Kao Dao Ji's arms were shining brightly.
On one hand, several layered wind tides were flowing together in a spiral.
The principles behind the technique were rather similar to those of the Rasengan in Naruto, flowing at such a great speed to produce momentum.
And in his other hand, snow particles were continuously being generated.
That snow was inside a very bright, shiny object that looked like a glass, but in reality, it was just ice.
The scene was like the snow globes sold at the market back when he lived on Earth.
A faint smile appeared on Kao Dao Ji's face.
Those two moves were his own creation; over the past years, he had been studying the Ice and Wind Path extensively.
Raising his attainment to Quasi Master in both!
But why?
Because he remained stuck.
Kao Dao Ji realised that fusing Yin and Yang with Cloud Path was many times more difficult than in Earth Path.
To succeed required more than Attainment in the main Path.
The only reason why this was not noticeable at first was that his Attainment in the other two Paths was extremely deep.
But his foundation in the Yin side was almost null.
Upon understanding his weakness, Kao Dao Ji dedicated himself to the pursuit of those two Dao's.
And today he had more than succeeded!
The two energies approached one another, guided by a strange, dense steam that poured from Kao Dao Ji's fingertips.
The steam looked like a thousand tiny fingers subtly guiding and mending the two forces together, at the same time.
[Ensouled Cloud]
A Yin-Dark Blue cloud rapidly took shape. Kao Dao Ji gritted his teeth.
[Filtering Rain]
Droplets of water appeared inside that ensouled cloud.
Using his mastery over the water path, Kao Dao Ji rapidly isolated the yin within its substance and discarded the soul properties.
Leading to drops of water that were black like ink.
Regardless.
While Kao Dao Ji lacked the mastery to fuse extreme yin with ordinary methods, he employed an immortal Gu to try to force his way through.
Whereas the 'ink' began to spin around, dissolving itself within the spherical object that was being created.
Black flashes of energy could be seen.
The skies were rapidly darkening.
Once it reached a certain density.
There was a sudden change.
Tides of steam began to flow towards the sphere, rapidly inflating it.
"But that is not all, if my suspicion is right, there should be more…" Kao Dao Ji's eyes shone with a deep gleam, and he observed deeper into its deeper layers.
And as he did.
His expression settled in its very epicentre.
There, one could see drops of several liquids dancing alongside each other, and one could also see smaller clusters slowly condensing.
"As expected, even clouds can become liquid and freeze under low-enough temperatures." This was another layer he understood of his Yin-Yang manipulation.
A gas pushed towards a high enough temperature would evolve and become plasma, whereas a gas could also turn into a liquid or even a solid object.
"Of course, that is but the tip of the iceberg, I can do so much more!" Immediately.
"Extreme Yin mimics Wind and Ice Path.
And Wind erodes everything! It erodes the natural resources that can be found, it erodes metals, and in the end, when the strongest emperors fall.
Their ashes scatter into the air, becoming a part of nature!
As such.
My Extreme Yin can do far more than merely absorb paltry water!"
Immediately, his eyes shone.
There was a sense of resonance.
A bit similar, but also far more profound.
From his aperture, he summoned several Clouded Thoughts and Sunny Thoughts Gu.
They were all pulled by the massive vortex at a shocking speed.
However, before they could reach their heights.
Kao Dao Ji split the stream in two with a simple gesture; half of the thoughts moved to the left, the other to the right.
Within one.
The tides of freezing cold were like the maws of a mad wolf, tearing apart those thoughts in mere instants.
The Clouded Thoughts were reduced to the smallest of fragments.
Turning into nothing more than mere particles floating seamlessly.
Whereas on the other side.
Soft tides of wind descended.
Affecting their insides evenly, from all directions and as such.
Those myriad thoughts were frozen in the spot!
Kao Dao Ji observed this patiently, and for more than three minutes, he did not move an inch.
But only afterwards.
He made a retrieving gesture, and those thoughts were dragged towards him.
Then, Kao Dao Ji injected a stream of Yang Qi within them.
And suddenly.
As if nothing had passed, the thoughts began to act normally.
Kao Dao Ji's smile widened.
He summoned an electric eel and did a similar experiment.
And likewise, despite everything, its insides were remarkably well preserved.
The reason why this happened was that the transformation was far too thorough and complete.
All the atoms froze almost at the same moment, so cold that they did not even move.
And as such, not even the cellular destruction that was supposed to come from extreme cold affected them.
And it was not just their bodies, their souls and minds had remained completely intact.
He had even checked their thoughts, and their thought stream had remained completely identical.
As such.
He could not help but laugh heartily.
"I was right! My absolute cold can preserve anything! And my tides of Wind can rip everything to the smallest shreds.
Mastering both is the power of my Extreme Yin!"
His smile widened, looking almost like that of a madman.
"After more than two decades, I have finally become a Grandmaster in Cloud Path!"
Of course, it was not that exaggerated; the original owner of his body had been a formidable Master already, not that far off from becoming a Quasi-Grandmaster himself.
Even then.
Where would one find a Grandmaster as young as him in the world?
(Kao Dao Ji decided to ignore the existence of the anomaly that was Le Tu while he made the observation.)
But it had not been easy; it took all his effort and luck to reach such a step.
He had been especially fortunate regarding Wisdom Path.
'Culture Makes One Wiser', had enabled him to find the inspiration in every step of his journey.
Whereas his recently gained Lumpy Brain was not far behind.
Whilst it was nowhere near as dramatic as the former, it was a passive effect.
If one were to give him a 1,500 IQ for a brief period, the other turned him into a 250 IQ genius permanently.
The value of such a Gu could not be understated.
The only reason why the Immortal Gu had not been taken seriously was that it depended on the amount of Dao Marks from both Wisdom and Cloud Path to scale.
Using the lower value as its scaler, for example. If he had a million Cloud Dao Marks, but only ten Wisdom Dao Marks, it would only be amplified by a 1%, likewise if the number of Dao marks were reversed, the improvement would be this small.
Of course, the meaning behind Kao Dao Ji's decision was simple.
He wanted to force Star Constellation to stop giving him Wisdom Tribulations, but in case she persisted, he wanted to increase his strength further.
He narrowed his eyes.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"Speaking of going against the Heavens…" From his aperture, he summoned a white pebble.
The pebble looked utterly unassuming, like any other, yet it emitted a soft white brilliance.
It was nothing else than an Immortal Essence Stone!
"The absolute peak of Yin manipulation regarding Cloud is 'assimilation' and 'preservation.'
I do wonder if those same rules apply to Heaven's Will?"
He grinned; he imagined a myriad of possibilities.
For starters, he could stop Tribulations altogether by merely destroying the surrounding Heaven's Will he would become invisible in the eyes of Heaven.
He could also begin absorbing as many Immortal Essence Stones without fearing a slow corrosion of his psyche.
So many possibilities would be granted if he managed to find the answer.
Without a hint of hesitation, he slashed through the Immortal Essence Stone, creating a small cut in it which was then shot towards the massive vortex.
And as he did.
He activated as many of his Investigative Methods as he could manage.
However.
His expression suddenly froze.
The white stone suddenly stopped in its tracks.
And it began to vibrate.
"Huh? Why is it moving? Its temperature is nearing zero!"
Suddenly, he felt a bad omen.
The skies around his aperture rapidly darkened, whereas the Qi of Heaven and Earth converged into a spiral.
Kao Dao Ji immediately disregarded everything.
Ignoring the backlash, he forcefully cancelled the Killer Move.
The massive cloud suddenly exploded in all directions, unleashing a myriad of icicles everywhere, which slashed the flesh of the paralysed Kao Dao Ji, who forcefully withstood it.
Only after the explosion had passed, he allowed himself to relax.
He allowed his body to fall into one of the clouds.
"What a relief! Had I acted a second later, my actions would have triggered a Tribulation…" He muttered in a bewildered tone.
Still.
A tiny smile could be seen on his face.
"Enjoying the show?" He suddenly chuckled, turning his head towards the right.
From a distance, Le Tu could be seen. He cupped his hands together.
"Sorry. I did not wish to interrupt." He replied calmly.
Yet, one could also see a hint of doubt in his expression.
"So, I assume you finally became a Grandmaster?"
"Yup." Then he shrugged.
"But to be honest, that was not the hardest part."
"To waste so much time learning so many unrelated Paths, that was the difficult part."
But then he chuckled.
"Of course, it was more than worth it."
Le Tu sighed, understanding the meaning of his words.
Whilst mastering Extreme Yin-Yang through the earth was many times easier, its effects were also rather underwhelming in comparison.
"And now that I am a Grandmaster…I can do things that I could hardly imagine before."
He stared at Le Tu with great expectation on his face.
"I have just the perfect idea, and I will need your help to execute it.
But first…How far is Shung Mia Yin from mastering my Killer Move?"