"Cough, cough, cough..."
The dust slowly settled. Lin Mu rubbed his aching shoulder—bruised from slamming into the stone wall—his brow tightly furrowed.
Just moments ago, he had activated the Dust Escape Gu once more, testing the limits of its operation and the radius of its effect.
Yet this latest humiliation didn't discourage him.
If anything, it ignited that relentless drive to master and dissect that ran bone-deep within him.
He understood clearly: any powerful technique demanded a price before it could be mastered.
Hitting walls was a minor inconvenience. Delivering himself onto an enemy's blade on a real battlefield—now that would be a joke.
"Again."
Once the air had cleared somewhat, Lin Mu drew a deep breath and once more channeled the high-grade Primeval Essence from his Aperture.
Boom!
Gray-brown smoke exploded outward again, swallowing the basement whole.
This time, Lin Mu was smarter. He didn't charge blindly.
Instead, he tried to keep his eyes wide open, flooding them with Primeval Essence, attempting to force his vision through the haze to discern direction.
But he quickly discovered this was futile.
What the Dust Escape Gu created wasn't merely ordinary dust—it was an Earth Path force field capable of refracting light and disrupting perception.
In this gray, murky world, the boundaries between up and down, left and right grew indistinct. Straining his eyes only brought waves of intense vertigo and nausea.
After barely two breaths, Lin Mu had to stop, bracing his hands on his knees as he dry-heaved.
He had completely lost his bearings—he couldn't even tell if he was facing the door or the wall.
"Vision is completely neutralized. In this force field, eyes are nothing but a liability."
Lin Mu dispersed the dust and sat cross-legged, beginning his review.
"Third attempt."
Half an hour later, having recovered some Primeval Essence, Lin Mu rose again.
This time, he closed his eyes. If sight was useless, he would feel his way with his body.
He activated the Red Mud Gu, secreting a thin membrane of mud beneath his feet, attempting to locate himself through ground vibrations and tactile feedback.
Swoosh!
His body launched into motion. This attempt was far smoother than before.
The Red Mud's tactile connection gave him control over the ground—no more stumbling. But he still couldn't execute precise attacks.
He could sense where there was ground, but not where there was a person.
As an escape technique, this was sufficient. But to transform it into a Killer Move? Far from enough.
"I need navigation. Something that doesn't require eyes—something that can lock onto an enemy in the darkness and never let go."
Lin Mu stood motionless, letting dust settle on his shoulders. His gaze slowly swept across the Gu worms within his Aperture.
The Iron Leaf Gu? No. It was purely an offensive tool.
The Swift Ant Gu? That was a power source and a component of the Earth Ring Body—it seemed to have no particular sensitivity to dust.
Finally, his eyes settled on the Blood Scent Gu coiled around his wrist—the one he normally used only as an early warning system.
"Mud controls the field. Dust provides concealment. And blood..."
A flash of inspiration struck Lin Mu's mind.
In true life-or-death combat, how could there not be blood?
As long as the enemy bled—even from the most insignificant wound—to the Blood Scent Gu's perception, that would be the most brilliant beacon in the darkest night!
"As long as there's blood, I don't need eyes."
"I only need to hide within the dust and wait patiently. And that bleeding wretch becomes my sole coordinate in the darkness."
A mad yet meticulous tactical concept rapidly took shape in his mind.
This was no longer simple Gu-stacking—it was an interlocking combo system, each link feeding into the next.
Lin Mu licked his cracked lips, a feverish gleam flickering in his eyes.
"Thinking alone is useless. I need to practice."
No sooner thought than done.
Lin Mu immediately turned and left, purchasing from a merchant a leather sack filled with fresh pig's blood and minced meat.
He returned at once to the secret chamber and hung it in the center of the basement as his imaginary enemy.
He drew a deep breath and swiftly adjusted his state.
"Step one: create the field."
With a thought, the Red Mud Gu secreted massive quantities of slurry, instantly coating the basement floor and transforming the hard stone surface into something viscous and slippery.
This wasn't just for perception—it was to restrict the enemy's movement speed and prevent them from escaping the dust cloud's coverage.
"Step two: mark the target."
Lin Mu flicked his wrist. An iron leaf shot out, slicing open the leather sack with precision.
Hiss.
Blood flowed. The sweet, coppery scent instantly permeated the air.
"Step three... Dust Escape, activate!"
With Lin Mu's low shout, Primeval Essence surged from his Aperture like floodwaters.
Boom!
The Dust Escape Gu detonated. Thick dust instantly filled the entire basement; visibility dropped to zero.
This time, Lin Mu deliberately closed his eyes. With vision shut off, his other senses amplified infinitely.
Through the Red Mud beneath his feet came faint vibrations—the pulse of the earth itself.
And at his nostrils, that bloody scent originally mixed with the smell of dust now became unprecedentedly clear under the Blood Scent Gu's enhancement.
In Lin Mu's perception, three meters ahead, a red, heat-radiating point of light appeared.
That was the coordinate.
"Found you."
A cold smile curved Lin Mu's lips.
"Earth Ring Body—activate!"
Body followed will. He glided through the dust, the Red Mud beneath his feet no longer an obstacle but a launching pad, its vibrations now familiar allies.
He moved like a specter threading through fog—silent, traceless, yet swift as lightning.
Close in. Strike.
Slash!
The wooden blade in his hand cut through the air, landing with perfect precision at the center of that "red light."
Splat.
The leather sack split open on command, spilling minced meat and pig's blood across the floor.
Success. No wasted movement. No visual assistance whatsoever—only the perfect fusion of perception and speed.
The dust slowly settled.
Lin Mu stood in the center of the wrecked basement, gazing at the sack he'd cleaved in two, a satisfied smile spreading across his face.
But that smile lasted only an instant before a crushing wave of weakness swept it away.
His body swayed. He collapsed onto the muddy floor, gasping for breath, his face pale as paper.
"This consumption... is terrifying."
Lin Mu immediately turned his perception inward to his Aperture.
A single complete run-through of the combo—from Red Mud field control to Dust Escape detonation to Blood Scent lock-on—had taken no more than five breaths.
Yet his "pseudo-high-grade Primeval Sea"—refined by the Liquor Worm to a density that would shame his peers—had evaporated by a full forty percent.
Adding in his earlier failed attempts, his Aperture was now nearly empty.
"Five breaths. Forty percent Primeval Essence."
A brutal figure.
This meant the Killer Move was absolutely not a technique for prolonged combat. It was a trump card to be revealed only at critical moments.
Once activated, he had to end the fight within ten breaths.
If the enemy still lived after ten breaths—Primeval Essence depleted, dust dispersed—the one left standing there gasping would be the one to die.
"A three-breath real man, huh..."
Lin Mu laughed bitterly, staring at his emptied Primeval Sea, yet his eyes blazed with excitement.
The endurance was lacking, true. But within those three to five breaths, inside this gray purgatory of his own making, he was an unsolvable king of assassination at the Rank 1 level.
"As long as it kills—three breaths is enough."