Returning to the Mysterious Era

Chapter 262 - Blood Fist's Breakthrough: The Blood Vulture's Beak

Compared to Cassius's still-developing mastery of the Southern Dipper Fist Techniques, Feng Liusi's control over Death's Fang Force was far more terrifying. The amount of energy he wielded with each movement of his fingers was precisely calibrated—not too much, not too little.

His fingers moved like a butcher's skinning knife, slicing through the air with ease. Blood Spirit Society members were dismembered layer by layer, like an ox being carved by a skilled butcher, leaving only pale skeletons behind, dripping with dark red blood. Even the core of their immortality, the parasitic Dead Blood, quivered in fear, curling up in the skeletal remains, seemingly terrified of the lingering energy.

A crimson figure shot downward from above, hands stretched out like a bird of prey spreading its wings and cutting two red streaks through the air. The wooden seats in the audience section were torn apart as he passed, leaving three or four torn bodies strewn along the way. At the end of this path, at the very top of the front row, Feng Liusi stood atop a seat back, towering over the scene.

He held a servant of the Blood Spirit Society like a dead dog. His eyes glowed crimson as he gave off an aura of arrogance, confidence, and wildness. It was an air completely unlike his usual self.

His Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist, which had been suppressed for three long years, was finally being unleashed today. His blood-soaked hands trembled slightly as if they were rejoicing in the feeling of life slipping away once again. An exhilarating sensation of fulfillment surged through his body.

"Ah..." Feng Liusi let out a long, satisfied sigh.

A sharp sound emanated from his hand as deadly energy pierced into the servant's skull. It instantly shredded the fragile brain and coursed down through the servant’s body, tearing through veins and arteries, and reducing them to fragments. The servant of the Blood Spirit Society trembled violently, convulsing like someone in the throes of a seizure, with blood streaming endlessly from their seven orifices. In one final spasm, both eyes popped out and bounced on the ground with a surprising amount of elasticity.

Feng Liusi casually tossed the body aside, shattering a wooden seat. He had decades of experience in practicing the Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist, so he realized that he was on the verge of a breakthrough.

It was a feeling he hadn't experienced in four years. As his vitality had faded, Feng Liusi's potential for further progress in his fist techniques had also stagnated. He had been stuck at forty acupoints for what seemed like forever.

But it wasn't that Feng Liusi's talent had reached its limit. He had simply come across the Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist too late in life, just as he was transitioning from middle age to old age. The fact that he had reached this level at all, even in the final moments of his physical prime, was a testament to his late-blooming genius. In the end, he had not been defeated by himself but by time. Aging was inevitable...

Yet now, Cassius’s arrival had pulled Feng Liusi's body back by decades, returning to a state that was theoretically the peak of human physical capability. This new foundation gave the Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist another opportunity to grow, making his breakthrough all but certain.

Would he now go from forty acupoints to forty-one?

No! Feng Liusi could feel that after four years of accumulation and three years of losing his way, he was set to reach at least forty-four acupoints. This would mark a breakthrough from the fourth stage of Death's Fang Force to the fifth!

However, this progress would require time to adjust and adapt. When that time came, Death's Fang Force would undergo yet another transformation.

Feng Liusi's aging heart raced with excitement as all forty of his acupoints twinkled like stars, resonating and pulsating with a strange red glow. The red light shimmered in rhythm with each breath.

Following his instincts, Feng Liusi's bloodied hands moved through the air, leaving behind thin trails of red mist. He kept moving until the scarlet arcs formed a shape of a bird's beak. Feng Liusi's left arm stopped in front of his chest and extended his right hand further out, fingers pressed together like a vulture's beak.

Though it was rough in form, the stance radiated a fierce, aggressive aura. Despite being a nascent technique, it was drenched in bloodthirstiness.

All forty acupoints flickered, gathering red light beneath the skin and concentrating it in his right palm. In the time it took to blink twice, Feng Liusi’s hand, with fingers pressed together and wrist bent upward, became a vibrant, crimson red, as if painted with blood.

It looked like the menacing beak of a bloodied vulture.

"This is..." Cassius abandoned his experiments at the sight. He charged into the ground with an explosive leap, plowing through everything in his path and leaving shattered limbs in his wake. A single step later, he sprang into the air like a coiled spring, gracefully landing on the metal wire at the edge of the ring. He looked down at Feng Liusi below.

Feng Liusi was breathing deeply with closed eyes. His pores opened and contracted as red steam mist around him like a mist of ethereal ribbons. His hands trembled slightly, indicating that he had entered a perfect state of flow.

"What's going on?" Saint Feinan strode over, curious.

"Inspiration... no, more than that—a breakthrough," Cassius said. He understood Feng Liusi's current state, since both of them shared the Southern Dipper Covert Martial Inheritance. Since he had been suppressed for too long, Feng Liusi's thoughts were now overflowing like a fountain.

Tap, tap, tap... Tap, tap, tap...

Suddenly, footsteps echoed from several underground tunnels. Someone had been drawn by the earlier commotion. Cassius and Saint Feinan exchanged glances, nodding in understanding.

Their silhouettes shot into the tunnels like arrows, leaving dark blurs in their wake. Gunfire, shouting, and the dull sounds of fists striking flesh suddenly filled the tunnels, followed by brief, agonized screams and the crunch of bones breaking. One of the tunnels even trembled violently, as if its walls were being pummeled. Gray dust trickled down from the ceiling as the tunnel shook.

Within moments, the two of them returned to the ring, the air around them thick with the scent of blood.

The entire underground arena was now littered with bloodstains and corpses. Everywhere showed signs of destruction. In the center of the arena, Feng Liusi stood, still enveloped in a red mist. Slowly, he brought his hands together, and the blood-red vulture behind him faded away.

He opened his eyes, and the Qi retreated back into his body.

Cassius recognized the familiar sound of bones cracking. After four long years, Feng Liusi had finally advanced his fist techniques—forty-one acupoints.

Even more surprisingly, he had half-developed a new killing move. Though it was still nascent, Feng Liusi believed that this technique might become the pinnacle of his martial career. Compared to moves like Blood Flower or Blood Spear, this new technique possessed far greater destructive power and offensive potential.

The Blood Vulture Beak. A raptor’s ultimate weapon of penetration.

If he could fully develop this move, and if his Death's Fang Force broke through to the fifth stage, Feng Liusi would feel even more confident in defeating the Blade Demon from the Gate Organization.

Coming back to his senses, Feng Liusi and Cassius exchanged a glance. Feng Liusi recalled tonight's plan to destroy the temporary Blood Nest of the Blood Spirit Society. Aside from the White Ocean underground arena, they knew that its members also gathered in George's Poker Casino and the Headlights Strip Club. These were all shady, chaotic places, full of all sorts of people.

They needed blood bait to maintain the power of the Dead Blood, so they naturally had to spread out and cast a wide net. If they hunted in one area for too long, they would quickly attract the attention of the authorities. In other words, there were still many members of the Blood Spirit Society left. The few dozen Cassius and his companions had killed here were just a small fraction, and they hadn't even encountered a fully-formed Dead Blood.

Which meant there was still more killing to do tonight! Feng Liusi took a deep breath, feeling an exhilaration he hadn't felt in ages. He had regained the feeling of being at his peak.

"Next location?" he asked expectantly.

"No." Cassius shook his head. "Wait for me."

The air around his nose abruptly spiraled into a pale white vortex, as if it had been drawn into a whirlpool by a powerful cardiovascular system. A vibration, accompanied by a special magnetic field, rapidly radiated outward, making Saint Feinan feel as though the ground beneath him was trembling.

"Oh." Feng Liusi quickly realized what was happening and turned to Saint Feinan, "Give me a hand. Quickly!"

Moments later, the vast underground arena echoed with sharp cries, like the wails of babies being snuffed out. All the Dead Blood within the corpses of the Blood Spirit Society members, those that hadn't died yet, were crushed by the vibrations of the Golem's life magnetic field. Even those trying to crawl away were caught and killed.

Standing at the center of the main passageway, Cassius remained motionless as he continually caught the bodies that Feng Liusi and Saint Feinan tossed to him.

There were more than forty incomplete Dead Blood entities. The magnetic field strength varied, but overall, it wasn't very high. It was nothing compared to the quality of the creatures Cassius had once absorbed in the cages of the Black Ops Agency. Those were a whole different level.

However, it was still valuable for him. Although the vibration quality was low, there was plenty of it to go around. Faint vibrations gathered together, forming a stream of energy within the Golem's life magnetic field. This warm sensation quickly spread throughout his body, causing his skin to tingle, his muscles to twitch, and his bones to soften.

It felt as though something deep inside was about to break free, like his whole body was soaking in a hot spring. The Golem Covert Martial Arts: Qi Embodiment technique also made gradual progress, as the floating numbers in the upper right corner of his mind slowly increased. This easily filled Cassius with a sense of satisfaction and joy.

[Golem Covert Martial Arts: Qi Embodiment 20.2%% (Total Three Stages)]→[Golem Covert Martial Arts: Qi Embodiment 22.1% (Total Three Stages)]

He had increased by 1.9%. He had used the best parts of twenty-five out of forty-five dark creatures. While the progress didn't seem like much, Cassius was satisfied. After all, the second stage of Golem Covert Martial Arts: Qi Embodiment was significantly more challenging. Additionally, the incomplete Dead Blood entities were only of average quality, and absorbing twenty-five of them had saved him several months of arduous training.

It was still a win.

Moreover, ever since Cassius had reached the combat artist stage and entered the second part of Golem Covert Martial Arts, he noticed that the vibrations he absorbed no longer primarily affected his physique but instead targeted his Qi. It was as if each stage addressed a specific attribute.

According to the Black Ops Agency's grading scale, Cassius's Qi had made progress, roughly increasing by one-tenth.

Qi: B (20+2) → B (22)

His physique was extremely powerful already, so it did not change noticeably. However, as his Qi strengthened over time, his physique would inevitably see gradual, positive growth.

Cassius still had the vibrations of twenty dark creatures left. After absorbing vibrations of the same frequency too many times, the effect would sharply diminish. Absorbing any more here would be inefficient. Besides, the vibrations from these creatures were full of impurities.

If he wanted to fully utilize the Golem's magnetic field ability, the next best targets would be higher-quality complete Dead Blood entities or something even stronger. That would be a true delicacy.

Cassius turned to look at Saint Feinan. The sixty-one-year-old Saint Feinan was nonplussed.

Two minutes later, Saint Feinan was in a state of bliss. He suddenly felt like an old tree sprouting fresh green shoots that were brimming with vitality. Warm currents flowed through his body, seemingly washing away old injuries and hidden ailments. He had never felt so light and relaxed. His entire body felt hot, his pores opened wide, and his joints and bones creaked as his muscles tingled. A look of utter intoxication spread across his young-yet-weathered face.

Feng Liusi rolled his eyes.

Damn it, this old fox got lucky.

Saint Feinan looked young because of the Covert Martial Arts technique he practiced, which maintained his youthful appearance. However, it did nothing to stop the decline of his body, which was now quite old.

At sixty-two, he was already well into the mid-stage of vitality decline. Like Feng Liusi, he was on the verge of plummeting downhill. He never expected someone to pull him back from the edge of the cliff and back up the mountainside. Experiencing the Golem Covert Martial Arts magnetic field transmission for the first time was remarkable, especially with the added boost from twenty dark creatures. Saint Feinan suddenly felt as though he was ten years younger.

The life force surging within his body was undeniable. He felt like he had improved in every aspect, as even his once brittle and dull white hair became smoother and shinier.

Saint Feinan exhaled a deep breath of murky air, stretched his limbs, and marveled at how light his body felt. He looked at Feng Liusi across from him and suddenly realized something.

"Wait a minute. You sly old fox! No wonder you've been looking younger. You tricked me with that nonsense about breakthroughs and martial arts reaching new heights! We're no longer friends!" he exclaimed in mock outrage.

Feng Liusi rolled his eyes again.

Saint Feinan turned his gaze toward Cassius with a bright smile, his face showing the seasoned charm of his age. "Cassius, you're a real friend, generous and loyal. You've earned my respect!"

Standing two meters away, Cassius forced an awkward smile. Of course, he wasn't going to tell Saint Feinan that the vibrations he had transmitted to him were all the low-quality remnants that had been filtered out after absorption. Though, to be fair, they were still quite useful.