Kao Dao Ji's expression could not help but twist.
"That woman. She's trying to extort me!" He frowned. Over the past decade, he had accrued only a limited understanding of Wisdom Path, elevating himself to 'Ordinary.'
Unfortunately, his Cloud Path Attainment was not high enough to mimic such a distant Path proficiently, whereas his Wisdom Path methods were flawed.
Centering on the use of Clouded Thoughts Gu and its family, however, would only be like pouring fuel on the flame in this situation.
"Of course, the situation is not deadly yet. I can already tell; this is the kind of Tribulation that burns my foundation to sustain itself. When my aperture runs out of Clouded Thoughts, the Tribulation will lose all its might."
Still, it would be like saying that you would not be killed if you lost your job, you would just lose your health insurance and revenue.
"Even so. This whole thing reeks of SC, the Tribulation is too stacked. And it attacks my foundation most perfectly, moreover..."
He turned his gaze towards Kao Yu Hun.
Kao Yu Hun appeared before one of the clouds. He unleashed an uppercut to hit it in the jaw, before moving a thousand steps away, before a mist of Clouded Thoughts could touch him.
Followed by this, he moved his body nimbly, barely evading two blasts of Sun's Shine blasts.
A river stream slowly took shape, like tears in the eyes of those dragons; they slowly flew out, descending towards its lower body.
And as this happened, its lower body was rapidly painted.
The tail and the rest of the dragon's body took shape before his very eyes; it looked like a moving fluid, like wet ink.
Those dragons moved towards Kao Yu Hun, whose body was surrounded by energy, lighting armor covered his body as he threw a lariat.
Beheading the dragon in one sweeping motion.
But the dragon exploded into countless bits.
Unleashing even more of that terrifying mist.
Kao Yu Hun's body blurred, mimicking Space Path he teleported a few meters away.
Still, there was cold sweat on his forehead.
"Kao Yu Hun is a brawler who uses speed, maneuvering, and explosive force to fight.
However, he cannot exert himself fully. He can only vaguely hit his opponent before retreating cowardly, for his Wisdom Path defenses are not strong enough to defend himself from the aftereffects."
The strongest of the three by far, the brawler could only fight by employing hit-and-run tactics!
Needless to say, his effective force decreased a lot.
At that, he could only let out a deep sigh.
He knew that due to his actions, he was bound to be discovered quickly by Heaven's Will; still, only around a year had passed in the outside world, and he had already been discovered.
Which made him suspect.
How long would it take before he was uncovered by the Clan, too?
Resolve appeared in his face; he could not afford to lose his strength or momentum if he wanted to live. He needed to gain strength quickly.
Bai Lin Hua, who was dodging desperately,y had a wide smirk appearing in her face as she finally received the desired message.
"What was taking you so long? The poor me has barely been able to keep herself alive, while you, the one we are protecting, have remained still like a statue.
Do you hate me that much?"
But then, her expression changed.
"Good stuff." She muttered, 'Culture Makes One Wise' appeared in her vision.
Of course, she was able to access all the knowledge regarding Kao Yun Yun's inheritance, after all, it was forbidden from being transmitted to outsiders, but technically speaking, she was no longer one.
Her eyes darted across the rest of the inheritance, whilst she avoided an attack.
Still. It grazed her; she let out a groan.
"Kao Dao Ji, reinforce me! I need time to process this. Once I do. I think I can solve this." Bai Lin Hua shouted.
Kao Dao Ji expression grew resolute.
His resolve hardened, and he readied himself for the battle he knew would happen since a decade ago.
His body flew at a rapid speed.
Whereas from his fingertips, a continuous amount of micro clouds rapidly took shape and multiplied freely, flying like a dozen of tiny stars.
They surged like meteors heading towards the army of dragons.
The dragons huffed and pushed the microclouds away, but Kao Dao Ji chuckled.
Unlike before, the insides were heavily reinforced, so it would not be so easy to shatter them again.
With a subtle movement, he changed the trajectory, moving it towards another dragon.
As it moved, the dragons turned their gaze towards this trajector,y using that small chance, Kao Dao Ji struck deadly.
Steam gathered in his fingertips, followed by sparkles of light which were amplified by his Cloud Dao Marks.
Lighting surged, piercing through the heaven,s aiming at the mouth of a dragon who was about to attack Kao Yu Hun with a Sun's Shine Blast.
The attack exploded right in its mouth, destroying the dragon in an instant.
Kao Dao Ji fighting spirit surged.
However, a dozen of dragons slithered towards him.
Moving in erratic circular patterns, slowly moving around him.
While moving from their claws, Sunny Thoughts gathered the energy, which this time was less powerful but sharper, like razor blades.
Kao Dao Ji concentrated fully.
[Cloud Field] [Cloud Field] [Cloud Field]
Repeatedly, he activated the Gu, whilst also hardening and turning it into an oval-like silver shield.
The shield spun around, blocking the attacks, but the intensity of the moves produced countless cracks in the shield.
Kao Dao Ji could only block and avoid desperately; his strength was far too lacking.
Suddenly.
One of the dragons swung its tail from which tyrannical waves of water descended like a waterfall.
Kao Dao Ji amplified the defenses as much as he could muster.
[Cloudfield!] [Cloudfield!] [Cloudfield!]
But soon he was overwhelmed.
A cocoon rapidly took shape around him as his body submerged into the deep waters.
His body descended like a falling star towards the ocean in his aperture.
Kao Yu Hun's expression changed as he witnessed this.
He disengaged from a dragon he was fighting, and rapidly hurried towards him.
Kao Dao Ji's cocoon hit the ocean.
The 'water' pressure from above collided with the sea underneath, but like an egg that seemed soft and frail when struck from one side, but hard like steel when enduring force from two opposite sides, it surprisingly held on.
Even so.
Amidst the moisture, several drops entered into his 'safe haven.'
His brain was bombarded with countless of painful memories, like the death of his grandfather or that of his pets.
There was not only the psychological impact, but also another thing that was not part of the Gu's effect that took place.
As his brain slowly got inflated and grew in size, as if he had hydrocephalus.
At that, Kao Dao Ji had only one answer.
With his body trembling, still stuck in the dark place, he managed to summon a couple of Gu's.
To slash at his own head and brain.
His whole being trembled and blurred.
Like a projector that was damaged, or a burned-out bulb.
The very composition of his body was, in essence, illusory; it was only his will given shape.
As long as enough of him remained, he could save himself.
With this idea, countless of green drops mended the wounds of his brain while Kao Dao Ji slashed at his brain again and again and again.
Until seven seconds later, the cocoon finally shattered.
Kao Dao Ji glanced at his surroundings; he was around 200 meters depth under the sea.
But then his eyes widened as his still falling body could see a dragon opening its mouth widely to devour him.
Kao Dao Ji raised his palm.
Using his Heavenly Power mixed with the power of Gu, he changed the nature of the surrounding water.
[Cloud Dissolving Acid!]
The body of the dragon rapidly dissolved like ice inside warm water.
But before this could take place.
It unleashed a primal scream.
A massive explosion took place as the steam and clouds stretched around the seas, a wave that passed through Kao Dao Ji completely.
And as it did, he could feel his mind growing numb.
Not only that, but his senses were affected; he could no longer see or hear properly, it was all a blurring mess, even his Land Spirit perception was heavily restricted.
…
Unbeknownst to him, a few hundred meters away, several Sun's Shine Blasts were taking full shape and were about to reach him.
Yet-
Kao Yu Hun arrived, and he rescued him and brought him away.
Being suddenly grabbed confused Kao Dao Ji ,but then he realized who it was.
But his expression grew heavy as he felt the thunderous explosions reaching his previous location.
Sweat appeared on his forehead; even though he did not think he would have died so easily, he would have gotten heavily wounded.
And who knew what would come afterwards.
Especially now that his senses were still affected.
Kao Yu Hun moved his body nimbly in the air.
Doing his absolute best to evade the countless of dragon clouds that were swarming around.
Those dragons had taken the opportunity when he was rescuing Kao Dao Ji to position around him; he was completely surrounded with no way out.
Even so, Kao Yu Hun would still be able to counterattack.
But not when he was carrying such a heavy burden.
And so, the situation grew more and more desperate, he continuously cycled his brain with healing methods whilst Kao Dao Ji regained his senses.
In one of the many turns, Kao Yu Hun found an opening to escape.
However, before he could leave, a dragon appeared in between.
It let out a similar primal scream, sending another confusing wave.
Kao Yu Hun's senses were warped ever so slightly, whilst Kao Dao Ji, who was already half-recovered, was pushed into an even worse state.
Worse than that, another surrounding dragon also prepared itself to immolate.
Kao Yu Hun managed to evade it, but in the process, he was forced to collide force with force against a Sun's Shine Beam, and once more, his brain slowly got ignited.
The situation grew more and more desperate, and hesitation appeared in Kao Dao Ji's face.
Should I rip my aperture?
As a Land Spirit, he had the ability to remove parts of his aperture.
However, the process was like cutting one of his limbs; worse, he could not regrow any of the cut parts.
He would lose several pieces of land, alongside hundreds of his Dao Marks; however, as long as he isolated the right parts, he could save himself.
But just as this thought reached him.
A cold wave shot around them.
The neighboring dragon froze in its tracks.
Suddenly, it tilted its body and stared hatefully at the dragon on its left.
The dragon tilted its head, confused, seemingly asking.
'What is wrong, brother?'
Its expression changed as the dragon bit its throat, the dragon let out an unwilling scream before 'perishing.'
Kao Yu Hun observed the scene with shock before turning his gaze towards the approaching Bai Lin Hua, whose eyes were shining in intense purple.