The onlookers stared at the conclusion of the battle with wide eyes.
The twenty-one members of the Black Skull Gang stood frozen, staring in utter disbelief at the crater in the mud.
There lay Darren, their feared, untouchable leader, a Late-Stage Origin Transmutation expert with a mutated King-Class Martial Spirit, beaten, bloodied, and motionless at the feet of a teenager.
"He... he actually did it..." A braided gang member stammered, his eyes wide as saucer plates. He stumbled back a step, his voice trembling so hard his teeth clicked together in the quiet clearing. "A Spirit Veins cultivator... just took down an Origin Transmutation expert?!"
"T-that's two whole realms!" another thug shrieked, violently clutching both sides of his head as if trying to keep his brain from bursting in absolute shock. "That gap should be like heaven and earth! How is that even physically possible?!"
