Cold, damp air pressed against Ruan's face as he walked down the narrow stone corridor.
Rust and dried blood coated the iron grates overhead, dripping foul water onto the packed dirt path.
Shouts echoed from the arena ahead, a low, vibrating rumble that shook the dust from the ceiling.
Step by step, he moved toward the blinding glare of the exit, his posture relaxed and his hands tucked into his loose sleeves.
No one had offered him weapons, and he wouldn't have taken them anyway.
His bare hands were more than enough for whatever circus these people had prepared.
Hector watched from his high VIP balcony, a cruel grin stretching across his scarred face.
Beside the corrupt coordinator, several wealthy patrons raised their glasses, laughing as they placed their bets on Ruan's immediate demise.
Jeering erupted the moment Ruan stepped out into the blinding light of the coliseum.
Thousands of spectators filled the towering stands, their faces twisted in bloodthirsty anticipation.
They expected a warrior clad in heavy steel, or at least a desperate slave armed with a rusted spear.
Instead, they saw a solitary man wearing simple, faded robes, devoid of any armor, shield, or blade.
"Is this a joke?" a voice screamed from the front row.
"He doesn't even have a dagger!" another yelled, throwing a half-eaten piece of fruit into the dirt.
Laughter rippled through the stadium, a wave of mockery that did absolutely nothing to break Ruan's focus.
His dark eyes swept over the blood-stained sand of the pit, recognizing the faint, lingering scent of death.
How many gladiators had died here just to entertain these modern cowards?
How many descendants of his lost world had been forced to bleed for the amusement of those who worshipped the stars?
Deep in his chest, a cold, quiet anger began to simmer, though his face remained as still as carved stone.
Across the arena, a massive steel gate began to grind upward, its heavy chains rattling against the stone walls.
Low growls vibrated through the dark tunnel behind the gate, accompanied by the heavy thud of multiple paws.
Inside the shadows of the cage, two glowing blue eyes ignited, burning with the artificial light of divine mana.
Out stepped a monstrosity, a towering chimera twice the size of a carriage.
It possessed the muscular body of a massive lion, but its back bristled with jagged stone spikes, and a thick, armored serpent served as its tail.
Runes burned along its flanks, glowing with a sickening blue energy that pulsed in rhythm with its erratic heartbeat.
This creature was not natural; it was a product of divine experimentation, a living weapon fueled by the stolen power of the Constellations.
Slaver dripping from its jowls, the beast locked its glowing eyes on Ruan and let out a roar that rattled the glass in the VIP lounges.
Most men would have frozen in terror, their knees buckling under the sheer weight of the monster's bloodlust.
Ruan merely shifted his stance, his weight settling into his heels as his breathing slowed to a perfectly rhythmic pace.
Memories of Mount Hua flickered in his mind, sharp and vivid.
He remembered the cold morning air of the misty peaks, the sound of wooden swords clashing, and the laughter of his martial brothers before the sky burned.
They had trained to fight monsters far worse than this using nothing but their bodies and their indomitable will.
With a deafening crash, the chimera lunged forward, kicking up a massive cloud of dust as it charged across the arena.
Its heavy paws cracked the stone slabs beneath the sand, closing the distance between them in a fraction of a second.
Spectators leaned forward, eager to see the silent man torn to pieces by the beast's massive claws.
Just as the chimera's claws swept through the air, Ruan moved.
His body seemed to blur, defying gravity as he glided across the sand with impossible grace.
Using the 'Cloud-stepping' technique of the Mount Hua sect, he slipped past the deadly talons as if he were nothing but a passing breeze.
Every swipe of the monster's claws missed by mere inches, yet Ruan's movements never looked hurried or panicked.
He drifted through the dust like a falling leaf, his simple robes fluttering as he danced amidst the blood-stained sand.
To the crowd, it looked like magic, an impossible illusion that defied the physical laws of the world.
To Hector, watching from above, it was deeply unsettling.
Screaming in frustration, the chimera swung its massive serpent tail, the scaly head snapping at Ruan's throat with blinding speed.
Ruan didn't even look at the snake.
He simply leaned his torso back at a precise angle, letting the fangs pass a hair's breadth from his nose, before stepping lightly onto the serpent's snout.
Using the momentum, he propelled himself upward, soaring effortlessly over the beast's massive head.
Time seemed to slow down as Ruan hung in the air, looking down at the thrashing, angry monster.
He could see the chaotic flow of divine mana circulating through the beast's artificial pathways, glowing brightly beneath its skin.
It was a clumsy, bloated system of energy, forced into a mortal vessel that could barely contain it.
Slowly, Ruan extended his right index finger, channeling a thin, incredibly concentrated thread of his own pure Qi to the very tip.
His finger didn't glow with the flashy light of the Constellations, but the air around it distorted, warping from the sheer density of his internal force.
Descending like a feather, he tapped the very center of the chimera's forehead, right where the main mana pathways intersected.
Click.
A soft, metallic sound echoed through the quiet stadium as his finger made contact with the beast's skull.
For a second, nothing happened.
The chimera froze mid-roar, its massive body stiffening as its glowing blue runes suddenly flared to a blinding intensity.
Under the surface of its skin, the forced flow of divine mana was instantly thrown into absolute chaos.
Ruan's precise strike had acting like a wedge driven into a spinning gear, completely disrupting the delicate balance keeping the monster's energy stable.
Step by step, Ruan walked away, his back turned to the beast as he calmly shook the dust from his sleeves.
Behind him, the chimera let out a choked, gurgling whimper as its body began to swell.
Swirling blue energy cracked open its flesh, venting hot steam and unstable mana into the air.
With a muffled explosion, the monster imploded from its own unstable energy, collapsing into a heap of dissolving ash and fractured mana stones.
Not a single drop of blood touched Ruan's robes as he stopped in the center of the arena, his expression entirely neutral.
Dead silence gripped the entire coliseum.
Thousands of spectators stared down in absolute, paralyzed disbelief, their mouths hanging open as they looked at the empty space where the massive beast had been just seconds prior.
Hector stood at the railing of his balcony, his hands trembling so hard he dropped his glass, sending red wine splashing across the floor.
Nobody had ever defeated a high-tier chimera with a single touch, let alone without using a weapon or a single drop of divine grace.
Darkness fell instantly. The arena lights suddenly cut out, and the ceiling begins to crack open as a blinding beam of starlight descends directly onto Ruan's position.