Legacy of Hatred

Liam slept for a long time, depleted in mind, spirit, and body. That was his first rest after the sudden departure, the storm of emotions it brought, and the exhausting, revolutionary concoction.

It was unclear how long it took Liam to awaken. A whole day might have passed for all he knew, and vague traces of tiredness survived nonetheless, albeit not in any tangible shape.

Liam sat up and felt the heaviness in his mind and heart. His foundation was full and quivering, and abundant Qi circulated through his body, filling it to the brim, pushing from within as if trying to make it explode, but some tiredness lingered.

The old Liam would have failed to understand where that tiredness came from, but he knew its source now. His very soul was weary, scarred by the loss of his second home and everything that it entailed.

The broader Liam’s understanding of life was, the higher peaks he could experience, and the same went for its lowest point. Maturing had taught him new forms of happiness, as well as suffering.

’Maybe that’s what Adrian talked about,’ Liam realized. ’There are many things worse than dying.’

Back then, Adrian had followed up with a joke, but Liam could think of ways to agree with him now, both that he had already experienced or that he could face in the future.

Surviving the Bloodline Screening at the cost of hearing dying screams that had turned into an auditory hallucination could fit the description. The only silver lining there was that Liam could exact revenge.

Failing to complete that revenge could also be worse than death. The same went for being unsuccessful at protecting loved ones or directly causing them harm.

Liam would also hate himself if he couldn’t reunite with Melissa. He had left her on her own, unable to support her. He wouldn’t forgive himself if something happened to her while he wasn’t around, or if what he had done made her unhappy forever.

’I hope my concoction worked for her bottleneck,’ Liam wished. ’I’m a poor lover, aren’t I?’

Liam still didn’t fully know what being a lover meant, but leaving his special one alone couldn’t be it, especially without saying goodbye, explaining himself, or knowing when or if they would reunite.

At the very least, even if Melissa ended up hating Liam, he wanted to make sure that she was safe. It would crush him, but he would still accept it since he had been the one to leave, even if he had warned her.

But, most importantly, Liam was sure that failing to fulfill the promise of surpassing his Master would be worse than death. In his mind, that was the greatest sin of them all.

’Adrian should have paid off his debt to the Church,’ Liam calculated, standing up to remove his dirty, ragged robe. ’At least he’ll be back to Krosstoen village instead of risking getting involved in whatever the Church is doing.’

The underground room was a mess, but Liam quickly stored everything inside the space-ring, even his clothes, until he remained completely naked, surrounded by emptiness.

Thinking about Krosstoen village put a wistful smile on Liam’s face. He still recalled the beauty of that simple life, but felt no nostalgia toward it anymore.

Liam had set foot on a different path, one that would bring him further and further away from that small reality of his past, and he felt no regret or appeal.

Liam wasn’t that person anymore. He had been thoroughly broken and lost, but his Master’s fire had given birth to a new him who belonged to the cultivation world fully.

It had been gradual, but the mortal was no more, its last crumbs lost with everything else Liam had left behind.

’The most dreadful fiend in the world,’ Liam thought as he brought the item still in his hand to his face. He had the rank 2 version of the Boar’s Touch, and his exhaustion was only spiritual, so he had no reason to hesitate.

The previous attempted breakthrough should have left a deep trauma on Liam’s psyche. He had almost died, and in quite the nasty manner.

Moreover, the new Boar’s Touch promised to be even worse. Actually, that deadly substance should straight-up kill him due to its higher rank.

There was also a layer of uncertainty about the process. After all, no one really knew what ten spiritual roots demanded. The Alchemy Elder had merely guessed a rank 2 poison would work.

Nevertheless, nothing weighed on Liam’s mind. His only options were success or death, and he felt no fear in the face of that crossroads. The life he wanted to pursue was beyond it, as well as all the things he had to achieve and retrieve.

So, Liam summoned something else from his space-ring. One of his few healing pills materialized in his right palm, and he placed it in his mouth, keeping it between his teeth.

Then, Liam opened the flask and gulped down its contents, waiting until everything fell in his throat before crushing the healing pill.

The scorching internal pain Liam had experienced in the past returned. The poison carved through his throat, corroding his tissues, and doing the same with his abdomen. Sweat accumulated on his dirty face, but that was only the beginning.

The paralysis came next, faster than it had done in the past. Liam lost control of his mouth, chest, torso, and more, ending motionless on the floor, burning as the poison ate him from the inside.

Still, this time, the healing pill worked alongside the Boar’s Touch, fixing what the poison corroded. It didn’t conflict with the deadly effects. It was no antidote. It only patched Liam up, chasing after the still-spreading damage he was suffering.

Sadly, that worsened the experience. The paralysis should have spared Liam from the corrosive pain, but the healing pill restored his nerves and forced him to feel everything while his body became a motionless, suffocating cage.

But Liam’s mind had never been on those intense sensations. Even while his body shut down, his attention was on his circulation technique, forcing his Qi to interact with the poison at a higher pace so that his core could draw power from it while weakening its effects.

The glass-like, mental representation of Liam’s foundation bloated in no time. Boundless tides of nutrients filled his core and spiritual roots, pressing on them from the inside.

The internal pressure kept rising until a pain stemming from the core of Liam’s very being surged. He could feel himself ready to burst. His consciousness wavered, but he forced everything to stand still.

The nutrients had long since reached the amount when they could crash on the bottleneck, attempting to pierce it, but Liam held all that back.

’Not yet,’ Liam cursed internally, gritting his teeth, or at least thinking about doing that. His mouth didn’t answer him in the end.

More and more nutrients amassed in Liam’s foundation. He knew how insurmountable his bottleneck was, so he planned to create the greatest wave ever, the only one that could hope to breach that unwavering wall.

Ideally, Liam would wait until the poison stopped applying its effects. Except, it never did. No matter how much his core weakened it or what the healing pill fixed, a rank 2 substance was beyond both.

Liam was continuing to die in ways that he couldn’t stop. His innate tolerance had finally suffered a crushing defeat, and he couldn’t even resort to a second healing pill. He was still paralyzed in the end.

But death was not certain yet. A chance still existed, and Liam knew where it lay. The debilitating pain had reached its apex. The glass-like structure that was his cultivation was ready to burst, and with that, his entire being.

A single additional drop of nutrients would push Liam’s core past its structural limits, so he sent all it had accumulated toward the tips of his ten spiritual roots, where the bottleneck stood.

Everything vanished afterward. Instead of the expected debilitating mental blow and spinning consciousness, Liam found himself among a black expanse, devoid of any of the previous pain.

The place wasn’t fully dark. Countless stars shone in the distance, littering the endless canvas of space, but those trivial things could hardly claim Liam’s attention.

Liam felt his gargantuan body moving, slithering among the cold emptiness. He tasted the rich blood sliding down his fangs as big as mountains, and smelled something that wasn’t air through his forked tongue.

Space wasn’t even black, not in Liam’s vertical eyes. The world was a mixture of many shades, most having nothing to do with colors at all. He saw the very fabric of reality, which paled before the might of each of his giant dark scales.

After all, Liam was a being greater than the world. He was the Snake, and Hatred was his domain.