Legacy of Hatred-Chapter 121: Ring

Liam hadn’t worn his cold, murderous face, but his serious, feral one gave Maxwell the same idea, which wasn’t far from the truth. Liam was indeed inspecting his Brothers as if he were stalking prey. He simply didn’t want to kill them specifically.

Nevertheless, the order snapped Liam out of his inspection, making him descend the leafless tree in a hurry to join his Brothers in the lake.

Still, the sight of the many floating corpses rekindled Liam’s hunter thoughts, other than acting as undeniable proof of his unsuitability for the mission.

Liam had sniped eight level one magical beasts before reaching the lake. Each kill had been isolated and from a favorable position, taking those creatures by surprise every time.

Instead, that wild battle had left around thirteen corpses scattered over the lake, and that only when counting level one magical beasts.

’Eight points against forty-three,’ Liam counted. ’One done across hours, the other in a couple of minutes.’

Even if Liam split those forty-three points between Maxwell and Joel, his inferiority remained glaring. He hadn’t gone all-out, but he had every reason to believe that Maxwell hadn’t, either.

’Alchemy will give me more resources,’ Liam thought, ’But I can’t forget about martial arts, magical weapons, and especially basic Qi mastery.’

That was more of a habit than actual planning. Finding ways to deal with prey was something that Liam had always done in Krosstoen’s mountain. Obtaining clearer data about magical beasts and rooting experts had simply enabled it to its full extent.

Becoming a cultivator had also evolved that habit. Liam wasn’t a mere hunter anymore, and the battle had highlighted his weaknesses and what he should pursue to fix them.

Ways out of the theoretically impossible-to-overcome gap might exist. Liam even had all the right cards to use them. Everything else was a matter of accumulating and mastering them.

Naturally, Liam only dealt with the level one corpses, which were hardly a problem since Maxwell’s sword had beheaded them or carved holes into their skulls.

Liam easily gathered the Qi-leaking spheres from the twisted beasts’ brains and brought them to his Brothers, who had also completed the task by then.

"Fifty-one points isn’t great," Maxwell declared, the beasts’ cores disappearing as soon as they landed in his hands. "Our hunts will pick up the pace tomorrow."

That was more of an order than a statement, but both Liam and Joel understood its reasons. Reaching the swamp area had wasted most of the mission’s first day, leaving only six to amass points.

That wasn’t even the end. The more populated zone provided greater opportunities to earn points, but such intense battles made a lot of noise.

Sounds attacks or not, the other teams might hear or sense those battles. Chances were they were even looking for them since Liam’s group had a target on their backs.

It wouldn’t be easy to balance hunting and avoiding the other teams, especially without falling behind in points. Still, that was Liam’s team’s strategy, which only more battles could make possible.

Maxwell didn’t hesitate to depart after voicing his order, heading toward deeper areas of the swamp zone. Liam and Joel promptly followed, but the latter didn’t forget to address the previous issue.

"Have you seen what rooting experts can do?!" Joel shouted due to his still-ringing ears, patting Liam’s shoulder. "Junior Brother, I know you are brave, but leave the fighting to us!"

Joel’s warning had been out of genuine care. Both with himself and Cecilia, he had seen Liam show a readiness to fight, but he hoped witnessing what rooting experts could do would diminish that suicidal bravery.

And, despite the loud tone, Liam understood what Joel was saying and why. Joel was simply a concerned friend wanting to prepare him for what might follow. Still, he had misunderstood a fundamental point of Liam’s inspection.

’Fighting might be impossible for me,’ Liam agreed, diverting his gaze to try to hide those darker thoughts, ’But killing ...’

Luckily, Joel had bigger things to worry about than to notice Liam’s feral expression. He put himself beside Maxwell, wanting to be ready for anything the swamp might throw at the team, only for that advance to end in a matter of minutes.

The night was upon that red world, and Maxwell didn’t want to test the darkness. That seemed to contradict his plan to leave before the other teams might check the howl’s cause, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Maxwell stopped by a relatively big tree, materializing an inscribed stone tablet in his hand before placing it on the muddy ground beneath the shallow waters and pouring Qi inside it.

Light rumblings immediately unfolded. The ground under the tablet moved, opening to create a perfectly square hole that drew some red water in while keeping most of it away.

The tablet affected something even further underground, which Liam had the chance to inspect after following Maxwell and Joel in the hole. The latter turned out to be a short passage into a small rectangular chamber that had formed in under a minute.

Surprisingly, the muddy ground was still there. It even looked wet, but the chamber’s surfaces were smooth and solid, as if something forced them to be that way.

Maxwell didn’t even stop there. He sent more Qi to the stone tablet he had carried with him, closing the water-leaking passage to isolate that underground chamber completely.

Then, the stone tablet disappeared, replaced by pieces of paper carrying intricate symbols that Maxwell attached to various surfaces. Soon, the air grew fresher, and the environment lost its humidity, even gaining a pale-yellow halo that brought much-needed illumination.

Joel took those events for granted, sitting cross-legged in one of the chamber’s corners to focus on his recovery. Instead, Liam inspected everything without blinking, his surprise and evident curiosity eventually attracting Maxwell’s attention.

"Brother Liam, your ignorance is a mistake only if you let it go unanswered," Maxwell announced. "I am your Senior Brother. It is my duty to answer questions you might have to the best of my ability."

Liam still couldn’t decide whether Maxwell was stern or friendly. His behavior was actually quite confusing, alternating between calm authority and occasional smiles, but Liam’s curiosity was stronger that day. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"Senior Brother, how do you make things appear and disappear?" Liam voiced his main doubt.

"With this," Maxwell said, showing the ring on his right hand’s forefinger. "This is a space-ring. It holds a separate space that I can use to store and retrieve items."

Liam tilted his head in confusion. He had seen talking paper, all-hiding formations, flying words, and more, but that concept escaped what he could conceive.

"See it as a pouch," Maxwell calmly explained. "Small on the outside, but far more spacious on the inside."

"That’s a pouch?" Liam asked, unconvinced.

"Something like that," Maxwell confirmed. "These magical items are quite rare in the Outer Circles, but I believe Brother Liam can understand how priceless they can be to cultivators."

Liam promptly nodded. He had actually considered the issue already. Cultivators were physically strong, but carrying stuff around remained a cumbersome burden.

The problem was even worse for Liam. As an alchemist, he had limited his preparations to what he could fit in his robe and pouch. Still, such an item would remove that issue, even enabling potentially useful activities.

Liam didn’t know how big that ring-pouch was, but his imagination ran wild. The magical item could be a game-changer if he could carry around ingredients and a cauldron, allowing him to perform concoctions even in the middle of missions.

For example, if Liam had his entire cave with him, he could try to make healing pills for Joel to hasten his recovery. His core’s nature made him quite terrible at those, and he hadn’t had much practice, either, but it remained an incredible possibility.

Also, the space-ring provided secrecy that forced opponents to be wary about what it might contain. Liam knew that to be true because he felt in the same way toward Maxwell.

"How big is that pouch?" Liam questioned.

"What if I told you that it’s as big as this chamber?" Maxwell teased, even wearing a friendly smile as soon as Liam’s eyes went wide.

The chamber wasn’t big. It was barely four square meters, but the ability to carry such a storage space around by only wearing a ring was simply incredible.

At once, Liam found something else that he wanted, but the mention of the underground chamber moved his curiosity elsewhere.

"Senior Brother, how did you make this anyway?" Liam asked. "Do you study inscriptions?"

"My expertise lies elsewhere," Maxwell denied, his smile vanishing as he also sat in one of the chamber’s corners. "The inscribed items I used are more popular among lone cultivators, but they remain common. Even our Sect has a vast assortment despite its focus on the Alchemical and Botanical Hall."

Liam never had problems finding resting spots in the wild, but cultivators required more than random branches, especially alchemists. The list of things he wanted increased, but Maxwell closed his eyes to meditate at that point, ending that interrogation.