Returning to the Mysterious Era
Chapter 436 - Totem King

Chapter 436 - Totem King

Boom!

The old man suddenly lifted his arm and pointed at the sky. A dense streak of crimson slithered through the air like a twisting serpent, initially no thicker than a strand of hair. As it traveled farther, it widened and multiplied, until it became a rushing red river. The light of that part of the sky was completely overshadowed by its brilliance.

Roar!!!

At that moment, the bronze colossus let out a roar. One of the massive runes on its surface separated, instantly transforming into a hulking giant over ten meters tall. The giant leaped upward and slammed into the crimson serpent like a cannonball. The instant they collided, a tremendous explosion erupted.

Hiss, hiss, hiss...

Their terrifying powers canceled each other out, and the totem giant was ultimately annihilated. However, only half of the crimson serpent remained in the sky. It plunged into an obscure spot in midair and vanished without a trace.

At the same time, as Cassius assumed an attacking stance of the Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist, his entire body shuddered. He looked up to see a crimson torrent rushing down to envelop him fully, submerging him in its flow.

“A Southern Dipper Disciple...” Four words echoed in his mind, steeped in a sense of sorrow and bitterness. The illusionary voice at his ear faded, and he sensed a transformation within his body.

A supremely refined force of identical origin gathered in his lower abdomen. It felt like a bottomless ocean, capable of intense spiral impact and decomposing all things. Cassius was startled. This energy turned out to be the Death’s Fang Force of the Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist as well, but it was far beyond his third stage and surpassed even Feng Liusi’s fifth stage. It was a sensation of total completeness, a summit where no further progress was possible.

This was the most perfected, most formidable stage of Death’s Fang Force. It carried a strange vitality which was nothing like static power. It was more akin to a microscopic living organism such as bacteria, almost capable of replicating itself.

The Evil Mother took advantage of the instant he was dazed to launch another assault. Her body, bolstered by well over a hundred totems, could exert terrifying destructive power in every move. An arm behind her stretched forward, and countless totems climbed along it. Black lines coiled around it like steel cables. Finally, the totems built up to a colossal arm.

Her palm aimed from a distance, and then blurred through the air. The hand appeared before Cassius, sweeping him up in a whirlwind of compressed force.

Boom!!!

A deafening crash reverberated in the hall, causing the floor and walls to tremble. Violent blasts of air split left and right in waves, each white crest visible to the naked eye like an expanding ocean surge.

Cassius had not yielded even a step upon impact. The massive totem hand had been halted a meter in front of him. Unexpectedly, the Evil Mother’s blow had been stopped by a giant scarlet mouth bristling with countless teeth.

He lifted a palm and Cassius released a surge of Death’s Fang Force as pure and radiant as rubies. It gushed out of the right side of his body to form an enormous mouth that was imbued with an indescribable savagery.

It looked extremely fearsome in comparison to the Evil Mother’s three-meter-tall, six-armed form.

Rumble...

The totems’ power and the massive mouth commenced a brutal contest throughout the vast space.

Cassius and the Evil Mother were at the heart of the battlefield, employing a myriad of combat moves and totem abilities in a series of apex-level clashes. However, between the giant totemic hand and the enormous horrifying mouth formed by the perfected Death’s Fang Force, all one could see in their swift, violent maneuvers were the collisions of the hand and the mouth.

The hall roared ceaselessly as cracks multiplied across the walls. Occasionally, a massive, palm print was left in the walls or a deep hollow that looked as if it had been chewed away by a mouth. Stones and dust swirled together in the gusting aftershocks. Countless tables, chairs, and experimental instruments lay destroyed, reduced to worthless scraps.

Meanwhile, the aberrations in their cells on the same floor not too far away also sensed the quake-like turbulence. Guided purely by instinct, they grew fearful and began pounding on the bars, trying to flee. They could obviously detect the two looming threats. No matter who claimed victory between those two, the creatures would be viciously devoured.

A tall figure in a black suit appeared by the riverside of District Six. He looked refined in demeanor and around forty years old. He had a pocket watch on his chest and a monocle over his right eye.

He was the Hunters' Association’s chairman, Thunder Prison Deleshart. The Hunters’ Association had taken note of the pursuit between Cassius and Yang Yan. Their clash had taken place over the open waters of the river and ran through nearly half of District Six where many apartments and residential buildings lined the banks, attracting onlookers in abundance.

The Hunters' Association quickly received reports reflecting the severity of the fight, prompting Radiant Hunter Deleshart to intervene personally. He had followed the trail of the battlefield north along the river toward District Six.

Deleshart wore a deeply grave expression, especially after witnessing the highly conspicuous aftermath of the fight along the way. For instance, he recognized the impact of a giant fist in the remnants of a half-demolished brick riverside house.

That meant the combatants definitely exceeded the level of ordinary Shadow Hunters. Based on the traces he had observed, the fighters were at least at the level of a Number Two Shadow Hunter, or even Number One. It was equally possible they could stand against him. The unexpected clash of two apex fighters in Florence warranted his full attention. Any slight miscalculation might result in heavy casualties and property damage, and the fact that two such fighters were battling in an urban setting was all the more intriguing.

After deliberating briefly, Deleshart advanced upstream. Meanwhile, nearly no one remained alive within the underground test site.

Only Cassius and the Evil Mother continued their struggle, tearing down one wall after another around the transformation pool. Simply put, one chamber after another was obliterated by sheer force, enlarging the combat arena with each blow. Whatever equipment or imprisoned aberrations that had been inside those rooms was utterly annihilated, leaving no trace behind.

Strictly speaking, at that point, between the augmentation of over a hundred totems and the sixth-stage perfected Death’s Fang Force, the pair’s fighting prowess exceeded even top-tier combat artists. Though it would not last for long, it was enough to exhibit the might of an extreme combat artist—a realm just short of a Holy Fist.

Boom!

Cassius unleashed a savage side kick with his leg wrapped in scarlet currents. In retaliation, the Evil Mother pushed out with both arms, dozens of diverse totems glowing at once to grant tremendous boosts of power. They clashed like cannonballs, both sides shuddering on impact. She was knocked five meters to the right, while Cassius staggered slightly to the left. There was no break as Cassius immediately darted back in and threw another punch, Qi flooding his entire frame.

His blow came down like a crimson waterfall. The Evil Mother met every brutal, savage strike with her own, all six arms striking out to repel that overwhelming pressure in a barrage of blows.

The air churned violently, filled with swirling crimson.

The sixth-stage perfected Death’s Fang Force kept surging within Cassius, clashing ferociously with her totemic power, as both sides crashed and annihilated each other in frenzied combat.

Their energies drained swiftly, and wave after wave of residual force spread outward, corroding the sturdy walls into pitted wrecks. Certain cracks even reached the ceiling, suggesting another round of conflict could bring the whole place down.

Cassius delivered a palm strike, clashing once more with her fist. He used the recoil to spin and land, instantly assuming the Death’s Fang stance. With arms raised high and low, he resembled a massive humanoid rhinoceros beetle. Crimson Qi surged down from overhead, resembling a cloak, or perhaps wings, or even a transparent veil.

It was the ultimate secret technique of the Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist—Blood Vulture's Beak!

A murderous resolve, thick enough to drip blood, erupted like a volcano. A huge cloud of crimson mist gathered behind Cassius, swirling into a gargantuan, bloody vortex. A monstrous bird’s beak, jaws wide, rocketed out of the vortex like a speeding train!

Where it passed, it seemed to grind even the air to nothing. This was the most terrifying Blood Vulture's Beak Cassius had ever unleashed!

The beak, seemingly crystallized into a ruby, was formed from his sixth-stage perfected Death’s Fang Force, while the rest of the bird’s head was composed of Cassius’s own Death’s Fang Force. Once he fired off this strike, the outcome would be all but decided!

Rumble!

The colossal beak tore violently through the air, exuding an indescribable dominance as it unleashed final judgment on the Evil Mother. In that moment, she made an irrational choice. Rather than curl up defensively, she channeled all one hundred-plus totems to launch one last attack.

A massive totemic hand roared forth from behind her, forming a fist like molten steel. It slammed into the bloody beak with a hum. Everything fell silent in that moment, as even the wind seemed to still—until a crunching, rending sound broke that hush.

The bloody beak drove onward, undeterred, as it shattered the totemic fist piece by piece. As that gigantic hand collapsed, the totems dimmed one by one. In half a blink, every totem the Totem King had granted had been destroyed, including the core totem.

The Blood Vulture's Beak did not let up, striking the Evil Mother who was now utterly drained of power, flinging her away. Several cracking noises followed, leaving her with only two remaining arms, and her height shrank from over three meters to about two.

A ruthless gleam flashed in Cassius’s eyes; he intended to finish the fight then and there. Raising both palms, he vanished from sight, thrusting his entire arm forward. His index and middle finger formed a fearsome Scarlet Fang Gun.

This was not an ordinary Scarlet Fang Gun. It was imbued with the perfected Death’s Fang Force!

Cassius’s arm drove forward like a lance, about to pierce the Evil Mother’s skull and end her.

She suddenly screamed, “I surrender!”

At the same time, she scrambled backward in desperation. However, Cassius was unmoved, his intent to kill at its peak.

“Wait! The Totem King has already its sights set on you! It will surely send shamans from the Ten Thousand Mountains in the surface world to kill you, but I can help!” She shouted in frantic alarm.

However, Cassius’s fingers were mere millimeters from her forehead. He made a split-second decision, letting the Scarlet Fang Gun brush her forehead and skim her temple, driving into empty air.

Its surging spiral energy erupted, transforming into a focused scarlet beam that pierced the wall and shot upward, punching through four or five levels of subterranean buildings. It then bored through several meters of soil, skewering a large tree squarely through its trunk. Finally, it burst into the sky and dispersed. A red whirlwind that was easily dozens of meters tall formed a fleeting shape above the treetops.

Off in the distance, the Radiant Hunter standing at the base of a riverside cliff’s face paled abruptly. He watched the crimson tornado in the woods rise and vanish, his caution rising to its highest level. That was a sign of danger.

In other words, Deleshart had underestimated those two mysterious fighters. That kind of force was powerful enough to threaten him! Filled with apprehension, Deleshart walked silently in the direction of the crimson whirlwind.

Meanwhile, the battle in the underground test site had ended. The Evil Mother’s words in that final moment had saved her life, and when Cassius withdrew his killing intent, she hastened to explain everything she had left unsaid.

“In truth, I could have chosen to flee earlier. That terrifying strike of yours would have gravely injured me, but it wasn’t quite enough to fully bring me down... I allowed those hundred-plus totems to collide with you on purpose because they included a core totem from the Totem King that controlled me. If that core totem hadn’t been destroyed, I wouldn’t be free no matter where I fled. It wouldn’t matter how strong I became, or even if I passed from the underworld to the surface world—I could never escape its control...”

Noticing Cassius’s impatience, she swiftly got to the main point.

“The Totem King is not the origin of totems; it’s simply the most powerful among them. Yet, the shamans of the Ten Thousand Mountains in the surface world view it as the symbol of all totems and the root source, so they obey it wholeheartedly. The Totem King in the underworld can sense everything that happened here, up until the moment you destroyed that core totem. In its view, I was defeated and undoubtedly died, and you emerged victorious. Hence, the Totem King will dispatch shamans from the Ten Thousand Mountains to Florence to kill you. You not only destroyed its plans but also possess strength identical in origin to that of a mighty warrior who has opposed it for centuries...”

“And I can help you fight those Ten Thousand Mountains shamans, and even all of your enemies,” the Evil Mother said, knowing her promises might still fall short. “You may control me by whatever means you have, as long as you promise to release me in ten years and return my freedom.”

Her crimson eyes stayed on Cassius’s. Cassius fell silent for a moment, dark currents swirling in his palm. A Golem Seed flickered through the haze, gradually crystallizing in form.

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