Chapter 574: Chapter 574

A single senior member of the Heaven's Eye Society might stay silent, but one of them would speak sooner or later . If anyone in the Heaven's Eye Society tried to seize the moment and, thinking himself clever, demanded benefits from the Golem Sect, then he would pay the price for stupidity. He would either be cut down on the spot, or cruelly thrown to the interrogators and turned into a cripple when they were done.

A little over half an hour later, Odo and Nine Serpents received the news. The special zone, an enlarged version of the Calamity Tunnel, lay deep in the purple maple forest, roughly twenty kilometres from Heaven's Eye Society's headquarters. After confirming the coordinates, Odo promptly relayed the intelligence to Cassius.

At about five o'clock in the afternoon, twilight painted the sky a fiery orange. A circular area had been cordoned off within the purple maple forest. Seen from above, one could clearly make out a round blot upon the thick green carpet. It was ashen and exuded an air of decay. It almost felt like a scene from a black-and-white film.

Cassius walked alone into the forest that resembled a monochrome movie. He did not immediately draw upon his inner strength to tear the zone apart. Instead, he reached into his jacket and drew out an unusually heavy slab of stone.

The slab was exceedingly ancient, as though it had come from a primordial era. Its surface was pitted and furrowed with countless scratches. It had a string of blurred characters, apparently chronicling something from ancient times, on the back.

On the front, a palm-sized carving of an enormous eye stared outward. The carving's strokes were rugged and barbaric, exuding a primitive austerity. At the eye's centre, instead of a pupil, coiled a tight spiral pattern like a bottomless vortex. The slab was none other than the Arcane Stone Tablet Cassius had seized after destroying the dark creature test site in Florence!

He had not carried it with him before, instead keeping it in a safe location. However, he had brought it because of the incident four days earlier. Cassius had glimpsed a hazy outline of the ancient altar and recognised several familiar clues. Afterwards, reflecting deeply, he realised that the altar's motif matched the stone tablet. It was that same vortex-etched eye!

Once the two were connected, many conclusions followed naturally. There was no doubt that the special zone's appearance was linked to the Gate Organization. Moreover, the Arcane Stone Tablet played a pivotal part in it.

Back in Florence's dark creature test site, the tablet had reflected scenes from the World of Calamity. It had even broken the barrier between the surface world and the underworld for a brief moment, linking the two realms together!

The perfected Death's Fang Force bestowed by Blood Vulture Dominator Fist and the Evil Mother whom the Totem King forced into the real world had both been mediated through the tablet. The object was far from ordinary; it was absolutely crucial.

Cassius stood alone within the grey, decaying zone of the forest. He held the tablet and headed for the altar at the zone's core. When he was four or five steps away, the tablet in his hand suddenly quivered. It flickered faintly and grew steadily warmer.

The altar responded as well. Its once-illusory form became much more solid and ever more real. The gauzy blur that had veiled the scene peeled away to reveal clarity. Cassius stepped onto the altar and stood at its very centre.

A rectangular stone engraved with eerie runes lay beneath him. Four recessed slots in the stone glimmered faintly, drawing the eye. Three of the recesses were already filled; one could just discern three Arcane Stone Tablets set upon them. The final slot was vacant, and clearly the last tablet rested now in Cassius's hands.

He studied it carefully for a moment, then shifted his gaze. Cassius slowly extended his hand and slammed the tablet into the last recess.

With a crisp click, the illusory altar shuddered and then solidified anew. A change occurred. Beams from the surrounding spherical pillars veered at once, restarting their alignment. This time, they no longer sought a weak-point. They were converging at the very position that the altar was at.

Bzz-bzz-bzz... bzz-bzz-bzz...

The focal point crawled across the map, resolutely homing in on its target. Cassius watched in silence, as motionless as a statue. The point scanned an illusory map and gradually headed toward the edge of the Hongli Empire. Yet before it could leave Hongli's borders entirely, the illusory altar began to disintegrate.

Clearly, the Gate Organization's side had completed its own tracing. The special zone was about to dissipate on its own. At last, with a muffled bang, the altar vanished completely. One of the tablets dropped, only to be snatched mid-air by a large hand.

"Interesting. It can even trace the Gate Organization's location in reverse. This tablet seems to have other hidden functions as well..." Cassius slid the tablet back inside his coat and turned to leave.

He now knew how to track down the Gate Organization's survivors, whether they hid within the empire or in secret bases abroad! Once Cassius learned of their exact whereabouts, he would strike without hesitation. He would topple, crush, and slaughter them without any mercy whatsoever!

Such was Cassius’s confidence, who after more than two years of bitter cultivation stood a mere step from the Dominator Fist realm. At the moment, he was the strongest man alive, commanding the world's mightiest force, the Golem Sect!.

As for the Holy Fists or the existing Ultimate Dark Form, certain constraints prevented them from fully manifesting in the real world. Even the fallen Moon God, who formed a statue from lumps of flesh, had failed to do so. They wouldn't even be able to compete against Cassius.

Xiadu, however, was another matter entirely, one that required separate calculation. Indeed, whether it was even a single individual remained questionable. Regardless, for thousands of years, in every age, anyone but one step from the Holy Fist realm could sweep aside all contemporaries.

Cassius lifted his head in the forest. He saw orange light flooding the sky and clouds rolling like waves through gaps in the leaves. He could almost smell a brewing storm in that layered sea of clouds.

"Let the tempest come all the fiercer," he murmured.

It was May 31. Cassius's time-travel would end on July 2, meaning that every major event due to occur would unfold in the coming month.

A dozen days earlier, the foreign South-Crane Fist had visited the Golem Sect to pay respects to its master. They had delivered a fragment of the Qi Engraving Technique and a rather important piece of news. The Gate Organization had returned, and had begun secretly hunting small and medium Covert Martial Arts sects six months earlier.

Not long after that warning, the upgraded Calamity Tunnel zone appeared. It was clearly the Gate Organization's handiwork. The two matters were surely connected, for the Gate Organization did nothing without purpose. Anything the Gate Organization attempted, the Golem Sect would oppose!

Cassius gave a direct order: dispatch elite members to regions where the Gate Organization had been active lately, and thwart every one of their moves. Most of those areas lay overseas, at considerable distance.

Fortunately, in the past two or three years, the Golem Sect had grown explosively. Its influence spread far and wide, and now wielded significant power even in foreign lands. Thus, the sect's elites enjoyed ample logistical support wherever they deployed. Moreover, local Covert Martial Arts circles, furious upon hearing the news, would often join this second great purge of the Gate Organization.

A fervent campaign ignited...

On June 1, in the mid-sized Gafa Kingdom in the Northern Reef Continent.

The headquarters of Fire-Maple Fist had been built on a small hill with delightful scenery. In autumn, one could look down upon a vast sea of crimson maples. Even now, in summer, the lush greenery was pleasing to the eye.

Fire-Maple Fist had flourished for over two years. A steady stream of new blood had joined its ranks and brought in resources and wealth. As the Golem Sect promoted Covert Martial Arts worldwide, the field's capacity for new recruits had clearly swollen.

Many promising seedlings had emerged, producing a scene of a hundred sects contending. Fire-Maple Fist had seized the chance to expand, riding the tide of the times. It soon stood out in Maple-Forest County and became fairly well known throughout Gafa Kingdom.

Gradually, it shed its status as an obscure minor sect and rose to the position of a respectable third-rate sect. Though only newly third-rate, it was far stronger than before. At its present pace, Fire-Maple Fist had every chance of becoming a second-rate sect. The source of thɪs content is Nove1Fire.net

Of course, that was assuming no sudden calamity befell it, such as the dark creature assault on the Wind Elephant Sect, or the Gate Organization's ongoing hunt for small and medium sects to serve some hidden purpose.

Unfortunately, Fire-Maple Fist ran into the latter calamity.

That evening, with dusk not yet fallen and the breeze turning cool, several disciples in sleek training garb were standing guard at the sect gate. They chatted idly, all relaxed and careless. One leaned against the wall with folded arms. Another chewed on an unknown leaf. A third swung his legs, scuffing a small pit with his toe, his gaze unfocused.

To these disciples, guard duty was the dullest time of all. Standing immobile in one spot was even more tedious than monotonous drills. They kept up half-hearted banter about this and that.

No one noticed the atmosphere subtly souring, the shadows deepening, nor the wind growing colder. In the dim light, overlapping silhouettes seemed to stand in the woods, staring at the gate.

A strong gust swept through, leaves rustling. The shadows vanished, only to materialise the next second at the Fire-Maple Fist gate.

One shadow charged straight at the guards.

"Who goes there!" At last, a disciple sensed something awry. He spun around.

His pupils reflected a black figure hurtling in.

"You notice only now? Too late." The shadow's icy voice fell like death itself beside the youth's ear.

In an instant, he closed the gap and punched straight for the heart!

A solid blow slammed into flesh. The shadow's indifferent eyes watched, eager to relish a blood-spewing death throe. Yet, somehow, the youth's face shifted like an actor's. Shock flipped to playful mockery as a trace of ridicule danced in his expression.

"Heheheh... Finally, you scum showed up. I've been acting in this dump for three whole days, and at last you've walked into my trap..."

Crack-crack-crack... crack-crack-crack...

The brown-haired youth's joints snapped like firecrackers; his body swelled, bursting his tight combat suit apart. Shreds of cloth hung from his shoulders.

In the light, one could clearly see a body as muscular as a bodybuilding champion's. His chest bulged high like armour! The black figure's punch had landed on that armour to no effect. A blurred black tattoo flickered across the hulking physique's skin. In the dim light, it resembled a demon.

"You! You're from the Golem Sect! No, we've been tricked!!!" The figure leaped back and shouted a warning.

"Too late! Let me teach you how to blow out an enemy's heart with one punch!" The brown-haired youth grinned ferociously.

He lunged, arm muscles swelling then snapping forward with brutal force. For a moment, his fist seemed like a meteor sparking flames.

The punch was swift and savage. The black-clad man only had time to cross his arms before his chest. The youth's fist struck the overlapped forearms squarely.

An explosive force burst forth, boring through three layers of defence. Both of the man's arms snapped, and a charred crater gaped where his heart had been, sending blood spraying. Terror and a trace of unwillingness glazed his dying eyes.

The brown-haired youth watched coldly as he tore his right hand free from the cavity.

"Fool. You thought two flesh palms could block Fire Stone Fist, one of the Six Southern Dipper Volumes? One blow from me can shatter a boulder! Hmph, the Gate Organization? Nothing but idiots..." He spun and swept his gaze over the battlefield.

Burly fighters kept charging out of the gate, completing the encirclement.

The squad the Gate Organization had sent to annihilate the sect was instead surrounded and wiped out piece by piece. Similar scenes unfolded in many nations across the globe. Within mere days, the Gate Organization's hunting teams suffered crippling losses.

Altar energy now fell far short, even hampering normal weak point localisation. Originally, four Arcane Stone Tablets could mark four weak points. After losing one, they could only track three. So far, the Gate Organization had not located a single weak point. Now, blocked by overwhelming force, they found progress ever more difficult.

If the weak points were not fixed before the right moment arrived, the opportunity would be lost. The Gate Organization could not abide this, so the reigning Seventh General King decided to dispatch the once-dead former deputy leader to slaughter and eradicate the Covert Martial Arts sects. Ideally, he would harvest enough altar energy in one swoop to pinpoint all three weak points!

The Gate Organization's seventy-second deputy leader, Blood Demon Diaz. His target: massacre the entire Covert Martial Arts world of Gafa Kingdom within a single day!

It would be not only revenge but also a declaration. The Gate Organization meant to tell every power on earth that they were back!