Legacy of Hatred-Chapter 49: Anchor

Liam lost track of his speed. The environment in his eyes became an endlessly retreating canvas that saw an instantaneous succession of trees, but no tunnel vision arrived, prompting him to push himself even further.

The training from the previous night had borne fruit. Despite Erik’s sudden attack, Liam’s circulation technique had remained active, continuing to refill him with Qi he could use.

And Liam relied on that Qi freely, disregarding any limiting mortal mindset. No amount of speed was too much or dangerous anymore. He urged his body to deplete as much magical energy as it needed, and the process didn’t stop there.

The Divine Cult had carved habits into Liam’s body, but he also had his upbringing, and the two fused in that heated moment.

When the path forward became too cluttered with trunks, Liam directly leaped, performing an inhuman jump that brought him to a tall branch, only for him to use it to fling himself even further.

Liam soon noticed that he had miscalculated his momentum. The swing flung him farther than he had ever planned to go, but no panic appeared in his mind.

Instead, Liam kept his gaze forward, crossing his arms when branches tried to hinder his flight, only for him to slam into them and shatter them.

The crash changed Liam’s flight trajectory, sending him toward one of the trunks he had jumped to avoid. However, his body twisted mid-air, curling as if he were a spring, which unleashed its strength once his feet touched the bark.

The trunk’s vertical slope didn’t hinder the jump at all. Liam leaped diagonally, shooting toward another trunk, only to repeat the action. He ricocheted among the trees, never losing any speed. Actually, he accelerated even further by the time his feet returned to solid ground.

And there, Liam subconsciously realized his greatest problem. His thoughts had been an anchor that had limited his potential because they still couldn’t conceive such superhuman abilities.

Truth was, Liam had all the right cards to be stronger than his fellow outer disciples. He possessed miraculous, even divine, talent. He had trained in ways that many wouldn’t have survived, and now he also had the magical Qi.

The only thing that Liam had lacked was time, time to experiment in what he could do, time to build confidence in those newfound abilities, and time to make his current state his new normality.

Still, the recklessness born from self-hatred worked, too, even acting as an accelerated course on what would have taken Liam weeks or months to get used to. As long as he forsook what might happen to himself, testing and learning became incredibly easy.

Meanwhile, Lucy had done her best to use the environment to her advantage, but her opponent knew that forest better than she ever could, and its physical abilities surpassed hers.

Lucy’s escape had met a wall when the snow under her feet suddenly crumbled, pulling her into a relatively vast rocky hole she had been unable to spot due to that white cover.

To make things worse, the magical beast had been ready for that moment, leaving her quite cornered. She was stuck in the hole now, her back pressed against a rocky wall, tainting it with the blood the three cuts there leaked.

The injury was annoying but not deadly. It hurt, but Lucy could still move. Also, the hole was barely two meters deep. It was large, but she could jump out of it.

Nevertheless, the huge black figure looking down at Lucy froze her every muscle. The alpha wolf was there, standing atop the hole, its hungry eyes fixed on her.

The second Lucy jumped, the magical beast would leap, too, probably doing far more than scratching her back. She was stuck, and the wolf didn’t even linger in that trap, carefully descending the hole to shorten the distance from its prey.

Lucy could only raise her palms, wearing the battle stance she had learned in the Sect. Running away wasn’t an option, so she had to fight, no matter how hopeless the situation looked.

The wolf didn’t care for the battle stance. It took another step down the hole before leaping forward, lunging with its maw open to deliver a killing blow. However, its jump was cut short.

Something impossibly fast slammed on the wolf’s side mid-air, flinging it away, sending it to the other edge and rolling on the snowing ground.

Meanwhile, the figure that had slammed into the wolf fell straight into the hole. Liam landed inside that cavity, quickly straightening himself up, bark shards and snow falling from his pale-grey robe.

"Liam, what-?" Lucy gasped, only for a cold glare to shut her up. Liam threw her a look that conveyed the entirety of his angry mood, forcing her to gulp and close her mouth.

Liam quickly diverted his gaze, looking up at the hole’s edge. He had hit the alpha pretty hard, but nothing had broken. He had heard as much, so he knew the battle wasn’t over.

As predicted, the huge black figure soon peeked out of the hole’s edge, its hungry eyes now fixed on Liam instead of Lucy. That terrifying mass of fur was taller than Liam, even holding an advantageous position, but no fear appeared on his face.

Liam half-turned, slightly bent his knees, and withdrew his right arm while stretching the other forward. That was the same battle stance the jailer had worn. Now that Liam wielded Qi, it was identical in every way.

And Lucy felt confused. That wasn’t her first time seeing that battle stance, but she finally had the chance to realize something. Liam knew how to fight in ways that he couldn’t have learned on his own.

Moreover, that battle stance clearly had cultivators in mind. Liam would use fists instead of palms otherwise, making Lucy wonder who could have taught him that.

Still, the situation changed in the next second. The giant wolf jumped down, instantly reaching Liam, its teeth and claws closing on him.

As for Liam, the wolf’s speed burst made its charge unavoidable, but he had never planned to rely on evasive measures. Instead of dodging, Liam stepped forward, his stretched arm meeting the magical beast head-on.

Everything froze after the clash. Liam ended up with a huge chunk of the left side of his torso inside the wolf’s mouth, which couldn’t close due to the bleeding palm pressing on its teeth.

The wolf’s claws had also pierced Liam’s back, sticking deeply inside it, tainting his robe with expanding blood stains.

Lucy wanted to gasp, but her brain noticed a confusing detail that delayed that reaction. Liam’s retracted right arm had now stretched, and she discovered where it had gone when Liam swung it away, releasing a tearing noise.

Liam’s right arm was now in the open, lifted at his side, dripping blood to no end. However, that didn’t come from any injury. Instead, it flowed from a large chunk of gore and black fur resting in his palm.