Legacy of Hatred

The odd sight couldn’t interrupt Liam’s swing. He was too committed to it, and he wouldn’t bother attempting to halt it anyway.

Nevertheless, Julian was no average rooting expert, and there was more to that fur than met the eye.

Liam felt it through the greatsword. What should have been mere flesh and bones turned out to be far more resilient than he had ever predicted.

Through the weapon’s weight and Liam’s strength, the swing was nothing short of a rank 3 technique, one that even Jessica had failed to stop. Julian should have been cleaved in two instantly, crushed completely, but that unexpected resilience delayed his death by a tiny amount, enough for his life-saving measures to activate.

Julian’s figure glowed red as his skin caved in and dried up, his body paying the price for that attempt to save his life. Blood spilled right afterward. Bones cracked, but Julian remained in one piece as the slash sent him flying down.

There was no attempt to soften the landing. Julian hit the ground violently, the barren surface cracking and bursting open, lifting dust that clouded the scene.

The defensive formation had already begun to move. The various magical items cut through the cloud to encircle their owner, not needing any direct control to switch to that protective stance.

Of course, all that was possible because Liam hadn’t pressed the attack. He had the initiative after all and would always move faster than Julian. Something capable of making him stop for a second had simply appeared.

Also, the battle was over.

The magical items’ hurried flight dispersed the cloud, revealing Julian’s sorry state. He was in a crater of his own creation, his figure more bones than flesh, his right arm and everything below the waist broken, oddly bent or too crushed to muster a solid shape.

A red halo kept enveloping Julian, but his injuries were too serious for that technique to affect them. He could only cling to life, blood flowing out of his mouth as he lay powerlessly in the crater.

Still, there was something else. Liam’s swing had ripped the white mantle to shreds, exposing what it had once covered, only for the sight to make no sense.

Julian had regrown his left arm, which was far from impossible in the cultivation world. Liam had done so himself, and that without the Church’s support.

However, the new arm wasn’t human. Mismatching fur covered it, and its hand was straight-up horrid. It had eight fingers, some thick and dark as if belonging to a monkey, others with nails that resembled hooves. A few were even strangely short, ending in thin talons or thick claws.

Liam knew what that was. He had seen it in the Mutated Battlefield and understood the theory behind it, seeing it as clear as day in that horrid arm. That was the Church’s human experiments on the creation of the eighth ancestral bloodline.

The lack of surprise gave Liam away, as confirmed by Julian’s following words. "The Church was right to worry. You have learned about it."

Despite the poor state, weak, cracking voice, and generally being at death’s door, Julian sounded confident, even slightly arrogant.

"Master William, do you know what you have done?" Julian snickered, the blood gushing from his mouth failing to hide his mockery. "You have doomed anyone who is even slightly at risk of having heard about this."

’Is the Church even including the Guilds in that?’ Liam gasped internally, knowing where that guess led.

Liam could understand the Church killing him for having learned about its secret. Honestly, it didn’t need that grave justification to pursue the matter.

Including Grace and other unaffiliated cultivators in that was also understandable, but the Guilds were true servants of the Kingdom, the enforcers of its many activities.

Branching experts weren’t the peak of the cultivation world, but they were hardly disposable. They were true powerhouses, and the meeting had featured five of those from the Guilds, but Julian had made it sound as if the Church would go after them, too.

As strange and mysterious as the Church was as a force, messing with the Guilds on such a mass scale couldn’t fall within its authority. That had to come from someone else, and Liam knew who. There was only one power in the Kingdom who could authorize such a thing.

’Does the Dragon King see keeping the Church’s secret as more important than the Guilds’ leaders?’ Liam wondered. ’Is the Church more valuable than the Guilds in the Dragon King’s eyes?’

Archbishop Ignatius had told Liam that the King saw the other ancestral bloodlines as impurities in his perfect kingdom, so it could make sense for him to prioritize the Church’s work. Liam just hadn’t expected him to go that far.

’Does he not care unless his lineage is involved?’ Liam thought. ’Does he see anyone without the Dragon’s bloodline as worthless?’

"Did you get it?" Julian mocked again, having spotted Liam’s realization on his face. "Do you know how long it has been since the last purge? Can you guess what will happen if you try to resist it?"

Despite Liam’s lineage still being a secret, he had triggered one of the events that might lead to his greatest fear. If the Church failed to enact the so-called purge, a Dragon might very well appear to finish the job.

At once, Liam knew that he had to leave. It didn’t matter where. He just had to make the entire world lose track of him, change his name, and even get a new face if possible. However, the trap had already been set.

Liam smelled it before feeling it. An oppressive aura descended over the area, and Julian’s sorry figure began to glow golden. His bones started to set as his injuries healed, but Liam looked elsewhere.

A bald figure had appeared in the sky, flying on top of a white sword, calmly reaching the area but stopping at some distance from Liam.

"Priest Fred, I apologize," Julian greeted, politely lowering his head as best as his poor condition allowed. "I couldn’t help myself but greet my old teammate before the agreed-upon time."

Julian snickered again, seemingly falling prey to a slight mental instability. Whatever the Church had done to him, it wasn’t harmless, but Liam only had eyes for the branching expert, and the latter shared his mindset.

"Master Black Qi," Priest Fred called, "If you come willingly, the Church will offer you and your Dao partner a place in the Dragon Kingdom once the investigation is over."

Clearly, the Church wanted to use Liam as it had done with Julian, and for good reason. He had more than proven his alchemical prowess in the past week.

Yet, the offer also revealed something else.

"You aren’t confident your purge will go smoothly," Liam exclaimed.

"You overestimate yourself," Priest Fred responded. "The Church simply doesn’t condone senseless waste of life, but your only options are to serve or die."

That wasn’t true. After all, Liam knew what an investigation could reveal, and there was an alternative.

"I think I’ll just kill you all," Liam declared.

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