Chapter 554: Chapter 554

Holy Fist practitioners combined orthodoxy and ingenuity, and their presence felt vast and majestic. Their Will flowed in one continuous stream. Whether they were walking, sitting, or lying down, they resembled sages.

When Cassius saw that pure-white waterbird, everything around him faded like ink washed from a scroll, leaving only a blank canvas. Only the silhouette of the waterbird beating its wings remained deeply branded upon that emptiness.

Three descriptors flooded his mind at once. Elegant, grand, and a hint of savagery.

Yes, savagery. Beneath that gentlemanly, refined facade lay a body as terrifying as a monster's. The faint aura it occasionally leaked made one shiver involuntarily, stirring both reverence and fear. A creature that dwelt alone could only be a beast or a deity.

And this waterbird seemed both a beast and a god fused into one.

In truth, this description could also apply to the other two Southern Dipper Covert Martial Inheritances. In the Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist, bestial instinct overwhelmingly eclipsed its divine aspect. It was based on bloodshed and slaughter, as savage as a raptor starved beyond endurance. Its domineering Will obeyed the food chain without disguise, treating others with an intense desire to control and conquer.

On the other hand, Southern Dipper Sonic Snake Fist was cold as ice, holding nothing else in regard. It focused solely on self-cultivation, drawing power from the heart and the self. It was like a deity devoid of carnal desire, living the life of an ascetic monk. Yet it savored the hardship and immersed itself within it. To wield immense power while exercising extreme restraint—was that not the perfect template of a god?

Thus, in Southern Dipper Sonic Snake Fist, divinity overshadowed its animal nature. Red Falcon and Sonic Snake had both gone to the extreme, pursuing one direction to its limit, so they looked nothing like humans.

However, Waterbird Fist, like humankind, united divinity and animality in a complex, contradictory harmony. Of course, compared with ordinary people, Waterbird Fist's beast and divine sides were far too mighty, like twin pillars of heaven. They spiraled upward entwined, together forming an ultimate humanity.

Elegant, yet savage. Magnificent, yet fierce.

Cassius's pupils gradually came back into focus. In that brief instant, he comprehended many things, deepening his grasp of Holy Fist, Dominator Fist, and Ultimate Fist.

Thus far, he had encountered all three Holy Fist figures of the Southern Dipper lineage. There was the corpse of Sonic Snake Ultimate Fist on the fifth level of the Ao Yin Ruins, Blood Vulture Dominator Fist of the World of Calamity in the dark-creature test site, and now White Bird Holy Fist pummeling Pale Origin before him.

Sometimes, travel and firsthand experience produced these realizations by analogy. What the eyes had seen and the body had felt was carved firmly into the mind. Then, in a single moment one would suddenly understand.

Oh—so that was the truth; so the essence and differences of fist techniques were .

The instant one understood, many things unfolded before them. It was like they were baptized. After enough baptisms, one would naturally become a saint. The source of thɪs content is novel⟡fire.net

Cassius felt the world buzzing at his ear, as though resonance had occurred. Blinking again, he saw a gigantic white bird beating its wings in the sky. An exaggerated metallic thorn feather plummeted like a meteor.

It collided with a gigantic root sent forth by Pale Origin.

An explosion erupted instantly, forming a rapidly expanding gold-red mushroom cloud that vanished a second later. It was as if the collision and blast had never occurred. Yet Pale Origin's patterned root, as thick as a giant python hundreds of meters long, had also disappeared with the mushroom cloud. Not even scraps remained.

Southern Dipper Waterbird Fist, Thorn Feather Force. Its trait was annihilation, a simple yet tyrannical effect. Wherever the force touched, it would annihilate from the world. In truth, they had not simply vanished. The force's vibrations reduced them to dust imperceptible to the naked eye, dispersing completely into the air.

In terms of spectacle, this inexplicable vanishing force was even more horrifying than Death's Fang Force and Reverberating Force. It was as though matter had been casually erased out of thin air.

How could that not terrify people?

A lean white-haired figure soared through the air like a waterbird. He seemed to embody profoundly intricate fist techniques with each punch, kick, leap, and shift. Offense and defense flowed as one, leaving no flaw.

His five fingers closed into a blade, elegantly slicing through the air. The air, as if willingly aiding him, kept accelerating his strike. It looked like the White Bird Holy Fist's arm skimmed the air like a stone on water as it sped up with each ripple. At last, it formed a white after-image arc with hundreds of Qi-wreathed arms overlapping side by side.

The hand-blade sliced straight into Pale Origin's enormous trunk, obliterating a massive chunk of the trunk's side and revealing a vast, deep black cavity.

Twisted bark formed a terrifying face on the trunk’s surface. It roared in fury, eyes fixed on White Bird Holy Fist.

"Why are you here?! How could you be here?! Moon God unleashed every ounce of its power to curse you before dying, along with the Dead Abyss seal of the Demon Lake and the combined might of four Ultimate Dark Forms! You were expelled into the Black Abyssal Sea! You should not be able to set foot on the continental plates of the World of Calamity! Why... why are you here?"

Rage and disbelief tinged Pale Origin's words. In ancient times, when that war had reached its peak, supreme beings on both the human and dark-creature sides had fallen. The most famous and influential event had been the fall of the Ultimate Dark Form known as Moon God.

Moon God was ranked eleventh among the Ultimate Dark Forms. It was far stronger than Pale Origin, who ranked sixteenth. Moon God had been a mere step away from the top ten Ultimate Dark Forms. Given time, it could have crossed that step.

Though Moon God's birth had been relatively recent, it had been growing at a steady pace. However, its ascent through the ranks had been cut off by White Bird Holy Fist.

Their battle had taken place at Demon Lake, a special environment and Moon God's birthplace. The terrain favored the dark creature side, and several Ultimate Dark Forms had secretly watched it. The dark-creature faction believed they had a fair chance. Even if they could not kill White Bird Holy Fist, they were confident they could at least force a stalemate.

Yet when the fight truly began, reality defied their expectations. Moon God had fallen far too swiftly, like rotten wood crushed to dust. When the gigantic blood moon above the Demon Lake was blasted apart midair by the gliding White Bird, sixty-six brilliant stars had appeared in the World of Calamity's sky to form the Cygnus Constellation!

White Bird Holy Fist's strength had resonated in the lake's reflection, actually piercing straight through the surface world. This horrified many Ultimate Dark Forms, filling them with dread. At that critical moment, Moon God cast an ultimate curse and triggered the Dead Abyss seal of the Demon Lake. The two combined fell upon White Bird Holy Fist, plunging him into a brief period of weakness.

Then, four Ultimate Dark Forms ranked between tenth and twenty-fifth had joined forces, paying a heavy price to hold off the human defenders and strike, intent on killing White Bird Holy Fist.

However, they still failed and only managed to drive him away. Thus, in the long years that followed, White Bird Holy Fist kept hunting colossal creatures in the deep sea, rarely setting foot on land. For once he entered land, the Dead Abyss seal would tug at his body, dragging him toward the endless depths.

Meanwhile, Moon God's curse was linked to the blood moon of the World of Calamity. Should White Bird Holy Fist stand beneath that moon, boundless forces would descend to suppress him. It might even gather all the moonlight of the realm to strike him.

A normal Holy Fist would likely be shattered into mere Qi. Even White Bird Holy Fist could scarcely defy the world's might.

The World of Calamity belonged to calamity; thus dark creatures held the home-field advantage. The Holy Fists' home ground lay in the surface world, yet they refused to wage war in their own backyard. They proactively invaded the enemy's lair, thus suffering disadvantages in timing and terrain. There was no helping it; if the real world were destroyed, humanity would lose everything.

Back in the present, Pale Origin was utterly forced onto the defensive. Its densely packed roots curled inward, desperately trying to defend. Only one and a half of its five thickest roots remained. Cassius had broken half a root, and White Bird Holy Fist had destroyed three more in succession.

Its power kept waning, and its condition was continually deteriorating. The Inextinguishable Flame on Pale Origin's body only added insult to injury. Flaming Sun Holy Fist forcibly stoked the blaze, driving it to peak combustion. The terrible burning even made Flaming Sun Holy Fist's Will blur, as though he might break apart in agony.

But Pale Origin felt that pain just as vividly. The large face on its roots twisted, mouth gaping in a silent scream. Its enormous canopy splayed outward like a patient convulsing in seizures as the flames spread to every corner.

Flaming Sun Holy Fist was coordinating with White Bird Holy Fist. They intended to seize this chance to kill Pale Origin outright!!!

If so, his mission would be fulfilled...

Pale Origin thrashed wildly as invisible jaws kept tearing at its body. Each bite withdrew another chunk from the towering trunk. The waterbird turned into a white vapor, gliding past like lightning. It broke down and dismembered Pale Origin bit by bit.

Meanwhile, Cassius stood quietly beneath the burning canopy. He gazed with almost drunken greed at the three ultimate beings entwined in combat. The yearning within his heart nearly overflowed.

"I cannot yet stand beside them or contend with them. However, I already possess a means to wound an Ultimate Dark Form..." Cassius slowly clenched his fists, and his body was instantly wrapped in two swirling colors of Qi.

He refused to remain a spectator. There was no other choice than to join the battle. Even if only in a supporting role, even if merely adding a blossom to brocade, Cassius would only feel content if he could step into a Holy Fist battlefield.

Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist and Southern Dipper Sonic Snake Fist resonated in unison. A surging violet-red torrent descended, rushing toward Pale Origin like a flash flood.

The instant they collided, the forces reacted violently. It was Sonic Fang Force, a power of fourfold traits.

Southern Dipper Extreme Force!

Even if it was Pale Origin, an Ultimate Dark Form, it could inflict continuous damage. A dozen of Pale Origin's roots were destroyed simultaneously. Some were blasted skyward, while some shattered to dust in shockwaves. Others twisted in spirals, tearing apart and disintegrating.

"Force fusion!" White Bird Holy Fist paused, his eyes deepening with appreciation, as he flew through the sky.

He did not care how Cassius had done it, whether it was through modifying Covert Martial Arts, using special tools, or relying on external power. The point was that Cassius had succeeded in fusing Death's Fang Force with Reverberating Force.

"Good lad. The steep price I had to pay to set foot on land was not in vain..." White Bird Holy Fist dove down, and bored a massive hole in Pale Origin with a bang, then soared skyward again.

"I had worried that the gift I forced out of the World of Calamity into the real world on your behalf was too rich that it might stunt your growth, or even destroy you. Now it seems I overthought it. You can handle my gift in its entirety..." White Bird Holy Fist descended from the sky a second time.

A giant waterbird claw stretched from the void and abruptly shielded the space above Cassius's head. A massive invisible root falling from the heavens was blocked firmly.

One swipe of the giant claw snapped the plant root into several sections and scattered the pieces like wind-blown sand. The distant Pale Origin roared, enraged that its retaliation and ambush had been seen through.

Cassius continued channeling energy through his body; he turned to the lean figure not far ahead as a voice sounded by his ear.

"Brat, your Qi has probably reached the limit just below Holy Fist level. To break through that bottleneck, you must temper your Qi until it is crystalline. I can sense your Qi is far thicker than that of ordinary extreme combat artists. This means that future tempering will be harder and take longer for you." The aged voice paused slightly, then continued.

"But right now, there is a shortcut before you. After Pale Origin was held in check by Flaming Sun, it produced a certain kind of seed. When used with the Inextinguishable Flame, those seeds can greatly accelerate Qi tempering..." White Bird continued. "The largest, finest seed is in fact Pale Origin's heartwood. If you can obtain that heartwood, I believe Flaming Sun will gladly cooperate with you. He might even help you adjust the flame's intensity and duration. Those are the best conditions for tempering Qi..."

While speaking, White Bird Holy Fist strode toward Pale Origin. He lifted himself into the air with a slight push of his right foot and transformed instantly into a humanoid white waterbird.

A tail-flame of Qi trailed behind him as he glided away.

"Right now, the most important thing is to secure the heartwood. You cannot defeat it yet, so let me help you!"