Returning to the Mysterious Era-Chapter 689 - With The Rune of Death, Cassius Would Never Die
Resonance occurred the moment Cassius touched the skull mark.
The platinum Rune of Life emblem on the back of his right hand was a golden triangle that gleamed like gold leaf. On his chest, a palm-sized black ouroboros Rune of Spirit slowly spun, shining with a dark purple glow.
Two mysterious forces manifested and their fluctuations instantly swept across the Extinction Wand in Cassius's hand. The skull brand at the head of the staff immediately began to peel away.
It was slowly drawn out bit by bit, until the Rune of Death settled on the back of Cassius's left hand with a swish. It squeezed out the evil ghost symbol that represented Black Rain Manor, taking over the center for itself. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
The evil ghost symbol whose expressions alternated between a smile and a grimace had no power to resist. It was repelled all the way to Cassius's shoulder and forced to take up residence there. For some reason, it stopped changing and shifted from a smiling face to a crying one, remaining fixed in that expression. It looked very displeased, but had no better recourse but to rage helplessly. Cassius ignored it; Black Rain Manor was of little use to him now. Let the evil ghost be dissatisfied if it wishes.
Cassius looked at the Rune of Death on the back of his left hand to check its effect.
Rune of Death: Draws life force from the environment within a certain range to replenish and restore its bearer's state, allowing them to fight continuously.
It seemed that this was a combat-support rune. Unlike the Rune of Spirit and Rune of Life, the Rune of Death's function was simpler and more direct. It let its bearer keep recovering Qi and strength. It was similar to how Annihilation Disaster used it. It could continuously restore one’s energy mid-battle, so it could use the originally costly Book of Deathly Stillness as if there were no cost. The two in concert were truly troublesome.
Cassius turned to look at the remains of the Extinction Wand. Though separated from the Rune of Death, the Extinction Wand had not disintegrated. It had wonders of its own. Its material was unknown, yet quite powerful. Cassius only needed a moment to understand the staff's uses.
The Extinction Wand was the sole mutant body born from a strange tree in the bizarre environment of annihilation energy. It could passively absorb free-floating calamity in the air and actively draw calamity energy from the surrounding environment. Combined with the Rune of Death, it could crazily amplify the absorption effect of the rune's ability. The more the Rune of Death drew life force, the wider the staff could draw calamity from. It was an outrageous amplification.
In its original form, the Extinction Wand had limits on both usage count and range. However, once branded with the Rune of Death, its limits were erased. Hence, the staff seemed so powerful and fearsome.
Cassius further surmised that Annihilation Disaster likely could not use the Rune of Death directly. It was an Ultimate Dark Form on the side of calamity, while the Rune of Death was one of the five keystone runes of the Ao Yin civilization. The two were naturally in conflict. However, with a dead object as a medium, perhaps that conflict could be bypassed.
Of course, how Annihilation Disaster found the Rune of Death and branded it onto the Extinction Wand was something no one could know, and Cassius wasn't very interested either. What he cared about was that he himself seemed unable to use the Extinction Wand.
Calamity energy was of little use to Cassius. He could only use and benefit from only the Rune of Death.
Just imagine a Golem trampling the earth. Wherever it passed, life force in the environment would be sucked away, keeping him perpetually at peak state. Every punch and kick could be unleashed with maximum strength without restraint. Furthermore, he still had healing from life vibration energy. With two insane methods of restoring strength and vitality, who could kill him!?
At least, the other perfected powers of the same tier would be unable to take down Cassius! Even if they escaped together, returned to their peak, and came to besiege him, it would be hard to say they could determine his life or death. Such was the powerful assurance brought by the Rune of Death! Cassius was now quite fond of this Ao Yin rune.
Moreover, with some thought, the Rune of Death could actually be used for cultivation. Most Covert Martial Arts Secret Techniques required salves or medicinal baths, which essentially provided nourishment to temper the body and enrich vitality. The Rune of Death could skip body-forging and medicinal baths entirely, drawing life force directly from the environment to cultivate Covert Martial Arts at no cost.
For the early stage of Covert Martial Arts cultivation, this was practically the same as toggling a cheat. Even certain techniques with harsh requirements could be mastered easily by the rune-bearer.
For example, the Black Demon's Hand Covert Martial Art devoured the practitioner's own life force and lifespan. With the Rune of Death, they could devour as much as needed! It was equivalent to crazily accelerating cultivation while erasing the side effects. This was simply a divine skill for early Covert Martial Arts practitioners.
Sadly, Cassius had now stepped into the Holy Fist realm and reached perfected power. The Rune of Death's effect on cultivation was greatly diminished, but it could offer him considerable aid in combat. He had obtained it too late. Had he gotten it when first cultivating Covert Martial Arts, he would have been overjoyed. It would have been far more useful than even the Rune of Spirit.
Of course, for Cassius now, the Rune of Spirit's role far surpassed that of the Rune of Death. The unification of the three fist arts of the Southern Dipper Covert Martial Inheritance still depended on the Rune of Spirit, since it could let Cassius break through his upper limit.
***
A figure flashed through the World of Calamity. Cassius was back beside Blood Vulture Dominator Fist in the blink of an eye. The latter still sat cross-legged, seemingly stabilizing his origin and exorcising the totem energy within. Cassius stood cold and silent, guarding his side.
He looked motionless, but in fact he was still studying the three Ao Yin runes he had obtained. The vibration had not ceased from the moment the Rune of Spirit and Rune of Life had touched the Rune of Death and resonated. There seemed to be something pointing the way but the guidance could not succeed due to the separation of the World of Calamity.
Cassius soon figured it out. He had already obtained more than half the five keystone runes of the Ao Yin civilization, and the two remaining keystone runes were resonating with the three he possessed.
It was clearly indicating their locations, waiting for Cassius to retrieve them. However, the two remaining runes were in the surface world, and their signals were being blocked by the World of Calamity. He would have to leave the World of Calamity first.
"At this point, it's not just a clear goal. The coordinates are completely exposed before me. Once I return to the surface world, I'll gather them all..."
A plan flashed quickly through his mind, and he set it aside.
"What I need to do now is escort Blood Vulture Dominator Fist back to the Golem Sect headquarters to rest and recuperate. There, we can exorcise the chronic ailments of old and gradually restore Blood Vulture to his peak..."
Cassius had just pulled Blood Vulture Dominator Fist back from the brink of collapse, but his injuries were still too severe. His current state was worse than the sixth time-travel. After a life-and-death battle with the Totem King, he had been ambushed by Annihilation Disaster, fled underground, and fell into a fake-death state for nearly a century. His Qi was brimming with calamity, deeply entrenched totem energy, and greatly impacted by Deathly Stillness.
In such a condition, even Cassius's life vibration energy could not produce immediate effect. For poison clinging to the bones, one must first scrape the bones clean, then regrow the flesh. Blood Vulture Dominator Fist needed to leave the World of Calamity, where dense calamity was everywhere, return to the surface world, and use his Dominator Will to rake over his Qi and body again and again, supplemented by Cassius's injected life vibration energy, to gradually recover.
After all, only a remnant Will remained. It was no small feat to have saved him from the brink of death.
"When Blood Vulture Dominator Fist recovers to a certain degree and can temporarily act as the pillar of the Golem Sect, I can begin using the Rune of Spirit to carry out the ultimate deduction of the three Southern Dipper fist arts!"
Feeling the ouroboros symbol on his chest, Cassius took a deep breath. The Rune of Spirit had accumulated an almost impossible amount of Blood of the Spirit, but he had saved it for the calamity tide to come.
Cassius had a premonition that he might fall into a special state for quite some time when deducing the direction of the Southern Dipper Covert Martial Inheritance. Similar to when he created the Golem Covert Martial Arts back then, he would temporarily lose the ability to act. At that time, he would be somewhat vulnerable and would need a peerless monster like Blood Vulture Dominator Fist to guard him. He believed that once the Blood Vulture recovered his strength, he would never allow anyone to affect him during his closed-door breakthrough.
After an unknown amount of time, Blood Vulture Dominator Fist gradually woke from his meditation. A superficially weak yet essentially extremely fierce aura spread slightly. He opened his eyes and turned to see Cassius beside him.
"What are we doing next?" Blood Vulture asked.
Cassius's expression did not change in the least, nor did his emotions stir.
"Leave the World of Calamity and return to the Golem Sect I founded. Along the way, we’ll kill more dark creatures to supplement life vibration energy. Of course, if we encounter an Ultimate Dark Form, all the better..." His eyelids lowered, the light in his narrowed eyes shadowy.
By "more," Cassius meant millions, or even tens of millions! During the sixth time-travel, he and Blood Vulture Dominator Fist had unleashed slaughter with such abandon. The dark creature hordes along the way back were in for it!
Hehehehe...
***
Elsewhere, two Ultimate Dark Forms, Annihilation Disaster and the Totem King, were fleeing swiftly. Their colossal bodies blotted out the sky, even obscuring the blood moon's glow and casting heavy shadows upon the ground. Their terrifying aura stunned the dark creatures wherever they passed, leaving them trembling. Some weak ones even died of fright.
Yet this grand, resplendent scene faintly revealed panic and weakness. If any dark creature could overcome its fear and look carefully at the two godlike silhouettes in the sky, it would discover that the gods were bleeding! Both were grievously wounded—one with old injuries, the other with a new and terrible wound. Blood was still dripping downward from their huge gashes.
The two falling upon a mountaintop caused the death count in that area to suddenly spike. Many dark creatures clans became extinct that day. The two behemoths ran for who knows how far before finally stopping in an open area, catching their breath to recover their strength.
On the ground, Annihilation Disaster was both listless and enraged. Its condition was dire. Its dense black tentacles had almost all been severed, with only two or three straggling down like rootless stumps that could hardly support it. The broad cloak that covered it was also in tatters.
One could see only two-thirds of the scaly skeletal frame remained through the holes in the cloak. The severed third had an even, clean cut. That unimaginable sharpness had forcibly sliced away nearly a third of Annihilation Disaster's origin. The two deep vortices in the hood were covered in cracks. The left housed a book, while the right was empty. The Extinction Wand had been lost as well! Annihilation Disaster had indeed suffered a massive loss.
On the other side, the Totem King Kassares had fared no better. His immense body still bore dense claw wounds left by Blood Vulture Dominator Fist, and even penetrating holes from his Blood Rainbow Piercing Kill. The three forces of bronze, silver, and gold, and the three ultimate totems that had just been shrouded by those forces, all showed damage to varying degrees. Clearly, attacking Cassius while grievously wounded had backfired on the Totem King.
These two Ultimate Dark Forms who could once command wind and rain in the World of Calamity now looked utterly bedraggled. They were filled with an indescribable misery and stifled resentment.
"That man... is very strong! He has strength equivalent to when I was at my peak... Given time, he might well become the next White Bird Holy Fist!" Kassares's Will churned. The sudden emergence of a Southern Dipper Holy Fist with perfected power had shocked even him.
"He..." Annihilation Disaster faltered, seemingly resentful, but in the end, admitted, "He is indeed very strong. Even together, you and I likely cannot deal with him. Perhaps, if we add Yumila, we might..."
Annihilation Disaster was cut off as the Totem King slowly shook his head. "Setting aside whether adding Yumila could suppress him, we likely cannot even free Yumila. Yumila and Sonic Snake Ultimate Fist have fought in a sealed hollow for too long, and due to the special nature of their abilities, a strange fusion has occurred. They cannot be separated at all. If we go now and kill Sonic Snake Ultimate Fist, it would be equivalent to killing Yumila as well..."
Annihilation Disaster fell silent, as if a breath were trapped in its chest. "Doesn't that mean we have no way to deal with him?!"
Totem King Kassares's powerful aura coiled around them. "Yes and no. We indeed cannot do anything to him for now, but don't forget... The calamity tide is about to arrive..."
Black Qi surged all over Annihilation Disaster as it seemed to understand something. "You mean?"
