Returning to the Mysterious Era-Chapter 709 - I Am The World, The World Is Me!

Chapter 709 - I Am The World, The World Is Me!
Roar!
"Get lost!"
Xiadu let out an earth-shattering roar from under the Southern Dipper waterfall. A ring of terrifying black energy rippled from Xiadu and swept outward furiously. The waterfall from the sky was blown away, and calamity swirled around Cassius.
Regardless, Cassius charged right into the black energy. The clash between the two sides had finally reached a critical moment. The outcome of the battle would be decided in the next few moves!
Cassius threw a punch straight at Xiadu.
"Kill!!"
Shriek!
A vulture with wings that blotted out the sky dove through the clouds. Its iron claws were like metal and stone, and its beak was drenched with blood and flame. Cassius's entire understanding and cultivation of the Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist had been condensed into a single fist that intended to kill Xiadu once and for all!
Boom!
Crimson Qi slammed into Xiadu along with the enormous vulture, forcing its massive body to stagger backward. It plowed a trench nearly hundred kilometers long before finally stopping.
The Southern Dipper Qi dissipated, revealing a huge gaping wound across Xiadu's shoulder. Xiadu was about to trigger more calamity when...
Chieu!
A clear waterbird cry suddenly rang out from behind it. Sharp steel wings unfurled in the sky, tracing a graceful arc through the heavens. Holy white feathers seemed to slice space itself as its claws descended like a dragonfly skimming water.
Clang!
Xiadu spun around and launched a counterattack. However, it was a moment too late. The figure of the white bird had already lightly swept by. Xiadu's left arm was gone. When it looked up, the bird's claws held a jet-black arm.
The ground beneath Xiadu split open as a massive purple python shot up like a dragon. The scales on its surface vibrated wildly, as if carrying the echoes of a convective sound-nest. Frenzied sonic waves descended fiercely upon Xiadu.
At last, cracks appeared across Xiadu's body, forcing black gas to spew forth.
Bam!
Cassius’s fist sent Xiadu flying.
"Today, you will fall here by my hands!"
Cassius strode forward, plowing through the earth toward the deep pit where Xiadu lay. Scalding power climbed to its peak within his body.
However, just as he neared Xiadu, a mysterious fluctuation swept the heavens with a
pop
. Some mystical rule had stirred in the surface world and the World of Calamity. It signaled disaster... endless disaster.
"The one who will perish here is you!!! By the name Xiadu Kara, I call forth endless calamity!"
A dreadful jet of black calamity shot up from the pit, piercing through the clouds and sending ripples in all directions. To the naked eye, the entire sky seemed to become a transparent screen. The second calamity tide had manifested visibly across the heavens! Tsunamis, whirlpools, and tornados formed around the world. That boundless, weighty darkness seemed like dense tentacles poised to devour the entire world.
Xiadu had gone mad as it forcibly invoked the concept of calamity. It was a move that would cost it dearly, perhaps even a slumber lasting millions of years.
But so what!? If it did not defeat the enemy before it, all its schemes would go to waste!
Xiadu truly had not expected that Cassius, after having unified the Southern Dipper three fist arts and broken through the limit of perfected power, would be so strong. He had barely reached that realm, yet he could suppress the calamity that Xiadu had unsealed.
Cassius had surpassed Xiadu by a notch! If Xiadu did not go all out, it would likely be sealed by Cassius, which was utterly unacceptable. Hence, it invoked the concept of calamity that had accumulated for eons to crush Cassius to death!
Xiadu rose into the sky with its arm outstretched. Its body resembled a broken cross.
"Endless Calamity, Judgment Day!!!"
The Well of Sin in Xiadu's chest slowly separated from its body. The second calamity tide visible in the sky unleashed black beams that plunged into the Well of Sin. A black light swelled rapidly and an explosion rang out in midair. A jet-black blazing sun was suspended in the sky above Xiadu.
"Perish, Cassius! It is Judgment Day!"
Xiadu pointed down at Cassius with its right arm. Suddenly, the black sun slammed down on the Golem's head with the oppressive force of millions of years of calamity.
Boom!
The Golem's silver armor shattered and blood sprayed out under the immense pressure. The earth sank as the impact gouged out the mantle. In an environment of extreme heat and pressure, Cassius bore the judgement of the black sun, feeling terrifying pressure from all directions. It was as if the weight of the entire World of Calamity had been dropped onto his shoulders.
Above him, Xiadu's grand sacred proclamation resounded once again. "Judgment Day!"
The pressure intensified as Cassius spat out a mouthful of blood. The Golem's iron frame creaked and groaned while its joints twisted and deformed. Its silver armor was full of cracks and was on the verge of breaking apart. Yet strangely, in the face of this terrifying suppression, Cassius revealed a ferocious grin under his mask. Rivulets of blood leaked from his bone-white teeth.
"If the King of Qi cannot withstand your Judgment Day... Then how about I become the God of Covert Martial Arts?!"
Bearing crushing pressure from all sides, he suddenly spread his arms and lifted his head. Starlight spewed from his face as his entire body transformed into a whirling river of stars.
"Holy Fist! Dominator Fist! Ultimate Fist! Three Fists as One! I am the world, and the world is me!"
In that instant, the Southern Dipper Constellation core within Cassius's Golem body finally solidified completely under the combined inner and outer pressure.
"Endless calamity..." Xiadu's third and final invocation of the concept of calamity to suppress Cassius came from the sky. It had used up all its chances to influence calamity, for Xiadu had detached from the concept. That was the price of possessing a self-awareness and a will of its own.
"Judgment Day!" It roared.
Bang!
The blazing black sun descended for the third time to crush Cassius. However, a huge fist imprint blasted up from the depths of the earth toward the sky. The fist was as large as a plot of land while the veins on its back were like mountain ridges. It was large enough to found a nation!
Boom!
The earth trembled as the surface split open. The black blazing sun was flung back at an absurd speed. It was followed by a figure who had returned to simplicity. There was no colossal Golem body nor dazzling tricolor Southern Dipper starlight. It was simply a small human frame. An ordinary body with four limbs, the simplest of human constructions.
Then, a holy Will rose like the blazing sun. A vast transparent Qi surged out from behind Cassius that formed an expanding face that had Cassius's own features. Sanctity, dominance, and extreme cold intertwined together on that face. Holy Fist, Dominator Fist, Ultimate Fist... All the paths of Covert Martial Arts had returned to their roots!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Southern Dipper Constellation core in Cassius's chest pounded again and again. He looked dazed, murmuring to himself as his hands dropped. "I see... the world! Xiadu..."
Cassius raised his head, his crimson eyes landing on the dumbfounded Xiadu in the distance. Then, he emphasized each word seriously. "Have you ever been crushed by an entire world?"
Boom!
Time seemed to freeze. Heaven and earth inverted and space disappeared. The sky became the earth and the earth became the sky! Xiadu, who had originally loomed over Cassius's head, was now standing on the ground above, or rather, on an entire planet!
As heaven and earth turned, it lifted its head in utter astonishment. There was now an entire world above it. Mountains and rivers, sun and moon, birds and insects... Everything transformed into a colossal fist descending to suppress it!
The world actually became a fist! It became Cassius's fist!
A single strike slammed down...
Wham!!!
"Ahhh!"
Xiadu screamed as it was obliterated in both body and soul.
It was not just Cassius crushing it, but an entire world crushing it! The God of Covert Martial Arts had descended and destroyed the King of Calamity with overwhelming might!
Supreme might and supreme glory were all in Cassius's grasp. He was truly invincible in every sense of the word!
No existence could compare to the God of Covert Martial Arts. Even if Xiadu returned to calamity and became a concept, it could not touch Cassius in the slightest. He was an unsurpassable being!
"No!!!!!"
Xiadu's giant corpse crashed down on the ravaged earth. Though clearly dead, its Will roared out from within. Now that it had fallen, its consciousness inevitably returned to calamity. But that would mean the erasure of its Will.
"Nooo.." Xiadu's roar turned cold and mechanical, without the slightest emotional fluctuation. It had turned back into the concept of calamity. That was its Judgment Day!
Though dead, it was still roaring from the heavens.
Roar...
Terrifying spectral hands reached out from the second calamity tide's black mist and clawed at Xiadu's corpse. Cassius watched a forest of giant hands grow down from the sky and did not move. They were only the manifestation of a concept, without physical form. These palms were illusory and indestructible.
"To defeat a concept, one must use another concept..."
He no longer looked at Xiadu, who was reverting to calamity. Instead, he poured all his strength into pushing his Golem Covert Martial Arts past one hundred percent! Just like how the three Southern Dipper fist arts ushered in a special state that drastically raised his strength upon reaching perfection, his Golem Covert Martial Arts was the same. It had a form that had yet to be seen.
Rumble...
Cassius's body suddenly began to swell rapidly between breaths. The steel Golem body planted itself on the ground, standing firm. Silver steel arms spread, embracing the entirety of heaven and earth.
"World! World! World!"
The Golem, pushed to the extreme, let out a deafening roar. A mysterious fluctuation spread through the world's depths.
"Myriad demonic thoughts, Sacred Heart Codex!"
Buzz...
At the same time, across the Hongli Federation and even the whole world, everyone who had been influenced by the Golem Sect, who had cultivated the Golem Heart Codex and harbored Golem Seeds within them froze in place, as if something was calling them. They either burst out of their houses or abruptly stood up, raising their heads to gaze in a certain direction.
It was toward the southeast of Blue Star Continent.
For unknown reasons, they felt spirited and eager, as if a divine verdict descended from the clouds to whisper to them. That whisper soon became a shout.
"World! World! World!"
Millions of Covert Martial Arts practitioners of the Golem Heart Codex clenched their fists. Their pupils turned black, and the Golem Heart Codex within them was spontaneously activated.
"Myriad demonic thoughts, Sacred Heart Codex!"
Humans were shouting up to the heavens from every corner of the world. From the Four Kings at the Golem Sect headquarters to normal disciples, down to enthusiasts who had just begun Covert Martial Arts training, they all heard the Golem Sect's master's summons and willingly responded!
Clatter...
Countless Golem Seeds were being reabsorbed by the Golem!
On Blue Star Continent, the final battlefield, the Golem's body, which had already reached tens of thousands of meters, continued to grow as it reached a hundred thousand meters. If it continued, it would even pierce the stratosphere! Cassius's body overlapped with the Golem's, and roaring black Qi blazed around him.
A large battle cloak flowed from the Golem's shoulders. Millions of humanoid phantoms materialized and vanished across that billowing cloak. It included all kinds of people, men and women, young and old. They were the Wills of those who carried Humanity's Malice!
Protect the tribe, avoid harm! That was an overwhelming, absolute law.
On the earth, a majestic illusory giant skeleton with heavy steel armor grew frantic.
"Come! Come! The Gates of Heaven!"
Cassius's crimson eyes were fixed on the three dimly golden open spectral portals above.
Indeed, Cassius intended to use the millions of the purest, most potent Humanity's Malice energy as a lever to pry open the three Gates of Heaven and stir the three seas within. Those were the seas that contained all forms of sentient wisdom in the world since the dawn of civilization!
They had recorded all of humanity, including the vast malice accumulated by humanity over tens of thousands of years! He would use the concept of human evil to oppose the concept of calamity!
"The malice of every sentient being... From today forth, shall be put to my use!"