Chapter 325: Success and defeat
A rank 2 healing pill truly was a miraculous tool, the best alchemy had to offer in regards to recovery.
Liam had held back on using that product before entering the Cathedral since he could somehow still function, and he was worried about clogging himself with impurities. Yet, he could now enjoy the pill’s effects, for the first time in its rank 2 version.
The soothing energy that invaded Liam immediately got to work, prioritizing his worst injuries without needing external input, as if it possessed a mind of its own.
Liam’s insides quickly stabilized. Whatever his organs had suffered became the pill’s main target, stopping bloating, internal bleeding, discomfort, and more.
Part of that soothing energy also went to Liam’s thighs, hands, and skin. He had been thoroughly burned, but those injuries were more superficial, meaning less of a priority.
Liam felt himself regaining strength on the spot, confidence that only a healthy condition could provide. Unlike the last time he had resorted to such products, his cultivation was fine now, so a single healing pill would probably be enough to fix him completely.
The problem was that the process wouldn’t be immediate. Liam would benefit from some instantaneous vitality, and the healing would be continuous, but making a full recovery would take time, not much, but he barely had seconds at his disposal.
The dark puddle had fully merged with the floor, and the black patch had continued to expand. Liam couldn’t control its direction, but there was no real need to.
The infection stretched deeper into and over the compound dome until it reached the central altar, even affecting the concentric circles and the membrane they were generating. After all, both had Qi to latch on to.
Visually, the infection was hard to notice due to the similar shades involved, but its consequences weren’t. It didn’t take long before yellow fumes rose from the altar’s surroundings and surfaces.
The seven sitting cultivators who had focused on preserving the inheritance’s overtaking tried their best to endure the venom seeping into their bodies. Restorative golden halos even enveloped them, but there was no fighting the continuous delivery of deadly effects.
After all, the threat didn’t involve attacks that could be defended against. The Master’s Pride had transformed the very environment into a deadly, poisonous swamp, one that the Church’s team couldn’t continue occupying.
And the priorities shifted as soon as the swamp forced the first cultivator to abandon the concentric inscriptions.
"Seize the outsider!" One white-wearing rooting expert shouted as the entire team scattered, abandoning the central altar to escape the swamp’s expanding perimeter.
The three concentric circles fully disappeared. The dark membrane they were releasing evaporated, and the overtaking of the inheritance finally stopped. The blackness didn’t rise through the coffin anymore, but didn’t recede, either.
Nevertheless, Liam had to consider himself satisfied. Losing the inheritance meant losing everything, and he had succeeded at stopping that clock. The main threat was no more, replaced by something more direct.
Now that the Church’s team wasn’t busy with the inscriptions anymore, the number of enemies Liam had to deal with had risen to seventeen, and they weren’t a motionless threat anymore.
Streaks of light converged toward Liam’s cover, reaching it in no time, only for him to have already jumped on the altar, wanting to exploit the sole advantage in that whole predicament.
The expanding swamp shrouded in yellow fumes might be deadly for everyone else, but it was a haven for Liam. It wouldn’t nourish him since the Master’s Pride used his venom, but it could still act as a line of defense, a fortress against that steep numerical disadvantage.
But seventeen rooting experts weren’t an opponent Liam could take by surprise, outsmart, or navigate. Even if half of them did nothing at all, the other half would still force him to contend with an insurmountable number of attacks and strategies.
Liam’s feet barely had the time to touch the altar’s top when a humming shockwave slammed into his figure, flinging him toward the hall’s outer reaches, away from the swamp.
Golden bullets also flew after Liam, faster than him, reaching him mid-air before his figure could even begin to descend.
Even once Liam’s fading momentum brought him closer to the floor, streaks of light were already converging toward his predicted landing spot, ready to catch him.
Liam had to forsake offense to focus on defense, snapping what was left of his sleeves down, more Cloud Pills than he had planned falling due to the many holes in his attire.
Yellow smoke expanded in every direction but was cut by multiple sides. Liam pushed it away during his fall, and the same went for the streaks of golden light that charged recklessly into it.
Liam had to activate the Qi Repulsion before his feet could even touch the floor, and the strikes that landed on him hurled his figure left and right, throwing him out of any cover he might attempt to seek.
The vibrating membrane held, but the situation was already beyond Liam’s control. Bullets kept slamming on his defensive technique, while more presences closed on him, be it through golden sprints or simple running.
Liam deactivated the Qi Repulsion as soon as he found some foothold, ready to unleash the Lightning Step. He felt the danger closing in more ways than one, and he couldn’t let that happen, but the choice wasn’t his.
A humming shockwave arrived before Liam could move, and another hit him as soon as the first lifted him. His figure rag-dolled through the hall, slamming on altars until a wall halted his momentum.
Liam slid down, only for his senses to ring the alarms, barely allowing him to react to the humming shockwaves brewing all around him.
The vibrating membrane returned, shielding Liam, but those heavy, golden blows kept slamming on him, pinning him to the wall. He couldn’t move, and the Qi Repulsion eventually gave in, leaving him defenseless.
Liam felt hammers slam on his whole being, and then again, and then for a third time. His right knee went to the floor as he spat the mouthful of blood that had risen through his throat, more of that flowing down his lips, his disheveled long hair covering his lowered head.
The rounds of golden bullets had ultimately finished burning through the cloak and grey robe underneath. Liam was basically half-naked, completely exposed to the encirclement that had taken shape.
Liam lifted his gaze, glancing beyond his long strands to see that the seventeen rooting experts had surrounded him, leaving him no way out, golden halos already healing the few he had poisoned.
