First round

By the end of the fifth day of October, the preliminaries ended. Two hundred and fifty winners were chosen from the initial one thousand participants. The next phase of the competition had elimination style, one on one matches. Out of the two hundred and fifty winners, six gu masters with the fastest exit times were chosen and directly promoted to the round two of the elimination tournament. The other gu masters were paired at random and the match ups for the first round were announced at the end of the preliminaries. However to no one's surprise, Jia clan organizers announced that the winners of the preliminaries could sell their slots in the first round if they felt like they had no chance to win.

One day was announced as rest for the participants but it was used to buy and sell the slots in the first round of the elimination tournament. However, Gu Guangzhi was no where to be seen. Jia Fu tried to meet up with Gu Guangzhi to plan and match him against Jia Gui's faction but he was nowhere to be found. The slot against Gu Guangzhi in the first round was up for sale. Mao Ning and Zhen Hong competed for the slot. Zhen Hong grudgingly paid more and bought the slot. Mao Ning, on the other hand, bought another slot to face off against another member of Jia Fu's faction. Some gu masters even bought the slots that were directly promoted the second round.

The huge maze in the arena was busily modified to build four smaller stages during this time. Considering the huge number of matches in the elimination tournament, it was decided that these matches would be held simultaneously. Each stage would hold four matches a day and sixteen matches would be conducted in a day. The first round would continue this way for eight days. Gu Guangzhi's match was on fifth day of the elimination tournament. Zhen Hong diligently reached stage three on time to fight against Gu Guangzhi. However Gu Guangzhi was no where to be seen.

'Damn! Seems like Gu Guangzhi turned tail and dropped from the tournament all together. How can I get back my Rock burst Gu now?', Zhen Hong thought to himself.

However, Gu Guangzhi soon reached the stage with few moments left before the match started. He looked very ragged. It looked like he was heavily injured before the match. Zhen Hong inwardly relieved and said to Gu Guangzhi loudly, "Ha! Now do you understand what you are dealing with? Rock burst Gu isn't something any gu master can handle easily. They need years of practice before they can master it. You must've been injured while trying to practice with it. Why don't you just surrender and give me back my Rock burst Gu?"

Gu Guangzhi was silent. It was true that he got injured while practicing with Rock burst Gu. He tried to control his bursts a lot during these few days but he couldn't master it. It wasn't realistic for him to become a master in just a few days but he still felt like there was a missing element to using Rock burst Gu. He felt that perhaps there were some supplementary gu worms needed to use Rock burst Gu effectively. That was when Gu Guangzhi smiled at his luck. The solution was in front of him all along. He could just defeat Zhen Hong and take the supplementary gu worms he needed to use Rock burst Gu.

Zhen Hong felt a bit anxious as Gu Guangzhi didn't concede his defeat right away but he was confident in himself. He was a Rank 3 peak stage gu master. Though, he lost a portion of his strength, he was confident in defeating a Rank 3 initial stage gu master like Gu Guangzhi.

Soon the match was signaled to start. Gu Guangzhi transformed into a Ground bear and went underneath the stage using Bamboo swamp Gu. Zhen Hong scoffed and immediately used Ground ripple Gu. He stomped his feet on to the ground and it created strong ripples on the stage that permeated underground. The strong ripples produced in the ground interfered with Gu Guangzhi's Tremor sense Gu and started hurting him. He quickly came above to avoid taking further damage. Gu Guangzhi looked dazed.

"Your petty little tricks might work against other gu masters but I'm an earth path gu master. I can come up with a hundred ways to defeat you!", boasted Zhen Hong.

Gu Guangzhi didn't mind the setback and continued with his attacks. Zhen Hong used Rank 3 Monolith Gu to defend himself. Gu Guangzhi's Drill claw Gu was powerful but it wasn't enough to crack the defenses of Rank 3 Monolith Gu. Zhen Hong was growing confident that he can win. He use Rank 3 Spike rock Gu to grow spike on his knuckles and pummel Gu Guangzhi. Gu Guangzhi's Armored bear Gu was beginning to crack under the attacks of Zhen Hong. Gu Guangzhi immediately increased his distance and used Rank 3 Snowflake Gu.

Snowflake shurikens made their way to Zhen Hong. They were sharp and controlled by Gu Guangzhi to break through Zhen Hong's defenses but Zhen Hong successfully broke all the shurikens with his spiked knuckles. He then proceeded to use Burrowed spear Gu to produce spears from the ground to skewer him from underneath. Gu Guangzhi's speed in his ground bear form was great but the he still got hurt from the surprise attacks of the Burrowed spear Gu.

As Gu Guangzhi was badly hurt from all the surprise attacks, he activated his Bleeding heart Gu. His power grew tremendously. He then used Rock burst Gu to draw all the explosive power from the earth. He took aim with Drill claw Gu and shot straight towards Zhen Hong. Zhen Hong knew that this attack was going to be much more powerful than all the previous attacks he faced but he smiled.

While looking at Gu Guangzhi's figure that was shooting straight towards him, he said to himself, 'Haha Gu Guangzhi! You are jumping straight to your death! Do you think I don't know how to counter the incredible bursts of Rock burst Gu? It is incredibly difficult even for me to control my movements after using Rock burst Gu. What can an amateur like you do? Now come and die!"

Zhen Hong then used his earth path killer move, Spike trap coffin! Incredibly tall and sturdy walls rose in front of Zhen Hong. These walls had deadly spikes within. Gu Guangzhi who was dashing straight towards Zhen Hong, looked like a mosquito diving into a Venus fly trap. He shut the spike trap coffin with full force and a loud thud was heard. Immediately, three smaller sounds of explosions were heard in succession.

Gu Guangzhi had used Flying stone Gu to create a large stone mid air to draw more explosive power from the stone and change his path using Rock burst Gu. He made a sharp turn upwards and avoided the spike trap coffin. Zhen Hong was unable to see what was happening right in front of him due to being blocked by the huge walls of the spike trap coffin. Gu Guangzhi then proceeded to create another flying stone and drew it's explosive power to propel forward again. When Gu Guangzhi was about to fly over Zhen Hong's head, he created a huge flying stone in the air and drew all the explosive power to dash downwards to where Zhen Hong was.

Before Zhen Hong could investigate what those explosive sounds were, Gu Guangzhi's drill claw broke through Zhen Hong's defenses and blew his head off. Zhen Hong's body dropped to the ground while Gu Guangzhi used Bamboo swamp Gu to cushion his crash. He was hurt a bit but he successfully defeated his opponent.

The organizer was dazed for a moment but he declared Gu Guangzhi the winner. Gu Guangzhi searched Zhen Hong's body and found several gu insects intact. As he went through these gu insects, he said to himself, "Oh, so the supplementary gu insects belonged to wind path, Rank 2 Wind brake Gu and Rank 2 Air cushion Gu! Now, I can fully use Rock burst Gu without hurting myself all the time."