Chapter 851: Raul is a good boy

Max’s lips curled into a sharp grin. "Because I’m better than all the so-called geniuses of the Middle Domain," he said coldly, his words sharp as his blade.

Without hesitation, Max unleashed his Severing Flow Sword Art. The Blue Dragon Sword trembled with raw destructive power, black flames and sword energy intertwining as the slash shot forward like a tidal wave of pure death.

"Damn you!" Raul roared in anger and panic, realizing too late that this attack wasn’t something his swarm could stop. He hastily withdrew his trump card, pulling a massive cauldron from his storage ring. The cauldron expanded instantly, glowing with layers of defensive inscriptions as he poured his vital essence into it. It hovered in front of him like a steel mountain, absorbing the impact.

But the moment Max’s sword strike landed, the world seemed to explode.

Bang!

The cauldron wailed with a metallic screech as if crying out in pain, its glowing inscriptions shattering like fragile glass. The force of the impact blasted Raul backward like a ragdoll.

He spat blood midair, his body twisting awkwardly before crashing into the earth, skidding across the ground and tearing deep grooves into it. His Filthy Ant swarm scattered in panic, their eerie cohesion breaking under the sheer force of Max’s strike.

"What the hell is this cauldron?" Max muttered to himself, staring at the massive black structure that now loomed before him like an impenetrable fortress.

He could still feel the reverberation in his arms from his previous attack, one where he had used both his advanced stage level 2 sword concept and his level 2 flame concept.

That strike alone could heavily injure a 5th level Legend Rank expert, yet it had done nothing but push the cauldron back slightly without leaving so much as a scratch.

Inside the cauldron, Raul’s laughter echoed, confident and arrogant. "Hahaha! Fool! Did you think you could kill me so easily? This is the Black Gold Cauldron, forged from Chaos Stones and Chaos Metals—the most resilient materials known to exist in all the realms. With this cauldron protecting me, nothing in this world can break its defense. Not blades, not flames, not even heavenly lightning. Nothing!"

His voice oozed pride as if he had already won the battle. "You see now why killing me is different from killing my junior brother? You could slaughter him like a dog, but me? No one below Mythic Rank can break this defense. No one."

Hearing that, Max’s body shook even more, which only seemed to please Raul. He imagined Max was finally realizing the futility of his resistance and accepting the absolute gap between them.

"That’s right!" Raul continued gloating from the safety of his prized artifact. "You finally understand the despair of facing a true genius of the Void Soul Tower, don’t you? You thought you were strong, you thought you were clever, but all your tricks and all your power mean nothing before the Black Gold Cauldron. Admit it—you’ve lost!"

However, what Raul couldn’t see from inside his cauldron was the twisted grin spreading across Max’s face, one full of predatory hunger and excitement rather than fear. His trembling wasn’t from despair but from the overwhelming desire to possess what was right in front of him.

’Chaos Stones and Chaos Metals?’ Just those two things alone made Max greedy. And this cauldron wasn’t just forged from a fragment of those materials—it was entirely constructed from them.

Max laughed suddenly, a hearty, almost maniacal laugh that rang through the battlefield. "Raul, you are such a good guy," he said, his voice dripping with amusement.

Inside the cauldron, Raul’s confident expression faltered slightly. "What do you mean by that?" For some reason, an inexplicable dread welled up inside him. His instincts screamed danger, the kind that couldn’t be seen or comprehended yet. His smile stiffened, and he unconsciously adjusted his grip inside the cauldron, bracing himself.

Max’s lips curled into a faint smile as he quietly activated the Crimson Reaper inheritance. Without hesitation, an ominous black flame erupted around Raul’s cauldron, engulfing it completely within a sphere of searing darkness.

The heat was suffocating, the energy vicious and hungry, as if it carried a will of its own. Raul’s expression shifted in mild surprise at first, then morphed into disdainful laughter.

"Black flames? Are you from the Black Lotus Guild?" he sneered, arrogance dripping from his tone. "Even black flames can’t burn my cauldron."

But Max only smiled lightly, lowering his voice to a whisper, almost inaudible. "Devour."

The moment the word left his lips, the black flames suddenly surged like a beast awakened, swirling violently around the cauldron. The flames grew darker, sharper, their destructive aura twisting the air itself, and then the shouts came—panicked, confused, filled with disbelief.

"What? How is this possible? How can your black flames melt chaos stones and chaos metals?!" Raul’s voice trembled as he watched in horror. His treasured cauldron, one forged to withstand extreme elements, was being eaten alive—burning from the outside while simultaneously corroding from within.

Max chuckled, voice calm yet carrying an edge of mockery. "There is nothing in this world that is impossible."

And just like that, the cauldron vanished, devoured entirely by those unholy flames, leaving behind only silence and the faint echo of its destruction.

A system prompt rang in Max’s mind:

[Dragon Scales increased by 200.]

[Dragon Scales: 800]

"An increase of 200? Good!" Max exclaimed, genuine excitement flashing across his face.

But before he could celebrate further, an enraged voice cut through the air. "How dare you burn my cauldron?!" Raul stepped out from within the dissipating black flames, and Max’s breath caught at the sight before him.

Raul’s body was grotesquely covered in writhing creatures—snakes coiled around his arms, lizards clung to his torso, and countless insects crawled across his skin like living armor.

Max’s eyes widened in disbelief, his usual composure faltering. "What the hell...?"

Before he could process the bizarre sight, Raul’s pet bag stirred violently. A black centipede emerged, its massive body dwarfing both Max and Raul combined. Its mandibles clicked ominously, radiating a suffocating aura of power—its strength was at the very peak of the Legend Realm.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay