After the transcription was complete, Liam also gained access to the full picture, which helped reinterpret the martial art in his own way, especially once he began testing it.

The rank 2 Aura was indeed a mental or spiritual attack, but there were layers to it. At its most basic, the technique merely enhanced a cultivator’s presence, adding specific weight to what he could naturally release.

Just like Liam’s killing intent had frozen the bystanders in the market, the martial art could push similar effects further.

Naturally, experts at the same level could resist that pressure, even if enhanced. The technique’s effects on large groups of people, especially peers, sounded limited.

Yet, that could change through mastery. Liam had seen his Master affect a branching expert’s attacks through Qi alone. A martial art that created proper channels for such purposes could definitely achieve stronger effects.

Then there were more advanced applications. Instead of using the technique like a passive, widespread pressure, cultivators could condense it, limiting its range and targets to multiply its power.

The tents provided a modicum of privacy but weren’t suitable training grounds. Liam did learn the martial art, but employing it properly required extensive tests, which he couldn’t perform in the area.

Actually, Liam could, but that would reveal his new asset to his teammates. If it were just up to him, he would consider it, but doing so would also expose Robert, and his firm stance on secrecy was not only reasonable. It also took priority due to their arrangement.

So, after less than a week, the team gathered a few meters from the flowers. The small encampment was no more, and the same went for any exhaustion the previous trial had caused, meaning it was time to advance to the next.

As for the idea of drinking together, Lancelot seemed to have forgotten about it, or rather, he preferred to get to know Liam through actions instead of words, which his occasional burning glances toward his cloaked figure vouched for. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Meanwhile, that temporary delay was merely to reconfirm a detail.

"Master William?" Julian called.

"Nothing," Liam shook his head under the hood. "We have always been the only ones here."

According to the previous assumption, the team should have been following the Church’s trail. However, the hall had no traces of anyone’s passage.

"There might be no order to this inheritance at all," Julian guessed. "It might even create these trials every time challengers arrive."

The five closed doors past the flowers seemed to confirm that point, but the team didn’t dare to make assumptions now. Too much of that inheritance sounded fluid and erratic to make plans.

"The best thing we can do is keep an open mind," Julian concluded. "Expect anything and don’t let appearances fool you."

There was nothing else to say, so the team went for the flowers, this time picking them up simultaneously.

The world transformed again, going from fullness to emptiness, then fullness again, except Liam immediately spotted a difference from the previous two instances.

Liam found himself in a large, dim hall, its pale surfaces illuminating its emptiness. A wooden stand was in front of him, but nothing else.

No unique scents or details Liam’s superhuman senses could capture stood out, either. And, as the seconds passed, the difference he had spotted became a certainty.

’I’m alone,’ Liam accepted. The teleports had always happened immediately, and his team had picked the flowers simultaneously, but he was the only one in the hall.

After a trial that tested a team so thoroughly, even employing tricks to attempt to shatter it, the inheritance had split Liam from his companions. It was as if it mocked them for believing they could find a pattern.

’Isabel has most of the alchemical products,’ Liam thought. ’Will the others be fine?’

The consideration didn’t stop Liam from approaching the basin on top of the stand. He was readier than all his companions when it came to alchemical products, and being alone also meant not having to deal with sharing rewards.

’Trial of Lust,’ Liam read the words on the empty basin. ’Put your heart to the test. Overcome your basic urges.’

As soon as Liam finished reading, intricate symbols appeared on the pale floor, creating a circle, inviting him to step inside. A single flower also grew behind Liam, giving him the option to leave.

’Will Lancelot be fine?’ Liam thought again, his worry more specific now. ’I guess I don’t know if the others are facing the same trial. I hope he isn’t.’

The possibility of the others failing forced Liam to consider another point, which he quickly appeased. Even if he remained alone, he would proceed onward. The sole certainty that the inheritance could award rank 2 martial arts was enough to make him want to seize everything it had.

Yet, Liam stopped in his tracks after a mere step toward the circle of intricate symbols, his eyes under the hood wide.

’Will I be fine?’ Liam gasped internally.

There was a time when Liam would have been utterly confident in the test, albeit not out of trust for his heart’s purity. He had merely been too clueless even to feel carnal urges.

However, things couldn’t be more different now. Liam knew exactly what he wanted and in what intensity. He was so greedy that he struggled to believe it, and being put in front of such a test made his imagination run wilder than ever before.

’I’m in so much trouble,’ Liam acknowledged, but only heaved a sigh as he resumed advancing. Retreat wasn’t an option before the possibility of seizing more strength.

A strange sensation invaded Liam as soon as he stepped inside the circle of inscriptions. An almost unnoticeable energy seeped into him, rising toward his mind, settling there to explore its contents.

Liam’s first instinct was to jump out, but his feet wouldn’t move. His whole body was rigid, stuck in place, while scenes from his memory flashed in his view on their own.

Intimate moments played out, from the walks through the Pale Moon Sect with Melissa to the more private ones. There were simple hugs and caresses, but also kisses, the way she clung to Liam with complete abandon, and how he sought her, always desiring more of her.

The memories were more vivid than usual, as if made real by the foreign energy exploring Liam’s mind. He had to admit he loved those scenes. There was a lot of regret for what he had failed to understand in time, but he still wanted to relive them.

It was the life Liam would have chosen if other goals hadn’t already branded him.

Nevertheless, instead of dwelling on the happiness that had been, Liam heard a hiss rising through his ears, one his own hatred had summoned.

’Stop looking at that,’ Liam ordered, angry. ’That’s only for Melissa and me to see.’

The foreign energy didn’t stop intruding on Liam’s private businesses, digging even deeper, summoning emotions he had felt to add them to the scenes it was playing.

But Liam wasn’t alone in that fight. His mind held a being that even that incredible inheritance had to respect.

A bottomless, all-devouring blackness surged in Liam’s mind as the hiss grew louder. It clashed with the foreign energy, pushing it away, creating an internal struggle.

The foreign energy didn’t like that opposition. Its nature changed, forsaking happy, intimate memories to summon faces connected to them. Liam saw Randall, the three disciples from the Crimson Warrior Sect, and Simon, before something bigger began to take shape in his vision.

However, the hiss spoke human words at that point. ’Scram.’

The blackness won, pushing away the foreign energy. Liam’s vision stabilized, returning to reality, only to see the hall’s illumination blinking between glowing darkness and pale whiteness.

Something had gone terribly wrong, a hunch that the dangerous vibe that invaded the blinking hall confirmed, followed by the appearance of more inscriptions further ahead.

A huge mass of Qi seeped from the new inscriptions, and more followed, generating a vague silhouette out of thin air which grew more detailed with each ounce of energy flowing into it, until a sense of familiarity sparked inside Liam.

From the huge reptilian head and the huge, slithering body, Liam saw the snake from the Divine Cult’s ruins materializing right in front of him.