Heavenly Dao Child

"But... but what about them? Are we going to leave them just like that?"

Ryuu looked directly into the eyes of the speaker as he spoke, "I understand you are concern about the fate of Elmer and the others but please tell me what are our chances against them? Please enlighten me."

The person looked down as she bit her lips before she spoke, "None, we have no chance at all."

"There you have it. You yourself acknowledge the fact that we do not have any chance against them not even a small chance at all, so how can we rescue them."

"What if we prepare an ambush?"

Ryuu shook his head as he spoke, "It will not work, and they might just use your brethren as a meat shield, not to mention how will we ambush them here, look around us there are small dunes of snow nothing more if we say we could hide underneath and trigger some trap and what not then you forgot that we will have no exit they will simply pump in some poison and close the exit."

The person looked dejected, a look of resignation came to her face as Ryuu gave a sympathetic smile to her as he spoke, "I cannot fathom to even understand the emotional turmoil you are going through, my words may seem like a false platitude, but believe me when I say that I would help to rescue your people that I swear on my honor and name, but we have to do it slow and methodical, if even half of our original numbers were present it would have been different, but unfortunately we do not have the luxury."

"I understand, I understand everything but its hurt so much they.."

As sobs came from her throat, Ryuu embraced the crying girl as he began to gently pat her trying to ease her pain, 'Such a cruel world we live in, those poor people they are suffering so much yet I can not…. No, I chose not to do something I might call Elmer an idiot but I am no better if I had someone who was near to be captured like that, I would have moved heaven and earth to save them, I am such a hypocrite.'

His eyes hardened as he swore inwardly, 'I might not be able to save them today, but I will I swear on my honor and name, I will rescue them.'

The thought of the captured cultivators made him wince, 'I doubt even after I have saved them, they would be alright who knows what those sc.u.m are doing with the, just the thought…', with a deep sigh Ryuu reigned in his thoughts before letting go of the somewhat composed girl.

Severing Saber gave a small nod as did Chianyu which Ryuu returned promptly before he began to speak, "Some time ago our good friend Elmer had been caught and we fear that by now they would have pried our location from their minds, as such we are moving to another location."

"Direct confrontation is still not possible and the outside is still as dreadfully cold as ever, not to mention the occasional blizzards so I advise caution, and please be fast, we will be moving at extremely fast pace as it has been sometimes since the capture of brother Elmer, by now I am confident that they have already found about our base, and I do not want brother DarkThorne's hard work to be wasted, he had put his life on the line for us after all."

The group simply nodded as they soon followed after True-Spear who was leading them towards their new place of residence, which was unknown to but a handful was not a place of refuge but the gateway to the other level, Ryuu simply wanted a breathing room without breathing down hard on their neck.

As they moved well few distance away from the previous base Ryuu looked back towards its direction as his fingers twitched a bit and a smirk appeared on his lips before he resumed his journey.

Frost Flames looked at the odd smile on his lips as she spoke, "Why are smiling Ryuu?"

Ryuu looked at Frost Flames who was now his girlfriend as he spoke with a smile, "Nothing just left a rather nasty surprise for them."

Frost Flames brow furrowed as she spoke, "Surprise?"

Ryuu ran his hand through his hair as he spoke, "Well since they have hostages and without a doubt, they would use them to test any traps as such nothing lethal but something that could occupy them for some time."

"I see, are you going to do the same near the gateway, Ryuu?"

"Of course Frost why wouldn't I, the longer I can keep them occupied, the better it is for us."

Frost Flames bit her lips as she spoke, "But, you said that you would help to free all of them on your honor and name."

Ryuu nodded at that as he spoke, "That I did but I never swore that I would rescue all of them as it is basically impossible."

Frost Flames nodded at that as she spoke, "Yes you are right, it is impossible after all who knows how many of them have perished by their hands by now."

Ryuu gained a sad look on his face as Frost Flames held his arms as she spoke gently, "There is no need to feel sad our hands are tied there is nothing we could do for now, but later I believe that you would plan something great."

Ryuu gave a small smile as he squeezed her hand, meanwhile Frozen Ocean looked at the couple for a moment with a small smile on her face, though for a moment there was a twinge of jealousy which was squashed the moment it reared its head, 'They look so nice together, Frozen Ocean calm yourself and remember your oath.'

An hour later a large army of the Preta realm cultivator had swarmed the area around cave as Jethrar looked towards the place with his eyes narrowed, "So that is where they are holding up?"

"Yes according to what we have managed to gather from them, they are."

Jethrar looked towards a still fuming and angry Ithrura, apparently, the group had not only infiltrated and interrupted her private time, he felt a bit of pity for them seeing them tortured in such inhumane way by Ithrura though, on the other hand, seeing the look on Ithrura's face as she tortured them simply made his day, 'Now if only I could get my hand on her corpse.'

"That tornado looks odd."

Jethrar deadpanned at her words as he spoke, "Really! I thought that an upside-down tornado is natural."

Ithrura glared at him as she spoke, "Do not be sarcastic, I am in an extremely bad mood, so do not tempt me."

Jethrar raised his hands in mock surrender as he spoke, "Sorry sorry please forgive me, your Highness."

Ithrura simply huffed at that as she spoke, "Send some rats and make them check out its defenses, I do not want to storm into unknown places."

"It is too big to send a couple we need more."

"Then send more what are you waiting for, Jethrar the sooner we finish this the sooner I can go back to do my job."

Jethrar sighed as he spoke, "Yes of course, but you remember our deal."

"Yes, yes if 'Rain Sword' is captured alive he will be taken as a very important commodity to be gifted to our seniors and if he is dead then you get your hands on him."

"We are leaving!"

A cry of dismay came from the Deva realm cultivators as they looked at the gateway, "What is the meaning of this? You promised…"

"Shut up and be silent."

As Ryuu thundered from the incoming headache, a hush silence descended upon the group as he glared at them.

"What part of strategic retreat and waiting for the perfect moment do you not understand.", he raised his arms wide before he spoke, "Just look at us, how did we move into this level, simply by sneaking, by now they have already swarmed our previous base, and you yourself acknowledge that the current us not able to fight back, the current us is not able to ambush them do you know why we are here."

"The reason is simple, we entered this place hiding and stowing with the Preta realm sc.u.m, imitating them, we did not even have a proper chance at ambushing them or anything, I had placed a monitoring array and it triggered shortly after we left, they had already arrived at our base's location but this time it would be different not only we would be ahead of them but we could plan and act so that we could set up proper ambush so as to rescue more of your family, your friends but for that the strategic retreat was essential."

He took a breather as he spoke, "Now does any of you have any question.", he waited for a moment and seeing none, he continued with a sigh, "Well, since no one has any question please proceed."

He watched as the cultivators slowly made their way through the gateway with him being last, Frost Flames looked at him one last time as he flashed her small smile, before he stepped inside the gateway but not before he touched the walls of the cave system one last time as a rather intricate array appeared which cause the collapse of the cave burying the gateway under the rubble, while on top a dense fog appeared completely hiding the site of the collapse.