Herion clenched his fists. Maeur was the same assassin who had defeated him earlier.
"Watch closely," Darian said casually to them, then walked slowly toward the martial stage.
The entire planet was excited to see Darian fight again. Even in the VIP room, all the most powerful figures were sitting upright, their senses fully focused on him.
In front of Darian stood a Demon dressed in a black robe. His clothes were tight to the body, and the robe covered his face, leaving only his eyes and horns visible. He looked exactly the same as when Herion fought him.
"Darian, I don't mean to brag, but against you, I'll go all out. My techniques are absolute and made to kill with 100% efficiency. So your defeat will be the same as your death. You understand?" the demon said arrogantly. Even with his mouth covered, his voice was still perfectly clear.
Darian looked at him and shook his head in disgust. "Someone wearing a diaper on his head shouldn't be talking. I'm afraid shit might come out of there."
"You!"
The assassin was furious. The specialist assassins of his sect rarely revealed their faces. They almost always wore masks. After being masked for so long, showing their real face made them uncomfortable, so they always preferred to stay hidden.
To them, this was an extremely sacred practice, passed down from the Celestial Cerberus. That was the ancestral entity that made their sect what it is today. Darian was mocking their sacred custom, enraging him.
"You ignorant trash, you dare blaspheme against the teachings of the Celestial Cerberus!"
Vymara and the others were surprised. They exchanged questioning looks.
All cultivators knew that assassins had to be cold and calculated, treating life as nothing more than blades of grass. They had no regard for others' lives, nor even their own. Assassins were cold, emotionless butchers. Only like that could they reach the perfect level of their techniques.
And yet, someone had actually managed to enrage one of them to this extent? That was unbelievable.
"Someone that cold and detached, just to keep living, needs some kind of almost irrational faith or conviction in their heart. Without it, they'd eventually lose themselves in the role." Pyreus suddenly remembered something Darian had told him about cultivators of the Evil Path some time ago.
"Sir Darian… by knowing exactly what that conviction is, he struck right at it. With his heart in chaos, it becomes much easier to crush him."
At that moment, the green light appeared.
The assassin didn't wait even a second, driven by intense killing intent.
Everyone held their breath. That figure completely disappeared before their eyes.
Darian seemed completely indifferent—until he suddenly turned his head.
At that exact moment, a dagger appeared in the air and pierced through the spot where his head had just been. If he had reacted a bit later, his head would've been pierced.
Without looking back, Darian casually moved his hand behind him. As a result, the assassin appeared, and Darian struck him in the face with his palm.
*SLAP!*
The loud sound of a slap echoed throughout the entire arena.
The assassin was sent flying backward, crashing into the barrier. The cloth covering his face exploded, revealing a completely ordinary face filled with shock.
Darian looked at him, his gaze full of mockery.
"Wow, don't you think that's a bit too informal and vulgar? Where's your respect for the 'Great Celestial Tri-Mutt'? Fine… I'm a reasonable guy. I'll give you some time to kneel and pray to him, begging for forgiveness."
"Anyone who blasphemes the Celestial Cerberus must die!"
The assassin was furious, and his whole body pulsed with intense light. As a result, the martial stage suddenly darkened, and the entire scenery changed.
When everything stabilized, Darian found himself in a dark jungle.
"What is this…"
Everyone in the stands was stunned. How had the martial stage turned into this? That dark forest sent chills down their spines.
"Blasphemer, you'll pay the price for your foolishness. Await death in endless terror." The assassin's sinister voice echoed throughout the jungle.
Darian punched a large tree beside him. It fell, smashing several others nearby.
"So it's not an illusion!"
Vymara and the others were surprised. At first, they thought it was an illusion. Even then, an illusion on this scale would've already been shocking. But this was actually real.
"Interesting. So you're good with the earth element and wood power. But so what? Without your diaper on your head, you can't hide your face. That's pretty disrespectful. Aren't you afraid of suffering divine punishment from the Celestial Tri-Mutt?" Darian said seriously.
"Fool, this jungle is the manifestation of an invaluable Artifact left behind by the Celestial Cerberus! It is both illusion and reality at the same time. No one can escape this place. Didn't you notice the trees you destroyed already recovered?" the assassin mocked, his voice echoing from all directions.
The more powerful ones used their senses to check. Just as he said, the trees that had been destroyed were already back to normal.
Everyone took a deep breath. So that was why this assassin had so much confidence to face Darian. He possessed an unbelievable inheritance Artifact.
Even Purimary, who was watching the fight, had a very tense expression. If it were her fighting, her chances of losing and dying would be almost guaranteed.
Darian's voice sounded as indifferent as ever:
"A trivial trick. If I destroyed this jungle, it would feel like I'm bullying you. Luckily, I enjoy beating idiots who think they're powerful. Right now, you're hiding in the dark like a rat, waiting to assassinate your target. Fine. Today, I'll expose just how pathetic these assassination techniques are and show everyone they're worthless."
Everyone fell into deep silence hearing that. If it were anyone else saying that, loud laughter would've filled the arena. But as unbelievable as it seemed, they just watched him intently.
"Assassins rely on sinister tricks and psychological warfare. They often display something flashy to scare people before delivering the killing blow while the opponent's mind is in fear…" Darian said slowly.
Vymara and the others listened carefully because Darian was clearly doing this to teach them how to deal with an assassin.
But even if they knew what to do, it wasn't that easy to put it into practice.
If a normal person were thrown into a deep lake and saw nothing but darkness, how could they not feel fear? And worse, there was a hungry crocodile hiding there. It could see you, but you couldn't see it. How could you not get nervous?
While Darian was speaking, a dagger flew toward his face.
But without even looking at it, Darian moved his hand backward.
As a result, the assassin had just appeared behind him when he was struck by Darian's palm.
*SLAP!*
Once again, he was sent flying, crashing through several trees before slamming into a rock and coughing up a mouthful of blood. Then he slowly slid down the rock, leaving a long trail of blood.
"What is this…"
Everyone was shocked. It was like Darian was a prophet. Only after sending the assassin flying did he casually dodge the dagger coming at him.
That dagger had only been bait to draw his attention. The real attack came from behind.
In that tense situation, anyone would instinctively react to a dagger flying at their face. But if he had focused on blocking it, he would've been killed from behind.
At that moment, the demon slammed his palm against the ground. His body rebounded and disappeared into the jungle. He hid once again.
Suddenly, a dozen arrows shot out from the forest toward Darian. They came from completely different angles, as if a dozen people were firing at once.
The tips of those arrows were pitch black, with a faint blue glow. That was the result of demonic poison corroding them. Anyone hit by even a few would be severely poisoned and die.
But Darian just sneered and turned his body. The arrows passed right by him. Then he struck forward with his hand.
*BOOM!*
Waves rippled through the air, and a figure appeared within them. The assassin let out a pained grunt as he was thrown away once again.
This time, he was sent flying before he could even make a move against Darian.
"He found him again. How is he doing that?" Pyreus asked. They couldn't even catch a glimpse of the assassin, yet Darian seemed to see right through him.
The assassin coughed up blood, completely shaken. He also had no idea how Darian had located him twice.
Darian flicked the blood off his hand and said indifferently:
"Curious? You assassins always use the simplest methods, paying the lowest cost to kill your targets. In other words, you don't dare use your full power, because if you do, you can't stay hidden. Since you don't dare use your full strength, there are only a few weak points that can be fatal. As long as someone ignores everything in front of them and focuses on the vital points, any trained person's sense of danger should be enough to find you. On top of that, assassins always like to attack from unexpected angles. But every movement has its weakness. While attacks from behind are hard to block, if you focus on the most common weak points of the human body, it's like having eyes watching those spots—you'll clearly feel the approach of an assassin…"
"What nonsense!" the assassin shouted angrily.
As he vanished once more, Darian sneered and suddenly stepped to the left.
Then he struck again.
*SLAP!*
The assassin was knocked down once more. Vymara and the others cried out in shock. The assassin had been hiding right in one of Darian's blind spots.
*SLAP!*
At that moment, he had just disappeared when Darian knocked him out of hiding with another slap. Darian's precision was unbelievable.
*SLAP!*
*SLAP!*
*SLAP!*
"…"
The assassin was repeatedly beaten down, unable to hide anymore. Now Vymara and the others understood that Darian was doing this as a demonstration for them. He truly had one hundred percent accuracy in finding that assassin.
"Celestial Massacre!"
After taking so many slaps, the assassin practically lost his mind.
He howled, and a bloody light burst from his body. Instead of using assassination techniques, he charged straight at Darian like a bolt of lightning. The bloody light was most intense at the tip of his dagger. Without any flourish, he launched forward, concentrating all his power into a single strike.
His assassination techniques were completely useless against Darian. No matter what movement technique he used, it was broken by Darian. His concealment techniques had become a complete joke.
The repeated setbacks drove him into rage. As a result, he couldn't even maintain the most basic calm required of an assassin. All his power erupted as he faced Darian head-on.
*BOOM!*
The air filled with blood, and in the next instant, the jungle disappeared. The martial stage returned to its original form.
A few seconds later, everyone saw a figure sprawled against the barrier, completely covered in blood, his body twisted. Who would've thought that an assassin, known for his cold and sinister nature, would explode in rage and be defeated in a single blow?
But he was still alive.
At that moment, the Demonic Elder announced Darian's victory with a grim expression. That young man came from his sect, and now he had been humiliated so badly that even he felt uncomfortable.
Darian slowly walked back to his group.
"Big Brother is seriously amazing!" Neblis exclaimed with a wide smile.
"Sir Darian, I don't understand. That assassin clearly knew you were expecting him to act according to his usual patterns. Why didn't he attack from a different angle?" Pyreus asked thoughtfully.
The others also looked at him, waiting for his answer. That question was on their minds, too. That assassin really was foolish, wasn't he? He could've just attacked from a different angle.
"It's because assassins are trained from the beginning to target people's weak points. After so much training, it becomes a habit, a reflex. They can find someone's weak points with their eyes closed to deliver a fatal blow. So even if he knew what I was doing, he couldn't hold himself back. The moment he hid and prepared to attack, he instinctively reacted to a weak point. At that instant, I felt it immediately. It's like cheating at hide-and-seek. The moment he tried to attack me, I could feel it. If I wasn't showing this to you, I would've taken him down in the first second," Darian said casually.
"Something like that really exists?" Everyone was stunned.
But then they remembered the first day Darian trained them. He had cursed them out and pointed out countless bad habits they had, along with those taught by the powers that trained them. In fact, everyone had many habits, and they were passed down to future generations. As for assassins, who were far more methodical and rigid, they had even more.
