Returning to the Mysterious Era
Chapter 446 - Entering The Sacred Spring

Chapter 446 - Entering The Sacred Spring

The wind howled in the canyon, carrying a heavy swirl of dust and gravel. From above, one could clearly see long, crisscrossing tracks and pitted terrain, all remnants of fierce battles.

Cassius stood where holes and fissures were most concentrated, wearing a Number Two Shadow Hunter badge adorned with a demon motif on his chest. The badge gleamed faintly metallic in the sunlight. It seemed strikingly conspicuous.

Claire stood behind the group of Shadow Hunters with her seaweed-like hair draped over her shoulders, revealing her fair forehead. She watched Cassius with a flicker in her eyes. Even though she had anticipated this outcome, the reality still felt somewhat surreal.

He had become a Shadow Hunter and immediately challenged other veteran Shadow Hunters, successfully fighting his way to the Number Two Shadow Hunter rank. Moreover, when Number One Shadow Hunter Kaiser had stepped in to stop him, they seemed to have matched each other blow for blow.

They had only halted when the Radiant Hunter Deleshart personally intervened to mediate. This outcome had gone far beyond Claire's expectations. She had simply assumed that today would be the final qualifying match for the Shadow Hunter seat. She had figured Cassius would secure a landslide victory in the battle and become the Number Five Shadow Hunter.

Yet in the end, that had merely been a starter course, a warm-up! The real show had turned out to be Cassius challenging those long-standing Shadow Hunters the moment he joined...and winning!

Next to Claire stood Lion King Soss, his face pale and his former arrogance withered like bean sprouts that were a few days old. He was no longer a lion king nor any kind of king; at best, he could be deemed a puffed-up young lion.

He could not defeat a full-grown lion, let alone the leader of an entire pride. The gap between Soss and Cassius was even greater than that between a lion cub and a true lion king. They were separated by the vast gulf of the Shadow Hunter class, as well as the three incremental ranks from Number Five to Number Two Shadow Hunter. Soss simply could not compare.

When the gap grew that large, it did not spark ambition but rather led to discouragement and a profound sense of helplessness.

Solomon the Thorn shared the same sentiment. He had gotten up from the ground with his clothes covered in dust. His dark eyes were fixed on Cassius, revealing a trace of reluctance and envy. Yet he quickly averted his gaze, as though afraid that Cassius might notice his thoughts.

What on earth had gone wrong with Zhu Hun's side? A week had already passed, and the final contest is now over... Had they abandoned me, or had something unexpected happened to them?

Now that the struggle for the Shadow Hunter seat had concluded, each person harbored their own thoughts. After a short rest, they left the canyon in batches.

The only ones who remained were the Radiant Hunter Deleshart and the Number One Shadow Hunter Kaiser. They briefly repaired some of the battle damage to ensure the canyon was not too ravaged, then returned together to the capital. On the way back, Number One Shadow Hunter Kaiser finally spoke up, voicing what he had been holding back.

"President, why did you stop me from activating my third form? If I'd fought as the Golden Colossus, there's no way White Aster could have beaten me..." Kaiser eyed Deleshart with a faint tone of grievance in his voice.

It was understandable, given that he had used his second Colossus form to clash with Cassius and had repeatedly ended up at a disadvantage. He was saving his energy to gather strength for his third form to teach the brazen newcomer a lesson. However, at that moment, Deleshart intervened, forcing them both to stand down.

Kaiser had done as he was told, though he simmered with resentment inside. Now that he was alone with Deleshart, he naturally voiced his feelings. Deleshart took a silver pocket watch from his breast pocket, flipped the cover open with one finger, and checked the time before speaking calmly.

"I simply didn't want you to lose too embarrassingly."

His words were frank, but Kaiser could not accept them.

"Lose embarrassingly?" He gave a laugh born of anger and shook his head. "Do you think so little of me, President? You know my strength. If I used my third stage Golden Colossus, even you would have to..."

"No." Deleshart interrupted Kaiser, turning to look him in the eye. "It is precisely because I know your strength that I said I didn't want you to lose too shamefully."

Kaiser raised his brow as though something had dawned on him. His anger subsided at once, and he said nothing, urging Deleshart to continue.

"You were caught up in the fight and couldn't see things as I did from the sidelines. White Aster's attack rhythm did not change at all when you went from your first-stage Gray Colossus to your second-stage Dark Bronze Colossus. He didn't even alter his breathing, not even when you two went wild trading blows with your Dark Bronze Colossus form..." Deleshart explained slowly.

"..." Kaiser parted his lips, seemingly wanting to argue, but ultimately remained silent.

He knew Deleshart would not deceive him, so the truth was that White Aster had been calm and in control throughout the fight.

"And there's more," Deleshart went on. "Right when you were about to break through from the Dark Bronze Colossus to the Golden Colossus, I felt an extremely dangerous aura flicker by. That sense of danger was concealed beneath your own surging momentum, so nobody noticed it but me. If my perceptions had ever failed me before, I might have dismissed it as a hallucination. But it was definitely no illusion. The danger emanating from White Aster was enough to threaten even me..."

Colossus Kaiser remained silent. He was reputedly capable of giving Deleshart a brief challenge and had been commended by the Chief Mechanist. Yet Kaiser knew well the gap between himself and Deleshart; he could only trade blows with Deleshart by relying on the burst of power from his third-stage Golden Colossus.

Once that burst ended, his strength would quickly subside to its usual level. After all, if Kaiser could truly match and defeat Deleshart, he would not be the Number One Shadow Hunter. He would already have become the Radiant Hunter.

Despite this, White Aster had managed to make Deleshart sense imminent peril, however fleeting it might have been. His concealed strength likely ran far deeper than it seemed, so engaging him by force would yield nothing good.

In that case, it would have ended up exactly as Deleshart had predicted. A humiliating defeat...

After a long silence, Kaiser broke the quiet. "If White Aster possesses such strength, why did he join our Dark Hunter Organization? Why did he feign ignorance and conceal himself for three whole years while pretending to be just a Black Copper Hunter...?"

He added one more question, "Does he have some kind of hidden agenda?"

"Hard to say." Deleshart paused. "I believe he's acting in good faith, or is at least willing to abide by our rules. Even though he was already this strong, he still followed the procedural rules to secure the Shadow Hunter seat. Furthermore, the moment he became a Shadow Hunter, he exposed his hidden abilities. That might be viewed as a gesture of goodwill. He openly flexed his strength, dispelling more sinister doubts I might have had. Logically, White Aster's actions suggest he isn't likely to be our enemy..."

"And besides, White Aster comes from the realm of Covert Martial Arts. We can say he has few ties to the supernatural domain that we oversee, so there wouldn't be much conflict of interest. At the very least, he utterly despises dark creatures—of that we can be sure. So with such top-tier combat strength that can combat dark creatures, we have no reason not to put him to use. It also allows us an opportunity to observe and study these mysterious Covert Martial Artists. The organization has never had a chance to engage with someone of his caliber before..."

Deleshart explained each point in turn. In truth, both he and the Chief Mechanist had noticed Cassius's meteoric emergence quite some time ago. They had simply watched from the shadows, allowing Cassius to act freely without interference. The Chief Mechanist's stance was that, if Cassius proved himself valuable and strong enough, then they could have a thorough conversation. For instance, they might discover shared interests or a common enemy.

The Chief Mechanist had faintly sensed something off in recent years, as though unseen currents surged beneath the shadows of Florence. They waited only the right moment to erupt. He had detected this omen through countless minor clues while dealing with the Shadow Hunters' duties. Though it remained only a forewarning without any concrete evidence or pinpointed foe, the Chief Mechanist believed it was most likely linked to tensions among the Shadow Hunters, the royal family and Hongli Council, and possibly even some mysterious outside forces.

He already had a few suspects in mind but further investigation was necessary. Allowing Cassius to develop freely had been partly intentional. Overall, the Dark Hunter Organization did not object to Cassius joining.

Deleshart and Kaiser talked for a while and did not linger further on the road. They soon left the canyon and returned to the organization's headquarters in Florence. There, a minor twist awaited them. The Chief Mechanist had been called away unexpectedly and might not return until the following day or the day after. He left instructions with his confidants for Deleshart to proceed with standard protocols.

Thus, Deleshart simply moved up the task scheduled for the following morning and decided to bring Cassius straight to the sacred spring that very day. They took a short break in the Hunters' Association hall before heading for a private chamber, where they located a passageway under the floor. Deleshart led Cassius into the tunnel and into the darkness.

By this time, word had spread throughout the Hunters' Association that Cassius had become a Shadow Hunter. Many idle hunters who were between assignments flocked to the bar for a beer, boasting and chatting with their comrades.

Those who had made wagers on which contender would ultimately win the Shadow Hunter seat had to pay off their bets by downing three large barrels of beer, eventually falling into a drunken stupor. Some even had to publicly shave their heads bald. Others shamelessly showed off, shutting their eyes and stripping down, then running ten laps around the bar on bare, hairy feet, shouting, "I'm a pig!"

Strange antics abounded that day as some expressed admiration, some questioned, others grew jealous, and still others grew dejected...

Meanwhile, Cassius and Deleshart had already departed from the Shadow Hunter headquarters in District Seven and beyond even the city of Florence. They wandered through the passageways, at times seemingly returning to the surface, only to switch to another tunnel. They traversed this labyrinth for hours before finally stopping.

Cassius kept his eyes shut during the journey, following Deleshart in silence. He heard the steady sound of footsteps until they suddenly ceased. Then he realized they had reached the Dark Hunter Organization's sacred spring at long last.

He opened his eyes to a scene of near total darkness, pierced only by a faint glimmer of light. Cassius glanced around and sensed that they must be inside a cavern. He looked to Deleshart, who nodded, indicating that Cassius should step outside with him.

They walked a few dozen paces, and the light steadily grew brighter, accompanied by the faint trickle of running water that chimed along like a delicate melody. Walking farther, they caught the strong yet faintly sweet smell of rising mist.

Then their view opened up dramatically. They had reached a sunken circular basin that resembled the mouth of a dormant volcano. Towering cliffs formed a ring around them, draped in creeping vines. Dense jungle shrubs covered the ground, with roots twisted like snakes and a smooth, bright green layer of moss.

There was a ring-shaped clearing next to the cave, with several square boulders stacked like steps rising upward. Golden water gushed down a v-shaped groove in the center. It looked like molten metal as it bounced and fell into the pale gold surface of a pond, stirring ripples. The droplets shattered like breaking glass marbles.

Even from a distance, Cassius could sense the surging vitality it emanated. There was a waist-high rock by the edge of the pond, around which an old tree had entwined its roots. Perhaps from years of immersion in the sacred spring water, the stone had taken on a transparent golden hue, gleaming resplendently in the sunlight. The old tree was equally extraordinary; its trunk seemed like colored glass, and its leaves were golden, rustling in the breeze.

However, a few patches of corrosive black clung to the crevices of its trunk, exuding a cold, malevolent air, like some hidden threat lurking beneath a glorious era...

"The pond is less than a meter deep. You can soak in it fully clothed. I'll wait over there. Call for me once you're done..." Deleshart spoke as he made his way to the stone and sat cross-legged. A faint thunderous hum emanated from his body, signaling that he was refining his energy.

Cassius cast a glance at Deleshart, then turned back toward the golden pond. He strode forward slowly, descending into the water step by step. His entire body slipped below the water, leaving only his head above the surface. The moment his skin touched the sacred spring water, his body soaked it up like a parched sponge by reflex.

Waves of comforting energy poured into his body from all directions. The sacred spring water flooded in so abundantly that it cocooned Cassius in liquid form, as though about to nurture something even more formidable.

In the pond, platinum sacred marks gradually glowed on the back of his hand. At the same moment, at the top of the boulder steps within the center of that golden fountain, some half-broken rune flickered, lighting up in response...