Legacy of Hatred

When Liam woke up, his surroundings were unfamiliar.

It was still night, but Liam’s surroundings were darker than they should be. He was in a giant hole at least fifty meters deep and wide, nothing but compressed and badly flattened soil under his feet and around him.

Liam only saw the night sky beyond the hole, but noises and scents updated him on his location. He was in a forest on some elevation since one of the pit’s edges was taller than the other, suggesting that he hadn’t left the mountain chain.

There was something else with Liam down the hole. The silver greatsword was stabbed a few meters from him, ready to be lifted.

As if matching Liam’s awakening, a boundless presence that seemed to carry the secrets of the world descended over the area, filling the enormous hole and going far beyond it.

Two shapes soon fell into the hole, crashing in different spots at some distance from Liam. When the dust settled, he could clearly see a level two bear and a level two cougar about two meters tall, its brownish fur darkened by the soil.

"Kill them," A calm yet deafening order resounded from above. The Demoness was standing on the giant hole’s edge, the dark abyss that was her eyes shaking in expectation.

The two magical beasts had been awake the whole time, and the tall fall had been powerless against their sturdy bodies. The boundless weight pressing on them had frozen their functions, turning them into a trembling mess, but the order had stirred them into action.

Despite belonging to different species, the bear and cougar charged forward, converging on Liam. There was no real teamwork. Theirs was just a frenzied rush toward the outlier in the hole, but it remained two against one.

Still, the shock had waned by then. The development might have been sudden, giving Liam no time to think it through, but his brain had caught up anyway, leading to some annoyance.

Leafing expert or not, Liam wouldn’t be pushed around. He wasn’t that man anymore.

’Enough,’ Liam thought, inhaling deeply.

Thick, pitch-black fumes blew over the hole, soon taking over the entirety of that enormous cavity, rising once they ran out of space.

A lake of deadly darkness had covered the giant hole, and its level kept rising without losing any of its density.

At eighty-one minor roots, the Poisonous Breath basically was Liam’s strongest rank 2 technique, at least when excluding the Primal Urge.

For once, the Poisonous Breath was a martial art specific to Liam’s core, making it a spell. That sub-category had stronger effects and lower Qi consumption due to the synergy with a dantian’s nature.

On top of that, the Poisonous Breath perfectly matched Liam’s unique advantages. The gas’ quantity depended on the amount of Qi he used, while its deadliness came from his core’s affinity to poison.

In both regards, Liam was literally unmatched.

Before the lake of pitch-black gas could even consider starting to disperse, tendrils of smoke near the wall blew upward due to the figure rising through the hole.

The hole was too tall to cross in a single jump, so Liam got as high as possible with his leap before stabbing his hand into its surface, creating a handhold to propel himself upward again.

The second leap did the job. Liam landed on flat ground at the hole’s edge, right next to the fearsome Demoness. She had watched his every move without hindering him, her far superior cultivation stage allowing her to see through the thick blackness below.

There was only death in the hole now. Both level two magical beasts had died before even getting a chance to reach Liam.

Standing next to something so immense tried to make Liam’s very bones shake. It was an inferiority as deep as his standing in the world, down to his sheer species as a living being, but that didn’t stop him from acting like his great Master had taught him.

Despite the primal terror, Liam stood straight and matched the Demoness’ gaze, pristine resolve in his feral face as he stabbed the silver greatsword on the ground. He had carried it with him, its weight not hindering his jumps at all.

"Senior, I’m truly, deeply honored that you have shown interest in me," Liam said, bowing politely, "But I’ve vowed this life to alchemy."

Liam didn’t wait for the Demoness’ response. He turned to walk away, gazing at the dark horizon and the forest stretching down the mountain slope.

"If I die and come back as a ghost," Liam added, "You’ll have a chance to teach me Sword Qi."

That was nothing but the truth, one that Liam said without hesitation. Even in the presence of a mighty leafing expert, his stance on life wouldn’t falter.

Yet, before Liam could go any further, a big hand landed on the top of his head, halting his steps and freezing him for the most part. The Demoness was now at his side, turning his face so that he could see her crazy, broad grin.

"Who said anything about measly Sword Qi?" The Demoness scoffed, her free hand rising toward her back.

The gesture looked like nothing special, but Liam still couldn’t take his eyes off of it. Even the most basic actions in the world reeked of peerless magnificence when a leafing expert performed them.

The Demoness grabbed the long, black handle poking from her shoulder, lifting her greatsword high above her, bringing it down without removing its blood-red cloth.

That wasn’t even a proper swing. There was no technique involved. It almost seemed that the Demoness was only letting her greatsword fall by virtue of gravity, but the world disagreed once its cloaked tip touched the ground.

There were natural catastrophes that defied human understanding. Volcanoes could erupt, massive sandstorms could blow, and tsunamis could rise. Liam had only read about those, but he felt that they all paled before what followed.

It was impossible to see through the chaos that unfolded. Nothing touched Liam, the Demoness’ existence acting as a barrier, but that didn’t stop his perception, and there was no way to deny what landed on his vision once the dust settled.

The Demoness and Liam were indeed in a part of the mountain chain. It was unclear where exactly, but that honestly couldn’t matter. It definitely didn’t matter to the Demoness’ attack.

Liam had only caught a glance of the environment, but he had always been good at memorizing that stuff. Yet, the slope was no more. That side of the mountain had disappeared, leaving Liam on the verge of a massive cavity.

The barren environment beyond was no more, either, the vast cavity having replaced it, seemingly stretching as far as the horizon.

The border now had a massive canyon, one big enough to force maps to be redrawn since the mountain chain had gained a competitor for the area’s largest habitat.

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