Chapter 66: Lucian Show His True Power

"A magnificent sacrifice," the cult leader rasped, a dark chuckle rumbling beneath his boar mask. "And as for your little shadow..."

He glanced down, expecting to find the terrified commoner still standing quietly with his hands tied.

Instead, there was nothing.

The hemp ropes hadn’t been cut or untied. They had simply fallen apart, turning into a thin cloud of gray dust that drifted onto the stone floor.

"What?"

The cult leader’s voice lost its amusement. His crimson eyes widened slightly behind the mask.

Lucian stood in the middle of the dark rune circle.

He was no longer slouching.

His shoulders slowly rolled back, the lazy posture he’d used to appear like an ordinary third-year student disappearing completely.

There was no burst of Spiritual Energy.

No roaring energy.

No glowing elemental aura.

Not even the slightest crackle of power.

Instead, the entire atmosphere seemed to change.

The air around them suddenly grew heavy, as if something had sucked the oxygen from the clearing.

Lucian slowly raised his head.

His eyes settled on the cult leader.

"You talk about cattle and sacrifice quite a lot."

His voice was quiet.

Far too quiet.

There was none of his usual casual tone left. What remained was a cold, absolute indifference that sent an involuntary chill down Evelyn’s spine.

"You..."

The Martial Master Stage 1 cultist instinctively raised his black iron dagger and stepped in front of his leader. "How did you break the Shadow Binder without using true energy—?!"

He never finished.

Lucian was gone.

There was no sound of movement. No rush of wind. No visible blur.

One moment, he was standing beside the obsidian pillar.

The next, he was standing directly in front of the Stage 1 cultist.

The cultist’s eyes widened behind his porcelain mask.

His instincts screamed.

He immediately forced his dark energy outward, forming layer after layer of hardened energy around his chest.

Too late.

Lucian drew back his right arm.

There was no complicated stance.

No martial technique.

No incantation.

Just one simple punch.

His fist shot forward with terrifying speed.

THROOOOOM—!

The impact was deafening.

It didn’t sound like a fist striking flesh.

It sounded like an explosion tearing through the heart of a mountain.

The cultist’s defensive barrier shattered instantly.

The shockwave burst outward in a perfect ring, blasting through the surrounding purple mist and tearing loose moss from the stone walls several yards away.

The cultist’s defensive barrier shattered the instant Lucian’s fist broke through it.

The force behind the punch was overwhelming.

It slammed into the cultist’s chest with such brutal power that his body couldn’t withstand the impact. His armor cracked, his bones gave way, and the force sent him crashing through the air.

He didn’t even have time to react.

His body struck the stone wall with a deafening BOOM, leaving cracks spreading across the surface before he collapsed motionless onto the ground.

Silence fell over the Hollow Basin.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

The cult leader stood completely frozen, staring at the fallen body of his subordinate as if his mind couldn’t accept what had just happened.

A Martial Master had been defeated by a single punch.

And Lucian hadn’t even released a trace of aura.

Evelyn had stopped struggling against the blood-red chains.

Her ice-blue eyes remained fixed on Lucian’s back, disbelief written across her face.

She had watched him stand there without the slightest hint of Spiritual Energy.

Yet a Martial Master had been brought down in an instant.

How... is that possible?

The question echoed through her mind, but she couldn’t find an answer.

Down in the mud, that martial master stirred faintly, his left eye fluttering open just enough to catch the lingering ripples of the shockwave distorting the air above the crater.

Through his half-conscious, blood-blurred vision, a single, looping thought echoed frantically across his shattering mind:

"...Is that... the D-Rank orphan...?"

---

For three long seconds, nobody moved.

The surviving cultists stared at the bloodstain on the basalt wall where their companion had been standing only moments ago. None of them could make sense of what they had just witnessed.

"He... he didn’t use Energy..."

The Martial Master Stage 2 cultist’s voice trembled beneath his boar mask. His grip tightened around his heavy cleaver until his knuckles turned pale.

"That wasn’t a martial technique."

He stared at Lucian as fear slowly replaced the confidence on his face.

"That was pure physical strength. He’s a body-refiner... Kill him! Kill him now before he can strike again!"

The remaining cultists reacted immediately.

With a desperate roar, they activated their corrupted martial arts.

Dark tendrils of corrupted Energy erupted from their hands, twisting through the mist before forming dozens of sharp shadow blades.

The blades filled the clearing from every direction, cutting through the air with a sharp hiss as they rushed toward Lucian.

The surrounding stone cracked under the pressure.

The attacks came from all sides, leaving almost no room to dodge.

But Lucian didn’t flinch.

He simply stood there.

His expression remained calm as the countless blades closed in around him.

Lucian didn’t draw a weapon.

He didn’t even take a defensive stance.

He simply took one calm step backward until he was standing directly in front of the crimson pillars holding Evelyn in place.

The shadow blades came rushing toward them.

Lucian glanced over his shoulder.

His silver-tinged eyes met Evelyn’s wide, stunned gaze.

Despite the storm of dark energy closing in, his expression remained completely relaxed.

"Wifey," he said softly.

Evelyn stared at him.

"Close your eyes."

She barely had time to process the words, let alone the strange nickname he’d just used in the middle of a deadly battle.

Lucian gave her a faint smile.

"Welp... this is about to get ugly."

Then he turned back toward the approaching attacks.

His right heel came down against the rune-covered stone.

THUMMMMM!

A deep vibration spread through the ground.

The shadows cast by the trees, the rocks, and the obsidian pillars began to move.

Then they detached.

Darkness spread across the clearing.

The mist turned black, swirling upward like smoke rising from a bottomless pit.

Cracks spread across the ground as an unnatural cold swept through the basin.

Then came the sound of metal.

SHING!

Another followed.

SHING!

Figures began emerging from the darkness.

One after another, silent warriors stepped out of the black mist.

They were covered in dark steel armor, with strange silver markings running across their helmets.

Each carried a heavy executioner’s blade in one hand.

The blades were covered in frost, giving off a faint blue glow.

One soldier emerged.

Then another.

Then another.

The darkness kept producing them.

And it didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon.