Chapter 409: Overlord
Apparently, there was no time to waste. Liam actually had quite lucky timing. If his training had lasted any longer, that opportunity would have passed.
Grace changed into her devilish attire before dressing Liam in a matching outfit. The two stored everything afterward, leaving the underground hall in a hurry.
The promise of rank 3 alchemical ingredients took priority over everything, but both Liam and Grace felt the unspoken in the air. It just wasn’t the time and place to address it.
Actually, the place was perfect, but that was beside the point.
Cultivators didn’t own the Qi. That energy existed in a natural state, enhancing environments. It was how the spirit stones’ springs came to be. It was what had created the mine Joel and Cecilia had needed, and it was also how animals evolved into magical beasts.
The Kingdom’s trend even applied to that field. Cultivators didn’t just occupy random areas. They needed locations suitable for their level, creating a sort of vicious cycle.
The inner areas of the Kingdom were richer in cultivation resources, so stronger cultivators had settled there, giving birth to better systems that the outermost Outer Circles couldn’t have for logistical reasons.
In turn, that greater presence of cultivators and magic in general influenced the environment, passively enhancing it, making it more suitable for the cultivation journey, birthing even better resources.
Normally, those resources would be under strict control. Righteous forces would manage those environments, either monopolizing them or turning them into missions like the Mutated Battlefield.
However, the border was a unique location. Widespread control couldn’t happen with so many lawless and conflicting forces.
There was also another party to that system, one that didn’t care for rules, the Kingdom, or humans in general. The magical beasts were a huge variable, being especially relevant in that instance.
Liam and Grace flew on the fan alongside the mountain chain. It turned out the rank 3 ingredients in question had bloomed deep within the magical beasts’ domains. It was unclear how cultivators had learned about it, but the location caused more chaos than it would have normally done.
Since the ingredients had appeared in unclaimed areas, the hunt for them was a free-for-all where no one could attempt to claim righteous priority, no matter how ineffective.
Moreover, the place was west of Liam and Grace’s home, deeper into the border and basically on its central line, attracting both eastern and northern forces.
That put the couple relatively nearby, but it also created a battlefield with many players, all fighting for the same item.
The mountains grew taller as Liam kept them to his right. Spring had arrived, but the weather was still cold, with patches of snow surviving the change of season.
Of course, simple weather had little meaning to cultivators. Even when downpours came, Liam and Grace could use their Qi to keep the rain away, just like he had seen Crazy Uncle do years ago.
After four days, at dawn, Liam and Grace reached the arranged meeting spot. They landed at the base of a mountain and stored the fan, proceeding on foot until the valley created by the following elevation.
Finding Lucas and Troy wasn’t hard. They were sitting in the open on a mossy boulder. Lucas had his sword on his shoulder, his serious gaze on the mountain’s peak. Meanwhile, Troy was meditating with his weapon resting on his knees.
"You are late!" Lucas complained, obviously noticing the couple’s arrival. "Any longer, and we-."
Lucas didn’t finish his line once he turned to look at Liam. Even Troy had opened his eyes and was inspecting him. Liam’s previous strength had already earned their respect, but they struggled to recognize him now.
It wasn’t just a matter of Qi-driven weight. Liam’s existence did feel far heavier, but it was its nature that stood out the most.
Rather than cold, Liam was chilling, radiating potential for danger that spoke to the swordsmen’s survival instincts, freezing their blood. He was intense but calm, famished but silent, his black eyes making Lucas and Troy wonder about their place in the food chain.
Liam was a predator, and anything reflected in his gaze was his potential prey.
And yet, Lucas smiled at that change.
"We might actually have a shot at this," Lucas exclaimed, standing up, when the echo of a massive shockwave blew over the area.
Lucas and Troy couldn’t help but look at the mountain’s peak again. Even Grace and Liam did the same after jumping on their boulder. The echo had been soft, but it spelled doom.
’Branching experts,’ Liam recognized, his senses pinpointing the shockwave’s origin with relative precision. It had come from beyond the mountain, but still too close for comfort.
That wasn’t the end. The four couldn’t see it from their location, but Liam tasted the ruckus happening on the mountain’s opposite slope. A cacophony of sensations assaulted his perception, drawing the only possible conclusion.
’It’s a war,’ Liam thought. He had seen multiple vast gatherings of cultivators by then, but never a battle of such scale, and humans likely weren’t the only players.
Liam’s eyes darted left and right while searching for additional clues when a frown afflicted his face. The mountain chain headed north-west in the distance, ultimately barging into the northern region, but his gaze stopped on a specific clump of four tall elevations.
As superhuman as Liam’s senses were, he couldn’t study such distant areas. Those four mountains were nothing more than dark silhouettes even when he added his Qi to his sight.
Yet, there was something to those four mountains. It wasn’t quite a halo. It was more of a transparent curtain that enveloped them in something ethereal, invisible, but undoubtedly real.
Liam experienced an instinctive reaction at the sight. His hair stood on end, and his eyes went wide. He didn’t know why he felt like that, but he was sure it was fear.
"We should hurry," Lucas exclaimed. "We don’t know for how long the branching experts will keep each other busy. I’ll update you along the-."
Lucas didn’t finish his line again because he turned toward the couple and saw that Liam was looking away. Following his gaze even brought understanding, as well as an empty smile.
"Unreasonable Brother, you do have sharp eyes," Lucas praised, nodding at the distant mountains.
"Who ...," Liam muttered, "What lives there?"
"It’s probably our dear overlord," Lucas explained. "A level four magical beast that has stayed here for centuries. We actually should hope it takes no interest in our little party."
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