Damned Healer

"The battles can continue!" announced the Sect Leader.

When Zatrian returned, she looked at Darian. A smile full of deep meaning appeared on her face… and then, everyone saw a subtle tear slip down, which she quickly wiped away.

Immediately, the whole battalion buzzed with excitement. Now it was their turn to shine!

Darian waved indifferently, signaling for the next person to fight. On the other side, Lachlan chose his best soldier to restore morale.

It was a tall, strong man, carrying a heavy sword on his back. His opponent was… Faden, an average-height man, relatively slim, looking like he had no idea how to fight head-on.

Faden drew his saber slowly.

Then…

*BOOM!*

With just one move, the slim man launched his opponent into the air with a saber strike. He slammed against the barrier and fell, already unconscious.

"End of the battle!" announced the Sect Leader, causing an uproar in the arena.

The fights continued.

…

Soon, the entire arena fell into a strange silence.

It all happened so fast, almost anticlimactic, yet terrifying.

The eighty people in the vice-leader's battalion… had won their challenges! The vast majority triumphed with just one move; a few needed only two or three.

The crowd was simply stunned. Those soldiers looked like hungry tigers. When their eyes fell on their opponents, it was as if they were staring at the killers of their entire family.

And the most shocking part: they won without using powerful techniques. They just attacked with their weapons in a simple, straightforward way—and their enemies couldn't withstand it.

"Heavens, what kind of madness is this?! How is this possible?!" people in the crowd shouted in disbelief.

What method had the vice-leader used to turn a bunch of trash into an elite battalion in just seven days? It was unbelievable.

Even the Deans were dumbfounded. Watching that battalion, they couldn't even think straight. The terrifying combat power of the disciples shook them to the core.

Darian just snorted. Were these people all idiots?

Everyone there was inside the system, which had been designed precisely to produce powerful people. If someone were truly weak, they'd have already died in the desert or in the Wild World.

He hadn't used any miraculous magic. He'd only worked on what mattered most: their mindset. Then he corrected some flaws and forced them to fight under pressure until their instincts sharpened.

When the last disciple won, in the heavy silence of the arena, only the victorious battalion's celebration could be heard.

"This is impossible! He definitely cheated!"

Suddenly, a man beside Lachlan shouted, unable to accept reality. Other Deans silently supported him with their gaze, encouraging him.

Turning trash into gold in seven days? That was a slap in the face to everyone. Darian's display made it obvious that they were terrible Generals and trainers, unable to recognize the potential of these geniuses, whom they had wrongly judged as useless.

"I propose we investigate these disciples to see if they secretly took some kind of forbidden pill! Sacrificing the lives of sect disciples is a grave sin!" shouted the same man.

"Fuck off!" Before the Sect Leader could respond, the battalion erupted in curses.

"Besides slandering others, you bastards have any skill at all?!" roared Faden.

"You're just jealous of the Boss's skill and charisma, and resorting to this sneaky nonsense? Fine, let's put it to the test right now!" Zatrian said coldly, "Sect Leader, you can test us one by one. If we cheated, we'll all die. But if we didn't, all these jealous trash should come up on the martial stage again! This time, we'll fight and kill them one by one!"

"That's right, we'll stake our lives! Are you gonna run?!" another shouted.

They were proud by nature, and now that they'd regained confidence, they couldn't tolerate such slander. Questioning Darian was absolutely unacceptable to them.

Even though the training had been practically torture, and Darian had never gone easy on anyone, not even the women, it didn't stop them from revering him.

At first, they were scared of him… very, very scared. But as they understood his abilities, that terror turned into deep respect and admiration. He had only scared them, but he always wanted to help them.

Now, people without any skill dared to blaspheme against their Boss? That made everyone feel like attacking immediately.

For everyone else in the arena, the scene was both shocking and a little comical: those disciples were furious, weapons in hand, with a vicious gleam in their eyes. But…

"Enough!"

Suddenly, the serious, loud voice of the Sect Leader rang out, shaking everyone to their core.

"Without any evidence, you accused the vice-leader of cheating. Do you think that just because you have support, you can say and do whatever you want? Remember, this place is the Divine Seven-Star Sect. We live to complete the Trial, and to do that, we need to support each other and defeat our enemies. So… unless your sponsor is a traitor and you want to harm the sect, I don't see why you would attack the vice-leader with such a serious accusation."

Everyone in the arena swallowed hard at the word 'traitor.' That was a massive taboo. But everyone knew about the dark, hidden things that sometimes happened behind the scenes.

The Sect Leader usually spoke kindly, and no one had ever seen him angry. But today, his words were heavy. It seemed like the usually good-humored Murral was extremely displeased.

"Sect Leader, the disciple only felt it!" The man shouted desperately, starting to sweat.

Murral waved his hand. "If you suspect the vice-leader is cheating and want to investigate, an investigation is possible. But if it reveals nothing, you'll have to face the consequences. Are you willing to die for this?"

"This is…" His expression—and everyone else's—changed.

"What? You want to slander others, then you have to accept being wrong. Your life isn't worth more than anyone else's." The Sect Leader's gaze suddenly turned cold, his eyes sharp as blades.

"I… I… I don't think that's necessary. I believe in the vice-leader." After a long hesitation, he finally backed down.

He knew that if he insisted, everything would happen according to the rules—and he might be dead. The Deans wouldn't protect a mere disciple like him. Right now, all seven of them were silent, as if it had nothing to do with them.

"Good. Let's get back to what matters most." Murral announced, turning to Lachlan.

"By points, even if you win your fight, you'll still be defeated. No need to hurt yourself unnecessarily. We never know when the next battle in this war will happen, so it's best to always be in top condition. If you want to avoid it, no one will blame you."

"Thank you, Sect Leader! But I want to fight!" Lachlan replied without a moment's hesitation.

No one found it strange. Losing points? Who cared?

His goal was to fight Darian and kill him in this arena. Nothing else mattered.

Darian smiled. It was time for him to step in.