Damned Healer-Chapter 729: Most Merciful Path

The scarred man jumped in shock. He hadn’t even noticed another person had appeared in the courtyard. It was obvious this was a cultivator with techniques far superior to his own.

When he turned around, he saw a young man in casual red robes with a handsome, eye-catching appearance. He snorted and sized him up. This youth looked like a typical rich brat who didn’t know his place. Without hesitation, he shouted, "Who are you?! You dare meddle in our business?!"

"Sir Darian, they’re completely unreasonable...!"

Temzi struggled to her feet and shouted with all her strength, clearly worried about him. But her voice faltered at the end, and she twisted in pain from her broken ribs.

Darian sighed. "Little Temzi, don’t worry. This is just a dream. Sleep, and when you wake up, everything will be over."

After his words, Darian gave a light wave. Then Temzi’s eyelids grew heavy, and she fell asleep.

Her grandfather felt alarmed; this young man could control mental power? But... it had been practically imperceptible. If he hadn’t been holding his granddaughter and felt the internal change in her, he wouldn’t have known what happened.

Turning to the scarred man, Darian said nothing. He simply looked at them indifferently.

"W-what are you staring at?! I won’t say it again, get the hell out of here!" For some unknown reason, the scarred man felt a chill.

"I’m planning how many pieces I can cut you into and the best way to do it so it’s perfect," Darian said slowly, sizing up the scarred man.

"You... you really want to die! Don’t think you can resist us just because you have a few insignificant tricks! We serve the Zarck family, and Young Master Mulloy will be the next Alchemist Emperor of this planet! He wants to build a grand mansion here," the scarred man warned. The moment he mentioned that family, his confidence rose.

At that moment, the others outside also flooded into the courtyard. More than forty people surrounded Darian.

Suddenly, Darian’s eyes flashed for a single second. His primordial bloodline was used once more.

The scarred man instinctively felt something was wrong, but he couldn’t identify what.

"Oh? The test for the new Emperor is still ongoing, so what gave you and that other guy so much confidence?" Darian’s voice sounded calm.

Suddenly, the scarred man felt strangely light.

"Friend, you should leave. You’re still just an ant in front of Young Master Mulloy’s influence. He has many connections in the Hellfire Pill Sect and will definitely win without any doubt."

The people behind him widened their eyes in shock. He had gone crazy! Why reveal such a huge secret to a stranger?!

Darian smiled faintly. The mind-control techniques he learned from his mother were indeed terrifying. She was a specialist in mental power, as well as in inscriptions and formations. Using a bit of his bloodline power, he could easily charm anyone weaker. Even if someone at the peak of power in this universe were nearby, they wouldn’t easily understand how it happened.

"Interesting... but not unexpected," Darian murmured. Anywhere with lots of people and power involved always had those willing to favor and deceive for their own benefit.

"You’re just mediocre servants. I won’t be merciless, but I’ll give you one chance. Hand over everything you have and break both your arms. Then you can leave."

Everyone fell silent, staring coldly at Darian.

*Flap! Flap!*

Suddenly, a huge figure flew across the sky. It was a Beast that looked like a hawk, streaking overhead.

"YOUNG MASTER!"

Those people roared, thrilled with their luck. After the preliminaries, Mulloy had come to check on his future residence and happened to run into this situation.

Darian remained indifferent. Then more than thirty people leapt down from the sky and landed on the ground.

At the front stood a thin man with short black hair and eyes full of arrogance. Behind him were over thirty people who were clearly younger alchemists.

They hadn’t registered for the Test earlier. Most likely, they were Mulloy’s servants, here to work on the residence of the city’s ’New Alchemist Emperor.’

"Oh? Sir Darian, what a coincidence," Mulloy said with a faint smile. "What do you want, standing on my land?"

"Yours? This place isn’t yours; it belongs to that old man," Darian said casually, pointing at the man holding his unconscious granddaughter.

"Haha... Sir Darian is funny. Please, let’s not be hypocrites. The world belongs to the strong, and I’m clearing out all the residences in this area." He met Darian’s eyes and grasped part of the situation. "You seem to like these people... I’ll give you some face since you’re a great Alchemist like me. I’ll pay five times the value of this place. That settles it, how about it?"

Darian looked at him without any emotion. Then he shifted his gaze to the other alchemists behind him. At that instant, his curse activated.

Mulloy grew irritated at being ignored but didn’t show it. "Sir Darian, since you come from a Cultivator sect, you must have trouble finding raw materials to make pills. After the test, why not work for me? You can study and make pills whenever you want, so it won’t interfere with your normal cultivation. I’ll provide whatever you need..."

"Not interested," Darian replied flatly, not wanting to hear the rest.

Then he looked that figure in the eyes again, speaking very slowly. "People like you don’t deserve my time. I’ll say this once, and you have ten seconds to choose your fate. Hand over everything you have and break both your arms, then you can leave. Or... don’t blame me for being merciless, I’ll kill half of you without the slightest remorse."

Mulloy narrowed his eyes, his face turning dark. Who did this guy think he was, a bandit?

"You... do you have any idea who you’re talking to?!"

Mulloy spat coldly, sensing his cultivation. Darian heard it in silence, without any reaction.

Darian was only at the Celestial Soul Realm. For someone so young, it was indeed frightening, but for someone from that sect, it wasn’t that surprising. Mulloy, meanwhile, had hundreds of years behind him and was in the Celestial Tribulation Realm, an entire realm higher. Together with all his allies, even if Darian was powerful, how could he possibly fear him?

"You asked for this! Burn him!" Mulloy roared furiously. Then all the alchemists behind him snorted.

*Wooooosh!*

In the next second, it was as if more than thirty small volcanoes erupted at the same time. Terrifying flames burst forth, rising more than ten meters into the air.

"Ten seconds..." Darian spat dryly.

In that second... his eyes changed, and a scarlet dagger appeared in his hands.

"!"

Everyone froze instantly. It was as if their hearts had stopped and their souls were trembling. An absurdly dangerous instinctive feeling took hold of them.

*Pierce!*

"AHHHH"

Suddenly, a sharp and horrifying scream echoed. Everyone turned in shock; then they saw one of the alchemists being lifted a few centimeters off the ground, with a dagger piercing through his back and coming out from the middle of his chest.

Behind him, a terrifying figure brutally pulled out the dagger.

Then he shoved his hand straight into the wound and mercilessly ripped something out from inside.

Everyone’s eyes were wide open. In Darian’s hands, there was a small red sphere covered in blood.

That was the Beast Flame core of that alchemist. Darian ripped it out from inside, sealed it immediately, and then stored it.

His eyes shone in multiple colors.

*BANG!*

With a kick, that alchemist exploded, his blood and viscera flying everywhere.

Alchemists didn’t train their bodies or have great combat capabilities. Even if there were a million of them, they were more fragile than ants in front of Darian.

All the others were completely horrified. But in that same second, Darian disappeared like a ghost.

*NOOO! AAAAAAH!*

Distorted screams, as if they were being tortured in hell, echoed nonstop.

Darian was very, very fast. In mere three seconds, he had already struck two more in the same way. He hit them from behind, then stole the beast core and killed them in the most brutal way possible.

Mulloy, eyes wide, reacted quickly in desperation.

He had never seen someone so diabolical and terrifying; his body trembled from head to toe, but his will to live was stronger. Without hesitation, he grabbed a talisman and tore it apart.

In the next second, a spatial power surrounded him, making him disappear far away without looking back.

Everyone there became even more desperate. Their strongest one and leader had fled, abandoning them! All of this in less than ten seconds!

Darian didn’t care about that idiot and let him go. That was because he knew where to find him. His time would come, but for now, he was getting rid of the trash.

All these alchemists... had a much darker karma than normal. The reason was exactly those beast flame cores inside them.

Each of those cores didn’t belong to a single Fire Beast, but to hundreds and sometimes thousands of one single species. To obtain a powerful flame, alchemists needed to search for many of the same beast species, then capture them alive and perform an extremely torturous refinement on all of them.

Thus, the power of all the Beasts would condense into a single core that they could absorb into their bodies.

How cruel was that? Who did they think they were, to use the lives of other races like toys?

Darian understood one principle very well. To the laws of the world, it doesn’t matter whether you killed a human or a beast; if you didn’t do it for legitimate reasons, like survival, etc, you would receive the same killer karma.

They didn’t even need to do it themselves. If you paid someone to do it and only received the core, you would still receive a large portion of that macabre karma as a "gift."

Because of that, it could be said that all alchemists without a Bloodline or natural power who used beast flames were contaminated by karma. Therefore, Darian didn’t have the slightest bit of mercy.

He moved swiftly; those little more than thirty alchemists didn’t even have time to think about running. Every two seconds, one of them was struck and killed.

After half of them died, the others tried to flee, but that residence was in an isolated region surrounded by houses, with a single alley leading to the streets. Darian simply activated more of his power and blocked the exit.

Thus...

In just a few minutes, none of those alchemists were spared. Darian stole their cores and killed them, leaving the entire ground bathed in blood.

He turned, staring at those dozens of servants from earlier. They were quite weak and couldn’t flee or react.

"I didn’t give you the right to the ten-second count before... I will start counting again..."

Everyone jumped as if they had heard the sacred words of a merciful deity. They threw all their belongings onto the ground without hesitation, in perfect sync. Then they turned to each other and nodded.

One helped the other break their own arms. Groans of pain echoed nonstop, but they didn’t hesitate.

When they finished and turned to Darian...

...they saw his calm and light gaze fixed on the man with scars.

When they turned toward their leader... they saw him trembling and frozen in place, his arms intact.

He didn’t want to break them? Everyone was surprised and confused.

"Get the hell out of here!"

Darian shouted coldly. Everyone jumped and ran without looking back.

The only one left was that leader. That bastard, who dared to hurt a small and skinny little girl... Darian would never let him leave this place alive.

When everyone left, Darian snorted, and his dagger cut cleanly, splitting him in half.

"Two pieces, simple and mediocre, you don’t deserve anything more."

After everything ended, Darian was indifferent.

For people like those, absurdly arrogant and greedy, there was no point in trying to teach them. The most merciful path was death, since that way they wouldn’t harm anyone else or worsen their situation. Thus, the laws of the world would make them pay for their crimes in the next life.

His gaze focused on the old man, who was in a corner holding his granddaughter and only sensing the fluctuations of the events, since he was blind.

"Hm?"

At that moment, Darian felt something connect to him. Then, he took out his communication crystal.

"Ah, Emina. I had already forgotten."