Legacy of Hatred

Despite the potential danger, Liam didn’t stop focusing on Grace just yet. He placed another rank 2 healing pill in her mouth, letting her rest her head on his shoulder while he checked her right arm.

Grace’s right arm was covered in blood, but Liam mostly cared about her bones. Nothing was broken, but much was dislocated. The pills would handle that, but Liam could quicken the process.

"I’m going to set your shoulder first," Liam warned, and Grace nodded, biting on his robe.

Liam handled Grace’s shoulder, elbow, wrist, and a few fingers in quick succession, a muffled grunt resounding every time. She was able to move her arm again soon afterward, using it to summon a rank 2 healing pill from her own stash.

Quantity could sort of compensate for quality. Liam had done the same after fighting the fake level three snake. The power gap was wider there, but the couple could use more pills.

As for Grace’s Qi reserves, that would need proper rank 3 Qi Recovery elixirs or Qi-Storage pills, which the couple didn’t have. Liam summoned a few thousand spirit stones for Grace to absorb, but she would have to burn far more to become combat-ready again.

Nevertheless, Liam stood up afterward, letting Grace sit cross-legged among the bed of translucent crystals. With her missing sleeve revealing her bloodied arm, the stains on her face, her disheveled hair, and the marks of battle on her robe, she looked properly devilish, but Liam couldn’t indulge in the scene.

Liam had endured the single step of the Seven Hellish Steps far better. The weaker buildup of his inferior Qi and his pill-enhanced body had only led to some soreness in his left shoulder. Even the greatsword with which he had launched his attack was fine.

Another Qi-Storage pill had also refilled whatever energy Liam had used during the last clash. He was basically in perfect condition, but that might not suffice. Math said it wouldn’t.

Liam retrieved his greatsword, placing it on his shoulder while the fan hovered above his head. He was shielding Grace with his figure, but that had little meaning when four branching experts stood mere meters from him.

Felix, Colleen, Red Boar, and Master Vermillion had decided to show their faces once the battle was over, and their stern faces more than vouched for their multilayered shock.

The rumors had confirmed it. Grace had played a crucial part in the battle, but Liam had still shown part of his power. His ability to face branching experts wasn’t in doubt anymore, especially if rank 3 poisons joined the equation.

The corpse lying behind the couple was another big layer of the audience’s shock. A Priest had died. A branching expert affiliated with the Church of the Man had been killed. A terrible crime had unfolded for everyone to see.

As for the shock’s main layer, it came from the four’s inaction. That matter didn’t have much to do with Master Vermillion, but the other three were Guilds’ representatives, servants of the Kingdom, and they had stood still when members of the Church were under attack.

As for why, the situation and what Liam, Julian, and Priest Fred had revealed were to blame. It was one of the reasons why Liam had engaged in conversations in the first place. By revealing what was happening, he could make the three branching experts hesitate.

As loyal as those representatives could be, they wouldn’t help the side working to dispose of them. Still, Liam needed more than inaction now.

"So?" Liam exclaimed, speaking as if he were stating the obvious. "Are you ready to work together?"

Whatever the Church was doing, Priest Fred probably wasn’t the only branching expert involved. Liam needed a team at that level to escape the purge, especially with cultivators who knew the area.

No replies arrived, not immediately. Looks fell on the Priest’s corpse again before going for Julian’s in the distance. What was left of the horrid, mutated arm added details to what the four had heard, but hesitation remained.

Master Vermillion aside, the three representatives couldn’t decide to become criminals on the spot. However, investigations would reveal that they had learned too much, and it was unclear whether the Church would be merciful after they had failed to help in the previous battle.

Besides, Colleen, Felix, and Red Boar knew how ruthless the Kingdom’s forces could be. They had led similar operations themselves.

As the Chief Enforcer, Felix was about to take the lead in the conversation, but Red Boar ended up stepping forward, crossing his arms, words no one expected him to speak escaping his mouth.

"Master Black Qi," Red Boar called, his seriousness not hiding his politeness. "I’m of the Ancestral Wolf. Did you claim that the Church would kill me?"

’I haven’t smelled anything from him,’ Liam thought, recalling his dream about the battle among Ancestral Beasts. ’Maybe he is just a common descendant.’

"It would harness your lineage," Liam explained. "The Church is trying to create an eighth ancestral bloodline using all but the Dragon’s. The Dragon King is sanctioning it because he doesn’t want other bloodlines to exist but his own."

Liam didn’t care about hiding details now. If anything, the more he revealed, the more compelled the representatives would be to switch sides since they would know too much.

"Did Archbishop Ignatius tell you this?" Red Boar questioned.

"Yes," Liam confirmed. "It’s why he helped my team clear the inheritance faster while getting in the way of the Church. The Church had resorted to messing with its fabric to get through anyway."

"And ..." Red Boar muttered. "What’s this purge?"

"I have no idea," Liam admitted. "But Julian made it sound like they’d rather kill you than risk the secret leaking out."

What had surprised Liam didn’t cause the slightest ripple in the three representatives. Unlike him, they knew how disposable they were in the eyes of the Kingdom.

Nevertheless, the news remained unbelievable. It was a secret at the very foundation of the Kingdom, involving something as untouchable as the ancestral bloodlines. Everything was too much to digest, but Liam didn’t have the privilege of patience there.

"Fellow Daoists, can you tell me if I have to kill some of you like now?" Liam requested. "I’d rather deal with this mess before the mess comes to us."

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