Darius was excited. Although he’d previously had the chance to spar with some enlightened martial artists and had Edward and Shelvin train with him every day, he could still clearly feel these methods wouldn’t be half as effective as getting into actual duels. With this thought in mind, his eyes gleamed with excitement as he looked at the old man.The old man sensed this. A trace of surprise flitted across his face as he watched Darius attack. “It’s only been a year since your enlightenment, but you’re already much more powerful than most people. I’ve suddenly lost the urge to kill you.” He smiled and looked at Darius with interest.Darius scowled, repulsed at having another man look at him like that. He glowered at the old man and attacked him at top speed. However, no matter how fast he was, the old man was always one step ahead of him. He was a hair’s breadth away from landing a blow on the old man when he abruptly stopped—not of his own volition, of course. He sensed a powerful
As soon as his words fell, the old man’s voice boomed from all directions, making Darius feel like his ears were going to go deaf. “I hear you, but you can’t deny the result would be the same if I were to employ another method, right?” Darius stiffened; his face was starting to turn grey from the lack of oxygen, and his vision was blurry. However, he remained on his feet despite his wavering body. He’d never realized how hard it was to hold on and stay strong. He tried to look around again, but his actions only made him use his oxygen faster. Finally, he stopped breathing. The old man sighed. “You were destined to die, especially because of your obstinacy.” Unbeknownst to him, Darius hadn’t actually died. On the contrary, he seemed to have been transported to another world. Everything there was shrouded in darkness, and he could feel strong gusts of wind billowing around him. He raised an eyebrow—this was his first time seeing something like this. He wanted to stand up but felt
Teivel looked flustered as he said, “Oh, stop sticking your nose into my business, young one. I’m leaving, so you’d better get out of here as quickly as possible. If he finds out you’re playing dead in his world, you’ll be dead meat.” After that, he disappeared with the book.Darius narrowed his eyes—the way Teivel had disappeared differed from before. He put his hands behind his back, wanting to know more about these two old men, but this evidently wasn’t the right time. He sat down and crossed his legs. Even though he didn’t know what had happened earlier, he knew there was something different in his mind. It was both terrifying and curious—the fact that Teivel could easily plant something that didn’t belong to him in his mind meant that it was easy enough to tamper with someone’s memories. As he pondered this, he sensed the outside world quaking. Once again, he felt smothered.This time, Darius wasn’t as panicked as before. In fact, it felt like the last time he panicked was ages
“What are you standing there for? Absorb the life force! The more you absorb, the less he’ll have! It may not have been obtained through the most innocuous of ways, but we’d be doing the public a favor by absorbing it,” Teivel said.Darius smiled, then sat down again and shut his eyes to start meditating. However, he opened them again almost immediately and asked, “Where are we? I’ve been meaning to ask for a long time now.”Teivel sounded impatient, saying, “Quit asking questions, or he’ll discover you’re here before you get anything out of this! This is a world built from your consciousness, but another world outside of yours belongs to him.”Darius raised an eyebrow. He’d never heard of these things before, and his hands paused in mid-air. He was so surprised that he forgot all about absorbing the life force, and his eyes widened. His gaze swept over his surroundings, but nothing seemed familiar to him. Teivel’s words were becoming more and more believable to him…and it seemed lik
Darius’ gaze sharpened. The old man put his hands behind his back and looked at Darius appraisingly, allowing his gaze to travel over Darius. Darius didn’t say anything. Instead, he calmly lifted his head to meet the old man’s eyes. In that instant, he felt dazed, but he soon returned to his senses and enveloped himself in his life force. This time, the old man was the one who looked dazed. Similarly, he also returned to his senses a second later. He looked shocked. “I can’t believe I still share the same tastes as that old fart—we both chose you to take after us.”Darius frowned, a complicated look flitting across his face. He thought the old man had only discovered he was still alive; he didn’t expect him to also know about Teivel. Darius slowly retracted his arms and got to his feet. The old man frowned and stared at a spot on Darius’ arm, following it wherever it went. It made Darius’ hair stand on end. It seemed the old man was more powerful than he expected—from the moment he
Teivel smiled; it had been a while since he’d last smiled so earnestly. He sounded joyful, saying, “I’m glad to hear you refer to me like that.” After a pause, he continued, “He looks like that because he spent far too long in my body. Besides, he’s always done his best to imitate me.” He started to sound proud. “I’m sure you can now tell how exemplary I am.”Darius’ lips twitched. He didn’t expect Teivel to be in the mood for self-praise now. He turned to the old man and said, “You’ve imitated my mentor for many years.”The old man didn’t even blink. A few seconds later, he suddenly stretched out an arm in Darius’ direction, immediately obscuring Darius’ vision with his life force. Unfortunately for him, Darius had already shut his eyes and allowed the life force to push him backward. He knew he couldn’t fight fire with fire when going up against the old man, so he’d prepared himself for this.The old man’s eyes widened when he saw Darius being sent flying. He thought Darius would
Darius felt like he was going to freeze over. He was dazed when he opened his eyes and saw that his vision had recovered. At the same time, he realized he was floating in mid-air. Teivel was standing before his body, and the old man was standing before Teivel. The old man’s face was as twisted as before—none of his features were in their original spots, which meant there was no way of telling what exactly he looked like. Darius’ lips twitched as he walked—no, floated—over to his body.He frowned, reluctant to take his defeat lying down. He knew he had to be dead this time. However, the moment this thought popped into his mind, he knew he was wrong. When he floated over to his body, both Teivel and the old man turned to look at him, but their expressions were completely different. The former looked worried, while the latter looked murderous.Teivel said, “Get out of here. Lie down in your body; you’ll return to normal soon enough.” Darius looked surprised but still did as he was told
“It all boils down to one thing—you and I are on opposing sides!” As Teivel spoke, his gaze landed behind the old man’s spirit and on his body. His face turned frosty, and his breathing sped up. He turned back to look at the old man and said, “However, since we’re both still alive, we should leave the past behind us. Now, it’s time to settle new grudges.”The old man narrowed his eyes. “You mean like how you stole my disciple?”Teivel’s lips twitched. Then, he shook his head. “No, like how you stole my body.”An ugly look crept onto the old man’s face at his words. He glared at Teivel as his face started to twist with rage again. He roared, “No, this is my body! It’s mine!”At this moment, Darius could still hear what was happening. He wanted to do something but could only watch as his body and soul slowly merged. He’d never been this impatient for something to happen, and he tried to take a deep breath to calm himself. It didn’t work. Suddenly, he felt something warm drip onto him,