Returning to the Mysterious Era-Chapter 683 - Run, Southern Dipper Heir!

Cassius's Golem Covert Martial Arts, though modeled after the Ultimate Dark Form Golem, was ultimately a Covert Martial Arts created by humans. It had used the Wind Elephant Covert Martial Arts as one of its frameworks. Later, the Golem Covert Martial Arts had fed on dark creatures and even Ultimate Dark Forms, so it had mutated.

In the final stage of Mental Unification, once the cultivation progress pushed past ninety percent, the changes that had been gestating within had finally erupted. Just like when the Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist reached perfection, it produced the Dominator Self state. Once Golem Covert Martial Arts reached perfection, it would naturally also have a phase of rapid strengthening, with extraordinary transformations.

Such transformations were tied to the essence of the Golem and to malice. Humanity has always struggled to live since ancient times. Survival was never easy. In dark jungles rife with danger, bacteria, venomous snakes, and beasts, all humans could do was protect themselves and unite.

Every individual within a community possessed a subconscious drive to protect themselves and avoid harm. When this desire for safety radiated outward, it became a terrifying malice toward all creatures that could threaten humans! It was an invisible overwhelming tide.

Eliminate and strangle all potential things that threaten humanity! That was Humanity's Malice!

The powerful Covert Martial Arts created in ancient times were a concrete manifestation of this instinct! Boundless malice instinctively emanated from the human collective, unconsciously attacking everything around it. Of course, if humans remained at the top of the food chain, then that malice would diffuse.

However, with calamity everywhere and dark creatures invading, human survival was greatly threatened. Thus, the arrowhead of human malice took very clear aim at calamity and dark creatures. The ultimate evolution of Golem Covert Martial Arts required precisely this boundless malice!

After rewriting the Golem Heart Codex, Cassius discovered that the Golem Seeds and thoughts of its practitioners had grown more linked to his Golem body. When these practitioners faced dark creatures, their subconscious malice was violently triggered, like soup brought to a boil. It spread ceaselessly, searing and agitating the mind.

Kill, kill, kill! Kill it! Kill these dark creatures! Only by killing them will you be safe, only then will you be free!

Under normal circumstances, ordinary humans differed greatly from dark creatures in strength and life essence. When they faced dark creatures, animal survival instinct and desire completely suppressed malice, leaving only the urge to flee. However, Covert Martial Arts Practitioners were different. Covert Martial Arts cultivation was, in essence, an evolution of life. This was the same for practitioners of the Golem Heart Codex!

Cassius finally understood why, after he created the Golem Heart Codex for the Golem Sect to cultivate, whether in his time-travels or in the real world, Golem Sect members exhibited behaviors of eating, torturing, and violently assaulting dark creatures, to the point of even producing the so-called Ghetto Four. In truth, these were manifestations of humanity's malice being unleashed.

The Golem Heart Codex strengthened practitioners' life essence and amplified their emotional fluctuations. Thus the extreme repulsion toward dark creatures in their hearts naturally erupted! Yes, the issue was not with the technique he created, but with the rules of nature themselves. It was something etched into the human subconscious.

Cassius's eyes were unshaken. He now understood how the Golem Covert Martial Arts should evolve to perfection. The condensed Golem Heart Codex, widely disseminated into the Covert Martial Arts world, would be cultivated by Covert Martial Arts Practitioners to generate malicious thoughts. When they faced and killed dark creatures, they would generate malice strong enough to be absorbed by the Golem Seeds and be transmitted to Cassius.

By absorbing boundless malice from the human collective, he would transform into a demon amongst demons when the cultivation of Golem Covert Martial Arts reached one hundred percent. That was the perfect state absolutely comparable to the Dominator Self, Holy Self, and Ultimate Self.

Cassius had also found the necessary conditions to enter that state. That was also why he had suddenly ordered Simone to do things like unify the voice of the Covert Martial Arts world, sweep the calamity forces, and even counterattack the underworld by planting swords and banners upon the World of Calamity.

"The first task is to unify the voice of the Covert Martial Arts world. The other is to find the remaining three keystone runes. Two missions... I hope you won't disappoint me..." Cassius turned his head toward the lake. The small boat carrying Simone was gliding across God's Tears Lake, growing smaller until it became a hazy black dot.

He slowly turned to face away from the Golem Sect. His right hand lifted, five powerful fingers clenching into a massive fist.

"I should enter the World of Calamity once again."

On December 21, the Golem Sect began to operate, silently watching like a tiger. On the same day, the Golem Sect's master suddenly vanished from the lake, his whereabouts unknown.

***

In the World of Calamity, a blood moon hung high, and the land lay in gloom.

A rare human figure skimmed rapidly along the border between the Pitch Black Mountains and the Silent Rain Zone of the World of Calamity. No dark creature could touch this figure, as merely approaching it would send them toppling to the ground. Their bodies were drained into dessicated corpses in an instant as waves of life vibration energy rippled through the air. Those ripples chased after that blurred afterimage and were immediately absorbed.

These ripples were not obvious in remote barren places. However, upon reaching territories teeming with malevolent spirits and swarms of dark creatures, the black human figure chose to cleave straight through them. Wherever it passed, all colors faded to withered white. Dense ranks of monsters collapsed lifeless to the ground, twitching. Semi-transparent ripples of life rose and propagated, turning into a visible wave that warped the air as it travelled across the land.

In the end, they formed a massive whirlwind beside Cassius as they were absorbed. Killing had always been so simple. He didn't even need to lift a finger. Mere proximity meant death!

Cassius became a domain of death. Any creature that fell into the demonic whirlwind could not escape. This was likely how Blood Vulture Dominator Fist looked at his peak Dominator Self state, effortlessly stirring up slaughter wherever he passed. Even an Ultimate Dark Form dared not approach alone.

Swoosh!

Across the night sky veiled in a hazy blood hue, a meteor descended like a lance that pierced the earth. An unimaginably deep, vast pit displayed the outline of a human fist in the great lake of calamity mud. That was where Blood Vulture Dominator Fist had confronted the Totem King for centuries. It was also the site where, eighty years ago, they had erupted into a life and death battle.

Cassius sank slowly through the air. His black boots touched down on the pit's rim. Lowering his head, he could still feel the Will of the Dominator Fist within that blow which had once leveled mountains and shattered the earth! A supremely dominant Qi still lingered after nearly a century.

Last time, Cassius had found this place in the surface world but had no means to investigate. This time was entirely different. Near the end of his sixth time-travel, he had conversed at length with Blood Vulture Dominator Fist and obtained a method, or rather, a technique. It required cultivating the same fist art and reaching an extremely profound level.

One needed to find the intense imprint of Will left by the one who practiced the same fist art. Then, near that imprint, they could use star resonance to sense the location. Star resonance was another peculiar application of this technique. Cassius recalled the entire technique in his mind and acted at once.

He leaped into the huge fist mark abyss. The wind howled past his ears as his black coat shot straight upward. His feet struck the ground with a bang.

Cassius was standing upon an unimaginably vast pair of steel wings. It was one of the core totems of Totem King Kasseres. An ultimate totem, the Netherworld Dragon King.

"Let's begin... Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist, star resonance..." Cassius sat cross-legged. He closed his eyes and placed one hand on the ground.

Ding, ding, ding...

His acupoints started to light up. In the blink of an eye, sixty-six crimson stars appeared across his body, forming a three-dimensional vulture pattern with wings quivering as if ready to strike.

"Giant Falcon constellation!"

In an instant, the Giant Falcon constellation manifested in the sky of the World of Calamity, flashing rapidly in resonance with the sixty-six Southern Dipper stars upon Cassius's body. At almost the same moment, threads of crimson Qi evaporated like steam from the surface of the great pit. The red specks gathered bit by bit, slowly responding in resonance. Ultimately, they formed a hazy phantom of a vulture.

The enormous phantom shrouded Cassius's entire figure, then collapsed and contracted in the next instant as if directly absorbed by him.

Ding.

At the bottom of the black pit, a pair of crimson, bird-like eyes lit up.

Screee!

A red streak soared skyward. It paused slightly in midair above the abyss. A second later, it shot through the air like a blood-red meteor, leaving a long trail that split the sky.

Swoosh...

The heavy cloud layer was cleaved straight in two by a blood-colored sword. Once he had crossed the entire Pitch Black Mountains all the way to the edge of the Silent Rain Zone, Cassius finally slowed to a halt. According to the Southern Dipper star resonance's guidance, whether he was gravely wounded or only a remaining intent, Blood Vulture Dominator Fist's Will was nearby.

Cassius stood atop a lofty peak at the edge of the Pitch Black Mountains. There were endless winding black peaks behind him. Ahead was a dense, hazy gray rain, pattering and shrouding heaven and earth.

For some reason, when Cassius stared at that stretch of the Silent Rain Zone, he felt uncomfortable all over. The Silent Rain Zone was where Black Rain Manor lay. Even for an Ultimate Dark Form, it carried a sinister, unreal feeling.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, he raised his guard. After observing from the summit for a while, Cassius gradually found the direction indicated by the Giant Falcon constellation. It was a valley half in the Pitch Black Mountains and half shrouded by rain, wedged between two peaks.

His gaze swept across the valley, then surveyed the surrounding area. He paused for a moment, then flashed rapidly toward it.

Soon, Cassius reached the valley's end, where he found a deep cave that seemed to lead all the way underground. Without hesitation, he plunged in, feeling the resonance of the Southern Dipper acupoints as he sped toward the end of the winding underground passage. His speed was so great that a rumbling echo filled the cave.

After some time, Cassius abruptly halted at the end of the passage. He did not go deeper but turned to a somewhat smooth cave wall where purple-glowing alien moss grew thick and damp. The acupoints across his body flickered, which meant the indication was clear. Blood Vulture Dominator Fist was right here!

He threw a punch.

Boom!

The wall split and stones burst apart, revealing a chamber within. Cassius stepped forward and strode inside.

Screee!

A ferocious vulture phantom screeched forth. It was an assasination attempt born of a Will once peerlessly dominant but now extremely weak.

Bang!

Cassius raised his palm and blocked the strike. Blood Vulture Dominator Fist was too feeble to carry much force.

"It's me, Blood Vulture. A new generation cultivator of the Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist." Cassius's Will rippled, enveloping the entire rocky chamber.

"Heir of the Southern Dipper!?" An aged voice, wavering like a candle in the wind, spoke.

Cassius looked toward the source of the voice. It came from a hazy phantom formed of crimson Qi, its form near collapse. Wounds hissed across its surface as totem energy raged wildly. In addition, a deathly aura lingered about it.

"Go now! The farther you run, the better!" Blood Vulture Dominator Fist suddenly urged. "Annihilation Disaster is seeking my remaining Will... It's nearby... It is the concept of annihilation born in the last two centuries after the calamity tide. It's one of the top ten Ultimate Dark Forms among the newly spawned Ultimate Dark Forms!"