Ch 34 – White River

"Y-You! Who are you?!"

While asking the question, countless thoughts surged in Lo Bai's mind, but one thought in particular outshone all others, 'Perhaps… Perhaps I can turn this into an opportunity!'

As if influenced by the sin of greed, immense avarice started to build up within his mind, his sparkling eyes seemingly shining brighter with an ominous light.

Without wasting even a breath, Lo Bai's immeasurable experience built upon hundreds of years of living in the cruel world of Gu made him take action.

There was no hesitation, there was no doubt; activating numerous Gu inside his blessed land, an invisible cage of space covered Kaleido's body, restricting him from moving even a single muscle.

But while that happened, Kaleido remained calm as everything went just as he has expected, 'So "It" can even influence Gu Immortals; I'm not all that surprised.'

'Although it is surprising to finally learn about the true nature of the markings on my body. To think that they were actually dao marks, so that's why they seemed to be naturally aligned with the existence of Gu and can amplify their strength.' Kaleido heaved a slight sigh of relief inwardly as he finally unveiled another mystery that bothered him since he first appeared in another universe.

As he stared at the Gu Immortal helplessly influenced by "It," Kaleido inwardly snickered and thought, 'Heh, I finally outsmarted "It" for the first time and used it to finally learn of what the markings on my body meant. With my colossally deeper foundation in space path compared to Lo Bai, I would of course notice him trying to poke at the black fog covering my body, but I still let him do it so that he can reveal what the markings meant. Though it kind of fucked me over because now I'm at odds with him, sigh.'

Just as Lo Bai prepared to attack, Kaleido's body suddenly disappeared from the entrapment, shocking Lo Bai.

"As I expected, he does have methods of immortals, that's the only logical explanation he has such numerous dao marks…" Lo Bai felt wary of the situation, intending to back down for a bit and instead see where the situation will lead, but intense bouts of avarice suddenly swirled inside his mind as he gritted his teeth and said, "No, I can't let this opportunity slip away from my hands!"

Birds die for food and humans die for wealth; encountering a figure who appears to be weaker than him but has dao marks that are theoretically comparable to a quasi-Rank 9 or even a fully-fledged Rank 9 made his mind warped and thirsted for fortune.

Dismissing the risk his actions might bring, Lo Bai quickly sensed the mark he left behind on Kaleido's body and disappeared from the room.

As Kaleido opened his eyes and appeared in a faraway forest ten of kilometers away from Lo Clan City, he looked around him warily and cursed with a soft voice, "Fuck, I don't know if I'll be able to survive this… Why am I facing a Gu Immortal already when I'm only Rank 2 and have only been in this world for a few months?!"

As he prepared to teleport further away, he suddenly felt the space a few hundred meters away from him warped, and Lo Bai appeared with burning eyes!

'Crap!' Kaleido widened his eyes and hastily avoided the sudden distortion in space that appeared right ahead of him, and barely managed to dodge Lo Bai's sudden attack.

Lo Bai swiftly waved his arms, and numerous Gu were quickly activated inside his blessed land. Like a maelstrom of bullets, nigh-endless attacks originating from all kinds of paths, both complete and incomplete like water path, fire path, space path, qi path, struck out like a tidal wave, enveloping the entire area around them, and even outshining the bright light in the sky.

Swiftly teleporting and dodging, Kaleido strained his mind as his mind thought at a quickened pace where time seemed to have slowed down by many folds.

Left, right, up, down; Kaleido's body moved like a robot controlled by an AI, responding calmly to any situation and reacting accordingly.

This is the advantage brought by his immense thinking speed; being able to think at speeds where time seemed to have slowed down allowed him to fight in a calm manner, not bothered by anything that may appear as he can respond confidently and serenely.

It was like playing a videogame in slow motion and using a TAS to input your every move at every frame to produce a nigh-perfect game; it's like that, but relatively cruder as Kaleido wasn't a robot in any way.

But as time passed, Kaleido slowly noticed the latent danger that sprung up from the darkness, 'Displace Domain Gu is being strained too much! It might get broken down from overuse if things remain the same!'

As he disappeared and reappeared thousands of steps away to give himself a bit of a breather, he stared coldly at the man driven by green in the far distance and snorted with killing intent.

"I knew it, I knew it! You only have Rank 3 Gu at your disposal, but they're like Rank 6 Gu under your possession! At the very least, they must be 300x stronger!" Lo Bai's voice was hoarse and full of chaotic emotions like a demon out for blood.

"If I were to have you, I would be able to refine perhaps numerous Immortal Gu already!"

As Lo Bai's killing intent leaked out, he waved his arm and thought, 'Killer Move—Flame Tsunami!'

Like a tidal wave of hellish flames, blazing hot fire quickly expanded forward like a hungry beast, pouncing towards Kaleido who was thousands of steps away.

In response, Kaleido stretched out his arm and manifested a black blade that let out a cold hum, raised his arm to the sky, and muttered, "I haven't gone all out since back then, so I wonder how strong I am now that I'm Rank 2?"

Killer Move-Void Slash!

As if all light was absorbed by the colossal blade of darkness that erupted, Lo Bai stared with gawking eyes at the void-black darkness that engulfed the sky and clouds and felt danger.

'Hmph, your inexperienced reeks through.' Snorting coldly, Lo Bai hurriedly activated more Gu inside his blessed land and muttered, "Killer Move—Spear Piercing Space!"

At lightning speeds, an invisible spear quickly charged forward and, before Kaleido could even notice what was happening as he focused on maintaining his killer move to avoid a backlash, a gaping hole appeared on his stomach and his innards and flesh were completely erased from existence.

'Eh?' As the colossal tower of darkness above him turned unstable, he puked out blood from his mouth as his killer move was successfully disrupted, and a booming shockwave surged forward, catapulting him with potent force toward the ground.

Considering he was the nearest to the epicenter of the explosion, Kaleido was the person who suffered the most from the failure of his killer move.

But he had an advantage, and that was that he had nigh-infinite time to think. As he was rapidly descending towards the ground that the wind that brushed against his body felt like liquid, he activated a Gu with difficulty and watched with amazement as all of his wounds rapidly healed in mere moments.

Just as he was about to hit the ground, his body disappeared with a burst of dim black light and reappeared thousands of steps away once again.

Before he could even rest, Kaleido watched as Lo Bai charged forward once again as flames wrapped around his body, flying at speeds that were just below the speed of sound.

As a Gu Immortal, Lo Bai has access to thousands or perhaps even tens of thousands of Gu, holds unlimited primeval essence, and can activate numerous killer moves in quick succession without facing too much of a hassle.

Flying through the air at breakneck speeds, Kaleido snorted coldly and went ahead to firmly fixed the flaw that was exploited by Lo Bai mere moments ago.

Upon activating Space Blade Gu once again, Kaleido swiftly swung it in one swift slash and used more of his Gu in tandem.

Killer Move—Displaced Slash!

In Lo Bai's vision, he suddenly saw black lines fill his field of vision, and his danger sense flared up with a loud warning akin to facing the full-powered attack of a desolate beast.

As he teleported away, Kaleido smirked as he swung his blade swiftly once again before Lo Bai's body can even fully materialize at another point in space.

Displaced Slash!

When Lo Bai saw the black line hanging in midair greet him, he instead smirked and let out a low chuckle.

Killer Move—Delayed Teleportation!

Like clockwork, his body disappeared.

'Huh?' Kaleido widened his eyes from this unexpected move when all of a sudden, he felt a hand pierce through his chest, and he saw a beating heart in his periphery vision.

'H-How?' Kaleido struggled to turn his neck and saw the cold face of Lo Bai staring right at him with a smirk.

"You're just as inexperienced as I thought, you don't even know of the vast mystical array of abilities Gu hold."

'I-I see…' Kaleido immediately understood how Lo Bai successfully sneak attacked him as his senses returned to normal.

'It seems like he used a split killer move to make me not notice it, slowly dulling my senses, specifically my spatial awareness, and teleported right behind me in a split-second to finish me…' Kaleido squinted his eyes, revealing a respectful smile.

"You really are deserving of the title of a Gu Immortal. Your battle strategy was beautiful…" Kaleido praised sincerely.

Surprise to hear his praise, Lo Bai seemed to regain a bit of rationality and said, "I suppose you're not as stupid as you look."

As his body slid off Lo Bai's hand, he stared coldly as Kaleido's body fell toward the ground, and a trail of blood was left behind in the air like a beautiful river of scarlet wine.

'So this is it…' Kaleido smiled gently as his body approached the green forest below him at a rapid pace, unperturbed by his injuries and the great amount of pain he felt.

Kaleido felt numb, detached; as if the body that lost its heart wasn't him but another person altogether.

His detachment from reality and his serene "heart" slowly made him enter a trance, and the vision appeared once again inside his mind.

It was an indescribable scenery where colors and shapes mixed and intertwined in chaos and order; shapes that shouldn't be possible were there, colors that Kaleido's mind has never seen before were there.

After a short pause, he opened his eyes that shone with brilliance, and he exhaled sharply.

Activating Mend Space Gu, his body quickly healed itself; veins and tissue started to regenerate in less than a second, mending his missing heart and ribcage, until finally, he was fully healed.

'This is where my last stand plays, and whether I manage to live or die.'

Quickly turning around in midair, a black blade quickly manifested in his right hand, but he didn't stop there. In less than a second, multiple Gu were activated in quick succession, and the black blade expanded into a ginormous swat of darkness, engulfing the forest below it.

'DISPLACED VOID SLASH!'

A big black line many meters wide and tens of meters long appeared, engulfing the lower half of Lo Bai's body who barely managed to dodge the attack at the very last second, and stared at Kaleido with murderous eyes.

'DIE!'

Akin to an explosion of countless fireworks, a barrage of attacks engulfed Kaleido's entire body as he struggled to heal his wounds, falling down onto the ground like a ragdoll with charred flesh and missing limbs.

Standing up with difficulty, he healed back his wounds and hurriedly ran through the forest in a desperate attempt to survive, 'A mortal's final attempt at escaping a Gu Immortal; my Displace Domain Gu is already broken, and all of my remaining Space Step Gu is also broken. Blade Space Gu is already full of cracks, and it was only due to it being my Vital Gu that it's still alive. Only Formless Bubble Gu is in relatively good shape, but that's because I toned down its usage because blocking too many attacks would break it apart in seconds if I faced Lo Bai's barrage of killer moves.'

Kaleido finally realized the one fatal flaw he holds; even if his Gu were as strong as pseudo-Rank 6 Gu or perhaps even as strong as Rank 6 Gu, they are still Rank 2 Gu. They have low durability and are easy to overuse, meaning that if he wasn't careful, all of his Gu would be broken, leaving him powerless against his enemies.

'And unfortunately, Space Door is useless at this moment considering Lo Bai is too fast-'

An invisible attack plunged straight at his shoulder, puncturing it and pinning him against a tree.

Just as he was about to try and escape, another spear punctured him in the other shoulder. Then both of his thighs were pierced.

Finally, a catastrophic force punched him in the stomach, sending him through tree after tree as he slammed his back against them.

As black light covered his entire body to heal his wounds, he struggled to stand up with blood leaking from his mouth.

In front of him, through the long line of broken trees, a figure with black hair and dazzling eyes, wearing a black robe, appeared.

"You're finally mine…" Lo Bai's eyes gleamed with greed as his killing intent surged forward.

Kaleido stared in front of him, seemingly hopeless as nearly all of his methods are useless.

Space Door takes too long to activate, his attack Gu are basically useless as Lo Bai is much faster, and using Formless Bubble to defend himself would only lead to it breaking down eventually.

Step by step, Lo Bai approached Kaleido with a smirk, a floating black spear appeared right beside him that was pointed directly toward Kaleido.

"Any last words?" Lo Bai ridiculed.

"Yeah," Kaleido crouched down slightly, his legs tensing up as he continued, "In times like this, the protagonist usually gets a power-up."

"And unfortunately for you, my own self-depicted fate has me as its protagonist!"

Inside his aperture, primeval essence rapidly surged towards a certain Gu he hasn't used once, the time path Gu that he managed to acquire back when he massacred the beastmen tribe!

'Quick Movement Gu!'

Just like when the main character on a show gains a new power, the white markings on Kaleido's body lit up like a blooming star, shocking Lo Bai.

But his immense experience immediately made him react and manipulated the floating spear beside him to shoot forward.

Unfortunately for Lo Bai, it was too late.

BOOM!

Kaleido's body disappeared, shooting through the air at speeds incomprehensible to the naked eye, and in the next second, Lo Bai's arm disappeared.

But he didn't stop there, no, he couldn't stop!

As Kaleido ran forward with no control, the white dao marks on his body started to resonate in harmony with the fabrics of space-time around Kaleido, and with a pop…

He disappeared.

But this time, unlike when he accidentally entered Space Cave for the first time, he was still a little conscious.

And what greeted his sight was an endless river of white, a singular river that extended outwards to the very end of the universe, and originated from its very start.

Just like that, his body fell on the mysterious white river, and his consciousness drifted away just like his body.

AN: This chapter has 2633 words.

Arc 1—Locus has officially come to an end! What kind of adventures and problems await Kaleido in the next arc as he falls into a mysterious white river? Would he gain more power, meet new allies and friends, face the wrath of "It"?

An exciting story awaits in the next arc, Arc 2—Tempes!

Anyways, your author was greeted by food poisoning so that was fun.

(February 6, 2023 – 438th day of writing)