Chapter 680 - By My Strength Alone, I Will Win!

The time-travel had taken roughly three years in total because Cassius had already reached the Holy Fist realm before initiating the time-travel. Hence, much of the fuss and time-wasting caution were unnecessary.

He had spent an immense amount of lingering attachment energy and, upon entering the sixth time-travel, upended the table entirely by relying on the Holy Fist strength he retained. After swiftly resolving the original owner's lingering attachment in the surface world, Cassius had entered the World of Calamity, slain the Totem King, and saved Blood Vulture Dominator Fist.

Then, the two Southern Dipper lineage practitioners had joined forces, fought Ultimate Dark Forms, and grievously injured Xiadu's projection. That had won Cassius over two years for his ascetic cultivation grind.

Now, the Southern Dipper's three fist arts had been assembled, and the Golem Covert Martial Arts' final stage had advanced to a fearsome ninety percent! A sense of control and fullness flowed quietly through Cassius's heart. He narrowed his eyes slightly, lowered his head, and his expression grew shadowed.

"In the real timeline... White Bird Holy Fist burned and fell, Blood Vulture Dominator Fist's life and death is uncertain, and Sonic Snake Ultimate Fist is endlessly entangled. No one can help me, nor can there be someone like Blood Vulture to fight at my side. In a situation worse than ever, with calamity about to completely crush humanity, I can only rely on myself.

"

Heh,

" Cassius chuckled softly. "Alone? With my strength alone, I will win!"

His terrifying Will climbed to its peak, seething like molten lava. Even the slightest hint of it could stir the winds and clouds for a hundred miles.

After a long while, the lake rippled, a breeze brushed his face, and waterbirds wheeled. A strange, demonic fluctuation faintly spread from the isle at the lake's heart. It was not too much or too little, just enough to enshroud the entire island. If one looked in from outside, everything was blurred, as if there were myriad twisted afterimages.

Were a Covert Martial Arts Practitioner nearby, they would surely be bewitched by the aura. Like a pilgrim before a deity, they would become a slave to the fist art.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

In the sixth time-travel, Cassius's Southern Dipper Sonic Snake Fist had broken through to the Ultimate Fist realm, drastically increasing his overall strength. Hence, he used the Qi Engraving Technique to compose the Six Southern Dipper Volumes and the Golem Heart Codex anew.

Writing the Six Southern Dipper Volumes would act as preparation for the subsequent unification of the three fist arts. Composing the Golem Heart Codex was because, after his detailed conversation with Blood Vulture Dominator Fist, Cassius faintly felt a mutation would appear when the Golem Covert Martial Arts reached perfection. He wanted to record a simplified version of the Golem Covert Martial Arts to draw inferences and see whether future trends could be predicted. Such trends might be observable in the future for the disciples of Golem Sect.

Of course, the rewriting of the Six Southern Dipper Volumes and the Golem Heart Codex signified the completion and perfection of the entire cultivation system. It would benefit many practitioners.

As time passed bit by bit, the warped aura on the isle thickened. After reaching its peak, it quickly ebbed away.

On the isle, Cassius slowly raised his hand, and the peak Holy Fist Qi coiling around his fingers gradually died away. When he looked down, he had two hefty manuals, all made of fine parchment with hard covers. These manuals were clearly influenced by Qi and gave off supernatural visions. At a glance, one knew that they contained mysterious, formidable techniques.

Qi of three colors swirled around the weighty Six Southern Dipper Volumes. It looked carved from transparent glass, shifting ceaselessly among crimson, pure white, and royal purple. One could faintly see nearly two hundred stars densely orbiting the tome, like satellites around a planet.

Beside it, the Golem Heart Codex was less gaudy in color but more mysterious and terrifying. Its surface bore a casing that resembled steel-like bone, locking it tight as if sealing some evil thing. Clumps of murky demonic black fire burned along the casing's seams. Countless deformed fiends seemed to howl and struggle in pain within the flames.

These two Covert Martial Arts manuals were the core of the Golem Sect, forming a vast, complete cultivation system. The Golem Sect had now faintly become the center of the world's Covert Martial Arts scene and was well on its way toward becoming a martial holy land.

One reason was the sole Holy Fist walking the world, the Golem Sect Master. Another was the tremendous allure of formidable Covert Martial Art Secret Techniques.

"The Qi Engraving Technique is at its limit..." Cassius lightly swept his hand over the Six Southern Dipper Volumes and the Golem Heart Codex.

The visions on the manuals' surfaces instantly dimmed and sank away. His strength was too great, his Qi too condensed, and his Will too fearsome. When Cassius used the Qi Engraving Technique, he nearly destroyed the two manuals because their materials could no longer bear Cassius's Qi and Will. Hence, he halted and did not pour in his full power.

Instead, he stopped once he reached the Qi Engraving Technique's limit. Otherwise, the Qi field of the Six Southern Dipper Volumes and the Golem Heart Codex would grow even more dreadful and even be forcefully turned into relics like the Ao Yin civilization relic, the Spiral-Eye Sword.

Cassius slowly turned toward the shores of God's Tears Lake. A second later, a black silhouette appeared at Golem Sect headquarters.

On the afternoon of December 18, all senior staff remaining at Golem Sect headquarters assembled to hear Sect Master Cassius’s new directives.

They gathered in a vast domed hall, not gaudily multicolored like a religious building, but mainly gold and black. Large swathes of black covered it, as if a night sky lay draped across it. Gold traces divided it like parallel meteor trails. It was austere, grand, and majestic.

A large conference table had been set in the middle. Both sides were filled with senior figures, each fierce and brute. Some sported hedgehog buzz cuts, and others shoulder-length hair. Some wore black studded leather, others broad trench coats, or vests with capes. Men and women, young and old, were all present. However, they all shared one trait: muscles!

They all had broad frames and bulging hard muscles. Their gazes were sharp and more terrifying than murderers. These were the elites transformed by steadfast cultivation of the Golem Heart Codex!

Seated at the conference hall's head, Cassius's gaze swept across them. As he scanned the Golem Sect seniors, he gave the faintest nod. He was satisfied. This was the strongman style the Golem Sect should have. The look of a strongman was hard and rough, never showing a hint of weakness, hypocrisy, or pity.

Cassius wanted an unbending, razor-sharp blade, not soft leather armor. Only a blade could cut through the dark creatures' fangs and claws!

After a brief silence, Cassius tossed the newly revised Six Southern Dipper Volumes and Golem Heart Codex to the elder in charge of techniques. With a few simple explanations and after letting the senior attendees marvel, he quickly moved on.

The topic was Golem Sect's most important task for the time ahead: to seek the five mysterious keystone runes left by the Ao Yin civilization. He had learned many secrets from Blood Vulture Dominator Fist in the final stage of the sixth time-travel. Among them, Xiadu's fall from its conceptual level had hinged on the five keystone runes.

In the battle where Xiadu was sealed by the Gates of Heaven, the mysterious Southern Cross had sacrificed his own body to imprison Xiadu's Will, plainly fearing Xiadu's return to conceptual level. Therefore, for Cassius to kill Xiadu, he had to consider that Xiadu's Will might rejoin the endless calamity after destroying its true body and return to conceptual level. The five keystone runes were the safest method that would be able to harm Xiadu again even if it returned to being a concept.

There was also another reason. Cassius had entered the Ao Yin civilization's Miracle Garden and found a portal at its deepest core. If he opened it, he could obtain a core secret left by the Ao Yin civilization. However, opening it required all five keystone runes. This was also his motive to seek the lost runes.

At present, he already possessed the Rune of Spirit and the Rune of Life. Cassius had also learned the forms of the remaining three. One was a spiral mark shaped like a lotus petal, resembling a bud. Another was somewhat like a monster's skull, exuding savagery. The last was two overlapping eyes with twin pupils.

He also had a hazy impression of their aura when he touched the Miracle Garden's door. With Cassius's description, the search scope for the remaining three runes could be greatly narrowed. Given Golem Sect's current global influence, finding the remaining runes was only a matter of time. This was one reason Cassius had built and developed the Golem Sect.

Even if his strength could sweep the world and ignore nations and supernatural groups, he could not quicken the pace of this kind of task alone. An individual's speed in gathering resources and intelligence was limited. However, once a vast organization ran like a war machine, the efficiency would be terrifying.

For example, Xiadu’s Gate Organization had been created for such reasons and indeed proved highly effective. It had successfully gathered Gate Fragments and helped Xiadu undo the Gates of Heaven's seal.

Cassius's thoughts drifted as he considered the Gate Organization's present state. The revival of Black Rain Manor had inflicted heavy losses on many factions, including the Gate Organization. Its influence had shrunk rapidly as it retreated on all fronts. It seemed unusually well-behaved in the face of Golem Sect's expansion.

Even so, they had to be sure not to underestimate it. He already sensed a broader calamity tide brewing in the depths of the world before his sixth time-travel. A second calamity tide was about to descend, and looked to be more terrible than the Hongli Empire's fall.

Since a breach had already opened, the second eruption might actually be the destruction of the surface world. Xiadu and the Gate Organization would never miss that chance!

Though greatly damaged, the Gate Organization still had people to use. A necro-revival technique could summon a host of its former deputy leaders.

Additionally, Xiadu had recuperated for over a century after the previous great war. With a third of its true body freed and after ceaselessly erasing White Bird's burning mark day and night, it had likely restored a formidable part of its combat strength.

Cassius had attained the level of perfected power, and was on par with one of the six ultimate beings. If he faced Xiadu in his current state, he would not lose. At the same time, he had no guarantee of victory. A stalemate would inevitably inflict grievous harm to humanity in the surface world. That was the worst outcome.

Moreover, the broader picture favored Xiadu. The second calamity tide was coming. If everything was delayed till then, it would be Xiadu's victory. Therefore, Cassius did not wish to startle the snake by striking at the Gate Organization's headquarters and exposing his highly threatening perfected power.

He chose to hold back and continue to raise his strength. Let Xiadu and the Gate Organization deem him merely a somewhat strong Holy Fist who was neither weak nor overwhelming. That way, the Gate Organization wouldn't pick a fight with the Golem Sect. Nor would Xiadu feel threatened enough to come out early and tie Cassius down in battle, preventing him from growing stronger.

Placing the enemy in the open and oneself in hiding was always best.

With that in mind, he did not order the Golem Sect to press the Gate Organization, but simply to speed up things. He instructed them to open more Golem Sect Martial Halls, spread the Golem Heart Codex, and even expand toward the United States of Yana and the Blue Star Empire. If the Gate Organization provoked or refused to yield in the process, then the Golem Sect could act.

After they received their orders, the Golem Sect's seniors dispersed. Only Cassius remained, deep in thought. The Golem Sect's operations for the coming period were set. Now, his own actions also had to be scheduled.

First, he had to enter the World of Calamity and seek Blood Vulture. If possible, it would be best to find the grievously wounded Totem King and slay him again.

Second, he had to keep pushing the Golem Covert Martial Arts' progress. Ninety percent was far from the end! With his time-travel ability, the climb was endless.

Additionally, Cassius should review the Golem Sect's growth with his own eyes after some time. That kid Simone had picked up a disciple in Princess Katie of the Eastern Archipelago. It would be a good path to extend Golem Sect's reach to the island nations.

There was also the Ace of Spades, as well as the Connan Company behind it. He also remembered Phil's family, who held that company and had good ties with him. Not to mention the Old Man's Antique Shop, the treasure hunter community, and those three cut-rate disciples.

Many memories surged, sending faint ripples of emotion through him. Though he knew the vastness of heaven and earth, he still cherished the green grass. Though the scope of battle had reached the grand level of humanity versus calamity, there was no harm in looking down from time to time to see the joys and sorrows of the multitude. Perhaps some unique insight might even arise.

"In the end, the time-travel ability is too strong. My strength has advanced too fast. I haven't passed through the millennia of time that ordinary Holy Fists endure..." Cassius sighed. His blue-black eyes dipped slightly as a bottomless abyss appeared in his pupils.

"Of course, from another angle, this also means I still possess a strong humanity. Those Ultimate Dark Forms look at me like I'm some kind of a monster, but I don't care at all. What they imagine is completely false... So different from reality!"