Damned Healer

Darian and Remira arrived at the valley in a few minutes. Everyone waited, anxious and scared, huddled in a corner like animals being led to the slaughter.

Around them stood Hirel and some of his soldiers, all with cold stares, making sure no one tried to run.

When the two of them arrived, all eyes turned to Darian. He waved with a slight smile:

"Don't be so scared. The poison pill will only take full effect and kill you after a day. If you pass today's training, I'll give the antidote before then."

Everyone swallowed hard. A day? They were more afraid of dying before that deadline.

"Let's not waste any more time. But first, we need to warm up a bit," Darian said calmly, looking at the dozens of disciples.

Then he looked around until he found a thick fallen branch.

He walked over, picked it up and snapped off the thinner end, leaving it the size of a sword blade.

Everyone could see it was just ordinary wood. Of course, in that world full of primordial power, nothing was that simple, but the only thing special about that tree was that its wood was extremely tough, comparable to metal. Still, its weight and other properties were like normal wood, which made it useless for almost everything.

Darian turned to them: "Come on, I'll fight you using this."

Everyone's eyes widened. Who would be crazy enough to fight someone who could kill far more powerful people so easily?

"I don't want to kill you, obviously. I won't use any technique, no power, System Law or the power of chaos. Just this branch and my body. You lot, you should use everything you've got, without holding back."

At that, everyone froze.

Was he crazy? Everyone there was level 7. Using the sect's techniques, it was relatively easy to reach that point; going beyond required talent and absolute effort. At their level, they could generate an amount of chaos power dozens of times greater than someone of level 1, like him.

Even if Darian was scary, if he really used nothing and they went all out... how could a simple branch stop them? None of them were actually that weak, after all — they'd made it through the desert and the Wild World.

"What's wrong? Still scared?" Darian said, squinting.

"I'll fight you!" Suddenly, a woman stepped forward, full of courage.

Darian stared at her. She was his height, had a pretty face and a curvy body. She was, without a doubt, very beautiful. Besides, she was the most talented and strongest of them all. But like the others, she'd accepted that she lacked talent and just wanted to live an easy life.

"Sir, don't blame me if I hurt you by accident." She roared and drew a sword.

Her chest trembled with the movement, her short hair blew in the wind, and a wind power flowed through her, along with a chaos aura that reinforced her body.

Darian watched it clearly with his ring, easily sensing the power in her body.

It was like Remira had said: she'd created a simplified version of the seven stars, where people generated their stars and activated them only in combat; it wasn't fixed like the original.

But... it was pretty flawed and weak. Not to mention the mediocre wind technique she used.

*Vupt!*

Without hesitation, she flew at Darian with an excited smile. She was clearly arrogant, seeing this as her chance for revenge. She would definitely attack to kill or at least hurt him as much as possible.

Remira snorted and looked at Darian's back. She knew well he wasn't the type to go easy just because the opponent was a beautiful woman, especially if she radiated that vicious aura.

The sword came dangerously close to Darian's throat.

*Clang!*

But it was immediately blocked by the branch in his hands. Then...

Everyone saw Darian shift the branch slightly, diverting the blade to the side. The woman's eyes went wide, disbelieving.

*BANG!*

A bang echoed; the next strike from the branch made her vision spin and blur. Her face was hit violently, fresh blood spurting from her mouth and leaving a deep red stain across her face.

She staggered a few steps before regaining her footing. Having her face hit like that filled her with extreme hatred. Being hit there was too humiliating!

"FUCK!" She roared, swinging the sword like she wanted to tear Darian to pieces.

He smiled.

*Bang... Bang... Bang...*

Relentless, Darian beat her dozens of times.

She fell to the ground but got up quickly, overwhelmed by pain and rage.

In truth, Darian had only actually hit her face once. But seeing that fury, he got excited and kept pounding until she screamed in pain and finally gave up, unable to move anymore.

"Ah..." In the end, when he finally stopped, she didn't even have the strength to scream; she could only whimper softly.

Everyone else stared at him like he was a ghost.

Darian really hadn't used anything; they all felt it. Even so, with just a branch... the strongest and most talented among them could only accept the beating!

"Everyone, come fight right now. You can team up." Darian said, holding the branch and coldly pointing at the disciples.

They all took a step back, terrified. "But... but... we—"

"Afraid of what? He's only one person, and we're so many! If we use everything, he doesn't stand a chance. COME ON!" One of the bolder disciples shouted. Then he drew his weapon and charged.

With someone leading, most of the others found courage. They shouted loudly, drew their weapons and rushed forward.

*Bang... Bang... Bang...*

But having more people was useless. Faced with that branch, there was only one option: to be defeated.

"Run! AHHH!"

Darian didn't care if they rushed him or hesitated. If they didn't come to him, he'd go to them.

The first blow hit them right in the face, blood streaming from noses and mouths without stopping. Then came more strikes to the body, until they all fell to the ground together.

Darian hit hard enough to make them howl in pain like wolves. He didn't break any bones, but their muscles were strangely damaged. He beat them until they couldn't move, sprawled out on the ground.

In the end, with everyone knocked out, Darian turned to Remira — whose expression was indescribable —; this was definitely a savage, brutal method.

But... they only had seven days. So she could only watch and see the result.

She took a deep breath and understood what he wanted. Then she pulled out a potion and used wind power to spread it like rain over the disciples.

After it was applied, everything went quiet.

...

After almost six hours, they started opening their eyes, waking up frightened.

Nearly a hundred disciples rose, feeling their bodies completely healed. But none of them could form words.

After such a terrifyingly painful beating, just thinking about it made them shiver all over. Some even thought it might be better to die at once than suffer that again.

When Darian's gaze swept over them, their hearts raced; no one dared even look him in the eye.

"All right. Now that we're warmed up, I should tell you the poison will act faster. You might not even last twelve hours. So, let's continue." He said calmly and waved the branch again.

"Come on... it'll be like before."

Seeing his smile, with the branch in his hand, all the disciples — men and women — couldn't hold back tears.

"Who wants to go first?" Darian said, smiling as he scanned the place. Everyone trembled, but couldn't help taking a step back.

"S-sir, I'll go!"

Surprisingly, the first woman spoke. Darian looked at her and noticed something strange in her eyes. 'Does she like getting beaten? Why does she look so excited?'

After she spoke, she activated the Earth Law through the system. Many runes appeared and she manipulated them in front of her, raising a large runic shield.

She wanted to use a wide shield, hoping to block Darian's branch.

"You've got some guts and you're even a bit smart... or maybe it's something else." Darian said oddly, then moved to attack her.

*Bang... Bang... Bang...*

In the end, she couldn't escape being defeated. Darian hit some specific earth runes, broke them, and then destroyed the defenses.

Darian was a bit more violent this time — she was hit until she couldn't get up, then fainted.

Watching the merciless action repeat, no one dared say anything brave this time.

After... he moved toward everyone.

There was nowhere to run. Quickly, all the disciples were beaten again. Darian didn't give that woman any special treatment; he was relentless with everyone else equally.

At the end, Remira snorted, then the scene repeated with her using another potion on them all.

...

Again, after almost six hours, they rose.

"Who's first?" Darian asked again, his voice now sounding like a monster born from everyone's worst nightmares.

"HAVE MERCY, I BEG YOU!" a man screamed.

Darian murmured, "Life is unforgiving."

*Bang*

"Sir! Not the face!" a woman cried.

Darian answered without emotion, "I can think about that. But if you keep dodging, I'll hit harder. What do you think?"

*Bang*

The branch cut the air like a whip and kept striking the disciples. The sound of impact and the pain made many lose their minds.

The last few times, Darian usually just knocked people to the ground and then stopped; but on the third round, it seemed like he made it worse on purpose.

He struck those on the ground, who didn't faint magically at all. Gripped by pain and still awake, they got up only to be hit again.

Even without serious wounds or spurting blood, eventually their muscles froze... but they didn't pass out; they lay on the ground, trembling in pain and agony.

"You!" After defeating almost everyone, Darian's branch pointed to another disciple: "Come closer."

The chosen disciple obeyed, legs shaking.

"Answer me: why am I beating you?" Darian asked with a slight smile, not attacking right away.

In the disciple's eyes, Darian's smiling face was more terrifying than an enraged demon's. He stammered: "I-it was because we offended the Lord..."

"Wrong!"

Darian cut him off curtly, and the branch in his hand struck again, repeatedly.

"Next."

Darian chose another random disciple and repeated the question. The answer he got was that they were all weak. So he attacked him mercilessly.

No one understood what he wanted; they tried random, nonsensical answers — the result was always the same.

Until he turned to a short, thin-looking young man. The question was the same.

The young man's frightened voice said: "The Lord's blows... were hitting our weak points... or, or it's because the Lord is testing us... our physical technique and our elemental power have many flaws."

Hearing that, Darian stopped suddenly and stared at the boy.

Before that look, the young man trembled like a lamb before an old wolf.

"Why do you think that?" Darian asked calmly.

The thin man clenched his fists and said softly: "I... I feel our techniques have gaps, our bodies are fragile. The Lord hits exactly the weak spots to show us. And he also strikes the body at fragile points to toughen us..."

Having said that, he looked at Darian without confidence and immediately lowered his head.

Darian asked, "What's your name?"

"Faden, sir!"

Darian nodded slightly, "You guessed right."

All the disciples were speechless, and Faden's heart filled with elation; finally, he had escaped a calamity.

"From now on, you'll be a commander, and this whole group will be led by you," Darian said slowly. "However, it's your turn to fight now."

Faden's eyes widened in despair — he wasn't going to get away.