Chapter 572: Rules

Truth was, Liam’s mindset was highly atypical in ordinary contexts. Personal stance on life aside, he had lived as a lone and demonic cultivator for over half of his journey. By then, he was a purebred criminal.

On top of that, Liam now had power in the form of his cultivation level backing his mindset. His threats and general stance on life were no laughing matter anymore. No sane cultivator would disregard his words.

With Caspar in such poor condition, Liam had also proven himself to be above the average branching expert. He was a capable loose cannon with complete disregard for the status quo, the worst possible combination for those who actually managed it. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

And yet, Uriah was the first to react to that extremely simple but destructive stance, uttering one of his usual snorts, only for it to sound strangely proud.

Amber and Rachel followed suit, albeit not with words. Amber smiled gently, but her gaze was sharp. As for Rachel, she promptly poured some wine before offering a cup to Liam.

Everything might have happened abruptly, with most of it still being fresh and undecided, but the Dark Heaven Tribe was showing Liam support even during his craziest declarations.

Naturally, the other side of the table didn’t take the arrogant declaration too well.

"The arrogance!" Andrew scoffed, sitting beside the middle-aged man to join his cold look at Liam. "Do you think the Aetacia region is your playground? You are a guest who made himself unwanted because you didn’t believe the Tribes deserving of your caution!"

The statement was two-faced.

The first and loudest part was a complete rejection of Liam’s presence in the Aetacia region, a proper declaration of enmity.

As for the second, more veiled part, Andrew had attempted to involve the Dark Heaven Tribe, both in the insult and in his anger. After all, Liam had indeed disregarded whatever rulers the place might have had.

That was an indirect attack on the Dark Heaven Tribe’s authority, too, and its willingness to side with Liam anyway basically implied that a single branching expert could affect it, demeaning it in the process.

A vein twitched on Uriah’s forehead, but he lost his opportunity to launch a loud outburst because Amber poured him wine, leaving the scene to Liam.

’The uncle cares more than the father,’ Liam noticed that strange detail.

There could be explanations there. The father was a top-stage branching expert, probably the Tribe’s de facto leader, forcing him to take a more cynical view of the matter.

Still, Liam couldn’t think of anything more important than family, and definitely couldn’t see how it was possible to just stay calm before the son’s killer. On an ideological level, he couldn’t respect that Tribe at all.

Which was why Liam focused on the verbal attack, though he didn’t even need to think to address it. In a way, he had already answered such questions multiple times.

"Why me?" Liam questioned. "Why would I need to be the one careful about everything?"

"What?" Andrew cried. "You are foreign to our dominions. This is our region. I don’t know who you think you are-!"

"Young Master Chester died because he believed that," Liam interrupted. "He thought the Invincible Oasis Tribe made the rules, and he died because of that."

Admittedly, it was unclear who the Invincible Oasis and the Red Sandstorm Tribes believed Liam to be. He looked like an outsider, so they were only guessing that he had acted without regard for the existing authority.

Still, that wouldn’t change Liam’s reply.

"He wouldn’t have died if he had been polite," Liam continued. "He would have been polite if he hadn’t thought that your Tribes made the rules."

Liam had taken the cup Rachel had offered, but he had yet to drink, and he put it down now. That clash of words could easily escalate into a fight, and he didn’t want any variables to exist.

"It’s always like this," Liam stated. "You have been in power for so long you think yourself untouchable. Young Master Chester and Young Master Jacob died because you are wrong."

The four on the other side of the table wanted to argue, but there was no denying the truth. Despite the numerical advantage, they didn’t even dare to attack. As insane as Liam’s statement was, reality was proving him right.

It became evident that Liam was even more of a destructive variable than anyone had initially believed. His disregard bordered on blindness. He literally saw no rules but his own.

The extreme levels Liam touched surprised even Uriah and Amber, but not Rachel. She had seen what kind of beast he was while his hand was wrapped around her throat. That realization was what had changed her behavior back then.

Actually, there had been second-order effects, too, with deeper repercussions, but Rachel couldn’t mention them yet. For now, she limited herself to smiling and scooting slightly closer to Liam.

The general silence proved Uriah’s initial guess right. The offense was there, but the Tribes couldn’t risk earning a branching expert’s enmity over the loss of rooting experts.

However, Liam’s recent exploits had opened the path for a different approach.

"Do you expect anything other than enmity from my Tribe?" Laurel snorted. "You not only killed my Jacob. You even permanently impaired my Caspar, the Red Sandstorm Tribe’s new pillar!"

The damage was indeed heavy. The transparent liquid might have healed Caspar, but losing an arm did more than it seemed.

Just like what had happened to Liam against Jessica, meridians stretched throughout the body, and losing a limb meant losing some of those Qi channels, lowering the amount of energy a cultivator could hold.

It wasn’t a loss of general Qi reserves. The issue had to do with energy immediately at a cultivator’s disposal. Caspar now couldn’t fight as long as earlier, creating a weakness that couldn’t be disregarded.

Nevertheless, Liam tilted his head in confusion at that statement.

"Permanently?" Liam repeated. "Don’t you have Heavenly Blossoms here?"