Heavenly Dao Child

Ryuu looked at the door that was blocked by purple colour powder, as he approached the mountain of powder he had covered his face with a cloth which he had covered with an array.

He kneeled in front of the foot of the powder mountain as he inspected the fine dust.

A moment later he found his eyes widen at his discovery, 'No way it is Plaesten.', he quickly turned his head upon seeing that no one was looking he let out a villainous chuckle.

'My master always complained about how difficult it was to get hold of some good quality Plaesten that too refined to boot, and now I have mountain loads of it, maybe I should take a good few scoops of it before I inform others.'

Ryuu once again looked back and seeing no one behind him he took out a few dozen space bags filling them with enough powder to fill at least a few football stadia seeing his successful work done he gave him a pat on his bag, 'Eden so far has been extremely profitable for me with a few thousand spirit beast nucleus and now Plaesten I am rich, incredibly so.'

He somehow managed to control his grin as a certain duck came to his mind, a duck that used swim on his vault full of gold, his glazed for a moment as he mused, 'I believe I can now fulfil my childhood dream swimming in a vault full of gold coins, gold coins that I earned with my own two hands.'

Clearing of the throat brought him out of his daydream as he turned he saw Frost Flames and Frozen Ocean looking at him with curiosity plastered on their face as Frost Flames spoke, "You were gone for some time as such I decided to check on you and Sister Frozen Ocean decided to accompany me so did you find anything useful."

Ryuu had a grin that seemed to split his face as he spoke, "Useful? My dear lady, it depends on what you deem as useful, this stuff is very precious you can fill up as much as you can before I inform others, as they will clamour for it."

"Well, then we will try to fill up as much as we can so why don't you inform others many are getting restless, and after they all arrive here you can tell them about your find."

Ryuu nodded in acceptance and a few minutes later he arrived with the rest of the group, as they arrived they saw the two female cultivators standing near the pile of purple colour dust.

Ryuu then cleared his throat as he began to speak, "Welcome everyone, I called you for one and one reason that is for all of us to profit from something.", he took a deep breath before he swung his hand pointed towards the powder as he spoke, "What you see here is known as 'Plaesten'."

Zywia upon hearing that had her eyes wide open, as she let out a gasp as she spoke, "What quality is it?"

Ryuu smirked as he spoke, "The highest possible quality."

Zywia dashed towards the powder as she started putting as much as possible inside her space ring, as did a good few amongst them. 

True-Spear frowned as he spoke, "Is there something that I am missing that is stopping me from dashing and gathering that purple powder like some madman."

His confusion seemed to be mirrored by many others as Ryuu began to speak, "This powder is very important for those who deal with blacksmithing, this is an important component that acts as a stabilizer as well increases the conductivity of KI in weapon and armour, it might not be much for you now but it is highly sought after by all cultivators who are above the Celestial realm."

He paused for a bit as he saw many of them hanging on his words as he continued, "Well this thing is so precious that the unrefined ore costs at least a few Deva Crystal per Kilo but when refined it only gives around a hundred grams of this powder at best with the present quality it would be much much higher."

They were stunned for a moment before they made a mad dash towards the powder as Ryuu jumped to the side to prevent himself from getting trampled on by them.

A few minutes later looked at what was supposed to be a mountain of powder, but now even the floors had been completely cleaned, shaking his head in exasperation he whispered with a tired sigh, "Such greed is unbecoming of cultivators.", while conveniently forgetting that he had stashed much more than many of them combined would have been able to put in.

Zywia who was nearby blushed upon hearing Ryuu's words, as she replied to him in a heated tone, "What about you? You are acting as if you did not take any of it."

Ryuu snorted at that as he spoke, "I did not take any for myself, whatever I took I would gift it to my teacher and big sister, I do not need something that I cannot use nor do I have any need of materialistic things."

'Well as long as I can get my pool full of gold coins I do not need anything.', was his thoughts as he looked up to see the empty ceiling, an action many had followed as Chianyu spoke with a frown, "Hey is that another door up there."

"Yes, there is one I think we should go and check."

A suggestion by one of the cultivators that were appreciated by others as they all quickly took to the skies.

Elmer was bleeding from his head to toe as he ran, he could feel his heart pounding hard, as he shivered from fear he had to get away from them, he had tried to move back a level only find the door back was embargoed already, his brother had tried to talk and reason with the Leader of the cultivators of Preta realm, he had cautioned his brother against it, yet his brother still went forward with it and now he was dead, cut down in front of his very eyes.

In spite their best efforts they were all routed, 'I never thought we would be betrayed, people who we thought we knew, who we thought were our brother-in-arms were traitors, traitor the lots of them. I swear I will have revenge.'

"Find that sc.u.m be is hiding somewhere near here.", a voice came to his ears as his heart hammered with fear, as bravado had all but left his body all he could do was anxiety and fear when all of a sudden a hand clamped over his mouth as a voice whispered in his ears, "Shut up and follow me if you wish to live."

As Elmer followed the unknown stranger away he looked back as he looked at the spoils of war, many of his brethren were either dead or were chained down like animals and were treated as spoils of war.

"Stop dawdling if you wish to live then move, you can think of revenge only when you are out of danger and alive."

Elmer grimaced at that he knew very well the extent of his injuries, he doubted in his current condition he would put up a fight against a toddler let alone a full-fledged group of cultivators, as he took the last look at the battlefield he swore inwardly, 'Brother I swear I will avenge you and pay back them for this humiliation and treachery a thousand folds.'

The cultivators from Manushya realm stood in front of a giant arch, as many of them looked at it nervously, if they stepped through it they would face the cultivators from the other two realms and many did not wish to do so, the prospect of facing so many cultivators was a big discouragement for them.

"So if we step through this we will meet them."

"Yes."

Even Ryuu had a solemn look in his face as he looked at the archway, 'If I step forward I might die, if I stay here I will die, it seems I have no choice not to mention I so do not wish to go back on my words I told them I would conquer the 15th level and I will not falter.'

"Ryuu are you ready?", an anxious voice of Frost Flames came to his ears.

Ryuu flashed her a smile as he spoke in a reassuring tone, "I am ready."

He then turned towards the crowd as he spoke, "My fellow brothers and sisters we have come together and achieved many wonderful things, but before we venture forth I would like to request all of us to observe a moment of silence and wish for a healthy rebirth of our departed fellow cultivators who were taken from us too soon.", as he spoke he closed his eyes for a moment an action many found novel and followed suit.

As everyone finished observing a moment of silence True-Spear looked at the archway as he spoke with a tired voice, "I just wish that we could have faced them on equal terms."

Ryuu flashed him a small smile as many of them nodded in agreement with his words, as he began to speak, "A wise man once said 'If you meet your enemy in a battlefield with equal strength then you have done something wrong.'", he wanted for a moment for his words to sink in before he began to speak again, "I will avoid any confrontations with them, until and unless I am forced to, even then my enemy will fight when I want, where I want, and how I want."

Amnon looked at him with a frown, "That is some bold words brother Ryuu, surely you are not arrogant enough to think that you could plan and plot so far ahead that your enemies will dance to your tunes."

Ryuu shook his head as he spoke, "No I am not, I know my limits, as well as the fact that no plan survives the first contact with the enemy and that, is why we are all here, so what if the first plan does not survive, what about the second, the third, the hundredth plan surely with all of us putting our brain together we could surely plan and plot our way through."

"The best-case scenario will be that both the realms would fight each other and annihilate each other, but our luck is not too good and worst would be that they join hands or Deva is annihilated."

"How about we stay here, we are safe in this place there is no need for us to venture forth."

"'No risk no gain', words you should remember whenever you venture into Eden if you wish please feel free to stay behind."

Frost Flames frowned at that as she pondered on his words, 'Why does he wants to move onto the next level so much what am I missing? What is he hiding?'

Frozen Ocean and Zywia for a moment gained a look of understanding on their face as to why he was trying to move forward, it was simple he wanted to live.

"Well, then I believe I have said everything that was meant to be said as such I will take my leave to feel free to follow.", with his words being said Ryuu dashed through the archway and both Frozen Ocean and Frost Flames followed after him without hesitation.

The others looked at each other for a moment as more and more walked through the archway that leads them to the sixth floor.