Chapter 356: Review |
The excitement from the new goods didn’t wane. It couldn’t, with so much to go through.
While Liam had prioritized browsing through the rank 3 techniques and filling the gaps in his arsenal, his share of the inheritance possessed far more.
The alchemical products were low on Liam’s tier list, but some were of the rank 3 kind and couldn’t be disregarded. There were also many in the second rank, and piles more of rank 1 ones.
The same went for the martial arts. Liam might have checked what he strictly needed first, but his share had more rank 1 and 2 techniques, even involving proper spells and weapon arts.
Then, there were the magical items, their quantity following the same rank-based proportions as everything else.
Liam immediately seized one of those items since it was a no-brainer. It was a rank 2 cauldron, white, and in pristine condition, seemingly having never been used, so it went straight into his black space-ring.
Nevertheless, after that, Liam had to stop and make the point of his situation. He had skimmed through the rewards’ list, gaining a general idea of what they entailed, but reality had to join the equation now.
It was time to review the actual inheritance, alongside its consequences.
First of all, Liam had to acknowledge one thing, something that he would have found hard to conceive before fighting Dominic. All his training, preparations, and resolve had been on point, putting him far above the ordinary rooting expert.
Lancelot might have saved Liam in the end, but his feats were far from negligible. Liam was strong, not as strong as he wanted, and definitely not as strong as he needed to be to fulfill his impossible goals, but it was something.
That was good news considering how much Liam could still grow, but it couldn’t blind him from a massive problem. He might have gained an unthinkable amount of wealth, but he had also basically run out of poison.
Liam had some ingredients left, but they weren’t enough to refill his stashes to any satisfying amount. Turning them into a handful of rank 2 Poisonous Cloud Pills even sounded like a waste, especially due to the other issue the review highlighted.
’My poison is still weak,’ Liam concluded.
Not many had survived Liam’s poison. Not many could, but that was exactly the issue. That was supposed to be his main weapon, the one his very cultivation journey pointed at, but it had failed to do the job against the opponents he needed it to perform the most.
Truth be told, that wasn’t all Liam’s fault. Actually, he wasn’t mainly to blame.
Elite cultivators would have elite preparations. They could use trump cards against trump cards, making even something lethal seem ineffective.
Then, Liam had to account for his limited resources and time spent concocting. He had done his best, but little could be achieved without extensive testing, prolonged seclusions, and the number of ingredients necessary for those to bear fruit.
Yet, alchemy didn’t accept excuses. As Liam’s Master had taught, complacency was the sin of the weak. Pride didn’t mean satisfaction, and Liam wasn’t even close to experiencing the latter, especially with so much he could still do.
Liam had taken a decent first step toward fighting as an alchemist against Dominic, but it just wasn’t enough. He had an incredible body, so he should make full use of it through products that improved its performance in ways less destructive than the Primal Urge.
There were also more poisons, and a path toward improving Liam’s existing ones had appeared. He now knew the antidote for his venom. His blood could serve as the main ingredient for that, meaning every recipe that used what his glands produced could be altered and made deadlier.
’The Qilin’s Idea can get far better now,’ Liam thought, his imagination going wild, ’But I can still weaponize my venom in so many ways.’
As always, the issue with poison was applying it, and Liam needed to review that part, too, especially when it came to his needles.
Liam summoned one of those metal items from his ring, putting it in his mouth, drawing it out in time to catch its sizzling. He had coated its tip with his venom, only for the substance to corrode it.
Not all of the metal fell prey to the venom. The corrosion eventually stopped despite the needle still carrying part of that substance. Yet, the issue couldn’t be more evident.
Liam’s cultivation was growing, so his body was improving, and the same went for his venom. The needles were barely holding on as it was, and their time shortened with each additional minor root he developed.
’It’s just not worth investing in Qi-enhanced needles, is it?’ Liam considered. ’Arrows are one thing, but these...’
Liam was not only close to running low on needles. Those weapons were also growing less effective by the day. They were simple metal after all, while his opponents were becoming increasingly more immortal.
The needle went back to the ring, only for Liam to release a low hiss. Black Qi escaped his still-raised hand, powerful, deadly, attempting to turn the very world poisonous.
That was an important gain from the experience, probably one of the main ones. Liam had completed the second layer of the Qi mastery, obtaining a power that could boost everything he wielded, but it wasn’t enough.
Liam wanted more, that feeling intensifying as his review reached the final topic.
The Archbishop had shared the truth about the Church. It was insane, but Liam was part of that insanity more than anyone else.
The Church was hunting ancestral bloodlines to elevate humans to the same level as the Ancestral Beasts. Actually, it wanted to surpass them, and the Dragon King was letting it happen because it acted as a constant Screening that hurt everyone but his lineage.
And the Church had to die. That was already set in stone in Liam’s mind. He would have already killed it for colluding with the Dragon King, let alone now that they had become enemies over seizing an inheritance open to everyone.
But there were problems on the horizon. Initially, the plan was for Liam to avoid revealing his identity to claim plausible deniability, but Julian had ruined that brittle strategy.
Liam trusted Grace with all he had. She probably was the smartest person he knew, but his very name might become poison now. Selling products as Master William might be hard if the Church played into its terrifying influence.
That meant having less income and purchasing power, as well as access to ingredients Liam needed to get stronger through alchemy. Still, strength had never been more paramount, and there were other ways to pursue it.
Julian had shown how useful magical items were. Liam’s Black Bow was great, but the alchemical refinement had yet to turn the knife into a rank 2 weapon. He hadn’t perfected the method, but he lacked the ingredients to run more tests, and the rewards enabled something better.
Liam browsed through the pile of goods until he found a rectangular, fancy case. He placed it on his crossed legs before lifting its lid, uncovering the rank 3 item resting on its soft, black fabric.
The item was a fan as big as a man’s chest. Yet, it was thin, made of seven metal, bronze blades with sharp edges.
Liam took the fan out, closing it. The blades became one, allowing him to wield them like a knife. Binding it would be faster than waiting for his rank 1 weapon to get stronger. The problem was his Qi.
Using the case as a small table, Liam placed the fan on it and let one drop of blood fall from his finger. Instead of being red and bright, his Qi darkened it, making it emit an ominous light.
The piece of awareness Liam had filled his blood with entered the fan, experiencing the opposition it posed. Yet, his energy fought it, empowered by the true nature of his Qi, expanding to take over the item.
Liam’s black Qi seemed to be working until the opposition he felt came alive, actively fighting his control’s expansion, pushing it away without bothering to deplete his energy.
The fan won that battle, and Liam’s head snapped back as soon as it finished pushing his energy out. Rather than merely resisting him, the item seemed to have directly rejected him, as if it had made that decision consciously.
Yet, Liam simply stood up, storing everything but the fan while preparing the scene. He took out the rank 2 white cauldron, as well as the flasks with his stockpiled venom.
There were ways for alchemists to bind items of a superior rank. Liam’s Master had both mentioned and described that method in the inheritance, and he wouldn’t let one failure stop him, not now.
Liam wanted that upgrade to his wooden knife, so he would get it.