Kao Dao Ji observed the approaching woman, who was flying towards him by using some wings.
Whilst those wings were created by Gu's, their effect had been triggered long before she came here, so he could not deactivate them.
And even if he could, he would not.
With his gaze fixated on her, he stretched his palm from which intense light surged.
Several clouds manifested from thin air.
[Cloud Field Gu]
Those clouds shone with blue splendor.
[Rain Gu]
An overwhelming amount of rain began to befell striking from all angles, surprising Bai Lin Hua, who was approaching.
She gritted her teeth, raising her arms to block the attack.
[Cold Soul Armor]
By using an Immortal Gu as its foundation, she created a massive armor to defend herself, whilst still approaching towards the storm.
But as she got closer, she realized that the armor which she prided herself on was actually slowly being cracked down.
No.
It was melting.
Soon, she realized that all the rain around her was giving off a strange, dangerous feeling, but she did not retreat.
Instead, whilst still keeping her armor, she triggered a series of Gu's and her body began to heal.
Kao Dao Ji stared at her.
"She's using the aura of that Immortal Gu to prevent my Heavenly Power from reaching through her ordinary Mortal Killer Move."
But his killing intent rose.
"You are very smart! However, whilst your activation may be interesting, can you truly sustain that Killer Move forever?"
"Your Gu has already revealed its weakness; it cannot be sustained for long, can it?"
"As long as I keep attacking, sooner or later you will falter!" Kao Dao ji repeatedly shouted.
Bai Lin Hua pressed her lips together, she exclaimed.
"That Land Spirit is he trying to affect my morale? His methods are surprisingly clever, not to mention that he actually figured out this much…"
Indeed, her Killer Move of 'Cold Gaze' had a restriction in the activation period.
But it was not because the Gu on itself had those low limits, but rather was a hard limitation on her own.
Cold Soul Gu was an Immortal Gu whose effect focused on 'freezing' her soul, decreasing the temperature.
That was done in an attempt to 'temper' and refine the soul.
It was a soul-refining Gu.
But through her own cleverness and cunning, she found other ways to employ it.
For example, whilst using her Cold Gaze Killer Move, what she truly did was to 'cool down' her own soul, before enabling the two to 'touch' each other, transferring the cold towards her adversaries, which would get frozen immediately.
Still, in absolute terms, it was not really efficient; she took 10 damage to deal 1.
The only reason it was so deadly was that her own soul was dozens of times stronger than her adversaries.
Still, even she had her limits, and could not sustain its activation for more than a second and a half.
Cold Soul Armor was a bit better in this aspect, as she merely diverted the 'cold' towards her body; the backlash was several times lower.
Even then, the backlash remained.
Yet despite all those weaknesses, she felt completely assured of her victory.
Her gaze became cold as she observed behind Kao Dao Ji.
The bear's body stopped moving entirely.
A piece of its skull had been crushed and ground to dust.
Then it had been molded back together with a powerful aura, reshaped into the form of a needle.
This needle carried several Gu's with it, including, of course, 'Enslave Spirit' Gu.
[Spirit Severing Needle!]
She urged.
From behind Kao Dao Ji, an infinitesimally small needle was shot at divine speed, aiming at his back.
The most surprising part was that it barely emitted any aura!
And while the attack was not aiming to be lethal, it would cut through the spirit, damaging him severely, making him wide open for her subsequent move.
Unfortunately, Kao Dao Ji raised his eyebrows in shock. Before the attack could reach him, he triggered the Immortal Gu 'Cloud field.'
Then, using the small-time opportunity it gave him, tilted his body ever so slightly, avoiding the attack.
However even as he evaded, he was then meet by Bai Lin Hua which shoot several ice stakes towards him.
He concentrated his will and prevented the mortal Killer Move from forming entirely; however, that required effort.
Which gave the needle one more chance to turn itself back, aiming once more towards him.
Kao Dao Ji narrowly avoided it.
Yet, just as he did this, Bai Lin Hua struck again.
Kao Dao Ji gritted his teeth once more, concentrating himself fully to disintegrate the ice stakes, however.
Whilst most of the ice stakes melted into nothingness, one of them remained fully intact!
"Shit! One of the stakes contained Immortal Gu Aura!!!" There was no time to avoid.
He was struck in the chest and pierced through.
An intense wound reached his body, and as this happened, the whole Immortal Aperture trembled, seemingly in agony.
The pain was such that Kao Dao Ji opened his jaw and eyes widely, seemingly about to shout, however.
Bai Lin Hua had been waiting for this chance!
Just as he did this, she once more triggered her deadly gaze, freezing him in the spot.
Followed by this, the needle pierced his legs, drastically damaging his 'essence'.
Once the needle struck viciously, she retrieved the needle and from it.
The Immortal Gu 'Enslave Spirit' was in full view.
An ugly black flea with red fangs could be seen; the Gu would plan its fangs in its target's head, immediately taking over.
Of course, it has some demerits.
As it could only enslave those who lacked a Soul Core, like corpses or land spirits.
If not for those conditions, perhaps it would truly be said to be one of the strongest Enslavement Gu in existence!
Bai Lin Hua smirked widely.
She was about to impale Kao Dao Ji with the Gu; however, something unexpected happened.
Suddenly, thousands upon thousands of Gu's had been 'summoned', a thousand of grey-pinkish clouds surrounded Kao Dao Ji.
Bai Lin Hua knew what those clouds were, immediately she tried to retreat, but it was too late!
Thousands upon thousands of Clouded Thoughts Gu's were triggered at the same time.
Those Gu's pierced through the brain of both, effortlessly evading all their defenses.
Kao Dao Ji chuckled at this sight.
"Hahah…I won!" He said.
"What the hell are you saying? We are both going to die! You idiot!" Bai Lin Hua shouted.
The two of them froze in the spot; their brains were paralyzed in the act.
However, before Kao Dao Ji lost his consciousness.
There was a light inside his soul.
Shining brightly.
The light pierced through the clouds surrounding his brain, jolting him awake, of course once more, he was struck by even more Clouded Thoughts; however, just like before, more and more light surged in his brain.
Such an amount of light surging through was so intense that his own brain got cooked and began to melt!
Had he been a human or Featherman, he would have died immediately.
But he was a Land Spirit.
The reason why he had organs, muscles, bones, and even a brain was simply because that is how he saw himself.
And yes, his eyes could see, and his brain could think, but they were more of a vestige of his previous self.
In other words.
They were not essential for his survival.
Of course, if his eyes were blinded, his vision would be affected, and if his brain were damaged, he would become an idiot.
But he still would not die!
The only thing that truly worried him would be that those cloud Thoughts would spread across the rest of his body, and devour it.
By then, that truly would be a difficult situation for him, as he was in essence.
'Will' brought to life.
He opened his eyes, staring at the unconscious Bai Lin Hua with blurry vision. Through his cheeks, he could feel a sticky liquid coursing through, which was nothing but blood.
From his ears and nose, blood was leaking too.
He felt that his body was aching,and he had nausea.
A migraine.
Yet.
Despite those feelings, the feeling that overwhelmed the rest was elation.
Elation for surviving his first real fight!
With a huge grin, he said.
"My plan worked!" Of course, calling what he did a plan was simply too exaggerated.
Rather, once he realized that he was outmatched, he decided to take a gamble on whether his body worked as he hoped; if his organs truly were vital, then he would have died on the spot.
Of course, this gamble depended on the opponent approaching which is why he said those words to force a confrontation.
Having said this, he did not have the mood to indulge in his own thoughts or schemes.
Rather.
He focused his mind on summoning a few Gu's.
Immediately.
A soft green cloud appeared surrounding his body.
Tiny drops of rain reached the places of his wound, being absorbed by his skin.
Soon enough, most of his wounds were treated.
As he regained his mental balance, he turned his eyes again towards the unconscious Bai Lin Hua with intense desire.
The desire was not of her body, but something far more valuable.
Her Gu!
However, as he raised his hand to grasp the flea, he realized one thing.
"The Gu…It self-detonated?" He muttered to himself in shock.
"Ah, that's right! People in the novel could detonate their Gu's!" His expression became gloomy.
"Shit Shit Shit! You fucking woman, you almost killed me, and now, even after defeating you, you still manage to screw me over? Fuck you!" He spat at her unconscious body, with annoyance in his heart.
"Ugh….Hopefully, she did not destroy her other Immortal Gu…" He gritted his teeth while saying this.
Using a few Gu's, he created a cloud inside her aperture, which had a few pairs of googly eyes that scanned the aperture.
Yet no matter how much he searched for, he still could not find a damn aura of an Immortal Gu!
"This…! Fucking damn it!" He clenched his fists in absolute rage.
Once more, he vented his rage, kicking the unconscious body.
"Seriously, you've already been defeated. Why go through all the trouble to destroy your own Gu? You could have used those precious seconds to think of a plan instead!"
He felt utterly furious at this moment.
It was as if the woman were a common thug coming to kill him, with a knife made of gold.
However, after somehow subduing the thug with his bare hands, he went to the jewelry store and told him that the gold was fake!
He felt utterly furious.
A part of him wanted to do nothing else but disregard everything else, take all of her Gu, and then wake her up.
Just so she could feel the taste of his fists a few times.
Of course, he would not do anything like that, after all, he did not know what kind of Killer Moves the woman had, who knows maybe she did something similar to what spectral soul did, and somehow implanted Killer Moves inside her own soul or body.
If that truly happened, it would be the most pathetic death imaginable.
Of course, he understood the chances of this happening were low, but he would not risk himself without a reason.
He crossed his arms and thought.
"The most annoying part is that reading her memories is impossible, 'cuz Soul Search Gu still has an unknown recipe in the current world.
And while I could try torture, it's not like in those movies.
I've read that torture is actually useless, as it only forces people to talk, not to tell the truth.
Thus, even if I force her to talk, how can I guarantee that any Killer Move or Gu recipe she tells me is authentic?
If I try to practice a Killer Move, but I suffer a backlash because the move was fake and I die in the spot, I would have no one else to blame but me.
The only way to ensure the quality of those Killer Moves is if I had a way to verify it, I guess I would require a few guinea pigs, but…" He paused briefly.
He was not a monster who would willingly disregard the lives of countless to test a Gu.
Besides, most Gu Masters would not be suitable enough.
After all, there were Killer Moves that used dozens, if not hundreds, of Gu's; the mental burden and difficulty in grasping them were too great for mortals to bear.
Only Immortals or some talented Rank 5 Wisdom Cultivators could grasp them.
But where would he find such people?
With his current methods, he could at most bring a few people to test certain parts of the Killer Move, to verify its authenticity, but what if he overlooked something?
Even if every individual piece was fine, what about the whole?
Besides, how much time would it take to make such an investigation?
It may take months or even years of research before he gains anything truly valuable.
Understanding this, his expression grew even more unsightly.
"This fucking bitch, not only did she scare me to death, but she destroyed every damned useful Gu, and even interrogating her is useless?"
He cursed under his breath.
"Even if I have to sell your blood and flesh to Treasure Yellow Heaven, you will compensate me for this." Suddenly, he raised his eyebrows.
"Now that I think about it, that's not a bad idea at all…I could simply sell her in Treasure Yellow Heaven for a good price."
Openly, he advocated for her slavery.
But where was the morale, empathy, and civility one would expect from a modern person?
There was none.
Or rather.
The fear, the stress, and the desperation he felt numbed any sense of empathy or remorse he could have felt towards her.
In his eyes, she was nothing but a pig for slaughter.
Of course, as it was previously stated, he had his own limits.
He was not like Fang Yua,n who would cook children without batting an eye, but if someone dared to come to his home to kill him.
Seeing him as nothing but a commodity.
Well.
He would retaliate in kind.
With a cold expression, he stared at her body and said.
"Oh well, there is still the Mortal Gu and her Blessed Land."
While he was thinking of this, he suddenly heard a buzzing sound which woke him from his thoughts.
He opened his eyes widely, and from his pocket he took a Rainbow Parakeet Gu.
The Gu looked like a parakeet at first glance, though one made of wood. Once one injected Primeval Essence into it, it would shine in rainbow colors at the same time, and during a short period, any sound a person made would be transmitted to every other Rainbow Parakeet Gu within a certain distance.
Transmitting commands and instructions.
Of course, the range of this Gu was not infinite; at most, it could be used from a few thousand miles away. Kao Hu Yun would merely produce a knocking sound, so he would open the aperture.
However, he was now transmitting a message.
'Kao Dao Ji, is your aperture in danger?
If so, please open it, I was sent by the Clan to defend you!'
Kao Dao Ji stared at the Gu with a peculiar expression.
Those were almost the exact words that the demonic woman used before entering his aperture!