A Hardened Blade

- Host's Mind: Layer 2 -

Sitting comfortably upon a wooden chair, a mysterious figure covered in shadows that moved like flames took a sip from a cup of tea.

The chair had red veins stretching across and wrapping around it. The veins all branched forth from the center of the seat, as some went to the top of the backside of the chair and others went to the feet of the chair before penetrating into the ground.

The veins along the chair pulsed as if the chair were alive.

To the side stood a medium-sized cabinet with a draw open labeled: 'Combat'.

"Shi Zhe - The Predator." the man said with a mocking undertone.

"Designed with abilities that perfectly suit a combat genius. Muscle Usage: 100%; Reaction Speed: 100%; Awareness: 100%; Instinct: 100%. In truth, its laughable how simple his design is, but simple doesn't mean weak. He is something that can be thrown into any environment without any prior experience and instantly react in the most optimal way to survive."

"His first buff is something called Hysterical Strength. An example of this would be Angela Cavallo. When her child was stuck under a car, she was able to summon a sort of hysterical strength within her to lift the car, saving her child."

"His second buff is called Time Perception: when in a dangerous situation, the part of the brain called the amygdala kicks into overdrive, processing images at a speed and clarity well beyond the norm. It's difficult to find examples of this, as one can't really prove that they did it unless, when it happened, they were attached to a brain monitor."

"The third buff is Hypervigilance: an unusual sensitivity to the world around oneself. With years of experience, a martial artist can instantly tell when something around them isn't quite right. An experienced law enforcement officer knows when someone is lying. There are hundreds of cases of people 'sensing that something is wrong', in other words, perceiving things that would normally fly over another person's head."

"Fourth buff, Gut Feeling: similar to intuition, which is unconscious knowledge based upon past experiences. A gut feeling, however, is different as it's based upon past generations of unconscious knowledge instead of only one's own experiences. Like a spider's instinct to make a web or a rhino's instinct to stomp out any fires."

"Any advice given from Shi Zhe on fighting, cultivation, or experimentation is purely instinctual. He doesn't know why his advice works, and as such, his explanation for why something works or not is almost always bullshit. Lastly, any advice given by him is ALWAYS, ALWAYS made with the sole intention of him benefiting from it."

"He does, however, have two major flaws. First, he's like a hardened blade, forged to withstand any immediate or sudden challenges that come his way."

A hardened blade naturally maintains its sharp edge over a longer period of time than a blade without hardening. However, just like all blades, it will grow dull, and its hardened nature will be its bane as it will be resistant to the resharpening done by a whetstone.

- Southern Border: Croaking Mountain Swamp -

The moon cast a bright glow on the muddy ground. The trees with roots that stuck out from the ground into the muddy water sent out shadows, creating areas too dark for the eyes to clearly see what may be lurking there.

The croaks of frogs and chirps from cricket legs filled the area with a constant beating.

Fireflies would further light up patches of shrubbery where they would hide between grass so as to be less of a target for frogs and toads.

Crocodiles slept peacefully as only their snouts peaked forth from the swampy waters.

Hao Lee lay comfortably on his stone bed inside his treehouse. He was dreaming of the time he and that rank-4 Enchantment Path Gu Master got together when suddenly he woke up from the pressure of a massive amount of killing intent.

His heart roared like an engine, his hair stood on end, and his eyes frantically searched everywhere as he activated all of his defensive Gu Worms.

He desperately tried to pinpoint the direction of where the killing intent was coming from; however, the sheer amount of killing intent reaching him was simply overwhelming. The wooden walls, the floor boards, the entranceway, and the very bed he lay to sleep on—everywhere he looked, it felt like something wanted him dead.

That was when his eyes locked on the smallest of light sources, practically indistinguishable from the rest of the cabin; if it were not for his dozens of years of experience, he would not have noticed it.

Two beads of light caught his attention. "Those are not the eyes of a human, but they're also not of any beast I've ever seen," he thought as he stared into the cold and uncaring eyes coming from atop the ceiling.

Beads of sweat rolled down his back and forehead as he waited for it to make a move, his muscles ready for a single exchange that would last for a mere fraction of a second. At that moment, he knew that this would be the most challenging fight of his life.

This exchange of neither party moving went on for what felt like hours; however, in reality, it had only been a few seconds.

Xie Ling, or rather, Shi Zhe, launched himself from the ceiling toward Hao Lee, who in turn had his entire body instantly cover itself in mud as he launched his fist for Xie Ling.

*0.01 seconds*

Xie Ling fired a small wall of ice from his hand toward Hao Lee.

*0.1*

The mud around Hao Lee's fist began taking the shape of a spear, with the back part of it shooting into the ground to further propel it forward at a faster speed.

*0.2*

Xie Ling grabs the wall of ice and uses its mass to push himself to the side, away from the trajectory of Hao Lee's fist.

*0.25*

The mud and ice collide, resulting in a cloud of debris, obscuring Hao Lee's vision.

*0.3*

A smile grows along Hao Lee's lips as he believes there's no way his enemy could have dodged his attack.

*0.35*

Hao Lee's eyes catch a glimpse of something in his peripheral vision, and immediately he attempts to cover himself in rubber-like mud.

*0.4*

The rubbery coating of mud around his body suddenly flash freezes, removing it's greatest strength, before it shatters as an open hand reaches for his face.

*0.45*

Moving his body to the side, Hao Lee raises one arm up to block, while his other arm launches forward for a counter-attack.

*0.5*

His eyes quickly scan left and right, unable to find Xie Ling, as a sharp pain in his back begins to assault his back as it starts to bend like an old table when too much weight has been placed on the center of it.

*0.55*

One of the walls of his treehouse begins to bend before shattering as his body propels out from the force used on his back.

*0.6*

Hao Lee's body spins rapidly as it ricochets across the swampy water like a pebble tossed by a middle schooler.

To stop the rapid spinning, he reaches his hand out into the water and makes a grabbing motion before the water turns solid, instantly stopping his body from spinning.

He's on his knees as one hand helps to keep his face from falling into the mud, and the other hand reaches behind his back onto his spine, where he can feel that it is clearly broken.

His momentary respite from feeling pain is suddenly broken by blood-curdling laughter, which causes his blood to turn cold.

He forces his head to look up despite the pain signals from his spines. The next things he saw caused his heart to skip a beat. It clearly had the body of a human, but in all his years of fighting against Demonic Gu Masters, whatever that thing was, he definitely wouldn't call it a human.

- Host's Mind: Layer 2 -

Cutting back to the mysterious figure drinking his tea, he muttered some words in between sips. "Oh, yes. And for his second weakness, he loves to play with his food, leaving him incredibly open to surprise attacks."

At the other end of the table, the large demon lets out a smirk as flames escape his nostrils. "While one should not underestimate the inhabitants of this world, one must also not underestimate the martial arts of Earth. Martial arts honed by professionals over many generations from our world, with each technique far surpassing the basic martial arts of large-scale clans to even the super-scale clans of this world."

"Taekwondo, Combat Sambo, Judo, and Muay Thai, far surpass this world's primitive close non-gu combat. On Earth, ever since the internet, the top 0.001 percent could now share their best techniques with others; however, in this world, most fighting styles are kept secret within the clan or sect and never even properly tested against hundreds of other fighting styles."

"In this world, if a Taekwondo Master was brought into an arena where only martial arts would be allowed, he'd swamp the competition; however, if Gu worms were freely allowed, then the table would be turned and he would be crushed like the beetle under the boot of a child."

"Fundamentally, in this world, there was little reason to cultivate martial arts. As one, Gu Worms are simply much more effective and faster to learn than something as time-consuming as martial arts. Take a Gu Master who has practiced using Crescent Moon Blade Gu for a month and a Judo trainee who has also like-wise practiced for a month. The Gu Master will, as long as he has enough primeval essence to launch a measly Moon Blade, will turn the Judo trainee into two, no different than a snapped stick. And this gap will only continue to increase as time goes on, leaving little need for martial arts as anything past learning how to dodge."

"How about we make it more fair? Let's put someone down who is most likely going to find some use in martial arts as an example. A Strength Path Gu Master, in a village that mainly cultivates Strength Path."

"First, he'll learn quite a few techniques; however, in the end, all techniques in his 'village' are made by the 'village' against fellow 'villagers'. That's already a big red flag, as that again means it's not tried and brutally tested against other fighting styles. Especially because on the off chance another village also has a fighting style, they are going to keep their techniques a secret to ensure they themselves aren't countered in the future."

"And when a Strength Path Gu Master goes against a Water Path Gu Master, the Strength Path Gu Master at best will use super basic martial arts; he's going to rush forward while dodging attacks. The moment the two Gu Masters make contact, the Strength Path Gu Master just has to punch; no fancy moves like a kick or an uppercut; just a simple punch with all his Strength Path methods behind it will be enough to take down the Water Path Gu Master."

"One could say that all the weak techniques were killed off, as the people with the strong techniques survive and those that don't die; however, this again goes back to Gu Worms; they can so easily replace the need to learn martial arts, and as such, this probably actually makes martial arts worse, and now it's not the clan trying to teach a good martial art suited for all circumstances, but rather an instructor that has only learned from personal experience."

"Long story short, this world lacks three major components to making a competent martial art: A reason to separate the wheat from the chaff, wide access to information from every one of the best martial artists that currently exists and has ever existed, and a strong want or need to improve the martial art."

"There are some other reasons I left out; however, those are the primary three."

Rolling his eyes, the one covered in smoke retorted, "We never learned Taekwondo, Combat Sambo, Judo, or Muay Thai. We only ever learned Mixed Martial Arts to the point of winning an underground provincial championship and close-range assassination techniques to the point of being recognized in the top five at one point."

The demon let out a smirk as if expecting that reaction: "Winning the underground provincial championship is no different than winning the global heavy-weight championships."

- Southern Border: Croaking Mountain Swamp -

From head to toe, its body was covered in claws. And it had a smile that climbed along the edges of its face, along with eyes that bent upwards, also mimicking the smile.

Hao Lee could tell that the only reason he was alive right now wasn't because he was lucky, but because this thing wanted to continue playing.

Meanwhile, inside Xie Ling's head

"Stop messing around; the sooner we finish this, the sooner we can move on to the next target."

"Don't spout the obvious; where's the harm in having a little fun?"

"If you don't kill him right now, I'm giving control over to Hua Zhe."

Shi Zhe begins grinding his teeth in anger before shouting, "Fine!"

Back outside, with his body covered in mud, Hao Lee watches as the beast doesn't move an inch, its killing intent beginning to disappear.

This momentary respite in killing intent relaxes his mind, which in turn brings back old memories for Hao Lee.

- 53 years ago: Croaking Mountain Swamp -

"Hahaha, I was told you're the strongest in this mountain range. But to think that you would be this weak! It's honestly laughable," mocks Hao Lee as he looks down upon the former owner of Croaking Mountain Swamp.

It was the middle of the day, and the air was hot and humid. One could feel the sweat roll down their forehead from the blazing heat. The frogs in the area submerged their bodies up to their eyes in the mud to help cool down. A crocodile lay peacefully on a marshy mound, enjoying the heat as it reflected along its scales.

In a clearing, there were shattered trees, along with the ground having fully turned into mud. On top of the mud were two people facing each other; one stood tall with his shoulders slightly bent, showing that the battle between the two was mostly one-sided.

"Please spare my life," begged the other person as he coughed out blood. He was on his hands and knees, his head pushing into the mud. Mud completely covered the man from head to toe; most of it had a red tint to it as it had mixed with his blood.

"Tch, you're not even worth killing." Hao Lee stated with contempt, as he pulled out a rank-5 Poison Vow Gu, "Give me all of your Gu worms, and I'll spare your life!" His words carried so much contempt that the other Gu Master could easily tell there were no lies in them; after all, what reason would an elephant have to lie to an ant?

- present -

Remembering his past, Hao Lee realized that the same scene between him and the former owner of Croaking Mountain Swamp was playing right now. It would seem this was fate; once the new becomes the old, the next generation will come to take his place. This is how it's always been; he just never thought it would be so sudden, all ending within less than a minute. Of course, due to how fast the fight took place, he believed there was a high possibility that this person must have known many deep secrets about him, meaning he must've been stalked for months before this fight; however, such thoughts were meaningless at this point; he'd lost, plain and simple; there was no point to figuring out why.

Hao Lee slowly corrected his posture, bending his waist and knocking his head down onto the ground as he pulled out a rank-5 Poison Vow Gu. "In exchange for all my Gu worms, I ask for my life to be spared."

Footsteps began approaching him; he could tell his time had finally come. Now all that was left was to hide out in a small village, biding his time till he could get his hands on a rank-1 Gu and slowly climb to being a village elder, propagating his bloodline till he dies a peaceful death.

The person stretched their hand out and grabbed the top of his head. He was slightly startled; however, with his many experiences in life, it was highly unlikely someone would pass up multiple rank-5 Gu worms just for his head, but just in case he stated, "I can easily kill off all of my Gu worms before you end my life! This is the best deal you'll get out of me!"

"Oh, really? Because I can easily think of something much, much better!" The voice sounded sadistic and playful; however, there was a hint of annoyance hidden inside it.

Feeling that something was off, Hao Lee tried to look into his aperture.

"What!!!" In a panic, Hao Lee looked up, only to see two blinding lights zipping past him and cutting into Xie Ling's flesh as his consciousness began to fade.