Ryu's cultivation wasn't deep enough to be qualified to sense Leopold's senses lock onto him, however, his Heavenly Pupils had no such limitations. The moment he felt a painful throb in his eye, he was immediately aware that his position had been locked onto.
The determination on Ryu's face didn't diminish in the slightest. Because the lock Leopold had on him was fading in and out, Ryu understood that this meant he was out of Leopold's solidified Spiritual Sense range. This meant that Leopold was using a technique to temporarily boost his senses, a technique that, in all likelihood, he couldn't use continuously. In this case, Ryu still had a chance.
After hours of running, Ryu had put several hundred miles between him and Leopold. Considering his estimate of Leopold's cultivation as at most a Connecting Heaven Realm expert, this meant that Leopold was at most in the Spiritual Endowment Realm, a step above Ryu's Spiritual Entrance Realm Mental Cultivation.
According to what Ryu understood, the normal range of a Spiritual Sense, even for an absolute genius of this realm, was at most a few dozen miles. It was impossible for Leopold's to be any larger.
Of course, Ryu considered the very small chance that Leopold had entered the Soul Birth Realm. In that case, he was very wrong. However, Ryu had learned a lot about Mental Realm cultivation recently. As such, he knew that before entering the Immortal Ring Realm, a cultivator would choose to connect all of their Pulses together, and all of their Vessels together.
Remember, before the Connecting Heaven Realm came the Divine Vessel Realm. Much like the Pulse Opening Realm, this realm was all about opening hidden meridians. In the Pulse Opening Realm, they were called pulses. But in the Divine Vessel Realm, they were called Vessels.
In line with this, the second realm of Mental cultivation opened the Spiritual Vessel whereas before, it was called the Spiritual Pulse. On top of this, the second realm of Body cultivation opened the Body Vessels, whereas before, they were called Body Pulses.
The Connecting Heaven Realm was exactly what it sounded like. The greatest experts would link all thirteen Pulses and all thirteen Vessels before forming their Immortal Rings and entering the Immortal Ring Realm.
This was why Ryu was certain Leopold couldn't have entered the Soul Birth Realm. Only a fool wouldn't first add their Spiritual Vessel into their Immortal Ring before progressing. Since Leopold wasn't in the Immortal Ring Realm, he thus couldn't be in the Soul Birth Realm!
Still, this meant next to nothing to Headmaster Leopold. To him, Ryu was already a mouse trapped in a jar. He could obviously tell where Ryu was running to, but he was also certain that he would catch Ryu long before he reached his destination.
'Interesting, interesting.' A burden fell from Leopold's heart. He thought he was facing some supreme expert, come to find out his opponent was a child. 'Your performance against the Ice Eyed Bear was quite intriguing to me… These country bumpkins of this mere Mortal Plane might not understand what happened, but I'm 95% certain you have a set of Heavenly Pupils.'
Headmaster Leopold laughed uproariously. He couldn't make a move before and risk exposing his position, but now that his main goal was right before him, what more worries did he have?
Not only would he accomplish the wishes of his long past Ancestors, he would gain their treasures, and he would rise up to an all new level once he implanted Ryu's Heavenly Pupils to replace his own eyes. This matter couldn't be any better.
Leopold strode forward, covering several hundred meters in single steps. He moved more than five times faster than Ryu with a leisurely expression on his face, still, he was moving at his top speed. Even if he had relaxed from his tense height, he was too excited to get his hands on Ryu's things.
In the distance, Ryu himself was in a terrible situation. His speed continuously fell, his body continuously trying to shut down against his better wishes.
Suddenly Ryu laughed. His eyes turned a pulsing red color as he charged forward at a faster pace.
His cloak was a Mystical Grade treasure. Even at this speed, there was little to no affect on it. However, the wind whipping across Ryu's face was tearing his once flawless features apart. Luckily, Heavenly Pupils were incredibly durable in comparison to normal eyes, or else Ryu would have been blinded in an instant.
At this moment, Ryu was ignoring the limitations of his body, tapping into the Northern Heavenly Wind's ability to boost his speed. Unfortunately, since his Heavenly Wind was a mere Embryo, he couldn't perfectly meld into the wind, resulting in large portions of the air fiercely rejecting him and causing these ghastly injuries.
Headmaster Leopold's eyes contracted. He immediately noticed that the speed at which he was closing in on Ryu had been drastically cut down. What just happened?
Ryu roared with all his might, causing whatever small dregs of Spiritual Qi he had remaining to spur to life as a miniature Immortal Sakura appeared. It couldn't have been more than a foot high, no, it was barely half a foot high, while its beautiful translucent blossoms were even smaller. But, still, Ryu forced them into existence.
Ryu didn't do something as foolish as turn around and fight. Even with this Immortal Sakura, he had no chance against the individual rushing after him now. No. He was using the Immortal Sakura for a completely different purpose.
"You said even the wind cannot touch me without asking first right? Well then show me!"
Ryu was well aware that Eska had said this would only be true if he reached the highest realm of [Immortal Sakura]. But, right now, he was pissed off. He wanted revenge. Since they wanted to plot on him, he would make certain that the very reason he survived was the technique they gave him to trick him!
Small, transparent blossom petals began to fall. They immediately shattered upon contacting the vicious gales whipping against Ryu, but just that small moment they survived alleviated a great amount of pressure on Ryu. However, at the same time, every petal that shattered was another backlash on Ryu's Mental Realm, causing a fierce decline in his already lacking stamina.
Ryu continuously tapped into the Spiritual Qi pool within the Incubator. So much blood had drained from his face that he looked no different from a walking skeleton. However, he pushed forward. From the speed of a Peak Qi Refinement expert, to the speed of a Lower Divine Vessel Expert!