Chapter 544: Chapter 544

When the figure landed, it was like a meteor striking the ground. But the man didn’t even flinch from the impact of his descent and threw a ferocious punch.

Boom! Bang, bang, bang... boom, boom, boom...

The air erupted violently as white rings rippled outward from his fist. He carved a massive vacuum corridor through the air as the compressed air before Cassius’s fist condensed into a translucent giant fist.

In that instant, four formidable figures shot forward. Turbulent, multicolored Qi flared from their bodies as they unleashed their own ferocious techniques.

But at the moment of collision, the four charging figures shuddered. Whistling gales slashed out like knives, severing several towering rocks as they burst forth. Crackling detonations roared in everyone's ears.

Swish‑swish‑swish‑swish!

The four figures shot back, retreating two steps. Their soles carved deep grooves into the rock.

Holy Fist Demon Phoenix's expression shifted; his gaze locked on his opponent.

Whale King Arlington muttered to himself, "He seems to have grown stronger again..."

The fervor in Lava Shaman's eyes cooled a degree. Reason dawned upon him that only combined force could defeat this man!

Armor Ghoul remained silent, yet the grim black armor of solidified Qi on his body began to change form. Heavy iron plates swelled across his chest. His pauldrons thickened, bulging like tumors to the height of half his helmet.

He appeared to be shifting from an offensive to a defensive mode.

"Take another punch!" High in the sky, flung a hundred meters up by the quartet's joint blow, Cassius spun around and dove straight down. Clenching his fingers together, he threw a second punch at his opponents!

They all looked up to see a towering Golem suddenly form behind the figure. The speed of his descent nearly sparked golden‑red fire against the air. The Golem's colossal body was hidden by the clouds, revealing only its helmeted head and one hand. However, that iron‑clad giant hand was cold and enormous. When it clenched, a hurricane spiraled in its palm. Five hurried white air‑jets squeezed through its knuckles.

"Dodge! Clear out!" The Second and Third General Kings roared warnings from within the Gate Organization ranks.

The next second... Boom!!!

The volcano's ridge shuddered as half the stone slope collapsed. Debris whirled like bullets as it streamed down toward the foot of the mountain. A massive sunken crater had been carved into the mountainside. On closer inspection, the pit bore the unmistakable shape of a mighty fist.

"Ah!!!" A chorus of screams rose, cutting to the bone.

Broken figures writhed in agony among the blood‑soaked rubble. Flesh had been shredded and bones pulverized into paste beneath the blow.

Worst of all, at the pit's rim, a Gate Organization core member had tried to evade but failed. He had stood exactly at the edge of Cassius's strike. Thus, the left half of his body had been crushed to mince and plastered against the crater floor. Only half his torso remained, organs and blood spilling out. Shrieking, he tried crawling away on one arm and leg, leaving behind a scarlet trail. Yet halfway along, he collapsed, dead.

Such was the terror contained in a single punch from Cassius. The gulf between combat artists was vast and almost absurd. A new combat artist and a veteran combat artist might differ only by a building‑busting margin. However, a top-tier combat artist's strength would multiply exponentially. Extreme combat artists went further still as they walked the ultimate path of Covert Martial Arts. Their power and destructive scale approached the Holy Fist realm.

They could alter the very terrain with their killing moves! If an extreme combat artist did not hold back, anyone below top-tier combat artist would not endure even one punch. Even a top-tier combat artist might last a few exchanges but once the extreme combat artist fought in earnest, he too would fall. Only an extreme could counter another extreme!

Thus, Holy Fist Demon Phoenix immediately ordered everyone else back—only the four of them were needed here. Anyone else would merely pad the casualty list and waste the Gate Organization's fighting strength.

The same applied to the pursuing Covert Martial Arts coalition. They had witnessed an extreme combat artist's dreadful force at the exchange tournament and dared not draw near. Nonetheless, if they could not join the main clash, they could still open a secondary battlefield. Combat artists traded glances and immediately sought out opponents among the Gate Organization ranks.

Since the summit duel was underway, how could the rest merely watch? Naturally they paired off and fought! They had come to the Eternal Archipelago to enter the ancient ruin and seize priceless Covert Martial Arts Secret Techniques! The Gate Organization surely had the same goal. Since their interests clashed, battle was the only course!

Meanwhile, two parties met unexpectedly beside the volcano!

The Hellsings of Black Rain Manor were steadily making their way deeper, while the Ripple Practitioners of the Eternal Archipelago were navigating outward. Both sides fielded elites; the Ripple Order in particular were like a black tide. The two forces faced off, tension solidifying the air.

"It's you, Monchi! The traitor from decades ago!"

Ice Spirit, the leader of the Ripple Practitioners, glared fiercely at the man known as Ripple Master amongst the Black Rain Manor crowd. His true name was Monchi.

His eyes dropped to the bone ring glowing blue‑violet like lightning. It was the Supreme bone ring of the previous leader, Thunder Spirit, that Monchi had stolen.

"Shameless traitor! Murderer of Lord Thunder Spirit!" An elder Ripple Practitioner behind Ice Spirit roared in rage.

"Traitor, you say? Betrayer? Hahahahaha... Even now you understand nothing, and remain blind to the island's true secret! Pathetic, like puppets on a string..." Ripple Master Monchi sneered with eyes full of scorn. "Lord Thunder Spirit wasn't slain by me. He took his own life. The Supreme bone ring on my hand was his gift to me. He bade me to flee the archipelago at all costs and seek power to counter that presence! I am no betrayer, I am the awakened!"

Monchi glanced at the still‑glowering Ripple Practitioners opposite him and shook his head. "Enough. There's no talking to puppets. Even if I spoke the truth, you would not hear it. If Lord Thunder Spirit, the strongest leader in five centuries, could not achieve it, how could I alone?"

Reverence for the former Thunder Spirit colored his words.

"No matter. I am ready now. I’m back on Eternal Island to finish what he could not and fulfill Lord Thunder Spirit's will! None of you will stop me..." Flames seemed to burn in Monchi's eyes.

"What nonsense are you spouting? Do you think one Supreme bone ring makes you king? Then gaze upon these!" A Ripple Master within their ranks laughed coldly. He slowly raised his right hand, displaying a fiery red ring veined with subtle patterns and brimming with searing power.

At the same moment, three Ripple Masters behind Ice Spirit raised their palms, each bearing a Supreme bone ring. They shone with crackling lightning, raging wind, and mystic earth. Including flame and frost, there were five Supreme bone rings in total!

Each bearer wielded might equal to an entire Ripple Practitioner array. By Covert Martial Arts standards, they were ranked just a step shy of a top-tier combat artist. As their mastery grew and their bodies adapted to the potent ripples, they would climb the gap between top-tier and extreme level, roughly where Evil Mother stood. Original content can be found at novel⚑fire.net

Should a ring's element match its bearer's innate nature, he might even vault into extreme class and join the world's very pinnacle. The former Thunder Spirit, for example, had gone far beyond the ordinary extreme level, and had been hailed as the strongest at Spirit stage in five centuries. Now Monchi, heir to his ring, wouldn't be weaker than any Spirit stage leader!

He was likely even stronger with Black Rain Manor's resources. He was also accompanied by Tyrant Black Dragon, the monster Black Rain Manor had bred for decades. If they fought together, what were five rings to them? They could still fight on equal terms! Not to mention the trump of the ancient White Bone Tree.

Thus, though surprise flickered in Monchi's eyes at the five rings, calm soon returned.

Fight first, talk later!

"The Supreme bone ring Lord Thunder Spirit left me has been refined for decades and fed with resources from Black Rain Manor. It should now surpass every other ring in power and might. Moreover, there's a strict hierarchy between bone ring tiers; that newly born lightning bone ring of yours is little better than a Bloodthirsty bone ring before me. So, in truth we face only four Spirit stage foes..."

Two for me, two for Black Dragon. Sounds fair! The thought flashed through Monchi's mind as he glanced at Tyrant Black Dragon.

When he saw him nod back, Monchi felt reassured. Tyrant Black Dragon was a true monster and the culmination of every Black Rain Manor experiment. The highest quality of mercury, perfectly refined blood of a thousand beasts, organs of myriad dark creatures, even a thousand poisons, a hundred elixirs, a Griever's Egg, and more... All together made Tyrant Black Dragon.

For now he was still in human form but once unleashed, he was pure malevolence.

"I pray the coming fight doesn't push him past his restraint. A rampaging Black Dragon is terrifying ..." Even his teammate Monchi felt deep dread.

A gale swept down, carrying vast swathes of spore fog away. A dense white vortex formed around them, visible to the naked eye.

"You think Black Rain Manor's strength lets you rampage unchecked on Eternal Island? I'll teach you on Thunder Spirit's behalf!" Ice Spirit swept a hand down, releasing ripples in layered waves.

And so the battle began!

Bone rings lit one after another on the Ripple Practitioners' side. Their ripple power twisted the air as it hurtled forward. But five forces proved strongest within the tide‑like surge.

Cold, fiery, violent, sweeping, massive!

Fivefold terrifying ripples of nature!

Monchi refused to yield. Clenching his fist, he made his lightning bone ring blaze with a glassy blue‑violet glow. A gigantic tree of lightning enveloped him, branches crackling outward.

Beside him, Tyrant Black Dragon uttered not a word. He charged straight into the ripple sea to slaughter his enemies head‑on. Beyond the apex fighters, Ripple Practitioners and Hellsings alike leaped into combat.

They let loose everything they had, and melee erupted at once.

Fight! Fight! Fight! Damn it all! Only the victor of battle could be penned down in history!

A mushroom cloud swelled over the crimson volcano. Five figures intertwined in combat plummeted from the summit. They were five blazing meteors trailing fire, their momentum ever more fierce. The explosive field around them burned hotter than the volcano's core itself. Every clash made the sky shudder. Great booms echoed like aerial bombs detonating overhead.

Cassius swung both fists; the raw power from his dreadful muscles blasted Holy Fist Demon Phoenix and Whale King Arlington away.

"One of you has stagnated, and is nothing noteworthy. But the other, after I nearly shattered his martial heart, managed to rebuild it. His level fell, yet his strength has grown purer..."

He critiqued as he then turned in midair to meet Armor Ghoul and Lava Shaman.

All three separated at first touch, falling toward the earth. The ultra‑thick plating on Armor Ghoul's chest now bore a deep palm print that had almost been punched clean through.

Lava Shaman's magma‑like left arm wobbled with a dislocated joint.

"Interesting, one is an undead revived by unknown means, while the other carries the Totem King's sun totem..."

Cassius spread his arms, letting the gale howl past him. His blonde hair whipped madly in the mind and his coat lay in tatters, revealing a powerful body studded with crimson‑violet acupoints.

Above, the four extreme combat artists settled back into their encirclement. They streaked down like jet fighters, four vast Qi streams merging into a giant hand that slammed downward!

The four‑coloured giant palm hurled Cassius toward the spore forest at the volcano's foot.