Blinding light

Gu Guangzhi used Rock burst Gu along with its supplementary gu insects and moved at high speed. His opponent used light path gu insects to match that speed. The two gu masters were slugging at each other at high speeds, missing each other narrowly. The light path gu master's movements left behind a dazzling streak of light while Gu Guangzhi's movements produced violent blasts filling the arena with dust from the explosions. In the stands of the arena, the spectators were going crazy at this incredible display of speed. Some spectators were able to witness this grand fight with help of some gu insects provided by the Jia clan at a premium but they felt that the price was worth it. The remaining spectators couldn't follow their movements with their naked eyes but Jia clan could later show the match at slow speeds on the large screens.

While the spectators were having a great time in the stands, both Gu Guangzhi and the light path gu master were feeling the heat of the battle. Though both of them were moving at incredible speeds, there were spending significant amounts of primeval essence to maintain such speeds. Gu Guangzhi had multiple Rank 3 Fish Bubble Gu to sustain such expenditures while the light path gu master was using his upper stage Rank 3 primeval essence to outlast Gu Guangzhi.

After a while, Gu Guangzhi felt that his primeval essence reserves were being drained unnecessarily so he changed his tactics. Instead of drawing the explosive strength from the flying rocks completely, Gu Guangzhi doubled the size of flying rocks he created and drew only half of the explosive strength from those rocks. So when the flying rocks exploded, they didn't smash to form tiny particles of dust. Instead they left behind sizable chunks of smaller rocks that blasted away from Gu Guangzhi's feet due to the blasts, creating a dangerous environment to move around.

The light path gu master was not pleased with this new method of attack. He thought to himself, "It seems that this bastard wants to take me down along with him. By blasting the flying rocks, he has created a dangerous field of fast moving debris. Neither of us can move freely now. In order to bring out the full potential of my light path gu insects, I haven't modified my body using any strength path gu insects. So even if I get hit once by those debris, I am as good as dead. I'll have to use my Flicker shield Gu for now to protect myself. An amateur like him will make a mistake sooner or later."

Soon a flickering light enveloped the light path gu master and the debris that got in his way got deflected away. This increased the expenditure of primeval essence on the light path gu master's part but Gu Guangzhi wasn't faring any better. The debris flying around at high speeds was as dangerous to him as it was to the light path gu master. So he had to constantly maneuver through this debris. However, Gu Guangzhi hadn't come up with this move on the spot. After his fight with Zhen Hong, he wanted to quickly learn the usage of Air cushion Gu and Wind brake Gu. So he came up with a crazy plan to push himself to the limit. The flying debris field was a part of that training. By practicing traversing through the debris field, he had quickly ingrained the usage of Rock blast Gu along with its supplementary gu by putting his life on the line.

As Gu Guangzhi was weaving through the debris field with a great skill, the light path gu master kept waiting for Gu Guangzhi to make a mistake. However, even after a full five minutes, Gu Guangzhi kept maneuvering through the debris field like a pesky little fly. Everyone watching the match were amazed at the primeval essence reserves of the two contestants who were using such draining moves. But neither of the contestants had the luxury to slow down. A slight delay in speed would be giving away their life to their opponent on a golden platter.

The light path gu master who kept waiting for Gu Guangzhi to make a mistake, kept peeking at Gu Guangzhi, through the corner of his eye. Suddenly he saw an odd shaped object closing on him. He thought that this object was just another piece of the flying debris. He thought that the flickering light on his body would be enough to defend himself. But at the last moment, the object suddenly made its way towards the light path gu master's face.

This object wasn't a piece of the flying rock from the explosions caused by Rock blast Gu. This object was a Hellrise bamboo bird puppet. It exploded right at the face of the light path gu master. This explosion was not enough to penetrate through the flickering light defense but it did what it was supposed to do. It blinded the light path gu master for a moment and this moment of distraction spelt the end for the light path gu master. Even before he could see everything clearly, Gu Guangzhi charged at him in full force and cleanly landed a hit using Drill claw Gu breaking the defenses of Flicker shield Gu. He was blown away by a few meters and got further assaulted by the flying debris.

As he lay collapsed on the ground, the light path gu master was thankful that his Flicker shield Gu helped mitigate most of the damage but he knew that he lost to Gu Guangzhi. He surrendered immediately. Cheers were filled through out the stands after witnessing such a fast paced match. After the match concluded, it was time for Gu Guangzhi to gain one gu insect of his choice from the light path gu master. However, none of gu insects that the light path gu master had were suitable for Gu Guangzhi so he decided to take vital gu ransom from his opponent.

This was a common practice in such tournaments where the loser would compensate the winner with enough primeval stones in exchange for not taking away their vital gu. If the monetary compensation was not satisfactory, the winner would take away the vital gu of the loser which could potentially kill them. So whenever such an opportunity was presented to the loser, they would try their best to fulfill the ransom asked by the winner. This light path gu master was an elder from a small neighboring clan who wanted to improve his personal wealth and gu insects through the tournament but little did he expect that he would be swept clean of all his savings in the ransom. Gu Guangzhi earned upwards of one hundred thousand primeval stones from the vital gu ransom and was very happy.

As he went home, he decided to improve his flying debris move to the next level such that it could be directed towards the opponent as attacks instead of randomly flying around. However, Tan Hu, the gu master who would be Gu Guangzhi's opponent in the third round started sweating buckets. Mao Ning, who was seated bedside him looked down upon Tan Hu.

"What are you so afraid of? He just has a little bit of speed. Haven't you faced gu masters like him before? There are several ways to break his speed. There is no need to worry.", said Mao Ning.

Tan Hu retorted, "It's not his speed that I'm worried about. I heard that he got the Rock blast Gu only a few days back. Look how good he is at using it. You can break his speed for sure. But what can you do to break his talent?"