Chapter 378: Fortunes
Chapter 378: Fortunes
As much as Liam had his diabolical talent on his side, he had only spent two weeks with his gains from the inheritance, which wasn’t nearly enough to absorb them, especially when rank 3 martial arts were involved.
Of course, doing so was the next order of business. Liam and Grace had wanted to get further away first. It was unclear how long they would need to seclude themselves to turn the rewards into actual improvements, so they needed a safe location distant from the mess Liam had created.
The Axe Brigade’s sudden attack had delayed that strategy, but Liam hadn’t stood still while waiting for Grace. While he couldn’t boast any degree of battle-ready mastery, he had made progress toward his new set of powerful techniques.
Liam smoked without restraint, feeling the Qi circulating inside his body vanishing at a pace unsustainable for his core. It wasn’t as bad as the Sky-Splitting Bolt, but it was still too much at his current level.
Yet, the difference between extreme and medium Qi consumptions was evident. The main issue lay elsewhere.
Liam was summoning none other than the rank 3 Phantom Talons, which theoretically had lower training requirements than the Sky-Splitting Bolt. The former was flagged as hard, while the latter was flagged as extreme.
However, the martial arts’ training aspect was broader compared to their Qi consumption. Its meaning wasn’t nearly as straightforward.
The Metal Hand had the extreme label because of the slow, painful conditioning it required. Similarly, the Sky-Splitting Bolt’s difficulty was in the physical strain of keeping under control and firing with precision its absurd amount of Qi.
Instead, the Phantom Talons’ difficulty was subtler. The martial art wanted Liam to turn the ethereal Qi into a nigh-solid substance, demanding constant attention and management, its strain being mental in nature.
Rather than Liam’s inborn talent, the quality that helped him the most with the Phantom Talons came from his alchemical skills. The martial art required a more direct, forceful control than the alchemical flame, but the two could belong to the same broad category.
It wasn’t fast, and Liam had to breathe poison deeply a few more times, but he eventually reopened his eyes, inspecting the long, half-transparent, black talons that had grown around his fingers.
Theoretically, the Phantom Talons could fail in the same way as the fan did, but Liam had a hunch. In a limited manner and for a specific task, the martial art could achieve more than the magical weapon, which might just be enough to solve the problem.
Liam tilted his arm, not daring to be too sudden out of fear of losing control. He half-closed his hand so that the tips of his long talons could touch, forming a single spearhead.
Another deep breath of poison followed, culminating in a forceful thrust. Liam stabbed his arm into the yellow mass, his talons cutting through it and reaching the fist-sized shape inside.
The talons pierced the shape, too. A shattering noise resounded, and the dense substance all around it suddenly fell, losing most of its firmness to create a slimy puddle on the ground.
The obstruction was no more, and the same went for its dim glow, but another, clearer light leaked from the now-open passage, joined by a stark presence of Qi. The latter wasn’t intense, but it was abundant.
The three from the Brigade were speechless, but their wide eyes never fell to the slimy puddle. They remained on Liam’s left hand, watching his dark talon evaporate, their perception and reason pointing at an unbelievable truth.
It truly looked like Liam had used a rank 3 martial art.
Owning such a powerful technique wasn’t impossible, considering the fan. The issue was with performing it. That was a rooting expert touching upon the superior realm without as much as sweating.
Of course, Liam wasn’t fine. He was just too used to driving himself ragged that he wouldn’t show it unless he truly reached levels of extreme exhaustion. Still, his body was dangerously empty of Qi now.
Yet, the group featured the only person in the world who could know exactly how tired Liam was, the only one who had seen the full extent of his divine talent.
Grace finished polishing the fan and brought it to her mouth, giving it a quick kiss before releasing it. The weapon cheerfully went to rub her cheek while she grabbed Liam’s bicep, pretending to indulge in public displays of affection to support him.
Grace’s touch more than conveyed her intentions, so Liam let her guide him inside the passage, focusing on smoking, until the environment reclaimed his attention.
The tunnel turned out to be quite short, soon expanding into a rectangular area that seemed to have been dug with the help of magical items. A chasm expanded beyond it, with the faint sound of running water echoing from its bottom.
The chasm couldn’t claim priority on the pair’s gazes. The huge pile of translucent crystals and the containers resting before it drew their greedy attention, as well as some quick calculations.
There had to be around five thousand spirit stones on the ground, which wasn’t much, all things considered, especially with the number of cultivators the Brigade had. Yet, it was a respectable sum for a force unaffiliated with any big organization.
Also, the Brigade’s wealth wasn’t only in the shape of spirit stones. Liam recognized some containers and smelled familiar scents. Materials, products, and the few ingredients on display probably doubled that raw monetary value.
Other than what Eugene had needed for his body cultivation, it seemed the Brigade had engaged in trades of some sort. Liam hadn’t seen any trace of cauldrons or other tools the other noble arts might need, meaning those resources had to be a way to diversify earnings.
Grace didn’t hesitate to store everything inside her ring before accompanying Liam to the chasm’s edge. The hole wasn’t too vast, but it was deep, with signs of excavation everywhere. A faint glow shone from its distant bottom, where Liam heard flowing water.
That indeed looked like a spring of spirit stones, but one not so accessible as Birgan Falls. The fan gave Liam the ability to fly, but it was unclear whether exploring the chasm would net additional results in a reasonable amount of time.
Grace’s behavior said otherwise since she pulled Liam away, and the two soon left the vault and the underground maze entirely, escorted by the Brigade’s trio.
The time to say goodbye arrived with a great deal of anxiety. The trio didn’t know whether Liam and Grace would stay true to their words, and walking out of that alive wasn’t exactly a blessing.
With the Brigade done for, the three experts had basically gone back to the lowest possible status lone cultivators could have. They also didn’t have any real wealth since everything Eugene had hoarded was now in the pair’s pockets.
Of course, the women felt they had no hope at all, but Liam actually escaped Grace’s grasp and approached them, only to show his open hand.
The glare behind Liam left no room for misunderstanding. The women realized they still hadn’t given away everything they had, but death remained scarier, so they didn’t hesitate to place their whip and sword in his hand.
The two women also immediately paled, a thin stream of blood falling from their noses. Breaking mental connections with magical weapons had a degree of backlash, especially when involving items of a superior rank.
Liam stored the items afterward, throwing a glare at the trio. Killing would be safer, but that ship had sailed after so many people had already escaped. Grace had also given her word.
Liam looked beyond the long, wild strands before his eyes, glancing at the hill’s peak. He had left many bodies there, but time just wasn’t on his side.
The fan left Grace’s cheek at that point. Liam quickly hopped on it, storing the pipe, but she simply waited. She knew he was still angry. His presence made it too evident to ignore, so she wanted to see what he would do without external inputs.
A small smile formed on Grace’s face when Liam hovered behind her, effortlessly lifting her in a princess-carry before setting off, resuming flying north.
The trio stared at the sky until Liam and Grace weren’t visible anymore, before heaving tired sighs. They all felt they had aged a lot during that tense encounter, and even bigger problems were on the horizon.
"Their names were probably fake," The rooting expert muttered, "But what was that black Qi?"
The rooting expert was talking to himself. The Brigade wasn’t famous, but its disbanding would make the news, and he could sell information as long as he hurried.
Instead, the two women had more immediate problems. They were foundation experts, basically inconsequential to the cultivation world, making their train of thought far simpler.
The women exchanged a glance before wearing alluring smiles and approaching the rooting expert’s side, leaning on his arms while caressing his back and chest.
The middle-aged man knew what those two were doing, but lifted his head in pride, smirking at them with desire. It seemed there were fortunes to be seized even in the most grim situations.
Strangely enough, Liam and Grace weren’t strangers to the scene on the now-distant hill.
Liam was focused on his perception, flying high in the sky while scanning the environment below, his brain riddled with the previous events and his sour mood.
Now that everything was over, Liam could somewhat realize that the harpoon had merely been a warning shot, a dangerous one, but not something meant to unleash such a large-scale conflict.
If the situation were to repeat itself, Liam wondered whether it would be better to avoid a battle or at least delay it until the first order of business was complete. After all, it would be stupid to engage in conflict after conflict before absorbing the inheritance.
That wasn’t to say that Liam would forget the offense. He would just prioritize getting stronger before repaying it.
However, the giggle that resounded in Liam’s ears distracted him from those serious thoughts. Grace was clinging to his neck, and she held him tightly, radiating the cheerful mood she often fell prey to whenever she earned money.
The laugh reminded Liam of his talk with Lancelot. His pride had bloomed, but he was still unsure about the fun part. His stance on life might have shifted, but enjoying such bloodstained endeavors sounded like a stretch.
If anything, Liam was happy to have Grace with him throughout that. He would even smile if it weren’t for his persistent anger. Actually, hearing her laugh so cheerfully only intensified how much he loathed her idea of herself.
But all that and more vanished for an entire second, risking toppling Liam over and sending him falling to his death, when something soft and slightly wet landed on his cheek.
Liam knew what that was, no matter how different the gesture and lips were. As hinted earlier, Grace had kissed him, but snapping his head toward her did nothing since she was coyly hiding her face in his neck.
’Why are women like this?’ Liam cursed internally, knowing he couldn’t address anything mid-flight. ’And why is she so soft?’
The mental curses lasted for a while. Still, unconsciously, Liam held Grace closer. It wasn’t anything romantic, but the body had its own language.
After understanding how Grace truly saw herself, some subconscious parts of Liam felt the need to hold her more tightly, as if wanting to change her mind by silently conveying how precious she was to him.