Chapter 181: Sadistic
There was no passion next. The official beginning of a relationship usually led to fiery tis, but Liam’s condition was far from suitable.
It wasn’t just about the still-ringing headache and sense of weakness. Liam would have easily pushed through them since whatever lissa triggered inside him was far more intense.
The issue was spiritual, emotional. lissa’s acceptance despite the secret didn’t fix things with the Alchemy Elder, and Liam didn’t feel right indulging in happy tis until he faced that.
lissa mistakenly connected that to sadness over the failed breakthrough, but her response remained on point.
Liam didn’t need what lissa’s body could offer now. He required emotional support to know that he wasn’t alone in whatever he was going through.
lissa had to show Liam that she would remain at his side through thick and thin, even when failures made him question his own worth.
So, lissa did just that, simply sitting beside Liam, holding his hand while he blew dark smoke as far away from her.
The interruption eventually arrived. The boulder began to move, and only one person beside Liam could cause that, so his head went down, guilt already taking over him.
lissa didn’t have the ti to do much. She was too dutiful to intrude on a Master-disciple relationship, too. Yet, her own status had changed, so she did the best she could in that short window.
A familiar touch pressed on Liam’s chin, lifting his face so that lissa could show him her timid, reassuring smile, before standing up right afterward.
The embarrassnt was still there, but the official nature of the relationship kept lissa’s departure calm. Instinctively, she wanted to uphold a level of decorum not to bring sha to her man, especially when it ca to his Master.
In a way, due to the nature of the Master-disciple relationship, lissa also had to seek the Alchemy Elder’s approval, so she perford a proper, polite bow before gracefully leaving the cave.
Of course, the Alchemy Elder didn’t care for lissa at all that day. His fury was too great, and seeing the guilt depicted on Liam’s lowered face fueled it beyond reason, but he didn’t let anything leak into his face.
"Master," Liam called once the boulder closed. "Did you consult the Scripture Hall?"
Now, the Elder had a vague plan. Actually, he had two with different purposes. One involved solving Liam’s bottleneck, while the other was about confirming his secret.
The second had to co first since the Elder needed to know all about the issue to hope to solve it, and he had an idea on how to get to the bottom of it. Still, recalling the reason behind Liam’s behavior awakened sadistic traits.
The Elder would still stick to his plan. Yet, nothing stopped him from enjoying the process. He even felt he had earned so payback against his fool of a disciple.
"I did," The Elder confird, sighing and shaking his head in defeat. "But disciple, I must admit, what you made
witness today challenged my life experiences."
Liam stole a glance at his Master’s defeated face before his heart plumted, and his head with it. lissa might be safe as long as she didn’t know, but his secret was actively hurting the Elder instead.
"All my certainties are crumbling," The Elder continued, his tone growing dramatic. "I feel as if I’ve deluded myself, spending my life believing I had looked upon greatness, only to discover that a re reflection tricked ."
"Master, you haven’t!" Liam couldn’t help but shout, having to stuff the pipe in his mouth to shut it, preventing it from saying anything else.
The Elder had to turn to hide his smirk, but his occasional peeks at Liam partially eased his anger, replacing it with a tinge of guilt at the obvious distress his disciple was suffering from.
"Disciple, this is what I want to believe," The Elder voiced another dramatic sigh, switching topic. "In the Inner Circles, my expertise was so grand I could have joined the Dragon Palace had I really wanted to."
Like clockwork, Liam began scratching his right forearm at the ntion of the Dragon, and the Elder didn’t miss that. Yet, that still didn’t prove anything.
"Disciple, truth is," The Elder ntioned, "Your breakthrough should have succeeded. Despite the few records about sothing as rare as nine spiritual roots, I’m still certain that foundation experts only need rank 1 resources."
The hiss began to fill Liam’s ears, worsening his headache, but the Elder didn’t stop speaking.
"Of course," The Elder exclaid, "Things would be different if you had the divine ten spiritual roots that only the Ancestral Beasts’ sons and daughters can possess."
Liam knew that his Master was smart and knowledgeable. If he had already guessed that point, he would probably arrive at the right conclusion on his own.
’Shut up!’ Liam cursed in his mind. ’Master can’t know. No one can.’
The hiss had no murderous drive now. The Ancestral Snake had never cared to hide its bloodline. Liam actually had to beg it to help the last ti since it only resonated with Hatred.
However, Liam knew his Master wasn’t a hindrance in his revenge. He trusted him too much even to consider that.
Instead, the hiss was self-inflicted. It rose because Liam hated himself for keeping such secrets. He despised what sothing he couldn’t control forced him to do, hurting the people he was trying to protect.
Because, as tiny and naive as it was, that was Liam’s only way to protect his Master. As long as he couldn’t connect Liam to the Ancestral Snake, he would have plausible deniability if sothing happened.
"I forgot that you might not know about them," The Elder faked a chuckle, approaching Liam. "Still, you do et all the requirents."
Liam heard the closing footsteps but lowered his head even further, almost curling in a ball as he kept puffing black smoke.
"Your inborn strength is almost superhuman," The Elder added. "Your affinity for poison is incredible. Many of the things that should have killed you only made you stronger."
Liam looked ready to rip the skin off his forearm. His teeth threatened to break the pipe’s bit, but he didn’t speak or move even after his Master stopped in front of him.
"And failing to overco the bottleneck with such a powerful poison," The Elder muttered. "You know, disciple, your affinity even connects you to one of the seven Ancestral Beasts, one with a special enmity toward the Ancestral Dragon."
Liam didn’t dare to look up. Everything his Master had said was right, shockingly so, but he had to remain silent, even if it killed him.
"Everything would make perfect sense," The Elder declared. "So, disciple, do you have sothing to tell ?"
It took the entirety of Liam’s strength, but he eventually grunted a single word. "No."
No one would believe Liam in that situation. There he was, curled into a ball, unable to lift his sha-ridden face. He couldn’t look guiltier. His lie was so evident that even a blind man would hear it in his voice.
But, as it turned out, the Alchemy Elder had other plans.
"Good!" The Elder scoffed, his voice going back to normal. "Never tell anyone, not even your ancestors."
For a second, Liam believed that his ears had lied to him. He blinked, frowning, straightening himself and lifting his head in confusion, only for sothing to slam on his face.
The startling event didn’t prevent Liam from checking what the Elder had thrown at him. He found an old, yellowish, and slightly moldy to in his lap, and browsing its pages led to a sense of familiarity.
’Is this a circulation technique?’ Liam wondered, recognizing so passages. ’Why is it so long and ... deep?’
"That’s a high-grade circulation technique," The Elder revealed without needing questions. "My high-grade circulation technique from my Sect in the Inner Circles."
Liam’s eyes went wide. That wasn’t sothing he should have or that his Master had the authority to give to him. After all, even the Pale Moon Sect made its disciples burn physical records of those techniques.
"Master?" Liam questioned, finally looking at his half-turned Master.
"What?!" The Elder snorted. "If you are to do the impossible, you need at least that much."
Liam’s confusion was so palpable that the Elder put aside his grumpiness and turned to face him properly, looking down at him with the sa chilling gaze that had ignited his desire.
"You need a rank 2 poison for the breakthrough," The Elder stated. "I’m sure of it now, but foundation experts can’t concoct those. No such thod exists in alchemy and beyond."
That speech implied that the Elder was now taking into consideration ten spiritual roots instead of nine, and Liam’s sore mind struggled to adjust to that revolutionary change.
"However!" The Elder continued. "Nothing is absolute in the cultivation world, and alchemy is the perfect art to defy the rules set by the Heavens."
The Elder pointed his cane at Liam’s face now, not as a warning, but as an ambitious promise that his voice echoed.
"A thod doesn’t exist," The Elder repeated. "So, I, Horace Rauret, will create it!"
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