Chapter 578: Chapter 578
Boom... boom... boom...
Horrifying echoes reverberated through the air, as though some monstrous machine was in operation, warping everything around it. The ground was almost reduced to ruins as rubble and dust slowly floated upward, seized by an unseen force.
High above, the clouds were tainted by a faint black aura and piled atop one another. The thick, sombre mass blotted out the afternoon sun. Beneath that shadow, a towering armored giant more than a hundred meters tall stood upon the wreckage like an imposing mountain. This text is hosted at novｅlfire.net
Atop the giant's helm, a circular lunar disc cast a crimson glow, illuminating a tail of suspended rubble and dust that resembled a dark-red cloak. The armored behemoth looked every bit like an ancient demon god—primordial, solemn, and savage. Awe-inspiring majesty bled from its feral presence.
The motionless giant slowly lowered its head and the sound of metal grinding could be heard. Its segmented, serpentine helmet faced Blood Demon Diaz.
Two crimson lights flared like two red suns.
"Your life magnetic field tells me you are a fine dessert," the Golem spoke. The resonance of its voice toppled nearby crumbling buildings and caused ruined walls to collapse.
Blue-white lightning streaked across the sky as thick clouds unleashed torrential rain. A violent wind twisted the falling rain, threading the downpour into strands.
The terrible aura of Cassius's Golem body had created a localized climate shift—a hallmark of the Holy Fist realm wherein man's power bent nature itself. Clearly, Cassius's body, Qi, and spirit had neared that boundary.
"The Golem Sect's master!!" Blood Demon Diaz's eyes widened, shock twisting his face. When he had left the Gate Organization's stronghold, the Seventh General King had briefed him on recent events, yet the side effects of the necro-reincarnation ritual had muddled his memory.
Whenever his bloodlust triggered madness, he ignored vital facts, like how could top-tier combat artists such as Nine Serpents and Fog Man be in a tiny nation, or why their life-saving Qi had formed Golem phantoms?
All those clues had been smothered beneath his hunger. Having undergone dark creature transformation, Diaz was now ruled by bestial instinct. Had he taken time to adapt, the issue might have eased, but he had hurried his operation. Thus, the current predicament unfolded.
It was only when Cassius's terrifying aura locked onto him that the sense of mortal peril drowned out his hunger. Diaz finally sobered but it seemed too late.
Retreat! He cannot be fought head-on!
His inner voice screamed, comparing their might at first glance. Even as the seventy-second deputy leader of the Gate Organization, Diaz knew he would lose.
Countless spectral heads shrieking within a hellish domain around the towering blood humanoid rushed toward the battered elders, Nine Serpents and Fog Man.
"You two make perfect hostages!" He lunged. Extreme combat artist Qi exploded and crashed down on the pale elders. A massive blood hand came clawing down at them.
An inconceivable pressure suddenly clamped down on Diaz, compressing him from every side.
"This is...! A combat artist's Qi field! For there to be such a powerful Qi field... Am I fighting a Holy Fist?!"
Normally, Qi fields aided the fighter's Will or applied mental pressure. It was only when ranks differed vastly that they could seal movement. However, both he and the Golem Sect's master were extreme combat artists, so how could he be frozen?
His understanding was not wrong. However, Cassius had achieved the Heart of the Dominator Fist over two years ago and studied peak martial art mysteries, including wide-range suppressive Qi. Moreover, his Southern Dipper Covert Martial Arts was the combination of three first-rate fist techniques, and he wielded the Golem Covert Martial Arts that surpassed first-rate limits. Thus, his Qi field could momentarily bind even an extreme combat artist.
"Arrrghh!" Diaz roared, encased like an insect in amber.
A black iron fist seized the blood figure and squeezed.
Sticky blood splattered like jelly. Wherever it struck, corrosive vapor hissed.
"He... he's dead!" Fog Man whispered through bloody lips.
Moments ago, Blood Demon Diaz had flaunted his invincibility, looking down on them with crushing arrogance. Yet in a blink, the sect master appeared and crushed Diaz to death like an ant! Such an abrupt reversal left one momentarily unable to react.
"No, not dead but badly hurt," Nine Serpents observed coolly. Extreme combat artists rarely fell in one blow. At times, a seemingly fallen master would spring back the next second.
The Golem loosened its massive fingers. Blood dripped between them, yet no corpse lay in the palm, only a jelly-like clot of blood.
"He escaped? Right then, his Will vanished like lightning... Must be some Secret Technique..." The Golem gazed at its blood-stained palm.
He slowly turned, watching the transparent rain falling all around. The rainfall was heavy, urgent, and swift. They linked like a curtain, overlapping and veiling sight. Each drop burst upon the ground.
"Qi avatar? Possession?" The Golem withdrew its hand, letting the rain wash away the blood.
Qi avatar and possession techniques were bizarre techniques Cassius had encountered over the past two years. They offered extraordinary effects, as well as side effects.
For instance, possession resembled the method by which Cassius and Holy Fist Demon Phoenix injected Qi into others' acupoints. It was more purposeful and aggressive, since it infected the host with one's own Qi, twisting or erasing the host's persona to make a blank vessel. If the practitioner's true body fell, the technique would automatically seize that blank vessel, achieving a form of rebirth. Yet therein lay a core question: after such rebirth, were you still yourself?
Furthermore, the rebirth seldom lasted long. Within months, up to half a year, their Qi would slowly dissipate like water without a spring. It seemed like Cassius had met a trump similar to those two techniques. Normally, even he had little solutions against such tactics.
However, Blood Demon Diaz was different... The fool had been too greedy and swallowed the Golem Sect members' blood and Qi. By ingesting those Golem Seeds, he had marked himself like a luminous beacon in the night. Cassius only needed to slightly activate his Golem Covert Martial Arts, and he could sense his opponent’s location. Blood Demon Diaz could not hide himself at all. He could only run away if he realized he had to purge each Golem Seed from his Qi. Otherwise, he could not escape to the ends of the earth.
"Excessive greed is foolish..."
The colossal Golem flickered into a phantom and shrank into Cassius's body. He leaped off the ground and shot off like lightning.
"Southern Dipper Waterbird, Flight of Steel."
A bird’s cry rang out as countless steel barbed feathers sprouted from his shoulder blades, overlapping with his arms. His arms beat against the wind, hollow feathers clashing with a metallic whir.
Cassius accelerated twice in mid-air, causing the air to churn and rain to burst apart. He streaked across the city sky as a straight white line, pursuing a dark-red shadow beneath the ruins.
The scene oddly resembled White Bird Holy Fist in the World of Calamity, chasing a colossal dark creature over the Black Abyssal Sea.
The white bird in the sky dived abruptly like a fighter jet accelerating.
A single punch crashed down, carving a vast cylindrical cavity in the air. The rain was blasted aside by terrifying shockwaves, leaving pure power roaring down upon the ground.
Dong-dong-dong-dong-dong-dong...
Nafei City quaked. A whole district heaved upward dramatically, then dropped into a trough. The oscillation spanned thirty to forty meters, like gigantic waves in a restless sea. A figure hiding underground was thrown into the air.
Blood Demon Diaz spat out blood as he tumbled into a block of buildings, smashing their walls down. Huge bricks and tiles rained down, burying him beneath.
The next second, Diaz burst from the debris. Sensing keen danger, he darted away.
Suddenly, the entire block and ground vanished, as if it had been bitten by an invisible maw! The pit's cross-section was smooth and even, yet radiated terrifying heat. Not far away, a figure in a black coat stood silently on the balcony of a tall building. He was utterly still, like a hard statue amid the hazy rain. Only his right hand stretched outward. His five fingers spread like a bird's talon, pressing toward the huge pit!
Cassius delivered his customary appraisal of the foe. "Your speed is great and you have many life-saving tricks. You may not be the strongest extreme combat artist I've seen, but you are certainly the toughest to kill and the best at fleeing. That too is a skill and an asset..."
It sounded icy and objective, yet carried an unmistakable air of superiority. When the strong judged the weak and offered a modicum of approval, it was the weak's honor!
So, Blood Demon Diaz, hope you feel honored! For the strongest man of the age is hunting you down!
A red and a white silhouette shot through the downpour like cannonballs and vanished.
At the same time, in Coffin Mountain, the second necro-revival ritual had just concluded. It was entirely successful and remarkably smooth.
Seventh General King Bask was in good spirits. However, when he drew the clear crystal disk from his pocket, his smile froze. The Qi seed left within by Blood Demon Diaz flickered like a candle in the wind. Clearly his true body had been grievously wounded and was in peril.
Bask gnashed his teeth. "What is this? Could wiping out a mid-level nation's Covert Martial Arts circle be so dangerous? No, did the Golem Sect's master strike suddenly? Otherwise, Diaz could not have fallen so low! Over two years have passed! Is the Golem Sect still chasing after the Gate Organization? Damn it!"
His thoughts whirled, and he reached a decision in a heartbeat. "Someone must go support Blood Demon Diaz! Losing a top fighter on the eve of the plan is unacceptable..."
He had to send the seventy-first deputy leader, Calamity-Soldier Alonzo, to aid Blood Demon Diaz, aAnd tell him to bring that weapon from Devil's Lake!
Only then could this unexpected, perilous squall be quelled.