Legacy of Hatred

The ominous warning took a shape Liam would have never expected.

The next morning, a foundation expert led the masked, painted Liam to the giant battle area, as per usual. However, instead of a cultivator, he found a level two magical beast waiting for him.

The creature was surprisingly familiar. It was a huge bear with grey fur, five meters tall, sprawled on the floor, unconscious.

Yet, a whistling noise from above made Liam frown and snapped the bear awake. The creature wailed through its drowsiness, eventually standing up, slowly absorbing its surroundings until it noticed Liam, matching the event with a threatening growl.

Now, magical beasts were weaker than cultivators if they wielded proper techniques. They had tough bodies and impressive physical prowess, but martial arts generally outclassed them. It was why it was relatively accepted for weaker experts to defeat creatures of a superior level.

Of course, there were nuances. The beast’s species played an important role, and they also followed the empowerment cultivation stages provided. They could even develop abilities, multiplying their danger level.

Liam wasn’t the average cultivator, now more than ever. He had killed two level three magical beasts, the first even fairly. He wouldn’t underestimate weaker creatures, but he knew he was above them.

But Liam had limited himself to his body in that environment. He had technique now, his own version of that, but his opponent made him wonder whether it would have any effect.

It would have been different with a wolf, coyote, or any other relatively brittle animal, but bears were tough, unbelievably so. Liam wasn’t sure any of his blows could actually damage the creature meaningfully enough to take it down.

’Attacking the body is probably pointless,’ Liam calculated, obviously not backing down. He was educated in the human ways now, but hunting animals was where his experience truly lay.

There was no need for anything fancy or for a break from the self-imposed limits. Liam could just bash the bear’s head until it broke.

Still, since the chance had presented itself, Liam could also try something else. There was another advantage to facing animals. They were predictable.

As expected, the bear eventually had enough of Liam’s motionless stance. It probably couldn’t remain calm with something so threatening sharing its space, so it charged ahead, galloping through the floor.

Liam remained wary of movement abilities. He had already almost lost his skull like that, but the level two bear didn’t seem to have any. It merely crossed the area at high speed, lunging its paws forward once Liam was in range.

In those six months, Liam had polished his senses for battle, perceiving more, especially regarding that specific field. He could have dodged the incoming paws before the bear even started swinging them at his torso, putting himself several steps ahead of his opponent.

Yet, Liam didn’t move, instead closing his eyes to experience more of the pressure falling on him. He had already seen those kinds of attacks. He had even watched it start, so he knew exactly the amount of strength used, its size, and where it would hit.

Liam also had the experience to understand what it would take to counter such an attack now.

Waves of impossibly thin, formless energy left Liam’s figure, concentric, resonating with each other to create a specific, powerful, joint event.

Those heavy, clawed paws had the full power of a level two magical beast being them. Their weight was unfathomable, but they actually slowed down instead of accelerating.

It was as if an invisible barrier stood between the paws and Liam’s figure. It wasn’t enough to stop them, but they lost power while piercing it.

Eventually, the paws landed on Liam’s shoulders, only to achieve nothing at all. Even the sharp claws that touched him didn’t pierce his skin, as if they had no propulsion left.

’By chaining a series of precise releases of Qi,’ Liam chanted his Master’s teachings in his mind, ’You can achieve the opposite energy signature necessary to disperse the power of any attack.’

The battle training and sharpening of senses had a second-order effect, a higher goal Liam had finally started walking toward. The third layer of Qi mastery, that impossible feat of applying the flexibility required by the alchemical flame to battle, had been his great Master’s last lesson, and he was finally making progress in it.

The bear wasn’t as smart as the audience. It couldn’t fall prey to confusion before that shocking event. It immediately tried to apply strength to its paws, but Liam had already moved.

With a sharp half-step and half-turn, Liam dived between the paws, his elbow raising, his hand pressing on his fist, hitting the bear straight on the nose.

Liam felt the blowback as deeply as his shoulder. His body held strong, but having such a direct taste of the bear’s tough skull sent a painful tremor from his elbow down to his very waist.

However, the bear also gave up any idea of a follow-up. Blood spurted from its nose as it spread its arms and rolled to the floor, ultimately jumping away and staring daggers at Liam.

Animals might not be intelligent, not always, but they definitely weren’t stupid. They perceived the world through different rules, and there was one the bear couldn’t ignore.

Liam was scary. His presence was heavy and terrifying, speaking directly to the bear’s survival instincts. That was partially why it had been in such a hurry to attack. Fear had sent it in a frenzy.

However, the blow had slammed some sense into the bear. As big as it was, Liam looked far greater through the eyes of a fellow predator, which would normally mean escape.

And yet, the bear had already taken in the environment earlier. There was no way out, so it held its position, watchful of whatever the creature stuck with it would do.

Liam smelled that reasoning in the bear’s stance. It seemed beasts understood each other quite easily. He would have preferred his opponent to continue attacking, but he could still force it into that pattern so that his training could continue.

Nevertheless, an explosion unfolded near the area’s tall ceiling. One of the sealed caves blew open, and the world froze. Time stopped flowing to pay homage to the boundlessness that had decided to show its presence.

That was Liam’s first time sensing such a greater existence as a rooting expert. The rooting stage saw the world as frail, the branching stage was unshackled by the world’s limits, but the leafing stage felt like the world itself.

And that world was now raging.

"Enough!" A deafening voice came from above, almost making Liam faint. His eardrums shook, an earthquake ran through his mind, fogging his awareness, and the whole area fell prey to a similar trend.

Cracks opened everywhere. Some caves collapsed. A few plateaus crumbled, joining the landslide of rocks and debris falling over the shattering floor.

Liam had seen the apocalypse unfold when branching experts fought, but the world was now collapsing due to a mere word, only to come to a complete standstill at the following order.

"Use this!" The voice from above resounded again, so overbearing that the underground area stopped shaking. Not even dust dared to fall anymore.

Liam had half crouched down to endure the tremors through his spinning mind. Yet, his awareness recovered quickly, showing him the mess that had become of the floor. There were boulders everywhere, with nothing even remotely flat or intact anymore.

Still, the huge item stabbed right in front of Liam ended up claiming his attention. It was a towering chunk of metal with one edge that barely seemed to carry any sharpness.

For some reason, a greatsword had joined the fray.

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