Ch 41 – Preparation

Kaleido crouched down, his eyes squinting as he pushed more of the dirt away from the ground. As he did so, he paused all of a sudden and almost jumped back in fright upon seeing what the Gu Formation was, to be more exact, what it can do.

'Even though I have a low foundation in formation path, I'm still a quasi-Grandmaster in time path and space path.' Kaleido stepped back, distancing himself away from the Gu formation, 'And this formation right here seems to be able to transport me somewhere nearby.'

'A teleportation Gu formation? Hmm, this is definitely strange. If I was a master in formation path, then maybe I could have taken out the Gu creating the formation, but I'm not. Perhaps just trying to meddle with it would make it activate and drag me somewhere else.' Kaleido focused his gaze and moved the formless power surrounding the formation to drag more and more of the dirt away, revealing more bits of the mystical Gu formation.

'Fortunately, the formation didn't break when I swung my hoe at it.' Kaleido finally removed away all of the dirt, showing the full appearance of the mystical formation.

It was a large round circle on the ground that glowed with a dim white light. If it was night, it would be like a fire that shone brightly, alluring wanderers to go towards it, like moths flying towards the blazing flames.

'Is this…' Kaleido paused, his eyes flashing with excitement, but they also held a tinge of fear, 'An inheritance?'

'An inheritance, and perhaps an inheritance belonging to a high-ranked expert at that! Just this Gu formation seems to utilize Rank 3 Gu!' As he was thinking about all kinds of glorious futures, he slapped his face lightly with just enough strength to bring him out of his daydreams.

'But even if that's the case, I should still be careful about activating it. If I was being optimistic, then it might have belonged to a righteous path expert. But considering this is a wild island with no signs of human life, then I'm pretty sure that this either belongs to a lone cultivator or a demonic path demon.' Kaleido sighed, turned his gaze away from the formation, and waved his sleeves.

Wood instantly erupted from nowhere as they floated in midair. Through his meticulous control, the logs of wood went and transformed into a barricade that surrounded the Gu formation. Successfully blocking it from any wild creatures that might appear, he nodded his head and turned around.

As his body rotated, the hoe he was holding mysteriously disappeared. Ignoring the barrier behind him, he walked back to his house and entered his living room. Staring at his spacious living quarters, he stared at the middle of the room where the fur of a bear was laid.

'The foundation of this entire world is that of power. If I want to obtain that potential inheritance or see whatever lies ahead of that formation, I need to increase my strength before I do so!' Kaleido clenched his fist and walked to the middle of the room, stepping on the bear fur rug as he stopped on top of it.

'If the formation does belong to an expert around Rank 4 or perhaps even 5, I'll need to at least be Rank 3 and alleviate the ranks of my Gu with the remaining materials I have left in my storage space.' Kaleido exhaled and sat down on the rug, unclenching his fist and patting his legs.

'Only with caution was I able to survive until now. Even if I do have quasi-Rank 9 dao marks, it wouldn't mean anything I was already dead.' Kaleido closed his eyes and breathed in deeply.

He felt the air fill his lungs as a relaxing sensation suffused throughout his entire body. He felt his senses expand and deepen; he felt his tranquil heart beating slowly, and he felt the blood in his body flowing through his veins. He cleared his mind bit by bit, and with his deep foundation in meditation, he entered a serene mental state in only a few minutes.

Breathe in, breathe out.

When his mind was blank and tranquil, he refocused his senses and felt the mystical aperture placed inside his belly. Using a minimal amount of effort trained through hundreds of hours of cultivating, he made the red steel primeval essence inside his aperture twist and turn, pouring itself onto his aperture walls.

The crystal wall of light glowed dimly as if ecstatic to drink the surge of primeval essence. It was like a sponge that can suck up an entire ocean. Even after so long, the aperture walls continued to absorb more primeval essence to develop and nurture itself.

But as it faced more and more of the onslaught of primeval essence, cracks slowly appeared in quick succession. Slowly but surely, the cracks spread out, producing more spider web-like fissures all throughout the aperture walls.

As the cracks expanded more and more, Kaleido's consciousness drifted further away from his body until he saw the reoccurring vision once more enter the deep recess of his mind.

A place where space and time clashed and collided, mixed, and turned like liquid goo inside a blender presented itself to him. Colors and shapes of all weird and distorted kinds were popping in and out of reality, diffusing and converging like the tides of a wave. Colors sprouted like trees while space scattered like grains of sand. Time flowed like gusts of wind, while geometrical shapes twisted and bloomed like flowers in spring.

Feeling the stream of inspiration and enlightenment gushing in, Kaleido's body underwent a change as if it was asleep. His breathing turned calm and autonomous, while his eyes haphazardly moved while closed like he was in a REM state.

The further he advanced and the more he understood about the mysteries of space and time, the longer he stayed and the more intense the feeling became as if a book was being forcefully shoved down into his brain. It was akin to being forcefully fed information that he was compelled to understand, taxing his body and mind.

If he wasn't careful, he might even suffer some backlash as he was learning about the secrets of dao through such quick bursts of inspiration.

As the stream of information became faster and faster, causing him to become more strained as he struggled to keep up, and his mind drifted along an endless expanse of chaos and order, he suddenly heard the sound of illusory glass shattering as everything around him cracked and shattered, shattering into shards of light that scattered like falling grains of sand.

Upon opening his eyes in the real world, Kaleido lets out a long and turbid breath. He closed his eyes once again. Moving his gaze onto his mystical aperture, he was about to replace his red steel primeval essence with the white silver primeval essence of Rank 3 experts when he raised his brows in surprise.

Without him even having to control his primeval essence, he watched with dumbfounded eyes as his primeval essence autonomously poured and nourished his aperture walls without his control.

"Huh?" Kaleido muttered in surprise and watched as his remaining red steel primeval essence was completely replaced with white silver primeval essence.

"Is this why those with extreme physiques cultivate so much faster compared to everyone else?" Kaleido murmured, his eyes opening with an ominous glint, "Does this mean I can cultivate passively?"

Taking in a deep breath to calm himself once again, Kaleido stood up and knew that he wasn't done with his preparations. He needed to do more. He needed to do a lot more.

In the cruel world of Gu where a single mistake might cost him his life, Kaleido was more than willing to suffer from an extreme amount of pain and hard work than die needlessly. He was never the one who would take high risks for high returns; he would rather go with zero risk and low returns.

'Risking your life for some worthless power, heh, fools. I would rather spend a hundred years living as a Rank 5 expert than having to risk it all for the chance of becoming a Gu Immortal.' Kaleido chuckled with a mocking tone, 'Those who risk either lack the corresponding strength, or lack the corresponding intellect.'

Dismissing his useless thoughts, he pushed his arms forward and the space ahead of him congealed into a spherical ball of dark light.

Next, he flipped his sleeves and a Gu shot out of his aperture into the palm of his hand. Rank 2 Space Blade Gu!

Staring at it for a second, he resolutely moved his gaze towards the spherical ball of black light and threw his Gu into it.

'Even though I might just have ordinary attainment in refinement path, I'm still a space path quasi-Grandmaster!' Kaleido transformed his hand into a claw as more materials shot out of his body and into the spherical ball of black light.

As he stared at the dim white light that slowly erupted from inside the black sphere, he tightened his claw as if clenching something invisible, forcefully compressing it bit by bit. One by one, as his claw slowly closed into a fist, he threw more materials in one by one to refine a new and more potent Gu.

Seeing that the time was ripe, he pulled out a Rank 2 Gu from his aperture named Sword Fish Gu and threw it forward into the Gu as it transformed into a beam of silver-blue light.

As the Gu collided with the black spherical ball of light, his almost closed fist rapidly expanded as he struggled to maintain his grip. But he persisted and used his other hand to help distribute the force to one another, pressing his palms in front of his chest against one another as if there was an invisible ball he needed to crush.

With winds howling and air crackling, his two palms finally closed and a loud boom echoed throughout the entire room. Staring at the floating Gu in the air in front of him, Kaleido felt his tense heart relax as his shoulders drooped down.

Willing the Gu, he watched as it landed on the palm of his hand and entered his aperture. He lets out a relieved sigh and stretched out his hand forward.

Activating the Gu, the space around his palm converged and formed a long black blade that looked more solid compared to before. Just moving it around made the air around it hum and soft black lines can be seen around its edge.

'Rank 3 Space Edge Gu…' Kaleido smiled and dismissed the black blade he held in his hand.

He wasn't done yet, he still had a lot more to do. Once again, a mysterious black ball appeared in the air in front of him, floating there in midair ominously.

Next, he summoned another one of his Gu, and Kaleido's muscles tensed up. This was his Formless Bubble Gu, a precious Gu that is used to store a majority of his items! If he were to lose it, then he might as well have lost a million dollars in cash and burned it all for a random chance of upgrading his digital weapon in a game.

Steeling his nervous heart, the Gu flew into the black spherical ball of light, and he started another round of refinement once more.

…

Around an hour later, Kaleido stared at the final Gu in his hands and let out a sigh of relief. It was a white caterpillar crawling around his open palm, with a body akin to white jade.

Storing it into his aperture, he patted his rapidly beating heart and tried his hardest to calm down his excited heart. Turning his body around and rotating on the heels of his feet, he walked towards the soft couch of his living room and sat down.

His body then plunged and was swallowed by the soft couch, enveloping him in blissful sweetness and warmth. Staring at the ceiling with a blank gaze, he whispered softly, "Finally, all of my Gu are Rank 3."

'Space Edge Gu, Formless Space Gu, Mending Space Gu, and even Swift Movement Gu. With the amplification brought by my extreme physiques, they might even be as strong as Rank 4 Gu!' Kaleido patted his rapidly beating heart and smiled as his pearly white teeth glistened with a sparkle.

Finally, he was one step closer to finding a way home and returning back to his original universe.

'And perhaps…' Kaleido sighed, slumping down his shoulders while closing his eyes, 'Maybe I'll get to see them again.'

AN: This chapter has 2128 words.

(February 12, 2023 – 444th day of writing)