NOVEL NEXT Chapter 9: NINE
When they reached the land, Tian Zheng stopped to take a breath and fill up his aperture which was nearly empty. It turns out, keeping a fire path gu active inside water while possible took a great deal of energy. He could have been left with nothing, if he hadn't used the False Seal gu to seal his state into that of a fire man. While it would have strained any normal rank 3 aperture, his was special. He had felt that it was harder and consumed more primeval essence than his other gu worms, although he would be the only Gu master who had reached rank 3 and was still using rank 1 gu worms. "Do you have any gu worms you can rent out to me?" He asked Yi Chen who was busy absorbing primeval stones to fill up his aperture. When he heard the request he looked towards the child before him with surprise. "Why do you need them right now? I saw that those you have work very well." Although he had extra gu worms, he had prepared in case anyone of his died he still wanted to ask. It was a great way to know the thought process of someone he had classified as a mystery.
"Well I just thought you would need me to be in the best position to help you fight that beast at the center and get this inheritance. Currently I only have rank 1 gu worms, which I think would have a reduced efficiency in battling anything like that beast." His answer was straight to the point since he didn't see the point of playing games. He knew the ginger would do anything to get the inheritance and he was sure this wouldn't the riskiest thing he had ever done up until this point. He waited for the ginger to think as he looked inside his aperture. He saw that a circle had formed around the False Seal gu which had separated the two unnatural parts of his primeval essence, however the battle for balance hadn't stopped. He could still see the two types of Dao marks clashing on his aperture walls even without the command from the two wills. 'If a Rule path gu worm can cause the Dao marks in the primeval essence to stop clashing can Rule path Dao marks cause the battle across my aperture to stop or at least give them the balance they so crave. A Balance gu would be even better.'
He looked towards the Heaven`s Vision gu which was floating above his primeval essence and tried to activate it, this caused him to feel a warm but cold gaze land on the gu worm before it left. When the gaze left his vision took on a different shade. When his gaze fell on the False Seal gu, he saw it start to look around like it could feel the gaze. On its body were small faded but strong marks. He memorized how they looked before he stopped using the gu. This caused the distraught gu worm to visibly relax before it went back to sleep.
Underneath his primeval essence, where it had taken on a gloomier and darker shade laid the Void Call gu. He didn't want to activate this gu worm since he knew what would happen. The Foreign will would possess the gu worm and it would try to attack the Heaven`s Vision gu worm. This would cause a battle to break out which the False Seal gu was injured from trying to stop and was still recovering from. The foreign will was also something of a mystery, it didn't feel like that of Heaven but it felt frenzied and filled with madness. Although from what he knew about it, this madness wasn't true madness but knowledge. A large amount of knowledge that the will seemed very eager to share with all who came into contact with it. It included the true meaning of nearly every path, to the making of everything that existed. The will would feed all who came into contact with it this information at once, and to make it worse its knowledge seemed infinite or if not infinite it was close.
This is the understanding that had pushed his attainment in this path to Master level. He could now understand some of this knowledge, something in him told his so, but he still didn't dare to touch the will since the information it had wasn't a little but was about everything and he couldn't handle it.
While Tian Zheng was lost in thought, Yi Chen had an outstretched arm with two gu worms in it. Tian Zheng had just asked him a question and before he could answer his eyes glazed over and he started looking at nothing. At first Yi Chen had wanted to know how long he could stay like that but for the past half hour his curiosity had turned into confusion. 'He`s barely sixteen what is it that can cause him to be lost in his mind for that long.' He had tried shaking, hitting and even splashing him with water but nothing worked.
He saw as his hand pulled his hair once more and reached to stop it. When he pulled it from his hair, he saw as the boy`s mind came bac to him and as if he was used to this, "I'm sorry, I seemed to have gotten lost in my mind again." What surprised Yi Chen wasn't that this was a normal occurrence but that pulling his arm from his hair is what had woken him up.
"No worries, here take these but make sure to return them when we are done with this. This is the fire funnel gu. It is activated with any other gu to create a sort of incomplete killer move that amplifies the power of the gu and this is the lightning whip gu worm. It creates a whip made of lighting." They are both rank 3 gu so I think they will help you. When Tian Zheng placed them inside his aperture he made sure that they wouldn't touch any of the two extreme sides. They landed inside the circle that had been formed due to the False Seal gu. They seemed to be afraid of either side and wouldn't wander away causing a sense of relief to well up.
"Now that you are equipped, let's get this inheritance and we can leave this place." Yi Chen had heard the faint sound of explosions coming from the direction of the Great Palisades causing him great pressure to finish his part fast. They rushed to where the beast lay and found it awake. It seemed to have been awake for some time and was waiting for the two. It was long and had scales like that of a fish, they filled everywhere but its eyes and underbelly. Its eyes seemed to have a protective film that was transparent while its underbelly had a thick hide. On its four short feet were sharp but short claws. Its tail was half its size and its mouth, which was covered by thin scales that opened up was filled with sharp teeth with the canines sticking out among them.
"Its most likely poisonous, so be careful of any cuts or grazes." The quite voice of the ginger child rang out as he started stating what he knew. "It is fast on its feet, can crawl and when forced to the scales on its back are discarded and insect like wings grow from its back. Its tail also has a retractable spine that is filled with venom." When he was done the only thought in Tian Zheng`s mind was one. 'This thing is an abomination to nature.'
The two hadn't fought together or practiced with each other- which at this point, Tian Zheng realized how stupid that was. They had instead divided the monster. Tian Zheng who had greater fire power would attack its front while Yi Chen took care of the spiked tail, making sure it never reached Tian Zheng. When Tian Zheng had destroyed the brain of the creature, they would join hands and fight the body for to truly kill this abomination both brain and heart had to be killed or else in a matter of days it would regenerate that which was lost.
With a nod the battle begun. Tian Zheng activated the fire wave gu shooting a fireball towards its eyes to get its attention and hopefully injure or irritate its eyes. When the fire grew close, however, a powerful wind appeared that knocked the fireball away and it would have been saved if he hadn't sent another fire ball its way. This hit it on its snout causing the flames to enter the noses trills and would have burnt them if thin scales hadn't appeared to close the noses trills protecting them.
Tian Zheng didn't delay and sent a small blade of fire towards its midsection which it had expose so as to appear intimidating. As it grew closer he saw as a layer of water armor appeared the moment it was close protecting it. He rushed towards it and with hands covered in flames, he placed one on it burning it and at the same time he activated the new and improved frog wart gu. A black thin shield appeared, causing the flames that were about to spread to be eaten up. It grew but reached a point, where the fire was consumed fully and with a flex of his will he made the shield destroy itself leaving an ink like mark on the scale. When the mark appeared, the creature grew frantic but slowly grew peaceful and a light of mocking appeared in its eyes. This didn't discourage Tian Zheng however, since he knew what would happen in a few minutes.
He continued with his strategy, letting the golden flames spread for a moment before they were consumed by the black shield. When he did it for the third time the creature grew suspicious and an armor made of water appeared around one of the ink marks. However, the water armor was consumed by the mark and it grew a little. Panic crept in its eyes as many more armors appeared around the three marks but this led to them spreading after consuming the armors.
He saw this and activated one of the new gu worms, which caused a whip of lightning to appear in his hand. He flicked his wrist once, onto a place filled with the mark and in the surprised and fearful eyes of the frozen creature the scales there broke and the mark sunk inside. It could feel its body being consumed and the mark spreading, this caused the fear to transform into rage and the confusion fueled the rage and with its mouth wide open, it leaped towards Tian Zheng. He didn't stand by and wait, he activated the lightning feet gu and with a leap of effort he willed the ability of the gu wo carry him in the air where he found himself above the creature`s head. As if on que, the Heavens let out a sound as if they had been enraged. Before he could be caught up in the righteous fury that was about to descend, he activated the lightning feet gu and run leaving the foreign Dao marks on top of its head.
When the effect ended he leaped away from the head and turned while in the air in time to watch as golden lightning passed through its open mouth towards the ground and before a sound of pain could escape from it, other bolts fell on it. They created holes on its head and in one of those holes was the brain. It had been fried by heaven, when he landed, hard, he didn't miss the felling of the Dao marks that were eating their way towards the heart being destroyed by a small charge from the lightning. It felt like he was the one who had been hit by the lightning, although weaker. What caused a smile on his face was the sight of the creature falling on the ground. He even saw Yi Chen looking around in surprise. He let out a small laugh when he realized what had happened.
When the lightning of Heaven had fallen to destroy the Dao marks, it had entered the body of the creature and the ones that destroyed the Dao marks created by the frog wart gu, had been so close to the heart of the creature that its heart had just stopped due to the muscles being damaged. Heaven had just given the creature a heart attack. When Yi Chen came to ask the reason for its death, he was greeted by a very happy Tian Zheng. "Had you already destroyed its heart?" this caused the confused ginger to just nod his head. This earned him a small smile from the cold boy.