Chapter 326: Door
The healing pill was still applying its effects, but Liam had also suffered new injuries. Yet, all that was beside the point.
Liam had enemies on every side, and they were too many to defend against. Even in perfect condition, the fact that he was cornered wouldn’t change, and the same went for his options.
But Liam didn’t give up. That just wasn’t an option for him. Even while heavily outnumbered, encircled, and injured, he looked for a way out of his predicament, and his enemies saw that, too.
"Outsider, a wise man bows to circumstance," One rooting expert declared. "Give up."
"He’s a Demon!" Another rooting expert stated. "He doesn’t know his place and must be punished for his crimes!"
"There might be others," A third rooting expert said. "We must understand who is behind him and who else ventured so deeply in the Archbishop’s inheritance."
Liam barely heard those words. They didn’t matter anyway. The time for conversations was long over. There was no point in even wasting mental energy trying to engage with them.
Instead, Liam only reviewed his situation. He was trapped, but beasts were at their most dangerous when cornered, and he had learned much from them.
Defending was indeed impossible, but attacking was still a possibility. It definitely wouldn’t be pretty, but Liam could throw himself at that encirclement with everything he had.
There would be no strategy to that approach. It would be nothing more than a gamble. Liam would give his all and see which side broke first.
’I guess this is the price for my greed,’ Liam acknowledged. ’Master would want me to laugh now that it has come to this.’
Liam still hadn’t learned to laugh on command, but he was doing that more often, and it was mostly thanks to Grace, who became the fuel for a scoff-like chuckle.
"You aren’t nearly as scary as my partner," Liam laughed, half-wondering whether dying would be safer than facing Grace after that whole mess.
"He still dares to laugh," A rooting expert scoffed.
"Demonic cultivators have grown more arrogant," A second rooting expert commented. "They must be taught a lesson."
"This one’s heart is beyond saving," A third rooting expert declared. "Such corruption will never know redemption."
Once again, Liam didn’t even hear those statements. His brain completed the last calculations when something entered his ears and managed to distract him.
The event wasn’t limited to Liam. The seventeen cultivators in the encirclement remained wary of him but couldn’t help but glance at the tall, vertical fissure that had appeared on the wall to their left.
Gasps resounded when the fissure spread. Unlike Liam, it seemed the Church’s group knew what was happening, but he caught on to the event soon enough.
The fissures gave birth to two huge rectangles, which slowly swung open inside the hall, as if they were a giant door. A white halo shone from the other side, casting a long shadow due to the single figure standing at its edge.
A battered Lancelot was between the doors. His fancy silver robe was in tatters, exposing much of his lean body and many bruises. Even his long blonde hair was beyond disheveled.
It seemed that getting to the inheritance’s heart hadn’t been a smooth ride for Lancelot, highlighted by the evident annoyance on his handsome face.
The scene froze, with Lancelot’s eyes being the only thing that moved. He looked at Liam’s sorry state, moving his attention to the Church’s team next, ultimately glancing at the still-expanding fuming swamp around the central altar.
Explaining the entirety of the situation wasn’t possible in such a predicament. Interruption or not, that remained a battle, and Liam had already created an irremediable grudge that would include any outsider.
Honestly, it was even unclear what Lancelot would do once he learned the full extent of the situation. Even if things didn’t turn into another betrayal, there were still seventeen rooting experts against Liam.
Lancelot could simply decide not to get involved with such terrible odds.
There was also the Church to take into account. Those seventeen cultivators could have something to say to whatever claim Liam made, but the situation never got to that point.
Because Lancelot didn’t wait for words. He acted before either side could decide what to do with his sudden arrival, casually waving his arm to cast a spell.
A tide of flames materialized out of thin air, already giant but expanding, its tip condensing into a beaked head that released a high-pitched shriek as it shot toward Liam and the Church’s group.
More of that bird-like creature solidified mid-flight, while torrents of flame shot from what eventually became its wings. The spell was fast and mighty, clearly at the peak of the second rank, and seemingly ready to burn everything and everyone, with no distinctions for allegiances.
The Church’s group didn’t abandon its position, so Liam’s couldn’t. Yet, a golden, compound dome began to form around that team once the bird-like spell dived down, forcing Liam to respond in kind.
A vibrating membrane of Qi enveloped Liam’s figure as the fiery spell crashed onto the floor, enveloping the entire area in flames, as if they were rivers that filled the streets below the altars.
Liam was ready to do something, anything. The Qi Repulsion was strong, but there was a limit to what it could endure, and whatever Lancelot was doing could still work to his advantage.
Nevertheless, despite the increasing heat seeping through the vibrating membrane, Liam found it cozy rather than scorching. Even the world of fire he was immersed in looked like warm waters rather than a deadly inferno, not pressing on the Qi Repulsion at all.
Liam warily checked his surroundings. All he could see was flames, but they felt terribly wrong, albeit not in a bad or dangerous way. He tilted his head in confusion as he deactivated the Qi Repulsion, letting that fire touch him directly, only for it not to burn.
Even the few rags still hanging from Liam’s body didn’t burn. If anything, the coziness the heat generated felt revitalizing, slightly helping what the rank 2 healing pill was doing.
’Living fire,’ Liam understood, sort of. Fire that didn’t burn was as contradictory as they came, but he had something else to prioritize.
After all, while the fire didn’t burn Liam, it caused the compound dome to flicker nonstop. He saw its flashes through that fiery world, and he didn’t hesitate to shoot at it.
