Walking on thin ice

Gu Guangzhi's was busy preparing for his next match. It was on the twentieth of October. There were only a few days before then. It could be said that Gu Guangzhi was quite satisfied with his use of Rock burst Gu but it's continuous usage had a lot of impact of Gu Guangzhi's body. Every time he used it, his body was under a lot of stress. Though he had a strength path dao marks carved onto his body with his Rank 2 Mountain bear Innate strength Gu, it was barely enough to cope up with the stress generated from the rock bursts. After every session, he would resort to using Bamboo stalk Gu multiple times. Gu Guangzhi feared that a day would come when his Bamboo stalk Gu would become inactive due to excessive usage. Therefore, Gu Guangzhi was looking for ways to adapt to the use of Rock burst Gu.

He initially thought of a way but soon rejected it. It was to refine the Mountain bear Innate strength Gu to Rank 3. With his master level attainment in refinement, it was possible to attempt this. However, if he successfully refined this strength path gu insect to Rank 3, it would start carving more and more strength path dao marks on to his body. He had already decided to cultivate the earth path and even modified his vital gu. Now if he started cultivating the strength path, his future prospects may be hindered due to conflicting dao marks. After much consideration, he decided to tackle this problem in another way.

He was being limited by the fragility of the human body, so why not use Rock burst Gu after transforming into a beast? The body of a beast was inherently tougher than a human body but it wasn't exactly suitable to use Rock burst Gu. The flexibility of the human form was much more suited for its usage. Suddenly Gu Guangzhi had a flash of inspiration. Why not create a killer move that can help him transform into a human-beast hybrid? He went into deep thought about his Ground bear transformation.

The next day, early in the morning, Gu Guangzhi set out to the market. He made lots of purchases for his refinement experiments. Those owners who were diligent enough to open early in the morning felt happy about the profits. They were sure to rub in the faces of their competition who missed out due to opening late. Some owners sighed but didn't linger on that topic. Gu Guangzhi wasn't the only big shark in the sea. The gu competition brought several such sharks to Jia city. Every few days, they would find a gu master who spent most of their earnings from the competition in the market.

A few hours passed and the market was in high spirits again. It seemed like another shark had entered the market. But there were some confusion on the merchant's faces. The person who was making large purchases was the same person that came in the morning. People following the gu competition closely, quickly identified the person to be Gu Guangzhi. He looked a bit disheveled and beat up. People wondered what kind of trouble he got in before his next match. Gu Guangzhi made lots of purchases again and went back to continue his experiments. This pattern continued for a few more times. Every time Gu Guangzhi went to the market, he looked more and more bleak. Everyone figured out that he was trying to refine some kind of transformation path gu insect and Gu Guangzhi was failing repeatedly.

Refinement was inherently dangerous and Gu Guangzhi's task of modifying his killer move rapidly had it's toll. Gu Guangzhi exhausted all his winnings from the gu competition and gained many injuries due to refinement. He used Bamboo stalk Gu countless times during this entire process. Jia Fu, who kept tabs on all his people, became worried about Gu Guangzhi's condition and asked Yu Wen Zi to interfere. However, Yu Wen Zi shook his head and refused, "He has made his choice and he is putting his life on the line to stick to that choice. As a Rank 3 gu master, he has surpassed me in the path of cultivation but still respects me as his teacher. The least I can do is respect his choice." Jia Fu grumbled after hearing that and left.

Soon it was the twentieth of October. Yu Wen Zi woke Gu Guangzhi up who was sleeping soundly. He looked too weak to continue in the tournament. However, when Yu Wen Zi asked him if he wanted to admit defeat before fighting, he simply smiled and made his way to the arena. Tan Hu, Gu Guangzhi's opponent for this round, was delighted to see Gu Guangzhi in such a frail condition. He felt that victory was in his grasp but the glint in Gu Guangzhi's eyes troubled him.

Tan Hu spoke to Gu Guangzhi, "I heard that you spent hundreds of thousands of primeval stones on refining some gu insect. I hope you succeeded because I intend to take it off your corpse after this battle."

Gu Guangzhi chuckled. He would've shot some kind of comeback at Tan Hu but he looked too tired to say anything. Tan Hu's confidence rose to another level after this. Soon the match started. Tan Hu rushed towards Gu Guangzhi to attack but Gu Guangzhi lazily created a seat using Turn Rock Gu and sat down. Tan Hu was infuriated at this disrespect shown towards him. He created a dense blade of wind using his Rank 2 Wind scythe Gu and intended to finish him off quickly but a huge water wolf appeared out of Gu Guangzhi's head band and blocked his wind blade using Rank 3 Water veil Gu.

"Enslavement!?", Tan Hu showed ridicule on his face. "Did you think that this single beast would be able to protect you from me?" The water wolf shot a flood of water at Tan Hu using Rank 3 River flood Gu. Tan Hu felt the strong flood of water directed at him but he used a killer move of his own, Rank 3 Hurricane blades to deflect and defend himself.

"Ha!", Tan Hu mocked Gu Guangzhi. "Do you think such straight forward attacks from a beast will be enough to compete with a master like me? It seems, I've put you on a pedestal all this while. You are nothing but an insect that will soon be crushed by my wind blades." Saying so, Tan Hu started attacking the water wolf.

"Alright! I didn't want to use my water wolf in this gu competition and focus on improving my own skills but I'm too tired today. Let's end this quickly."

Tan Hu wanted to retort by saying, "The only thing that's going to end quickly is your life!" But he swallowed his words as he saw hundreds of grass wolves formed when Gu Guangzhi used his killer move 'Alphas among wolves.'