Chapter 568: Arrow

’Only the Primal Urge, the Qi Repulsion, and the Concussive Palm are left,’ Liam thought, a painful ringing still echoing in his brain. ’Though his mind was quite tough.’

The beam that had stunned Caspar had been none other than the rank 2 Aura. That technique was incredible, having decided the outcome of many of Liam’s battles. He had even used it against branching experts, but the blowback had been heavier now.

That didn’t make any sense. Liam’s mind had improved after the breakthrough. The absence of painful pressure from the connection with the fan proved as much, but he had still suffered more than ever before.

Caspar’s incredible mental resilience was the only possible explanation, and confirmation immediately arrived.

Even after the shock of losing an arm, even with Qi and flesh becoming toxic, even with a body that didn’t respond no matter what, Caspar reacted, his very existence switching to autopilot now that death was staring him in the face.

Truth be told, Liam was to blame there. If he hadn’t dwelled on testing time-consuming, non-fatal attacks, he would have retained the initiative, but Caspar’s reaction still surpassed his expectations.

Something around Caspar shook. The Qi that still responded to him suddenly released a high-pitched noise, like a deafening screech capable of affecting the very soul.

The technique didn’t seem to have much range, if any, but Liam was holding Caspar’s shoulder, so it hit him directly.

The same kind of debilitating pain Liam experienced during the breakthrough, when the glass-like representation of his cultivation shuddered, expanded in his mind, taking over his perception, making him flinch and bend forward, squinting his eyes in struggle.

Due to how firm Liam’s cultivation was, he didn’t believe the attack had actually targeted it, and checking it confirmed his hunch. Everything around his dantian was working fine, but the pain he had felt had still been related to his very existence somehow.

If it weren’t for the rank 2 Aura, Liam would have been at a complete loss for ideas. Still, because he was aware that such attacks existed, his recovering mind quickly concocted an explanation.

The nature of Caspar’s core had to do with the mind or a similar element. Laurel probably fell into that category, too, due to how she moved and how wary Uriah was of her.

That unique trait would also explain the centipedes, at least partially. With dantians that affected minds directly, slave collars could be unnecessary since the Red Sandstorm Tribe could tame them.

Of course, the concept of taming magical beasts was extremely foreign to Liam, and he didn’t dwell on it, either. He could look for explanations later. Now, he had far more impending problems to deal with.

Redness clouded Liam’s vision as blood fell from his eyes. Even his mouth felt wet, his nose bleeding, too, but his full attention was on the retreating figure ahead.

Caspar was in a sorry state, but he remained a branching expert. He looked like a block of wood, his Qi keeping his unresponsive body upright, barely enabling his feet to move, his retreat still releasing enough power to push away the pitch-black smoke.

Liam willed it, and his figure advanced, materializing on the melting ground so that he could give chase, relying on his physical superiority, but Caspar was doing more than escaping.

The two-layered infection had limited Caspar’s movements to his feet, but Qi could do much on its own. His energy released high-pitched noises that quickly grew louder, eventually spiking in what sounded like brief explosions.

Liam saw nothing. There was nothing to see, but his skin felt it coming. A certain pressure flew through the air unbelievably fast, its texture similar to the rank 2 Aura.

No matter the danger, the tests had priority. A trembling black membrane enveloped Liam as he kept running, slamming headfirst into the incoming invisible attacks, only for his awareness to shake once more.

The Qi Repulsion was an incredible defensive technique, but it had weaknesses. While it could deflect virtually any attack, Caspar’s beams seemed to travel on a layer it couldn’t affect.

Liam’s Qi and his defensive technique weakened the incoming attacks, but they slipped through nonetheless, causing debilitating dizziness.

Nevertheless, the damage was nowhere near as harsh as earlier. Comparatively, Liam believed his rank 2 Aura to be stronger, but that didn’t make the chase any more enjoyable.

Caspar kept retreating and launching those insidious attacks while Liam pushed through them. Liam was faster than his opponent, especially after putting him in such a terrible state, but the shrinking gap still forced him to endure multiple blows.

More blood fell from Liam’s nose and eyes. He felt his awareness shrinking, his mind getting sluggish. Those attacks were undoubtedly affecting him, but that was training, too, and it culminated in success in a project close to his heart.

Liam was almost upon Caspar, barely a few meters away, when he abruptly stopped, even removing the Qi Repulsion. Caspar kept attacking, but nothing could have prepared him for the following scene.

The invisible attacks converged on Liam, only for the black Qi that enveloped him to crack. The thick energy behaved like glass as it shattered, creating nigh-solid, floating shards.

The first shattering wasn’t the end. More of the black Qi cracked. That unnatural destruction gradually approached Liam as if multiple layers of glass were protecting him, stopping before anything could reach him.

Caspar also stopped, obviously only after creating enough distance. He hadn’t regained control, but his Qi seemed to have finally stopped the spreading of the infection, even if he had to waste over half his reserves for that.

If it weren’t for the fact that Caspar had a duty toward his Tribe, he would have kept running until that deadly blackness was nothing but a distant memory. Still, since he couldn’t, he voiced his shock.

"What was that?" Caspar asked, his Qi replicating what his unresponsive throat couldn’t do.

Liam had half-forgotten about Caspar. He was studying the melting black cracks around him when the question reached his ears. Normally, he wouldn’t entertain such topics with an enemy, but that was training, and giving Caspar time to recover would serve that purpose.

Also, having a verbal confrontation on the topic could give Liam more ideas.

"I got a knack for your attacks’ texture," Liam explained. "So, I filtered my Qi to give it the shape of something that could block them."

That was the third layer of Qi mastery, the battle applications of alchemy’s flexibility. Thanks to the new skin, Liam’s senses had sharpened once more, allowing him to understand the invisible attacks’ nature and devise a counter.

"But it’s a failure," Liam added, scratching his head. "Those mental beams of yours are insidious but structurally weak. One defensive layer should have been enough to stop them."

Caspar couldn’t believe his ears. His beams were a rank 2 spell fueled by superior energy, which Liam had blocked with Qi alone, but he viewed that outstanding achievement as a failure.

"What kind of genius are you?!" Caspar couldn’t help but explain.

"Genius?" Liam repeated, looking at Caspar and tilting his head. "My great Master wouldn’t have needed to be hit even once to create a suitable barrier."

Liam scoffed mockingly. "He can manipulate his Qi to the point where it works as an antidote. Compared to him, what I did barely qualifies as basic alchemy."

That couldn’t be true. Caspar wouldn’t believe it. It was just impossible. Antidotes were supposed to be complex substances tailored to each poison.

While unheard of and deeply shocking, creating a specific but simple barrier with Qi alone was still somewhat within the realm of reason, but a whole antidote just couldn’t be done.

Liam obviously wasn’t looking to convince anyone. He was mostly talking to himself there, and that one-sided conversation continued.

"But," Liam uttered, hovering his hand over the mud his Qi had melted. "Since I can do this much ..."

Liam had never stopped releasing Qi, meaning poison had kept spreading. He was in the middle of a small but expanding toxic swamp, and its fabric boiled, releasing more fumes amidst its frenzied bubbling.

The fumes twisted, spinning on themselves and condensing in the process, as if becoming straight, independent tentacles. The latter eventually merged, the spinning resuming and involving more poison, creating a drill of sorts.

The drill shrank the more it spun and condensed its fumes, becoming thin and straight by the time Liam grabbed it. The item wasn’t exactly solid, but it had a vague resemblance to arrows from a distance.