buildings were enormous, the pathed paths were often hundred meters or more wide, and there was a constant stream of masters coming in and out. Seeing a Fragmented Sky God on the streets was like running into a dust bunny in a tavern, it was common to the point it could make a person sick.

Ryu smiled to himself. He missed having his eyes. Now he could freely scan everyone he came across and they would truly be none the wiser.

'And then there's my "handler"...' Ryu thought with a chuckle.

On a building in the distance, the moment he had stepped into the city, someone was tasked with following him. They were quite covert and this person was in the Perfect Sky God Realm, but they couldn't escape Ryu's eyes at all.

The middle-aged man didn't seem to have malicious intentions, it was more likely that whenever someone stepped into the town with a mask, they were assigned someone to watch over them.

'Security is actually so tight. Is this because of the potential war that's likely still ongoing? Or has it always been this way?'

Ryu asked the little woman since he wasn't sure.

"This is fairly common on the Ninth Heaven, but this is definitely new to me for this Heaven. Then again, it's been a very long time since I returned here, I didn't even know your Heavenly Pupils had actually fallen so far until recently."

Ryu nodded to himself. Indeed, he probably shouldn't rely on Hope for information.

'I can't afford to eat as much as I want either, how troublesome...'

Ryu's body was exceptionally powerful right now, enough to barely rival a weaker False Sky God.

One could imagine, then, the kind of gaps there were between Sky God Realms if he was "only" able to fight a single level above with his body.