Born in Blood-Chapter 570: Sacrifice

The walls were decorated with drawings and sparse writings. The murals themselves were somewhat hard to understand, but if one mixed and matched all the possible meanings, they would be left with a handful of conclusions.

The first part of the mural depicted an aged figure holding a young girl by the hand.

It gave off an aura of... love?

It was strange.

The young girl’s hand was held warmly by the aged figure, and she had a slight smile on her face.

The aged figure also had a smile... but it seemed forced. Like he was doing it just because the little girl was smiling at him first.

Both the figures had their hearts outlined, and they were connected to each other with a red thread.

’They were related,’ Liam quickly realized.

Above it all was a single word.

Liam’s translator flickered for several seconds before settling to a stop.

The word read:

"Sacrifice."

Liam’s eyes widened.

With that, the grim contents of the mural were easily understandable.

Naxathra had sacrificed a loved one.

Who exactly?

Most likely his own daughter.

Liam looked at the aged figure with strange eyes.

Was the Dreaded a worse person than Liam expected?

He didn’t have such a morbid name for no reason.

Heck, even with all Liam had done, most of his monikers weren’t too dark.

Liam wasn’t delusional.

He knew there were people ten times worse than he could ever be... but to him, it wasn’t a contest on who could be the biggest villain.

It was a contest on who could progress the furthest.

As it was, if he tried to be any more devilish, it would just look forced.

Liam took a step over to the next panel, showcasing the sequel to the first.

Liam hummed to himself.

...It showed an image of the once happy, innocent girl with her throat slit, placed across what seemed like an inscribed platform. Kneeling to her side, Naxathra was holding a fang-shaped blade, crying.

Liam didn’t look down on the Dreaded for shedding tears upon what he’d done. He admired him for having the courage to do it, even if it was painful. freeweɓnovel.cøm

Perhaps it was something only Liam could empathize with.

No... it was the only thing Liam could empathize with.

Besides that, Liam questioned why he had sacrificed his daughter in the first place.

’Was it to gain some insight to his Path?’ Liam thought, a tiny bit amazed. There was a Path so morbid it required sacrifice of kin? ’I wonder what it was... he must have thought it was worth it.’

Directly above the three murals, there were another three panels. However, they were completely blank—stitched with black cotton, with nothing on their surface.

Liam narrowed his eyes.

’You’re telling me I have to earn the right to your background story?’ he inwardly chuckled. ’Fair enough.’

Liam switched his focus to the dark corridor. He could see a thin line on the ground. It was made of a darker material compared to the rest which seemed to split the hallway into two.

Liam could tell where this was going. If he was to step over, something weird was gonna happen. Rather, whatever challenge the Dreaded had prepared for him would begin.

’At least he was considerate enough to give me the choice to start.’

There weren’t really any precautions he needed to take. All of his protective and offensive goodies were ready for use, and he was already in tip-top condition. The Spider Lily was in full bloom, and... wait a minute.

His Path?

Liam’s eyes widened.

There was a change!

A change in his Path!

Liam furrowed his brows.

Why did he not notice until he checked on it himself?

With every other center of power, any drastic change would immediately get noticed. Whether it was his sea of consciousness, core, body, pearl or otherwise.

But his Path hadn’t alerted him of any.

’I noticed almost instantly when the Spider Lily bloomed... or maybe that was because it was the only thing in my Path.’

It probably wasn’t important... but he still wondered why.

’Was I too focused to notice? I hadn’t checked it ever since I made my swords...’

Nevertheless, Liam saved that thought for another time.

His attention went back to the changes, beginning with the most prominent.

The root of the Spider Lily had extended. It pulsed with veiny tendrils that thinned out towards the end. Except, at the very end of this root, a crystalline leaf resembling the sharp tip of a sword had appeared.

It was of a resplendent golden hue, ever so slightly pulsing.

Liam’s eyes widened. It was beautiful. An air of complexity surrounded its intricate, fragile form. In stark contrast to the rest of Liam’s Path, it radiated with beams of Creativity!

It took a second for him to realize how it came to be in his Path.

And when he did, his eyes widened in amazement.

He had spent almost a year inscribing!

Building the Ravenous Heart technique from the ground up drained him of effort, time and blood. It was an amalgamation of everything he had worked towards, through combining his Triumvirate Body, Ashuran strength and blood powers.

Adding the rework of his Dusk Blades and miniature upgrades to his swords, it was no wonder he ended up having a Quality related to innovation.

Heck, now that he thought about it, he really was creative!

...Well, in some ways more than others.

All of his ’creative projects’ were centered around making his enemies hurt as much as possible. The Abyssal Needles, the Parasites, his blades, his techniques. They were all meant to inflict mortal wounds.

That’s why the Creativity in Liam’s Path had such a sharp shape, in addition to being connected with the Spider Lily — which contained Chaos, Blood and tiny traces of Death.

Even still, creativity was creativity.

It didn’t matter in what way, as long as it was unique and ingenious.

’I still can’t use it though,’ Liam thought, a little bummed out. He was curious as to what the Path would enable him to do.

Then, Liam switched his focus to the Spider Lily, eyeing any specific changes.

For one, the vermillion hue was a shade brighter.

The flower also looked like it was making space for another petal. That had a lot to do with eating Gorock and using his blood for nourishment.

Other than that, the minute traces of the Death Quality was still too vague to understand... but it seemed more defined compared to before.

Nevertheless, Liam was satisfied.

He opened his eyes to the real world, and set his gaze to the dark tunnel ahead of him.

With a smile, he set foot over the separating line.