Inspiration

Gu Guangzhi's water wolf brought him to his home in the Xiong village. The clan members who saw him covered in frost wounds wondered how he got so badly damaged. Yu Wen Zi soon reached Gu Guangzhi's residence and started healing him.

"What took you so long? I thought that you would come sooner.", said Gu Guangzhi.

"I heard about your injuries just now. I came as fast as I could.", replied Yu Wen Zi.

"You heard about these injuries? Wasn't seeing me getting beaten in person enough?"

"… You noticed me huh?"

"I can discern the work of your Fire illusion Gu easily now. I was actually counting on it while trying to fight Bai Ning Bing so close to the Bai village. If not for you, I would've been discovered much sooner by the the Bai clan gu masters."

"You brat! You planned everything, huh? Then did you plan on losing against Bai Ning Bing as well?"

"I never pinned my hopes on defeating him. He is stronger than me by all means and clearly looked down on me. My only goal was to get him to fight me seriously. His ice bird attack was the only serious attack that I faced. It wasn't the full extent of his power but I survived."

"To tell you the truth I was a little scared at that moment. I planned on bailing you out of the battle with my Fire escape Gu in case you were about to be killed but you managed to escape on your own. So, how was the experience of fighting him?"

"I'd rather not fight him again but I'm sure it will happen again. He must be thinking that he will kill me the next time we fight but I will be ready to face him again."

"Ohh! You're confident of facing him again? Did you gain some insight on breaking through to Rank 3?"

"I think so. But I need to work on it. I'm only worried that I may have provoked Bai clan and Xiong clan into war. I don't want blood spilt unnecessarily."

"Don't worry about it. The life of a gu master is always in danger. Bai Ning Bing is not the kind of person to use the power of his clan to retaliate. Besides, the last wolf tide was a weak one. The next one will definitely have more Thunder Crown Wolfs. Do you think the Bai clan will go to war in a time like this? If they go to war with Xiong clan now, it will silently benefit the Gu Yue clan and Bai clan's plan of dominance in the future will be lost."

Yu Wen Zi finished healing Gu Guangzhi. He continued, "You focus on your cultivation for now. I'll handle the politics here. If you need, go into seclusion in the mountains and focus on the insights you gained." Gu Guangzhi nodded in agreement.

That night, Gu Guangzhi left Xiong village and went into the mountains. The ice bird attack by Bai Ning Bing gave him some ideas to breakthrough to the next layer. The seemingly innocent looking ice bird held a devastating explosive power within. Gu Guangzhi wanted to emulate this attack on his aperture walls. Usually primeval essence is directed towards the aperture walls as jets to break them apart. However, with Gu Guangzhi's 39% primeval essence, his primeval essence would be exhausted before the walls started to heal again.

Gu Guangzhi wanted to form an essence bird of sorts with the compressed primeval essence and shoot them at the walls. That way, when the primeval essence explosion happens, the damage to the walls will be much greater. This would take more time to repair, allowing him to prepare the next essence bird. Gu Guangzhi tried creating an essence bird by compressing his boiling primeval essence but it seemed almost impossible. Manipulating the primeval essence into jet streams was a much simpler task. Compressing the primeval essence into the shape of a bird and then shooting it towards the walls was ridiculously tough. But Gu Guangzhi didn't give up.

He first manipulated the primeval essence into a whirlpool to allow it to be compressed easily. The swirling motion made it easy to do so. Then he manipulated the condensed boiling essence into the shape of a bird. After several unsuccessful attempts, he was able to form a bird's rough shape but he realized that he was being foolish. He did not need to emulate the ice bird to make an essence bird. All he needed was the explosive power of the ice bird. So instead, he formed a compressed sphere made of his boiling primeval essence and shot it towards the crystal walls. It started uncompressing and losing power midway .The explosive power when it reached the walls was not enough to make a big enough crack. The crystal wall slowly repaired itself.

According to Gu Guangzhi's calculations, the repairs would happen faster than his rate of regeneration. He would never be able to create enough essence bombs in this way. Also, the essence bombs were losing their power by the time they reached the crystal walls. Gu Guangzhi suddenly had an idea. Until now, he was trying to make large enough hole to the crystal wall at a single point, so that he had time to create more essence bombs and increase the damage gradually. Instead, he could make small concentrated attacks on the crystal wall at several points, creating a ripple effect that would destroy the crystal wall.

One advantage that Gu Guangzhi had was his boiling primeval essence was much lighter than normal primeval essence. This made it harder to control but Gu Guangzhi had ten years to get adjusted to it. Gu Guangzhi made his entire primeval essence move in two gaint swirls. They were moving in two different directions and formed two halves of a hollow sphere. The huge sphere was closely lining the crystal wall. Along the equator line of the giant primeval sphere, the opposing swirls created a shear zone and compressed the primeval essence along the equator.

Gu Guangzhi tried his best to maintain the compression along the equator while expanding the spherical primeval essence halves to maintain the pressure on the crystal wall. When he couldn't maintain it anymore, he allowed the explosion along the equator. The simultaneous explosions, created cracks along the equator. They slowly healed up but Gu Guangzhi was smiling.

'It can be done. I just need more time.'

…

Seasons changed and it was now spring. It was gently raining on the Qing Mao Mountain. All clans were performing ceremonies, praying to their ancestors, hoping for extraordinary gu masters in their next generation. Unbeknownst to them, a pair of clear eyes opened, with complex thoughts in mind.

"Gu Yue Village, this is 500 years ago?!" The demon Fang Yuan was reborn.

…

In a cave, Gu Guangzhi was pushing the primeval essence in his aperture to its limits. The shear zone along the equator of the primeval essence sphere was building powerful currents. The explosive power was building every minute. At the right moment, Gu Guangzhi released the explosions along the equator. The crystal walls popped off in a loud boom like a watermelon under the stress of a thousand rubber bands. Gu Guangzhi was elated as the rest of the crystal membrane slowly disappeared. White silver primeval essence was beginning to form inside the newly formed light membrane aperture walls.

It was late at night and he had become used to sneaking into the Xiong clan. He knocked on Yu Wen Zi's door. Yu Wen Zi was surprised from his visit but instantly understood the implication from Gu Guangzhi's smile. He injected primeval essence into Gu Guangzhi's aperture.

"B-grade! Maximum primeval essence at 78%.", exclaimed Yu Wen Zi.

"I'd call it false A-grade.", said Gu Guangzhi smugly.