Chapter 530 - Demonic Well of Endless Calamity

Dong!

The black Qi blazing on the Golem burned ever more fiercely. Qi as viscous as lava oozed out between the seams of its heavy bone armor, scattering through the air and turning into sparks.

Cassius was completely locked onto Xiadu as he threw a punch with terrifying power. Anyone below the realm of Holy Fist couldn't possibly hope to evade it, not even Xiadu’s avatar!

Boom!!!

Sharp and unyielding cold metal covered every joint and knuckle of the Golem's iron fist as it blasted through the air, tearing open an enormous vacuum tunnel in an instant. Gold-red sparks scattered through the air as it fell like a falling meteor, crashing ruthlessly toward Xiadu.

Wham!

The mountain shook as the shockwave swept everything aside. The towering Golem, tens of metres tall, stood atop the peak, its legs planted into the ground like gnarled tree trunks while its torso stretched heedlessly toward the sky. It bent slightly forward, holding the posture of a punch.

There was a smoking crater beneath its fist. Dense cracks radiated outward, covering almost two-thirds of the summit. It looked as though it would collapse any second.

Thirty meters deep, at the rocky bottom of that pit, searing heat scorched the walls until they nearly turned into lava. A black figure was embedded wholly in the ground, clearly driven into the earth by the Golem's terrifying might.

Kakaka...

A fracturing sound echoed in the pit as the rubble parted. Xiadu walked out again, standing at the bottom of the hole. He seemed utterly unhurt, and his black cloak was unmarred.

His aura remained seamless and whole, radiating an unshakable sense of permanence.

At the bottom of the pit, Xiadu slowly raised his head, gazing toward the sky. Only a third of the sunlight reached him; the rest was blocked by that gigantic creature's head and torso.

Scarlet eyes blazed beneath the visor. Strange locks of hair cascaded from the back of its head like a knight's cape.

Xiadu and the Golem met eyes for barely half a second before—

boom!

A massive fist slammed down like a titanic pile driver into the pit. The air inside was instantly compressed, then vented through openings as white jets.

The temperature soared to nearly a hundred degrees.

Dong!

The mountaintop quaked again, and yet more cracks spread. It covered half the mountain like a giant spider web. Inside, the walls melted into lava. Xiadu was hammered once more into the hard earth, wedged tight like an iron spike.

"Power! This is precisely my strength!"

Practicing three top-tier Covert Martial Arts granted Cassius vast Qi. However, there were warriors like Holy Fist Demon Phoenix among extreme combat artists who had pushed their Qi to the ultimate limit.

Those who wielded force at the extreme combat artist realm were lethal in their own right. Others, though lacking force, possessed explosive killing moves of their own. At most, they might just barely fall short of those using force.

However, physiques at the extreme combat artist realm were another matter. They left an absolute gulf. So far, not a single extreme combat artist could even approach Cassius's physique.

He had gone so far down the path of physique that he was beyond their sight. They could not even glimpse it, let alone hope to chase it.

So Cassius chose to bring down the purest form of violence down upon Xiadu. He attacked the other's weakness with his own strength.

Of course, that was provided Xiadu's avatar truly had a weak body.

𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"Take another punch from me!!!"

Before Xiadu could burst from the rock, the Golem inhaled sharply. Its broad chest swelled like an opening umbrella. Streams of air turned into white vortices that were sucked into the grille-like jaws of its serpent-like visor.

Energy flared in an instant, flooding like a bursting torrent from every cell, every organ, and every inch of muscle. Cassius smashed his fist down, his pitch-black armored right arm firing downward like a rocket.

Its bone-armor cracked and the spurting blood burned in flames. Fist, wrist, elbow; everything suffered from the impact.

Boom boom boom boom boom!

The Golem's massive body was hauled along by its right fist, ramming hard into the ground and plowing into the pit.

The third punch struck Xiadu!

Meteoric explosions followed, as though chained explosives were detonating inside the mountain. Half the peak collapsed entirely, dense rubble scattering across the sky and forest. Some pieces were the size of a head, while others were larger than a house.

The Golem's giant fist pinned Xiadu down, spewing explosive force. Cassius had exerted so much that the tremendous recoil nearly shattered his entire right arm, riddling the outer armor and muscles with cracks. Even his sturdy bones broke into three segments.

"Cough, cough... cough, cough..."

In mid-air, a black-red figure glided back while coughing blood. He smashed aside the falling rocks with his right fist and as he dragged Whale King Arlington along with his left.

Holy Fist Demon Phoenix turned in dread, staring at the mountain where a black giant shadow loomed like a devil descending. For the first time in his life, he felt profound concern for Xiadu, the revered leader within their organization.

Xiadu, surely he would not...

Cassius's true body had merged with the Golem's. He punched again, his fist pressed against Xiadu's chest.

Kakaka... kakaka...

Blood streamed from Cassius's right arm as his bones snapped inch by inch.

Drip, drip.

Blood pooled at his elbow and dripped. He stared at Xiadu with savage eyes. His injuries stirred no weakness, only greater ferocity.

Ding...

A faint crack sounded, but this time, it was from Xiadu. Though the roar of falling rubble filled his ears, Cassius still caught that crack. It came from where his right fist was pressed against Xiadu's chest, at the fractured knuckle of his middle finger.

Minuscule marks appeared on Xiadu's seemingly unreal skin, almost invisible to the naked eye. The seamless surface had been broken; the flawless body gained a fissure!

The deepest malice, sealed within, began to stir.

Hiss... hiss... hiss...

Air escaped Xiadu's chest. Something formless, intangible and eternal was descending upon the surface world once again after centuries.

Boom!!!

Explosions! Endless explosions expanding limitlessly!

Though only a wisp had leaked, it swelled instantly to a vast, towering presence. It was as if antimatter had touched the material world, bringing terrifying upheaval in the blink of an eye.

Cassius was blasted away, along with the towering Golem behind him and the shattered mountain. Half the collapsed peak was flung skyward.

Shrouded in layers of dense Qi, Cassius snapped his gaze around. He saw the surroundings painted in a starry blue and black backdrop on every side. The surging torrent of Qi blasted the clouds apart. Cassius shot up a hundred metres and forced himself to stand tall, hawk-sharp eyes fixed on Xiadu.

His Golem Covert Martial Arts had already told him what this seemingly endless eruption was.

Calamity, disaster and doom... The epitome of negativity!

And Xiadu? His form looked human, yet if one looked past that, he seemed more like a well of darkness.

A sinful demonic well, gushing endless calamity! Who had sealed such a demonic well inside a human body?!

Cassius began to understand. The shell of a Southern Dipper heir, a never-before-heard Southern Cross Covert Martial Arts with seventy-seven acupoints...

If such a Southern Dipper master truly existed, he had refined his fist technique to an unprecedented height. The Dominator Fist elder of the Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist whom Cassius had met only possessed sixty-six acupoints.

What level, then, was this body? Southern Dipper Force, Stage Eight!!! The pinnacle of Holy Fist or even beyond!?

If Cassius guessed right... If he supposed that this Southern Dipper Holy Fist had not betrayed humanity, then some things became clear. A body at the pinnacle of Holy Fist or higher had been used as a seal to eternally suppress a demonic well!

Was that it?!

Cassius stared hard at Xiadu. On the mountain, Xiadu spread his arms, his chest seeming to open a gate to hell. A howl like ten million wraiths surged forth, and unimaginable, uncountable calamity descended.

Ding!

Suddenly, a pale golden acupoint lit up. It was the Southern Cross's central overlapping acupoint.

Ding-ding-ding-ding!

Seventy-seven acupoints appeared like brilliant stars, blazing to form a vast cross. That cross resembled a sword of judgment piercing through a devil's skull, forging a fearsome seal.

That was not all.

Screech!

A violent raptor’s screech that Cassius knew all too well rang out as sixty-six scarlet acupoints flashed into being, instantly forming a three-dimensional vulture pattern. The pattern exuded the Dominator Fist elder's overpowering aura of the Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist.

Hiss...

Sixty-six violet stars appeared, forming a winding purple python. It was cold and supreme, like ice that was frozen for ten millennia. The Will of the Ultimate Fist ran through it, refining all existence into a single, absolute point.

Whoosh!

Sixty-six bright white stars flickered, composing the shape of a gliding white bird. Elegant, composed, and majestic, it rested squarely at the centre.

A total of two hundred seventy-five acupoints became thick chains linking heaven and earth, binding Xiadu tight. The Giant Falcon constellation, the Star Python constellation, the Cygnus constellation and the Southern Cross constellation emerged overhead. Their distant starlight landed on Xiadu, locking him completely.

It was as if four colossal searchlights overlapped, leaving him nowhere to flee. He was laid bare beneath the sun, isolated from the surrounding darkness. No part of his being could split off to escape the cage!

Vooom... vooom... vooom...

The sky shuddered thrice, and a vast will descended. Cassius jerked his head up; three enormous phantom gates hung in mid-air, their frames carved with religious-style patterns of flora, fauna and landscape.

He had seen one of those gates before. It was the Gate of Soul that appeared during the Soul fragment mutation. The Threefold Gate: physique, Qi, soul. They appeared and all aimed at Xiadu.

Kakaka...

The first gate opened! It revealed an endless ocean of blood Qi, crimson billows rolling layer on layer toward infinity. The Gate of Physique unleashed a terrifying suction, devouring a third of the calamity surging from Xiadu's body. The calamity was sucked in like a long river, parting the infinite waves of blood Qi and reaching the riverbed.

At the centre of that riverbed, a severed limb jerked violently. In the blink of an eye, it became a giant arm covered with crystalline asphalt-like scales, each crevice like a dark well that harbored disaster, misfortune and death.

Boom!

The black giant hand shot skyward, burst through the blood sea and turned into a fearsome meteor as it raced toward the open Gate of Physique. Yet just as its fingers were about to grasp the frame, the Gate of Physique slammed shut with a thunderous

bang

.

Muffled thunder rolled through the whole surface world across an infinite distance. It seemed to come from beneath the earth, yet also from the cloud-vault above. Indeed, every inch of space trembled.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Clack! Clack!

The other two gates opened as well. Some black body parts were likewise sealed at the bottom of the seas of Qi and soul. They swallowed almost all the calamity spewing from Xiadu's body and then slammed shut.

"Xiadu... Gates?!"

Countless thoughts flashed through Cassius's mind, his pupils flickering.

Hiss!!!

Suddenly, a dreadful suction enveloped him from below. Xiadu, transformed into a demonic well, was like a flowing tide!

Whoosh!!!

Cassius's body flew; even the powerful Qi he unleashed as an extreme combat artist only held out for a moment. The next second, he plummeted straight into the demonic well.

Plop, thud!

Profound and endless darkness was everywhere. Time seemed meaningless within that cold silence. Cassius had no idea whether an instant had passed, or days, or months.

Where is this...

Shua!

The surroundings brightened at once as though something sensed Cassius's doubt, revealing a bizarre, kaleidoscopic display. It was as if a screen were simultaneously splitting to play several scenes.

Looking forward, he saw an origin of calamity. He saw mountains layered with black asphalt, teeming with dark creatures.

At the centre, the Totem King towered, confronting the Red Falcon Fist elder!

To the left lay a volcano crater of inconceivable size. It was an extinct volcano whose vast hollow interior was now occupied by a river of blood. Each swirling vortex faintly revealed a bat-like fanged face.

Meanwhile, a purple giant python as large as that blood river coiled and writhed. Terrifying sonic waves shrouded the crater, forging a deadly cage.

To the right, a huge white bird that covered the sky glided over the endless ocean at the World of Calamity's edge.

It flew a dizzying number of kilometres with every wing-beat. Its speed grew ever faster, as though pursuing something. Colossal creatures swimming below formed dreadful troughs within the black sea. The drop from crest to trough spanned a full kilometre!

Blood Vulture Dominator Fist! Sonic Snake Ultimate Fist! White Bird Holy Fist!