A myriad of Wooden statues looked at Dio directly, he was surrounded on all directions.

Among those 'statues', some held stakes and spears, with big shields on their arms.

They moved slowly towards Dio using a standard spear-shield formation.

Dio glanced at this group with mild curiosity in his expression, he grabbed a few rocks and threw them towards the group to see their reaction.

They moved perfectly, without any error on their communication or coordination, those who needed take a step back did, whilst those who had to raise their shields did so instantly.

"I see, your coordination is perfect, just like I predicted.

You all are at the end 'one mind', you're now merely extensions of the will of someone else without no real mind or thoughts whatsoever."

He looked with a slight hint of suspicion at the wooden statues at the sidelines.

"They're preparing something.

Most Gu masters would try to destroy them before they do, but I must make my opponent waste his Primeval Reserves, as long as he's not a rank 5, I can exhaust him through this method.

Besides, I can 'smell' it, he's trying to attack me with my own speciality 'Blood', as long as I take enough of that sweet nectar I'll be able to track him down by the taste and smell."

Dio looked at the ground, it was trembling lightly.

"A muddy ground makes for the perfect soil."

The tiny vibrations became deeper and deeper, and tiny flowers sprouted below his feet.

"Beneath the soil, from the cracks of the ground, healthy plants are born and..."

Those flowers began to wither and their tone began to shift at a terrifying speed, to white, after becoming white, their temperature began to increase steadily and they became pink once more, then red, and finally crimson.

"With a bit of sweat, and blood they truly bring a flourishing hellscape!"

Dio jumped dozens of meters to the left to avoid the growing flames and green poisonous smoke which were filling all his vision.

"Those who survive this, become witnesses of the now destroyed landscape, filled with a dense, poisonous mist, the ashes, the smell of those red petals which fill every place, as if they had always been there."

The expression of Dio became uglier, he raised his arms, activated his 'External Jin Strength Aura' and activated a dozen of his Ripple Phantoms to protect himself.

Yet, despite his efforts a small fraction of those petals managed to collide with his body, their damage on his tissue was mild, but that wasn't the worst part.

From his flesh multiple red marks were carved, his veins and blood began to burst, the temperature on his blood was raising, almost to the point of steaming.

At this point Dio's flesh began to melt.

"At the end, their vision will turn red as their mind collapses under the agony and finally black."

The voice of an old man said viciously, he was clearly mocking him.

"Hey, don't worry, if you wish to make a legend, why don't you become a part of me?

I'll assure you that I'll reach greater heights than you could have possibly conceived...

Hah, hah, hah...

Huh?"

Suddenly, Dio's froze began to cool down, whilst the Blood marks were absorbed by his body, and even his skin began to regenerate at an incredible speed.

"Hmph, I'll take that you used the Gu 'Blood Handprint', this Gu allows to 'carve' a trace of a 'blood mark' which affects the blood.

This mark raises steadily the temperature of the blood, bypassing most ordinary methods of defense, up to the point where the target blood begins to boil and your opponent is reduced to a puddle of steamy blood and burnt meat.

Y'know, it was really, really hard for me to search for Blood Gu's or recipes as they're deemed as 'demonic' and 'forbidden.'

Thanks to you, I'll be able to acquire a Blood path Gu, isn't this perfect?"

The old man's voice quietened down, he asked solemnly.

"Have you also delved into the wonders of Blood path too?"

Many of the wooden statues which were attacking Ma Shan Hu and others moved towards Dio.

And at the center of all, the aura of a 'Wood Charm Gu' shined brightly, filling the body of one of the wooden statues.

The wooden statue was stabbed by many celeste rays of light, those rays of light slowly moved towards the eyes and 'brain.'

Finally, they became dark blue at their peak.

"I was planning to save another 'copy' of this Gu, however, you're simply too troublesome, someone like you may affect my plans.

So, if I have to use a bit of the True Gold Essence that I have managed to produce, so be it."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Dio looked at his opponent with cold sweat on his forehead.

"True Gold Essence...

But that is the Primeval Essence produced by a rank 4 Peak stage Gu master, this..."

He gulped.

"MA SHAN HU, MA XU ZHEN, I NEED YOUR SUPPORT, NOW!"

Dio shouted with all his strength.

Ma Shan Hu nodded, he condensed a dense silver aura and cut through the vines, then he activated Rainbow Light Gu to aid Dio.

Ma Xu Zhen raised his palm, and began to burn all the vines and Wooden statues which were approaching, even though those 'Wooden statues' held one single mind they still had blind spots.

By using his flames he managed to create tiny blind spots from where he slashed and beheaded with his sword.

Naturally, if their current opponent wasn't putting most of his focus on Dio, their reaction would have been completely different, and it wouldn't have been so simple.

But that was obvious, no matter how powerful a Gu master is, they still have a 'mental limit', they may be able to think and do 1 or a 100 things at once, but anyone, even a Venerable can't use an infinite amount of mental resources.

They must manage their mental resources for their goals, hence, this result was only logical.

"You two, you're not a threat that big to me, so, I'll make a compromise, I'm not going to pursue you before I kill this threat, during that time I'm sure you can escape far away from my reach.

As long you do that, you'll be able to survive.

Think about it, I'll give you a few seconds to think things thoroughly."

Ma Xu Zhen glanced briefly at his master, who simply sighed and shook his head.

What a bad luck he had!

Due to their agreement they set, they explicitly told that they can't scheme or attack beforehand or on the contrary allow any harm to come at their way before the time of their fight.

That was to reduce the inner conflict and hidden schemes, but to think that this little detail he added would come to bite him.

Even if this was an unwinnable fight he had to stand alongside Dio.

"Hmph, you simply don't know what is good for you.

Rain of ensouled explosive seeds."

From one of the branches which resembled an arm, a dark blue fluid was shoot towards the two.

Inside this fluid there was an screeching sounds which resembled screams of a thousand souls, their faces were engraved on the myriad of seeds on this particular soul fluid.

Both Ma Shan Hu and Ma Xu Zhen evaded this with little difficulty, but they come to realize that even now the fluid was pursuing them.

The 'man' clenched his fists.

"BOOM!"

There was a huge dark explosion which filled their visions.

This attack not only attacked their physical bodies, but also their human souls!

Even though it wasn't too much of an influence, it was enough to produce a heavy dizziness and mental confusion.

this naturally affected the usage of Gu worms and Killer Moves.

Ma Xu Zhen barely managed to activate his Killer Move, but it was too late, as a little part of the attack had hit his body cleanly, all his body was filled with aches and many 'Blood marks.'

His blood began to boil, and when he finally couldn't endure it and he screamed in pain, his Killer Move activation failed and he was reduced to ashes.

Whilst Ma Shan Hu managed to endure this absurdly powerful Killer Move thanks to his new creation:

"Everflowing 9 Qi's, One sword Qi armor."

The 9-colored rainbow around his body, flowed seamlessly through his body, blocking almost all the impact.

He looked with shock, fear and a hint of admiration at his opponent.

"Such raw strength, will I one day reach such heights?"

Dio however was completely petrified.

"How...

How I can win this?"

He frowned lightly.

"My rank 1 peak aperture has too little essence, just in my previous actions I used most of it.

Wait."

Dio frowned lightly.

"This speed of recovery, is too abnormal..."

A slight smile appeared on his face.

"I get it!

My 'Extreme Aperture', is related to blood, and in the same way that a 'Boundless Forest Samara' Extreme Physique has a faster speed of recovery on a forest or a Northern Dark Ice Soul Extreme Physique, recovers faster on the winter, I Dio.

Recover faster on the battlefield, or a warzone where young, rich blood is spilled.

Hah, hah, this is truly befitting of me, Dio."

He chuckled.

"At this pace, I'll recover my Primeval Essence on less than 10 minutes, and not only that, through enough bloodshed I can even find the hope to raise my aperture to rank 2!

That and by activating those Relic Gu's, I'll be able to reach rank 2 peak stage in little time, hah.

As long as I play my cards right, I Dio will emerge victorious once more."

Dio smile widened, he glanced at his opponent and said.

"Believe it or not, I'll be the one who will end up triumphant, as I always have!"

He clenched his fists.

"Omnidirectional Ripple Phantoms." The dense, thin aura of his Ripple Phantoms filled his body and the zone with a diameter of 20 meters.

It was such the concentration of Ripple Phantoms that their image couldn't clearly be seen, they're shrouded by dozens of layers of Ripple Phantoms which overlapped each other.

Dio smirked.

"Just now, I thought of a new Killer Move.

I call it 'Ripple Blood Phantom.'

As I'm going to go for a clean strike, I guess is best if I use a 'Monkey's grip', heh."

After finishing his phrase, he clenched his fists with all his strength.

The vague image of a monkey grabbing a branch appeared behind him, the image became blurrier and blurrier, whilst at the same time denser and denser, until it became of a dark purple tone.

Finally, after reaching their peak, Dio began to concentrate and reshape the form of his spherical aura into a new form.

"Ripple Blood Phantom; Monkey Drill attack!"

Dio shouted loudly.

He then charged towards his opponent who looked like a 45 meters Wood mutated spirit.

"Mini-Forest Wall!"

Hundreds of trees appeared from the 'palms' of this 'Wood spirit.'

Dio gritted his teeth, with all his strength unleashed he pierced through those branches, wood and leaf's like if they're made of paper.

Naturally, this harmed his body on unspeakable ways, that and the fact that his opponent cunningly hid attacks behind him to slash, cut or even poison his body without him having a way to respond, injured him considerably.

If he wasn't a Vampire his body would have long ago collapsed.

But, even on spite of all that, the force of his technique was quickly decreasing as the energy on his muscles was depleting.

He had lost more than half of his strength by the point he managed to 'touch' his opponent directly with his attack.

Dio pierced through the 'stomach' of his opponent, and then retreated.

"Huff, Huff, Huff...

Take this."

The mutated Wood spirit quickly regenerated from his wounds, then it turned his body against Dio.

"This trump card of yours is quite interesting, but that's all.

Despite all your efforts you've barely managed to make me deplete a bit of my Primeval Essence, whilst your body, Primeval reserves and even soul must be shaken and exhausted by such release of power."

Dio smiled widely at him.

"Huff, do you think so?

Even now I'm healing my wounds, you're not the only one with an endless vital energy.

Besides, our fight has just begun, I'm not going to die that easily."