Chapter 306: Potential and price
As soon as Liam relaxed, his legs gave in. He flopped to the floor, groaning through his teeth, biting on the pipe to avoid lying down completely.
The four rank 1 pills might have dealt with the worst part of Liam’s injuries, but he wasn’t fully healed. Moreover, he was exhausted, experiencing a weakness that went from the stress his cultivation had suffered to every inch of his body.
Liam needed the restorative process only sleep could provide, except he couldn’t close his eyes just yet. The lingering auditory hallucination would keep him awake.
Still, that didn’t mean that Liam could do nothing but wait for the screams from the past to wane. The opposite, actually.
’Does this mean I met Archbishop Ignatius?’ Liam wondered, not sure whether the spirit’s rebukes could translate into that claim.
Of course, that was beside the point. The average cultivator would see the meeting with such a legendary figure as a priceless experience, and Liam acknowledged its value, but also mostly focused on what it had entailed.
’He tried to stop what the Church is doing with the ancestral bloodlines,’ Liam thought, ’But why?’
Liam instinctively believed the answer was with the Church’s strange contradiction. The dichotomy between the Ancestral Beasts and Men was probably at the base of that ideological difference.
That creed wasn’t even new to Liam. The Divine Cult’s ideology probably only involved opposition to the Dragon King, but it was a loose similarity.
’Ten is diabolical,’ Liam recalled, putting those doubts aside. The spirit had promised answers as long as he claimed the inheritance, so he didn’t have to achieve clarity through guesses. He could just seize it.
’The Ancestral Snake’s bloodline kept itself more hidden than the others,’ Liam reviewed. ’Crazy Un-. Great Tutor Taiwlin, or the Ancestral Turtle, must have known where it would have appeared. It’s why he moved to Krosstoen’s mountain.’
The revelations about Crazy Uncle hardly caused any ripple in Liam’s mind. He had sort of accepted that everything Crazy Uncle had said was true. The spirit had merely confirmed that beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Instead, the part about the Ancestral Snake’s bloodline was more surprising, but only slightly. Liam didn’t even need to try to ask the hiss in his ears to find answers.
’Snake, you did what I’m doing, aren’t you?’ Liam said in his mind, more of a statement than a question. ’For your revenge, you hid yourself until the right moment came.’
The event involved the entire world, an unfathomable number of years, and magical aspects beyond mere blood. Still, Liam could see the similarity with his journey, albeit on a far smaller scale. After all, he was hiding, too, waiting until he was strong enough to strike.
’What came first?’ Liam considered. ’Are we similar because of your bloodline, or did you choose me because you knew we would have been similar?’
The old Liam wouldn’t have even thought of considering that problem. Yet, with so much magic involved, especially at a level beyond the Heavens, concepts like time, future, and physical lineages became iffy.
Everything expanded even further when Liam included Crazy Uncle’s words. According to him, the return of the Ancestral Snake’s bloodline was a ploy of the Heavens, a retribution against the Dragon King.
’At what level are all these beings even playing?’ Liam cursed. ’Do they just see humans as ants? Do they not see us at all?’
That was beneath what Crazy Uncle’s dying wails had featured. Humans were even less than pawns caught in a game they had no choice but to endure.
’How dare the world treat my family like this?’ Liam thought. ’If this is the Heavens’ scheme, I’ll kill them, too.’
The idea was beyond delusional, but Hatred didn’t need to be rational, and Liam had a supporter.
’Yes, my son,’ An ancient, deep voice blended with the hiss in Liam’s ears. ’Swallow it all.’
Liam decided not to address that, partly finding himself in agreement. He knew he resonated with that Hatred. He had learned as much when he had risked hurting Grace, and that awareness wasn’t something he could forget.
After gazing at the true nature of that all-devouring darkness, that darkness had stayed with Liam.
Archbishop Ignatius’ spirit had more to be studied. It even seemed to have liked how Liam hadn’t limited himself to Hatred, but he moved his reasoning to other topics.
After the battle, Liam had focused on stabilizing his condition, but he had time to review it now, and he immediately agreed with Maxwell.
’There is no such thing as a weak level three creature,’ Liam recalled. ’Depends was indeed the right answer.’
Certainty of victory just wasn’t a thing against such superior opponents. However, Liam couldn’t dismiss his achievement, especially when paired with his current level, reaffirming a past reasoning.
The rooting stage was far vaster than the foundation stage, allowing broader power differences, but also higher upper limits. That was a growing trend throughout the entire circulation journey.
That meant that cultivators at a superior stage would always wield far higher strength due to the breakthrough’s transformative nature, but also that Liam’s exclusive upper threshold would be increasingly more powerful.
The battle against the level three snake had proven as much. Despite Liam only wielding one-tenth of the strength the rooting stage could provide him with, he had succeeded at something relatively impossible.
’If I fully develop one hundred minor roots,’ Liam pondered, ’Would I be completely confident defeating level three magical beasts?’
There were nuances that went beyond the specific opponent. Qi alone couldn’t close that gap. Cultivators also needed the right tools that made them superior to beasts.
Yet, while not as transformative as the breakthrough, growing through a stage did bring improvements, and Liam still had many of those to experience.
Also, due to the cultivation journey’s trend, chances were that Liam could re-explore that topic at higher stages, that time using cultivators instead of magical beasts as a goal.
’If this is correct,’ Liam calculated, ’I have yet to see how immense my requirements are.’
Power didn’t exist in a vacuum, not for cultivators. Liam might indeed have that incredible potential, but nurturing it remained the main challenge.
If that hypothetical progression were to be believed, Liam’s problems would worsen earlier than he had predicted.
’Master said Sect Leaders need Sects to accumulate resources for them,’ Liam recalled. ’Will I get there at the branching stage already?’
Of course, Liam didn’t consider building a Sect even once, but the alternative wasn’t any less mind-recking.
’Killing Sect Leaders might not be enough,’ Liam realized. ’I might have to plunder their whole Sects.’
Luckily, that worry was in the distant future, and Liam had something far more compelling to focus on now. He couldn’t sleep yet, so he summoned the rank 3 weapon art, planning to start mastering it.
