A few months ago, inside a cave.

A middle aged man with green eyes and hair was writing on his diary.

His face was filled with mud, some dirt was pouring on his eyes, yet, he was unfazed by this.

He was completely focused on his own writing, the man was writing slowly, yet, his words were still messy.

Sometimes his phrases were nonsensical, sometimes he'd write about another phrases, sometimes he'd write outside the paper.

But this was normal, for him the act of thinking was becoming hard on itself, let alone 'writing.'

His expression and face were rather interesting to say the least.

His eyebrows were filled with dark green 'hairs', filled with dirt, those sharp eyebrows looked almost like grass.

Whilst his earbuds had on their insides multiple scattered fragments of pieces of seed, and his skin was completely pale.

Naturally this crippled his sight, hearing and even sense of touch!

It was only when he activated an 'Investigative' Gu that he could sense clearly, but he couldn't do so.

He, from a long time, had his ability to produce Primeval Essence inside his aperture impaired, currently his aperture produced less than a 0.01% of its normal production.

Naturally he had many Gu's such as 'Wood Charm' or his own inventions such as 'Spiritual Flower Photosynthesis', but he didn't dare to do so.

The reason why he, Ma Pa Hung had reached such a deplorable state was due to those same Gu's.

A human is made of 'blood' not of 'wood', by 'carving', 'adding' and manipulating his muscles, bone marrow and even aperture with 'Wood Dao marks' he slowly poisoned himself.

"Perhaps if I had specialized instead on Transformation path I could have avoided this tragedy?" Thinking of this, the man sighed.

Then, he recalled those past 'exchanges' he had made with Ma Shang Feng, his childhood friend and the current tribe leader of the Ma tribe.

Even if he still had the ability to move, he'd have cancelled his trades with him.

"Due to my isolation, perhaps he thinks I'm already dead?" Ma Pa Hung constantly thought, still he was planning to send a message to him eventually, and warn him about the terrible discoveries he made.

...

But, could he truly dare to admit such a mistake?

To a man like him, pride was the only thing left he had, how could he throw it away so easily?

Aloe vera tears fell to his cheeks, the man was truly too pathetic, even now, he still cared about his own 'prestige', but, what else was left for him?

Death, solitude, pain?

His veins were bulging, the only sensation which was still clear crystal to him was pain, as his veins burst, it was such the pain and the poisoning that he began to lose his own mind.

"All I can do, is to write a journal to describe all my investigations, perhaps on the future a successor will carry my legacy and they'll complete my investigation about such Gu's, removing their downsides.

At worst, my story can be told as a reminder to future investigators to not commit my same mistake.

The days passed in that cave.

"Hah, who could have ever thought that inside this little cave, Blood Sea Ancestor would leave one of his inheritances?

Funnily, even though I could not find a solution yet, I was told exactly what was the mistake I made, isn't this funny???

Blood, apertures, fingerprints.

They're all unique to each individual.

Each 'mis-location' can cause a tremendous impact and damage to the overall structure, for example if you put two random men 'fingerprints' they'd vary a lot.

But, the closer related they're the more similar their 'fingerprints' of their blood and aperture tend to be.

Under this principle, the more coincidences there are, and the more 'complementary' conditions they have, the more efficient is to add one from another.

By taking this to the extreme is even possible to 'refine' one's own bloodline by using the bloodline of your peers, the closer related they're to you, the higher its effect.

Henceforth, by amplifying what is useful and restricting what is harmful is possible to improve the aptitude through a gruesome spectacle.

Is due to this, that I figured, the reason why I'm experiencing such after-effects is mostly because I lack 'synchronization' with my current Cultivation.

Basically, if I wish to amend my mistakes I must find a way to connect my 'blood' and the 'wood' parts that now fill my body, if I succeed I'll repair all my harm, and even become stronger and healthier!

How could I call such a Gu?

Skull Wood?

Woody Union?"

....

"Somehow, I succeeded, even now I still can hardly believe it.

By some coincidence, or perhaps Destiny some blood directly hit my Vital Gu, Wood Charm Gu.

And it triggered a specific reaction.

After filling the gaps, I figured that if I were to gather enough Blood and Vitality I could trigger and create a new branch of this Gu.

Yet, to do this, I needed 'Lifespan Gu', though, after enough attempts I figured a substitute.

By absorbing the 'Lifespan' of hundreds of creatures and some luck its actually possible to create a new Gu.

For now, I'll call it:

'Bloody Mary Wood Charm Gu.'

Initially I thought that its effect would mostly mimic '100 years Wood Charm Gu', and it would produce a similar amount of Primeval Essence, but that wasn't the case.

Instead, it seems that it only has a somewhat better amount of Primeval Essence produced, whilst most of the 'energy' is used to produce 'Blood Qi.'

This is even better than I thought, this Gu is even more effective than Blood Qi Gu itself, its effects are simply incredible.

Hell, after testing its effect, I feel my body recovering its force, its vitality, I feel refreshed.

Healthy, powerful.

I believe that this Gu could be used to aid on the process of regeneration of wounds for specialized doctors, perhaps on the future each organization will hold a few samples of this and other related Gu's?"

From this point, onward the writing becomes messier and messier, with words such as 'failure' repeated over and over across the pages.

"It seems that, I made a little, goddamn, fucking, stupid, laughable, retarded, terrible, mistake.

As I said before, there are 'fingerprints' in all creatures, however, due to my little stupid, foolish, retarded.....

Mistakes, I disregarded something, which is that through my experiments I slowly diluted my own 'blood' and 'self', they're now all corrupted, and messy.

But that is to be expected, my headaches, blue skin and other things didn't came simply just 'because', hah.

That and the fact that my 'Blood Mary Wood Charm' Gu was produced by using the blood of wild beasts, it seems it wasn't all that effective.

To get a slightly stronger effective I'd require primates, such as monkeys, gorillas and maybe humans.

Anyway, if I were to produce a better suited Gu with other materials perhaps I could solve this...

Or perhaps, my dizziness and mental instability come from another origin?

Yes, that's right, I've been refining too many Gu's lately, perhaps what I need is a stronger soul, yes, to refine my soul and flesh that is the key to recover my previous self.

Well, its at least worth the attempt, right?"

...

On another page.

"I succeeded again, this would normally be a tremendous feat, yet, I feel nothing at all.

This is expected, to you I assume, for well, if you're reading this chances are it will not end well for me, heh, isn't this why are you reading this, future stranger?

Because of my failure???

Anyway, I should think on the bright side, anyway, I figured that the souls were at least part of the answer, it seems this Gu holds a certain resonance with 'Bloody Mary Wood Charm Gu.'

...

Perhaps, if I fuse the two I could get a rank 5 Gu, would this be enough to solve my condition?

Heh, heh, who I am trying to lie?

I only have one way left, humans.

And not any 'human' but my tribesmen, this is the only path left, or what I will refine an hypothetically rank 5 Gu, hahahaha, impossible.

If I was such a genius I would not be caught in this mess, right?

Anyway, anyway, anyway.

Ah, yes I almost forgot, for the recipe of this Gu there are many, many materials.

Such as 'Elemental Ghosts', 'Escape Ghosts' and others.

Though to retain a fraction of my essence on this Gu, I luckily found many suitable Gu's such as 'Cleanse Soul', and 'Refine Essence and Spirit' Gu's.

Sigh, to acquire enough soul foundation I had to kill many beasts and torture them, then use 'grudge soul' Gu for the ritual.

Heh, if I just had a bit of 'Guts Gu' I would be able to avoid to see, this hellscape and bloodshed, bloodshed, bloodshed."

At the next page, instead of ink, blood was used to write its contents.

"Cold, I feel so cold...

It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts...

PAIN, PAIN, PAIN, PAIN, PAIN, PAIN.

The more I use Gu's like, ehem, how was it called?

Handy Wood-light-year?

I mean, Handcraft woody eye Gu.

With it, I...I saw my own flesh and skin, teared apart my blood is constantly flowing out, from it, multiple flowers are emerging.

Is this my life's purpose, to become soil?"

Tears, and blood fill the page, it becomes even harder to read.

"Did I make a mistake?

Was an error to try to isolate myself, to expand my horizons and continue my investigations?

Should I have ceased my investigations after becoming a respetable Gu master?

Or, I was condemned since the moment I tried to increase my aptitude by creating that 'Wood Carving the aperture' Gu, has this weakness been spreading around my aperture since then?

I don't know, and frankly I simply don't want to know.

But, what I know, is that I won't die here, no matter how.

Not like this, on a fucking chair as my flesh and mind are rotting away.

My memories are all mess, I can't even think clearly.

I...

I am stupid, foolish, imbecile and a thousand more of verbs that I can't longer recall.

But, one thing is clear, I don't want to die.

I don't want to die, so I'll become a demon if this allows me to survive.

Forgive me world, the heavens and Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, I...

I already sinned too much, due to my Gu's my tribe is already doomed, unless I complete my investigation, most of the higher ups are already condemned aren't they?

So, why should I care if I have to taint my hands just a bit more, to survive, to become stronger?

Besides....

Not all lives are worth equal, if a human tramples an ant, nobody bats an eye, even Giant Sun Immortal Venerable has killed, killed, killed MILLIONS.

So, isn't he a sinner?

No, as he's an immortal, a 'Venerable', against such an existence, the death of the likes of me or my tribe are inconsequential.

I...Wish to become such a creature.

Even if I destroy my own tribe, city and even continent, I want to at least return them some of this glory, I'll become invincible, I'll become an immortal.

For this, is the exit of the coward who simply can't let himself die..."