Returning to the Mysterious Era-Chapter 499 - Strengthening Of Foundation (1)

There was no such thing as too much strength. Every opportunity to increase strength and foundation was extremely precious, so Cassius would not let it slip by.

The ground of the cold circular plaza was made of rough, off-white stone slabs exuding a simple, ancient atmosphere. In the center of the plaza, a fountain continued to spew water.

Cassius slowly walked over, and the air grew even colder, carrying a bone-chilling bite that seemed capable of freezing the blood in one's veins.

Buzz...

A bug fell from the edge of the fountain and landed on the plaza floor. It was about the size of a thumb, with a white shell. It resembled a commonly seen ladybug, although its thin jointed limbs had some vicious barbs and bristles.

Cassius looked down, feeling a faint sense of longing in his heart. It was an instinctive reaction of the Golem Covert Martial Arts, a hunger to devour and absorb.

It made him feel an itch deep inside and a slight tremor of excitement.

During his last time-travel, when he and Feng Liusi's group had entered the Ao Yin Ruins for the second time, Cassius had suspected that scarabs might have been food for the Golem in ancient times. Otherwise, they would not have had such a unique effect, whether it be its powerful allure or the enhancement they provided.

He reached out to grab that small scarab. The terrifying aura of the Golem life magnetic field flickered for an instant, and the scarab lost its vitality in a split second. A very thin thread of life vibration energy transferred into his palm, delivering a refreshingly cool sensation that flowed like water into his abdominal organs.

Of course, it lasted only for a very brief moment. Cassius tossed aside the scarab's corpse, slowly lifted his head, and looked toward the nearby fountain. He casually told the three people beside him to move farther away, then stepped forward slowly, heading for the center of the plaza.

Tap... tap... tap...

His footsteps became heavier and heavier, as though a massive and ferocious monster was trying to emerge from a human shell. Cassius's tall and powerful figure was entirely engulfed by wisps of dark mist. There was a glint of black in his eyes, and his profound black Qi devoured all light as it crazily surged from the seams of his clothes.

His Qi burned like flames, and in the very next second, it burst apart.

Boom!

A wave of black blanketed the entire white stone plaza, followed by a terrifying, semi-translucent Qi field in the air. This Qi field intertwined with Cassius's mind, body, and spirit, resonating with the Golem's life magnetic field.

Nearby, Odo and the other two were forced back by this invisible force.

The Qi that spread madly in the air kept battering their mind, body, and spirit. This was a clash of will and spirit; if one fell short, it could even damage their mind and potential. Thus, Odo and the others had no choice but to retreat, stationing themselves at the edge of the plaza and keeping watch in silence.

They looked at the formidable silhouette, shrouded by the black mist in the plaza.

"This time, the physical level of my Golem Covert Martial Arts body has reached the extreme combat artist realm, so the speed at which I devour scarabs would only be faster..." Cassius stared expressionlessly toward the fountain's outlet.

There was a tremor, and clusters of white beetles came spraying out from the fist-sized opening. Since so many passed through in such a short time, they were densely packed. At a glance, it looked as though a mass of milky-white liquid was gushing out.

Whoosh.

Waves of scarabs poured out like flowing water.

Zhi zhi zhi zhi zhi zhi zhi...

As soon as the scarabs emerged, they instantly let out a final shriek once they touched the Golem's life magnetic field above them. It was as though they were on the brink of death. Right after that, they dropped to the ground and did not move again.

The swarm of scarabs continued to surge from the fountain. They seemed lively at first, but in the short moment from falling through the air to hitting the ground, they had already turned into stiff insect corpses.

The mighty Golem's life magnetic field was like a vampiric scythe suddenly sweeping across. With a single swing, it absorbed the energies of hundreds or thousands of scarabs.

Cassius stood calmly amidst the black mist, feeling the continuous flow of cool air surging into his body. Though the life vibration energy was weak and delicate, it was highly concentrated, like a steady trickle that specifically targeted the internal organs of his Golem body.

He shifted his focus to inside his body, feeling as if a gentle rain was falling in his chest, slowly nurturing his organs. Each not-yet-fully-evolved Golem organ was like parched, cracked soil, greedily absorbing the scarabs' life vibration energy.

A sense of strength was gradually being nurtured from within. However, the speed of that growth was relatively slow.

Cassius frowned slightly and muttered, "Not enough. Still not enough. It's too slow."

He vanished and appeared above the fountain. His palm struck down with a loud bang, pressing firmly on the fountain's opening and channeling terrifying power into it.

Boom!

The rushing sound beneath the fountain fell silent. It felt as though a dreadful aura swept through the tunnel like a gale. Wherever it passed, the scarabs perished one after another, turning into rigid mummified shells as their life vibration energy was absorbed by the Golem's life magnetic field.

Cassius, up above, took a deep breath. It felt like his organs were immersed in cool, nourishing liquid. His heart thumped powerfully like a water pump, accelerating its rhythm.

In a single movement, he returned to his original spot, gazing quietly ahead as though waiting for something. This time, Cassius acted entirely differently from before. Last time, he had tried to use his field to isolate the pheromones released by the death of the scarabs, doing his best to delay the outbreak of the insect swarm.

But now, Cassius was actively provoking the main force of scarabs below. Not only did he ignore any pheromones released by the death of these massive numbers of scarabs, he even assaulted the tunnel beneath the fountain, wiping out who knew how many scarabs in a split second. The extremely potent pheromones likely had already reached the depths of the tunnel, inciting all the scarabs in the nest to riot!

However, Cassius showed no fear.

What once posed a threat might not any longer...

Rumble!

After a brief moment, everyone felt an eruption like a volcano. It seemed something below had been provoked and was now surging upward in a frenzy.

Bang! Bang!

Some giant things were ramming the base of the fountain, and judging by the frequency, there was more than one.

Thump... thump... thump... crack...

The white stone fountain shook violently, as though some mechanism beneath had activated. The fountain's base lifted upward, revealing a pitch-black hole roughly six meters in diameter. A thick chill gushed from it.

A dense insect swarm erupted like magma. Scarabs of varying sizes scuttled out, their limbs scraping against the ground. Some were as small as a thumb, some as big as a palm or a human head, while others were gigantic white beetles up to two meters in length. Regardless, they all scrambled madly upward.

At that moment, it was as though the gates of hell had opened, unleashing a horrifying white plague of insects that threatened to overrun everything.

Yet, a ten-meter-tall black Golem phantom faced these insects, slowly spreading its arms as if to embrace the entire plaza. Its towering form rose like an iron tower from the ground, layered with steel-like bone armor. The cold, rigid curves of the armor's joints struck fear into the hearts of all who saw it.

Behind its head floated a phantom crimson moon disk like a halo.

Blood-red light spilled forth, causing the Golem's armor to shimmer with a red glow, as though rivulets of blood were quietly dripping down the gaps of its plating. The silent, icy giant stood there, gazing down on the insects below, some even two or three meters tall. Black mist swirled around its form, and wisps of white frost drifted along the edges of its face.

"Kill them all, then devour them completely..." A rumbling sound came from beneath the visor of the massive armor. The Golem's large hand clutched at the thick mist around it.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢