Legacy of Hatred-Chapter 114: Useless

The first piece of information to stand out was that the Mutated Battlefield wasn’t a battlefield at all. The competition among Sects had turned it into something vaguely worthy of that name, but the place had nothing to do with a past battle or anything similar.

Instead, the Mutated part of that name was perfectly fitting. Apparently, the forbidden zone didn’t feature ordinary wolves, rats, snakes, or bats. The magical beasts there had twisted beyond their species, and that made them valuable.

Just like cultivators, magical beasts developed cores. Liam didn’t know the specifics, but he had read that they were inferior, yet still valuable. The same went for many parts of those creatures since their Qi-enhanced properties made them ideal for inscriptions.

Obviously, the stronger the magical beast, the more valuable it would be, and the same went for its uniqueness. The twisted animals in the Mutated Battlefield were extremely rare, making collecting their parts worthwhile.

Intrinsic value aside, the neighboring Sects had turned that joint hunt into a competition, adding bets to the results. The Elders handled those parts, so disciples like Liam couldn’t know what was at stake, but he believed nothing remotely close to rank 1 items.

As for the competition itself, it consisted of one week of amassing points by collecting magical beasts’ parts, mainly their cores. Level one creatures were worth one point, level two ten, and level three one hundred.

Of course, other magical beasts’ parts also provided points, but their value was decided after the competition was over, and experts could inspect them. They were more cumbersome to carry, too, so most teams prioritized cores.

And that was basically it, except for the fact that the Church of the Man acted as an overseer for some reason, an impartial third-party that moderated the event. Still, Liam was too mentally drained to care about that strange detail at that point, making him put down the green jade.

The carriage had been moving for a while, but a brief peek outside its inscriptions-carrying curtains told Liam that the night was still long. He had truly learned a lot in no time, and he only had the jade to thank, as well as its owner.

"Senior Brother, thank you," Liam said, handing the green jade tablet back to Maxwell. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"Brother Liam, are you sure you learned enough?" Maxwell asked, the tablet disappearing as soon as it fell into his hand. "Tell me what you think."

"I think I’m useless here," Liam admitted, putting an amused smile on Joel’s face.

As always, Liam had been honest, but the issue was also purely mathematical. Level one magical beasts were comparable to foundation experts, while level two creatures were comparable to rooting experts. It basically always made sense to hunt the latter given the team’s composition.

Of course, things weren’t as linear. Strength had different definitions for cultivators and magical beasts. The former mainly expressed that through their arts, while the latter were more physical, although they could also develop abilities.

Even for rooting experts, hunting level two magical beasts was bound to be harder and more time-consuming, but the far higher number of points made that effort worth it.

Basic animal behavior was also a variable. Magical beasts wouldn’t just stand still and let themselves get killed, and chasing weaker ones around could be a waste of time over simply hunting stronger ones.

The packs’ arrangement was another issue. Liam didn’t know how numerous the magical beasts in the Battlefield were, but chances were there might not be enough level one creatures to compensate for their lower value.

So, Liam essentially saw himself as dead weight, someone brought to a mission with requirements he lacked the power to affect in any meaningful way, whose presence was merely an excuse to draw him out of his Sect.

"The other teams will also have foundation experts," Maxwell reminded. "As long as you are more useful than they are, you won’t be useless."

That made sense, but Liam’s stamina was finally giving in, so he drew the long pipe from his robe, browsing through his pouch to retrieve the container with his poisonous powder.

Liam could do without smoking for ten days, but the mission promised to be dangerous, so having his core anywhere besides top condition was unacceptable. He was also bound to tire, and his nutrients were the most reliable fix.

Naturally, Liam had asked his Master’s opinion, leading him to casually light up the pipe with the same Qi-friction technique he used on the logs before blowing black smoke past the carriage’s curtains.

Needless to say, the habit claimed Joel and Maxwell’s attention. Knowledge of Liam’s poison core was limited to the Elders. Most disciples could only guess that his dantian involved alchemy due to his private lessons with the Alchemy Elder.

Still, the black smoke Liam blew from his mouth left little room for doubt. Joel and Maxwell didn’t ask for confirmation, but one thing was clear. Whatever burned in that pipe was dangerous enough to alert rooting experts.

As for Liam, he welcomed the revitalizing sensations spreading through his body while knowing that nothing could save him from sleeping that day. Still, he breathed in from the bit again before voicing one of his doubts.

"Senior Brothers, is everyone truly here to kill me?" Liam asked. He knew the answer already, and he had even decided what to do in response, but he still wanted to hear it.

"They’ll try," Maxwell confirmed. "If not directly, by using the Mutated Battlefield to achieve the same result."

"So," Liam continued, blowing dark smoke again outside the curtains, looking back at the two rooting experts, "Can I kill them all?"

The jade had stated that killing wasn’t allowed. Inter-Sects battles could happen, but taking other disciples’ lives was technically forbidden.

Of course, Liam realized that the rule was a lie. It was the same as with Randall. It was more about optics and not getting caught rather than an actual limitation.

The problem was that Liam didn’t have half measures. He wouldn’t pretend to play nice. He didn’t even know how, and waiting for others to attack him to have an excuse to retaliate was simply dumb.

"If the situation arises," Maxwell exclaimed, "You may."

Liam nodded, emptying the pipe outside the carriage and storing it in his robe. He was about to retreat inside to take a nap when a distant mountain with a concave tip fell into his vision, recognizing it as one of the landmarks he had studied.

’That’s the Half-Moon mountain,’ Liam thought. ’The next Circle is past that point.’

The various Circles the Kingdom was split into had somewhat lost their relevance for Liam since Sects and cultivators didn’t care for them. Only the difference between Outer and Inner Circles mattered to them.

However, that was Liam’s first time heading past the outermost Outer Circle, taking one step closer to the still-distant goal at the center of the Inner Circles.

Liam even recalled how that had been one of his main issues when he was in Krosstoen village, but becoming a cultivator had trivialized it, other than adding dark tunes to the achievement.

Entering a more innermost Circle marked Liam’s progress, and his first actions after that previously unthinkable feat would be to kill people. Actually, for once, he planned to be the one to start that gory endeavor instead of merely reacting to it.