Chapter 657 - Totem King, It's Time To Settle This!

An Ultimate Fist practitioner hides Qi within and sees nothing but the forms and the fist technique. For Cassius, the Ultimate Fist corresponded to the Cold Persona, which readily revealed the traits of the path. It was extreme self-forging. No matter how harsh the external changes, they couldn't affect the existence of the Ultimate Fist.

This was a realm, and likewise a way of carrying oneself down the path. Therefore, for practitioners of the Ultimate Fist path who wished to align their mental state with that realm and grasp the heart of the Ultimate Fist, the simplest and most straightforward method was ascetic cultivation!

Put simply, it was painful training. One had to remain for long periods in the most brutal, most dangerous places in the world where they would hardly be able to still their mind to cultivate. They had to train themselves until they were covered in scars and still never stop. They could not stop until they were unmoved by gain or loss.

They had to train in such dreadful environments, until the heart transformed into still water, even ignoring one's own suffering. That was the true meaning of Everlasting Penance. Compared with the cultivation of the Holy Fist and the Dominator Fist, the Ultimate Fist undoubtedly focused more on refining one's own spirit and flesh. Endless strength came from within, unrelated to others and the environment!

Cassius comprehended the information about Everlasting Penance. He felt it could be divided literally into two points: everlasting, and ascetic cultivation. Simply put, one would have to voluntarily go into those terrifying and dangerous environments to temper the body and mind. Most crucially, they had to avoid dying.

Only a living monk could become the holder of the Ultimate Fist's heart. Thinking of this, Cassius lowered his head and glanced at his robust body and powerful arms.

With this Golem body already at the level of an Ultimate Dark Form, how would it die?

"Everlasting and indestructible" described Ultimate Dark Forms, and the Golem likewise.

However, the ascetic part would be troublesome. What environment could adversely affect a Golem at the Ultimate Dark Form level? Magma? Deserts? Frozen depths? None seemed to work. The real world had nothing the Golem feared.

Then, only the World of Calamity remained, and Cassius immediately thought of some good places. The key lay in the origins of calamity. Some of these origins, together with harsh environments of the World of Calamity, formed extremely special terrains that were an extreme field.

For example, the Demon Lake where White Bird Holy Fist once slew the Moon God or even the Black Abyssal Sea which bore a special curse. There were also locations like the River of Sin and the Vale of Trees. The World of Calamity was a vast world of harsh environment and considerable danger; however, these places were the worst of the worst.

Even an Ultimate Dark Form, if it did not muster its strength and allowed the environment to harm it, would likely be tormented. If Cassius's Golem body was to complete Everlasting Penance, he had to go to such places.

Fortune and misfortune were two sides of the same coin. Though these places were extremely dangerous, the effect of Everlasting Penance would likely be the best there. After all, practitioners of the Ultimate Fist still in the extreme combat artist realm lacked the strength to reach those truly life-forbidden zones. The danger of the environments they tempered themselves in was countless tiers below places like the Demon Lake.

"I look forward to the day when the three fists become one..."

Cassius's eyes flickered as he turned to scan the hall. The Rune of Spirit at his chest glowed faintly warm and slowly started to turn. The vast essence of calamity brought by the Lord of Flooding Light was slowly being stored within. When the time was right, he could evolve the three core principles to their ultimate stage to unify his personas.

"The Miracle Garden indeed hides many secrets. What role did the ancient Ao Yin civilization play during the calamity invasion? Were they an ancient civilization born of this world, or something else..."

Having seen the Southern Dipper star maps and the statues of Ultimate Dark Forms, Cassius was starting to sense that the Ao Yin civilization was not ordinary. He was not of this world to begin with, but came to the Hongli Federation bearing his own time-travel gift.

Therefore, Cassius's thinking was broader. He felt perhaps the Ao Yin civilization, like the invading calamity, came from somewhere beyond this planet. Of course, with no concrete proof, he could not be sure. He pondered for a long time, then continued deeper into the Miracle Garden.

This movable, enormous complex formed its own system. The overall structure and layout was not far from the Ao Yin Ruins.

Corridors were filled with halls and chambers. Cassius could glean some useful information in these key structures. He advanced without hindrance, likely because the Gate Organization's ritual had affected it and the Miracle Garden had not yet recovered.

After passing several key features in a row, Cassius suddenly halted in front of a dimly lit, circular hollow hall. Dense star maps on the smooth, curved walls overlapped to form a vast starry network.

An inexplicable gray haze covered the wall's surface, shrouding the whole starry net. Only the stars' flickering light could pierce through the haze, like the last hope of twilight. Cassius quickly found the Southern Dipper star maps from earlier.

Cygnus, Giant Falcon, Star Serpent...

His gaze halted on a star map integrated into the net, the one he had seen on his first entry to the Miracle Garden. Two-thirds of its stars were unusually bright, in sharp contrast to the rest.

"What does this mean? Are these stars in a period of activity? Or..."

With a hiss, another star on that chart lit up! It gave the uncanny sense of a progress bar filling step by step.

His breath caught as he raised a hand to try touching it. However, his palm could not approach, blocked by the gray haze. He cycled through energies until the Southern Dipper Force manifested. Only then did his palm pass through to touch the newly lit star.

At once, a voice rang.

"Ao Yin Kalo, our will never dies!"

His eardrums shook, mind buzzed, and the Southern Dipper Force in his body boiled restlessly. He gathered himself, took a deep breath, and continued examining. However, no further anomalies appeared.

"Ao Yin Kalo... Is that the full name of the Ao Yin civilization?"

Cassius turned blankly, gazing at the starry web on all sides. He felt as though a voice within him was calling. He felt a nameless pull guiding him. Following his heart, he headed in a certain direction.

He passed corridor after corridor before he came before a great door. It was a massive and grand cathedral-like heavy marble doorway with a classic round arch. Mysterious runes climbed the frame like a snake. Cassius thought its shape somewhat resembled the Gate of Heaven, but only a little.

He shifted his gaze and was quickly drawn to the center of the door. There was a metal disc half the size of a person. Its outer ring bulged slightly while the recess held five conspicuous runes set to the four sides and center.

Cassius knew two of those runes very well.

A purple scaled tail-biting serpent formed a looping ∞. It was the Rune of Spirit, Ouroboros.

A platinum equilateral triangle with a vertical line dropping from the apex. The Rune of Life, also called the living rune.

"These are...the five cornerstone runes. The five cornerstones are said to lead to boundless greatness." Cassius’s eyes narrowed as he turned to the other three unfamiliar runes.

One was a lotus-petal spiral mark, like a flower bud.

One resembled a monster's skull, exuding ferocity.

The last one was the outline of two overlapping eyes with double pupils.

He paused, then tried to push the door open with the Golem's terrifying brute force, but the gate did not budge.

"So it means that this gate can only be opened with these five runes?" Cassius pondered, then brushed his palm across the disc's five runes. He suddenly felt a warm current surge from his body, lighting two of them.

The Rune of Spirit and Rune of Life lit up vividly. The other three remained black-and-white, showing no sign of life.

Cassius withdrew his hand, and a message from the metal disc flashed through his mind. As long as the five cornerstone runes were gathered, the gate would open, revealing the Miracle Garden's secret.

It concerned the entire story of calamity, the Southern Dipper, and the Ao Yin civilization. A secret that would drive even a Holy Fist of this world mad. A one of a kind secret.

"I very much look forward to it..." Cassius murmured, his expression returning to calm.

He already faintly sensed what the secret was, but a hazy sense was useless. Detailed information and concrete methods mattered most. Regardless, Cassius was already very interested in the Ao Yin civilization's five cornerstone runes. His power in the real world, the Golem Sect, was vigorously collecting information related to them. These treasures scattered across the lands would be found by him sooner or later.

Rumble...

The ground suddenly shook as a massive energy fluctuation began spreading through the Miracle Garden. A familiar repulsive force appeared on Cassius and gradually strengthened.

He narrowed his eyes and flew rapidly back toward the exit.

"The Miracle Garden has recovered and begun operating again?"

Along the way, Cassius swept past the edge of a special zone and sensed something like a seal. He glanced in and saw a skeleton spanning a vast space. Its gigantic bones stood between heaven and earth, silent like a dead mountain. Dense blue starlight was gathering around it again, filling the whole space.

"It’s not just the Lord of Flooding Light; there are other Ultimate Dark Forms imprisoned in the Miracle Garden! Judging by this skeleton, it should be an Ultimate Dark Form sealed from ancient times. Perhaps it was weaker than the Lord of Flooding Light, or perhaps it was confined until its essence was entirely worn away..."

Cassius's thoughts raced.

"I don't know whether there are any Ultimate Dark Forms in the Miracle Garden like the Lord of Flooding Light, on the verge of death but not fully fallen. If I can encounter one, it would be no less than a self-serve banquet."

He withdrew his gaze and sped on. In the newly leveled basin, the Miracle Garden was starting to tremble violently. A vague yet mysterious potent energy seeped out and became blue mist, completely wrapping the structure.

Then, the stalled giant machine restarted. With a loud hum, the Miracle Garden began to quickly sink into the earth. In just two or three breaths, the structure which was as large as half a mountain had sunk down into the ground.

Just as the outline of the highest corner was about to vanish, a figure burst up from the ground. Mud fell like rain as a pair of black boots touched down. Cassius instantly appeared on the nearest mountaintop. A breeze played with the hem of his coat as he watched the earth move.

A behemoth moved rapidly beneath the ground, boring through soil and rock as easily as a hot knife through butter. Two minutes later, the Miracle Garden burst through a gap and left the Lotak mining area like a swiftly sailing ship. It fled toward some corner of the Northern Reef Continent.

With the Miracle Garden's escape, the Gate Organization's plans utterly collapsed. After this battle, the Gate Organization's power would sharply wane not just in the Hongli Federation but worldwide.

The Gate Organization's deputy leader, Holy Fist Skyfall, had been swatted to death by the Golem. Among the Six General Kings, several were either unluckily one-shotted by Cassius's finger or accidentally crushed by the stumbling Lord of Flooding Light.

If even half their remaining force survived, that would be fortunate.

On July 12, the battle involving the world's three largest supernatural groups, the Gate Organization, the Black Ops Agency, and the Steel Knights, drew to a close.

Insider news of the battle spread like wildfire across the globe. The trio's gathering was enough to attract attention, but the most shocking piece of news was that an Ultimate Dark Form and a Holy Fist had appeared in the world! Furthermore, the two had even fought an earth-shaking duel!

On the nearby western front, nearly a million soldiers of the Hongli Federation and the three western nations saw a terrifying, colossal outline on the distant horizon that night. Countless fell weeping to their knees as they prayed to their god.

But while the entire supernatural world was shaken, the protagonist of that night's legend had already vanished from the world. Cassius, after leaving the Miracle Garden, hurried to the World of Calamity, heading toward the location in his memory.

"Totem King Kassares, it's time to settle this once and for all..."