Returning to the Mysterious Era

A door completely filled Cassius's vision.

It was covered in a seaweed-like dark red rust, where a vertical pupil stood upright in its center.

Upon making eye contact with that eye, he heard countless whispers around him. Then, everything, except the vertical pupil, started to peel away from the door, leaving only a vague outline of light, with no physical body. Only the irregularly shaped piece of metal wrapped around the eye continued to float.

Cassius looked around in confusion, realizing he was in utter darkness. The only source of light was this floating fragment.

He tried to look at the upper right corner—his status bar was still there.

He hadn't fallen victim to an illusion, nor was he in a near-death state due to severe injury; this was something else. Something peculiar.

Cassius refocused on the most distinctive piece—the fragment in front of him. The symbol of a vertical pupil was carved on it. He approached it, slowly reaching out with his right hand. The moment his fingers touched the fragment, Cassius felt his vision spin, as if he were swirling around a toilet bowl.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself back on the street where the battle had taken place. However, his perspective was strange… like he were a floating ghost looking down on himself.

"Cassius" was getting to his feet on the darkened street. His upper body was bare, and his entire right arm had turned into black muscle. Thick, green veins crawled beneath the skin like vines, extending toward his shoulder, and continued to spread until it covered his neck and even the right side of his face. The large veins throbbed vigorously at his temple.

Despite this transformation, "Cassius's" face remained expressionless. His pupils were as dark and calm as ever, and still under the Demon Worm's influence.

"What on earth are you?!" Count Andrew demanded from ten meters away, his face a mix of surprise and anger. His entire right hand had shriveled up, looking like a withered branch, the skin wrinkled like that of an elderly person.

During their brief collision earlier, the blood-red energy, which usually took a considerable amount of time to dissipate, had been instantly drawn away and absorbed by this human in front of him. Moreover, Andrew sensed a familiar aura emanating from Cassius; it was reminiscent of a dark creature!

"Cassius" seemed to have no intention of explaining as he stood. The black veins covering his arm continued to spread, gradually encroaching upon the right side of his body. He stared silently at Andrew and did not move.

Floating above, the real Cassius felt a strange sense of absurdity. What was controlling his body below? Why had such a mutation occurred?

While he pondered this, the battle resumed.

Enraged, Count Andrew hurtled forward. When he was in his wrathful state, energy expenditure was no longer a concern. His body swelled and distorted until he became a monstrous half-human, half-bat creature nearly three meters tall, his muscles bulging grotesquely. Coarse red hair covered his body, and his mouth was filled with sharp, white fangs, jagged like saw teeth.

He ripped off his shriveled right hand in one smooth motion, choosing to charge forward on one arm. His massive claws struck the ground, leaving half-meter-wide craters with each step. As stones scattered and flew, he rapidly closed in on "Cassius." Yet "Cassius" showed no intention of dodging.

The massive arm, nearly the size of a torso, shoved "Cassius's" entire body across the ground, ploughing deep trenches into the earth. "Cassius" raised his black right arm in defense, utterly unyielding. Though he wasn't as strong as the high-ranking Blood Race, the difference was marginal and he was able to resist the forceful blow.

He turned sideways and swung his massive fist, countering Andrew's punch with his own.

Red and black fists collided, their powers instantly canceling each other out. A fierce shockwave radiated outward from the point of impact, sweeping away the dust that had been kicked up moments earlier.

The red and black figures clashed furiously. Interestingly, Count Andrew could only attack with his left since he was missing one arm, while "Cassius's" now-mutated right hand was far stronger than his weaker left hand. His punches were almost exclusively right-handed.

Each of their dozen punches pitted Andrew's left hand against "Cassius's" right. In combat, Andrew relied on his instincts, while "Cassius" flawlessly utilized every combat skill embedded within his body.

In this state of extreme calm, "Cassius's" combat techniques were more precise than Cassius's. Every attack and evasion was textbook and executed meticulously. This body seemed much stronger without Cassius's consciousness inhabiting it.

Under these conditions, Count Andrew, having lost an arm and thus a third of his combat strength, couldn't defeat "Cassius." Even though he used corrosive energy to cover his massive claws, Avalon's Bloodthirsty Ripple continued to block him.

This resulted in this strange balance where "Cassius" was at a disadvantage in the battle but still had enough strength to counterattack.

Hovering above, the real Cassius's eyelids twitched. He decided to refer to the body below as Li Wei for now. Li Wei had been in the extreme calm state induced by the Demon Worm for about three minutes and had used Avalon's Bloodthirsty Ripple at least twenty times. It was worth noting that during Li Wei's previous battle against two shamans, he had only used the Bloodthirsty Ripple five times, and the extreme calm state induced by the Demon Worm lasted only thirty seconds.

Even then, Li Wei had nearly died afterward, his mental and life force almost completely exhausted. Now, the body below had used five times the original amount! Wouldn't this lead to immediate death?

Pow, pow, pow, pow…

Amidst the thick dust swirling around the ruined street, debris and stones flew everywhere, and the two figures continued to clash, their blows rumbling like steamrollers, as if the surrounding air had become tangible. The dust made the spreading ripples in the air visible.

With a loud crash, Li Wei's body was kicked out of the mist, flying at least twenty meters. Meanwhile, another figure darted in the opposite direction and away from the fog.

Count Andrew had fled. He couldn't overpower Cassius and could feel the imminent rigidity and slowing down of his consciousness. These were restrictions imposed on high-ranking monsters.

With a swoosh, Andrew covered nearly a hundred meters in a second. At the street's bend, he suddenly stopped. In the final moment before his consciousness froze, Andrew looked back and saw a figure chasing after him.

Damn it! When I awaken, I'll definitely… His gaze quickly dimmed.

Li Wei charged forward like a cannonball, his fist crashing heavily into Count Andrew's side, sending him flying.

Li Wei didn't let up as he pushed off the ground and pursued the count's airborne body. His right hand, solid as an iron hammer, came down with a fierce, straight blow.

The ground beneath them suddenly caved in as the count was driven deep into a pit. The defense on one side of his body shattered, revealing spider web-like cracks, from which a thick, blood-red steam erupted.

With his blackened right hand, Li Wei pressed down against the cracks. The veins in his arm throbbed wildly as if reveling in the delicious feast. In no time, a vast amount of the blood-red steam was absorbed, the veins greedily shooting out like branches of a tree. Starting from his shoulder, then to his chest, abdomen, and down to his legs, half of Li Wei's body turned completely black.

Watching all this, Cassius suddenly recalled something.

The black veins were caused by the radiation from the meteorite beneath the Baptism Chapel at Black Rain Manor, which seemed to be the foundation of the entire estate. Black Rain Manor appeared to have a unique status among dark creatures, as it hunted dark creatures for their dark essence to continually revive itself.

Cassius had witnessed the manor's formidable power before.

Combining this with the current state of Li Wei's body, Cassius had reason to believe that the meteorite beneath Black Rain Manor could radiate and mutate a person's body and soul, transforming them into a dark creature.

Cassius had originally thought the radiation from the meteorite caused physical mutations, with the time-travel ability removing the bad parts and leaving behind the good ones, like the black veins. But that didn't explain why, when Cassius entered the fourth time-travel, the veins had followed and appeared on Li Wei. His soul was the only thing that traveled back in time; his body couldn't come along.

There could only be one explanation: the radiation from the meteorite had mutated Cassius's soul, and the physical changes were merely manifestations of the soul's mutation. This also explained the black veins in Li Wei's arm.

Cassius also remembered how, when he was healing, the cold aura caused by dark creatures within his body dissipated unusually quickly. It must have been because it was the black veins' favorite sustenance.

Moreover, Cassius realized something else.

In the real world, he hadn't been completely isolated from dark creatures. There was a Red Eye-level Shadow Demon locked in the basement, for example. But his arm hadn't mutated or shown any signs of abnormal growth like it was doing now. Clearly, other factors were causing the current situation—like that glowing door from earlier.

As soon as he thought of "door," three terms popped into Cassius's mind: the Gate Organization, the Threefold Gate, and the Mirror of Illusions.

First, there was the Threefold Gate from the Soma myths, which Cassius had heard about from the well-traveled Yun. It comprised the body, Qi, and soul. Every ordinary human possessed these three gates, though whether they were developed or could be sensed varied.

The Covert Martial Arts were suspected to be methods for training and sensing these gates. The gates were also connected to the dark creatures as they were categorized by which of the three gates they lacked.

Secondly, there was the Gate Organization.

Based on the information Cassius had overheard at the chapel in Mensa Village, the Gate Organization was scouring the world for traces of the mysterious, legendary Threefold Gate. This suggested that the gates weren't merely a conceptual idea but had a physical form. As that combat artist Peacock had said, the gate was in fragments, with one such fragment hidden within the Mirror of Illusions.

These pieces possessed mysterious and unknown powers, capable of restoring youth, rejuvenating life, and enabling one to continue on the path of martial arts.

Cassius suspected that the vertical pupil fragment he had just seen might be one of the Gate Fragments. He must have accidentally acquired it while evading Peacock, and didn't even realize it even after he time-traveled. This fragment had a strange reaction with the black veins, allowing them to absorb dark essence and complete the dark creature transformation. In other words, Li Wei's body was turning into a dark creature—a new and one-of-a-kind type that had never existed before and likely never would again.

So, what about Cassius?

Was his true consciousness suppressed by the emerging one of the dark creature, and was hiding within his Gate of Soul? Perhaps, using some ability granted by the Gate Fragments, he could still perceive the outside world.

All of this was pure speculation on Cassius's part and based on the information he had. It might not be entirely accurate, but there was a high chance it was.

After sorting through his thoughts, the first thing that came to his mind was whether he could regain control of his body. The second was how to prevent himself from fully transforming into a dark creature.

As for Count Andrew, whose combat skills were comparable to that of a seasoned fighter, Cassius no longer considered him a threat nor a concern. Li Wei's body had visibly grown stronger, devouring a massive amount of blood-red steam. A dense mass of black muscles covered half of his face.

Count Andrew, who was originally three meters tall, had shrunk rapidly to just two-and-a-half meters. When he regained consciousness, he was hit with a profound weakness in his body.

"Get away from me!"

Count Andrew struck Li Wei with his claw, but unlike before when he had sent Li Wei flying, he merely staggered a couple of steps back.

"You've gotten stronger?! You've been absorbing my power to boost your own!"

Count Andrew sprang to his feet. He didn't want to kill Li Wei anymore; all thought was now on escaping with his life intact.

Without a moment's hesitation, Andrew turned and sprinted away, his feet launching him into the air like springs. However, a massive black hand seized his right foot, bringing his body to a sudden stop, like a kite caught by a powerful force, and pulling him back.

"You!" Andrew's face contorted in frustration.

He swung around, punching the hand entwined with Bloodthirsty Ripples. Both forces clashed violently, quickly consuming each other. But Li Wei had a vice-like grip on Andrew's foot. The two of them were locked in a bizarre, forceful struggle.

"Take this!"

His strength was rapidly waning. Andrew's eyes hardened as he used a hand blade to slice off his own lower leg swiftly. He escaped in the opposite direction.

Boom!

Li Wei pursued him at an even faster speed, his large hands spread wide as his broad, muscular chest, half black and half white, advanced inch by inch like a thick, heavy wall.

As Andrew saw the terrifying figure get closer, ready to pounce, despair filled his eyes. He screamed on the inside, Don't come near me…

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