Returning to the Mysterious Era-Chapter 498 - I Want It All! (2)

Within the cave, on the western outskirts of the first level of the Ao Yin Ruins...

Groups of brawny men in black sprinted through the confined tunnels, their boots pounding the stone floors with resounding thuds that reverberated off the walls. They clutched their weapons tightly with sharp eyes, like predators on a hunt.

Whenever they encountered a Blood Race party, they roared and charged forth like stampeding elephants, activating their Golem totems to expand their bodies several fold.

Their biceps bulged like car tires as they savagely slammed the Blood Race against the jagged walls, leaving them covered in blood. Others preferred grapples, lunging like bears to wrap the cornered Blood Race in a fortress-like embrace, slowly crushing their bones inch by inch with brute force as they savored the thrill of snapping them like toys. Those Blood Race bodies collapsed into limp noodles or twisted dough.

With numerous Treatment Ward commanders leading the assault, the direct Blood Race who boasted of blood transformations proved no match at all. They retreated step by step, leaving corpses behind as they fell back toward their headquarters.

Cassius immediately issued an order for Fog Man and Nine Serpents to lead the entire Treatment Ward force to obliterate the Blood Race nests. Meanwhile, he himself set off deeper into the Ao Yin Ruins with Odo, as well as Anthony and Fiona, the two new captives he had recently subdued.

Four figures flickered along a narrow, open corridor in the ruins like the wind, leaving faint afterimages behind. Echoes of metal clashing and bending rang out in the air, and the walls rumbled with tremors. Once the dust settled, every sharp lance protruding from both sides of the passage had been sheared flush by some unknown force, leaving mirror-smooth cross-sections.

All the traps and mechanisms had been brutally destroyed. In another corridor, a ten-ton boulder tumbled down from the slope with a thunderous crash, shaking the ground. However, a cloud of crimson mist swept by like a gale, and in the next moment, only a layer of gray dust blanketed the slope. The four figures walked across it, leaving faint footprints behind.

All four were combat artists of extraordinary skill, and were moving with lightning speed. Cassius led the way with a cold, unruffled gaze. He had been to the Ao Yin Ruins twice before, so now he navigated them with expert ease. novelbuddy-cσ๓

Each time they dashed into a tunnel, a ferocious phantom vulture would burst from Cassius, flapping wings that blazed like fire. In a flash, it cleared every threat within the corridor.

Poison-dart crossbows, spear traps, or even three-headed hellhounds and mutant rhinoceroses were demolished on contact. The scattered scraps against the cave’s dark corners were unrecognizable. Such contraptions and bizarre venomous creatures no longer came close to troubling Cassius. He stood just below the realm of Holy Fist, nearly at the pyramid’s apex. Danger was always a relative matter.

On this return visit to the Ao Yin Ruins, Cassius moved with almost casual ease.

Soon, the four reached the end of a corridor, confronted by a vast hollow. It was a cylindrical, grayish chamber. The walls had numerous tunnel openings and steps for walking. After surveying the deep pit below, Cassius hurled himself down.

Whoosh! Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

The other three followed suit, descending like shooting stars. In free fall, Cassius crossed his arms over his chest, allowing his flowing golden hair and the hem of his black coat to whip skyward. His gaze remained frigid and his expression impassive. His coat billowed behind him like a dark cloud in rapid descent.

The air chilled quickly, and a layer of frost crept across the plaza floor below.

Tap!

A pair of black boots touched down on the plaza, and Cassius slowly raised his palm. A flash of ruthless Qi flickered, cushioning the other three as they landed. It felt like they were stepping onto a soft mat. They momentarily swayed on impact, then promptly regained their balance.

On one side of the plaza, Cassius gazed quietly at five massive passageways below: Earth Rock Zone, Fire Spark Zone, Wind Separation Zone, Water Vortex Zone, and the Ouroboros Zone, which represented the mind. The dormant high-ranking Blood Race were in the Water Vortex Zone, within a blood pool that possessed special nourishing properties.

Logically, Cassius and the others should have gone straight there. But instead of doing so, he walked toward the center of the plaza.

Cassius had not entered the Ao Yin Ruins just to raise his Qi to the extreme combat artist level. He also sought to evolve his Golem Covert Martial Arts! This evolution referred not to the progression of the technique itself, but to modifications of the body.

The scarabs of Ao Yin Ruins had offered Cassius a special form of life vibration energy that could rapidly evolve a Golem Covert Martial Arts practitioner’s internal organs. The Golem, as a Dark Ultimate Form, was divided into juvenile, evolving, adult, and peak stages. Cassius had previously theorized that an adult Golem would rival the upper limits of a combat artist, which turned out to be correct. His Golem physique had reached the adult stage.

However, the transformation of his internal organs had stagnated. It was like someone who had mastered external hardening but neglected their inner strength. Attempting to step into higher realms by limping along on one leg—at least for Golem Covert Martial Arts—was impossible.

Maintaining that formidable, domineering body required organs of inhuman toughness and resilience. Otherwise, when Cassius eventually delved into the Golem Covert Martial Arts Mental Unification stage, the sudden surge in physical power would crush his fragile organs, making him the first unfortunate fool to die right at the threshold of becoming a Dark Ultimate Form.

He certainly had no wish to end up like that, which would effectively be abandoning further growth in his Golem Covert Martial Arts. Cassius would never choose that.

Thus, he walked to the center of the plaza, where a fountain stood. It was the only point of egress for the scarabs, and the perfect spot for an ambush. He knew the scarabs were a powerful extermination system in the Ao Yin Ruins. Once the bug swarm formed, they would flood through most of the six-level ruins and eradicate every threat.

From that description alone, it was obvious that the scarabs were continually regenerating.

This fit Cassius’s plan exactly—he intended to feast on them freely.

He aimed not only to push his Qi to the extreme combat artist realm but also to address the halted organ evolution of his Golem Covert Martial Arts in one go!

He planned to slaughter a tremendous swarm of scarabs to siphon their ceaseless flow of special life vibration energy to nurture the transformation of his own organs. As long as his organs could still evolve, he would keep absorbing, unceasing, until his body reached its utmost limit!

Once his frail interior had been upgraded to surpass even the strength and resilience of muscle and bone, Cassius would be ready to tackle the final chapters of the Golem Covert Martial Arts without hindrance.

But first, he had to withstand the onslaught of the scarab swarm. Clearly, Cassius, who wielded fearsome peak-level power and possessed a physique at the realm of extreme combat artist, had no fear. Since he had taken the time and effort to revisit the Ao Yin Ruins, he needed to achieve a win-win situation... A situation where one person won twice in a row.

He wanted the Blood Race’s life vibration energy, as well as the scarabs’ life vibration energy.

All of it!

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