A Waste of Time-Chapter 144: Bitter Triumph

Daemon was relieved to see no more false projections of one of his most beloved creatures. Dogs had always come first in his heart, and wolves a close second.
Whoever the sick bastard was that had forced him to betray that affection, to end these cruelly realistic illusions, deserved to choke on a truck full of dicks. If he ever found out who was behind it, he would take great pleasure in beating that person into the ground.
“Phew… Alright, Daemon, it’s all over now. Just put it out of your mind and forget about it,” he muttered, trying to calm himself. He shifted his focus inward once more, desperate to wrest some control over the multicolored barrier that still refused to dissolve around him.
Awoo!
“Fuck me with a baton! There’s more?”
The howl cut through the silence, and his blood ran hot with disbelief. More wolves emerged from the treeline, red eyes burning, their grey bodies sleek and powerful as they fanned into formation. Within moments, he was encircled again — this time by beasts far more aggressive than before.
Daemon clenched his jaw. Unlike earlier, when his frustration had spilled out in curses and rants, now he met them in silence. Beneath that silence, however, his anger burned like a furnace.
For a fleeting moment, he considered crushing the jade slip that had materialized at his waist upon entering the Array. Quitting would mean freedom from this torment — from this heart-piercing pain that mocked his love for these creatures. Every moment was agony, and he hated every second of it.
But walking away would also mean defeat. It would mean conceding to whatever psychopath had chosen wolves to break him in this stage of the Sect-Competition.
And worse — it would mean leaving Su An behind.
His thoughts darkened. She was pure, loyal, fragile despite her strength. If she had to carry on without him, doubt and distraction might worm into her heart at this critical time. She couldn’t afford that. She needed to stay sharp, unshaken, or risk losing the chance at her long-awaited promotion. He had seen the guilt she carried, the way it gnawed at her in silence. To abandon her now would weigh heavier on him than any barrier or trial.
If she was loyal, then he could not — would not — be faithless. Daemon had never turned his back on a companion in need. He had even let himself be thrown into a cage of scheming beasts in human skin just to give his servants a chance to live free of the Mountain’s claws.
Bastards! I’ll remember this. Enjoy twisting my hand now… because I’ll relish crushing your nuts when the day of revenge comes.
With that silent oath, Daemon moved. His strikes cut through the pack, wolves bursting into fragments of light in swathes as he prayed for their souls with every blow.
Daemon moved like a machine. His strikes were precise, efficient, stripped of any fire — almost robotic. The third wave of wolves burst into fading motes of light under his hands, yet the numbness inside him only deepened.
It was no longer so easy. Their resistance grew, forcing him to apply more force, to dig a little deeper with each blow. He managed, but each strike cost him more than the last.
“I bet Luo Han, Sun Kai, and the rest of my minions have already been knocked out of the Array,” he muttered to himself during the lull between waves. “This threat is too nasty after three rounds.
“I guess it’s just me, Su An, Wei Shun, and Kang Lai left from our band.”
His hand clenched into a fist. “This damn barrier still refuses to obey me. And now… now I can feel it draining my stamina.”
The realization tightened his chest. Minute by minute, the shimmering cocoon around his body was leeching at him — subtly, but steadily. Its bite was small, but undeniable.
“I don’t agree to this,” he hissed, voice sharp with defiance.
All of it weighed down on him — the barrier’s rebellion, the wolves chosen as his enemies, the cowardice he dared not surrender to even though quitting tugged at his heart, the moral restraint that forbade him from striking without care.
Together, these pressures merged into a single choking mass. A hateful lump sat at the back of his throat — vile, restricting, shackling, stifling.
Daemon ground his teeth. It was more than frustration. It was loathing, a bitter taste he could neither spit out nor swallow.
Fourth wave. Fifth. Sixth. All the way to the ninth.
Daemon endured them all, wave after wave, his body battered, his spirit sharpened against the grindstone of endless wolves. He fought on even when he was certain Su An must have been expelled from the Array by now.
What remained was sheer stubbornness. He refused to put his suffering down, refused to step away. If nothing else, he would seize the top rank. He doubted Han Ruyue, Liu Yuying, or even the rare handful of Inner Disciples with higher Cultivation could withstand what he had.
This was his way of spitting in the Mountain’s face. Their Prisoner. Their Slave. Besting their polished Inner Disciples with nothing but grit and defiance.
And why stop there? His grin turned wild.
Inner Disciples? Core Disciples? Bring it, suckers.
A devious smile crept across his face as he realized something else — he was beginning to sense how to control the damned barrier. Just for a heartbeat, he found the switch. It flickered off under his will. But the moment his concentration wavered, it snapped back at full force, like an aura designed to remain permanently active.
Annoying, yes. But undeniably useful. With the barrier blazing, he was untouchable. Physical strikes, Elemental assaults — all broke against it.
And the wolves were evolving. They no longer came at him with only fang and claw. They had begun weaving Wind Qi into their attacks, blades of air slicing toward him from range.
He had to push the fight to them, closing the distance before they could whittle him down. The cunning tactics made his eyes gleam — gods, they looked even cooler this way.
But Daemon wasn’t one to be outdone. He could teleport at will, blink across the battlefield in an instant. He could wield Elements at any range, bending the fight however he pleased.
Then came the tenth wave.
The battlefield shifted. Their numbers shrank — only a tenth of what had come before. But their appearance changed entirely.
Their fur shimmered in new colors, their bodies marked by traits unlike any he had faced so far. And no longer were they limited to Wind. The full spectrum of the Elements howled before his eyes.
The danger rose to a level beyond anything he had endured yet.
“Man, fuck this shit!” Daemon snarled as the twentieth wave revealed itself.
Before him stood a hundred Guardian Beasts — the very same monsters he had nearly clashed with at the Mountain Gate. The sight was enough. Without a second thought, he seized the jade slip at his waist and crushed it in his fist.
Light consumed him. His body dissolved into brilliance and vanished from the grassland where he had endured nineteen relentless waves.
The last two had been brutal. The wolves had grown cunning, supporting one another with coordinated tactics, never giving him a chance to isolate them group by group. Their defenses had hardened too, making every strike feel like carving into stone. By the time he broke them, his patience was at its frayed end.
Now he stood once more in the Assembly Arena.
Daemon forced down the wide grin tugging at his lips. Because in front of the gathered Inner Disciples, two familiar faces were already waiting for him.
One was a girl whose expression all but shouted her eagerness to fight him again — raw, unrestrained, her thirst for revenge plain as day.
The other kept her features calm, composed. But her black eyes betrayed her. Fighting spirit burned in them brighter than ever before, a fire Daemon could see and feel even from across the stage.
Here's a link to my discord server if you want to talk - .gg/HwHHR6Hds