Chapter 152 - I'm Starting To Understand Everything

Yes, it was full.

The plus signs behind the Covert Martial Arts and techniques were no longer flickering like before and had become much more solid in his vision. That likely indicated that enough essence of calamity had been collected.

Cassius let out a sigh of relief as he continued to move closer to the creek. Almost instantaneously, another progress bar appeared beneath the full one, except this was mostly empty. Slowly, bit by bit, the red portion of the bar grew.

As the howls grew weaker, the progress bar's speed slowed to a crawl. Once it completely stopped, Cassius returned to the group, his eyes fixed on the altar across the creek. If the scarab army showed any sign of moving toward them, he was going to immediately retreat. Fortunately, the scarabs seemed more interested in the altar where the Blood Race was conducting their blood ritual. As they swarmed around it, they climbed to the top, piling up on top of each other, emitting a hissing sound.

Without any more essence of calamity to absorb, Cassius quickly lost interest. He glanced at Duomo beside him and spoke in a soft voice, "Let's go."

"Alright." Duomo nodded immediately. Although his injuries were not fatal at the moment, they were still severe and needed to be treated as soon as possible. Without hesitation, the two of them stepped into the darkness of the forest.

"

Ai

, you two," Will wanted to ask them to stay but upon realizing their relationship wasn’t that close, all he could do was open his mouth and swallow his words back. The female officer, Cathy, moved closer to him. Her fair, pretty face was filled with curiosity.

"Who are these two?"

"I don’t know either, but they must be the Blood Race's enemies."

The enemy of my enemy is a friend.

Will silently glanced toward the altar. At least the blood ritual had been stopped. The Mercury Hunters had succeeded in their primary mission! As for the secondary objective of rescuing the hostages...

Seeing how tightly surrounded the area was, things had likely ended poorly. There should be nothing left of the hostages. Mercury Hunters, who had fought against the Blood Race for years, wouldn't be too bothered by the outcome. However, those brave officers might struggle with it, especially since the hostages had made such a big sacrifice only to perish.

Bang, bang, bang...

"

Roar

..."

Faint sounds came from below the dense forest, indicating that the battle was still ongoing, with both sides locked in fierce combat.

Will immediately shouted, "The window of time for the blood ritual has already passed. The Blood Race won't be able to complete it anymore! Our comrades are still fighting the Blood Race, so follow me and let's go back to join them! Move!"

Immediately, the remaining group, consisting of less than twenty men, followed the original path back, with over a dozen shadows darting swiftly through the forest.

Night had deepened, and the sky above the Alphama Mountains had turned pitch-black. A massive cloud drifted across the endlessly dark sky, obscuring the faint stars and allowing no starlight to break through.

***

On July 2, in a small blue estate within Mirror Lake City, the morning sun slanted through the large floor-to-ceiling windows, casting seven or eight long golden streaks on the brown floor. The living room was extremely spacious, and had black and white checkered sofas in the corner, and green plants in flower pots which added a touch of freshness.

A dining table was set in the middle of the living room. At the moment, two strong men were sitting across from each other, eating. One was blond, and the other had black hair.

The black-haired man cut a piece of fried egg with his knife and lifted the fork to his mouth. He picked up a glass of hot milk with one hand and reached for the newspaper lying on the left corner of the table with the other. The newspaper was hot off the press and still smelled faintly of ink, the black text looking so fresh it seemed it might smudge with a touch.

It was the Mirror Lake Morning News. The first thing that caught his eye was a large headline on the front page: "Ruthless Criminals Hidden in the Alphama Mountains! Mirror Lake and Bright Mountain Police Departments' Joint Effort Still Results in Heavy Losses!"

The headline was followed by a lengthy article. It had no photos and only included fragments from insiders about the previous night's events, but nothing in-depth.

After shooting a brief glance at it, he set the newspaper aside and continued eating. He was trying to fill his stomach up which hadn't been fed in ten days. He had to admit, the garlic bread was quite delicious.

On the other side, Duomo swallowed a piece of bread, then grabbed the newspaper and spread it out, reading it as he ate breakfast to pass the time. Five minutes later, footsteps came from the stairs on the right side of the living room.

A well-dressed old man descended the stairs. His hair was white and his frame was slender, but his eyes were sharp. He exuded a commanding presence full of vitality as he moved. He wore high-waisted trousers, a flannel shirt, and a single-breasted jacket with a fine pinstripe pattern. He looked both lively and dignified, his appearance giving people a sense of comfort.

"How did you sleep last night, boys?" With a smile on his face, the old man appeared very kind as he walked over to the table and sat down. He started on his own breakfast.

"Not bad, Mr. Mi An," Cassius responded.

"Not great, my whole body aches. I only managed to sleep for about five hours,

sigh...

" Duomo said, his face filled with exhaustion.

"The fact that you could sleep last night at all shows my healing skills haven't declined," Mi An said, smiling gently, as he shook his head. "When you didn't come back for over ten days, I thought you'd gone to fool around somewhere again." Mi An glanced at the newspaper's headline and launched into his question, "I didn't ask since I was treating your injuries last night, but I want you to tell me everything that happened in the Alphama Mountains."

"Hold on, uncle. Let me finish my breakfast first." Duomo chugged his milk and chewed on some bread.

"Are you really that hungry? You shouldn't eat too much; your injuries are quite severe. Hands off that last piece of bread," Mi An cautioned.

Hearing this, Duomo couldn't help but look a bit miserable. "Uncle, do you know what I've been through these past ten days?"

Bug platters, moss salad, dew rain.... Duomo had tried everything under the sun. Although he had reached the limit of his second blood acceleration, he wasn't like Cassius, who had completed the cycle of three nodes. He still needed to eat and drink; the difference between him and an ordinary person was just that he had a bit more endurance. After being misled by the fog into a cave, he had spent ten days in the ruins' maze, where finding food proved to be a major challenge.

Duomo immediately jumped into recounting his experiences in the Alphama Mountains, starting with the fight he had with Cassius and ending with the two of them escaping the ruins together last night.

There were many dangers and even more twists and turns. Duomo's experiences were no less harrowing than Cassius's, and since he couldn't go without food or drink, he suffered even more. As Cassius listened, he felt deeply sympathetic to Duomo's plight.

"What a mysterious ruin! The Blood Race in the Alphama Mountains are truly not as simple as it seems. You said you saw coffins full of blood in the pool, and a Blood Race member, powerful enough to crush you both, was chasing you?" Mi An paused, his tone serious. "If that's the case, then that must mean there are more Blood Race members sleeping in those other coffins. For such a powerful force of humanoid creatures, I’ve never heard of the Blood Race back when I was at the Three-Eyed Mad Lion Sect."

Hearing this, Cassius, who was cutting garlic bread beside them, paused, his eyes narrowing. He recalled that when he went back to the Wind Elephant Sect, he hadn't heard anything about dark creatures either. Even during the exchange events in the Covert Martial Arts circles, where many young core disciples gathered to exchange ideas, there had been no talk about dark creatures. It was strange.

Moreover, the Blood Race members last night seemed shocked that Cassius and Duomo could unleash such formidable physical strength despite being pure humans. It felt as if there was a piece of frosted glass separating the two; they existed in the same world but seemed to exist parallel to each other, with each living their own lives.

Logically speaking, two powerful forces with two different stances and of two different races should have had many conflicts and interactions. Cassius found it impossible that Covert Martial Arts Practitioners had never encountered dark creatures. And surely there would have been some dark creatures that would've come face-to-face with the Covert Martial Arts Practitioners? But it seemed that neither side had been curious enough to delve deeper. Or had their minds made the subconscious decision to ignore the other?

As he thought about it, the hair on the back of his neck stood up. Cassius felt as if he could see a pair of invisible hands reaching down from the clouds, manipulating the coincidences and fates of the world.

"

Phew

..." He took a deep breath, deciding, for the moment, not to delve any further into that terrifying thought. Cassius snapped back to the moment at hand.

Beside him, Duomo was discussing with his uncle, Mi An, the temporary agreement he and Cassius had reached in the ruins' passageways.

"A collaboration?" Mi An turned to look at Cassius. Duomo also turned his head in synchrony.

Cassius rubbed his forehead, gathering his thoughts together. Just as he had that day, he asked, "Mr. Mi An, have you ever heard of Soul Power?"

"What is it?" Mi An asked, his face curious.

"Guess how old I am?" Much to Duomo's exasperation, Cassius asked the same question he had in the cave. A minute later, he said, "I'm twenty-four years old this year."

"What? Don't try to fool me, let me check your bone age."

"You're really twenty-four...and already a pugilist at the major culmination stage at this age..."

Two minutes later.

"Black Rain Manor? Such a place exists? It sounds even more bizarre than the ruins you two went through just now."

"Yes, but it has something to do with Soul Power."

Five minutes later...

"Damn!" Mi An, overwhelmed with excitement, bounded up from his seat and slammed his hand on the table, smashing a hole in it. Duomo, who had been drinking milk beside him, felt his elbow jolt because of the table, and the milk in his glass splashed all over his face.

"Uncle, calm down, calm down. Let's sit down and talk this over in detail," Duomo said as he wiped his face.

"I'm not young anymore. How can I not be excited?!" Mi An was breathing heavily, his chest heaving with emotion. There was a mix of emotions on his aged face: five parts longing, two parts excitement, and one part shock, joy, and hope each.

Beside him, Duomo remembered something and rubbed his head.

His uncle Mi An, once nicknamed the "Demon Lion," loved to fight fiercely in his youth. Obsessed with martial arts, he often pushed his opponents to the brink of death. At one point, he had gone to the western Covert Martial Arts circles of the Federation, so he could constantly challenge the various masters there. A true martial arts fanatic!

He and Duomo's master, the "Evil Lion" Maro, were once known as the Twin Stars.

As time passed and his abilities waned, he gradually became more of a background character. Five years ago, he even stopped managing the affairs of his sect, choosing instead to retire in a random tourist city, mainly because his vitality had declined. He lost all hope of ever reaching a higher stage in martial arts, leading to him feeling disheartened

"

Phew

..." Mi An calmed himself down and returned to his seat. "Cassius, continue. I won't interrupt."

After ten more minutes, Cassius had said everything he needed to say. Mi An wore an extremely complicated expression. He held the newspaper in his hand, the very picture of calm but his grip on the paper betrayed him, the edges of which were already crumpled from how tightly he was clutching it. His reaction was even more intense than Duomo's, but that was to be expected. Only an old fist master who had experienced the long decline of vitality could truly understand the implications of Soul Power!

"Take some time to think about it. We can talk more in detail at noon." Cassius wanted to return to his room to continue his healing.

"Alright." Mi An nodded, a bit dazed.

Two minutes later, Cassius was back in a guest room in the corner of the second floor. He looked at the shield mark on the back of his hand, which had been flickering earlier. However, just like in the ruins, the mark seemed to be blocked by something. That vague sense of threat was kept at bay and didn't have much of a real effect on him. He initially thought it was because of the ruins, but Cassius was confused again. Was it the shadow in the fog? The Rune of Wisdom? Or was it still because of the ruins? Did it not only block signals within the ruins but also cut off signals within a certain range?

He couldn't figure it out, no matter how much he thought about it.

Cassius temporarily put it out of his mind and glanced at the upper right corner. Since the Rune of Wisdom progress bar was already full, it was time to use it. He began immediately; Cassius had never been one to drag things out.

[Stone Armor Technique: Heavy Armor Major Culmination (Total Two Stages+)]

The plus sign behind the second stage looked very solid and very tempting. Cassius focused his attention on it. In an instant, the entire entry for the Stone Armor Technique began to blur and the dense light-red patterns formed runes.

"Increasing limit... Stone Armor Technique still has room for improvement... Essence of calamity sufficient... Enhancement beginning..." Cassius shuddered violently, suddenly feeling an intense heat in his chest. It was as if something was being continuously secreted, flowing from his chest toward his brain.

Stripping off his upper clothing, the coiled snake mark on his rock-white chest began rotating. Drop-like substances began to fill the two spaces in the infinity symbol, before gradually disappearing. Cassius guessed that it was the so-called Blood of the Spirit.

The searing, invisible Blood of the Spirit seeped into his body, passing through bones and organs, skimming over muscles and skin. Finally, it traveled up his neck, across his face, and reached its destination—his brain!

Buzz!

The moment the Blood of the Spirit touched his brain, Cassius's entire body jolted as if a bomb had gone off right next to his ears. Blood poured out from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.

Beads of sweat quickly formed on his forehead but they evaporated into a cloud of white steam in an instant. The steam followed the contours of his face, enveloping his entire head. Cassius's body trembled slightly, his thoughts racing at an unprecedented speed. He felt better than he ever had before. It was incredible.

I’m starting to understand everything!