Returning to the Mysterious Era
Chapter 442 - Quality of Arrogance

Chapter 442 - Quality of Arrogance

In the canyon, Solomon and Soss slowly built up their Qi, ready to explode at any moment. What those Shadow Hunters on the cliff had said was not wrong; Claire was indeed the weakest of the three.

Lion King Soss had originally been powerful. Though his severed arm had reduced his left hand’s agility, he had consumed a large amount of sacred spring water and ended up stronger than before. His physique-based arcane energy, when combined with his Mad Lion Fist, complemented each other perfectly.

Meanwhile, Solomon the Thorn had raised his power ceiling significantly with the Gate Organization’s Sinful Thorns Secret Technique, which partly compensated for his physically frail build. If they truly fought in earnest, these two stood at the very summit of Dark Gold Hunter rank.

They were only one step short of the Shadow Hunter rank. If any aging Shadow Hunter whose power had waned were to face off alone against either of them, the outcome could be uncertain. Under normal circumstances, Solomon and Soss would have bested everyone else and seized the Shadow Hunter title.

However, fate had set them against Cassius, and so they were fated to lose.

All Solomon and Soss aimed for was a seat among the Shadow Hunters, whereas that was merely a stepping stone to Cassius. He even intended to use that stepping stone straightaway to challenge other Shadow Hunters. What Cassius truly sought was the presidency of the Hunters’ Association, that is, the office of Radiant Hunter, and if possible, even the Chief Mechanist.

Their ambitions and backing were on completely different levels, making the free-for-all feel more like child’s play. Nevertheless, Soss and Solomon were deadly serious. Soss pushed his arcane energy to its limit, instantly falling into the opening stance of his Mad Lion Fist so that its immense force poured into his limbs. He truly resembled a male lion padding across the ground, snarling with bared fangs, ready for the kill.

Boom!

The ground shook, sending a dozen fragments of rock aloft. Soss sprang through the swirling dust at Cassius. He lunged with both palms extended, each swelling vein and knotted muscle adding to the savagery. His ten fingers were curved like steel claws, scraping against the air.

Bang!

A heavy impact echoed through the canyon. Soss’s face froze in astonishment as he looked down and realized his so-called “Lion Seal” had been blocked. Not only that, the technique that thwarted his Lion Seal was another Lion Seal!

A wide, pale palm with rigid knuckles was supported by a single upward palm from Cassius, whose face was unreadable. Meanwhile, his other hand formed a second Lion Seal, blasting the air with a roaring sound. Soss had no choice but to greet it with his other palm.

Boom!

Lion King Soss was literally sent flying. He did not soar backward but instead shot straight upward like a missile. At that moment, his left shoulder went numb, as though it had been severed again. Cassius’s enormous force propelled him skyward, with Cassius himself slowly shrinking from view.

How can he use the Mad Lion Fist... Impossible! Soss’s thoughts scrambled as he clung that one idea in utter disbelief.

Cassius cast a brief glance overhead, then withdrew the Lion Seal into his fist. Naturally, he did not truly know Mad Lion Fist, but as a top-tier combat artist, he grasped the universal underpinnings of any style. All combat moves ultimately stemmed from fundamentals woven together to form combat techniques.

Cassius had once fought alongside a disciple of the Three-Eyed Mad Lion Sect, Duomo, and was hardly unfamiliar with Mad Lion Fist. On top of that, Soss had repeatedly displayed his incomplete style right before him.

All Cassius had done was casually emulate it, yet he had already understood seventy or eighty percent of its essence. At present, his use of it was purely on a whim.

Their clash had lasted scarcely one second. Just as Soss was launched skyward, Solomon the Thorn charged in. Thorns manifested on Solomon’s body as twisting translucent vines. They were eerie and deadly, bearing black tips coated in venom.

When Solomon saw Soss sent flying in just two moves, his pupils constricted. Before he could flee, a blurred figure came barreling toward him. Any intruder in his ten-meter-wide field of thorns would suffer overlapping venomous stings, crushing force, whipping strikes, and piercing wounds.

However, Cassius charged straight in. The saw-like vines served no purpose other than to produce ear-splitting screeches as they were ground away to nothing instead. Cassius’s top-tier combat artist physique was like unyielding steel, while the steel-like spines of Solomon’s Sinful Thorns Secret Technique could not even leave a scratch.

No whipping, crushing, or piercing could break his defense, making poisoning entirely moot. It was as if the lethal bramble, which could shred even an elephant to pieces, had encountered a steel tank rolling through. Wherever the tank passed, only the crushed remains of thorns remained.

Solomon reeled in terror, pressing his palms together and throwing his brambles forward in a frenzied assault. He transformed them into furious waves of thorns that crashed down on Cassius again and again.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

In mere seconds, a dozen thorn-waves pummeled Cassius’s body. Yet they resembled waves smashing against a pillar of rock, as they ended up shattered themselves. When the onslaught ceased, the Sinful Thorns lay in ruin while Cassius stood unscathed, red Qi swirling around him.

Leisurely, he strolled through the falling fragments of bramble, approached Solomon, and struck him unconscious with a single chop of his hand.

Not far away stood Claire, who had not acted like Solomon or Soss. She merely watched as Cassius toyed with them like adults bullying children, crushing their attempts with contemptuous ease.

She shook her head, chiding herself inwardly. “This isn’t much of a fight. Just a few idiots lining up for a beating...”

Ever since Cassius had slaughtered nearly all dark creatures in Florence that night using his black-bait wood tactic, Claire understood that he had possessed Shadow Hunter–level power even before formally obtaining the title. There was no chance for the others.

Soss and Solomon’s desperate resistance was nothing but futile pride. And the result of that was nothing but a farce.

“I forfeit...” Claire looked into Cassius’s eyes and calmly bowed out.

Swish, swish, swish... thud, thud, thud...

At once, the five senior figures of the Hunters’ Association landed in the canyon. Their eyes were fixed on Cassius.

The Number Five Shadow Hunter, Aaron, was carrying Lion King Soss, the one who had been blasted skyward. Though still conscious, Soss looked ashen. His strength had been dispersed by the fierce blow, and he could only stand by leaning on his right leg.

Aaron stood beside him, glancing at Cassius with a complicated expression. Less than ten seconds had passed from the moment Radiant Hunter Deleshart had declared the start of the fight until Claire surrendered. In just ten seconds, the three best Dark Gold Hunters of the organization were defeated. What was even more intimidating was that two of them were actually the best talents qualified to become Shadow Hunters under normal circumstances.

Even if Cassius did possess Shadow Hunter–level strength, that degree of overwhelming victory was awe-inspiring. Yet it was not entirely unfathomable. With the exception of the Number Three Shadow Hunter, Jin, who had been away on missions for a long time and knew little of current affairs, the rest had some idea of Cassius’s background.

The veteran hunters maintained publicly that Cassius was a genius they had raised from childhood. That pretext hardly held any water among those with experience. All the Shadow Hunters could guess that Cassius must have come from the empire’s secretive Covert Martial Arts community. The Covert Martial Arts community teemed with powerful masters, yet it remained isolated and seldom involved itself with outside supernatural forces.

The Dark Hunter Organization had once attempted contact, only for it to end fruitlessly. The Covert Martial Arts Practitioners typically stayed within their community, waging internal battles—North versus South, East versus West, sect versus sect...

They showed no interest in forming alliances with the Dark Hunter Organization or dominating the entire supernatural landscape. Over time, the Covert Martial Arts community and the supernatural world had grown so far apart as to be virtually separate entities. Neither side understood the other well. Cassius’s emergence likely originated from that realm.

Regardless, it did not impede him claiming the Shadow Hunter title as long as procedure was followed and he had the strength to back it up.

A gentle breeze swept through the canyon, carrying away the dust and producing a low howl.

“Congratulations, White Aster. You are now officially one of the Shadow Hunters,” declared Deleshart as he tossed the Shadow Hunter badge he had long since prepared.

It was a metal carving shaped like a ghastly face, cool to the touch and reminiscent of a demon in the dark. About half a palm’s size, the design formed a shield shape with slight stony ridges around its perimeter. It felt weighty and cold.

Cassius caught it. When he inspected it, apart from its eerie patterns, there was a single digit inscribed at the top of the shield, deeply etched into the forehead of the face: five.

It was unmistakably the badge of the Number Five Shadow Hunter.

The former Number Four Shadow Hunter, Soul Scythe, had resigned due to severe injuries, so Number Five, Aaron, had been promoted to the Fourth. The newcomer would naturally fill the fifth slot.

An ashen Soss stared intently at the badge in Cassius’s hand. The object he had desired since childhood was now being toyed with by another.

Cassius gave the Shadow Hunter badge a cursory glance without obvious joy.

He raised his head and gazed at Aaron, Deleshart, and the others. “I heard Shadow Hunters get one chance each year to challenge their peers. The stronger one claims the higher rank. Only the Radiant Hunter alone may not be challenged.”

“You mean... you want to challenge us right now?” Aaron’s brows shot up, his smile fading away.

Some previous prodigies had indeed sought to challenge higher-ranked Shadow Hunters soon after gaining the title, but only after traveling to the sacred spring and strengthening themselves. It was unprecedented for someone to ask for a challenge right upon acceptance of the badge.

When he recalled Cassius’s ten second warm-up from a few moments ago, Aaron realized this situation was far from ordinary, and he braced himself.

“You’re in that much of a rush? You don’t even want to visit the sacred spring first?” His eyes narrowed as his Qi gathered around him.

“No need. Today’s perfect, since all of you are present,” Cassius replied. “If I leave for the sacred spring first, you’ll have scattered on missions across the empire by the time I return. Rather than hunt you down later, might as well settle it now.” Cassius locked eyes with Aaron, refusing to yield.

On the surface, it seemed to be an act of wild arrogance to challenge everyone right after receiving the Shadow Hunter badge. In truth, it was his shortcut toward the Dark Hunter Organization’s upper echelon. If he wanted to climb from the Number Five Shadow Hunter to Radiant Hunter within a year, he had to show overwhelming might as early as possible, compelling them all through force.

Only by intensifying conflict could he enact drastic measures and obtain drastic results such as rising swiftly from Number Five Shadow Hunter to Radiant Hunter.

Naturally, such a brazen move required a prerequisite. Namely, having the strength to back up arrogance.

Without that, one would only be courting death.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.