Ch 32 – Fleeting Thunder

Swoosh.

In a dark hallway, a man appears all of a sudden from nowhere, wearing a black cloak that clads his entire body from head to toe.

Pausing for a moment to stare left and right, he nods his head and takes a single step.

The sound of his footsteps echoes throughout the empty and shadowy hallway, and his body blends into the shadows as if he was never there in the first place.

'The last day of the tournament…' Kaleido steps into the distant light in the hallway, the sound of cheers and excited murmurs booms throughout the entire colosseum.

"Is here."

As bright light flashes in his eyes, he adjusts his vision to the burst of bright light, and he finds himself in a vast expanse with a large white stage cemented right in the middle of the circular area.

On the bleachers were Gu Masters, normal mortals, wandering cultivators, and many more.

A myriad of people was staring at him with enamored eyes; it was as if they have seen their idol from a distance.

In a world where might makes right, a powerful expert such as Locus, the other identity of Kaleido, is a person to be revered and idolized by the masses.

Ignoring those various gazes staring right at him, he calmly walks up to the stage with steps that were neither slow nor fast.

His steps were efficient and optimized, an ability he recently gained from his intense thinking session last night.

Under the hood of his cloak and behind his mask, a small grin forms on his face as he can't hide his excitement for the upcoming match.

Step by step, he goes up the flight of stairs until he arrives on the stage itself, and that's where he saw his final opponent for the tournament.

"It's the Rank 4 lone cultivator expert, Fleeting Thunder, Hu Qiang!"

"Even a Rank 4 expert, a person who can establish his own clan, has appeared in the tournament!"

"Heh, it's only normal. Lo Clan is a super clan and has a supreme elder backing it! A Gu Immortal who is part of Lo Clan!"

"Sigh, I wonder if I'll even be able to meet a Gu Immortal in my life."

As many started to talk about the Rank 4 expert Fleeting Thunder, a new topic slowly arose.

Could Locus, the mysterious expert who came from nowhere and easily defeated his opponents, also defeat Hu Qiang?

"There's no way, right?"

"Yeah, being Rank 3 is already impressive, so there's no way that he is Rank 4!"

As many doubted that idea, Hu Qiang was sizing up the mysterious enemy in front of him with a serious gaze.

'Locus… He's adept at wielding a sword and is extremely adept at space path, perhaps he's even a master at it already. While others may not notice it, I can clearly see that he's not going all out against the others in his previous matches. It feels like he is restricting himself and not using his Gu to their fullest.' Hu Qiang's eyes squinted, and his yellow robe fluttered with the wind.

Hu Qiang was a man of average height but muscular build. His hair was black and spiky, while his yellow eyes gazed coldly at his enemy. He wore a yellow martial robe, and bandages wrapped around his forearm and hands.

'Heh, so what if he does have master attainment, the sheer difference by our cultivation ranks would make up for it!'

"So you're Locus, the mysterious expert who has been making waves all throughout Lo Clan City."

Staring at Hu Qiang for a moment, Kaleido raises his arm forward and space gathers around it to form a black blade.

'Hmm? Is he confident in his ability to fight against me?' Seeing Kaleido unfazed by his Rank 4 aura, Hu Qiang holds in his doubts and activates his Gu.

From his legs, yellow qi explodes and forms into crackling electricity that enveloped both of his legs.

Crouching down slightly, he extends out his arm to the side and activates another Gu to summon more yellow qi that solidifies into a long yellow spear.

"It's the Rank 4 Thunder Qi Spear and Rank 4 Thunder Qi Flash Steps! Even if Locus does his best, he's already toast against Fleeting Thunder's iconic Gu!"

"Mmm! He even defeated two other Rank 4 demonic path experts using those two Gu."

As he held the spear of yellow qi in his hands, he steps lightly on the ground and his figure disappears.

A loud boom erupts in the next second and he appears right in front of Locus, his spear of electricity ready to pierce Kaleido's head.

But all of a sudden, Kaleido's body also disappears, and a feeling of danger erupts from his side and his body disappears once again.

From where he was standing, a beam of black energy charged forward and fly through the air, dissipating as it moved further and further into the distance.

'Child's play!' Hu Qiang smirked.

Taking another step, his body once again appears right beside Kaleido, and his yellow spear aims for Kaleido's stomach.

Swoosh.

Just like before, Kaleido disappears away from Hu Qiang's vision, alarming him with Kaleido's ability to dodge, 'Is he reacting in advance, or is he able to keep up with my speed and respond to it perfectly? Many do say his reflexes are inhumane.'

Turning around, he sees Kaleido standing in the corner, waving his sword to produce another crescent beam of black energy.

Snorting, Hu Qiang rears back his hand and swings his arm, throwing the yellow spear forward to pierce through the air at breakneck speeds.

Piercing through the crescent beam, it charges forward toward Kaleido at a slightly slower speed compared to before.

As Hu Qiang watches Kaleido teleport once again, he hastily conjures another spear in his hand and takes a step forward.

Boom!

As the air around him explodes, he appears right in front of Kaleido who teleported to dodge the spear of yellow qi he threw.

Falling into Hu Qiang's trap, Hu Qiang smirks and prepares to stab his newly conjured spear into Kaleido's body when all of a sudden, Kaleido, whose back faced Hu Qiang, swings his arm to the empty air ahead of him with force.

Killer Move—Displaced Slash!

A black vertical line appeared right in front of Hu Qiang, alarming his intuition for danger.

Without an ounce of hesitation, he struggles and takes another step, pushing himself to the side and appearing tens of steps away in the distance.

From where the black line appeared, a loud explosion erupts and smoke billowed and gathered around the area where Kaleido was standing.

'How did he do that? How was he able to perfectly respond to my attack when it came from his back? Does he have a strong investigation type Gu? Does he have eyes on his back? Or is it pure intuition?' Hu Qiang stared at the dense cloud of dust ahead of him and clicked his tongue.

Preparing to face a sudden attack, he waits for the cloud of dust ahead of him to disappear, and he sees Kaleido standing still with a sword in hand.

'Why is he just standing there…' Hu Qiang was confused for a moment before realizing something, 'Oh! He wants to stall and wait for my primeval essence to deplete!'

As if understanding Kaleido's plan, he chuckled inside his mind and thought, 'Unfortunately for you, I have B-grade aptitude, and both Thunder Qi Flash Step Gu and Thunder Qi Spear don't use that much primeval essence in the first place!'

'Let's see if you can stall long enough before you lose!'

As Hu Qiang was about to take another step, he paused as Kaleido suddenly spoke, "Rank 4, huh."

"Perhaps you're strong enough for me to get slightly serious."

Like a switch being flicked or a sword being unsheathed, Hu Qiang's senses boomed with danger when he saw Kaleido swing his sword.

From it, a huge crescent beam many times larger and denser compared to before shoots out.

'Did he use his killer move?!' Hu Qiang swiftly dodges to the side, avoiding the black crescent beam that wanted to take his life.

As he stops, he widens his eyes to see another black crescent beam rapidly approaching him from nowhere.

Clicking his tongue, his multitude of experiences forge from numerous life-or-death situations made him throw his spear forward.

As the spear and crescent beam clashed, he charges forward through the smoke while summoning another spear from nowhere, gripping it tightly as he pokes through the cloud of dust.

'Eh?' As he found himself on the other side of the cloud of dust, he finds himself surrounded by black lines hanging in midair.

'Crap!'

Without any way to defend himself against this many attacks, he grits his teeth and uses a killer move.

Killer Move—Fleeting Thunder!

Yellow qi quickly converged and covered his body, and as the sound of crackling electricity turned louder, his body disappears from the entanglement of black lines.

Boom!

The black lines in the air quickly exploded at the same moment, attacking nothing but the empty air and flat ground as Hu Qiang manages to escape at the very last moment.

Charging through the smoke, he finally arrives right in front of Kaleido who was standing in the open space and grins, 'Fleeting Thunder allows my entire body to move as fast as thunder while accelerating my thoughts to keep up with my speed! In this state, unless you have high defense, you're already defeated!'

Holding his spear tightly, he throws it forward as the air exploded, and he shouted inwardly, 'Killer Move—Lightning's Wrath!'

As the spear he threw forward multiplied and turned many, he watch as they precisely approach the defenseless cloaked figure with a grin.

BOOM!

A loud explosion erupts while more and more dust clouded his vision, blocking his sight of Kaleido's current situation.

Just as he was about to relax, he heard a cold voice rumble, "Impressive, but things are just getting started."

Killer Move—Void Slash!

From the cloud of dust and smoke, he sensed perilous danger gush out like an endless stream, causing his hair to stand on ends.

Without a sound, a ginormous wave of darkness many meters tall appears, devouring the cloud of dust and broken rubble on the ground into its body, never to be seen again.

Feeling the danger the attack held, Hu Qiang plans to rush forward through the empty space and avoid the attack, when all of a sudden, a long horizontal line appears in the air ahead of him, blocking his path of safety.

Seeing this, Hu Qiang's eyes squinted as he gnashed his teeth, sighing, 'I didn't think I'll have to use my trump card so soon and reveal it to the world!'

Killer Move—Thunder Domain!

As a wave of yellow qi erupts from his body, the entire stage was covered by crackling electricity, and Hu Qiang's body flashed through the air.

As the spectators saw a flash of thunder fly through the air to dodge the tsunami of darkness, a loud voice bellows with anger and respect, "Hmph, be glad that you're the first to face my trump card, Thunder Domain!"

'Within this domain, all of my attacks are stronger, and if I'm also using Fleeting Thunder, I'll be able to fly in the sky without using too much primeval essence to sustain my flying state. But my primeval essence is already running dry, I need to finish this quick.'

Even though his primeval essence is almost gone, he was still confident in winning because Kaleido himself used multiple killer moves in quick succession.

'Unless he has a Gu that accelerates his ability to recover his primeval essence, he should have less primeval essence than me already!'

Snorting coldly, Hu Qiang stares down at Kaleido in the far distance and raises his hand into the air.

As yellow qi quickly converges around his hand, he activates more Gu and growls in a deep voice, "Killer Move—Lightning's Wrath!"

Throwing the bright spear of electricity forward, he manipulates it and watches as the spear splits into countless beams of light.

As they all shot forward toward Kaleido, Hu Qiang heard a soft chuckle reverberate throughout the entire stage, and an ominous feeling welled up within him.

"Killer Move—Displace Attack."

Like a cruel twist of fate, Hu Qiang watches with a gaping mouth as space warps ahead of him, and his own killer move turns toward the opposite direction—towards him!

Boom!

Fierce explosions burst forth as Hu Qiang's body was engulfed in crackling electricity and bright light.

AN: This chapter has 2123 words.

Don't ask what Gu he uses for his killer moves. I mean, if Fang Yuan used that random ass blood path Immortal Gu to transform many of his mortal blood path killer moves into immortal killer moves, it means that theoretically speaking, any Gu can reproduce any effect with enough knowledge.

Just like they say, there are no useless Gu, only useless Gu Masters.

(February 4, 2023 – 436th day of writing)