The dark, thick crimson aura radiating from Elder Baltis filled the damp machine shop, turning the incoming puddles of rain into brittle sheets of frozen red ice.
Grant didn’t move.
He stood completely still beneath the gaping hole in the rotting wooden roof, letting the freezing rain bounce harmlessly off his dry, steaming shoulders.
His posture was loose, entirely unbothered by the suffocating killing intent flooding the small warehouse.
“Hand over the artifact, boy,” Elder Baltis repeated, his voice dropping into a menacing, dry rumble that rattled the loose iron panels of the walls.
“A piece of trash from the docks doesn’t deserve to hold a divine treasure.
Give it to me, and I will grant you a quick death.
Refuse, and I will melt the flesh from your bones.”
The old man twisted his thin, wrinkled wrists, and a thick, toxic green mist began to coat his long fingernails.
It was the signature technique of his sect: The Corrosive Iron Shroud.
The acid was so potent that a single drop could eat through structural concrete in seconds.
Grant simply looked up, his draconic golden pupils locking onto the floating blood-red text boxes hovering in the dark air right before his eyes.
« SYSTEM TACTICAL SCAN INITIALIZED »
• Target Entity: Elder Baltis (Tier 1, Stage 7)
• Active Threat Assessment: Low
• Current Target Combat Strength: 850
• Automated System Countermeasure: Sovereign Pressure activated.
Suppressing hostile target by 30%…
• Adjusted Target Combat Strength: 850 → 595
The moment the system finished its rapid calculation, the mountain-like gravity filling the room shifted, focusing entirely onto Elder Baltis’s fragile shoulders.
The old man’s arrogant, greedy smile instantly froze.
His knees wobbled, and the thick, oil-stained concrete beneath his wooden sandals cracked under the sudden, immense weight.
The toxic green mist coating his fingers began to flicker and fade, suppressed by the sheer atmospheric density of Grant’s raw primordial energy.
“What…
what kind of domain is this?!” Elder Baltis gasped, his chest heaving violently as he struggled to pull oxygen into his lungs.
“You’re just a Stage 1 stray!
How can your spiritual pressure be this heavy?!”
Panic flared in the old man’s bloodshot eyes, but his predatory instincts overrode his fear.
Knowing he couldn’t survive a prolonged suppression, he threw his entire remaining internal reservoir into his feet.
BOOM!
Elder Baltis lunged forward like a bloody, crimson streak of light, crossing the ten-meter gap in a fraction of a single second.
His right hand clawed outward, the toxic green mist condensing into a razor-sharp spectral claw aimed directly at Grant’s throat.
“Die, you arrogant rat!” the old man roared.
Grant didn’t dodge.
He didn’t drop into a defensive stance, nor did he lift his hands to block the lethal blow.
He simply stood there, watching the incoming attack with absolute, cold indifference.
The toxic spectral claw slammed directly into the center of Grant’s unprotected throat.
CLANG!
A deafening, metallic screech echoed through the abandoned warehouse, followed immediately by the sickening, cracking sound of shattering human bones.
The green mist instantly exploded into harmless vapor.
Elder Baltis’s fingers didn’t pierce Grant’s skin.
Instead, his long fingers bent backward at horrific, unnatural ninety-degree angles, snapping like dry twigs against the invisible, impenetrable barrier of Grant’s passive protection.
« SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: COMBAT LOG »
• Host Defenses Engaged: Dragon Scale Armor (Active)
• Incoming Attack Value: 595 (Physical / Corrosive)
• Damage Absorbed: 100% (Host sustained 0 damage)
• Kinetic Reflection: 15% of total impact force reflected back to attacker.
• Target Condition: Right hand fractured.
“AAARGH!” Elder Baltis screamed, clutching his shattered, bleeding right hand to his chest as he stumbled backward in pure terror.
He looked at Grant’s throat.
There wasn’t a single scratch.
There wasn’t even a faint red mark left by the corrosive acid.
The skin was as flawless and hard as divine jade, completely immune to the old man’s ultimate martial technique.
“Monster…
you’re a monster!” the old man whimpered, his lifetime of pride completely shattered in a single exchange.
He turned on his heels, desperate to flee out into the storm and leave the harbor behind.
“You came here to plunder,” Grant said softly, his voice echoing like the low rumble of an approaching earthquake.
“Did you really think you could just walk away?”
Grant raised his right hand, loosely curling his fingers into a casual fist.
He didn’t use a stance.
He didn’t draw on a complex martial technique.
He simply threw a straight, effortless punch into the empty air toward the fleeing elder’s back.
The sheer physical strength of his 125-point stat compressed the air in front of his knuckles, forming a visible, transparent shockwave of condensed physical force.
BOOM!
The localized air cannon tore through the center of the warehouse.
The concrete floor beneath the path of the punch disintegrated entirely into flying stone shrapnel.
The invisible shockwave slammed directly into Elder Baltis’s back before his foot could even touch the shattered doorway.
The old man’s protective spiritual armor popped like a fragile soap bubble.
He was launched through the air like a broken ragdoll, smashing straight through the reinforced brick wall of the warehouse and tumbling out into the muddy gravel of the open harbor yard.
He lay there in the pouring rain, completely unconscious, his cultivation base entirely shattered by a single casual punch.
« SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: COMBAT CONCLUDED »
• Target Defeated: Elder Baltis (Tier 1, Stage 7)
• Experience Points Gained: +700 EXP
• Bonus Loot Acquired: 1x Low-Grade Storage Ring
(Contains 50 Spirit Stones, 1x Basic Mortal Sword)
• Total Experience Progress: 700 / 1,000 (Level Up Imminent!)
Grant lowered his hand, his draconic gold pupils slowly dimming back to their natural black state as the immense pressure in the room vanished.
He walked calmly over to the jagged hole in the brick wall, looking out at the ruined elder splashing in the cold mud.
“Stage 7,” Grant muttered, checking the slight steam rising from his dry knuckles.
“Too weak.”
He walked out into the freezing rain, stepping over the broken body to claim the tarnished silver band resting on Baltis’s left hand.
The true powers of the city had thought him dead for five years.
They were about to find out how wrong they were.
Grant didn’t even have to use his active skills to break a Stage 7 Elder!
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