Chapter 566: Charge

Even if Liam wanted to focus on fighting, he couldn’t with Rachel so close by. Dangerous shockwaves and his deadly Qi would reach her as soon as he resumed performing tests.

That forced Liam to face what he had overheard earlier. Acting skills could deal with facial expressions, demeanor, and vibe, but the body never lied, and Liam was cursed to read it.

Rachel didn’t even try to hide her reaction, the specific scent forcing Liam to take her suggestive tone seriously for once.

"Big Brother, little Sister must find you a more appropriate attire once we return," Rachel exclaimed, her eyes never once leaving Liam’s body. "Father’s would suit you."

Liam had been stared down by the Pale Moon Sect’s leader when he was a measly foundation expert, but Rachel’s inspection felt far more intrusive. She had the same look Grace wore whenever he trained with the sword, just without her iconic elegance, making it quite dirty.

"Though you might actually find them tight," Rachel continued, immersed in her own world.

Liam had to actively hold back from inspecting himself. He and Uriah had roughly the same build after all, but Rachel seemed to disagree, and she sounded quite pleased about that.

"Rachel, I’m training," Liam said sternly. As much as he had agreed to be on Rachel’s side, mentally flagging her as a teammate, he took his training extremely seriously, and he didn’t appreciate the interruption.

Liam had also wanted to put up a strong front that could serve as a rejection of that sexual interest. Yet, he had ended up blurting out a problematic truth in the process.

Caspar had understood that Liam was holding back on purpose. It was also obvious that he wasn’t taking the battle seriously, but hearing that he saw it as mere training made Caspar angrier than he had ever been in his entire life.

It was understandable, really. Caspar had just become a branching expert, only for an opponent to disregard his incredible achievement completely.

The insult cut so deep that Caspar entirely forgot about his Tribe’s predicament. He only cared about making that half-naked expert pay.

’Damnit!’ Liam cursed internally as soon as he sensed danger, the slime under his feet splashing open as they released thundering noises.

Rachel saw a blur before her perception went awry. She recovered only when she was much higher in the sky, spinning uncontrollably while clinging to her spear.

Faint warmth came next, alongside the echo of a pressure that wouldn’t fade, as if it had branded Rachel’s waist. She hadn’t seen it, but her brain had captured the experience.

In less than a fraction of a second, Liam had reached Rachel and had forcefully hurled her away. Sadly, she couldn’t scour her brain for more memories of that strong grip since the scene below had transformed. ℴ

The danger Liam felt came in the shape of another wave of Qi, except the almost inaudible sound it carried was sharp and high-pitched now, managing to shake his mind.

Liam wasn’t the only one affected. Actually, he wasn’t even the target. A normal human probably shouldn’t have heard that noise at all. Instead, the centipedes experienced far more than painful dizziness.

Plenty of magical beasts had resurfaced, but no additional attacks had converged on Liam. The thick energy he released had spoken to their very animal instincts, keeping them away.

The high-pitched noise changed that. The centipedes seemed to go into a frenzy as they charged recklessly at Liam despite the cloud of deadly blackness enveloping him.

That wasn’t even the end.

Caspar had already given up on the centipedes hurting Liam. Chances were they would only aid his recovery since his dantian’s nature seemed to have to do with poison. So, he would sacrifice them.

As countless black bodies with even more legs filled Liam’s vision, threatening to blind him completely, he spotted Caspar drop to one knee and point his hand at him while holding his wrist.

The dangerous sensation returned, just in far greater intensity. Even without that, the amount of Qi Caspar was summoning already told Liam what was coming.

’Rank 3 martial art,’ Liam thought, another curse resounding in his recovering mind, albeit not due to the incoming danger.

With all of Liam’s advantages, he could react faster than any opponent at his level. For once, he had a consistent initiative against branching experts because his immense requirements made him better than any of his peers.

Liam’s arsenal was also pretty much complete. It had no weaknesses to speak of. If anything, it had enough firepower to face even stronger experts, and he planned to expand greatly on that because his goals would definitely put him against such opponents.

The mental attacks were insidious, but Liam had built plenty of tolerance against that pain. He wasn’t sure whether what Caspar was summoning fell into that category, but he was confident he could face it.

Instead, the curse was about Caspar’s Qi reserves. Liam wanted the fight to last a while to test as much as he could, but that wouldn’t be the case if Caspar started to rely on rank 3 techniques.

According to Liam’s math, an ordinary limit for a newly advanced branching expert was around ten rank 3 techniques, and he couldn’t let Caspar waste his first one so soon.

The solution was as simple as Liam’s approach to life. It just shocked Caspar to the core.

Thundering noises resounded in quick succession, but Caspar never stopped summoning Qi. Despite the rage, something told him that he had to hit Liam good, but he could never have predicted what followed.

A human-shaped channel had appeared among the curtain of jumping centipedes. Liam had carved a literal hole through those magical beasts by charging through them, that hindrance causing him no delay.

Many magical beasts were also in pieces, while some had come along for the ride, carried by Liam during his charge. He was basically submerged in pieces of bleeding or moving chitin, creating a layer that made him look twice as big.

And yet, even that added weight couldn’t slow Liam at all. His kick landed on Caspar’s stomach before he could make sense of the situation, sending him flying away.