Chapter 588: Chapter 588

A familiar sound rang out, resounding until it covered the whole land. It was the sound of Seranar energy steadily amassing and intensifying.

On the far side of the inter-world passage, pit suddenly appeared on the surface of the World of Calamity like a honeycomb. The holes were so dense they made one's skin crawl.

Swoosh, swoosh... ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel⁂fire.net

Clusters of red luminescent bodies shot from those holes into the sky like scarlet marbles. They were so numerous that they resembled summer mosquitoes by a lake.

"Seranar, Seranar, Seranar..."

The glowing spheres spun and trembled. They were semi-transparent eyeballs, each crowned with cloud-like mist. The small ones were about the size of a person while the large ones rivalled a hill.

These were the direct descendants who inherited Seranar energy, and resembled their source. Seranar meant Evil Eye, and sure enough, every glowing body had the shape of an eye. The earlier million-strong vanguard were varied in form and bore merely a single Evil Eye that let them wield Seranar energy.

They were more like dark creatures infected by the Seranar King's Ultimate Dark Form life magnetic field. Hence they had been sent out first as expendable fodder.

Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding!

The horde of crimson eyes slowly turned in the air until every glowing pupil fixed on Cassius.

Hiss... hiss... hiss...

Threads of incredibly thin red light suddenly formed to the passage. They were perfectly straight firing trajectories. Had there been just one, even a Covert Martial Arts Practitioner's eye might have missed it, for each was finer than a hair.

Yet there were far too many; who could count how many were crammed into a single inch of space? Perhaps millions, perhaps tens of millions? In any case, they became visible to the naked eye, turning the entire space into a tightly woven red mesh.

At the rim of the black cavity, Cassius narrowed his eyes and slowly raised his right hand.

His palm was covered with faint red filaments, dynamically following his movements.

"Heheh, will that help you?" He laughed coldly as he raised his head.

A dreadful scarlet pillar blasted out from within the World of Calamity. It filled the entire inter-world passage, spilled over, and hurtled an impossible distance across the surface world's sky. The pitch-black night was forcibly cleft apart.

That day, villages and cities for a thousand kilometres along the Hongli Empire's eastern coast heard a bomber-like drone overhead. Many were jolted awake, opened their windows, and saw a miraculous red beam slice through the sky, crashing into the deep sea like a mountain.

Seawater shot skyward in tonnes, turning into a violent downpour. It carved a vast void into the ocean's center. After vaporising kilometers of water, it seemed to keep drilling through the seabed.

Shock waves fanned across the surface, about to form a tsunami.

On Saint Lun Mountain, inside the Seranar energy pillar that completely clogged the inter-world passage, a raptor-like figure burning with fearful flame was neither blasted apart nor hurled away by the raging force. It simply stood there, unmoved, as steady as the mountain itself.

Indeed, the lifelike bird spread its cruel wings, skimming low within the Seranar pillar.

At first glance, it resembled a fighter jet in a closed-environment experiment. The Seranar pillar was its environment, and the falcon the jet. The layered waves of Evil Eye energy seemed to be no more than a somewhat strong gale to Cassius. At worst, they made movement tricky, but to think they could harm him or exhaust him was pure fantasy.

Whether it was a combat artist's Qi or a dark creature's energy, quality always held paramount importance. Once the gap in quality became great enough, numbers scarcely decided the outcome. For example, would ramming truckloads of cotton into a ping-pong-ball-sized alloy chunk cause any visible harm to the alloy?

Granted, the analogy was extreme.

Perhaps water versus a boulder served better. Under normal conditions, rock easily parted flowing water. It was only if water eroded it over years that the stone might wear away. Judging by the present scene, could those crimson eyes of the World of Calamity sustain this Seranar pillar for an entire year?

After just ten breaths, Cassius could feel the pillar's strength waning. After fifteen breaths, it had halved. After twenty, the pillar vanished completely.

Yet the scarlet-Qi vulture that was Cassius still stood. He even balanced on one leg, leisurely flapping a wing. The flaming tail feathers shook, as if casting off the foul energy lodged in their gaps. He remained unscathed.

Cassius grew wild as his Killer Persona exulted, releasing his Dominator Fist aura as though taunting the foes of the World of Calamity. "Still repeating the same tricks... Useless attacks. Will the Seranar King still not show itself? Is it scared? Retreating?"

Come on, crawl out and fight me!

Yet while he spoke so, his figure kept circling the passage's edge, with no intention of entering the World of Calamity. Except for dire necessity or a once-in-a-lifetime chance, he would never battle an Ultimate Dark Form in the World of Calamity. Doing so would foolishly cede his home-field advantage and hand the initiative to the enemy.

Every inch of the World of Calamity brimmed with calamity aura, making an Ultimate Dark Form even stronger. Meanwhile his own Qi would be suppressed. A balanced fight might tilt against him. In the surface world, the reverse held true. He would hold the edge and execute some ideas of his own to draw blood.

Yes, he meant to slay an Ultimate Dark Form!

First, he must lure it out of the World of Calamity. Otherwise, escape would be too easy. Only by entering the surface world would the Ultimate Dark Form lose its roots and struggle to replenish its core power. Like a fish leaping ashore, every gasp would drain it. But when its life-sustaining element was gone, it would lie like meat on a chopping block.

A shrill cry of the Blood Vulture pierced through the sky. Its echo carried deep into the World of Calamity. It was a provocation—one steeped in Dominator Fist aura!

Cassius now understood that the Seranar King was a remarkably cautious Ultimate Dark Form. All of its previous assaults had merely been probing attacks. To an Ultimate Dark Form, dark creatures were nothing but fodder. When one died, more would spawn. So long as it could force out a hint of the foe's strength, the loss of lives was actually a profit. Even if it cost millions of dark creature lives. Even if it had to give up an Evil Eye giant.

A howling gale swept past, flooding the area around Saint Lun Mountain with calamity aura, leaving an eerie sensation in the air.

Countless red points of light suddenly flared in the buffer zone where the two realms' laws met. In the blink of an eye, the entire space shone bright as day.

Cassius whirled around, staring at the sky opposite Saint Lun Mountain where an enormous phantom gradually materialised. It was not a solid being but a mass of red energy. A dragging robe formed around a humanoid shape. A crimson eye gleamed beneath the robe’s hood, and a transforming weapon formed in one cloaked hand.

Cassius's brow lifted as his aura turned dangerous once more. He had thought the Seranar King might be a mountain-sized eye, yet it was not corporeal at all, but pure energy.

Indeed, the Seranar King was the manifested will of Seranar energy itself!

It differed from a traditional Ultimate Dark Form. The Seranar King's form was wholly unbound. It could become a savage beast, a ghostly haze, or—like now—a humanoid colossus.

What didn't change was its origin: Seranar energy.

At the passage's rim, Cassius's eyes swept the area. Seranar energy filled the circular buffer zone. He instantly realised another reason for the prior assaults. They had not only tested and attacked him. They had also dumped a vast amount of Seranar energy into the surface world.

It seemed the Serenar King’s descent could only be sustained when there was sufficient energy density in the air. It was like a rising tide that allowed sea creatures to reach places that were once unreachable.

Cassius's mind raced, yet his face betrayed nothing. He cared little for the Evil Eye clan's probes or the Seranar King's schemes. All he wanted was for the opponent to step into the surface world. Everything else was trivial.

The Will of the Seranar King, an Ultimate Dark Form, descended. Most of its Will shifted from the World of Calamity, flowing into the zone saturated with Seranar energy.

The blood-red robed phantom grew denser and its aura fiercer. Layer upon layer of strange ripples swept out, covering hundreds of kilometers. The forest shook, and green leaves dulled a shade toward ashen grey.

A solitary crimson eye flared beneath the cloak. The head dipped, staring at Cassius from atop Saint Lun Mountain. "Are you the one provoking me? A newborn Dominator Fist..."

A thunderous voice swept the sky. Terrifying pressure filled the air, almost enough to crush the land.

"Who else is here? Hahahaha..." Laughter drowned out the Seranar King's rippling voice.

Cassius leaped into the sky to stand level with the Seranar King's head. His dark, deep gaze locked silently with the crimson eye.

"You dared exit the World of Calamity and enter the surface world because you sensed a new Dominator Fist outside. A freshly born Dominator Fist whose strength has soared, yet whose experience remains shallow..."

"Perhaps you thought a Covert Martial Arts Practitioner newly advanced to Dominator Fist would brim with swollen power and pride. You would seize this chance, enter the surface world while I was cocky and unseasoned, strike first, slay and devour me, and thus ascend one step further as an Ultimate Dark Form... Is that it?"

Cassius's face curled into a wicked grin, as though his plot had succeeded. He let his aura spill forth unrestrained. The Qi field of an ordinary Dominator Fist grew dense, its oppression mounting. He had progressed past a tenth of the Golem Covert Martial Arts' Mental Unification stage.

It granted him the vast Qi a Holy Fist normally honed over centuries. Coupled with the Southern Dipper's lethality that was peerless among Holy Fists, his danger level soared to the oppressive might of a mid-to-late Holy Fist.

The Seranar King's eye flickered a rapid crimson.

"That's not all, there's more."

Fully unleashed, Cassius gave a twisted smile and suddenly looked northeast toward the coast. There, a black silhouette strode over the waves, bringing along an icy rain. Each step froze the sea beneath him inch by inch. An unimaginable chill came with him.

The figure suddenly raised his head, gaze piercing hundreds of kilometers to lock onto the Seranar King above Saint Lun Mountain.

"Deep Ice Ultimate Fist!" Cassius slowly spoke the four words, lips twisting in a vicious arc.

The Gate Organization had their own backups in the surface world, and so did the Ultimate Dark Forms. In that case, how could the many Holy Fists born of the Covert Martial Arts world fail to leave measures in their own home?

"Alone, I felt uncertain about hunting an Ultimate Dark Form since I'm still a new Dominator Fist. But now... Two Holy Fists together is more than enough!!!"