Damned Healer-Chapter 704: Cold-blooded

It was early in the morning.

At that moment, the young Darian arrived at the entrance of the Great Golden Sky City. The name was connected to the great sect of the Celestial Plane, the one that watched over and protected that place.

The guards there were at the seventh level of the Celestial Nascent Realm, and their leader was at the eighth. On a planet of the Mortal Plane, they were basically like gods. There was probably no one stronger than them.

After paying a fee and registering his name, he was allowed in.

When he stepped into the city, Darian was stunned. He had spent his whole life in that forest and in a simple house, so he had never seen a big city or so many people gathered in one place.

Of course, nothing there gave off a power even close to what he had grown up around, but it was still impressive to see so many buildings and people. With a diameter of several kilometers, the city was packed with countless imposing buildings, grand and luxurious, but also simple and refined.

What shocked Darian the most was that every single one of those buildings had countless Celestial energy runes carved into them, releasing immense pressure. Even a random structure had terrifying defensive power, and there was no need to even mention the city walls.

As he walked through the streets, Darian saw countless people. Then... he noticed something strange.

Everyone was stopping and turning to look at him... not everyone, just the younger women.

’Is there something wrong with my face?’ he wondered, confused.

Watching everything from afar, Meru and Ruri puffed up proudly. That boy was indeed handsome and charming.

Soon after, Meru felt a bit worried. Darian had a woman waiting for him; if he started getting interested in someone else... things would get complicated for him in the future.

But... her worries quickly faded.

Some girls around his age couldn’t resist and approached him, trying to chat. Darian, however, just gave cold answers to their random questions, barely paying attention. It was as if...

"Wait? He likes girls, right?" Ruri asked, startled.

Meru broke into a cold sweat for a second, then let out a small snort as she remembered something.

"He... just has a strange taste. Remember when Aunt Runula came to visit him, when he was 13?"

Ruri nodded; she had only heard about it later, since she had been busy at the time.

Meru continued calmly, "When Darian saw her... let’s just say something in him changed... especially when he was staring at her curves."

"Oh! He likes more beast-type girls?" Ruri said, surprised.

Runula was half Wyvern, half Demon, and looked like a woman covered in black scales. And also... she was Runar’s mother, that Wyvern Darian had met in the past.

Meru replied, "Not exactly. Let’s just say he felt a stronger affinity for that biotype. But he already has someone, he just doesn’t remember."

Ruri snorted, then turned her attention back to Darian and confirmed it. He really didn’t seem interested, or maybe he forced himself not to think about it. It was something instinctive, something he probably did unconsciously.

Darian kept walking calmly through the streets, getting shot with female gazes and having to talk to a few of them now and then.

He spent the whole day wandering through the market, looking at everything being sold.

By late afternoon.

Suddenly, he stopped. He felt a familiar aura.

On the other side of the street, at quite a distance, a figure was moving calmly.

Darian took a deep breath and discreetly followed.

When he slipped into a dark alley, he quickly took out a pill from his spatial ring and crushed it in his hands. He tossed a small amount of colorless, odorless powder onto his face, altering his appearance.

He soon resumed walking, keeping his senses sharp as he followed the man from afar. He knew...

That was a Cultivator of the Evil Path. Darian’s senses were screaming at him, telling him that the figure was hiding a bloody aura, worthy of a ruthless killer. That person might lead him to find out what was going on on that planet.

Darian moved perfectly, without letting the figure notice he was being followed.

Meru and Ruri watched proudly; they had trained him well.

Until Darian suddenly stopped, sensing something was off.

’Hm? Clever. He’s starting to circle around,’ he thought.

Calmly, Darian decided to slip into a bar and ordered something to drink. He felt the assassin circle the area five times before finally heading in a specific direction.

’He didn’t notice me. It’s just a professional habit.’ Watching him pay attention to everyone around, Darian knew he was simply making sure no one was tailing him.

In the end, the man entered a narrow alley that led to a casino. Inside, there was a crowd of people.

’These shameless people are using a casino to hide their identities?’ Darian thought with a cold smile.

He removed his disguise, revealing his real face, and went in as well.

"Do you have an appointment, sir, or are you just passing through?" As soon as Darian entered, an enthusiastic woman came to greet him, wearing rather revealing clothes.

Darian almost let his disgust show. The makeup on her face was so thick that just by talking, powder was already falling off. But the most exaggerated thing was the slit in her dress, which let anyone see everything in detail.

She looked to be in her early thirties and wasn’t a cultivator. That casino was very low-level. It catered to some lower-level cultivators and gamblers.

"I came to meet someone. You can take care of yourself."

Darian tossed ten gold coins to her, much to her delight. As for the hired thugs guarding the door, seeing that Darian was generous with his money and didn’t look like he wanted trouble, they ignored him.

He moved forward and was immediately hit by the strong smell of alcohol, sweat, and foul feet. As he went deeper inside, he quickly spotted that same man...

At that instant, the man’s gaze changed; shock erupted in his eyes.

Suddenly, he reached out and touched the wall.

*Slash!*

A blood-colored dagger sliced through the air in a flash and chopped off his arm. His hand was just a few centimeters away from pressing a button on the wall, but it dropped to the floor instead.

"AHHHH!" the man screamed sharply.

At the same time, several people inside the casino screamed and started running. The first thing they thought was that someone had come to destroy the place.

The man immediately tried to press the button with his other hand, but the blood-colored dagger struck again and cut off that arm too. That button was obviously meant to trigger the alarm.

Darian calmly walked toward him. His eyes didn’t look like those of a 16-year-old. It was as if some ancient demon had taken over his body.

"Let me give you an idea. If you don’t have arms, you can try using your head," Darian mocked.

The reason Darian had shown his real face when entering the casino was that he wanted to accurately identify the Cultivators of the Evil Path inside. After spending nine months killing many of them, his face had been recorded and spread across the entire planet.

The facts proved he was right; that man recognized him instantly.

Fury flared in the man’s eyes, and his throat opened as he prepared to scream.

He never got the chance. Blood sprayed into the air.

"In your next life, don’t let yourself be used by others," Darian spoke flatly as, with one motion, he cut the man’s head off.

For a 16-year-old to kill like that, without the slightest hesitation, was terrifying. No wonder his father had chosen to be careful and not hand things to him easily. For someone that stubborn and cold-blooded, it would’ve been far too easy to go astray and become a maniac.

Darian turned around and took a deep breath, using his senses to feel for something.

It didn’t even take two seconds.

Darian possessed a Celestial Bloodline from both his father and mother. Even though it was dormant, it still granted him unmatched abilities. Meru and Ruri had taught him how to use part of it.

He walked along the wall and found a side door. When he entered, he saw a passage leading outside. It looked like an ordinary back exit.

But on the wall of that passage, in a spot hidden from the casino players’ view, Darian pressed three times.

A hidden door suddenly opened in the wall. The stone blended perfectly with the structure; even staring straight at it, no one would notice it existed.

As soon as he stepped inside, the stone door shut immediately.

The path ahead continued downward.

"You—!"

*SLASH!*

Two Cultivators of the Evil Path were coming out when they saw Darian. One only managed to say a single word; both were killed instantly.

They were at the same fifth level of the Celestial Nascent Realm as Darian. Even so, they were assassinated cleanly, without the slightest chance to use their power.

"Who’s there?!"

The commotion rang out like an alarm, and several people rushed out from deeper in the corridor.

Darian snorted and made a motion with his hand.

His dagger shot forward.

It moved like lightning, slicing through the air under Darian’s command. That dagger had been a gift from Meru before he left. It was made of a unique material and could be used by him almost as if by magic.

The Cultivators of the Evil Path had no way to dodge inside that narrow passage. They were all brutally torn apart.

"You only know how to stab people in the back. In a real fight, you’re nothing but pigs," Darian sneered.

Suddenly, a wind packed with energy struck him. He turned, and his dagger flew back into his hand.

Without hesitation, he slashed with everything he had.

*KBOOM!*

The underground passage collapsed.

Uncontrolled energy burst through the ground in an explosion, and no one knew how many Cultivators of the Evil Path were killed without even realizing what was happening.

The sudden explosion from the ground and the powerful auras shocked the entire city. Countless people rushed over to see what was going on.

As the dust began to settle, one of the Cultivators of the Evil Path charged out of the ruins.

Before he could even understand what was happening, a dagger struck his body, causing a burst of blood.

Darian snorted. Suddenly, a beam of light shot toward his back.

Darian’s eyes flashed. Scarlet energy circulated through his body, activating an abnormal physical power. It was a simple technique he had learned from his older sister; it explosively boosted his physical strength, but it didn’t last long.

His hand grabbed the sword aimed at his back.

In front of him stood a male figure with an old, wrinkled face. The man pulled several times but couldn’t retrieve his sword.

Suddenly, the blade began to shine with a blinding light.

"Are you stupid? Do you think I’d just stand here and let you activate it?" Darian mocked, slashing with the dagger in his other hand.

An explosion of blood shocked everyone watching.

The old man didn’t even leave a corpse behind after being struck. In fact, what Darian did was extremely vicious.

He had intentionally pushed the old man into desperation and then given him time to activate his sword’s power. And at the exact moment he did, Darian attacked, leaving him unsure whether to continue or abandon the weapon and flee.

Trapped in his hesitation, and thinking Darian didn’t have the power to hurt him... he was killed easily.

At that moment, countless cultivators stood around, staring at Darian in shock.

He dared to fight inside the city? Did he not care about losing his life? The use of force was forbidden; even the slightest disturbance of the rules, and the sect would kill without discussion.

What shocked them most was that Darian was clearly at the fifth level of the Celestial Nascent Realm, yet he had killed an old man at the seventh level so easily, without even blinking.

Suddenly, the ground exploded again, and a miserable-looking figure emerged.

It was another white-haired elder, his aura churning violently.

"How is this possible! He’s at the ninth level!"

The cultivators present were stunned. Everyone was certain the most powerful figure on the planet was the leader of the city guards, who was at the eighth level.

This unknown person possessed supreme, invincible power; not even the guards could do anything against him.

In the next second... everyone frowned when they felt his aura was extremely chaotic.

"Oh, I’m sorry. Looks like I interrupted your private moment. My sincere apologies." Darian apologized without the slightest sincerity, watching the old man’s aura fluctuate wildly.

"You... pfft!" The elder turned furious upon recognizing Darian’s face and coughed up blood.

He had been in seclusion, focused on absorbing his resources, very close to finally breaking through to the next realm. Darian’s attack had disturbed him. Being forced out of his meditative state had almost caused his internal energies to spiral out of control. In fact, he had nearly died.

"Die!" the old man roared, brandishing his sword.

A deafening sound of the blade cutting through space echoed out. Everyone there held their breath.

That young man... he was doomed.