Every living creature of this world produces and has their own luck.

They all clash, fuse and interlink with each other.

If in a family the father or mother suddenly becomes wealthy or stronger then the whole family would become more prosperous, hence the luck of one, becomes the luck of many.

Similarly, when a prey and predator collide their lucks 'fight' against each other, multiple variables collide until one of them prevails over all.

That is the 'origin' of bad luck.

If someone benefits from your loss, and their luck surpasses your then you're unlucky.

Someone 'unlucky' is someone whose luck is completely trampled by the other, if an unlucky and a very lucky person were to gamble, is almost completely sure that the 'lucky' one will win.

Even if they lose, somehow they'll benefit from their loss, similarly someone 'unlucky' despite winning against all odds may find himself in a predicament on spite of their success.

That is luck.

Before Dio's natural overflowing rich luck was constantly suppressing all variables, it was such its might that it could even interfere in the thoughts of others.

That is the reason why Ma Shang Feng despite having a bad feeling about Dio decided to hold back himself and spare him.

His luck also delayed Ma Pa Hung's attack, as his, was one of the last Gu houses to be pursued by his malicious attacks.

If you're to describe it into a 'physical phenomenon', his luck made a path of 'high-resistance', hence the luck of others which had a lower luck and hence were paths of 'low-resistance' became easier targets.

Thus, upon those less-favored calamity falls upon them frequently (This is the reason why the Children of Fortune and Disaster brings so many troubles to others.)

and now...

Even though Dio's luck had stabilized thanks to that Lotus, there were multiple issues, for starters he was now being targeted actively by Ma Pa Hung which drained his luck.

And, Dio had also cut communications with the Ma tribe, but that was obvious, after all let alone the fact that he was going out of his way to target them, the very fact that pretty much everyone except for him had either been killed or had abandoned the tribe were a pretty bad sign.

If he were to reveal those things he would gain yet another enemy, this bad omen upon him was yet another source of bad luck.

Lastly he was a complete otherworldly demon hated by the Heavens, which further diminished his luck.

What did this mean?

Well, nothing pretty to say the least.

Currently, there were three Immortals facing a Desolate Beast known as 'Stardust Eagle', a majestic creature with feathers of all sizes and colors and who left as it moved a continuous flux of tiny rocks with the form of an star and a little fog.

This fog nourished the soil and could serve to extend the senses of the beast, to increase its speed of movement and it could even detonate into thousands of tiny stars which would be carved in the skin of its target.

The eagle was moving nimbly in the air, shooting those stars towards one of the three Immortals, this Immortal had a peculiar shine covering his body from feet to his head.

This radiant aura condensed into an sphere as the Immortal extended his arms.

It was such the raw heat and strength of this mystical sphere that all the stars were engulfed by it.

[Mini-Sun's Whip] The Immortal activated his Killer Move, and within the 'sun', a tiny flare surged taking an ondulated shape.

It slashed towards the body of the eagle, and then it took the form of a noose and forcefully grabbed the neck of the eagle and dragged it towards the center of the sun.

But, an opposite-force pulled the beast at the other side and absorbed the fire flare into nothingness.

Another Immortal who had black robes snorted.

"Aren't you too greedy, Tiny Sun Immortal?

All of us need that beast for our Cultivation, it is not unfair that you get all the share of the cake?

If you wish to take it all, then either give us twice of its equivalent value on Immortal Essence Stones or you'll face our wrath!"

Tiny Sun Immortal waved his hands away and said.

"It was merely a slip, I swear, don't take this personally, brother Spatial Distortion..."

Whilst from the side, Fading Star observed all those events unfold.

Be it Destiny, Fate or a mere coincidence, three secluded Immortals with similar paths, with the same goals meet each other.

Naturally, there was some distrust and ill feelings among the three, after all, there were almost no Immortal with his hands clean, almost all had killed, some a few dozens, some thousands, some millions.

Such kind of creatures that had disregarded the lives of others, were naturally paranoids, afraid of meeting the same kind of people than they were.

Still, there was still a room for negotiation, there were multiple Desolate Beasts that the three desired, together they may be able to reap a huge harvest.

During those huntings, they used all sorts of profound and complex techniques which created ripples and explosions under the air, shook the ground, vaporized mountains and so on.

Naturally, this commotion made all the animals from the surrounding area scatter.

Without realizing Dio was actually getting dangerously near to multiple Mutated beasts, and among all his threats, a hungry purple-scales dragon woke up from his slumber.

...

Currently, Dio had made a bit of progress in retrieving that 'Set In Stone' inheritance.

To retrieve it, he was basically constructing wood-walls, which covered all the area.

He pushed them right in, and stopped just at the moment that their edges began to petrify.

By doing this, he could constantly force an endless flux of energy towards those areas, without truly turning them in stone.

Like this, he was slowly grinding away the power of this Gu pseudo-formation.

At the same time, he was immersed on his own Cultivation.

At this point, Dio's flesh had far surpassed the limits of his own body, if he wasn't a Vampire with a perpetual regeneration his flesh may have been ripped apart and his bones shattered due to the sheer pressure he endured all the time.

To fix this, Dio was currently trying to perfect his own bone-tissue.

For starters, he began to alter the structure of his bone marrow to produce more blood cells naturally, after all now that he lost all his slaves, he had to produce his own Blood Essence!

Obviously his own rank 3 aperture and Lotus could more or less cover those need, but for someone as hungry as power as him it was never enough.

Dio grinded the 'dust', that once were the the bones of a golden-bones fox and applied it on his exposed bones.

He was currently trying to acquire those supernatural means by relying in the power of other creatures, for others this may be a suicide, for him it was merely a inconvenient even if he messed up.

in the worst case, he could simply use his Vampiric powers and his Flesh-Bone Gu to forcefully return his body to its previous state.

While he was at it, the blue-purple shine of his corrupted Heavenly Body Soul and Spirit Lotus Essence resonated through his body and soul.

It was constantly nourishing his Stand and its aperture, perhaps with some luck he could also increase its rank of Cultivation.

While all of this occurred, a flesh bud of his was controlling his left hand which was constantly dragging those mini rocky plains towards him and the Gu house.

Finally, while he was Cultivating, half of his brain was either sleeping or meditating, thinking about the myriad of possibilities for his Cultivation whilst the other half was focused on his current tasks.

The hours passed, whilst Dio made all sorts of odd experiments such as adding the tissue of other creatures into his own bones, add raw minerals on it and he even added a few corrosive liquids just to see if he could find just the right chemical reaction to create the perfect bone tissue.

Unfortunately he didn't had much luck on his 'experiments.'

At most, he could replicate what others already did and copy the essence of other Gu's such as Iron or Steel Bones Gu.

He put on his body many fragments of multiple metals, even though he didn't knew much about 'alloys', he knew more or less of what they're composed and after trial and error he more or less strengthened his bones on many core areas.

...

Dio opened his eyes.

At some point, he had fallen completely sleep during his practice, he frowned lightly to himself thinking.

"Since the past days, I have feeling strange, my mind wanders, and I have this feeling of certain death, right now, I can't see or think of a clear future ahead of me, all my paths are shrouded with darkness.

Heh, heh...

Is this something like those patients who on their last moments, have this feeling of impending doom and certain death, just before their bodies collapse?"

Dio shook his head.

"No, this anxiety must come from the fact that I lack 'reassurance', if I still had my Stand I could put my mind at ease."

He grabbed the Lotus, and observed as yet another of its leaf's vanished into thin air.

Whilst this passed, the wound of his Stand became slightly, slightly thinner.

"Huh?

Am I trembling?"

He squinted lightly, feeling a certain suspicion in his heart and jumped up.

And as he expected, a wild mammoth's tusk pierced directly the Gu house, inflicting a small backlash upon Dio.

"Is this feeling from my heart coming from you?"

Dio frowned lightly, a dense white stream surged within his eyes.

"Crystallized Bone Space Ripper!" Dio said, the center of his pupils was filled with a silver bone 'glass' which amplified his technique.

Those 'bone crystal' eyes, were Dio's latest idea to improve his eyesight even further to compensate for his lack of Investigative Gu's.

The bone stream solidified and impaled the mammoth, but the mammoth hardened his flesh to the point that all the pointy bones shattered into powder.

Then, the mammoth's body quickly began to heat up and it began to burn his own red fur to quickly repair its body.

That was the power of this animal which could use its hair as a way to produce heat, energy and as a way to repair its wounds.

Finally, the burning hairs also allowed for two fire-wings to form at the back of the mammoth, which charged towards Dio.

A tiny smile appeared on Dio's face, beneath the ground a dense bone appeared, aiming at the mammoth's jaw, Dio was trying to directly pierce through the beast's brain!

However, close to the two, a 'gust' of cold wind surged, enveloping Dio's bone which due to the low temperatures immediately froze in the spot and shattered.

Dio's pupils shrank down.

He realized that he was not being attacked by a lone mammoth but by a herd!

"I need to run away!" That was Dio's first thought, he immediately took back his damaged Gu House and began to escape by foot.

As he moved, tiny fragments of ashes and dust surged from his skin pores, which quickly became into fireworks of all sizes and colors.

Whilst he escaped, he only had one thought.

"Why was I targeted by them?

Mammoths are prey not hunters, so why?

What I did to bother them so much?"

The answer was simple.

Dio's death aura triggered something primitive within those animals, a certain 'fear' which made them attack him, another factor was his own bad luck and Heaven's will machinations which actively pushed their instincts of 'attack or flee', towards attack.

"Bone Wall!"

Dio raised his arm, from the ground a myriad of bones appeared, they encircled Dio and prevented him from being attacked.

This 'wall' naturally moved as Dio retreated, but, it was all pointless.

Even though it could prevent those beasts from charging it could not prevent the aura of their attacks, from the gaps the bones left, fire, stars, wind, water and ice pulses constantly passed through.

At the end, the very nature of the abilities of those beasts wasn't static, rather it depended on the individual, some had fire affinity, some water affinity, and some outliners had even the power of more mystical paths.

One of the tiny cubs, was shining constantly with a dark slate blue.

The tiny tusks of the cub seemed distorted and curved, whilst its body looked increasingly blurry.

Suddenly, it began to run towards Dio.

Its figure looked rather odd, its figure became larger, but also thinner the closer it got to Dio, whilst the lower-body was short and 'chubby', as if its figure was compressed on a tiny space.

Space...

A tiny gap inside Dio's wall, expanded by the dozens, it became big enough so the tiny mammoth could directly pass through it and directly aim at Dio's stomach.

Dio activated his 'External Jin Strength Aura', however the mammoth managed to create 'gaps' even within it!

Hence, it directly ignored all but Dio's physical defenses.

"Fuck off!" Having no other choice, Dio directly slapped the tiny beast, tossing it away multiple meters.

"I'm not going to die at the hands of a brat like you."

Dio managed to evade this upcoming threat, yet, due to the chance this cub gave, three other mammoths could pass through, one of them, took back and protected the cub whilst the other two attacked him.

One had a green-tea fur which was flowing subtly through its body, and the other had a red fur which violently burn all of its hairs.

The two targeted Dio, one through a soft-approach by modifying subtly the wind currents it created a certain raising 'pressure', which suffocated Dio, whilst the other charged head-on towards him.

Dio raised his guard and began to fight.

This was a completely odd fight, the one with the explosive temperament and strength constantly pursued him.

Dio evaded nimbly all his obvious attacks, yet, on every of his movements there were little 'gaps' which the other used to sneak attack him.

Every time Dio tried to fight back against the wind mammoth it would retreat and evade perfectly all of his movements making all his efforts pointless.

Dio gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

Against such creatures he still had one trick upon his sleeves.

The image of a pink monkey appeared before him, the image multiplied by the second up to the point where it was overlapped by other images.

The thin pink color progressively become a darker, purple shade.

"Boom!" Dio unleashed a powerful hit upon one of the beasts, it was such the raw strength that its internal organs exploded.

Naturally, Dio also felt the signs of exhaustion, his whole body was covered in hot steam and warm sweat.

After Dio killed that mammuth the rest of the herd, became even more aggressive.

Dio sighed helplessly.

He already knew that elephants were social animals, by killing one of them he would naturally bring even more hostilities upon the rest of the herd, but what other choice did he had.

Die passively, afraid of fighting back?

Heh, what a joke.

Instead of dying on such a pathetic way, Dio preferred to fight his way through or die on the attempt!

"DIE, DIE, DIE!"

Once more, when Dio was pushed to a corner he revealed his aggressive, violent personality.

He bit, slashed and even head butted those beasts without any regards for his own body.

Every single one of his moves, held a fraction of the strength of a strength phantom.

Their figure was slowly revealed as Dio attacked.

Some extended multiple meters and halted the advancement of multiple of the beasts, whilst some directly raised the strength of each of his attacks.

His figure also revealed anger, bitterness and a hint of desperation.

Just what kind of shitty life was this?

How the hell ordinary humans survived on this world?

"After I defeat Ma Pa Hung and Ma Shang Feng, I shall seclude myself in Cultivation, and I'll only go out after I become a rank 5 peak expert!"

Finally, Dio managed to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

He managed to pass through this herd, as their aggressive movements left many gaps for him to escape.

"Huff...Huff..."

Dio breathed heavily, he glanced briefly at that 'rocky environment', that he had caught before.

Perhaps, he could use this to save himself?

He turned his back again, from his two palms a dense fog was surging, this fog was yet another variant of the same principle of his fireworks technique.

But this time, after detonation it stabilized into a black mist, which covered the vision of those beasts.

"Come on, I'll be waiting here!

Come and fight me for ten-thousand rounds."

Dio said exhausted.

Suddenly, he could see a 'wave' and stream of water engulf him, one of the mammoths was directly trying to drown him.

Dio turned his head.

"Shit, if I get too close I am afraid that I'm the one who will bite the dust."

With all his might, he conjured 13 strength dolphins, to flow against the stream of water.

"Luckily, this tsunami, also protects me.

Thanks to it, I can protect myself from the other's attacks."

Dio moved through the water currents perfectly, as if he had practiced those movements thousands of times.

Whilst his face was all messy, due to the water currents which directly slashed his head and due to the stress he had been suffering on the past days.

...

Finally, thanks to his efforts he managed to reach to the summit, where he triggered the power of his left 'Bloody Thief Hand' and forcefully grabbed one of the legs of the mammuth.

Then, he activated once more his Blood Ripple Phantoms.

His aura skyrocketed and the figure of a dolphin became increasingly clearer.

Dio descended at an unbelievable speed, and when he was at the bottom and his force was at its peak he forcefully tossed away towards that artificial 'rocky environment' the mammoth to petrify it.

...

From afar, the little cub with the dark slate blue aura observed all of this.

Due to its high natural spirituality it naturally noticed something was wrong and tried to go back.

The cub was being suppressed by the other animals who forcefully held it back, but still, due to the mysterious nature of Space path it managed to pass through them.

And right when it managed to escape it could see clear as the sun how Dio petrified, who was looking at it with a devilish smile.

"You caused so many troubles for me little brat, now come here and accept your death!" Dio began to pull it, with his left hand.

But, the little mammoth which was angered due to the death of its mother, charged towards him.

Its aura created ripples in the space.

The air itself was split in two, and so were those rocky fields.

The thing that stood at the 'center' between those two spaces was Dio which was being pulled towards those fields!

As it moved, towards it, its strength diminished, due to the might of the Gu 'Set in Stone' but due to the cub's high natural aptitude somehow, it could keep it up and push him towards the center.

Hell, it was such its control that it even isolated Dio from the air, thus he was also being suffocated to death.

Finally when Dio was dragged to the center, the 'space bubble' he was caught on vanished, and he began to experiment the effect of petrification!

However, instead of feeling despair Dio simply felt relief.

After all, he already knew of the 'statue' who stood at its center.

Yes, he was 'suiciding' but was that truly the case?

No!

Based on his own experiences with those 'experts' they had zero intentions of collaborating with anybody, they simply used others for their own benefits.

So, what kind of 'benefit' he could get all of this?

His revival!

On the past, Feng Zhan made those arrangements to ensure that in case he failed to break the Gu another Gu master in the future would wake him from his slumber.

That was the real intention of his so-called inheritance.

Dio knew this, and he had already a plan for it.

He'd attempt to little by little grind away the power of the pseudo-formation to reach the point where he could by himself charge towards its center and successfully break it!

Then, well...

Dio smirked maliciously, from his sleeves he took a tiny flesh bud which he had arranged beforehand.

Naturally he had already foreseen the possibility that the little cub would try to kill him by pushing him towards this pseudo-formation, but, as he expected due to the nature of 'Space path' which managed to pass through, the 'defenses' and power of this Gu effortlessly he also was isolated and protected from it.

Inside that 'space bubble' he was outside harm, hence, he was at his peak-form showing no signs of petrification.

With such strength he began to crack down the 'Set in Stone' Gu, whilst at the same time he injected directly the flesh bud inside Feng Zhan's brain.

Enslaving him directly.

Finally, everything within that pseudo-formation returned back to normal.

A myriad of flames, of ice arrows, tornados, etcetera were released at all directions.

Those were naturally the attacks of those Gu masters from the past who encircled him.

Naturally under the myriad of fireworks and explosions those mammoths were completely shaken internally, the strength of all those abilities far surpassed theirs.

"Now, now...

Don't be afraid now.

You did a mess on me, and pretty much almost killed me, if it wasn't for my quick-thinking I may have died by your hands, so...

Don't. You. Dare. To. Flee.

I, and my new servant we'll take our time in slowly torturing you all!"