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 in 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 at, was actually slowly being cracked down.
No.
It was melting.
Soon, she realized that all the rain around her was giving off an 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, inwardly 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 indeed a restriction in the activation period.
But it was not because the Gu on itself had those low limits, rather was a hard limitation on her own.
Cold Soul Gu was an Immortal Gu whose effect focused in '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 clever 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 of damage to deal 1.
The only reason it was so deadly was because her own soul was dozens of times stronger than her adversaries.
Still even her had her limits, and could not sustain its activation for more than a second and 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 still remained.
Yet despite all those weakness, 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 grinded 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 shoot 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!
"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, 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 damaging his 'essence' drastically.
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 one 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 suddenly being '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 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 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 got blinded his vision would be affected, and if his brain was 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 he was in essence 'Will' brought to life.
He opened his eyes, staring at the unconscious Bai Lin Hua with a blurry visions, through his cheeks he could feel a sticky liquid coursing through, which was nothing else but blood.
From his ears and nose blood was leaking too.
He felt that his body was aching, he had nausea.
A migraine.
Yet.
Despite those feelings, the feeling which 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 plan was simply too exaggerated.
Rather, once he realized that he was outmatched he decided to take a gamble, in whether his body worked as he hoped, had his organs truly been vital, then he would have died in 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 in 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 become 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 pair of googly eyes, which 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, then he went to the jewelry 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 knew 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, is not like on those movies.
I've read that torture is actually useless, as it only forces people to talk, not to say 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 which used dozens if not hundreds of Gu's, the mental burden and difficulty in grasping them was 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 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 she scared 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, 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 Yuan 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, however once one injected Primeval Essence on it, it would shine in rainbow colors at the same time, 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 thousands away, commonly 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!