Chapter 592 - Gate of Heaven, Holy Seal

A crimson-robed phantom stood between two sunken craters on Saint Lun Mountain. Its right hand was raised, resting upon the weapon that held its body upright, the tip driven into the earth. Web-like cracks spread densely outward for several kilometers. Scarlet light gushed forth from within those cracks like a spring.

Hummm...

A ripple of despair slowly passed through the air. The deep frequency resembled the death throes of the dying. It begged for life in every way, yet all was futile as salvation lay beyond reach.

Crack...

The Seranar King's crimson robe parted, revealing a giant eyeball where a body should have been. Its pupil bulged, carrying a sense of supreme power. A dreadful aura circulated, bringing a sense of frightening oppression.

Suddenly, that aura and pressure vanished as a crack slowly crept across the eye. It widened and widened, beyond any hope of repair.

"No!!!" The Seranar King's final roar soared into the clouds and shook the sky.

Ding!

The enormous eye shattered as if it was a fragile gemstone smashed into pieces on a rock. At the same time, the hem of the phantom's crimson cloak, once flowing with innumerable high-frequency eyes, began to tremble violently. Rows of red eyes started to slowly close from the top, as if sinking into eternal slumber.

A chain reaction ensued, and the closing accelerated ever faster. In seven or eight breaths, the shut eyes spread like falling dominoes in every direction, robbing every Evil Eye across the land of its will.

The battle was finally over...

On the battlefield, Cassius's clothes were in tatters and his whole body was stained with blood. Even the tips of his bright golden hair were weighed down by dark crimson. He was badly wounded. That single slash from the Seranar King had been vicious indeed.

Thirty eyes, Eyes of Black Inscription, Eyes of Light, and Blood-Pupil Eyes, had stacked and resonated with one another. This was unquestionably a last-ditch trump move for an Ultimate Dark Form.

Yet Cassius had borne it head-on. Not being cleaved in two on the spot spoke to his own unyielding toughness. After that, he had fought the Seranar King for a full day. Not only did his wounds deepen, but the power and effects of the three eyes had invaded his body, worsening his condition. At the moment, his face was corpse-pale and his aura dim.

Yet Cassius's eyes burned hotter than ever, like a ravenous wolf at night whose eyes glowed even in the dark. They stayed locked on the distant, motionless Seranar King, while the Golem heart within his body pounded faster. One could see that powerful heart hammering through the giant scythe-torn wound as if urging Cassius onward.

Beside him, a black-blue figure stepped across ice, causing the temperature to plummet. A thin frost coated the ground. Deep Ice Ultimate Fist looked at Cassius; his always-calm gaze wavered slightly.

"Your wounds... are severe..."

He had not expected this newly risen Dominator Fist to be so ruthless to others and to himself alike. He seemed half-mad, never stopping until his goal was met. Cassius's fierce desire for the Seranar King's defeat made him hold on to the foe at any cost, even while grievously hurt.

Such a man was best kept as a friend and never as an enemy.

Cassius pulled a grim smile. "Indeed, his scythe was rather vicious. When any Ultimate Dark Form fights to the death, even if we have the upper hand, we must treat it with utmost caution, or end up like this..."

He raised his right hand and touched the wound that had nearly cut through his whole body. Luckily, Cassius was ruthless when he had a plan, and not mindlessly vicious to himself. A brief grave injury mattered little if he would soon recover.

Tap-tap-tap-tap...

Deep Ice Ultimate Fist watched Cassius walk toward the Seranar King's corpse, which had turned into a bloody lake full of eyeballs. Without hesitation, he activated his Golem Covert Martial Arts at full power. Jets of black Qi burst from his pores, instantly forming a towering giant behind him. Its outline rolled like fire and waves, sinister with demonic Qi.

The giant slowly stretched out a great hand. With a squelch, it plunged deep into the bloody lake.

Hummm...

The Golem's life magnetic field blasted forth, spreading rapidly in all directions. Ripples appeared across the lake.

Boom!

Just like when it devoured Pale Origin, the dead Ultimate Dark Form's residual life essence began to resist. But this time, Cassius didn't need to let the Golem Covert Martial Arts collide a thousand times for an opening. He simply crushed it with his Dominator Fist aura!

The Seranar King's life magnetic field shattered with a

bang

. The Golem's life magnetic field swept in like a mouth widening ever larger, hungrily gulping down those fragments.

Fwoosh...

He heard the rush of water in his ears as vast life vibration energy poured into him. Warmth drilled into his pores, making every cell cheer with joy. The Golem phantom drank like a whale, without pausing for a moment. As a Dominator Fist powerhouse, Cassius naturally would not overfeed like last time.

Soon the Ultimate Dark Form life vibration energy of the Seranar King was plundered in its entirety. The scarlet lake on the ground lost all its power, becoming ordinary stinking blood that held rotting eyes.

Cassius slowly clenched his fist. "Four different Ultimate Dark Form powers, fourth evolution..."

Moon God, True Progenitor of Blood, Pale Origin, Seranar King. As for the Totem King, the totems it shed still lacked that primal magnetic ripple for his Golem Covert Martial Arts to absorb. Thus, they had brought no essential evolution to the Golem technique.

Cassius could feel another set of Ultimate Dark Form traits copied into his Golem Covert Martial Arts. The puzzle of raising his body to the level of an Ultimate Dark Form likely lacked but one final piece.

One more devoured Ultimate Dark Form for one more evolution. Then he could stand on par with the fifth-ranked Dark Ultimate Form! Furthermore, it would be a mutated, evolved Golem. Cassius would then possess a body and traits of an Ultimate Dark Form, while retaining the dreadful might of a Dominator Fist.

With both physique and ever-growing Qi, what Ultimate Dark Form could outlast him?

Could any still slay him? Impossible!

For Cassius, turning flesh into a Golem meant not merely more power but a terrifying leap in survivability.

Immortal, indestructible, innately undefeatable... Moreover, the very Southern Dipper lineage that countered immortality belonged to Cassius himself!

The other three wielders were his seniors, or rather half his mentors. Would one's own people counter themself? That would be ridiculous.

Once Cassius's body reached the level of an Ultimate Dark Form, then he would be extremely difficult to kill, even if he ever faced some other supremely fierce Ultimate Dark Form. It would be like two infinitely healing meat-tank juggernauts—nothing but a battle of attrition.

Unless the gulf were truly enormous, solo kills would practically never happen.

***

Buzz!!!

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Suddenly a faint distant resonance came from the sky. Cassius and Deep Ice Ultimate Fist jerked their heads up, staring northward across the Empire. The calamity wave had suddenly skyrocketed!

"The Gate Organization! Xiadu!"

Cassius instantly realized that Florence was likely the final battlefield.

"The Gate Organization has schemed for a millennium, laying plans generation after generation. They would never settle for opening merely a few weak spots between the surface world and the World of Calamity when the tide arrived. Wiping out the Dark Hunter Organization? Just a convenient by-product. Crippling the Covert Martial Arts world and letting martial arts wither? Possible, but unlikely..."

"Their true goal must be to open the Gate! To smash the Gate of Heaven, lift part of the seal, and even release Xiadu's main body! The Gate Fragments must serve that purpose..." He muttered, a dangerous light flashing in his eyes.

If everything matched his guess, then in the surface world's original timeline, Xiadu had, near the Hongli Empire's last days, smashed one or two of the three Gates and released part of his body!

He wished to regain his power and return to that dreadful conceptual form. Cassius spun and shot off as a black meteor toward Florence in the Hongli Empire. "Let's go!"

The taciturn Deep Ice Ultimate Fist likewise leaped into the air, wordlessly following as his gaze fixed far to the north.

While rushing, Cassius glanced to the upper-right of his vision.

[Golem Covert Martial Arts: Mental Unification 11% (Final Stage)]

There was nothing to hesitate over. He used up all his life vibration energy. He had to raise his state to its peak before the great battle.

A dragon-like stream of life vibration energy roared forth. It flooded Cassius like a surging waterfall, and the Dominator Fist Qi within him swelled outward at once. It dyed the clouds for dozens of miles around.

Crack...

His bones grated and muscles bulged with power. Cassius's aura, already at the Holy Fist realm, advanced several more steps. Soon his terrifying wounds healed entirely to form skin smooth as before. His aura grew deep and vast, and his Qi heavy and weighty.

[Golem Covert Martial Arts: Mental Unification 11.0% (Final Stage)] → 19.2%

An 8.2% progress... Just as expected, neither much nor little. After all, he was in the Dominator Fist realm, and his Qi was as vast as the sea. Even absorbing an Ultimate Dark Form's life vibration energy could not grant instant ascension.

Ultimate Dark Forms like Pale Origin, which, even after several halvings, still gave nearly ten percent progress, were clearly rare. That one had hoped to rank in the top ten!

An ordinary Ultimate Dark Form like the Seranar King could not compare. Moreover, the Mental Unification stage grew harder the further it progressed; the Seranar King's boost was already generous.

"

Whew...

" Cassius let out a heavy breath, reeling in all his power.

His eyes shone like torches, and his spirit and Qi stood at its peak. His gaze shot northward, as if piercing a thousand miles.

"Xiadu, I'm coming!"

***

Meanwhile, near Florence, the buffer zone between the two worlds had vanished completely.

Swaa...

Calamity black mud surged like an extremely violent landslide. Dark creatures standing atop the mud let out utterly wicked roars. They displayed their fiercest, most terrifying, most brutal sides—some charging, some flying, some writhing. Within mere seconds, they formed a dark, crushing tide of beasts that lunged at every human.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

At the very front, a squad of burly men in black combat suits showed no fear, no dread, and no intention to retreat. They clenched fists the size of cooking pots, muscles taut like steel armor. Golem totems lit up in unison, and the men in black assumed powerful combat stances.

Bam!

They blasted forth, charging the dark creatures!

Since the Golem Sect had made a move, the Covert Martial Arts community naturally would not stand idle. Masters and elders of various sects unleashed their fierce signature moves and shot ahead with blazing eyes! Elite disciples also joined up in pairs and trios behind them.

At the same time, the Dark Hunter Organization and Black Rain Manor joined the fray on both flanks. The Chief Mechanist led the charge, with all the Shadow Hunters at his back.

Even non-combat figures like the chief artisan, the sacred spring high priest, and the butler's helper followed. The royal family and council likewise fought side by side.

The Hellsings, half controlled by Black Rain Manor, had expanded rapidly in two years. The number of top-tier knight-level Hellsings had nearly doubled! They brandished sharp relic arms, wore cloaks or armor, and used diverse styles of combat skills. All of them marched behind the ever-mightier Ripple Master Monchi and Tyrant Black Dragon.

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Never retreat, nor is there a need to! Every transcendental power of the Honli Empire united—how exhilarating! Take down these dark creatures, take them down!"

At the core of the black-mud flood, over a lake now turned into a swamp, three Arcane Stone Tablets were floating around an ancient altar. They were spinning at high speed with their own peculiar frequency. Clearly this had been going on for quite some time, and it was now time to harvest the fruits.

"Gate of Heaven, open!"

A crystal box was smashed upon the altar, spilling glowing Gate fragments. The Gate fragments dissolved like sugar in water upon contact with air. Yet the whole altar was wrapped in a pillar of energy, preventing the fragments from escaping.

The once-dim column suddenly blazed bright and hot. A terrifying magma pillar shot into the heavens like a volcanic eruption!

Boom!

The sky trembled and a white stone archway slowly emerged. It seemed to carry a sacred hymn that drifted through the clouds. A low chant sounded in every ear.