Chapter 361: Rumors |
"It was a vague rumor," Grace explained, her eyes closed, a small smile on her face as she enjoyed the brushing behind her. "I heard it by chance before meeting you. Everything else I connected myself."
Grace was explaining how she had uncovered Liam’s identity, but it seemed his worries were unfounded. Most of that deduction had come from her intellect.
"It was unconfirmed but huge," Grace continued. "The news of a nine-spiritual-roots genius being born can travel throughout the Kingdom. The fact that it didn’t meant that it was limited to Sects."
The story helped distract Liam from the task, but much slipped through. He couldn’t physically avoid touching Grace more than necessary, and his brain was recording everything.
"News always leaks," Grace exclaimed, "But they don’t go too far if Sects are involved, meaning the rumor had to come from a nearby area."
Liam could only take those words as true. As far as he knew, the Pale Moon Sect had actively boasted about him, but that barrier between the Sects and every other force could indeed explain the matter.
There was also the fact that Liam had been a foundation expert, still too irrelevant in the cultivation world to shock the entire Kingdom.
"I never heard that rumor anymore," Grace stated, "But news about problems in the outermost Outer Circle followed. I don’t know what, but something big must have happened."
Liam understood that Grace was talking about the Divine Cult’s assault. Apparently, that matter had sent ripples into the neighboring political areas but hadn’t given away details.
"Sorry," Liam said, hastily pulling back the comb. Unknowingly, thinking about the Divine Cult’s mess had added weight to his hand.
"For future reference," Grace teased, glancing back at Liam. "I’m tough and far from helpless, but I like to be handled with care."
That look was another hammer to Liam’s sanity. Fighting Dominic had been easier than opposing whatever his brain was urging him to do, but he distracted himself, gently grabbing another strand of hair and brushing the comb through it.
"The first rumor alleged that the genius had a poison core," Grace concluded after turning. "Those are rare, but not unheard of. Yet, I saw how much you smoked, that you were on the run, in which direction you preferred to journey, and the intensity of your core’s nature."
Grace sighed. "I also caught other details that I can’t really explain, so I connected the two rumors, but it was your reaction that confirmed my suspicions."
"You are the smartest person I know," Liam couldn’t help but praise. It was actually astonishing how much she had understood despite the lack of proper proof.
"Master William, I have plenty of other tricks in store," Grace boasted. "You must stick very close, or you’ll miss them."
Liam smiled, only to hesitate afterward, both because he had to reach for Grace’s face to get another strand of hair and because it was his turn.
"It’s just Liam," Liam started from the very beginning. "Not William."
"Your...," Grace muttered, unsure whether she had gotten that right, "Choice of a fake name was William? Wil-Liam?"
"I was afraid I wouldn’t remember or answer to it," Liam admitted. "And Liam means protector. It’s from my father. I wanted it to have the same meaning."
Liam’s tone and the atmosphere that descended into the room told Grace about the gravity of the matter, preventing jokes about the fact that she had seen him not answer to that fake name.
"My father, mother, and big sister died in the Bloodline Screening," Liam revealed, "While I hid like a coward. It’s why I became a cultivator. I wanted to avenge my family and become the protector I should have been."
Grace immediately did the math. Liam couldn’t have been more than a powerless child during the Screening, but he was still blaming himself.
Rather, Grace focused on what Liam had mentioned earlier. If the Screening had truly been to find him, he should have been found, but she was sure she had seen his dragon-shaped burn.
Grace reached behind her, grabbing Liam’s right arm and gently pulling it toward her, using her other hand to uncover the mark she knew was there.
"It’s fake," Liam stated. "I won’t say more because I don’t want to involve people dear to me."
"I never went through it," Grace revealed, placing her arm next to Liam’s, pulling her sleeve to show her flawless skin. "Even on the run, my Clan’s name had weight. My lineage was checked upon my birth after all."
Liam looked at that flawless forearm from above Grace’s shoulder, his right hand rising to approach the spot where the burn should have been, only to retract it as soon as he understood what he was doing.
"The Recruiter from the Guild actually rejected me," Liam changed the topic. "It was Crazy-. The Archbishop’s spirit told me his identity was Great Tutor Maximilian Taiwlin. He was the one to awaken my dantian in secret."
"You met Great Tutor Taiwlin?!" Grace gasped, her head snapping at Liam.
"Do you know him?" Liam asked.
"I read in my faction’s records that he is the Dragon King’s advisor," Grace stated, "Son of the Ancestral Turtle."
"I knew him as Crazy Uncle," Liam nodded. "He told me he was the one who foresaw the awakening of the Ancestral Snake’s lineage and told the King, launching the Screening in response."
That short explanation sounded contradictory, but Liam promptly cleared the matter.
"I think the Ancestral Turtle had driven him mad, controlling him somehow," Liam stated. "He said I was retribution against the son of the Dragon because he had disrupted the Heavens’ balance."
Grace knew more thanks to her faction’s records, but those matters were too distant even for her, let alone a kid who hadn’t even been a real cultivator yet.
"I think he wanted to die," Liam recalled. "He was the first person I ever killed."