Chapter 538: Sand

Liam went through a familiar, uncomfortable experience, his superhuman perception becoming a double-edged sword.

The world Liam had perceived suddenly vanished, only to be replaced by another just as abruptly, forcing his senses to work overtime to catch up with the wide array of details they could absorb.

Nevertheless, it seemed Liam’s growth since Archbishop’s inheritance and repeated exposure to that practice had improved his ability to endure it. He didn’t feel disoriented in the slightest, but that did little to lessen its unpleasantness.

When everything returned, Liam saw a familiar magical circle. Even the smooth, white stone was the same, but his greatsword was now stabbed into it.

Actually, stabbed wasn’t the right word. After all, the whole surface was no more.

As expected, the greatsword had crushed the circular platform, shattering it into countless pieces. The weapon rested among debris that carried intricate geometrical symbols, albeit none shone now.

If Liam hadn’t already understood what had happened, he would have considered his mission over. The teleport was destroyed after all, but there was a big issue. While identical, that wasn’t the right platform.

Liam straightened himself and browsed over his surroundings. He had sensed as much, but the sight remained headache-inducing.

The hall was eerily similar to the one Liam had previously barged into, except that it had no slime or yellow fumes. Even its ceiling was intact, and all the monstrous, white-wearing cultivators there were staring fixedly at him.

It went without saying that Liam had been teleported, the event unfolding before his greatsword could hit, making his destination its target.

Liam didn’t miss the implications of the destroyed magical circle, but he had more pressing matters to address, namely the stunned onlookers.

"Who dares-?" One of the rooting experts, a man with razor-sharp, pointy teeth, cried, only for a yellow cloud to explode in his face before he could finish his line.

That wasn’t the only explosion. If there were one thing Liam would rarely lack, it was the Poisonous Cloud pills that used his venom as their main ingredient, so he instantly unleashed tens of those with a few flicks of his sleeves.

With the ceiling intact, it didn’t take long before the entire hall fell prey to the deadly yellow smoke, creating a cacophony of screams. Liam’s flesh-melting venom truly was a terrible way of dying, but he faced more than stillness now.

Figures charged through the smoke, converging toward the destroyed platform. Four rooting experts enveloped in healing golden halos rushed toward Liam, but he had already acted.

A beam made of energy more ethereal than Qi slammed into a cultivator with mismatched long and short fur, the latter actually resembling a horse’s coat. He stopped in his tracks, his halo dissipating, blood flowing down his nose and eyes.

The rooting expert was about to crash into the stone debris when a swift figure crossed it. The fan cut through his defenseless neck, instantly beheading him.

The other three had continued getting close to Liam, but they were simply slower than him. His quasi-stage and complete Qi mastery allowed him to remain one step ahead of them, and his sleeve hadn’t stopped even while unleashing the rank 2 Aura.

More yellow pills flew at the trio, each targeting them with uncanny precision. Yet, the three rooting experts were ready for them now, and their figures turned into golden blurs to dodge their explosions.

As always, that movement technique was exceedingly fast, bringing the trio outside the pills’ range before they could explode. However, it had poor maneuverability, forcing detours instead of direct charges.

That created a delay, one Liam didn’t hesitate to exploit. The trio only saw him lower his head before pitch-black smoke spread from his position, soon filling every empty spot in the hall.

Humming shockwaves resounded, but they could do little to part the poisonous fumes since they were everywhere. The rooting experts had their golden halos, but the assault never stopped.

Heptagonal mirrors began to form around the rooting experts. Their only solution was to create safe zones among that swamp of death, but thundering noises resounded before protective domes could take shape.

In but a few speed bursts, Liam found himself staring down at the last surviving rooting expert. Surprisingly, the man had three arms, the third coming from his waist, dark and overly muscular.

All three of the man’s hands were pressing on the greatsword above him. He had caught the weapon before the swing could start, but the sheer strength Liam had exerted had still pushed him to his knees.

’They are almost as strong as me,’ Liam calculated. ’Without Primal Urge or body-enhancing pills, that is.’

Of course, the fact that the rooting expert had three arms probably played a role, but Liam added the data to his brain nonetheless. He didn’t have to do anything else anyway.

While the three-armed man had stopped the weapon, his halo was flickering, unable to keep up with the external assault. Holes even spread on his face as his skin caved in, and black blood vessels had long since taken over his neck.

In the next second, all strength left the rooting expert, and Liam’s weapon kept going down, crushing him into a pulp.

Liam barely registered that conclusion. At ninety-six minor roots, both his venom and Poisonous Breath had become too deadly for rooting experts to face. At most, they could endure it.

Liam even had the fan on his side, making the fight quite one-sided. He had simply left the realm of rooting experts far behind him.

’Kill first,’ Liam thought, glancing at the enshrouded ceiling. He had plenty of doubts to solve, but his priorities remained clear.

That had to be one of the Church’s structures, so Liam had to destroy it.

Still, as Liam sent his Qi spinning into his greatsword, quickly condensing it, he glanced at seven peculiar items that had survived the onslaught.

’It’s money, right?’ Liam wondered as he approached one of the seven translucent boulders, smiling at the face that popped into his mind. ’I’d better take these.’

The giant spirit stones were buried in the stone floor, but Liam just lifted them with one hand and sent them to his ring. The fumes began to spin around his greatsword at that point, signaling that the alchemical spell had almost reached its full power.

’Well,’ Liam thought, glancing at the ceiling, wielding his weapon with both hands. His job was complete. He only had to return to his adorable partner now.

A black canvas took over the world as soon as Liam forcefully swung his sword upward, and he flew through it before it began to disperse.

The building above didn’t seem to have been big since Liam saw sunlight shining on him right after crossing what had once been the ceiling. Honestly, he couldn’t be sure about its previous size since everything had disappeared, replaced by a slimy swamp.

Liam remained alert for survivors, and he spotted corpses, which the toxic slime was already devouring, but the environment soon replaced whatever other thought he might have.

After all, what expanded from the pool of pitch-black slime was an endless sea of scorching sand.