Damned Healer-Chapter 703: Mirrors Of The Past

In the middle of the sacred forest, at the top of a hill.

Meru had just arrived and sat down. When she closed her eyes and clenched her fists... at that moment, she felt something and opened her eyes, turning around.

In the skies, a small and very beautiful woman was approaching in a hurry.

"Mother..." Meru murmured.

"How is he?" The response came immediately, filled with anxiety.

Meru took a deep breath. "He’s almost 16 already. Even though he only just started, we taught him everything we could. Don’t worry so much, he’ll manage to cultivate on his own."

The woman sat down beside Meru, still unable to calm herself. "Darian is very rash and impulsive... he’s a lot like your father. I’m afraid he’ll run into danger he still can’t handle. I’m sure that if he sees something he doesn’t like, he’ll fight to the end, no matter who it’s against."

Meru sighed. Indeed, her little brother was like that, just like their father and also... just like he had been in his past life.

His name had been kept as Darian, at Meru’s request. He grew up surrounded by care and love all those years, spoiled by the whole family and the people close to them. But...

...when he turned 10, something started to change in him.

It was like a voice was calling him, telling him he needed to hurry. It was instinctive, a reflex from his past life. He didn’t understand it, but he felt a terrible sense of urgency.

So even without understanding what he was feeling, little Darian decided he wanted to start cultivating and training.

When they saw that absolute and desperate will burning inside him, Meru and her mother couldn’t refuse. Still, he was too young, and his father forbade him from starting cultivation before the age of 15.

That didn’t mean he couldn’t train and study; actually, it was even better that he built a solid foundation first.

So Meru once again took on her role, teaching him how to fight.

His mother, named Ruri, dedicated herself to teaching him about the world and everything that existed. As for his father, even though he was always very, very busy, he set aside a few times each month to teach him how to create things and understand how the Laws of the World worked.

Darian received extremely vast training. That was because, for someone like him, who carried the Celestial Bloodline in his veins, it was only a matter of time before he became an Immortal.

When that day came, his bloodline would fully awaken, and he would have the power to shape reality and everything that existed. That was why he needed to be taught in the most proper way possible and possess the highest level of skill.

The years passed, and everyone was shocked by that young man’s willpower. Every year, he became more and more anxious to grow stronger.

Finally, when he turned 15, he was given permission to begin cultivating.

However, his father made it clear that he wouldn’t receive direct help from anyone.

The last thing he wanted was to raise an arrogant and spoiled young man. The hunger for power Darian showed was intense, and that could easily lead him down the wrong path. So it was better that he climbed that mountain alone and calmly, seeing the world with his own eyes.

They only gave him the proper knowledge and training; now he had to fend for himself to gather resources and ascend.

But of course, Meru and Ruri wouldn’t leave him completely helpless, so they gave him a route and a hint.

On a very specific planet in that universe, in a distant past, Ruri had left behind an inheritance. In fact, throughout the entire universe, there were thousands of inheritances left by Immortals. The reason was that, before the final war, everyone had tried to create new soldiers, and those things were left behind.

After everything ended, they chose to keep the inheritances that hadn’t been found, so the next generations could benefit from them.

In short, that inheritance was a good starting point for Darian. And also...

...Meru could sense a very dense black karma on that planet.

Something hidden was happening there, without the cultivators knowing. Of course, she could see and solve it immediately, but she couldn’t interfere in the lives of mortals like that. They needed to solve their own problems.

Also, that planet, fortunately, was located in a region called the Mortal Plane.

That universe had very specific laws and rules that couldn’t be violated.

First, there was a clear division into two planes: the Mortal Plane, where everyone who wished to live peacefully, away from cultivator conflicts, could exist; and the Celestial Plane, where cultivators lived in pursuit of power, creating all kinds of chaos.

Anyone who caused trouble in the Mortal Plane would be marked by the Laws of the Universe and suffer dark karma. But unfortunately, for some cultivators, that wasn’t such a severe punishment. To become stronger, it was even worth it.

On the other side, for cultivators in the Celestial Plane to create sects and ascend, they needed to form and nurture a Celestial Heart. That Heart had the ability to move the universe’s energy more easily to a certain region, allowing cultivators to absorb energy and grow more powerful.

But for that Celestial Heart to stay alive, it needed to accumulate positive karma.

So all the powerful sects in the universe did the obvious thing: they protected the planets of the Mortal Plane, maintaining order and rules so people could live their lives in peace. In that way, karma was accumulated for the sect.

Going back to the planet which Meru had pointed out to Darian, it was under the control of a relatively powerful sect. However, something bad was happening there, and that sect couldn’t figure out what it was.

That was the work of the cultivators of the Evil Path.

They were a category of cultivators who chose not to form sects like the others, thus avoiding the obligation to practice good. They were killers who created techniques to grow stronger by killing and refining lives.

Killing and stealing were, without a doubt, the fastest way to gain power easily. That was why those people thrived across the universe, even while being hunted by all the sects.

On that planet, since it was in the Mortal Plane, the cultivators of the Evil Path were weak so as not to draw attention. All of them were only in the first realm of cultivation. Therefore, it was a perfect place for Darian to go.

Back to Meru and Ruri.

"Darian is doing very well," Meru said softly to her mother, who had been busy with something very serious in the past few months and had left the surveillance in her daughter’s hands.

"He spent 9 months hunting the cultivators of the Evil Path on that planet. Now he’s finally stopped, probably to use all the resources he stole from those bastards. With those resources... he might reach the second or third level within a year. That’s already pretty fast. After that, I believe he’ll finally enter the capital and look for information about the inheritance you left on that planet."

Ruri nodded, understanding. "My boy is very smart and grew up way too fast... well, let me see him!"

Ruri held Meru’s hand. She nodded and connected both of their visions to a distant point in that universe.

---

On a planet covered in green.

In its main forest, along a mountain range, there were many waterfalls between the peaks.

In one of them, on the mountainside about two to three hundred meters high, a gigantic waterfall crashed down, falling into the pool below and raising a dense mist.

The deafening sound was like thunder spreading everywhere.

At the edge of the waterfall, a barefoot and shirtless young man walked step by step toward the curtain of water that seemed to fall from the sky. He released all his strength, without holding anything back, while protecting his head and back.

His figure looked especially tiny beneath that massive wall of water. Even though the height of the waterfall wasn’t that absurd, the force of the falling water was more than enough to easily crush anyone.

Even so, the young man moved forward without hesitation, walking toward the huge rock that the waterfall had been crashing into for who knows how many years.

When Meru and Ruri saw the scene, they both looked at the height of the waterfall, and their eyes narrowed in perfect sync.

*BANG!*

The enormous current of water struck Darian’s body mercilessly, instantly shattering his fragile defense and throwing him, without mercy, into the turbulent waters.

An intense, piercing pain spread through Darian’s entire body, while his torso turned completely red.

A thin line of blood ran from the corner of his mouth. Even so, there wasn’t a trace of retreat or fear in his eyes. He emerged from the raging waters with great effort and then used all his strength to resist the powerful current as he struggled back to the shore.

The impact of the waterfall caused him serious damage, and resisting the current while swimming back had nearly drained his last bit of strength.

But when he reached the shore, he didn’t collapse, gasping. He just breathed for a moment and then walked again toward the rock beneath the waterfall, his body swaying.

Then he gathered the last traces of his energy around himself to protect his head.

"He’s already at the first level of the Celestial Nascent Realm? He’s really that fast!"

Watching the small amount of Celestial energy Darian released, Meru was surprised. She had only taken her eyes off him for seven hours after seeing him walking through the forest toward the city.

In that short time, he had started cultivating and had officially reached the first level.

Yes, even before that, Darian had already been able to fight, without any cultivation at all, against cultivators of the Evil Path who were in the first realm. All of that was done using only his techniques and skills.

In the first realm, someone’s power was only slightly greater than that of a mortal. Even so, for any ordinary person, that should have been impossible. But Darian had truly been trained extremely well.

Of course, part of it was a reflection of his previous life. He hadn’t started from zero; since he had already trained so much and lived intensely before, this time it was much faster and easier to relearn. Especially because Meru knew everything he had once been good at and made sure to teach him those things first.

"What method did he use to reach the first level so quickly?" Meru wondered thoughtfully.

Still, challenging that kind of waterfall right at the first level was clearly suicide! If a rock happened to fall from up there, he would be dead!

After being seriously injured by the waterfall the first time, almost completely drained, he barely rested before heading toward it again.

*BANG!*

The last drop of remaining energy scattered instantly. In a single moment, more than a dozen small wounds opened across Darian’s back.

As his vision darkened, he spat out a mouthful of blood and plunged once more into the raging waters.

Meru and Ruri clenched their fists. They wouldn’t let him die, no matter what. But...

Darian’s face emerged from the water again.

It was pale as paper. The wounds on his body were a horrifying sight. When he partially opened his eyes, his gaze looked distant, yet at the same time extremely clear.

He hadn’t lost consciousness... their hearts filled with shock once again. Considering his previous condition, if it were an ordinary person who had taken that impact, staying conscious would have been impossible.

The two of them snorted softly because they knew this current Darian. He was a young man with truly crazy, almost suicidal tendencies. He used nothing but his willpower, as if his life depended on it, to stay conscious.

Darian was still in the middle of the chaotic waters. In his normal state, he could have resisted that current. But now, that force was nothing short of a nightmare. He struggled, nearly exhausted, and raised an arm that was practically numb.

While firmly enduring the strong impact of the current against his body, he began swimming slowly toward the shore, little by little...

A few seconds later, the muscles in his arms and shoulders began to cramp. That was the body’s natural reaction when strength was completely depleted. In that situation, his arms were almost impossible to lift and could, to some extent, be considered disabled.

The wounds on his back slowly tore open further, blood pouring out nonstop... Meru and Ruri’s hearts filled with dread as they watched.

Even so, both of Darian’s arms kept moving, and his body gradually drew closer to the shore. It was impossible to imagine where he was pulling so much energy from, since it was obvious his body had reached its limit. His strength was completely exhausted, and even his consciousness should have faded...

Maybe it wasn’t some kind of power pushing his body forward, but his will... A willpower terrifying beyond comparison.

With each passing day, that will only grow stronger. He needed to become stronger, he needed to...

...he didn’t even know exactly what he needed to do. But his instincts were begging him to become the strongest as fast as possible.

Darian finally reached the shore. When the two thought he would pass out from weakness, they saw him stagger as he forced himself to stand again.

Darian stood and walked... his steps were extremely slow, and with every step his body swayed violently, as if he could collapse at any moment.

He kept walking for more than a dozen steps before finally stopping. That was when Meru and Ruri noticed a small pool in that direction. The pool was clearly artificial and not much longer than a meter. It was filled with a green liquid.

Darian stepped into the green pool and slowly sat down until his entire body, except for his head, was submerged in the liquid. Then he closed his eyes and finally lost consciousness.

The two watched Darian’s unconscious body with complicated expressions.

That pool had been made from pills and herbs. All of them had been stolen from cultivators of the Evil Path and carefully selected by him.

"Uncle Almin must have taught him some alchemy... but he has very sharp senses to know exactly which herbs and pills to use," Meru murmured, taking a deep breath.

They understood what his cultivation method was to become as strong as possible.

First, he gathered as many resources as possible for nine months. Then he began using them meticulously, pushing his body to its absolute limit, then healing himself rapidly. After that, he would accumulate even more energy in his body and repeat the entire process again.

It was an absolutely sadistic process, almost self-torture. But... it was undeniably efficient, several times more efficient than normal methods.

Cultivators of the Evil Path could use this method. Anyone could. But... no one was brave enough to push themselves to the limit like that.

Meru and Ruri stared silently at Darian’s face.

His delicate and immature features proved he was barely sixteen, but... it was as if he had already gone through hell more than once and crawled out of a sea of blood.

Two hours later, Darian woke up.

Then he began accumulating Celestial energy within his body.

That was the power that existed in that universe. Qi was also present, but Celestial energy was a thousand times superior. That was why Celestial Cultivation was used by everyone instead of ordinary cultivation.

After absorbing as much Celestial energy as possible, Darian stood up and headed toward the waterfall again.

...

The two of them simply watched that young man torture himself and advance day and night.

After three months, when he finally turned sixteen, all of his resources were exhausted.

He had reached the fifth level of the Celestial Nascent Realm in just three months. It was only the first of the seven Celestial realms, but... both Meru and Ruri were certain.

He would rise like a dragon to the heavens, very, very quickly.