Legacy of Hatred-Chapter 130: Synchrony

Loud chaos expanded behind Liam. Tremors that resounded into his very rib cage slammed on his back and tried to ruin his balance. Mud and blood even covered him all over, making him heavy and cramped, but his figure only gained speed.

The greatest battle of Liam’s life was unfolding in the area, but he missed it. A version of apocalypse had descended, but Liam’s brain gradually cut that disturbance away, sending all its energy to the singular task he was focusing on.

Just like when hunting or concocting, Liam narrowed the entirety of his mental functions, expressing the true extent of the incredible concentration he had developed in Krosstoen’s mountain.

Liam could wait motionlessly for his prey for days, focused solely on the unavoidable killing blow. He could spend hours glued to a dull cauldron despite having the beautiful Melissa sitting right next to him.

And now, Liam could ignore the entirety of the surrounding deadly world, set solely on making his next step quicker than the previous.

The Sect provided the safety and resources cultivators needed to improve, but Liam belonged to the wilds. That muddy, hard-to-navigate ground and chaotic but natural environment were his ideal training ground, his true home.

And that ideal training ground was the perfect place where Liam could flourish.

The Disciplinary Elder’s lessons had been valuable, forcing Liam to gain more confidence with his Qi-enhanced body and the energy running through it.

However, it had taken witnessing Maxwell’s battle performance for Liam to decide to try to push himself harder in that physical regard. After all, people couldn’t attempt to achieve a goal they didn’t know existed.

Maxwell’s incredible speed could be the result of a higher-grade circulation technique, but Liam tried anyway. If there truly were mastery levels to the mere use of Qi, he wanted to uncover them and make them his own.

The absolute concentration in such a chaotic environment bore fruit. It wasn’t anything extremely noticeable or drastic, but Liam felt it, leading to quite the unexpected experience.

Both with hunts and alchemy, Liam’s concentration had pointed outward, but the opposite happened now. His focus was on his very body and, especially, inside it, his mind following his Qi across its passageways, the meridians.

The task had nothing to do with circulating the Qi faster. Liam could do that, but it wouldn’t help with increasing his pace. His legs and, specifically, his very steps were the point, and they demanded a precise rhythm.

It wasn’t about using more Qi or pressing harder on the muddy ground. Liam’s energy had to become another muscle perfectly synchronized with his body and the actions it performed.

And looking inward, deeper than Liam had ever done before, revealed a discrepancy with his muscles and the Qi, which his concentration shortened. It was a gradual, slow process that increased Liam’s pace ever so slightly, but increase it did.

Liam was so lost in that process that he almost missed the appearance of another hindrance in what was supposed to be a clear path. A rooting expert donning a yellow robe had jumped at him, flames enveloping his raised fists.

However, before the cultivator could try to attack Liam, Joel appeared at his side, blocking the enemy’s path while a dark luster began to envelop his figure.

The yellow cultivator punched forward anyway, but Joel took it head-on, letting the fiery fist slam on his chest while delivering a palm strike of his own.

The clash had a clear winner. Joel remained firm on his feet, while his palm sent his opponent flying away, removing him as a threat to Liam.

"Run Junior-!" Joel cried, glancing at Liam, only for a loud laugh to interrupt his statement when he noticed a familiar pouch in his hands. "Fearless! Truly fearless!"

Liam’s subconscious recorded that Joel was fine while he kept running ahead, accelerating even further, wanting nothing more than to achieve that perfect synchrony between flesh and Qi.

The scenery in Liam’s vision receded faster and faster as his pace increased. Distant, vague objects also appeared far in the distance, marking his goal.

Nevertheless, something managed to claim Liam’s attention in that heated, focused moment. Something too mighty to ignore stood out without breaking his concentration, drawing his gaze away from the horizon for the first time since the escape.

The converging outbreak had removed every hindrance from the area, allowing Liam’s sharp gaze to inspect everything about the huge silhouette that had previously been too distant to see.

A thirteen-meter-long creature with the head of a horse, the body of an alligator, the tail of a wolf, gills, furred fins growing from random spots, and six mismatched legs stood at some distance on Liam’s left, seemingly watching the mayhem at the formerly-swamp’s center.

And, a mere second after Liam laid his eyes on that huge creature, his nape tingled, warning him about its mutual attention and the terror that it carried.

That fearsome pressure was unmistakable. It was the same Liam had felt against the ruin’s snake and in the Elders’ presence. That monstrous patchworked mess of different animals was undoubtedly a level three magical beast.

But, unlike the snake, the huge monster quickly lost interest in Liam, its heavy attention leaving his perception. A puny foundation expert clearly couldn’t distract it from the far richer bloodshed ahead, but Liam took that lucky development as a personal challenge.

’One day,’ Liam promised, mostly to himself, his gaze returning on the clear path ahead, his mind delving at full power into the process that made each of his steps quicker than the previous.

And, in the utter silence of Liam’s concentration, the eerie scent of blood he had smelled as soon as he entered the Mutated Battlefield intensified, speaking to something deep inside him.

For some reason, Liam smelled a vague sense of kinship, but the Ancestral Snake made no remarks this time, sticking to its suspicious silence. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Of course, that wasn’t the time to ponder those issues, so Liam stuffed them in the back of his mind, and his muddy, blood-stained figure soon disappeared from the chaos behind.