A Farmer's Journey To Immortality

The Void Gu ignored flesh, bone, and muscle.

Their ethereal forms simply phased through Kalina’s physical body as though those obstacles did not exist.

Within moments—

They reached her heart.

Void Gu did not normally feed on physical matter. Their nature was entirely different. The reason so many of them existed inside the Void Water Pond despite never being fed anything was related to the way they were born and raised.

But under Aksai’s command, the Void Gu behaved like ordinary Gu insects for one specific purpose.

They bit into Kalina’s heart.

Each tiny bite tore away microscopic pieces before immediately releasing them. They were not consuming her flesh. Not really. They were destroying it.

Little by little, countless invisible wounds began appearing inside the most vital organ in her body. If someone had the ability to see what the Void Gu were doing to Kalina’s heart, they would be reminded of a piece of wood being destroyed by termites, except the destruction was happening in real time.

One should never underestimate the Void Gu because of their microscopic size. In the hands of an experienced Gu Master, they became an almost unavoidable weapon.

The only reason Aksai had refrained from using them earlier was because he had not yet achieved complete control over them.

More importantly, Kalina had been too strong. Her defensive state earlier in the battle would never have allowed the Void Gu to reach her heart so easily. Not because the Void Gu were incapable of breaching her defenses, but because Aksai would have had a hard time commanding them to do so.

Thus, only now, only after Kalina had exhausted herself, only after her defenses had nearly collapsed, did the opportunity finally appear.

It had to be noted that the Void Gu constantly occupied almost a quarter of Nuri’s processing power just for Aksai to control them. This processing load was bound to increase exponentially whenever Aksai asked them to do something beyond his own capabilities.

The Void Gu were akin to monks who had distanced themselves from worldly affairs. The only way for their tamer to make them do anything was to occupy their bodies using their split consciousness and make use of their natural abilities to do things themselves.

Although it sounded simple, it was actually way harder than controlling the ordinary puppets. Aksai should know– he had a lot of experience in crafting the various versions of Fiends and controlling them. And yet, his experiences still fell short when it came to controlling the Void Gu.

In fact, Void Gu weren’t supposed to be controlled by a Core Formation Lord at all. The minimum requirement for a Spirit cultivator to control them was achieving the level of Nascent Soul initial stage. And even that was barely meeting the standards.

It was only possible for Aksai to control them because he had Nuri. even he was surprised that Void Gu had finally behaved and performed their duties just the way he wanted them to.

Kalina’s body completely lost its balance. She fell flat onto Aksai as the momentum of the palm strike continued lifting her lower body.

It would have almost been a very intimate 6position9 between two lovers if Aksai and Kalina had not been trying to kill each other.

With his single intact arm, Aksai punched above her groin and shoved her upward. Using the force from his palm strike and the momentum of her fall, he flipped her body over himself.

Kalina unwillingly performed somewhat of a complete cartwheel before crashing several meters away.

Bang!

Aksai rolled to his feet immediately despite his grievous injuries. Blood still poured from his severed shoulder. His breathing remained ragged. Yet his eyes remained frighteningly calm.

Kalina stared at him in disbelief. Her mind finally caught up.

"...You..."

She had acted weak. She had baited him into lowering his guard.

Yet he had done exactly the same.

No...

He had done it better. Much better.

The entire battle suddenly replayed itself inside her mind. It no longer felt like a battle between two cultivators. It felt like two master chess players gambling their lives with every move.

Only then did Kalina realize that Aksai had been planning this checkmate long before she believed she had won.

Realizing she had been outsmarted, Kalina’s body instinctively tried to rise but she failed. The poison finally showed its true fangs.

A strange numbness spread from the tiny bite mark on her thigh. It was almost impossible to notice at first. Then it spread through her muscles. Through her blood. And also through her Spirit Essence veins.

"..."

Kalina tried to move her fingers. Nothing happened.

She tried to gather Spirit Essence. The familiar flow that had accompanied her throughout decades of cultivation no longer answered her call.

Her Spirit Essence veins, already damaged by the poison mist, now suffered a second assault from within. The two poisons did not oppose each other. Instead, they reinforced one another.

The Spirit Essence inside her body became sluggish. Then almost completely still. Kalina’s eyes widened.

"N... no..."

She desperately tried to form even the simplest Mudra. Her fingers refused to obey. Her arm would not even lift.

She attempted to activate one of the few emergency Spirit techniques. But that was in vain too.

The poison had paralyzed not only her body but also her ability to circulate Spirit Essence.

Even if she still possessed a tiny amount of Spirit Essence inside her Golden Core, it no longer mattered.

Without circulation, no spell could be cast. Not even a Connate Spell.

At this very moment, tiny transparent figures emerged from her chest. The Void Gu would have been invisible to the naked eye. But Kalina’s Core Formation blood floated around them in tiny droplets, making it as if a blood mist had risen from her now-deformed chest.

Their task was complete. The invisible swarm quietly returned to its master.

One after another, they disappeared beneath Aksai’s sleeve before being absorbed into his body. Only after the last Void Gu returned did Aksai finally release the breath he had unconsciously been holding.

"...It’s over."

His voice was barely above a whisper. His body swayed. Blood continued dripping from his severed shoulder.

His vision blurred from excessive blood loss. Yet he remained standing. His calm eyes settled upon Kalina.

Kalina stared back. If hatred alone could kill, Aksai would have died a thousand times over. Her beautiful face had become twisted with rage. Her bloodshot eyes looked as though they wanted to tear him apart.

If only her body still obeyed her..

If only her limbs could still move...

She would gladly crawl over and bite his throat apart with her own teeth.

Aksai understood that look. He also knew something else.

Even after losing her heart, Kalina had not died. The vitality of a late-stage Lord far exceeded that of ordinary cultivators. In this regard, she was no different from Arkaal, even if her cultivation realm was lower.

A Lord’s body had been tempered repeatedly through heavenly tribulations. Their life force had become frighteningly resilient. Destroying the heart alone was not always enough to kill someone like her immediately.

Aksai looked at the tiny bite mark on her thigh. He silently thanked his own caution.

Fortunately, Serya had acted exactly as planned. Otherwise, he would never have dared to approach Kalina after destroying her heart.

A dying late-stage Lord remained one of the most terrifying opponents imaginable for someone at his current level. Even with her heart gone, Kalina could still have dragged him into the afterlife if she had retained control over her body.

Serya’s poison had completed what the Void Gu had started. Or perhaps it was the other way around, since both attacks had landed almost simultaneously. Frankly speaking, it did not matter which attack had incapacitated Kalina more, as long as she was thoroughly incapacitated.

Aksai knew exactly why Serya’s poison had become so frightening. After receiving Seralyth’s bloodline inheritance, Serya had transformed completely.

Her bloodline had evolved and so had her poison. It no longer belonged to the same level as before. Compared to the poison packed inside his Void Gu Bombs, Serya’s venom was of an entirely higher grade. It possessed not only greater toxicity but also a far stronger ability to suppress Spirit Essence circulation.

The only drawback was its unique nature. Aksai could not extract Serya’s poison and store it for later use. The moment the poison left Serya’s body, it began losing its potency at a rapid rate, turning into an ordinary mortal-grade poison within a few minutes.

As such, Aksai could not use Serya’s venom in his Gu Poison Bombs. Forget the Gu part—he would have mass-produced Serya Poison Bombs if her poison had remained stable outside her body.

Imagine if the Poison Bombs made of Serya’s poison were to detonate and incapacitate a bunch of Lords in the vicinity at the same time. Even if the poison does not manage to completely seal off opponents’ movements, as long as they experience partial paralysis for even a half of a minute would be akin to Aksai getting a free time to treat them as live pieces of meat on chopping blocks.

But with his current achievements in the poison study, it was not possible. And this was when he needed such a trump card the most ever since he became a cultivator.

Aksai could only sigh inwardly at his current predicament and think of a solution in the future.

Nevertheless, Aksai could still make use of Serya during critical moments. Against an exhausted cultivator like Kalina, her venom had become the final nail in the coffin.

Only then did Aksai allow himself to believe that the battle had truly reached its end.