Dio and Ma Pa Hung glanced at each other, between and around the two there was a devastated landscape, filled with smoke, fragments of bones, dirt, remnants of the stardust and a constant flux of smaller and smaller rocks falling at all directions.

A long time had already passed since the beginning of their fight, both were beginning to feel signs of strain and exhaustion.

A big percentage of those rocks curved, every time they're about to fall to the ground they're redirected carefully by Ma Pa Hung.

But before they hit Dio, he simply created a thin bone-armor with a sponge-like shape to repel those projectiles.

Then, after repelling them, his bone armor began to melt and move towards his eyes.

"Space Ripper; Stingy eyes bone ray!"

Dio shouted.

Ma Pa Hung frowned lightly.

"Earth Double."

A thread surged between he, and a tree.

Then he fell below the ground, and reappeared just where the tree was.

Ma Pa Hung glanced at the tree, and the 'bone ray.'

The bone formed a 'collar' around the tree, and in a blink of an eye it solidified and expanded, multiple spikes surged at all directions shattering the tree in pieces.

This was done by adhering multiple pseudo flesh-buds with special instructions, which would make them explode upon hitting its intended target, they're rather primitive.

Dio tilted his head lightly and glanced at his opponent, while thinking.

"Due to my current, horrible luck I can't take risks, no matter how I act, is as if the universe was conspiring against me, so, to prevent any mishaps from happening I must act precisely, without a single error.

Henceforth, I can't give pursue nor I can risk myself, I'll simply move slowly towards him, and I'll see how he will react."

After making his decision, he began to walk slowly towards him, while inspecting his aperture.

He needed to constantly measure his Primeval reserves to not fall into a predicament against his opponent, all of his actions had to be careful and well planified.

Besides, is not as if Ma Pa Hung lacked methods to restrict and even take his Primeval Essence.

Though, he had a few measures to defend himself against this such as using his Stand as an 'storage' to put his two apertures safely, this was not something he could do for long periods without killing himself.

This and the fact that he had to take them back anyway each time he was about to activate their effect made him constantly backtrack and think of each his steps carefully.

Currently he was walking on an ice thread, if he made a single error he may die.

Dio raised his arm, multiple bone-spikes surged from the ground, some began to levitate.

"Spiral Bone Tubes."

The bones curved and extended towards Ma Pa Hung, but each time that they got close enough to him, Ma Pa hung would shoot yet another 'Explosive Seed' towards them which would make the tubes collapse internally.

Dio smiled at him.

"I feel there's some bad blood among us, heh."

The bone-tubes began to become thinner and translucid, from them tiny fragments of the bones slowly changed of shape and color, becoming a crimson-black thick liquid.

This liquid was directly shoot towards Ma Pa Hung's wood spirit, which countered by creating a shield of cactus to absorb it.

The liquid quickly became a gas, which was then expelled by some 'fan flowers' which returned to Dio's side.

Yet, despite his quick reaction a third of his cactus collapsed, multiple Gu's of Ma Pa Hung experienced slight signs of harm.

Ma Pa Hung's expression darkened, he glanced at Dio once more.

"Yes, that's right I used a 'certain' type of poison, the most effective one.

But who is it?

Well, let me tell you a tiny, amazing fact about me.

On truth, I'm half dead, half alive, heh, whether you wish to believe my words or not, is up to you."

Dio winked, and added.

"You don't seem to be convinced, do you think I'm lying to you?

Well, just to remove all your doubts, what if I give you another shoot?

And another, and another, and another!"

Dio smiled maliciously, a continuous stream of black-blood was being shoot towards Ma Pa Hung, who simply snorted coldly.

He activated a dozen of 'Explosive Seeds' who let multiple cactus right at the ground.

Little by little the field was being filled by them, but Dio was unfazed by this, even when the spikes of one of them hit his body and injected a poisonous fluid, Dio remained with a triumphant smile.

"You fell in my trap." The two said.

Suddenly, from seemingly nowhere a bone below the roots of Ma Pa Hung expanded by a hundred fold, and impaled his body.

Whilst from Dio's lungs multiple seeds began to explode, his stomach exploded and multiple vines began to extend towards all other vital parts of Dio's body.

Just a moment ago.

Whilst Dio was overwhelming him with his 'bone tubes black blood fluid', in the soles of his foots he was constantly extending one tiny bone.

This bone was constantly receiving Dio's energy, and hence it could continue to expand as long as Dio supplied more Blood Qi.

Being its only weakness the lack of mobility, to hide this, Dio constantly shoot a continuous stream of blood towards him, whilst sneakily the tiny bone was approaching to him

Finally when it hit its target, Dio released a dense aura of Blood aura to swiftly kill him, but as he was interrupted by those explosive seeds in his bloodstream he couldn't complete destroy his body.

As for the seeds on his bloodstream they're both inhaled by the spores of the myriad of cactus and were injected directly by one of them.

As those seeds exploded Dio's connection with that bone was suddenly cut, and he experienced a mild backlash together with the mutilation of multiple parts of his body.

Dio looked at his body, multiple vines were moving towards all his body parts, including his brain, soon even his brain would be reduced to a sparkling liquid.

Resolutely Dio cut his own head, and gave an instruction to his Flesh Buds to once again use his technique 'Explosive Charcoals' to burn his insides.

This was done to incinerate all the seeds and vines within his body, finally after doing this, Dio reconnected his body through manipulating one of his arteries.

After pulling the neck and his head together, Dio touched his neck again.

"It feels really, really sore right now..."

He sighed softly, then a dense layer of Blood Qi began to surge and resonated with Flesh Bone Gu, by using his own Blood Qi he could speed up and reduce the requirement of Primeval Essence for the activation of the Gu.

Dio then glanced at his opponent, who was still petrified and was smiling bitterly.

"I messed up, luckily, I stroke him down too, hence, he could not expand to its fullest this attack...

Still, even though he didn't managed to hit my 'Wood Charm' Gu, he managed to destroy a huge portion of my Gu's, whilst my physical body is already showing signs of collapsing.

At this pace, my 'Corrupted Soul Wood Charm' Gu is going to be destroyed anyway...

There's no other way, even if I have to sacrifice a small fraction of its strength, is worth it, if this mirage of me dies, I will lose 'it', either way."

Ma Pa Hung also resolutely activated the effect of a Gu which was connected to the 'Lotus.'

The Gu shined brightly, releasing its constant flux of celeste and crimson light.

Dio turned his head and glanced at the lotus which was being covered by multiple meters of dense rank 3 Gu's which protected it from all harm.

Among those effects were those who 'camouflaged' its aura, hence, Dio hadn't noticed that it was just about a few hundred meters close to him all this time.

The Gu was rather peculiar, it was a purple lotus of 9 leaf's.

Three were blue, three were red and three were green.

It was a Gu of three kinds;

Blood path, Soul Path and Wood path.

Due to its contradictory state of properties, the friction and interaction of the multiple Dao marks this Gu could mimic all sorts of paths.

Ma Pa Hung immediately gave an order and the Gu released a stream of Blue light which began to amend all the wounds of his Gu's and himself.

Then, Ma Pa Hung activated a few Refinement Gu's which reacted with his body and mythically all his body began to regenerate.

"Dio, was that your name?

Heh, let me tell you that you're the first to push this far, and to force me to reveal my trump card.

Since a long time, I've been thinking about 'fusing' and connecting the mind, the body and the spirit.

Henceforth I called this Gu, a fusion of various Gu's such as Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus for this creation.

The name I gave it is 'Heavenly Body, Soul and Spirit Essence Lotus.'

A Gu which can not only produce Primeval Essence but can fortify the body, spirit and that can be used to supplement a myriad of Gu's.

This Gu is merely the first step of my goal, by fusing those, and multiple 'Wood Charm' Gu's and other materials I'll create the perfect rank 5 Gu."

Dio squinted lightly, he noticed that the Lotus Gu lost many of his leaf's, currently there were only 6 and half leaf's in its outer body.

And there were tiny cracks within the Gu.

"Do you think this will distract me of the fact that this Gu isn't a perfect shape?"

he glanced at the Lotus Gu which looked like a flying star coming right towards Ma Pa Hung.

"It was worth the attempt." Ma Pa Hung replied calmly, then, the Lotus Gu fell at an unbelievably speed towards his body, the Gu fused on an instant.

Dio frowned lightly.

"Though, you may have healed the wounds of your body, most of your Gu's and Primeval Essence are still gone, so, what are you going to do?"

Despite he said this, he was still careful, in fact, he took a few steps back.

The two glanced at each other again.

"You're right, I'm at my limit.

But I still have just the right energy for a last attack."

Dio laughed heartily.

"And so I am, I have just one trick left..."

A red aura began to surge through all of Dio's body.

His Blood Qi was at its peak and his body was covered by a dense bone armor.

"This is the grand finale." Dio winked, then a dense smoke began to surge through the tiny 'holes' on his bone armor.

Multiple flames and explosions occurred around the fog Dio activated his 'Charcoal Speedy Fireworks' trick again.

He charged towards him and as he did multiple droplets of blood appeared on his cheeks, which quickly began to gather just above his head.

Dio was activating yet another Killer Move.

"Bloody rain!" Dio shouted as he charged forward.

Ma Pa Hung smirked, he tried to absorb the blood droplets by using the 'cactus field' he had prepared before, but it was pointless.

Dio was constantly redirecting his 'rain' by using 'battle thought' to give command all his projectiles.

Noticing this, his only choice left was to extend his arms and create a rain of flowers to counterattack him, after all, his strongest defensive methods such as Mini-Forest Walls had many gaps which could be exploited by such tiny attacks.

Furthermore, he couldn't afford to waste the remaining essence he still had in his body with such powerful method.

Another reason why he could not do this was because most of his concentration was split on activating this Killer Move which had at its core the 'Heavenly Body and Spirit Essence Lotus.'

This Killer Move was a combination of various techniques such as, 'Soul Crushing, Chaotic Thoughts, Explosive Concentrated Rain.'

Honestly he had never used them all on one attack, so, for the moment he called it.

'Soul, Body and Spirit Crushing Heavenly Condensed Ray.'

The image of the Lotus appeared in the center of its body, a huge black-blue-red-green-brown sphere appeared just at its very center, and began to expand by the second.

Dio gulped lightly, with cold sweat on his forehead he crossed his two arms.

"BONE WALL." A wall made of bones appeared in front of him, as he ran it moved alongside of him, protecting him as he moved.

From the tiny gaps of this wall, his Blood Rain was constantly passing through.

The two kept attacking with minor movements, afraid of the other's counterattack, they were both preparing their strongest technique...

Dio awaited patiently, and just when his opponent's ray seemed to condense, he clenched his fists and said with a wide smile.

He, apart from the talents he had on Strength and Blood path due to his Vampiric nature and his Luck path talent which came from his extraordinary luck, he also had a 'talent' he developed since he was a child.

To steal, to take what others have and make it his.

"Bloody Plunderer."

Suddenly, multiple of the drops of blood began to gather into tiny agglomerations with the shape of an open hand.

They created an attraction force which pulled multiple of Ma Pa Hung's Gu's.

"Y-you cheater...You're never planning to compete on raw strength, rather you're trying to take my Gu's essential to my Killer Move then after I lose them, my Killer Move will fail, after I experience the backlash, you'll swiftly will take me down, am I right?

BUT I WON'T LET YOU!"

The beam slowly take shape, finally it was shoot right towards Dio.

"BONE WALL. BONE WALL."

Dio madly activated the same technique to protect himself, whilst little by little he was plundering more Gu's.

1, 10, 20 Gu's he took, yet, not a single one of them was a part of the Killer Move.

Dio frowned, this was the consequence of having a bad luck, with his devil's luck, all the 'variables' would gather and at the first attempt he'd acquire the Heavenly Body, Soul and Spirit Essence Lotus.

Yet, now, all sort of coincidences happened which prevented him from succeeding on even taking one of the Gu's to disrupt, even if lightly the activation of the Killer Move.

Tiny cracks surged on yet another of his bone walls, until finally he succeeded.

The energy was slightly disrupted, and the activation of the Killer Move was halted by half a second which gave Dio just the time he needed to settle another bone wall.

A dense bone wall which was so dense that no matter which Investigative method used he could not find where Dio was located.

"Hmph, I'll just simply blow it all away!"

Ma Pa Hung thought.

And as he thought of this, the second wave of his Killer Move activated, increasing considerably the strength of the Killer Move.

That was the nature of his technique, which little by little would stack an even greater energy.

But, even after blowing it all up, Dio was nowhere to be found.

"Where did that rat hid?"

Ma Pa Hung thought.

His aura surged he activated many investigative methods.

But Dio was nowhere to be found, until suddenly he thought of another pathway.

He inspected the ground with another Killer Move.

"So you hid on earth, fool!

I am an Earth path Cultivator, you simply entered into my field."

"Bone Crushing Inner Earthquake."

The ground close to Dio began to vibrate, which increased Ma Pa Hung's field of vision, he immediately noticed.

"You're trying to use another bone to impale, huh?

Not so easy."

"Earth Double." He once again changed of places with a nearby tree, but Dio changed its target.

He once again targeted him.

Ma Pa Hung frowned, while he was fleeing away Dio was plundering even more of his Gu's.

So, without any other alternative he decided to strike him down, even if he was hiding multiple meters behind the dirt.

But Dio wasn't stupid, he simply began to dig even deeper.

And so a new particular battle of attrition began were both sides were attacking and running at the same time.

Yet, even under those circumstances Ma Pa Hung was the one with the biggest advantage, his ray was constantly affecting Dio, even if it didn't hit him, the mere 'wave' affected and disrupted his thoughts and began to wound his already weakened soul.

Naturally due to its absurd sheer power of Dio's Stand, he could endure it.

The third wave began, and the power of the ray once more doubled!

Its raw strength was such that even the droplets of blood of Dio vaporized, whilst the 'bone' he was hiding beneath the ground was too far away.

This was the end, Dio was about to be hitten on blank point.

But, when his body was revealed Ma Pa Hung realized something ghastly.

A dense purple aura was concentrated all around his body, whilst the vague image of various creatures appeared before him.

The aura concentrated on Dio's right fist.

"Bloody Ripple Phantom Monkey's Punch."

With his right fist he pierced through his body and with his left fist he activated 'Close-Range Blood Plunderer.'

By using those two techniques he managed to stand on equal grounds against him, for a brief moment, until finally he managed to take a certain Gu 'Heavenly Body, Soul and Spirit Essence Lotus Gu.'

Finally, the Killer Move collapsed Ma Pa Hung experienced a terrifying backlash and his Wood Charm Gu was at the brink of collapse.

He tried to recover his ground but Dio looked at him with fury on his eyes.

"USELESS, USELESS, USELESS!"

He threw a flurry of hits to his opponent, until he was reduced to a pile of ashes.

Finally, after all of this he had his first moment of respite.

His expression was of pure tiredness, he began to laugh madly.

"I finally did it." He opened his hand and glanced at the purple lotus Gu before him.

"With this little Gu, I Dio, will nourish his soul, and I may recover my Stand, after recovering my Stand I Dio shall destroy the Ma tribe then, I'll take care of those two, until then, wait for me...

Dio!"