Chapter 609: Forked

The toads were the absolute worst in basically every aspect.

In terms of training, the toads didn’t have much to offer since they didn’t do much in the first place. Their jumping power and whip-like tongues were all there was to them.

Even then, Liam was stuck in a defensive stance against those magical beasts because the slightest direct contact risked blowing up his heart. Their poisonous secretions made them extremely unapproachable.

Of course, using a bow or any long-range attack would have solved the issue, but Liam kept facing the toads in melee. He didn’t care for optimizing his hunting strategy there. Optimizing himself was the whole point.

Scarcity was another issue. There just weren’t many toads, which was normal, really. If high-level magical beasts could exist in such abundance, human presence would have been impossible, even when accounting for the cultivators’ superiority.

Sure, the area was a forbidden zone. It earned that name precisely because cultivators couldn’t reclaim it from the magical beasts’ dominance.

However, most magical beasts had stricter requirements in terms of sheer sustenance. The bigger the creature, the more it had to eat. Exceptions existed, but that rule still applied.

If anything, the magical beasts’ supernatural might let them cover far more ground, establishing vaster hunting areas and domains, leading to lower density in the case of solitary predators.

The toads didn’t even have proper hunting areas. They just existed, roaming randomly with no care where they ended up. The territory’s Qi density played a part, but those creatures mostly only worried about filling their stomachs before going back into hiding.

All that culminated in making Liam’s hunts more time-consuming. The battles were longer. He almost always had to rest afterward, and actually finding his prey wasted time, too.

That also applied to level one and level two toads, which was a pity because Liam truly wanted to stockpile those animals. As annoying as their secretions were, Liam was quite interested in their unique toxicity for multiple reasons.

The hallucinogenic aspect of the toads’ poison was rare and intriguing. It was insidious and hard to defend against once it took effect. Liam wanted to add it to his arsenal, even using it as his starting point for a section of more covert poisonous tools.

Still, most importantly, Liam wanted the stimulant in the toads’ poison, the very extreme chemical that threatened to make his heart burst.

After all, the project of using Rachel’s acupuncture to create a permanent physical enhancement was progressing, and Liam had no doubt about which reagent suited him. Only poison would work on him without killing him.

Nevertheless, Liam couldn’t manifest magical beasts out of thin air, so he did the best with what the forbidden zone offered, including his actual purpose for being there.

Two months after the battle against Andrew, Liam arrived at the base of a tall rocky formation. The structure wasn’t vast, but it seemed to extend deep underground.

The usual scorching sun hung high in the sky, but the surrounding stony soil still smelled of leftover humidity. It had actually rained in the past days, the winter having brought the wet season.

The problem was, with rain came life, even in an environment as barren as the desert. And with life came those that wanted to devour it.

Liam took his time inspecting the various cavities at the rocky formation’s base. Most were narrow cracks, but others were proper caves, and a few led underground, where his instincts were telling him not to go.

’I knew I would have run into it sooner or later,’ Liam thought. ’I planned to, but can I actually kill it?’

With senses like Liam’s, unawareness was nigh-impossible, especially when it came to the sixth one. He could also feel that what occupied the rocky formation had spotted him, and he had a good idea of what it was.

’I’ll stop holding back if it gets too dangerous,’ Liam reviewed. ’But would I get the chance to do so?’

Complacency went both ways. Liam was training so recklessly because he didn’t want to leave anything to chance, but that approach could just as easily be his doom.

Level three magical beasts didn’t have classifications like low, mid, high, and peak-stage, but they still featured power differences. They simply showed them through physical might, making them much harder to track.

The species also played a role. For example, a strong toad wouldn’t be as scary as a strong scorpion. However, the creature Liam believed to have found wasn’t merely strong. It also stood far above the others he had hunted.

’I can’t just swallow this place, either,’ Liam considered.

Truth was, Liam hadn’t been the one to find the rocky formation. The Dark Heaven Tribe had marked it as a mine of a mineral Liam had to retrieve for his absurd commissions. It just happened to be occupied by something he also needed.

Still, retrieving the mineral had greater priority over hunting, meaning Liam couldn’t drown the place in poison and ruin that precious resource.

’Drawing it out, Liam planned, ’Then going all-out?’

That strategy was sound, and Liam even had some confidence in implementing it.

While Liam had focused on hunting in the past months, the continuous smoking and the many times he had been infected while fighting had brought his branches to a total of twenty.

The achievement was hardly worth celebrating given Liam’s immense requirements, but it still marked an incredibly fast growth. Of course, the price had been being almost poisoned to death dozens of times.

The growth was also meaningful. It might not mean much to Liam, but Grace would enter the mid-stage at forty-two branches. Numbers had different meanings between the two, but they still signified strength.

Moreover, Liam had found suitable Yellow Bushes while searching for toads. Once he retrieved the minerals, he could even consider leaving for another forbidden zone.

Removing that predator could also help in another regard, so Liam saw too many benefits to back out.

"Don’t follow me and keep your distance," Liam warned. "This will probably be really dangerous."

To prove that point, Liam called the fan to him instead of leaving it behind. His presence grew heavier, too, mimicking his seriousness. If he didn’t hold back on purpose, black Qi would also be blowing out of his figure.

"Honey!" Rachel gasped from behind Liam, her tone hinting at danger, his gaze snapping at her in worry.

"Be careful," Rachel giggled, blowing Liam a kiss before summoning a backup rank 1 spear that brought her into the air.

Liam followed Rachel’s rising figure but suppressed any thought about the trap he had just fallen into. He didn’t even want to know how Rachel could trick his ears with such fake tones. Women were incomprehensible anyway.

Once Rachel was far enough away, Liam dived into the tunnel that reeked of danger the most and started exploring.

Actually, exploration was a stretch. The underground area turned out to be far less intricate than Liam expected. It didn’t take him long to reach a chamber with wet soil and silver streaks tainting the rocky surfaces. He had found the ore, and not only that.

"Come out," Liam hissed, fangs sticking from behind his canines.

The ground moved at Liam’s call. A small dune rose without breaking, a flicking forked tongue piercing it to inspect the intruder, accompanied by a low, slow hiss.