Legacy of Hatred

The fire was unnatural, and it wasn’t just about its shape.

Despite having retreated outside the fire’s theoretical range, Liam still felt powerful heat waves landing on his face, drying up his eyes, and threatening to burn his hair.

After working with the alchemical flame for months on end, Liam was basically an expert on that element, so it only took him an instant to accept that nothing about that development was normal.

Nevertheless, there lay the problem. Anastasia might have caused that widespread and intense event through her Qi, but its usage had been random and wanton, featuring none of the precision martial arts demanded.

And the flames kept expanding, flowing past the trunks they failed to burn completely to cover more of the soil and air, behaving like a fiery lake that was still discovering its boundaries.

’So cool,’ Liam couldn’t help but gasp internally, but his feet still moved, the event unable to stun him when he had far bigger issues at hand.

Liam replayed Simon’s jumps to land on a different branch beside his, drawing his bow and squatting down to his right. The two were close. Liam only had to stretch his arm to reach him, but didn’t.

’Not now,’ Liam cursed, looking at the expanding fire below while his peripheral vision and all his other senses focused on Simon’s defenseless side.

That would be a good moment to strike. Liam was even quite sure that his attack would land. Yet, it wouldn’t be fatal, and the closeness would give Simon the chance to retaliate.

Moreover, there were witnesses, so Liam opted for something else, his newfound social skills allowing him to sound calm despite the raging hatred in his ears.

"Senior Brother, is that a martial art?" Liam asked, his question lacking his usual blinding innocence.

"As if," Simon snorted. "You truly don’t know anything besides your talent."

That was obviously false. Simon had just confirmed that, but he couldn’t help but throw that insult before begrudgingly abiding by his duties as a Senior Brother.

"The Qi can summon more of a dantian’s traits at higher stages," Simon explained. "The Ancestral Phoenix’s iconic element is fire, so its descendants tend to possess a high affinity with it."

Liam hadn’t been able to do anything of the sort, but Melissa had. She hadn’t used a martial art to collect the spirit stones. She hadn’t manifested water, either, but the lake had listened to her Qi nonetheless.

"Sister Anastasia can pretty much ignite her Qi freely," Simon continued. "It’s obviously not powerful. It’s mostly just for show."

Liam had to disagree there. Those flames were scary. Yet, his lower stage was probably to blame for that.

"Also," Simon sighed. "Martial arts that make heavy use of a core’s nature are usually called spells. They are a sub-branch no different than weapon arts."

’Spells,’ Liam repeated in his mind, his imagination picturing a far different scene.

According to the Alchemy Elder, Liam possessed a trait beyond mere affinity. His poison core wielded the power to turn anything into a toxic substance, something his Master had called unnatural compulsion.

The reason for that was obvious. After all, Liam’s ancestor was the biggest snake in the world. Still, he could now imagine a different application of the trait that made concocting healing pills so annoying.

As Liam’s cultivation increased, especially after the qualitative changes the breakthroughs promised, he had shot at replicating that expanding, fiery sea.

Actually, chances were Liam could replicate that in far greater and stronger fashion, reaching levels that might be equal to martial arts, or, well, spells.

’That would be truly cool,’ Liam admitted, picturing waves of poisonous air expanding from his figure and killing everything and everyone they touched.

After a few seconds, the flames stopped expanding, stirring to retreat. Even the pillar shrank until Anastasia’s figure became visible, showing no burns even on her pale grey robe.

The flames’ retreat also uncovered charred ground and dark holes on the various trunks, but Anastasia kept Liam’s attention glued to her. Beauty obviously had nothing to do with that. What unfolded in her palm was to blame instead.

All the fire condensed into Anastasia’s stretched palm, becoming a single, unfathomably hot and bright tongue of flame.

Anastasia closed her hand into a fist, seemingly suppressing the flame, only to reopen it when she thrust her hand forward, unleashing a scorching red wave.

The trunks couldn’t stop anything now. The condensed fire burned through them in no time. Only the thickest ones posed some resistance, with few surviving the assault, but trees fell nonetheless.

Scorching destruction unfolded wherever Anastasia pointed her hand. A cacophony of cracking and crashing noises took over the area, but an ecstatic, wild laugh soon joined it, coming from the very source of that destruction.

After a while, Anastasia’s palm ran out of flames, but the environment had changed forever by then. A conical, crackling, fuming patch of charred ground expanded from her feet, only a few scorched trees disrupting that seamless destruction.

Maxwell was a deadly fighter, wielding finesse, sharpness, and swiftness as his weapons. Meanwhile, Anastasia was a force of nature, capable of leveling chunks of a forest by merely releasing her Qi.

And Liam knew Simon was at the same level. He had to be a fellow unfathomable monster, one that Liam had to slay somehow.

"Aw, they left," Anastasia pouted, turning toward the branches Liam and Simon occupied, bringing her hands to her flushed cheeks. "I couldn’t even come close to finishing."

"You let them escape," Simon scolded, jumping down to join Anastasia on the scorched ground. "How are we supposed to collect their tablets if you send them running before we can fight?"

"A woman has needs," Anastasia giggled, gracefully covering her mouth, but eventually heaving a sigh. "If only my beloved Senior Brother were here instead of you."

"Dry that thing up," Simon scolded. "Junior Brother, get down and give me your tablet. We must move before every team comes to check what happened here."

Liam complied, but the realization that the previous conversation had suppressed returned due to how normally Simon took that breathtaking event.

All cultivators were indeed crazy, and Liam failed to see himself as the sane one anymore. Actually, with what he planned to achieve in that mission despite its dangers, he probably was the craziest of them all.