Heavenly Dao Child

"Ryuu!", a familiar cry came to his ears that soothed his heart, with a wide grin he spread his hands as Frost Flames entered his embrace, her sweet scent entered his nose as he lost himself forgetting every kind of worries that were plaguing him.

The sound of clearing of the throat brought them out of their daydream as smirking Su-Min spoke, "If you two are done please notice us, lowly mortals, as well.", her smirk then turned to a sad frown as she spoke, "We lost twelve of ours in the confrontation, and nearly all of us are injured with ten in critical we do not know If we can move with them in tow."

Ryuu frowned at her words as he spoke, "That will not do, we have to leave this place, our base is gone and we do not know when we might get attacked again.", he thought for a moment before he spoke again, "Take me to them and let me see what I can do for them."

Su-Min nodded as she quickly led Ryuu towards the injured people, he inspected them for a moment before giving each of them some pills that would enable them to treat various poisons running through their veins before he could even start to heal them.

'This won't do, we have to move from here but they need their rest but what to do.', suddenly he wanted to bash his head on a rock, 'Of course I have the means to carry them.'

He then turned towards the nearest cultivator as he spoke quickly, "Brother please inform those who have a knack for creating things to quickly create something on like a bed with a canopy to protect the person sleeping on it from rain, it did not need to be a state of the art item, but a few pieces of wood stuck together would suffice as well, and oh tell them to work fast."

The person gave simply nodded as he left and a few minutes later small bed-like structure enough for three people to sleep in one of them easily appeared as Ryuu quickly helped them to carry the injured inside it, a couple of talisman's slapped on it followed by a pulse of KI the wooden structures were airborne.

"We are going to tow them with us towards the location of our next base."

Su-Min's eyes widen slightly as she spoke, "Ah I remember you used a similar method to get away from the gate after we escaped the second level."

Ryuu nodded at that as he spoke with a small smile, "You are right, it was something similar that I had used, now let us move we have some distance to cover and I do not believe our injured brother and sisters would appreciate being wet."

As the group moved Ryuu could not help but ask out in hushed tone, "Sister Frozen do you remember her subordinates what happened to them?"

Frozen Ocean send a small smirk towards him as she spoke, "I might have slipped that they are his subordinates, they were interrogated and killed off."

Ryuu nodded at her answer as he spoke, "Such a waste if only they had not associated with a traitor."

Frozen Ocean nodded in agreement before she continued to speak again though her tone dropped suddenly so low that even Ryuu had difficulty to hear, "Though during the interrogation one of them mentioned that the traitor was receiving instructions from someone from our group, someone whose identity is not known to them, Chianyu and Devaraj decided to keep the result amongst us, especially the part where she had someone giving out orders to her, it might cause a problem for our group."

Zywia, who was floating nearby spoke with a scowl on her face, "We burned the body of those traitors along with our enemies, though they were rather adamant that they knew nothing about Chasing winds plans.", she lowered her voice just like Frozen Ocean as she continued to speak, "From the looks of it I believe that Winds double-crossed whoever her master was if what those cultivators said is true."

Ryuu rubbed his chin his minds swimming in deep thought only to be brought out of it as Frost Flames nudged him, "Ryuu is everything alright, I was calling you for some time now."

Ryuu simply smiled at her as he spoke in a reassuring tone, "There is nothing to worry Frost I was simply trying to think how they would retaliate."

Frost Flames eyes widen briefly but before she could speak Severing Saber intervened, "Ah, Young Daoist Brother Ryuu may I have a word."

Ryuu nodded as he spoke, "Of course senior brother how may I help you?"

Severing Saber replied with a soft sigh and a frown on his face, "If I remember you and brother True-Spear both of you left to keep an eye on the gate so how did they go pass both of you."

With a wary smile, Ryuu was about to reply only for True-Spear to speak on his behalf, "There are at least two gates."

At his words the entire convoy came to a halt as everyone looked at the duo with disbelief written on their face as one of them shouted out, "That is preposterous!"

Ryuu snorted at his words as he spoke with an awry smile, "Brother, this is one of the reasons our seniors told us this place is not only unpredictable as such we should always be wary of this place, we know we found two gates and there can be a three, four or even a dozen that we have not stumbled upon."

Many paled at his words as Ryuu spoke in an assuring tone, "I do not know if there are other gates but I assure you the two that we know off, is practically inaccessible for some time as such we are safe for the time being."

As they let out a sigh of relief Ryuu continued to speak, "Though they will break eventually and we will be ready."

Many of them nodded in agreement when of the Deva realm cultivator spoke with a pain-filled voice, "Brother Ryuu you had worked so hard to rescue our brethren, but because of that traitorous bitch your efforts might be in vain."

Ryuu balled his hand into a fist so hard that his nails drew blood while thunderous look appeared on his face making the person who spoke to gulp in fear, as Ryuu spoke with his voice filled with barely concealed anger, "You are right brother, you are absolutely right, I do not know how many managed to escape before Chasing Winds managed to warn them, I hope a good few of them though the rest I fear they might have failed, as they would have not only upped the security around them those who had escaped before were recaptured again."

The cultivator looked tired and about to give up as he spoke in a depressed tone, "So what now what should we do?"

Ryuu went towards him as he gave his shoulder a comforting squeeze as he began to speak, "We start anew, we will work harder this time and free even more while making sure that they can escape unharmed."

The cultivator gave him a small smile as he spoke, "I know if anyone can, it is you brother, as such I want to thank you, I do not know how we can ever repay our debt."

Ryuu waved him off with a small on his lips as he spoke, "Please brother your gratitude is enough, what kind of cultivator would I be if I failed to help my neighbour in need."

True-Spear grunted as he spoke urgently, "If we are done can we move, we have lots of things to do and if it comforts you, brother Ryuu, send them a good reply."

As everyone focused on him Ryuu spoke with a sigh, "I can move while speaking so can we talk while we move towards our new base, which senior Brother Severing Saber had found and had recommended to us."

At his words, everyone began to move in complete silence for a moment before Ryuu began to speak, "When I fired my arrow at our mysterious audience, I did not fire any simple arrow, but an arrow that had a few talismans on it, one of them enable me to locate her, while the others enable me to listen to her and lastly one that used the KI to cause an explosion, I located the second gate by following her and when I learned that she had managed to reach their base I detonated her."

A stunned silence descended for a moment before a few broke into laughter, he could hear shouts of serves her right and whatnot, only for Severing Saber to speak with a frown, "But that would make them attack us with full force."

Once again tense silence descended amongst them as Ryuu spoke with a small chuckle, "What do you think that attack we suffered was for?"

"They were testing us."

With a hint of pride in his eyes, Ryuu sent a nod of approval towards Frost Flames as he spoke, "Yes they were, if not why would one of them was simply observing us while staying invisible, they were testing us and would plan and prepare accordingly but me being the nice guy decided to send them an invite without going all cloak and dagger style."

"But that invitation would cause them to be extremely furious and attack us post haste."

Ryuu smiled towards Su-Min as he spoke, "Of course they would but unfortunately I placed a special lid on the gates as such they are busy with it at the moment."

A wave of confusion hit the group, except for True-Spear who spoke with barely contained mirth in his eyes, "Yes a special lid indeed."

Meanwhile, Jethrar just finished cursing Ryuu's forefathers up to the last fifty generations the cause of it was plain and simple frustration, something was preventing them from passing through the gate and stepping into the next level, and then one of his subordinates had used a very strong attack only for the attack to rebound and kill the attacker and as such he was furious with the problem that they had no solution in sight.