Legacy of Hatred-Chapter 165: Prizes

On the night of the second day of travel, Liam and the Alchemy Elder returned to the Pale Moon Sect, the late hour making their climb to the Inner Hall silent and uneventful.

Still, opening the cave revealed quite a cramped but welcome spectacle. The preparations for the Mutated Battlefield had emptied Liam’s quarters, but he struggled to see the floor now.

Pouches, barrels, and even wooden boxes occupied every available inch of the cave and more. The place had shrunk since new walls had appeared due to the piled-up items.

The clutter had only spared the cauldron’s immediate surroundings, but Liam couldn’t see any decent sitting spot there, let alone the room he needed to concoct.

That mess was more than triple what Liam had seized before the Mutated Battlefield, and it didn’t have one source. Many containers carried the mark of a stylized red man, and they were far more abundant than their counterparts.

"The Crimson Warrior Sect came through," The Alchemy Elder scoffed. "Disciple, tidy things up. I don’t want to see any of this mess by tomorrow’s lesson."

The Elder directly vanished after those words, and it wasn’t hard to understand why. Carriages were relatively slow but cheap, meaning that the Crimson Warrior Sect had relied on more expensive methods to deliver those items quickly.

It seemed the Crimson Warrior Sect was in a hurry to rid itself of the Alchemy Elder’s creation, so the latter had to attend to it.

Naturally, Liam forgot about everything, his eyes shining with excitement as the view took complete control of his thoughts. His rewards had finally arrived, and he couldn’t wait to unwrap them.

Some would see doing inventory as a tedious practice, but Liam never once felt bothered while going through every box, pouch, and barrel, noting down his new belongings.

From the look of it, Liam now really had enough to complete his preparations for the breakthrough and face it. He might have plenty of leftovers once he was done, too.

Of course, the presents weren’t limited to ingredients. After all, the Pale Moon Sect had Liam’s requests to take into account.

Nevertheless, it was with some disappointment that Liam only found one exception among the ingredients. Despite his long wishlist, the Sect had merely added one tome on top of that alchemy-related clutter.

’No space-ring?!’ Liam cursed, sitting on a box while holding the tome. ’Not even a bow?!’

The ingredients from the Pale Moon Sect were plentiful, but Liam felt annoyed nonetheless. He did request a lot, but he had received less than half of that.

’My bow,’ Liam whined in his mind, trying to find a silver lining. ’Maybe it will be part of the Disciplinary Elder’s weapon training.’

The idea sounded reasonable enough to restore some of Liam’s hopes, allowing him to move past his disappointment.

’The space-ring probably is rarer than I realize,’ Liam thought. ’Senior Brother argued against the perception technique and magical items, too, but they could have told me they would have given me only one martial art.’

The words "Lightning Step" filled the tome’s cover, hinting at a movement technique, which Liam could have paired with a defensive martial art from the Crimson Warrior Sect if he had known about that outcome.

’I guess even the Sect Leader couldn’t have predicted Master’s behavior,’ Liam realized. ’And maybe I’m being really greedy.’

Realistically, what Liam now owned far surpassed Cecilia’s belongings. He was even above Joel. Chances were no foundation expert had ever possessed so many riches, especially after so little inside the cultivation world.

The Disciplinary Elder’s lessons also couldn’t be cheap. They normally required contribution points, and Liam had requested more specific ones freely.

’As long as I get my bow,’ Liam sighed internally, putting the matter aside, opening the Lightning Step’s tome. ’Rank 2 martial art. Provides loud speed bursts that can be chained in quick succession. Qi consumption: Medium to Extreme. Training: Difficult.’

Liam’s lingering disappointment began to vanish as he read through the martial art. The Lightning Step wasn’t stealthy by any stretch of the imagination, lacking the Ghost Step’s insidious advantage, but featured something far greater.

’Top speed depends on how many executions the user can chain and endure,’ Liam read. ’Can perform sharp turns without losing momentum.’

The description put the martial art closer to what Joel had performed in the Mutated Battlefield, but promised far more power and, especially, flexibility.

For someone possessing more Qi than others, those unclear upper limits were an undeniable advantage that Liam had already taken into account when choosing the Seismic Palm.

Then, the ability to change direction was priceless and played right into the way Liam moved. He could theoretically swing among trees while performing the Lightning Step, enabling his agility in ways single sprints or speed bursts couldn’t.

And, obviously, Liam had to believe that was by design. The Lightning Step was too perfect for him for that choice to have been random. The Pale Moon Sect had probably factored his feats and rumors into the decision.

’Can I learn it already despite my weaker Qi?’ Liam wondered, also retrieving the other tome before pouring energy into his cave’s tablet. ’I need a metal slab and some wooden canes.’

With the tools the Metal Hand’s training demanded on their way, Liam set out to make room for them, or room in general. He couldn’t work in such cluttered conditions, let alone establish a laboratory where to prepare for the breakthrough.

Liam went through the clutter again, separating the ingredients from their cumbersome containers. He honestly had too much for his cave to hold now, but even clearing a quarter of it would restore acceptable conditions.

The process was quite time-consuming, which Liam had to handle with his entrance open to push anything useless outside. And, before he knew it, dawn arrived, alongside a stern presence he had learned to recognize.

"Disciple Liam," The Disciplinary Elder called from atop the descending path, "If you are done relocating, come to the plateau to attend the combat lessons and receive your requested prize."