Julian Cross’s eyes narrowed into dangerous, razor-sharp slits. The dark purple spatial mana swirling around his shoulders suddenly flared, turning into a tempest that threatened to rip the courtyard apart.
For thirty years, no one had dared to insult him. To be told by a Level 1, F-rank teenager that he lacked the qualifications to test him was an absurdity that demanded blood.
"Arrogant brat," Julian whispered, his voice echoing like grinding stones. "A genius who dies early is just a corpse. Let’s see if your bones are as hard as your mouth!"
Without a single step, Julian vanished.
BOOM!
He bypassed linear space entirely. In a millisecond, Julian materialized directly in Ethan’s blind spot, his right fist cloaked in a crushing, compressed vortex of SS-rank spatial energy.
The sheer air pressure cracked the stone walls of the surrounding buildings before the punch even landed.
Cassandra couldn’t even track the movement with her eyes. "My Lord, watch out!" she screamed, her voice filled with panic.
But Ethan didn’t need to see. His newly awakened Void Sovereign (SSS-Rank) talent granted him absolute spatial awareness within his domain.
With calculations, the two pitch-black obsidian daggers, Shadow Sovereign’s Twin Blades (SS-Rank), materialized in his hands, humming with a dense, sentient dark mist. He crossed the blades over his shoulder, perfectly intercepting the invisible path of the punch.
[System Notice: Active Passive Skill — Eternal Domain! Incoming damage reduced by 90%!]
CLANG!!!!!!!!
The collision sounded like two mountains crashing together. A blinding shockwave of dark starlight and purple spatial ripples exploded outward, completely pulverizing the concrete floor beneath them into fine dust. This chapter was copied from novelping dot com without permission.
The shockwave expanded, shattering every glass window within a three-block radius of the market.
Ethan’s boots plowed into the dirt, tearing two deep grooves as he was pushed back five feet. His arms vibrated from the residual kinetic energy, but his chest remained uninjured, and his grip on his blades was rock-solid.
Julian, however, was forced back half a step. He looked down at his knuckles, which were faintly smoldering with a corrosive, pitch-black void energy.
He blocked it.
Julian’s mind roared in absolute disbelief. He was a Level 82 SS-Rank apex hunter. Even with a casual, testing punch, he should have vaporized any hunter below Level 50. Yet this teenager had not only reacted to his spatial displacement, but had cleanly absorbed the impact without breaking a single bone.
"My turn," Ethan said, a cold, ruthless smirk playing on his lips. His pupils dissolved into an endless, terrifying black abyss.
He lunged forward. Backed by his massive +500 raw Strength and Agility attributes, Ethan became a streak of pure midnight. He swung the twin blades in a vicious, interlocking cross-cut.
[System Notice: Activating SS-Rank Swordsmanship — Void-Severing Asura Slash! Outgoing damage multiplied by 10x via Eternal Domain!]
A massive, crescent-shaped wave of pure void energy tore through the air, ripping a literal tear in the fabric of the courtyard’s space. The gravity in the area inverted, pulling loose stones toward the slash.
Julian’s face went completely pale. For the first time in decades, he felt a genuine, lethal threat to his life.
"Spatial Shield: Absolute Isolation!" Julian roared, slamming his hands together. A thick, crystalline barrier of folded space materialized in front of him.
BOOM!!!
The void slash slammed into the spatial shield. The barrier cracked instantly like cheap porcelain, spiderwebs of dark light spreading across it before it shattered entirely.
Julian was sent skidding backward across the ruined courtyard, his tailored midnight-blue suit torn, his silver monocle flying off his face and smashing into pieces on the ground.
Ethan stood in the center of the dust cloud, his twin blades resting casually at his sides, completely unbothered. He hadn’t even broken a sweat.
Silence fell over the ruined courtyard.
Julian slowly straightened his posture. The anger in his eyes had completely vanished, replaced by a deep, fanatical respect that only a true powerhouse could command.
He realized he wasn’t looking at a lucky kid with a relic. He was looking at a cosmic anomaly. A god in the making.
Julian bowed deeply, a low laugh escaping his throat. "Incredible. Truly incredible. To think a dragon was hiding in the slums of the Outer District."
He reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a dark gold token, tossing it gently toward Ethan.
Ethan caught it easily. It was the Sovereign Black Card of the Underground Guild.
"With that card, every black market, vault, and auction house under my command is yours," Julian said, his voice now entirely deferential.
"The Vance family elders are mobilizing to kill you for what you did to Tyler. But as of this moment... the Underground Guild declares you our supreme ally. I will personally ensure not a single Vance elder touches you before the academy trial next week."
Julian smiled darkly. "Go to the trial, Ethan Reed. Show the world what happens when they call a god ’trash.’ And when you return... we will rewrite the economy of this entire planet together."
Ethan flipped the gold card into his system space, his eyes returning to normal. "Next week, the academy will burn, Guild Master. Make sure you’re watching."