No one managed to react imdiately after Darian's words. Most found it so ridiculous that it reached a shocking level. Until...
"Hahaha, excellent! This young man is indeed a great find, Sect Leader! In arrogance, he's unmatched, just like his master!" Veyra mocked with a wide smile. Then her gaze fixed on Gildor, and her tone changed.
"Since we're letting our disciples compete to settle this matter, why not raise the stakes? Gildor, if my disciple, who isn't even worthy of being compared to yours, sohow wins, what happens?"
"What do you want?" Gildor's face was expressionless.
"Hahaha, it's very simple!" Veyra laughed. "If Vymara wins, then you will have to admit, in front of everyone here, that you, Gildor, are inferior to !"
Darian snorted; cultivators' brains could only have a serious problem. Living thousands of years above others really had consequences. Their egos were so huge that sothing as small as being called inferior was already enough for them to risk their lives.
"You..." the Grand Palace Supervisor, Ruan, spat dryly. Even to him, that sounded a bit ridiculous.
"?" Veyra shot back. "It was your sect leader who personally said those senseless absurdities. He wouldn't dare back down now, would he?"
Gildor still looked calm and impassive as he asked coldly, "And if my direct disciple wins?"
"Win? Him?" The corners of Veyra's mouth curled into a smile, and her eyes narrowed as she replied. "Then I will do whatever you order, without hesitation."
"Veyra!" Myna exclaid, shocked. However, she had barely cried out when Gildor's voice abruptly cut her off.
"Excellent! Rember what you said!" A blazing gleam flashed through Gildor's warm eyes.
"I, Veyra, am a woman of my word. I will never go back on it!" Veyra ignored Myna and said solemnly. "I'm only afraid you won't dare accept!"
"You're not worthy of making afraid." Gildor waved his palm lightly, making the heatwave instantly dissipate as his voice spread through the space. "If Darian loses to your disciple, I will publicly acknowledge what you want; you can even record and spread it. Happy?!"
"Alright—" Veyra nodded slowly, her icy eyes widening.
Having been interrupted repeatedly, Myna could only sigh as she watched the situation develop to this point. She turned helplessly to Veyra and said ntally:
'Gildor is definitely not an impulsive person who would do anything just to save face. He's even less soone who would dig his own grave and jump into it. You're jumping into a hole he dug...'
'Humph! Do you really think that fifth-rate disciple he took in compares to my Vymara?' Veyra asked solemnly.
"..." Myna was speechless. From what she knew, there were several talented disciples under thirty in the Golden Crow Sect, yet Gildor chose soone who looked so ordinary... sothing felt off. It was clear this "Darian" definitely had sothing extraordinary.
Maybe Darian was extrely wise, or maybe he had an abnormal physique. Maybe he was especially talented in fire manipulation. He had to possess so unique trait.
Regardless, considering he was still only at the Celestial Tribulation Realm while Vymara was at the fifth level of the Celestial King Realm, there was absolutely no way he could match her. No matter how Myna thought about it, she had no doubt Darian would lose.
This difference in cultivation between them could only be described as "an abyss." Moreover, all disciples of the Bakunawa Abyssal Triarchy had the equivalent of three drops of Bakunawa bloodline.
They didn't lack bloodline because they didn't need to use the pure bloodline all the ti and divide it among everyone. By mixing with demons to create hybrids, the fertility of figures with this bloodline wasn't bad; thus, most were already born with it and later gained more.
Vymara was one such case. She had a thin demonic bloodline and was born with an incomparable bloodline density. This gap was like heaven and Earth in terms of elental control and capability compared to Golden Crow Sect disciples.
'Let remind you, we are in Golden Crow Sect territory!' Queen Kaltis spoke ntally in a grave tone. 'And if Vymara wins? Do you really believe Gildor will admit in front of everyone that he is inferior to you?!'
'I can't wait for him to swallow his own words!' Veyra said coldly. 'If he dares deny it, unless he dares kill us, I will definitely tell the entire universe what happened today! I'll say Gildor is soone who speaks absurdities and blatant lies! You could say... I'm helping my granddaughter vent her frustrations!'
"..." Kaltis shook her head but remained silent. However, she also felt sothing was wrong.
Less than a minute had passed since Darian stepped forward.
At that mont, Veyra burst into loud laughter. "Since this is a high-level disciple of the Sect Leader, there's no need to refuse modestly. Vymara, properly test the strength of this so-called Darian. You must not disgrace your Queen, hahahaha."
"...Yes," Vymara answered with a difficult expression. She didn't want to voluntarily attack soone weaker in every possible aspect, but she couldn't disobey this direct order.
At that mont, Myna's voice sounded in her mind. 'Vymara, make sure you control your energy well. If you slip and accidentally cause him serious injury, with Gildor's temper, you'll definitely get into trouble imdiately. This situation... It's extrely likely this is exactly the outco Gildor most wants to see.'
That was the only thing Myna could imagine; there was no way Gildor could be that foolish. 'But you also need to be careful not to underestimate him. To beco that figure's direct disciple, Darian must have sothing extraordinary.'
Vymara nodded slightly, her gaze fixed on Darian: 'I'll be careful.'
She took a few steps forward, stopping less than five ters from Darian.
He remained standing in place with his hands behind his back, staring at her without emotion. Suddenly...
He lifted a hand to his mouth and yawned calmly. Everyone who saw this was stunned.
With a sigh, he muttered, "Co on, co on... attack three tis with everything you've got. Just make move a single centiter from my spot, and we can end this quickly."
His voice was very relaxed, but it carried boundless arrogance.
Vymara narrowed her eyes. Never in her life had she been treated so lightly. "The higher the height, the harder the fall... I hope you can still hold your head up after this..."
Darian did not respond. Silence reigned for a few seconds.
Vymara snorted, then extended her hand. Suddenly, countless points of light, like blue-glacial crystals, appeared in front of Darian, blossoming with a cold, radiant glow.
With the slight pullback of her five fingers, those blue crystals exploded in the air, engulfing the area around Darian.
"Careful!!!" the sect disciples shouted, worried.
*BOOOM!*
This was the most powerful offensive technique that used the water and Yin elents together. But Vymara had complete control of the situation and used only ten percent of her strength. Even so, she believed Darian wouldn't be able to block it and would only be slightly injured.
The hearts of everyone in the Golden Crow Sect tightened instantly. A mist covered the entire epicenter.
The Palace Masters, anxious, waved and activated their power to clear the scene, then...
Everyone saw a figure standing exactly in the sa place, hands behind his back, surrounded by a subtle golden fla aura.
"..."
Across his entire body, there wasn't the slightest injury; it was as if... that terrifying explosion hadn't even touched a single strand of his hair.
"That was the first move." Darian's tone was flat.
Vymara froze in shock.
Veyra, who was several ters behind waiting to watch the show, had a twisted expression on her face.
Vymara had been extrely wary of seriously injuring Darian, so her first strike was very weak, so weak that anyone with Darian's cultivation could have directly dodged it. But... he stood still and took it head-on...
"What... what happened?"
Everyone in the sect was stunned. Even the higher-ups, who knew Darian wasn't what he seed, looked sowhat bewildered, their gazes unfocused.
Everyone could tell Vymara had used only a small portion of her strength, but even so, the offensive power of that technique was not sothing simple to endure... much less with absolutely no damage.
"This brat... what the hell?"
Veyra could no longer laugh. For Darian to absorb that power without damage... it was only possible if he had used Yang at an absurd level to completely neutralize the strike. Could Darian's control and mastery really have reached that level?
As the one who released the attack and understood it best, Vymara knew more clearly than anyone what had happened. Her strike had seed to approach a black hole and was imdiately absorbed, disappearing.
"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and make your next move!" Gildor suddenly said, his voice showing extre impatience.
Vymara's stunned figure trembled as she quickly regained her senses. The way she looked at Darian had drastically changed.
"Vymara, seeing that the Sect Leader himself said such words, there's no need for you to be so courteous anymore!" Veyra said, then roared coldly. "Use Aqua Doom!"
Vymara nodded, taking a deep breath... then raised her right arm.
Her eyes turned demonic black; in contrast, her body lit up with a bright blue glow. Her golden hair swayed gently, as if she were a beautiful little fairy, radiating a magnificent and frightening beauty.
In the next instant, a black-bladed dagger appeared in her hands.
Darian smiled faintly. A dagger? It was rare to see soone using the sa weapon as him. Normally, people choose sothing bigger that could cause damage more easily.
All the sect disciples swallowed hard. Even the higher-ups had their eyes wide open... that was because they knew the aning of the na Aqua Doom, and they couldn't believe what they were seeing.
Vymara clearly had no intention of giving Darian another chance after her first strike was so easily defended.
"You'd better use your full strength," Vymara said lightly. "But relax. Even if you can't take this hit, I promise you won't get badly hurt."
Vymara's ability to manipulate Yin and the water elent had already reached an extre stage. Her confidence in herself was equally extre.
Darian didn't respond as he looked at her dagger. His eyes shifted slightly... because he felt an aura he knew well coming from it.
Not from the dagger itself, but from the pure Yin Vymara had created and condensed onto the blade. It moved and compressed in a different way. Without a doubt, it was a very specific technique...
'She's using a thod created by Aunt Rehvka... interesting,' Darian thought lightly.
Rehvka was his father's third disciple, an assassin specialized in manipulating Yin. Like many others, Darian knew, she had left her inheritances scattered across this universe.
And since Rehvka was very close to both his mother and father, along with his Uncle Almin, she was one of the figures who spent the most ti with Darian while he was growing up. Naturally, Darian learned many of her techniques and fighting thods.
Vymara's eyes flickered slightly as the bluish-black light around her body shimred and expanded. In that second... the water elent split into three.
Each realm of the Bakunawa Abyssal Triarchy specialized in one form of the water elent. The Tide-Shadow Realm used water in its liquid state, the Dark-Frost Realm used ice, and the Ebon-Haze Realm used mist.
But among the Bakunawa's supre techniques, the highest-level one was called Aqua Doom; it was precisely the union of the three forms.
Throughout the entire history of the Bakunawa Abyssal Triarchy, only about a dozen figures had ever managed to use Aqua Doom. The last one was more than six generations ago... no wonder Veyra had so much confidence in Vymara and even considered her a second daughter.
The three forms of water converged before the dagger in a chaotic vortex: razor-sharp ice shards, heavy water currents, and dense vapor spun simultaneously.
At the center of that chaos, the dagger's Yin acted like a black hole, sucking in the elents and forging them into a blade of dark blue light. It was a color that didn't seem to belong to the natural world; just looking at that icy glow brought a premonition of death, a chill crawling up the spine and freezing the breath.
"Take this!" Vymara roared, her eyes reflecting the blue abyss.
With a single step that cracked space, the entire elental mass collapsed onto the dagger's edge. When she struck, there was no resistance. The blade split space in two, leaving behind a trail of absolute vacuum. For a brief second, it seed the whole world would be torn apart by the strike.
Faced with that blade, Darian remained completely still, without making any big movent. Even the golden fla surrounding his body stayed calm. The only difference was that he moved one hand, and a more intense and mysterious golden light appeared in his palm.
"Hahaha, this brat already knows he can't win, so he's not even bothering to resist anymore," Veyra laughed loudly.
Although everyone already knew Vymara wouldn't injure Darian, they couldn't help the tension, and their hearts tightened as the pulsing dagger descended toward him.
Even as the blade rapidly approached... Darian remained motionless.
Vymara took a deep breath; she also believed Darian had been overco by fear and beco unable to react. At that mont, her dagger was half a ter from his head.
Vymara frowned, preparing to halt the power the instant it touched him.
But at that very mont...
"!"
Darian suddenly extended his right hand and made a motion to grab the blade.
Darian's sudden action left everyone dumbfounded... even soone a whole realm above Vymara's cultivation, facing this devastating technique, would have to go all out or be completely demolished by that terrifying blade.
Darian was actually the opposite, a whole realm below her. Even so, he dared to use his hand to touch it? That was complete suicide.
"Stop!" Ruan, terrified, shouted so loudly he nearly tore his throat.
Limdiss and Emina were staring fixedly at Darian, but both had shining eyes.
"This brat has gone crazy!" Queen Myna shouted.
Vymara was also extrely shocked, but it was already too late to try to disperse the dagger's power. Her pupils dilated, and she could only watch as Darian's bright golden palm grabbed her weapon like lightning.
Then...
*Woooooosh!*
A wave of elental power swept across the entire area as the sound of runes and power dispersing and shattering space echoed everywhere.
The people who witnessed the scene were catatonic.
Amid the elental wave, at the exact point where Darian touched the intensely glowing dagger, all the power... simply fell apart.
Darian flicked his hand lightly.
"Ah!"
*Bang!*
After a muffled cry of surprise, Vymara slamd into the ground and rolled several ters.
"What!?" Faced with this scene, the stunned Veyra took several steps back.
She couldn't believe her eyes and senses.
Darian... he had simply grabbed the weapon and completely nullified all the offensive power.
That caused the water and Yin elents to instantly lose control and scatter wildly in all directions. In the blink of an eye, the devastating offensive turned into nothing more than a strong, wet gust of wind.
"..."
Vymara quickly got back to her feet, her eyes locked on the figure ahead. Her face was covered in extre shock at seeing sothing she had never witnessed in her life.
Darian placed both arms behind his back again, looking at her calmly without much emotion. He... still hadn't moved a single centiter from his spot.
"What... what just happened?" the two young disciples behind the queens murmured in sync, also shocked and speechless at what had just happened.
Everyone in the Bakunawa Abyssal Triarchy had always proudly said Aqua Doom was an indefensible and invincible offensive strike, capable of killing Gods and Demons. But... what had they just seen?
Queen Myna could only nod. The shock on her face reflected the sa intensity as Kaltis and Veyra.
Everyone from the Golden Crow Sect stood in stunned silence.
After a full minute with no change, Darian snorted in boredom. He looked into Vymara's eyes and said, "You still have one last move."
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