The planned gathering point wasn’t directly at the inheritance ground, but it remained in its surroundings.

Getting to the Roaring Thunder Sect had brought Liam and Grace closer to that destination, but the location remained distant. The carriage would take over three weeks to get there, making it Liam’s longest trip yet.

That wasn’t a long time for cultivators, especially rooting experts, but carriages limited the number of possible activities. Still, both Grace and Liam easily kept themselves busy.

Despite loathing it, Grace had resumed cultivating. She occasionally summoned dozens of spirit stones at a time, which quickly turned into dust in her palm as her core devoured their Qi.

Also, Grace had the business to manage. She might have settled things in the previous area, but the new one demanded updated channels, contacts, and more. She had started laying the groundwork in the Sect, and the Guild would help, but things would be far from straightforward.

As for Liam, he smoked freely and without restraints, for the first time without worry, either. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Through the Sect’s ingredients and some tinkering on the recipe, Liam had made enough poisonous powder to last him six months. He didn’t know if the improvements would truly delay its expiry date by that much, or whether it would stop being effective before that, but those problems had no weight in his mind.

Since the Sect had financed those concoctions, Liam had opted for excesses rather than careful arrangements. After all, even if something ended up being wasted, he would incur no loss.

That reasoning had involved more than the poisonous powder. Due to a strange twist of fate, the field Liam was supposed to be worst at now featured the most abundant and complete preparations he had ever possessed.

Anything that involved healing, Qi recovery, or mere exhaustion-soothing filled Liam’s ring in shocking quantities, all in its rank 2 version. He was a walking infirmary of the highest quality, an arrangement he hoped would see him set in that regard for the entirety of the rooting stage.

Of course, the preparations had also involved the new Cloud Pills, as well as something Liam barely had the time to complete, let alone test.

And, aside from smoking, there was something else Liam focused on. He might have completed what he saw as the Qi mastery’s first layer, but there were two more to fulfill still.

’How did they do it?’ Liam explored the reasoning that often afflicted his meditation. ’It’s very easy for me, even instinctive, but it’s nowhere as strong.’

Fiery pictures flashed in Liam’s mind as he dwelled on that reasoning. Both Anastasia and Lancelot could turn their Qi into a dangerous weapon, with the latter almost touching on spells’ power.

There were other examples Liam could choose. Simon had shown great expertise in using his Qi. Maxwell’s mere hands surpassed swords, and even Cecilia’s punches had belonged to that category.

However, except for Cecilia, those examples weren’t specific to the second layer, to expressing more of the core’s nature through the Qi. Also, they featured an even bigger difference.

Anastasia and Lancelot were of the Ancestral Phoenix’s lineage, while Liam was of the Ancestral Snake. In theory, Liam should be able to express his dantian’s nature with the same intensity. Actually, he should be unmatched in that regard.

’It has to come from the ancestral bloodlines,’ Liam thought. ’If not strictly from that, from the high affinity to an element they provide. Even Simon said as much.’

Initially, Liam had believed his weakness in that field came from inexperience and limited cultivation. He had just become a rooting expert, while his main examples were at the stage’s peak.

Yet, that belief had lost any foothold now. Liam’s alchemical skills had improved, and they heavily relied on his ability to manipulate his Qi. He had also mastered the synchrony between his body and that energy.

Moreover, the number of fully developed minor roots had risen to ten. Liam’s growth had slowed down despite the endless time allotted to smoking, but that wasn’t the point.

Liam now stood above the complete cultivation that three spiritual roots could produce. Still, his ability to express his core’s nature hadn’t improved much, definitely not in a way that reflected his growth, meaning he was missing something.

’Mine is unnatural compulsion, not mere affinity,’ Liam recalled his Master’s teachings, drawing a connection that finally led somewhere.

The ancestral bloodlines granted great gifts, but also curses. The two went hand-in-hand, with intensity that deepened alongside the lineage’s thickness.

That was probably why Anastasia could suppress her passion, relatively speaking, but Lancelot allegedly was a constant headache to his Sect. The deeper, the more uncontrollable the curse was, the greater power it could provide.

Liam could even find truth in that reasoning due to his experience with the butcher. He had been unable to stop himself despite remaining completely aware. His curse and source of power were simply different.

’Hatred,’ Liam thought, familiar voices and screams resounding in his ears as soon as his mind summoned one of the worst memories it contained.

The itch flared, but Liam didn’t appease it, turning the auditory hallucination into a faint torture. The hiss didn’t hesitate to join it, but Liam only delved deeper into the Hatred it conveyed.

’Hatred is love’s other face,’ Liam recalled Anastasia’s words. ’A burning love that was ripped away.’

Liam now had more examples of that. He had experienced more loss and understood it better, as well as its unfair reasons.

And the response to that was purely irrational. It didn’t care about getting even. Reason didn’t even attempt to join the equation.

True Hatred had no need for anything. It was a seething force that only knew how to devour everything and everyone. It was bottomlessly intense and dark, not requiring useless justifications or personal lines.

Liam had been hurt, so he would lash out, even if the entire world ended up paying the price, even if he had to drown in that boiling blackness together with everything else.

Such was the power of unreasonable and uncompromising Hatred, for the man who cared for nothing but unleashing that pristine, dark force could destroy everything. The man who wouldn’t hesitate to burn himself could take the whole world with him.

And part of Liam was there, which grew more predominant as he let his Hatred wash over him and make him forget everything but his revenge. The world had to pay. The world would pay, even if existence itself vanished once he was done.

Liam would swallow it all until nothing else was left, not even himself.

"...iam!" A voice reached Liam’s ears, piercing the all-consuming hiss. "William!"

Liam’s eyelids parted, only to immediately snap wide at what his eyes recorded. Tendrils of black Qi occasionally carrying green hues surrounded his figure like an expanding mass of tentacles.

Grey smoke tried to rise from the touched surfaces, which caved in, burned, or melted under the Qi’s corrosive properties, only for the blackness to devour that gas, too.

And, on the opposite side of the carriage, Grace had squeezed herself into a corner, wary of the dark Qi heading toward her.