Reverend Insanity-Blood Venerable Ascension (New Version)

Swing!

Chen Wei stepped swiftly to the side, dodging most of his body away from the claw of a wolf, sharp and large enough to make even the heart of a seasoned warrior tremble.

In the same instant, he adjusted his stance with a precise spin, using the sudden momentum to intensify the swing of the blood sword in his right hand. The blade, perfectly aligned, aimed directly at the wolf's spine with lethal precision.

Shrrack!

The wolf was cleaved in two, its spine, ribs, muscles, and flesh yielding like butter under the sharpness of Chen Wei's blade.

However, he wasted no time observing the creature's painful demise or indulging in pointless self-praise. Without hesitation, Chen Wei rolled forward, maintaining fluid motion. As he moved, his left hand fired blood blades with speed and precision, ensuring no nearby enemy had the chance to counterattack.

Even so, when he finished his roll and turned to face what had once been his rear, he saw several wolves charging at him. A few bore moderate wounds, but most only had minor injuries, if any, inflicted by him.

'My precision with this new arm is really much worse…' Chen Wei thought, furrowing his brows slightly. Still, his heart remained calm, as he had expected this outcome based on prior experiences with the new arm. 'It's as if I've never trained control over my left arm in my life.'

In the past, even without looking, such an attack from behind would not have guaranteed kills but would have left the wolves severely injured. His battle experience and precision allowed him to deliver devastating blows regardless of which arm he used.

But now, things were completely different. His left arm responded clumsily, with less control, always slightly off. This flaw wasn't just a hindrance in combat but also in everyday tasks, as though he had never undergone the rigorous training in calligraphy, combat, and etiquette his grandfather had demanded during his childhood.

Of course, he had no intention of revisiting such training to improve his control over the new arm. He knew the problem lay within the Gu and not himself. It wasn't something training could fix but rather required a superior version of the Gu.

'It will take time until I can acquire the Rank 3 version…' he thought, advancing toward the wolves once more. With his right hand, he continued to cut them down relentlessly using the blood sword.

Simultaneously, the Fierce Leech Gu in his aperture absorbed the blood of freshly slain wolves around him. It continuously converted this into Rank 3 initial-stage primeval essence, which he quickly consumed. This allowed him to constantly unleash flying blood blades with the swings of his sword, while also delivering deep cuts to the wolves attacking him.

The wolves, biting and clawing, rarely managed to land a hit on him. Those few that did only struck his blood armor, failing to cause any direct damage to his flesh.

This combat style is so intense that it would be difficult for an ordinary Gu Master to sustain it in every aspect: recovery of primeval essence, offensive power, defensive capability, and movement. Almost none of the Gu Masters stationed on the clan's wall could claim to possess even one of these qualities at the necessary level to achieve what Chen Wei is doing—let alone all four.

In fact, even elders would struggle to maintain this level of performance for as long and as effortlessly as Chen Wei. He seems to cut through the endless waves of wolves attacking the clan's wall, becoming a whirlwind of relentless slaughter. No one on the clan's wall could not see his movements in the battlefield.

Of course, this fighting style isn't born from youthful recklessness clouding his judgment to take unnecessary risks to earn honor in battle and prestige as a newly ascended elder—though these are certainly positive consequences of his actions.

The main reason lies in the composition of his main Gu's, which makes him to fight this way. Since this is the best way it is him to maintain his steady rhythm of combat with maximum killing efficiency, prolonging his stamina and combat effectiveness for as long as he can endure.

This is evident in his two primary means of attack: the Blood Sword, designed for close combat, and the Blood Cut, which has only a medium range. Although he possesses a powerful long-range Gu, in the Piercing Blood Gu, it consumes a large amount of primeval essence with each use.

And herein lies the key: primeval essence—the natural energy that sustains Gu Masters in this world. To use his Gu effectively and sustain his intense combat style, Chen Wei requires an enormous amount of primeval essence, constantly recovering at high speed to keep up with the slaughter of as many wolves as possible.

To achieve this, he uses the Fierce Leech Gu, which absorbs only fresh blood—either from living animals or those that have recently died. However, this Gu has one more limitation: its range barely exceeds one meter. Relying on it to extract blood from wolves on the ground while standing atop the four-meter-high clan wall would be highly impractical.

Not impossible, of course, as there are Gu capable of pulling corpses from a distance. But Chen Wei doesn't possess one, and even if he did, using it would make his combat system less efficient and significantly reduce his sustained killing capacity.

He imagines that if this were one of the desperate wolf tides recorded in clan history—where wolves piled up in mountainous heaps against the walls—he could fight from atop the wall. Fortunately, for the Clan this tide isn't one of those extreme cases.

'I'll have to retreat to the rear soon to rest my body and mind...' This is the conclusion of Chen Wei's train of thought, which, despite being long and complex, took less than a moment to form.

Without losing momentum, he continued slashing and killing wolves with a ferocity that left the hearts of observing Gu Masters trembling—partly with exhilaration and partly with fear.

---

"I'm telling you, this is why we need more young and courageous elders like us!" said a Gu Master with a sturdy build and an unremarkable appearance, as he rested to recover his primeval essence. He spoke without a care in the world. "Am I wrong?"

He glanced around at his friends, most of whom merely nodded silently, with one of his closest companions gesturing for him to lower his voice.

He continued, now speaking in a softer tone so that only those nearby could hear him, rather than everyone resting in the clan's healing rear lines.

"Look, all I'm saying is that most of those old elders have already lost their will and courage to fight they had in their youth..."

"Most of them just order us to go out there, fight, and die cruel deaths while they sit comfortably in their homes."

One of his nearby friends nodded slightly, a look of hesitation crossing his face, before replying, "You're saying this, but it seems like you're forgetting that elders also have to handle the clan's logistics and internal politics. Or do you want all that to just be ignored?"

"And what about those standing in the rear lines, healing us?" he added.

The outraged Gu Master waved his hand dismissively, clearly implying that the few elders acting as healers didn't count.

"Bah! Of course, those healing us are doing great work for the clan! But those dealing with politics and administration? That's just a fancy way of saying they're scheming against each other for petty reasons..." He shook his head in frustration and reiterated his point.

"Look at Young Elder Chen. If all elders fought so courageously, risking their lives to kill as many wolves as possible, the clan's casualties would be minimal to noone!"

No one argued against his words. To the eyes of many Gu Masters fighting along the clan's walls against the wolf tide, Chen Wei had recently become one of the most reputable elders—even among Gu Masters from opposing factions.

This was inevitable. Chen Wei fought almost every day, killing wolves of his own volition, as elders were not required to guard the walls. Not only that, but unlike the few other elders who joined the battles and fought from the safety of the walls, he fought directly on the ground, halting the wolves' advance and ensuring he killed as many as possible. His actions made him stand out in an incomparable way.

Additionally, he had saved the lives of numerous Gu Masters who had been knocked off the walls—those who would typically have died in such situations. These rescued Gu Masters spread praises and good words about Chen Wei throughout the clan. Some even got into heated arguments with anyone who dared utter even slightly negative remarks about him.

The outraged Gu Master who had been complaining about other elders and singing Chen Wei's praises was, surprisingly, not one of those who had been saved. Instead, he was someone who had been bribed with generous benefits to do so.

He hadn't asked many questions when the Rank 2 Gu Master paid him to spread this narrative. But even if he had, he wouldn't have been able to trace the origins of these bribes back to Chen Wang. Nor would he have uncovered the extensive network paying not just him but dozens of Gu Masters to discredit the old elders and spread Chen Wei's positive reputation.

Seeing that all his friends had, to some extent, agreed with what he had said, the Gu Master prepared to offer more words of praise for Chen Wei, as he had been instructed to do. But suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted none other than Chen Wei himself approaching the healing rear line at a rapid pace.

Immediately, not just he and his friends but every Gu Master present bowed respectfully, offering a formal clan salute and uttering words of respect to Elder Chen Wei.

"There's no need for this... In fact, it should be me bowing to you, the brave heroes of the He An clan!" Chen Wei said with emphasis, before returning their salute in a respectful manner.

He could see that this left everyone present utterly shocked, as though they couldn't believe what had just happened.

'Ahhh, this world really has never had a transmigrator introduce a little populism...' Chen Wei thought with a sigh. Outwardly, though, he put on a warm smile after completing his salute and went to rest, casually chatting with the Gu Masters beside him. His relaxed demeanor, as though he were not an elder himself, left everyone he spoke to flustered and nervous in their responses.

For Chen Wei, however, this didn't matter. The content of these conversations was unimportant; what truly mattered was the act of conversing itself. It helped solidify the image of an elder who was not only courageous and willing to sacrifice for the clan but also humble and approachable to the common Gu Masters—a reputation he had been carefully building.

In truth, working on this reputation was the only reason he chose to rest publicly and mingle with the others. Otherwise, he could have easily returned to one of the nearby houses—converted into fortifications—and rested in private, as his elder status allowed.

'It would be nice if I had a Gu to recover mental fatigue...' Chen Wei mused. 'The stress of having to pay attention to every little detail during a fight is far more exhausting than the physical strain.'

Unfortunately, even though he had thought about it, he hadn't been able to find a Wisdom Path Gu for mental recovery—or any Gu of another path capable of fulfilling that purpose. His only option was to recover his mind the way everyone else did: through normal rest. For his physical recovery, he had considered using a Strength Path Gu, but after experiencing firsthand how much interference it caused with his Blood Path Gu, he had abandoned the idea.

'I've made some good progress on that, though...' Chen Wei shifted his focus to his right arm.

In the past week, after obtaining this arm, he had been making slow but steady progress in developing a Blood Path version of it. To his surprise, Wang Mei had been a great help in this endeavor.

According to her, one of the studies she encountered during her time at university was a variant of a technique that used electroshock therapy to restore the minds of the insane. This version, however, aimed to restore movement to paralyzed limbs by applying electrical shocks of various intensities to the nerves, alongside infusions of "miraculous" metallic objects into the nerves. Her detailed explanation had left him speechless, especially as the seemingly innocent girl described it all as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Regardless, while he wasn't keen on electrocuting himself or inserting lead needles—what he assumed were the "miraculous metals" she had mentioned—into his nerves, her knowledge of where the nerves were located and how they could be stimulated had proven to be very useful.

Also despite her cute face and her bossy yet innocent demeanor, Wang Mei was remarkably intelligent. Her occasional ideas and suggestions had genuinely helped him in certain aspects of controlling the arm with his mind and will.

Chen Wei pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind and continued speaking calmly and simply with the Gu Masters, who now seemed less flustered and more composed in their conversations with him.