Chapter 581: Chapter 581

Caught in a barrage of Qi that felt like a howling tempest, Calamity-Soldier Alonzo shuddered on the verge of collapse. The overwhelming Waterbird Qi phantoms blanketed the lake, crushing every spark of resistance to its feeblest flicker.

Such resplendent heavenly might...

Only then did Alonzo grasp what Seventh General King Bask's parting warning truly meant. This man was indeed an adversary the Gate Organization had never faced. That the current deputy leader Holy Fist Demon Phoenix had been routed by Golem Sect's master, Cassius, stemmed not from Demon Phoenix's weakness but from Cassius's overwhelming might!

His strength neared the point of exceeding the limits of an extreme combat artist. He was stepping toward a new, supreme realm.

Another enormous waterbird swept through the air, steel thorn-feathered wings beating in a graceful yet lethal arc. The white colossus crashed forward like a charging mountain. The black aura sheathing the Beast-God Weapon quaked violently as it started to show signs of disintegration. Another crisp crack sounded from within.

Alonzo's eyelid twitched, a flash of pained distress crossing his pupils. Those two noises meant his mighty weapon had been damaged. He had once paid with his life to wrest the Beast-God Weapon from Demon Lake in the World of Calamity.

After necro-revival, he had finally forged a bond with the coveted armament. Yet within mere hours of wielding it, the Beast-God Weapon had suffered blow after blow. If this continued, it might become half-crippled or outright ruined.

I can only fully activate the Beast-God Weapon to briefly reawaken the Ultimate Dark Form Beast-God's arm. It seems paying a price is inevitable.

These thoughts flashed through Alonzo's mind, and he decided in the next instant. Feral Qi poured from his pores, rising like flames. A metallic sheen spread swiftly over his skin, covering his torso, limbs, and even the very tips of his hair.

He resembled a humanoid weapon. His arms and legs looked like they were forged with steel as they were coated in a silvery gleam. His brown locks turned silver, arrayed like steel needles. When the wind blew, they clinked together.

This was the Covert Martial Arts he had created late in his life, seeking to transmute the human frame into a weapon. Limbs, joints, even hair could serve as weapons. Pushed to the extreme, the art rendered him a living weapon.

Any weapon in Alonzo's grasp would unleash dreadful lethality as if the two weapons were resonating, doubling in power under perfect control. He had once employed this state against a kenjutsu master. When the master's cross-slash fell, Alonzo snatched the treasured blade as though plucking a twig. He had then reversed the stroke, defeating the master with an identical yet superior attack. This state was a divine skill for any weapon user!

Now, Alonzo adopted it merely to qualify for driving the Beast-God Weapon into full activation. Once activated, the weapon would drain his life force and Qi every second. He had to pay a toll to gain that power.

The Beast-God Weapon began to swell rapidly. Cables of twisted muscle as thick as pillars sprouted. Veins broader than torsos throbbed, pumping viscous dark-green blood. Suddenly, a giant beast-claw with black bristles materialised. The Beast-God Weapon was no longer mere bone, as it was sheathed in flesh, skin, and fur. It looked as alive as the Ultimate Dark Form Beast-God's claw that had fallen millennia ago.

A vast, wicked life magnetic field so dreadful that all beings would quake rippled outward. Beneath the colossal shadow, Alonzo's weapon-statue body trembled unceasingly. He could not tell whether it was from exhilaration at the weapon's reviving power, or because his vitality and Qi were being siphoned like an open dam. Perhaps it was both.

Alonzo lifted his unnaturally pale face, eyes burning. He could almost see Cassius through countless Qi phantoms, palms joined like a sacred statue.

"Power bought by burning life is truly extraordinary... Next, I shall—"

As cruelty rose in his gaze, a figure traversed thousands of metres in a blink.

A murmured word slipped from his lips.

Immediately, a towering black-armoured giant manifested. It seemed to emerge from the depths of the void, with colossal claws rending a passage into the surface world.

Its savage, domineering body descended. Scarlet eyes beneath the serpentine helmet blazed, locking onto the Beast-God Weapon like searchlights. A faint hunger for the revived weapon gleamed. This was not battle ardour, but a spine-tingling craving for a delectable meal.

Alonzo shook his head sharply, horrified that such a notion even brushed his mind. The Beast-God Weapon hailed from an Ultimate Dark Form, the apex of dark creatures. It was a progenitor, the one and only, the origin of things.

What could feed on an Ultimate Dark Form? Impossible!

Driven by that dread, Alonzo melded his mind with the weapon, becoming one. His vitality and Qi blazed as fuel, driving the fully revived Beast-God Weapon into ferocious assault.

The vast black claw swept out, leaving a blur of overlapping afterimages. A condensed translucent air sphere blasted through the forest. The weapon followed, clawing at the towering Golem. Its five talons fell like the hand of a god.

Thud-thud-thud! Thud-thud-thud!

The Golem raised its arms to the sky, bearing peerless might beyond even Whale King Arlington's reach. Black fists shot upward, wreathed in layer upon layer of dense Qi.

It was a clash of raw power. The fully revived Beast-God Weapon, a relic of an Ultimate Dark Form, against the Golem Covert Martial Arts which had evolved many times to surpass first-rate Covert Martial Arts.

It was a weapon versus Covert Martial Arts. And also Beast-God versus Golem.

A roar smothered all sound as the lake water erupted and forests flattened.

The towering Golem stayed silent, as cold as ever. It slowly lowered its arms, revealing cracked armour with blood seeping through its fissures. It jerked its head up to look at the sky.

A giant palm from Beast-God spanned the heavens, blotting sun and sky. It was still colossal, still formidable. Yet its shadow lacked a piece. Its pinky finger was gone! After clashing with the Golem, the Beast-God Weapon had but four fingers left!

High overhead, a bloody finger plummeted like a falling mountain. Alonzo could only watch with a pale face. His lips moved, muttering some inaudible words.

The four-fingered weapon lunged down, trying to reclaim its severed digit. However, the towering Golem blocked its path.

The weapon was forced back, and the falling finger was caught by a black colossal hand clad in iron. The weapon darted sideways in midair while Alonzo stared at the distant Golem. He saw the Golem clasp the finger as an undulating life magnetic field spread over it.

The Beast-God's own field flared, sending a panic-inducing aura that made every cell quake. Yet the Golem was unfazed by such feeble threats. Its Covert Martial Arts was well-versed in devouring Ultimate Dark Forms.

The Beast-God's last resort was but a mere bluff. Just its dying wail.

The flesh of Moon God, Blood of Immortality, and Pale Origin. These were all powers the Golem Covert Martial Arts had already absorbed. It had even devoured the golden totem from the Totem King.

It had already swallowed four kinds and had no fear of a Beast-God. A defeated enemy’s residual power was simply meat for Cassius. The Golem would feed!

It would devour the Ultimate Dark Forms one by one like a decomposer of the food chain. Such was the purpose of the Golem Covert Martial Arts. Cassius nurtured its evolution yearning for that day to come.

Vibrations clashed within the life magnetic fields. Streams of Beast-God energy were squeezed out, seized by the Golem's own field, and wolfed down.

Alonzo watched the scene unfold in horror. "It is eating an Ultimate Dark Form!!!"

Fireworks seemed to burst in his skull. His thoughts shattered and language disappeared. As the Gate Organization's seventy-first deputy leader, Alonzo was among the world's foremost scholars of dark creatures.

It was precisely because he understood their might and why they were titled kings, gods, and progenitors that his horror ran deeper beyond words. It felt as if a devout person of faith who believed their god omniscient and omnipotent was suddenly watching a monster feed on their god. Before their very eyes, it bit off the deity's arm and chewed greedily.

Alonzo's lips twitched and he began to laugh. "Heh... hahahahaha!"

Tears seemed to squeeze out of the moist corners of his eyes.

"So ridiculous... Utterly ridiculous!"

Kingdoms end, gods fall, and progenitors return to dust! Nothing was eternally indestructible, nor is anyone truly immortal. It was only because time was too short and enemies too weak—nothing more!

All things lived and died in rightful cycles. Calamity and Qi, Ultimate Dark Forms and Holy Fists; the world ran on its balance.

And what of Xiadu, who seemed beyond all? Would someone rise to balance it?!

Calamity-Soldier Alonzo, seventy-first deputy leader of the Gate Organization, bearer of the Beast-God Weapon, was confirmed dead in Gafa Kingdom on June 5. His vitality and Qi were burnt to death. At the same time, the fully revived Beast-God Weapon was battered, half-crippled, and forcibly taken. Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on novel fire.net

Blood Demon Díaz, seventy-second deputy leader of the Gate Organization, ruptured his Qi and blood to expel every Golem Seed and escaped five hundred kilometers at the cost of nearly half his life essence.

The high-profile return of the Gate Organization fizzled out midway as their intended public resurgence suffered a severe setback.

Days later, in the Hongli Empire's Golem Sect, Cassius returned bearing the Beast-God Weapon. He alighted at God's Tears Lake and hurled the pillar-like armament into the water. Thus began Cassius's second secluded attempt to reach Dominator Fist!

God's Tears Lake, once open to all, was sealed off by the Golem Sect. It was not just outsiders but even sect disciples were barred. Only a lone skiff floated on the lake.

The four elders took turns keeping watch per day. As time passed, the aura on the isle grew denser and more fearsome. A vague sense that something was reaching a summit stirred. The Golem Sect disciples thrilled, suspecting what was afoot.

Practitioners bearing Golem Seeds found sudden inspirations during cultivation. They glimpsed hazy phantoms haloed in radiance, transcendent and saint-like. Just seeing a silhouette bestowed countless insights and enlightened their minds in an instant. Principles of fist techniques poured into their minds as if the phantoms were the fist techniques themselves.

Qi surged outward, sweeping all obstacles out of the way. If he had the momentum, he would crush all blocking his way, and remain unbeaten on every path.

Such was the path of the Dominator Fist!