There was a strange, bizarre scene.
Of a large, grey cloud enveloping like a mantle one hundred or so of smaller pinkish clouds, those clouds revolted and turned around.
Creating peculiar sounds of crying as they flew.
Suddenly.
Green Immortal Essence was injected into them all at once.
Those pinkish clouds expanded, their bodies evaporating in the next instant and from them.
Countless smaller clouds remained.
They scattered everywhere, moving in every direction.
Or at least, they tried.
The 'mantle' stood there like a net, keeping in place those rebellious clouds.
However, those small clouds were simply too slippery and tricky to deal with.
They continuously exerted and moved, trying to escape to a place of lower pressure.
Whilst the mantle was able to stabilize them for a while, it would not last long.
After fifteen minutes, one of those smaller clouds finally escaped, through one of the gaps in the net and flew away, scattering into the wind.
Soon, after one struck the mantle with tremendous speed, and like an egg hitting a rock, it shattered into countless fragments.
Still, that scene did not make Kao Dao Ji the slightest happy; instead, he frowned deeply.
"Ugh…No matter how many times I modify this Killer Move, those thoughts always escape or bash themselves against the walls of the mantle.
Is there any way to prevent this?" He said somewhat frustratedly.
For the past two months, he had been researching Clouded Thoughts Gu.
However, just like he feared, Clouded Thoughts Gu did not seem to evolve naturally to Rank 3 and above.
Knowing that trying to create the recipe on his own was a fool's errand, he simply gave up on the higher-ranked recipes and began to work on the Killer Move.
Initially, he began to develop this Killer Move, like any other.
By using the Gu's on demand, however, he soon discovered how difficult that was.
For starters, the Rank of Clouded Thoughts Gu was simply too low; their effect was minuscule, unless one employed 250 or so at once. (Of course, to be truly deadly, one would require five times the amount)
That increased the difficulty of using the Killer Move by a notch.
Then, there was the problem of controlling those thoughts Gu's once they were released.
While he was quite proficient in manipulating rain, lighting and clouds, his knowledge regarding Wisdom path was too lacking.
And so, he could only use the roughest methods to forcefully 'drag' those thoughts.
Unfortunately, the process was too slow and forceful; if he were to describe it, it was like trying to hold onto a handful of water with his bare hands.
No matter how hard he tried, it always slipped right between his fingers.
The more he tried to keep them in place, the more they escaped.
Eventually, he figured that if holding the water together with his bare hands was impossible, then at least he could hold it together with a 'bucket.'
That is when the idea of using a cloud to store those thoughts appeared.
Coincidentally, once he had this idea, the following one came.
What if instead of creating the Killer Move in the act, he created it beforehand, hours or possibly days before it was necessary?
By doing this, not only would this Killer Move stop being so slow, but it would also be extremely quick to employ!
And that is the current conjecture where he's at, in which he wants to extend the application of the Killer Move for at least 3 hours.
Before developing it further.
Alas.
It was simply too difficult!
Kao Dao Ji muttered.
"Damn it, if only I could get some Star Thought Gu's…" He touched his forehead, somewhat mentally exhausted.
However, he soon shook his head and dragged towards himself another Gu.
'Sunny Thoughts Gu.'
Immediately, he injected the Gu into his brain.
And the exhaustion that he had carried over the past days was drained almost entirely.
"Even though I have recovered, doing the same thing over and over again is no good.
Besides, I still need to renew the activation of my Acid Rain Killer Move…" With this thought, he flew towards the 2nd layer of clouds.
And once more, triggered the Killer Move.
The activation lasted 10 breaths before finally stopping.
And once it stopped, he turned his eyes towards the 1th layer of Clouds.
In comparison to when he first saw his aperture, the grey clouds had finally decreased in intensity by around 7.7%.
The progress, while steady and slow, was quite good in his eyes.
After all, at his current rate, he should be able to finally reach the halfway mark in a couple of years or so.
Far better than his initial estimate of 1 decade.
Once he finally reached this point, he could finally develop aquamarine life in his aperture.
Yes.
Aquatic life.
He harbored no thought of creating land life and instead turned his focus to developing water life.
After all, his Cultivation Paths were Water, Cloud, and Lightning.
Cloud excelled in the management of the aperture vertically, and water horizontally.
Whilst Lighting excelled purely as a fighting Path.
Hence, his development choice was quite obvious.
While he immersed himself in those insights, he was oblivious to the development outside of his aperture.
"What did you say? Kao Dao Ji is dead?" A mermaid spoke, somewhat surprised.
He belonged to the Golden Tear Grotto Heaven and was a Rank 8 Cultivator.
In another Grotto Heave,n named the Red Cradle
An eggman was chuckling whilst reading those contents.
"First, they lose their Supreme Leader, and now this? The Kao Clan truly is in decline. Tsk. Tsk. Such a shame, if my Myriad Tribulation wasn't near, I'd really love to settle the score with them."
He touched his chin.
"Still, it is not entirely bad at the very least; this can turn some of the heat away from us, what do you think, Da Ren Hen?" He stared at his subordinate whilst saying those words.
"What are your plans, sir?" He responded obediently.
The man chuckled.
"I was thinking of sharing this information in Treasure Yellow Heaven. I am sure a lot of parties would be interested in this."
"Sir, isn't that too dangerous?
What if this alerts the humans to the location of our Grotto Heavens?" Da Ren Hen spoke somewhat shily.
"Tsk. Tsk. The people from Heavenly Court are in a mess; most of their numbers are down, whilst their reputation is at the very bottom.
Right now, their only focus is retaining their grip on the 5 regions. Where will they find the energy to focus on us?
Besides, how many Rank 8 Gu Masters do they still have in Central Continent 6?
Hmph! We have at least 20 of us across the two heavens.
And even if they get those old geezers out of their graveyards, how much more lifespan do they still have?
By the time they find us, their bodies will turn to ash.
By that point, I'd like to see whether humans can retain their supremacy." After saying those words, Da Ren Hen nodded, forced to obey his instructions.
Soon, the news of Kao Dao Ji's death spread like wildfire across the whole Treasure Yellow Heaven.
Reaching the ears of a certain woman wearing a black hood.
Upon seeing the contents, a tiny smile appeared on her face.
She squinted her purple eyes slightly as she muttered.
"Interesting…"
Small Edit: I changed the name of the Grotto Heaven because it sounded poor