Ryu's appearance was far less elegant than it had been just hours ago. Aside from the fact he was beaten and bloodied in several places, his gaze was dull due to an over drafting of his Spiritual Qi. It really felt that he might collapse at any moment.

'She didn't breakthrough even after absorbing a Peak Immortal Ring Realm expert?' Ryu's brows furrowed.

He had been hoping that Esme would experience a breakthrough. But somehow, she failed. If it wasn't due to the fact he simply didn't have the energy to complain any longer, he would definitely be far more disappointed.

'It only makes sense.' Ailsa said lightly. 'You modelled Esme to gain strength from blood. That's inherently a Body Realm facet ability. Mental Realm Masters have weak bodies in comparison to their Qi and Body centric counterparts. This was a predictable outcome.'

Ryu weakly landed on Little Rock's back. After defeating Kioshi, he hadn't participated in the remainder of the battle, so he was far healthier than Ryu was currently.

'I guess I just have to accept it, then.'

'This isn't necessarily a bad thing either, Little Ryu.' Ailsa said. 'Host Minn and this Zu Ancestor could be considered to be the weakest among Immortal Ring Realm experts. The difference is quite large, even if you defeated this man, you may not necessarily defeat that Apostle beauty.'

From the very beginning, the gap between the Connecting Heaven Realm and the Immortal Ring Realm was vast. This was for two reasons. Firstly, this was the barrier between the Mortal Realms and the Immortal Realms. One would only be considered a true Immortal after completing their first Immortal Ring.

The second reason lay in the vast differences between Immortal Ring experts and, in specific, their Immortal Rings.

To make a long story short, Host Minn's Immortal Ring was of the pitiful Common Grade. Yasuo's was of the Black Grade. As such, after their creation, they were half a meter and one meter in diameter respectively. This size and grading system worked identically with one's Spiritual Foundation sizes.

To put this into perspective, Ryu's Spiritual Foundation started at the Origin Grade's ten meter mark and doubled after every breakthrough. Likewise, Yasuo's began at the one meter mark and doubled with every leap forward.

There was a more complex underlying mechanism to this that was related Immortal Ring Cores formed by Pulses and Vessels opening in the Pulse Opening, Pulse Tempering, Divine Vessel, and Vessel Tempering Realm, but this was something Ryu wouldn't put his attention toward until he began forming his first Immortal Ring.

This was all to say that Yasuo wasn't even the best among Black Grade Immortal Ring experts, let alone comparable to Fidroha who was of at least the Heaven Grade despite the fact her cultivation was several sub-stages lower.

This was just the reality of talent disparity.

'In the same way there's a large difference between human cultivators, it's likewise for beasts and even your corpse puppet, Esme. The harder it is for her to shed her mortal blockers, the more powerful she will be as a Seventh Order puppet.'

Ryu nodded before sneering. 'Then there's no need to stay here anymore. I'm only surprised that the Ember Clan never appeared. It must be tough for that Fuoco character to keep my Heavenly Pupils a secret unto himself.'

Ryu had not a single clue that the Basteel Clan wasn't the only informant the black-lace veiled beauty had

**

"You're really going to let him go?"

"I told you that I would make him beg for my help!"

"If you were going to make him beg, then why did you pre-emptively stop that Ancestor Ember clown from attacking? No matter how much of a genius he is, crossing three large realms to battle is impossible, just look at how much he struggled against a fool with a Black Grade Ring. He would have definitely asked you for help then."

"That's only because his weapons are too lacking. I'd like to see you go back to the Divine Vessel Realm and battle someone with even a Common Grade Ring."

"Look at you, already defending him as though he's your son and not me."

"If you weren't such a good-for-nothing, I wouldn't have to look for a new son like this! Drunkard!"

The father and son quarreled and bashed heads for several moments before finally calming down.

"But he doesn't seem to be headed to the Blossom Plane like you thought, old man. It's likely that you won't be able to follow him to his destination."

"It's fine, I wasn't planning on stalking him constantly anyway. It is indeed a bit too early for him to go to the Blossom Plane. Their influence is much stronger there than here."

"Ah, so you know that this is stalking too. Respect, respect."

" Boy!"

Within the Death Worm Immortal Cave, Ryu had no idea that his battle had been watched from start to end. He had instead been letting Ailsa execute her Cultus Martial Forms on him to slowly refine his body back to peak condition.

After Ailsa finished her laborious massage, she left to set up of the formation needed to raise one of Ryu's Qi Sources to the Immortal Grade. Though it wouldn't be directly useful to Ryu just yet, it would completely unleash the features of this Immortal Cave.

'Oh, Little Ryu, that adorable three-person family is above us right now. Do you want to take them back to the Outer Ring with you?'

Ryu thought for a moment. His initial instinct was to say no, but in the end he sighed. It was a slight inconvenience to him, but it was of great help to them. Since he had already decided to help them, he might as well finish the job.

Considering they caught up to them so quickly, it definitely meant that Guiot hadn't wanted to leave too far away. If not, there was no way they could appear here. This mentality alone was worthy of respect.