Chapter 598 - End Of The Fifth Time-Travel

Crack...

Cassius's powerful yet cracked right arm resembled a charred black branch scorched by intense flames, with fragments constantly flaking off and drifting away. After two seconds, it finally crumbled into scattered pieces. Even the sinister weapon clutched in the palm dissolved into tiny streaks of light.

A rough, blood-soaked hand slowly opened, letting its disintegrating cells slip through its fingers before curling back into a fist.

After personally wielding the Thorn Sonic Death Armament, Cassius suddenly realized that this evil weapon was still a manifestation of Southern Dipper Force. It could become a crucifixion sword, a beheading blade, a long halberd, or even a gauntlet around his fist!

It changed endlessly to suit the style of any Covert Martial Arts Practitioner. Were Cassius allowed to choose again, he would prefer the Thorn Sonic Death Armament to take the form of gauntlets.

Cassius did not crave external arms. He favored his own limbs. The strength, agility, and innate control of his limbs were trustworthy even on the brink of life and death!

Sometimes "I" mattered above all. Only when "I" am powerful does true mastery exist!

"Next time I seize the Thorn Sonic Death Armament, I'll shape it into gauntlets. It will depend on me, not I on it..." Cassius muttered as his body snapped and popped. His body was clearly failing and about to disintegrate.

Rents split open along his back as jagged ivory bones jutted outward as though he was a creature from hell.

Rumble...

In the sky, crashes kept echoing from the Gate of Heaven. Shockwaves fanned out in frenzied rings like a tsunami. The wind they raised could uproot towering trees and flip massive boulders. A nearby hill was unlucky enough to crumble completely beneath the terrifying vibrations.

A roar of tens of thousands of overlapping voices reverberated across the heavens. "No! No! No! Return! Return!"

At that moment, Xiadu had clearly gone mad. He had separated from his true body and now stood before the Gate of Heaven. He gripped the crack with both arms as he stared through the golden light into the doorway.

His face showed incredulity, anger, frustration, and disbelief.

"How? How could this be!"

The one-sixth of his body that had fallen back into the Origin Sea fought to rise again, straining upward with all its might. Yet the boundless currents shackled it, gripping every scale of that body. Below, a dreadful whirlpool exerted lethal suction, trying to drag it back to the seabed. The remainder of his body seemed powerless to break free.

Furthermore, the Gate of Heaven itself had just recovered. The peak of the calamity tide had passed! The door began to close bit by bit. No matter how fiercely Xiadu's power surged, nor how the one-sixth portion fought, they could not thwart the gate's will! The scene before him clearly meant Xiadu's plan had failed!

Though it had only half failed, it was in all ways a total defeat. If the Gate of Heaven shut, Xiadu would have to enact the same plan again. The Gate Fragments would collapse and scatter across the world, and would need to be collected again.

Besides, who could know when the next calamity tide would arise. There were too many uncertainties and variables. For Xiadu, half success was no different than failure.

"Heheheh... hahahahaha..."

Xiadu burst into laughter. Not with joy or satisfaction, but with boundless rage.

Suspended tens of thousands of metres high, he slowly turned to look down at Cassius. A single-armed, battered figure stood in the cracked abyss below.

"Cassius, you deserve to die!!!"

Thousands of voices overlapped, like a solemn verdict in a hall of judgment. Cassius felt as if a thousand hands pointed at him, as dreadful pressure descended on him.

A massive arm sheathed in tar-like eerie scales hovered at Xiadu’s right shoulder, aimed squarely at Cassius. Within each gap between scales yawned what seemed like a demonic well.

Unparalleled malice, calamity, and evil were locked on Cassius. At first glance, it looked like an enormous malformed arm sprouting from Xiadu's small body. It left an absurd and terrifying impression all at once.

Waves of black mist spread outward, apparently rewriting the rules of reality so its power could fully manifest. However, within the pit, not a trace of fear appeared on Cassius's face. A reckless smile crossed that handsome, cracked, near-shattered visage, tinged with scorn.

"Do you think it ends here? That cleaving your body with that weapon finishes everything?" His grin warped into a snarl. Wrinkles creased his eyes and brow as blood trickled from his mouth. "The Thorn Sonic Death Armament is forged by the resonance of three Southern Dipper Forces. It is the ultimate expression of power. Yet this evil weapon is not equivalent to uniting the Southern Dipper Three Fists, nor is it the full combat form that the complete Southern Dipper Covert Martial Inheritance should possess..."

Cassius suddenly raised his sole remaining right hand, fingers splaying toward the sky. He clenched hard, as though seizing all power into his palm!

"Fists! Only fists!"

At that instant, every Golem Sect disciple fighting madly in Florence shuddered, sensing something profound. They smashed the dark creatures before them with their fists and turned toward Cassius's direction.

"Golem... Sect Master..."

Simultaneously, across the Hongli Empire and the whole world, everyone who had practiced the Golem Heart Codex and housed a Golem Seed in the Dantian stopped whatever they were doing and turned to the sky.

Their fists clenched unconsciously. Their hearts surged and spirits soared—something was calling them! It felt like a solemn proclamation descending from the clouds, yet also like a whisper from the depths of their own souls. That deep voice roared almost like a bellow.

"Humanity! Humanity! Humanity! Golem Heart Codex! Golem Heart Codex!" In that instant, the eyes of every Covert Martial Arts Practitioner who heard the call turned jet-black.

As though controlled by the same will, they muttered the words repeatedly. In every corner of the surface world, humans seemed to shout to the heavens.

In Florence, within the black mud zone, Cassius's body was shrouded by the Golem phantom, which grew taller and larger. Roaring black Qi blazed around like a battle cloak. Human silhouettes appeared and vanished one after another on that whipping cloak.

There were men and women, old and young, all Covert Martial Arts Practitioners without exception. When their images faded, they left condensed Golem Seeds that fell into the burning Qi and fed the flames.

In less than half a breath, the Golem phantom had swollen beyond ten thousand metres, sporting a mighty frame and grim, heavy armor. Crimson light coursing through the armor's seams told of raving will.

This was the Golem Covert Martial Arts' ultimate activation, likely achievable only once per time-travel. It was the fruits earned over two or three years of the Golem Sect and the entire Covert Martial Art community.

Of course, it did not mean those people lost their strength. The Golem Seed practitioners retained their strength; only the seeds belonging to Cassius had been reclaimed!

Crack...

The ten-thousand-meter-tall black Golem phantom’s faceplate snapped open, revealing Cassius's enormous face.

"The evil weapon is merely the ultimate activation of Southern Dipper Force! But the fusion of three fist techniques is the merging of three paths in the Holy Fist realm. It melds every Will, every Secret Technique, every Qi, crushing them all into one! Including the Red Falcon Fist, Waterbird Fist, and Sonic Snake Fist..."

At the moment, if Cassius had not burned every Golem Seed to drive the Golem Covert Martial Arts to its limit and increase his bodily strength infinitely, he would not even qualify to merge the three fist techniques, let alone fuse their paths.

The Golem's thick arms opened like a cross. A terrible scraping of armor echoed as they moved to its chest, palms pressed together. "Xiadu! I prepared this especially for you... Savor it well... Star Resonance, Southern Dipper Unrivaled!"

Boundless scarlet, white, and violet light erupted violently, sweeping everything like a tsunami and utterly reshaping the terrain.

Vrrmmm!!!

Standing before the Gate of Heaven, Xiadu's true body shook thunderously. The breath of endless calamity had finally completely tainted the rules of reality around it. Thus its dreadful might could be used and unleashed without restraint.

Xiadu suddenly lifted both arms and pressed down hard. "Calamity, descend!"

At the same instant, the asphalt-scaled giant arm of his true body slowly descended. The pitch-dark canopy of the Lightless Night was dragged down, plunging toward the earth. It felt as if the entire sky pressed down together! It felt like a force of nature.

Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!

Five fingers pressed together, completely covering the black night sky.

"In endless calamity, none can be spared! Die here, die here, plunge into the eternal well of sin!" The beguiling demonic voice echoed in every corner of the surface world.

Scarlet, white, and violet flashed over Cassius's face, and three overlapping voices of differing emotions roared at once. "Shut your damned mouth!!!"

The red visage brimmed with slaughter and dominance, the white with vast grandeur, the violet with frigid severity. Dominator Fist, Holy Fist, and Ultimate Fist united in that instant!

Three personas merged sharply upon Cassius's face!

"Three Fists as One, King of Qi!!!"

He jerked his head up, staring at the boundless giant palm overhead that spanned the entire night sky like the world itself pressing down.

"Kill kill kill kill kill kill kill!"

The phantoms of Blood Vulture, White Bird, and Sonic Snake surged into Cassius's arm, and his fist, drawing upon Qi, and blasted upward!

For an instant, it seemed three phantoms appeared behind him. One stood holy and aloof, one swept through all, and the last one waited icily. Their eyes were fixed on Cassius and his sky-piercing arm, a faint smile touching their faces.

Hum! Hum! Hum!

The three elder phantoms plunged into Cassius's body. At the same time, Xiadu roared skyward and swung his fist.

"Star Resonance, Southern Dipper Unrivaled! Three Fists as One, King of Qi!"

Boom!!!!!

An infinite wave of horror spread outward from the clash of Cassius's fist and Xiadu's palm, sweeping through the surroundings. Every Covert Martial Arts Practitioner and dark creature, even Deep Ice Ultimate Fist and the Weeping Demon, saw only a white flash.

The white light engulfed everything and forcibly tore the Lightless Night apart! The calamity tide, already waning, also seemed affected as it fluctuated violently. It too began to recede at an exponential rate!

People everywhere on the surface world saw the field of Southern Dipper constellations overhead. The one hundred ninety-eight resplendent stars shone brightly! When the stars resonated, the Southern Dipper lineage stood peerless in the world!!!

The crater in Florence looked like it had been struck by a meteor but it was there that a battered figure raised an arm toward the heavens. With an untamable Will and an unyielding fist, he stood proudly like a statue.

On the passage's far side, White Bird Holy Fist’s aged gaze landed upon that figure in the crater. He voiced heartfelt admiration and respect.

"A man of true strength!"

Cassius was no longer a junior of the Southern Dipper lineage. On the contrary, he was a pioneer and a path-breaker. The road Cassius trod had surpassed the three Southern Dipper Holy Fists, striding toward the true ultimate in fist technique!

"Cassius, you did it!" White Bird Holy Fist murmured. He looked above Cassius to the giant scaled hand that seemed to press the whole night sky down.

The five mountain-sized fingers broke off, slammed into the earth, and blasted five deep pits. The scales of the giant arm crumbled, a crack running through it from top to bottom.

Psssh...

Boundless black mist gushed from the crack and scales, as though power was draining away quickly. The three sacred gates appeared of their own accord and fired thick illusory chains toward the giant arm.

Clatter, rumble, wooo...

The enormous arm thrashed wildly, as Xiadu's insane human face seemed to flicker on its surface.

But it was futile. Platinum chains coiled densely around the limb and hauled it toward an unknown place. No one knew what would happen in the end. Yet it was certain that Xiadu had paid a grievous price!

Meanwhile, on the ground at the center of Xiadu's five-finger imprint, an unmoving figure slowly turned its head toward White Bird Holy Fist on the other side of the passage, lips moving as if to speak.

Swish.

Cassius's shattered form finally crumbled apart. It was swept by fierce winds and was scattered across the land.

On the other side of the inter-world passage, White Bird Holy Fist finally heard the last Will Cassius left behind.

"A man of true strength—I return these words unchanged to you! White Bird Holy Fist, you were the one who truly achieved it in the original timeline! A waterbird that burns everything and beats its wings in flight will not fear the so-called source of endless calamity... Farewell, White Bird. This may be the last time we meet."

"Farewell..."