Damned Healer-Chapter 627: Toward The Fuse

Even though Darian still hadn't revealed any shocking techniques, his fighting style alone exposed him as a veteran who had come out of countless bloody battlefields. There was simply no comparison between him and the greenhouse flowers of this city's clans.

Even if both had equal power, or even if Caoming were an entire realm stronger, he would still die at Darian's hands.

Several spectators turned their gazes toward Caofeng. They wondered whether he would really just sit there and watch his own descendant get killed.

"You bastard, did you really think you could beat me?! You're way too naive!" Caoming roared.

*BUZZ!*

Darian's eyes flashed. At the same time, the people in the stands widened their eyes and let out cries of shock.

Caoming's entire manifestation shrank and vanished, as if it had been absorbed into the armor. Right after that, the armor pulsed, and countless runes lit up.

"He activated the full power of the armor! That's impossible!"

People shouted as they felt a power clearly beyond Caoming's own pouring out of the armor. He was at the eighth level of the Heaven Saint Realm. Yet, now he was giving off strength comparable to someone at the absolute peak of the realm, extremely close to breaking through their limits.

"Darian, tell me, how do you want to die?" Caoming looked as if he were possessed by a demon; even his spiritual fluctuations were no longer the same.

Darian waved indifferently. "Stop wasting my time with pointless words. I already gave you more than enough time. In the end, I barely even warmed up."

Caoming stared at Darian for a few moments, seemingly processing what he'd just heard. Then he exploded with rage once more.

"Die!"

He charged, and the entire martial stage darkened, swallowed by terrifying, overwhelmingly oppressive demonic power.

"Hehehe, it's over!" Caofeng in the stands smiled coldly.

At that moment, Darian lightly flicked his hand. A strange dagger appeared in his grasp.

He moved it slightly, and a rune on its blade lit up.

*SLAH!*

He slashed, and the entire atmosphere changed. Everyone felt as if their own throats were being cut. A blade split the time-space ahead, rushing toward Caoming.

At that instant…

Caofeng's eyes in the stands widened, and he clenched his fists.

In the same second, a rune at the center of Caoming's armor burst with dazzling light.

As if by magic, Caoming's image rippled and vanished before everyone's eyes.

In the next instant, Caoming reappeared on the opposite side of the martial stage.

Darian's attack surged forward and struck empty space, then exploded against the barrier.

**KBOOOOM!!**

After the violent explosion, everyone stared in shock as cracks began spreading across the barrier around the entire martial stage.

People went pale, and then they heard the loud sound of glass shattering. The entire barrier collapsed. This meant that every inscription there had suffered damage beyond what it could endure and had been completely destroyed.

"Isn't the Central Arena's inscription supposed to precisely assess a person's destructive power? I've never heard of anyone being able to damage it!"

Some powerful elders, who had lived countless years and witnessed innumerable battles on that very stage, had never seen anyone cause such damage.

"For the evaluation to be wrong, either Darian possesses some lost art that lets him fool its senses, or he commands some supremely powerful weapon that exceeds the inscription's range," an ancient figure explained with a sigh.

In truth, there had been cases in the distant past where the inscription misjudged things, but the most recent one dated back millions of years, when many Emperor Saint Realm figures still existed in the city.

That past was so distant that most people had forgotten it. Moreover, that incident had only destroyed a single brick and created a crack in the barrier, making Darian's current actions far more terrifying.

The people were both calm and frightened at the same time.

Frightened because damaging that inscription was an unprecedented crime, even if by accident. And calm, because they were certain the battle was already over…

So…

Darian turned around. The moment he met his gaze, Caoming trembled from head to toe inside the armor.

Darian didn't say a single word, nor did he give anyone time to react, as everyone was still stunned by what had just happened.

His dagger simply pulsed with a terrifying black power, and he slashed again.

Suddenly, all the bricks of the martial stage exploded. Without the inscription's connection, those bone bricks couldn't withstand such pressure.

A blade surged forward, leaving a black trail and ripping through space once more. An intense killing intent shook the entire arena.

"This is bad!" With an awful premonition, Caofeng spat out a mouthful of blood, no longer caring about keeping the secret.

Overwhelmed by terror, Caoming felt like a tiny ant, realizing he was completely powerless before his inevitable fate: death.

"No! Grandpa, save me!" Unexpectedly, Caoming completely gave up and fled.

At that instant, the other four clan masters and the city Lord all sensed the fluctuations.

There was a connection between the armor and Caofeng in the stands. That connection used extremely high-level void power and had been carved into the armor long ago.

Everyone's expressions changed. This was cheating! The Scarlet Cloud Clan master had used his own power through that connection to strengthen Caoming earlier and had even helped him escape Darian's strike.

Now, Caofeng was using it again to save him.

"YOU BASTARD! Has the Scarlet Cloud Clan completely lost its dignity?!"

Only then did Sylvanos realize what Caofeng was doing. The two Protector Elders raised their bows, ready to shoot him and cut off his support.

"Seniors, calm down. Leave this to Dan," Niara said, gesturing for them not to attack.

The three hesitated. At that moment…

Caoming rippled once again and vanished. However, Darian used Chaos Blink with his spiritual root.

The clan master's help had limits, only allowing him to teleport Caoming to a nearby safe location. But Darian could predict, through karma, exactly where he would go.

This time, Darian's attack wasn't serious; he only used the black power. Then, in the middle of the attacking motion, Darian disappeared…

"!"

Everyone in the arena widened their eyes.

Darian appeared behind Caoming, exactly where he had reappeared.

"Blinding Break"

The world lost its color. Even the void power of the universe trembled.

**BOOM!**

The instant the dagger struck Caoming, he exploded, and even his battle armor shattered. But that wasn't all — the black blade continued its path beyond the martial stage.

*RUN!!!!*

With an apocalyptic roar, the stands were destroyed. A quarter of the arena simply vanished.

Fortunately, the moment the armor exploded, everyone instinctively sensed the danger and activated the escape mechanism, so no one died.

The people at the edges of the stands were utterly terrified, hair standing on end, mouths hanging open, bodies shaking uncontrollably. They were so scared they couldn't even move.

The entire Central Arena had been built during the city's golden age, using the finest materials. Not even a ninth-level Emperor Saint could destroy it like that. The current city Lord, even using everything he had, would barely be able to cause minor damage.

After two seconds, everyone in the stands snapped out of their daze and jumped to their feet. Driven by fear of what might happen next, they pressed the escape buttons and left the place immediately.

Only Darian's group and the five great powers remained.

A deathly silence filled the area.

Darian stood calmly at the center, holding a dagger, without a single scratch on him.

The once-majestic martial stage now lay in ruins. And that terrifyingly powerful figure who was meant to be the next leader of the Scarlet Cloud Clan… not even a single trace of him or his armor remained.

Suddenly, the silence was broken by the sound of someone spitting blood. Everyone turned toward the muffled noise and saw Caofeng coughing up blood, completely stunned.

Darian slowly turned toward Caofeng and said lazily, "Hey, old man, that descendant of yours was pretty weak. If you don't accept the loss, feel free to send more people from your clan to challenge me… Or you can come personally."

In an instant, all eyes turned to Caofeng, and the atmosphere became tense.

Caofeng clenched his teeth, filled with murderous fury. He had used his own soul energy to create the connection with the armor and help his grandson, but Darian had turned everything to dust, causing a severe backlash and serious damage to his soul.

"Hey, are you going to fight or not? Say something. Why are you keeping your mouth shut? Don't tell me you've absorbed so much blood from other Suck-Hyenas that now you can only communicate through whimpers and cowardly silence?" Darian mocked as he walked across the destroyed stage, showing complete indifference toward Caofeng.

Niara felt her heart pounding wildly as she watched Darian's almost divine figure on the stage. He looked incredibly beautiful, arrogant, and domineering.

And judging by the expressions of all those powerful figures who remained in the stands…

The air had turned into an invisible powder keg, and Darian was the spark calmly walking toward the fuse.