Ch 15 – Beast Emperors

Kaleido slowly walked forward, grabbing all of the Gu along the way and putting them inside his space bubble. While doing so, his eyes glimmered brighter and brighter as he approached the rare time path Gu in the far distance.

Its appearance was similar to a caterpillar, with a long body and many legs. But what makes it unique was its white body and subtle dim glow that illuminated the area around it. Unlike the other Gu around it, it seemed to have noticed Kaleido's presence and actively approached him, bewildering the young boy.

'Quite strange, but a welcome surprise.' Kaleido approached the Gu in response.

Extending his hand out, the caterpillar slowly crawled onto his open palm without any hint of fear. From his aperture, he manipulated the green copper primeval essence and invaded the will of the white caterpillar, replacing it with his own and refining the Gu.

"A Rank 2 time path Gu, huh?" Kaleido scratched his chin and stared at the unmoving white caterpillar in his hand.

While it was indeed quite the lucky find, it was pretty much useless if he doesn't know its effect. But if he wanted to try it out, then just like his space path Gu, its effect might be amplified to an absurd degree.

'Space and Time are two concepts that are akin to two sides of the same coin. If my black markings alleviate the effects of space path Gu, then theoretically speaking, the white markings on my body would do the same for time path Gu.'

While Kaleido did take some risks before to identify the effect of his current set of Gu, times were different now. He doesn't need this time path Gu and can take his time to identify it later with the aid of a deeper foundation in knowledge about the world of Gu once he arrives at Lo Clan City.

Why should he take an unnecessary risk when there's a safer alternative? Kaleido wasn't an impatient fool and was more than okay to wait for days, weeks, or even months to identify the effect of this mysterious unknown Gu if that means his life would be perfectly safe.

'Though there is a problem with this time path Gu…' Kaleido raises his palm that held the white caterpillar to eye level. 'What does it feed on? While Gu at higher ranks does have bigger intervals between their feeding session, I still do need to feed it many times a week.'

Kaleido sighs and tossed it into his space bubble Gu… but it didn't work. As if repulsed by this Gu, it bounced back out and wasn't able to enter the spatial membrane of the space bubble that floated right beside Kaleido.

'Yep, just like I expected. Space Bubble can't contain Gu of higher rank because it contains lower traces of dao on its body.' Kaleido sighed and grabs the white caterpillar that fell to the ground and stored it inside his aperture instead.

'If it dies, it dies.' Kaleido resolutely accepted the current reality and continued to gather his other loot. Unfortunately, just like the mysterious Rank 2 time path Gu, he was unable to store Gu of higher ranks into his space bubble and left them to die.

Even if he does store them in something like a bag, they would eventually starve to death and he will be left with nothing but dead Gu. This was one of the biggest flaws of his space bubble, and unfortunately for Kaleido, he has no way to resolve this flaw at the current moment other than finding the higher rank version of Space Bubble Gu, which is more improbable.

But even with all the higher-ranked Gu left to starve, there were still plenty of Rank 1 Gu in the surrounding area. After a long while, he finally gathered them all and Kaleido stood up from his crouching position with a loud groan.

"Sigh, it's already sunrise?" Kaleido stared at the sky dyed orange and shook his head.

Dismissing his space bubble, he stretches his tired and aching body around before disappearing with a flash of void black light. In the next moment, he was inside the forest and disappeared once again, continuously appearing and disappearing from one place to another with each point being hundreds of steps away from one another.

Eventually, Kaleido stopped at the peak of a small hill with relatively fewer trees. There, he inspected his aperture where a certain Gu can be seen glowing dimly and having its light flicker in and out.

'Sigh, if I use Space Step Gu too much, it would slowly be overexerted and break, so I have to manage its usage efficiently if I don't want it to break. Fortunately for me, its recovery speed is pretty fast and I can start teleporting again after a few minutes. But before that, I think it would be fine if I eat breakfast already.'

Kaleido crouched on the ground and leaned back on a tree. With a pop, his void black space bubble appeared once again and he pulled out some cooked meat and fruits from it. Due to its nature of having zero time passed inside its pocket space, Kaleido doesn't have to worry about his food going bad or feeding the immense amount of Gu stored within it.

'Though if it does have the passage of time inside it, then wouldn't it have the theoretical needs to form a small world?' Kaleido suddenly wondered before shaking his head and focusing on eating swiftly. The faster he gets to Lo Clan City, the more he can learn about the world of Gu and hasten his progress.

It was already a miracle he can reach this far by brute-forcing his way through his cultivation and Gu problems, but he knew that while it was working now, it would inevitably fail later on. He wasn't a novel's main character and have heaven-defying luck, what he needs was information that can be used to lead to success.

Ignorance is his current greatest weakness. If he manages to solve it, then with time, success would be within reach if he were to persevere and work hard.

After a short break, Kaleido stands up once again and was about to head out, when all of a sudden.

"Caw!" an ear-piercing sound erupted from high above, and the trees all around him shook from the ridiculous wind pressure that appeared from nowhere.

He stared at the sky with surprise and was greeted by a creature larger than the small hill he was on. It was a crane-like beast, with air and clouds surrounding its entire body. It had white and green feathers all around, while its eyes were a deep emerald green color.

'Beast Emperor?!' Kaleido stepped back subconsciously from the sheer shock. But as he was staring at the beast in a daze, another shocking thing happened.

From the clouds, another crane of the same species appeared, though a bit smaller compared to the first one. It almost caused Kaleido to shout in shock, but he held it in and hid below the tree he was previously leaning on and stared at the two beast emperors in the sky in a daze.

Bam!

The two crane beast emperors charged at each other. Clouds and wind twisted and turned, producing fierce winds and trails of clouds. The fight between the two beast emperors shook Kaleido, and he watched with shining eyes.

But as he was watching in peace, the attack of the first crane beast emperor flew towards the small hill he was on, causing Kaleido to curse and teleport away with a burst of void black light.

Though unexpectedly, that splotch of black light seemed to have caught the attention of the two beast emperors and they stopped attacking each other. Instead, they moved their attention towards another small hill in the distance where Kaleido appeared.

"CAW!"

Seeing Kaleido, the two screeched and flapped their wings in tandem. Fierce winds blew towards Kaleido, shocking him at the sudden attack of the two beast emperors.

'What did I do to you two?!' Kaleido clenched his fist and extended his hand outward. While doing so, the Formless Barrier Gu inside his aperture shone brightly, and an invisible hand many times the size of Kaleido formed in front of him, blocking the winds of the two beast emperors.

The two beast emperors on the other hand flew closer with a burst of speed, leaving behind trails of wind and white clouds behind them. One sent out blades of wind, while the other shoot out ropes of white clouds.

"You want to kill me, huh?! Then so be it!" Kaleido gnashed his teeth at the sudden conflict he himself wanted to have no part in and summoned a void black knife in his hand.

Wave fractured and warped with a swing of his knife, wind pressure fought against wind pressure, creating a cataclysmic effect that destroyed the surrounding forest. Trees toppled down as the clouds in the sky were pushed away by the sharp winds.

While that was happening, the ropes of clouds charged forward swiftly and agilely, dodging the boorish attacks of Kaleido's space knife and approaching him rapidly. But as it did so, the cloud ropes smashed against the invisible barrier surrounding Kaleido's body, causing the cloud ropes to disperse into white fog.

On the other hand, Kaleido teleported swiftly from one place to another in the air. His mind was continuously strained as he had to think at insane speeds where everything else seemed to have gone to a standstill. Not only does he have to teleport, but he also has to meticulously control Formless Barrier Gu so that he can float in the air, while also having to deal with the surge of information brought by Spatial Domain Gu, and dodging with Space Step Gu.

And while the situation was indeed stressful, Kaleido grinned as his combat skills rapidly rose. He ingrained his fighting skills into his body, forcefully adapting his own body and mind to strenuous situations and fights so that his battle strength can rapidly rise to another level entirely.

'Killer Move—Displaced Slash!' Kaleid shouted inside his mind and swung his knife. Inside his aperture, two of his Gu shone brightly and a void black line appeared in the far distance directly on the body of the smaller beast emperor.

Displaced Slash not only moves the coordinate of his attack to another point in space, it even maximizes the raw destructive power of his uncontrollable Space Knife Gu into a single swift cut, giving it tremendous killing power that by Kaleido's estimates: 'Not even Rank 5 defensive Gu can defend from my displaced slash!'

Just like he expected, there was indeed a Rank 5 defensive Gu on the smaller crane beast emperor's body. With a burst of green light, a barrier of condensed wind went to block his sudden attack due to the sheer survival instinct of the Wild Gu living on the beast's body, but unfortunately for the beast, displaced slash was simply too strong.

From its neck, a bloody red line slowly appeared just like in a dramatic death moment in an anime. As Kaleido expected the beast's head to fall to the ground, a sudden change occurred and bright green-white light erupted, covering the crane beast emperor's body from head to toe.

Like a fucking miracle, the bloody line on the crane's head disappeared completely, and it shouted loudly with bloodlust and anger: "WRRRYYY!"

"THE FUCK?!" Kaleido shouted out his shock and frustration while tightly gripping his space knife. Displaced Knife, while strong and powerful, requires a lot of concentration and skill to execute, and having to dodge and defend from the constant barrages of the two beast emperors meant that his previous displaced slash attack was executed under so much pressure.

Seeing all of his effort and concentration go to waste, Kaleido grits his teeth and charges forward.

"You really wanna fight to the death? Then come at me, you reviving cranes! I'll kill you over a hundred times if I have to!"

AN: This chapter has 2027 words.

I was planning on deleting those No Chapters but decided not to... for now because they hold some emotional value for me.

Anywho, the main antagonist (kinda) of this volume has finally erupted with obvious killing intent.

Remember to send power stones, comment your thoughts, and build a parasocial relationship with me as I pull you in into my "stories" of warped content and twisted ideas.

(December 27, 2022 – 397th day of writing)