Then, instantly, Xon Leon and Karna Aoi Kama healed their injuries and started teaming up against Saralatha.
Saralatha could not do anything.
She was getting beaten again and again and again.
For several minutes, Xon Leon and Karna Aoi Kama kept pressing her down without giving her any chance to breathe.
Then, after some minutes, Saralatha fell to the ground.
Gu Yanshu threw her upward toward the barrier.
Now he knew there was no one else left to support him.
He had to fight by himself.
He jumped up.
Xon Leon and Karna Aoi Kama kicked him.
Blood fell to the ground.
Now Xon Leon and Karna Aoi Kama were bullying everyone.
Finally, Qin Jinzhe opened his eyes and saw how deeply his master was being pushed down.
He saw how intense the bullying had become.
His face turned angry.
Then he remembered his past.
He remembered being with the other disciples.
He remembered the time when Gu Yanshu had come and helped him in Area 901.
Then he screamed.
Then he flew into the sky.
He tried to punch Karna Aoi Kama.
But nothing happened.
They were moving at high speed, and he could not even land a proper punch on them.
Xon Leon and Karna Aoi Kama were fully focused on the battle.
Seeing how fast they were moving, Qin Jinzhe created a barrier.
It was a barrier that usually affected elemental users.
It was built to restrain elemental users and hold them down.
But Xon Leon and Karna Aoi Kama had mastered their skills so deeply that they broke through it.
The barrier had been made to kill elemental users.
But Xon Leon and Karna Aoi Kama had mastered the elemental path so much that they broke the barrier and moved forward again, bullying even more, making the pressure even more intense.
Qin Jinzhe looked down at the ground.
Then he remembered Saralatha being beaten by both of them together.
He lowered his head for a moment.
Then he used the first element he had gathered seven years ago.
The first element.
The one he had kept before Gu Yanshu had even arrived.
He remembered it clearly.
Then he started healing Saralatha.
Slowly.
Carefully.
After getting healed, Saralatha woke up and looked around.
Then she saw the amount of destruction happening all around her.
She remembered how Xon Leon and Karna Aoi Kama had punched her too much and how she had fallen into the ground.
Then Saralatha flew into the sky again and tried to punch Xon Leon and Karna Aoi Kama.
But instantly, they were so focused on the battle that it was just like what had happened to Qin Jinzhe.
She could not catch them easily.
Then Qin Jinzhe told Saralatha to stop.
He had already tried his best to defeat those two.
Saralatha became angry and screamed.
"I am not weak. I can defeat those both if I want. They are just too fast. That is why I cannot punch Xon Leon and Karna Aoi Kama and defeat them."
Qin Jinzhe said immediately, "That is an excuse."
He looked at her with anger in his face.
"That is a true excuse. You are trying to prove me wrong. I can defeat Xon Leon and Karna Aoi Kama if I want, and their speed is too high, so that is why I cannot hit them. That is it. Do not try more excuses. Just focus on the battle. The battle."
Saralatha paused for a second.
Then she answered, "Okay. I know I am making excuses. After this, I will focus on the battle. I am trying to defeat Xon Leon and Karna Aoi Kama."
Qin Jinzhe nodded.
"Okay. Now go and battle Xon Leon and Karna Aoi Kama."
Saralatha flew into the sky again.
Finally, with high speed, she caught Xon Leon and Karna Aoi Kama by the leg.
Then she threw them into the ground before they could stand.
Then she started slamming them into the ground again and again and again.
The smoke cleared.
And when the smoke cleared, Xon Leon and Karna Aoi Kama had already regenerated every bit of blood that had just been spilled.
They had healed again.
Saralatha remembered something.
There was still the heart.
If you do not have a heart, you will die.
And if the blood cycle stops, you will die too.
So if I destroy his heart, I might just kill him, she thought.
Then she looked at Gu Yanshu, who was still knocked out nearby.
Her expression became angry.
Then she rose her blade.
And she targeted the heart of Xon Leon and Karna Aoi Kama.
The blade struck weakly at first.
Karna Aoi Kama fell into the ground.
Xon Leon pulled the blade out like it was nothing.
Then Xon Leon flew upward again.
Saralatha checked Karna Aoi Kama immediately.
She looked carefully and then shouted.
Karna Aoi Kama was not breathing.
At that moment, Qin Jinzhe flew up into the sky and came to Gu Yanshu.
With his element, he started healing him.
The injuries on Gu Yanshu's body began disappearing slowly.
The blood spread across his body started fading little by little.
Then Gu Yanshu stood up.
He finally opened his eyes.
He looked around.
He saw Karna Aoi Kama fallen.
He saw the blade stuck in his heart.
Then instantly, Gu Yanshu teleported and came to Karna Aoi Kama.
He looked at him.
He was not breathing.
Gu Yanshu's face stayed expressionless.
Then he looked up into the sky.
Xon Leon was standing there above them.Xon Leon looked at Saralatha and said, "It hurts, junior sister."
Then he pulled the blade out of his heart and threw it straight into the ground.
Gu Yanshu watched him closely.
There was something curious here.
Something unusual.
Xon Leon had just taken the blade out as if the wound did not matter as much as it should have.
Maybe Saralatha had stabbed him in the heart.
Maybe that was the reason.
Maybe that was the possibility.
There were many outcomes.
Many possibilities.
But Gu Yanshu knew he should not waste his time guessing the past.
He should focus on the battle.
That was the thing in front of him now.
Not the earlier damage.
Not the earlier strike.
The battle itself.
Gu Yanshu put more energy into his hand.
Then his hand looked like it was growing.
But it was not really growing.
It stayed the same size.
It only looked like it was expanding under the pressure of his power.
He put his gloves back on.
Then he took his blade back.
He needed the blade now.
He could not block every attack with his hand.
If he blocked with his hand, the blade might break.
And if he used his hand too much, it might cause pain through the bone structure of his arm, down through the connection in his body, maybe even affecting his neck.
He did not want that.
He could not afford that.
So he kept the blade in his hand.
Then he raised it.
"If we are going to rebattle," Gu Yanshu said, "then do it."
Xon Leon came down toward the ground.
His face was hard.
His expression was sharp.
"Yes," he said. "I will rebattle you."
Then he charged.
At first it looked like a punch was coming.
He had been charging that punch for a long time.
It was about to hit Gu Yanshu.
But a barrier from a high cultivation stage blocked it.
A huge explosion followed.
The ground near the barrier was destroyed.
Cracks spread outward.
Dust and broken earth flew everywhere.
But the barrier remained.
It was Gu Yanshu's barrier.
And Gu Yanshu kept the fight going through that barrier.
He understood something very clearly.
The more time this barrier held, the more energy it would drain from Xon Leon.
That was enough.
That was the point.
How much time it took would decide how much strength Xon Leon lost.
That was how Gu Yanshu thought.
He did not care if the barrier took energy.
He knew it could protect him.
Energy would not matter.
Stress would not stop him.
Not this battle.
Not now.
Xon Leon attacked again.
This time the punch was slower.
A lot slower.
That made it weaker.
He had clearly been trying to break the barrier, but it did not work.
Instead, the barrier reacted differently.
It healed itself.
The cracks closed.
The barrier strengthened.
It became more stable as he kept attacking it.
Gu Yanshu moved his blade and sliced at Xon Leon's hand.
But Xon Leon regenerated instantly.
It was like he was immortal.
Gu Yanshu saw that immediately.
If he cut his head, would the head regenerate too?
If it regenerated, then was that basically immortality?
Gu Yanshu smiled slightly.
He understood something else too.
Sometimes, regeneration could be destroyed if the target was changed.
The lungs.
Maybe if he struck the lungs, the regeneration would stop.
But there was a barrier in the lungs too.
That made things suspicious.
Was it truly protecting the lungs?
Or was it just a trick to make him target the lungs?
If Gu Yanshu focused too much on the lungs, then Xon Leon might use that opening.
He might wait for the chance and start bullying him again like before.
Like what had happened when he had been knocked out earlier.
So Gu Yanshu did not fully trust it.
He stayed cautious.
He would not focus blindly on the lungs.
He would not let the trap catch him.
Xon Leon stepped forward again.
He tried another punch.
But this time he had forgotten the barrier.
The barrier blocked the strike again.
And now it was visible.
It did not crack.
It was stronger than before.
Much stronger than the previous time.
The barrier was improving.
It was healing itself as the attack continued.
The more Xon Leon attacked, the stronger it became.
He kept punching.
He kept forcing pressure into it.
But every time he struck, the barrier grew tougher.
Then he punched one last time.
He stopped.
Blood came out of him.
He wiped the blood away.
Then he regenerated it.
The blood returned.
Xon Leon looked at Gu Yanshu.
But Gu Yanshu still showed no expression.
His face remained flat.
Unmoved.
Then Xon Leon laughed loudly.
He laughed because he saw that expressionless face.
He laughed louder and louder.
The sound echoed through the mountains.
The echo bounced across the broken battlefield and made the whole scene feel even more unstable.
Gu Yanshu did not react.
He simply raised his blade again.
Then he sliced at Xon Leon's head once more.
The blade cut through.
But Xon Leon regenerated his head immediately.
He laughed even more.
Even louder.
The cycle repeated.
Gu Yanshu sliced.
Xon Leon regenerated.
Gu Yanshu sliced again.
Xon Leon healed again.
His body kept restoring itself every time.
The regeneration looked endless.
Gu Yanshu watched carefully.
This time he targeted the lungs.
The barrier around the lungs shattered instantly.
The lungs were cut apart and fell to the ground in two pieces.
Xon Leon believed Gu Yanshu had fallen into his trap.
He tried to punch him immediately.
But every attack was dodged.
Gu Yanshu moved with sharp control.
He remembered one thing clearly.
He had to be careful of everything.
Everything.
Every movement.
Every attack.
Every change in rhythm.
Every false opening.
He could not afford to trust the wrong thing.
So he stayed alert.
He watched Xon Leon's body.
He watched the hands.
He watched the shoulders.
He watched the feet.
He watched the breathing.
And he waited for the next move.Xon Leon panicked.
He started thinking too hard, asking himself why Gu Yanshu kept dodging every attack, why every strike was missing, why the battle was slipping away from him one motion at a time.
And the more he thought, the less he focused on the fight.
That was the opening Gu Yanshu needed.
He gathered more cultivation energy onto his blade.
The sword began to glow again, brighter than before, the light growing sharp and dense, the same kind of power he had used when he cleared the chamber earlier, only this time far stronger, far more complete.
This was not going to be a single slice.
This was going to be many.
Gu Yanshu moved.
The blade swept forward with terrifying precision, and Xon Leon was cut apart so completely that his regeneration could not keep up.
There was no clean recovery.
No easy healing.
The body had been divided too far, too deeply, too thoroughly.
His regeneration began to slow.
If the regeneration time ran out, then he would remain like that forever.
And then it became clear.
He could not regenerate anymore.
Xon Leon was dead.
He was not moving.
He was not breathing.
Gu Yanshu stared at him for a moment, and because the damage had been so complete, he could not even trust the small signs of breathing through the ruined shape in front of him.
But he knew one thing clearly.
The regeneration was gone.
That meant the battle was over.
Saralatha stepped forward.
Gu Yanshu turned to her and said, "Go."
Saralatha frowned at him.
"Why would I go? I am here to protect you."
Gu Yanshu's face stayed flat.
"I do not care about protection. I want to focus on my own battle. Get out."
Saralatha hesitated for only a moment.
Then she accepted it.
She backed away and left the mountain area, moving out of the battlefield as ordered.
Gu Yanshu was left alone with the aftermath.
Then he remembered something important.
The Clock Family sect could fly.
There was a button in the main area.
He had seen it before.
He knew what it could do.
If he wanted to get out of Area 902, he could use it.
So he went into the sect.
He brought the disciples with him and guided them toward the steps and the main area.
Then he pressed the button.
The whole sect began to move.
Slowly at first.
Then faster.
The structure started rising into the air.
The disciples were shocked.
Then they became excited.
They opened the windows and felt the wind rushing against their faces.
None of them had ever experienced something like this before.
A building flying through the sky.
It seemed impossible.
But it was happening.
The movement was fast.
Very fast.
Not quite an airplane, but still moving at extreme speed, far beyond anything normal people would expect from a building.
The air pressed against the walls.
The windows shook with the force of motion.
The disciples stared in awe.
Gu Yanshu understood what he had made happen.
He had invented something new.
He gave it a name.
A name only the best materials could support.
Then, as the sect continued flying, Gu Yanshu moved toward the Library of Learning.
He entered carefully.
The mysterious book was still there in the same place.
He looked around cautiously before stepping farther inside.
Then he grabbed another book and began reading.
The text spoke of a young man from millions of years ago.
He was the first one to suck the elements.
The first one to make the method known.
The first one whose name spread among humanity.
Humanity gave him a name that fit him perfectly.
He became a rumor.
Then the rumor spread.
It went from person to person.
Then across the whole world.
People tried it.
It worked.
Then they spread the rumor even more.
The rumor traveled across the earth.
The entire world started believing it.
People gave tips on how to do it.
And the cycle never stopped.
The rumor kept spreading.
The man lived for seven hundred thousand years.
Then he died.
But even after his death, the rumors continued.
They did not stop.
They kept moving through the world.
Then another rumor came.
The disappearance of So Do.
That rumor spread too.
Many people checked it.
More people tried it.
Some of them mastered the healing element.
And before the book even explained the healing element directly, it went deeper into what healing meant.
It explained the truth behind healing techniques.
It explained the hidden rule.
If the healing element is fully mastered, regeneration becomes possible after every attack.
But there is a limit.
If the atoms are sliced apart, then regeneration cannot return the body the same way.
That is the rule of the healing element.
Atoms are what make regeneration possible after each attack.
Without them, the process fails.
And Gu Yanshu kept reading.Gu Yanshu continued reading the next page, and the more he read, the more strange the book felt. The writing inside the Library of Learning was not like ordinary writing. It carried weight. It carried a kind of old pressure, as if every line had been left there by someone who had seen far more than normal people ever would. The page was speaking about the upper men, and it said clearly that the upper men were useless for creating elements. Not weak. Not incomplete. Useless. The upper men system itself could not create elements the way a true creator could. Only the man of power could do that. Only the man of power had the ability to truly form elements, shape them, and bring them into existence. That was the difference. That was the line that separated one kind of control from another.
Gu Yanshu kept reading, his eyes moving carefully across each sentence. The page also said that even the supporters of the upper men could not create elements. They could stand beside them. They could follow them. They could praise them. They could help them build influence and order and structure. But when it came to making elements appear from nothing, they could not do it. They could not force that kind of creation into existence. And sometimes, even when upper men could create elements, they still mostly could not, because they were lonely, because they did not know what elements really were, because they did not understand the thing they were trying to control. They might use power, but they did not truly know power. They might stand at the top, but they still could not grasp the real shape of what they were touching.
The page went further and said they were the ones who created trees, everything, all the structure of the world, and yet they still did not know what trees truly were. They could make things exist. They could shape a world. But understanding still stayed far away from them. That was the problem. That was why their creation stayed incomplete. That was why the governments could not create elements. They could regulate them, collect them, guard them, and use them, but not truly create them from nothing in the pure way the text was describing. The more Gu Yanshu read, the more he felt the book was not simply teaching him. It was layering hidden logic over hidden logic, like it wanted him to think deeper than simple attack and defense, deeper than the battlefield he had just left behind.
Then, without warning, something changed. The book in his hand was suddenly sucked away. It did not fall. It did not slip. It was pulled from his grasp with a strange force, and in an instant there was no book left in his hand at all. The book had gone into the body of the other book, as if one book had swallowed the other and hidden it inside itself. Gu Yanshu's face changed only slightly, but his eyes sharpened. He was already watching for this kind of strange movement, already expecting that the mystery would not stay still for long.
The serious book began flying again. It rose into the air in front of him, moving with that same unnatural energy it had shown before. It did not simply float. It moved with intention. With purpose. Like it was alive enough to choose its own position. Then it came forward, and this time, it launched an electric shock toward him. The shock came out fast, sharp, and violent, a sudden burst meant to strike him before he could settle into another defense. It was not a normal attack. It was a warning. A challenge. A reaction from the book itself.
But Gu Yanshu had already been prepared.
His hand tightened around his sword.
He cut through the electric shock cleanly.
One slash.
The energy split apart. Sparks scattered in the air, breaking away in thin lines before fading into the quiet of the library. The force of the shock did not reach him fully. It died against the blade. Then Gu Yanshu moved forward into the fight with the book. He was not panicking. He was not rushing. But he was also not willing to let the book continue acting like it had complete control over the room. He struck again, and the book answered again. A strange rhythm formed between them, not fully a battle and not fully a lesson, but something in between, something that felt more dangerous because it was uncertain.
The sound inside the Library of Learning changed completely. No one outside could hear it properly. To the disciples beyond the room, everything still seemed quiet. Still. Unmoving. But inside, the room carried a different world. Sharp noises. Heavy impact. Strange ripples of energy. The clash felt like something invisible was being hit over and over again in the middle of a sealed space. It was the kind of battle that did not need to spill outside to be real. It was already real in the room, in the air, in the pressure moving against the walls.
Gu Yanshu kept fighting. The book kept moving. Every time he struck, it twisted away, or answered back, or released another sudden wave of energy. He cut at it once. Then again. Then again. The attacks grew sharper as he kept testing it, trying to understand its limits. He moved with caution, but also with enough force to make sure it knew he was not backing away from it. His steps stayed steady. His breathing stayed even. He did not let the book force him into panic, and he did not let the mystery of it break his focus.
At one point, he finally cut the book in half.
The blade went through it cleanly.
For a brief moment, it looked as though that might be enough.
But the next instant changed everything.
The book regenerated.
The split closed again as if nothing had happened. The pages and body of the book pulled together and restored themselves completely, leaving no lasting damage behind. The movement was so fast and so unnatural that it almost felt like the book was laughing at the idea of being damaged at all.
Gu Yanshu stared at it.
Now he understood something important.
This book was not something he could destroy so easily.
It was not ordinary. It was not fragile. It was not a simple object that could be broken by force and forgotten. It had a kind of structure or rule inside it that let it restore itself. That made it dangerous. That made it stubborn. That made it difficult to handle in a direct fight. And because it could return again and again, the longer he fought it without understanding it, the more risk he would carry.
He kept his eyes on it.
He knew if he kept pushing too hard, this book could make him suffer more damage than he wanted. It could drain him. It could shock him. It could force him into a worse state if he stayed careless. So he did not rush. He did not keep attacking without thought. He measured the distance between himself and the book one more time, feeling the energy in the room, understanding that this was no longer just about winning by force. It was about survival, observation, and not giving the book the opening it wanted.
He made the smarter choice.
He had no choice but to ignore it for now.
Gu Yanshu lowered his sword slightly, stepped back from the floating book, and turned away from the battle inside the library. He walked out of the Library of Learning with his mind still working, still trying to hold on to the page he had just read, still trying to understand the hidden meaning behind what the book had shown him. Even as he left, the strange feeling remained on his skin, as if the library itself had not finished speaking yet.