Ryu strolled through the city, deploying his Void Spiritual Sense in full force. He was clearly looking for something.
He didn't even flinch as he felt the Heavenly Favor of the two guards roll into his body. It wasn't a bad amount enough, just about 10% of what he would expect from a usual Ruin he cleared. Killing people was quite an effective method of gaining Heavenly Favor as well, it was just a shame that he couldn't do so within the city.
The only reason he had stopped before was precisely so that he would be outside the city limits when he killed. If he killed within the city limits, he would be banned from this city.
Of course, it was possible to be unbanned, but he would have to pay an astronomical amount of Heavenly Favor just to clear his name. That amount would probably wipe out as much as a tenth of the Heavenly Favor he had accumulated in the last month, it simply wasn't worth it.
At the same time, if he didn't clear his banned status from this city, he would have to go to another one to accomplish his goal and that would be more wasted time. He refused to do such a thing.
Plus, there was no use in wasting his time hunting down people now anyway. He would let them fatten up like pigs first. Then when the final phase came around, he would be able to kill all those who caught his eye in a single sweep and make it all far more worth it.
'There.'
Ryu found what he was looking for and took a step, crossing the city in the blink of an eye and appearing near its center.
With his sudden appearance, many who had been guarding the area suddenly flared up.
"Hey!"
"Stop!"
"This area—!"
Unfortunately for them, Ryu didn't even spare them a second glance as he stepped toward the pillar that lay before him, pressing a palm against it.
A rising tide of qi shot into the air, illuminating the entire city even brighter than the golden skies above. A suffocating presence passed over it all.
Ryu's body vanished and he entered into an all new world. Looking toward his hand, he found a staff within it. Before him, a shadow wielding a staff also stood before him, emotionless and unmoving.
In that moment, Ryu's aura changed as he raised the staff in his hand. Fluttering afterimages appeared in the air, dancing about and opening up like the petals of a lotus.
[Buddha's Stance].
The aura of a Staff God exuded from Ryu as he took a step forward, his hair fluttering as he struck down with all his might.
The shadow reacted, raising its own rod and counter attacking.
BANG! BANG!
Ryu's stance shifted as his staff collided with the shadow's. With a slide of his foot and a rotating of his wrists, he guided the shadow's staff by him, causing it to overextend itself.
Ryu's staff spun in his hands, rotating through and snatching away the shadow's momentum to counter.
BANG!
In just three exchanges, the shadow's head exploded into black motes of light, unable to regather.
Ryu stepped forward, facing another opponent, and then another. On the outside, the panicking members of the Mystic Sanskrit Sect could only watch as the light on the pillar slowly rose higher and higher into the air, surpassing the mark their young master had left behind and crushing it.
Just an hour later, Ryu stepped out of the pillar with a badge in hand and faced hundreds of furious gazes.
"Scram." Ryu said coldly.
As though it was a commandment of the Heavens themselves, the hundreds of disciples vanished. When their vision cleared, they found themselves expelled from the city, fear stricken in their eyes. Their young master couldn't accomplish that, how had Ryu done it?!
Ryu flipped a palm and allowed the badge to vanish into his spatial ring as he prepared to leave the city.
Much like Ruins and inheritances, cities could likewise be conquered or claimed. However, the amount of authority you would have in the city was dependent on how well you cleared its test. For example, Ryu could control the ban and acceptance of people who came in and out of this city while the former owner could not. At most, that individual could probably just receive some discounts on the items in the bronze city.
The trouble with conquering cities, though, was that the test was completely randomized and had no continuity from previous openings. It was hard to tell what test this city had provided last time the Heavenly Path opened, but this time it tested one's skill in the staff, one of the nine great weapons.
Unfortunately, this was why Ryu couldn't just casually go around conquering cities. Although he could force Ruins into submission, if he challenged a city he didn't have affinity with, even if he managed to meet the bare minimum requirement in the end, it would just be snatched up by someone else later on and he would end up wasting his time.
Obviously, he didn't have anyone who could just sit idly and guard his cities for him, so he had to claim them with overwhelming strength.
Ryu didn't plan to stay here, obviously. It might seem that he had done this out of useless vanity, then, but there was a good reason, that being the benefits.
The reason the two guards had had such a large amount of Heavenly Favor despite being mere lackies was because they were accumulating Heavenly Favor at the gates as a fee. Now, Ryu could do something similar.
Every time someone bought an item from his city, he would gain a tax as the City Lord. The accumulation of these small bits of Heavenly Favor could very quickly become astronomical over time.
If he gathered a few cities like this, he would only benefit.
Ryu took a step and appeared outside of the city, several furious auras locking onto him.
