Competence

Bai Ning Bing was sitting on top of a tree. He looked bored and was thinking about his future. He was considered as a true genius and was the hope of Bai clan's dominance on Qing Mao mountain in the future. But the truth was different. While ordinary gu masters, even with the best A grade aptitudes, can have only up to 99% maximum primeval essence, he was born with a special physique known as Northern Dark Ice Soul Physique which allowed him to have 100% primeval essence. This gave him an astonishing rate of regeneration and rate of cultivation but he was also in the constant danger of self detonating due to the burden on his aperture.

Ever since the secret about his physique was discovered by his clan leader, he was treated as the future of the Bai clan and was made to cultivate diligently. This further increased the risk of self detonation but the clan didn't allow him to stop his cultivation. This constant pressure from the clan despite the risk of self detonation made him realize he had no friends in this world and he could find pleasure only from life and death battles. He would deliberately get into fights and bully his opponents. Even the elders of the clans were somewhat afraid of him so his days were usually boring.

On one such day, when Bai Ning Bing was lazing around, Gu Guangzhi came to the outskirts of Bai village and issued a challenge to him. Bai Ning Bing was slightly amused and looked at Gu Guangzhi. When he saw Gu Guangzhi, with a Rank 2 strength and a missing arm, he was confused. He got down from the tree, looked curiously at Gu Guangzhi, and asked him "Who are you? Don't you know who I am?"

"My name is Gu Guangzhi. I've been a Rank 2 peak stage gu master for three years now, unable to breakthrough to Rank 3. I've come to stake my life on battling you and finding the inspiration to breakthrough."

Bai Ning Bing's face broke into a slight smile of mockery, "You are unable to breakthrough to Rank 3 for the past three years? Don't tell me you are a C-grade trash who is dreaming of challenging me." Saying so, he formed an icicle spear in his hand and shot it towards Gu Guangzhi. The icicle was aimed Gu Guangzhi's shoulder. Gu Guangzhi activated his Ghost claw Gu. A ghost claw formed in the air and grabbed the icicle spear midway. Ever since his soul foundation had increased, he felt that his Ghost palm Gu had become more powerful and efficient to use. He refined it to Rank 2 Ghost claw Gu later.

Gu Guangzhi crushed the icicle spear with the ghost claw and said to Bai Ning Bing, "Attack me like you mean it. Aim at my heart." Bai Ning Bing felt interested about Gu Guangzhi. Here he was, facing a man who was challenging him to a death match just because he couldn't progress in his cultivation. He smiled and said, "Fine. I will seriously beat you to death. However, I will only use Rank 2 primeval essence. Using Rank 3 primeval essence to deal with you is shameful to me." Gu Guangzhi accepted it and said, "Don't regret it later."

Using Iceblade Gu, Bai Ning Bing created a long ice blade in his hand. He activated his Rank 1 Whirlwind Gu. A slight wind enveloped him and his movement speed increased. He rushed in to attack Gu Guangzhi.

Before the battle, Gu Guangzhi had used a Condensing essence Gu in order to avoid damaging his gu insects from excessive use of his boiling essence. His aperture was at his maximum capacity. After the use of Ghost claw Gu, he had 38% left.

Gu Guangzhi activated his Pronghorn beetle Gu and evaded the first strike. He activated Rank 2 Bamboo spear Gu. It was a metal path bamboo family gu that he refined. It had a metal shaft and a sharp spear head. It expended a lot of his primeval essence to create but it could be created beforehand. Gu Guangzhi had refined several of them beforehand. It had a good defense and decent medium range attack capabilities. Gu Guangzhi blocked the ice blade and attacked Bai Ning Bing in a smooth motion. Bai Ning Bing escaped the swing easily and amped up his attacks. Gu Guangzhi picked up the pace and started attacking aggressively.

Bai Ning Bing was satisfied by Gu Guangzhi's battle prowess. Up until now he fought with Gu Guangzhi using gu insects to a minimum to test the abilities of Gu Guangzhi. Satisfied with the results, he started using his Rank 2 Water Shield Gu. Two lines of water vapor appeared from his nostrils and condensed around his body to form a spherical barrier of moisture. Once this started, Gu Guangzhi's attacks started being deflected easily. He was not able to defend properly using his bamboo spear and was forced to evade attacks from the ice blade. Gu Guangzhi almost got hurt when Bai Ning Bing suddenly increased the length of the ice blade and reached for his neck. Gu Guangzhi infused primeval essence into Pronghorn beetle Gu and used the burst speed to quickly dodge.

Gu Guangzhi, after realizing that short range attacks weren't working, increased the distance between them and started shooting the bamboo spears towards Bai Ning Bing with all his strength he built up over the years using Rank 2 Mountain bear Innate strength Gu. He wanted to rely on the piercing power of the bamboo spear. However, Bai Ning Bing didn't give a change for the bamboo spears to pierce through his water shield. Instead he used spears created from Icicle Gu and destroyed those spears. Gu Guangzhi became wary of the power of Icicle Gu but Bai Ning Bing was just toying with him.

He decided to use another powerful gu he refined. He injected 20% of his primeval essence into his Rank 2 Lightning bamboo Gu. It was one of the most expensive gu insects that he had. It was hard to refine, hard to feed and one time expendable gu. It needed to materials from a Bold Lightning Wolf to refine and it fed upon low doses of lightning strikes every few days. Gu Guangzhi had obtained a Lightning Current Gu from a wolf tide several times to feed Lightning Bamboo Gu but he couldn't find the food needed for Lightning Current Gu in his region in sufficient quantities after the wolf tides ended. Thus, the Lightning Current Gu would often die due to lack of food and his Lighting bamboo Gu would soon starve.

He had Bamboo culm Gu which could be used to feed other bamboo family gu insects but he soon learnt that this Rank 2 Gu was draining a lot of food from the other gu insects stored in the Bamboo culm Gu such as Rank 3 Bamboo stalk Gu. Feeding Rank 3 Bamboo stalk Gu was more important to him than the Rank 2 Lightning Bamboo Gu. So he sealed it in a rock using the forced hibernation technique. Gu insects that went into hibernation wouldn't last long after they are brought back, so Gu Guangzhi used the Lightning bamboo Gu to it's fullest by using 20% of his primeval essence.