Five minutes later, a squad headed toward the city's outskirts. Everyone wore tight black combat suits and moved so nimbly that no carriage was needed. In barely half an hour, they reached the mouth of a gorge nestled between hills.
The whole black-clad squad halted. Golem Sect members who were already guarding the spot stepped forward and reported respectfully.
"Lord Sect Master, the anomalous zone now covers the whole gorge and half the adjacent lake. When we first arrived it held only a bit more than half the gorge. The zone is expanding." The subordinate continued, "And perhaps it was a trick of my senses, but the zone felt especially unreal at first. Now it has slowly become solid and truly present..."
At the canyon's entrance, Cassius’s eyes narrowed as he nodded slowly. His gaze passed the subordinate and fixed on the distant ravine. Original content can be found at novᴇlfire.net
The gorge looked utterly ordinary. Yet upon closer inspection, the air shimmered, as if heated. The area beneath the gorge also seemed dimmer. It was as though a thin black veil screened a share of the sunlight.
"Wait out here at a safe distance. I'll take a look inside..." Cassius strode forward and walked straight into the canyon.
His vision blurred and a hum filled his ears. All the sounds of the wind, leaves, gravel, heartbeats, and speech vanished at once. The silence was so deep one could sink into it and drift asleep.
A huge swinging fist shattered the trance. Air roared out in stacked waves, swelling into a widening fan-shaped shock. The gale swept through the gorge like a raging debris flow and scoured it clean in an instant. The eerie aura disappeared the next second, as though everything had bowed to that heaven-shaking punch.
Tap tap tap... tap tap tap...
Footfalls echoed quietly as Cassius walked deeper into the gorge. He was dressed in a plain black coat, with an impassive face and icy aura. Indeed this was a special zone like the Eternal Archipelago ashy land, only at its formative beginning. The weird forces were still weak, not yet fake.
Thus, he could suppress them with ease. The gorge looked polished; grasses and rubble were swept away, leaving smooth earth and rock walls. A few cracks leaked blood, as if dark creatures lurking to ambush Cassius had been slain by an unknown area-wide strike.
Cassius ignored the stains and walked, step by step, toward the gorge's deepest point. He could sense a vague source located there. Half a minute later, he halted at a bend. A hazy mirage hovered before him, as though projected from afar.
It depicted a rustic altar, surrounded by a rune-carved stone, fence-like black spikes, and evenly ordered pillars. Each orb-pillar glowed like translucent rubies. They brimmed with viscous luminous blood that seeped slowly from them, creating eerie unease.
The orbs shot crimson laser-like rays linking one another into a complex net. Each ray met at a focal point at the net's heart. The focus should have rested on the central stone. Yet it was misaligned. Cassius walked closer, staring at the vague tableau. Realisation dawned and his aura grew ever more menacing.
He slowly raised his right hand. A river surged within his body, and the entire canyon was wrapped in that howling sound!
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble!
The ground shook violently as dreadful force burst forth like an earthquake. The Golem Sect guards outside had obeyed Cassius's order and withdrawn nearly a kilometer. Now they saw the distant gorge's ridges collapse.
Tons of earth fell from mid-air. Swathes of forest toppled and rocks blasted skyward like a stony downpour. A violet-red cataract roared forth between the debris. It carried a domineering wave meant to sweep away and erase all.
Pap-pap-pap... pap-pap-pap...
Falling stones struck the watchers, stinging faintly. The weaker ones grunted and hurried to seek shelter behind stronger superiors. Franco and his hobbyist group's president, a curly-haired bear-chested giant, were among them. Both stared dazed into the distance, faces aflame with fervour, almost like religious devotion.
Franco muttered to himself. "The Golem Sect Master... This is the Sect Master, a walking divine being! So powerful, so domineering. We’re kilometers away, yet I can feel the frightening force that makes the mind quake!"
Franco clenched his fists, cheeks flushed with excitement. He uttered a rapturous sigh. "Ah... I'm so thrilled my flag's about to rise, hehe..."
The curly giant was more restrained than the madman Franco. However, his trembling breaths told the tale. No one could refuse power! No one could refuse supremacy! Especially these enthusiasts enslaved by fist techniques!
Now they beheld the source of the Six Southern Dipper Volumes and the Golem Heart Codex, Cassius himself! Merely sensing his aura from afar made their knees weak and hearts surge. Truth be told, the Golem Sect's grassroots expansion had scored proud results in the past two years.
But it sowed many hazards such as freakish fist fanatics like Franco and his president. If watching Cassius blast a canyon made them pitch tents on the spot, it was no wonder they did not spare even grotesque Charm Demons.
Howling wind swept through the debris as dirt rained down. A burly black figure emerged slowly from the gorge.
Cassius was silent, mood slightly heavy. He flickered and returned to the group within breaths.
"Return to headquarters at once."
Next, Cassius would mobilise the Golem Sect and Treatment Ward to locate similar special zones.
Find them, then destroy them! Meanwhile, keep close watch on the Gate Organization's moves...