Talented Martial Hero
Chapter 12 Strength (Part Two)

Once the outburst had died down and what was left was only the silence, Darren turned his backaway from Marvin.

"That sword is possibly one of the most powerful I've ever seen!" Marvin resented admitting it. Hecouldn't help feeling a tiny bit amazed by Darren's superb talent.

Just as he was about to come to terms to the fact that he can't beat Darren, numerous injuries onhis skin came into view and every inch of his body began to crack and crumble away. He started tocollapse, and died before he even hit the ground.

"How is it possible that only one move of your sword was able to easily defeat someone at theeighth stage of the Primary Realm? You cut through him just like a piece of steak!" Elsa blurted out afew moments later. She had no words to describe Darren, especially when it came to his exceptionalswordsmanship. It might have taken her months to completely grasp the skill as efficiently as hehad.

Watching the ball of light as it flew out of Marvin's head, Darren absorbed his talent and walkedtowards where Elsa was.

"Are you alright?" he awkwardly asked.

Darren was perplexed at seeing Elsa absolutely dumbfounded by what had just taken place. He hadno idea how the whole fight must have looked like from her perspective. He had no idea howimpressed Elsa currently was. It was unlike anything she had ever seen from someone of hiscultivation base, even from someone like her who came from a prestigious sect.

Although, in a blink of an eye, Elsa fell back to her usual apathetic self. "I'm fine, thanks,” shenonchalantly replied.

Soon afterward, Kyle and Phil woke up from their coma to the sight of spilled blood and corpses allover the ground.

Darren filled them in on everything that happened. They were understandably shocked to hearabout the events that took place while they were out cold.

"Jared, that son of a bitch! Poor Corrine did not deserve that," Kyle said. The two men grew furiousjust thinking about it.

"We had not expected that you are such a powerful guy. It is our mistake. Please forgive us if we'veever done something against you," Phil humbly said.

Darren accepted the apology and nodded his head.

"Why did you hide your strength from us? If you had told us about it, if you had used it sooner,Corrine would still be alive and wouldn't have killed herself!"

Elsa wasn't able to stop the emotions that burst out of her. She clearly had a bone to pick withDarren. She needed him to know that he was partly to blame for what happened.

What Elsa said did have some truth to it. Darren just stood by as his friends were injured by theFlame Tiger; he just stood by while Corrine endured humiliation which led her to kill herself; he juststood by and let it all happen. If he was a good man, he should have used his power to help them,he should have done something.

"It was beyond my power to be able to help at that time. I can't tell you the reason why right now.All I could say is that I'm really sorry,” Darren explained.

"Humph!" Elsa sneered, frustrated at Darren. She believed no one could possibly be able to level upto such a high stage from the third stage of the Primary Realm in just a short amount of time.

Elsa turned around without saying anything and left.

A mix of guilt, shame, and awkwardness washed over Darren, Kyle, and Phil as they watched Elsawalk away.

"Darren, this Barren Wasteland proved to be dangerous especially for us who basically had nofighting experience. We realized that we still need to improve our skills. We'll get going now, seeyou next time," said Phil. After saying those words, the two men cupped their own hands, raisedthem in front of their chests in a salute. They then turned around and walked away, still limpingfrom the injuries they sustained.

Unlike them, though, Darren decided that he didn't want to leave immediately. Fighting in the battlegreatly empowered him and he didn't want to lose time in improving his cultivation base and histalent.

He has decided to stay in the Barren Wasteland and continue fight those fierce beasts.

A whole month has passed.

While taking a small repose near a lake, Darren saw his reflection in the water. Drying blood coveredhis skin and his clothes were ripped off - he was a mess.

"I've been fighting fierce level six and seven beasts left and right for the past month. I wonder howmuch my skills have improved.

I wasn't able to keep track of what stage I've reached, but I did just feel that I was able to quicklyabsorb the spiritual energy of the earth and heaven.

I must probably at the eighth stage of the Primary Realm by now, after I spent more than a month inpracticing skills and absorbing the spiritual energy of the cardiac core,” he said to himself.

He recalled that Nicholas had stopped at the seventh stage of the Primary Realm, and afterreceiving a lot of resources from his father and spending three years practicing, he was finally ableto break through that barrier. "Unlike him, It only took me a very short time to figure out thesolution to the problem. This achievement was unprecedented in history!”

Darren was ecstatic as he thought about how after years of being the underdog. He finally reacheda higher stage and didn't have to fear the younger generation in the clan.

"They're all going to taste my revenge. The first one to be served will be Evan!"

Darren was confident that he would be able to easily defeat Evan who was currently only at thefourth stage. The only thing that he was worried about was the clan power of Evan's mother.

But once Darren became a disciple of the limen Sect, he would not have to worry about any kind ofclan power.

"The Iimen Sect will choose disciples from each clan soon. I should head back."

Darren soaked himself in the pool to wash out the blood stains and all the grime off of his body. Assoon as he finished up, he headed over to Acqua City.000