Legacy of Hatred

Truth be told, Liam didn’t want to remain stuck fighting branching experts.

After killing Priest Fred and Priest Blake, Liam had more than pulled his weight, especially as a rooting expert. Ideally, he would slaughter the Church’s underlings to create more variables that his side could exploit.

That project had also proceeded smoothly. With the Master’s Pride and all the heads Liam had hit, the Church’s forces had to have lost close to a quarter of their troops.

The formation could probably work with the dark pillars alone, but removing its occupants had to have some effect. Everyone would have teleported to the area otherwise, so the strategy had to have some validity.

Yet, it seemed that Liam couldn’t focus on jobs more suitable to his stage anymore, and the interruption couldn’t have come from a worse opponent.

’How big is the gap here?’ Liam wondered.

In theory, the split within those higher cultivation stages was due to their length. The power differences they could feature were so vast that they had demanded additional names to identify them.

Nevertheless, those titles were relatively arbitrary. They didn’t involve transformative power boosts like the breakthrough, and the math was quite iffy.

For example, Grace, with her talent of five spiritual roots, would enter the mid-stage at forty-two branches.

Instead, Liam needed to grow a thousand branches to reach the stage’s peak, meaning he would enter the mid-stage at three hundred and thirty-four of them.

That was close to eight times Grace’s requirements. She would actually be a peak-stage branching expert before Liam was halfway done with his low-stage, suggesting the sheer unreliability of those artificial dividers.

However, cultivators didn’t just gain more Qi while developing their roots and branches. Their very status as living beings changed as they grew closer to the superior stages, earning them relatively significant power boosts.

That was why it took more time and nutrients to develop a cultivation the closer it was to the stage’s peak. It had happened with Grace, and Liam was experiencing that now. He would have become a branching expert months ago otherwise.

So, having more roots or branches didn’t necessarily imply being stronger since those very roots and branches could have different requirements. The cultivation’s advancement as a whole had to be taken into consideration since numbers had different meanings depending on the cultivator’s talent.

Of course, Liam was an exception among exceptions, but that had little meaning against his current opponent. After all, no matter how he studied the issue, his senses gave a clear answer. Inquisitor Cornelius was way beyond him.

"I can’t really distinguish between friend or foe," Liam warned. "So be careful."

The opponent’s level didn’t matter. How impossible a battle was couldn’t stop Liam, either. Now that the hindrance had appeared, he had to remove it, and it was too steep for him even to consider holding anything back.

Multiple thundering noises resounded, charred ground exploding alongside them. Liam managed to unleash the Lightning Step seven times in a row before reaching his opponent, but that incredible speed had little meaning in the Inquisitor’s eyes.

The Inquisitor saw Liam coming as clear as day. He watched him swing that huge mass of metal while adding his momentum to it, wanting their fusion to culminate in a devastating downward slash.

The ground broke near the swing’s last phase. The sheer pressure condensed into that simple but heavy blow caused effects similar to a branching expert’s spell, but it just couldn’t scare the Inquisitor.

Naturally, Liam knew that as well. In a way, he was the world’s leading expert in fighting branching experts in the rooting stage.

As Liam’s greatsword was about to enter the range of the Inquisitor’s arms, warning signals flared in the latter’s perception. There was something else coming for the fanged powerhouse, and it would arrive before the giant weapon had a chance to hit.

Jessica had fallen prey to that very strategy, but Inquisitor Cornelius lived at a slightly faster pace than her.

The ground under the Inquisitor’s feet exploded, except from where he was standing, his figure protecting it. The clash didn’t lead to any specific sounds, and Liam almost cursed at the scene that unfolded in his view.

The Inquisitor had half-turned, his left arm stretched behind him, a short but blinding golden sword growing from two of his fingers, blocking the fan that had tried to take him by surprise.

Instead, the Inquisitor’s right arm was above his head, his hand clinging to the hulking piece of metal, having stopped the slash without needing additional techniques.

’That’s with a body-enhancing pill and one of the best Lightning Steps I can muster,’ Liam thought, pushing his weapon down with all the strength he wielded, only for the Inquisitor’s hand not to budge.

Losing in a physical contest in his physically empowered state was a first for Liam. He had managed to overpower even level three magical beasts, but the Inquisitor had actually stopped him, and for a simple reason. He was like him.

Of course, Liam could have gone faster, using the Defying Stomp instead. He had opted for the Lightning Step to exploit the fan’s surprise effect, but the strategy had failed.

At least, that was what a swordsman would say, which Liam wasn’t. One of the reasons he had decided to stick with such a heavy weapon showed its value.

The Inquisitor looked at his right hand before a drop of blood flowed down his palm. Liam had actually pierced his superior Qi’s innate defenses with nothing but a heavy chunk of metal and some speed, but it was the tensing of his muscles that truly claimed his attention.

"How are you not broken after exerting so much strength?" The Inquisitor questioned. "What are you hiding?"

Liam didn’t answer. He just kept up the pressure, waiting. His venom was on the greatsword’s edge, but there was something else at work, too.

The Inquisitor’s gaze eventually flickered. His raised hand began to shake as wisps of the Qi around his body turned black or disappeared, weakening him.

It was at that point that the temperature increased sharply, accompanied by Red Boar’s annoyed cry. "I’ll die before a rooting expert tells me to be careful!"

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