Ch 45 – Replay

'A White Jade Worm?' Deep from the recess of his mind, the name and details of the white jade worm sleeping in the corner of the wide cavern instantly appeared.

White Jade Worms are a species of mutated beasts that is rumored to be the descendants of a Worm of Time, a Desolate Beast that was told to exist in the river of time. A White Jade Worm naturally attracts time path Gu on its body and has a strong body in general.

Its skin is tougher than jade and can withstand the attack of a Rank 4 Gu, and it has strong regenerative properties. Unless one can kill it in one blow, it would regenerate itself to peak health in minutes, meaning killing it is a hard task to do.

He then stared at the pedestal near the closed entrance of the room and walked up to it as usual. There, he saw a black box and recognized it as the product of a storage type Gu, a Gu that allows one to store a Gu in peak condition for decades without harming it or needing to feed the Gu inside it.

Carefully prying open the box, he saw a Gu lying inside. The Gu Worm had a body similar to a snail, with a shell as shiny and as reflective as a crystal-clear mirror. Its flesh was also milky white in color, with its two eyes being two black splotches like pearls.

"That Gu over there is one of my main attacking Gu back when I was still active." The illusory old man appeared out of thin air beside him and watched Kaleido grab the Gu and refine it.

"That Gu is called the Rank 4 Replay Gu. The Gu can "replay" any ability that you have encountered in the past with a few limitations.

"To 'save' an effect that you can replay anytime you want, you'll have to first encounter it and then save it as a usable ability."

"Any saved ability can only be used once and then you'll have to save it again if you want to reuse it."

"You wouldn't know the exact ability you have copied."

"You can also only save up to one ability at Rank 5, three abilities at Rank 4, and three times that amount at each rank lower than its current rank."

"Lastly, the primeval essence expenditure is also higher compared to normally using the Gu used to do the ability."

"Of course, this Gu also has its advantages, especially when you fully acquire my inheritance, so it's up to you to explore its abilities, especially when you have to kill a mutated beast to advance to the next round."

Smiling wistfully, the old man disappeared while the sleeping White Jade Worm in the corner of the cavern woke up. Its aura immediately exploded outwards and Kaleido can feel its penetrating gaze staring at him as if he was a delicious meal rarely seen.

Not wasting any second, Kaleido stored the Gu into his aperture while his eyes glowed brightly. He crouched down and tensed up his muscles, prepared to face any sudden attack that may appear.\

The White Jade Worm in the distance fully woke up as its bloodthirsty nature made it roar in madness. It then activated a wild Gu on its body, causing multiple white bolts to appear in the air.

They launched forward through the air towards him while the white worm charged ahead along with its attacks.

Seeing the white bolts shoot toward him, Kaleido fearlessly ran forward toward them while activating Rank 4 Replay Gu in tandem. Instantly, his eyes glowed brighter as he started to record the time bolts with his newfound Gu.

Twisting his body at the last second, the time bolts flew past him and landed on the ground behind him before disappearing into white motes of light.

In the next moment, a time bolt appeared in front of him and it shot toward the White Jade Worm in the next second.

Unfortunately for Kaleido, he realized that the time bolt belonged to a Rank 3 Gu and can't pierce through the defense of the ginormous worm, leaving only a small dent on its jade-like body.

Angered by Kaleido's attack, the worm swept its tail toward Kaleido. As he was about to dodge the attack, his eyes suddenly widened with surprise when he saw the tiny dent on the worm's body remained the same.

Normally speaking, a White Jade Worm would have healed that tiny nick nearly instantaneously already, but it was still there! And with his normal vision, he can even see that the dent's healing speed was slower to the point that by his estimates, it would take ten seconds before it is fully healed.

'So the time bolts slow down the healing speed of the place where it lands!' With his newfound understanding of the time bolts, a plan quickly formulated in his mind as he leaped into the air.

Below the soles of his feet, a platform then appeared and he jumped one step higher until he was at a high enough altitude to evade the worm's sweeping tail. Watching its catastrophic strength destroy the ground below him, Kaleido remained unfazed as he calmly used one of the saved-up time bolts and replayed it.

Waving his hand, the time bolt shot forward when a strange thought surfaced in his mind as if he gained a stroke of inspiration.

'Replay Gu saves a Gu's ability using time as an anchor point, so in theory, what it does is that it stores an ability that has happened in the past and then loads it in the present moment. Taking into account that time is basically a river, it must have done some sort of thing that stores the temporal coordinates of an ability in the river of time, then what it does is that it displaces the ability and pushes it ahead into the future.' Kaleido's eyes started to glow as he activated Replay Gu and accommodated it into his killer move, Danger Sight Gu.

Instantly, his vision seemed to have landed in the past and he saw the White Jade Worm use the time bolts once again. Using his intuition as a quasi-Grandmaster in time path, he used his own skill and amplification brought by his Desolate Ancient Moon extreme physique to break past the limits of what Replay Gu can normally do.

'Look back into the past, save the temporal coordinates, and replay it back in the present! Hehehe, Replay Gu, a Gu that allows me to replay visions of the past and have it be reenacted in the present! Fufufu, perhaps once this Gu reaches the immortal level, it can even store abilities that happened in the future, allowing me to replay it in the past. That would be so overpowered.' Kaleido's eyes shone with glee as an illusory card with the image of a white bolt etched on it appeared inside his mind.

Returning back to the present, Kaleido watched as the previously shot time bolt that can disrupt the healing speed of other entities stabbed right into the previous dent he managed to create on the White Jade Worm's body.

With a plan already in mind, Kaleido fell to the ground and landed softly on the ground with a thud.

He then rushed towards the White Jade Worm and a white bolt of time shot forward once more onto the worm's body. Not stopping his series of actions, another Gu activated inside his aperture and the white bolt shot through the air at extreme speeds, arriving at the worm's body in less than a second.

'With my Replay Past killer move and Swift Movement Gu, I can effectively spam these time bolts near endlessly until I strain my Gu Worms!' Kaleido's grin turned ferocious as he went and dodge the time bolts that appeared from nowhere.

But Kaleido's gaze turned serious when his next time bolt was suddenly blocked by a white barrier that surrounded the jade worm's body.

Clicking his tongue as the worm had a defensive type Gu, Kaleido conjured another time bolt and shot it forward.

Then more and more time bolts appeared, stacking behind each other to form a straight white line until they then fused with each other, forming a bigger time bolt that shot through the air, leaving behind a trail of white light.

Crack!

The sound of illusory glass shattering resounded and the white barrier broke down, while the stacked time bolt pierced through it and puncture the White Jade Worm's body, leaving behind a small gaping hole in its flesh with red blood trickling out.

"Roar!" the worm roared loudly as it felt the piercing pain stemming from its wound, but it lacked any healing type Gu to heal its body, leaving it helpless to deal with the wound that appeared.

As it rampaged and thrash around, wildly flailing its body around the area, Kaleido smirked and watched as another card appeared inside his library depicting a white barrier.

Considering it was a defensive ability, he had no need for it for now and instead focused on conjuring more time bolts. With his experience, temporal perception, spatial awareness, and natural talent, each of his time bolts accurately attack the gaping wound on the worm's body, expanding it, and having it worsen and worsen with each shot.

Watching from the sidelines, the old man couldn't help but stare with dumfounded eyes as he muttered, "How…"

"How is he using Replay Gu like that without…"

"If only I was still alive today, then I would have attempted to enslave him countless times to learn of his secrets and have his talent be for my own benefit. Unfortunately, I'm already dead and this projection is merely a clone conjured by my efforts in developing my soul and using Infinite: Replay to constantly rekindle this remnant spirit of mine."

"Heh, I wonder what would happen once that monstrous inheritor in front of me gains access to all of my knowledge, killer moves, and most especially, my Infinite Killer Move Series," chuckling softly, the old man rubbed his gracious white beard and had his eyes flare up like the fiery pits of hell.

A malicious smile broke out as his demonic aura seemed to solidify, "Even though I might have died already, I still remain Undying through this inheritor of mine!"

"As a demonic path expert, I can already see the blooming demonic heart in that lad. Maybe in the near future, a sea of blood would be formed by him. I can only hope that he'll take revenge on Shi Clan for me, but that's unlikely as the supreme elders backing the clan can kill me at my peak hundreds of times with ease."

Sighing deeply, the old monster watched as Kaleido conjure a massive time bolt and shoot it forward one final time.

Like a beam of white light, the time bolt flew through the air at breakneck speeds and pierce through the bloody hole on the worm's body, piercing through it and tearing a hole on the other side.

As its vitality slowly left its body, Kaleido watched with tranquil eyes as the ginormous worm fell to the ground with a loud thud, causing smoke and dust to suffuse into the air. After the smoke and dust receded, he walked up to the worm and skillfully grabbed two Gu that came from its body.

"Rank 3 Time Bolt Gu and Rank 3 Qi Barrier Gu…" Using his deep foundation, Kaleido easily identified the other Gu and sighed, stored it in his storage space, and refined the newly gained time path Gu.

Storing Time Bolt Gu into his aperture, Kaleido watched as the old man appear beside him once again with a smile.

"Congratulations," the old man said while walking up to a wall and causing it to retract.

On the other side of the retracted wall, Kaleido raised his eyebrow as instead of a challenge room, Kaleido instead saw four Gu lying in a strange Gu formation on the ground.

"You have managed to pass my full inheritance. I wasn't expecting my inheritor to be this monstrous, but alas, even my horizons have expanded since my death. Once you take those Gu from the formation, I'll finally die."

"But before I do die completely…" The old man's smile turned malicious and wicked, "Won't you destroy Shi Clan for me?"

AN: This chapter has 2082 words.

You gotta respect Long Liv. Bro lived decades after his death as a mere mortal while still remaining fully conscious and shit. He even reached quasi-Grandmaster before his death. And hehehe, once you see what his full inheritance brings, your respect for this old demon's gonna skyrocket through the roof.

(February 18, 2023 – 450th day of writing)