Chapter 343: Zombie
The plan had been simple. Honestly, few strategies were more common than what Liam and Lancelot had implemented.
Lancelot had reached the peak of the rooting stage despite his incredible talent. He was stronger, more resilient, and shielded by politics, making him the perfect and only possible bait in a battle that could end with a single one of Dominic’s real attacks.
Liam also had the perfect complementing attack. The Sky-Splitting Bolt had incredible range, piercing properties, and power. He and Lancelot hadn’t gone through the specifics, but that weapon art was the best killing blow they possessed, especially when it came to a single target.
And everything had worked beautifully. Lancelot couldn’t have played his role better, buying time while distracting Dominic, even successfully hurting him before putting him exactly where Liam needed.
On the other hand, Liam had used a mixture of the white halo and whatever his body had learned to do to remain hidden, also relying on the latter to take aim, hitting the exact center of Dominic’s chest.
But Liam couldn’t rejoice. He didn’t have the strength to. The rank 3 martial art had demanded the entirety of the Qi that the high-grade circulation technique had stuffed his body with, leaving him in a spinning world.
While cultivators could function without Qi, they lived every second of their lives with that enhancing energy, so its absence resulted in uncomfortable weakness.
The issue was worse in Liam’s case. The emptying of his body had been abrupt, even followed by a physical struggle, causing harsher reactions. His head went back and forth until he lost his balance, risking falling to the ground.
However, Liam forcefully stomped his feet to keep himself standing. He was hunched over, his head still spinning too much to get straight, but he couldn’t fall, not yet.
Liam could only guess, but Lancelot’s state had to be terrible. Facing a branching expert, no matter how much he held back, wasn’t an experience anyone could survive unscathed.
As the team’s alchemist, it was Liam’s job to provide support. The idea of fighting had also come from him, so it was his responsibility to take care of whatever Lancelot might have suffered.
Nevertheless, Liam’s eyes went wide before he could even attempt to straighten up. The world in his perception had begun to stabilize, only for it to deliver an impossible sensation.
"William!" A cry so deafening and heavy slammed on Liam in the shape of violent winds that ruffled his long hair and almost sent him flying.
The forest, what was left of it, shook. Leaves fell everywhere, branches snapped, and some trees tilted. The earthquake returned, albeit not out of any direct impact. A presence superior to the world was raging, so everything in his range suffered.
Liam bent his legs and crossed his arms before his face to endure the storm, but his eyes remained wide. None of that made any sense, but it was the truth nonetheless. Dominic was still alive and angrier than he had ever been before.
’Did I miss?’ Liam instinctively considered, only for those same instincts to reject that possibility.
The blood in the air, the sounds, and the Qi signatures had already confirmed that Liam had hit his target. He couldn’t have missed that shot, either. He had actually taken precautions against that possibility.
In a different situation, Liam would have aimed for the head, but that target was smaller, while he was firing blind. Despite the Sky-Splitting Bolt being basically instantaneous, a branching expert could have had a chance to dodge it, even more so if it only took him tilting slightly to one side.
That was why Liam had gone for an easier vital organ. He knew Dominic’s size, so he could fill the gaps that his closed eyes created in his perception. A torso wasn’t as flexible as a neck, either. He had known where Dominic’s heart was all the time.
However, Liam could never have predicted that such a fatal injury wouldn’t be deadly.
Sure, Liam had seen Cecilia’s Qi keeping her functioning and alive despite what would have long since killed mortals. He had even wounded her in a similar spot, but piercing her heart had done the job.
Instead, Dominic’s heart wasn’t punctured. It was missing entirely, together with a chunk of his spine, sternum, and probably pieces of his lungs. He had a literal hole through his chest, but he was still alive.
Not only that, but Dominic was still frighteningly powerful.
’You must be kidding me,’ Liam cursed internally. He knew ordinary humans referred to cultivators as immortals, but that was just too much.
Nevertheless, the shock couldn’t freeze Liam. The plan had worked, but the battle wasn’t over, and he knew exactly what to do.
Most importantly, Liam couldn’t leave Lancelot on his own, indisposed, while next to that raging zombie.
The Qi was truly magical. Dominic didn’t have to do anything for that energy to address the gaping hole on his chest, limiting the bleeding and replacing anatomical functions, keeping his body operational despite the missing vital organ.
Of course, mere rooting experts couldn’t achieve that. Their Qi couldn’t fill such a vital gap. They were also inferior beings on a sheer qualitative level, still too close to mortals to survive without a heart.
Still, branching experts didn’t have it easy, either. Dominic didn’t die, but he didn’t stop bleeding, either. Moreover, remaining operative continuously consumed a lot of Qi, depleting his reserves faster than what his cultivation could produce.
Regrowing a heart wasn’t something Dominic’s body could do on its own, so his Qi had only delayed his death. The latter would arrive once he ran out of energy, unless he found suitable healing methods.
Naturally, Dominic would kill those who had dared to hurt him first. His Qi was priceless now, literally saving his life, but he remained a branching expert. His reserves could as well be bottomless compared to rooting experts.
Luckily, Dominic wouldn’t waste any energy killing one of his targets since he was already at his feet. Yet, as angry as he was, his quasi-fatal injury had given him a reality check, leading to wariness at the smile shining in his vision.
Lancelot looked about to faint. Even the hand clinging to Dominic’s leg had lost its fire, but he was still wearing that crazy grin. The previous shout had made blood leak from his eyes and ears, but he showed no fear.
Previously, Dominic would have just seen Lancelot as mental, as someone so high on his title of a genius that he had lost touch with reality.
Yet, the missing heart said otherwise. Lancelot wasn’t crazy. Everything had been part of a strategy so insane it had actually succeeded, meaning that confidence had to come from somewhere.
Truth be told, Lancelot had gone deaf after the last shout. His core was producing more energy, but it was also almost empty, and his injuries claimed whatever new Qi arrived.
But there was one thing Lancelot was sure of.
The plan might have partially failed, and many would just cut their losses at that point, prioritizing preserving their lives.
It would also make sense to do so. Danger aside, only Isabel had any real attachment to Lancelot. Everyone else was a hired gun. Lancelot had barely spent a little over a week with his other teammates, but he knew Liam wouldn’t leave him behind, not him.
And, right on cue, Dominic turned, and that reaction was enough to tell Lancelot that his sworn Brother had arrived.
Dominic had never seen Liam’s face, but the figure that stepped out of the tilted trees at the wasteland’s edge reeked of familiarity. The man was young, tall, and muscular, those proportions perfectly matching the caped cultivator he had seen in the valley.
And with recognition came anger.
"It’s you!" Dominic laughed, sending walls of air flying in Liam’s direction. "I’ll make talismans out of your bone marrow!"
Liam’s black hair fluttered in the storm, but he bent forward to endure them. Two pills were already between his teeth, one dark and one bluish, and he crushed them, closing his eyes for a second. When he reopened them, blood vessels had already filled them.
