Kao Dao Ji gritted his teeth.
The Killer Move he was currently employing, using thousands of Gu's, exhausted not only his mind but also stirred his Dao Marks.
To try to conjure another Killer Move in this state would be like trying to speak and think at the same time.
At most, all he could muster was a rudimentary Killer Move using ten or so Gu Worms.
Instinctively, he understood this.
And so, he activated 'Cloud-field Gu' instantly, followed by several copies of Hardening Clouds.
His pupils shrank as he saw the explosion drawing nearer.
"No. The Rank of those hardening clouds, Gu, is too low!
They won't be able to harden those clouds in time." He gritted his teeth.
The clouds surrounding him could turn as dense as concrete if given enough time, but in such a short while, they were like scattered soil.
And like a drill hitting sand, those clouds began to unfold into countless pieces, scattering everywhere.
Yet, Kao Dao Ji did not panic.
In his desperation, he had another idea.
Countless white particles gathered around him, shining with heaven's splendor.
They adhered themselves to the clouds, giving them greater consistency.
Even then.
Whilst the clouds somehow held on, there were several Immortal Gu reinforcing the explosion.
Moreover.
The Path of the Immortal who unleashed the explosion was of the Strength Path.
Immortals of such a Path did not unleash thunderous sounds or flashy lights, or rather, that was not the essence of the Path.
Instead, it was all about formless kinetic force!
It was akin to how medieval knights were killed by others, not by piercing through the armor, but by hitting them with heavy hammers that smashed their insides.
Vibrations spread through the clouds surging towards him.
There was nothing he could do to avoid it.
And so, as the force reached him.
He was tossed away at thunderous speed, whereas in the moment of impact, several of his veins burst, and his bones shattered.
The force was the most damaging to his heart, which skipped a beat, followed by the previous move that he was one step to complete, which was forcefully terminated. (The one he used to summon Le Tu)
Thankfully, most of the Gu's related to it had already been released, or else the backlash may have killed him in the act.
Regardless, his aperture trembled and quaked.
Further destabilizing him.
He desperately summoned Heavenly Energy drops of true essence to reinforce his body, whilst also using green rain to heal himself.
Yet that was only delaying the inevitable; the force within his body had magically remained within him, unable to disperse.
Clearly, the effect of an Immortal Gu.
The internal damage was growing worse; no matter how great his ideas were, the situation seemed hopeless.
Yet. When his fear reached its peak, the force dissipated into nowhere.
Kao Dao Ji did not understand what was happening, but he would not miss this chance.
Countless of Cytoclouds were forcefully stimulated, and he began to madly consume Immortal Essence to heal himself.
1 Immortal Essence Beads, 2, 3, 4…
He ended up using over 30 Immortal Essence Beads across a period of 2 minutes.
Even so, his breathing was still heavy.
And his expression still looked fearful.
"Hah…Hah…I survived." He muttered weakly.
From a distance, the figure of Le Tu could be seen; his body was trembling violently.
There was cold sweat on his forehead as he forcefully withstood the force of the explosion that he had saved Kao Dao Ji from.
Yet one could see a relieved expression on his face.
But Kao Dao Ji was in no mood to entertain him; his expression looked ugly.
"What the hell? You almost killed me!" He cursed under his breath.
Whilst Le Tu stared at him awkwardly.
"huh…"
At the side, Kao Dao Ji also noticed that there was another figure supposedly named 'Uru Hong Jing.'
Both of his eyes looked entirely black, but he could see traces of dry blood on his face.
Whilst in one of his hands, he was carrying a jar with a pair of ocular globes covered in deep blood.
Those eyes looked like those of an old man with cataracts; they looked almost completely white and pale.
Clearly, he had gouged them out just about now.
While he did not understand what was happening when he saw his face, the animosity he felt could not help but increase.
But Uru Hong Jing raised his hands, as if surrendering.
"Hey! It's not my fault. Who would ever have thought that those bastards would be so thorough?
Seriously. He was already grabbing me by my neck, and I had no way out.
Yet, not satisfied with that, he also ended up secretly filling my body with explosives and, well, you know the rest…" Uru Hong Jing's expression turned hateful and fearful at the same time.
He ended up sighing.
"What a good thing I was stronger than he thought."
His last words only made Kao Dao Ji's eyelids tremble even further.
Stronger?
You got your ass saved by Le Tu and me.
And yet even if accidentally you ended up blowing both of us up, and you still have the shamelessness to call yourself 'stronger.'
His rage reached the ceiling.
He summoned thunder and rain, ready to strike at him, whilst Uru Hong Jing's eyes trembled.
The cost of saving himself from certain death twice in a row was simply too high; he sacrificed over a thousand Dao Marks, hundreds of Immortal Essence Beads, and even his two eyes.
Whilst the last part may not sound much, those eyes had been improved absolutely and thoroughly by him; from his perspective, those eyes were even more valuable than a pair of Rank 6 Immortal Gu.
A lot of his techniques were reliant on those eyes to work, or would be a lot weaker without them. As of now, he could not even exert half of his former strength.
Moreover, with the loss of his eyes, he could no longer pull out the same stunt if he died again; that would be it.
But before the attacks could reach him.
Le Tu sighed, summoning an earth wall.
"It was just an accident. Please spare him today, Kao Dao Ji."
Kao Dao Ji stared at Le Tu, feeling some rage towards him, but he clenched his fists and held on.
He took a deep breath.
And touched his forehead.
"No, I need to calm myself down. I cannot ruin this meeting I so painstakingly arranged for.
Besides, it's not as if I could beat somebody like him…"
He stared at Le Tu intently.
The Fate of a Venerable, what an elusive yet so real force, casualty, and destiny, together with HW's aid, made them practically unstoppable.
Only Otherworldly Demons could stand against a Fated Venerabl,e and even then, rarely would such a thing occur.
Suddenly.
He squinted his eyes.
"This whole thing feels like a scheme. Moreover, just like before, I am able to feel Star Constellation's aura. She must be watching me.
That on itself is not surprising, after all, I am meddling with the Fated Venerable but.
Just like Uru Hong Jing said, why would somebody who already had him killed by all rights would act so paranoically and shamelessly? After all, moves that can save somebody from certain death are too rare in this world.
And if they do exist, they often would remove all traces of a target's attack, man as before, for example, would have erased any trace of those explosives from his body in the moment of activation." As he considered this, he took another deep breath.
He analyzed his previous actions whilst frowning deeply.
"Whilst I created this Killer Move for several reasons, one of the main ones was because I wanted to force a meeting between Le Tu and me. I planned to wait until he inevitably, like a good protagonist, ended up getting into a huge mess. Then, I would appear at the last second to save him.
I would create a good impression in his mind, whilst also creating a reason for a meeting between both sides.
But I guess at some point my intentions were uncovered. Star Constellation must have deliberately dangled such a good bait before my eyes to kill me in one blow."
At that thought, his expression flickered.
"No wonder Blood Sea Ancestor was toyed around so thoroughly by her. She truly is the Venerable of Wisdom Path."
…
Star Constellation observed this occur from afar.
The gate Kao Dao Ji had made had temporarily left some gaps for Heaven's Will to appear, and so she had been able to witness everything.
Her expression seemed slightly intrigued.
"He can condense Heavenly Energy into those drops? Odd…Usually, only Heavenly Spirits or Land Spirits from apertures who are stuck at the peak of Rank 7, unable to advance, can do such a thing." She muttered to herself.
"Even though the densities were a lot lower, he still somehow managed to do it. Relying on that, he was able to cling to life until Le Tu saved him.
Oh well, it's not that problematic. Even if he survives, every attempt in his life will deplete his luck further. I only need to keep the pressure up as I did with Blood Sea Ancestor, and sooner or later, he will falter."
With those words, her will vanished.
The second she left. Kao Dao Ji squinted his eyes. "Is she really gone or just pretending to?"
"I will wait a bit longer. Once I am sure she is gone, I can finally share my plans with them. Of course, I cannot be as obvious as before."
…
Uru Tan He eyelids were trembling.
With every second that passed, he felt his own strength leaving his body.
And it was not just him; the rest of his Clan was being massacred before his eyes, and while yes, the mortals were still in the Clan safely.
They were like scattered sand; any force that wanted could easily integrate or even enslave them.
According to their desires.
Suddenly.
Uru Tan He expression softened as he saw Le Tu dragging away Uru Hong Jing's body.
"At least. There is some hope, perhaps one day he may revive the Clan."
Whereas Crimson Soul also stared with widened eyes at the scene.
That location, they went so far away, and is that-" He narrowed his eyes as he more or less guessed where the duo had gone to.
"That Land Spirit. He truly hid it well." He chuckled, mildly intrigued but not so much.
If his guess was not wrong, the two used one of those Gu who could connect two sides to enable a teleportation, rare but not essential.
For somebody like him who could traverse freely across the two havens and five regions, it was a paltry trick, useful at most to save him time and effort.
Especially because, as a Rank 8 Immortal, trying to enter into an ordinary Blessed Land would immediately crumble it, unless he found one of an extremely strong Rank 7 Immortal, or if the method Kao Dao Ji had invented was possible to employ by zombies, there would be some hope.
"I will assign some of my subordinates to check that zone sometime later." At this thought, he immediately ordered his Blood Phantoms, where Kao Dao Ji was to go on a standby.
He narrowed his eyes.
At the next moment, there was a resonance in Uru Tan He's aperture.
The amount of Blood Phantoms had reached a critical point, and they made use of such an opportunity not to sneak attack but rather.
They stretched their hands towards the sky.
Pulling from his aperture an Immortal Gu.
Reputation Gu.
Crimson Soul stretched his hand to grasp it, but Uru Tan He snorted coldly.
"You want that Gu so badly, huh? Then you'd better be prepared to defend it well!" Uru Tan He had already predicted this.
And so, he stretched his middle and index finger, shooting an overwhelming ray of light towards the Gu.
Deliberately, he emphasized his movements and actions; he intended to force Crimson Soul to get wounded to attain the Gu.
Perhaps if he did that, there was still a chance to turn around the fight.
Ye,t contrary to his expectations, Crimson Soul merely smiled instead of pursuing the Gu.
He mercilessly unleashed a devastating blood wave towards the defenseless Uru Tan He, who had poured all his strength into his offense.
His eyes widened.
He was barely able to turn his body in time; even so, one of his arms had been sliced completely.
Uru Tan He stared in shock at crimson soul, he muttered.
"You. Were you lying when you said you wanted my Reputation Gu?"
"I needed the Gu but not to keep it, but to destroy it!" Crimson Soul smirked coldly.
Then he added.
"Of course, there was also the possibility of you transferring the Gu away at some point.
But, even if you had, there was still the recipe of 'Black Soul' Gu, whose one of the main refinement materials is resentment.
Whilst going through all this trouble to refine a mere Rank 7 Gu would have been a bit of a loss, the other things I will gain after killing you and your Clan would make this a decent exchange." Crimson Soul explained.
But even as he explained, he kept attacking.
The horde of blood phantoms drawing nearer, each of his Killer Moves was greatly weakened.
And little by little, his strength was being drained.
Even so, he did not dare to run away, after all, with every second he lost, even more of his strength.
No matter how faint, his only hope of victory was in killing that bastard.
Yet.
Even that hope was dashed away.
Xing Gu Tou and Hui Gui Yu appeared.
A Rank 7 and a Rank 6 Gu Master with even more Dao Marks than most Rank 7 Gu Masters.
At this point, the situation was settled.
Several light beams were shot in his direction.
He was unable to avoid being hit directly.
He groaned in pain.
Yet amidst the pain, he thought.
"There is a corrosive poison in my aperture slowly degrading my aperture to ashes. While I know more than one way to reverse it, I simply do not have the chance to!"
"But even if I cannot reverse it…Even if I cannot. I want to see how well you deal with your own poison." His eyes turned bloodshot red.
He charged directly towards the three, and as he did, he was impaled by several bone projectiles, a blood slicer, and bizarrely long nails.
Yet.
He ignored everything.
And charged towards him.
Crimson Soul frowned.
He obviously realized that his opponent was about to do a suicidal attack, and so he ordered his King Crimson to teleport him away.
Yet just as he did.
[I am You]
To his absolute bewilderment, Uru Tan He had been teleported alongside him.
"Heh. The power of this Killer Move makes it so that any Killer Move that targets you also targets me.
It also begins another process." After speaking those words, he smirked.
His body lost its definition, turning blurrier and blurrier.
Pieces of his flesh flew towards Crimson Soul.
[I am you; you are me.] Several pieces of his own aperture rapidly cracked and began to surge in a spiral towards Crimson Soul.
"Heh. This Killer Move enables its creator to rapidly transfer a portion of the creator's aperture towards the target. Is a very beautiful move used by past Supreme Leaders to ensure a portion of their strengths are inherited by the next generation.
Even if the other Gu Master is weaker.
Heh. Heh. Heh. My dear grandson, why don't you bow out a few times before your grandfather?" Uru Tan He taunted.
Crimson Soul gritted his teeth.
King Crimson took shape and immediately unleashed a series of blows towards Uru Tan He, yet his expression suddenly changed.
The wounds Uru Tan He suffered were transferred to him, too!
He tried to heal, but just as he did, Uru Tan's body healed in the exact same way.
He gritted his teeth and tried to flicker away, but like before, Uru Tan He's body appeared exactly where he was.
It was simply impossible to get away from him.
The comical scene of Crimson Soul trying to divert him in any way he could manage repeated itself for over forty seconds until finally.
Uru Tan He laughed heartily.
At this point, half of his body was gone.
"I still have so many Dao marks I would like to transfer, what a shame, what a shame. They are all of Rule Path. Is such a shame that the friction would ruin everything.
At least I still had 3 thousand Blood Dao marks to grant you before my end."
He smirked; his body turned transparent.
And before his death.
All the Immortal Gu of his body were sent away towards Uru Hong Jing.
…
Crimson Soul clenched his fists.
Feeling somewhat frustrated.
"I will have to cut so many parts of my aperture." He frowned to himself.
Oh well. It was the right price to pay; by this point, Infamy Gu had ascended to become Rank 7.
And he was certain, as long as he exterminated the Uru Clan thoroughly, it would naturally rise to Rank 8.
Perhaps there was not even a need to; his actions had been recorded completely.
And whilst the ending was disgraceful, it was not altogether unexpected. Rank 8 Immortals were not so easy to get rid of.
But just as he was counting his chickens.
One Immortal Gu was suddenly activated.
[Fixed Immortal Travel]
A Rank 6 zombie appeared from the middle of nowhere, just a few kilometers away from him.
"Huh?" Crimson Soul raised his eyebrows.
The body of the zombie exploded.
And as it did.
Two Rank 8 Immortals appeared from the blown-up corpse.
Thunder Ghost True Monarch and Seven Poisons Lord.
"Foul demon, prepare for your death!" They shouted.
"Heavenly Court???" Crimson Soul shouted in utter disbelief.
Since when did they have Fixed Immortal Travel?
And if they did, why had they not used it on him before?