Legacy of Hatred-Chapter 183: Conundrum

For once, Liam was the one to exude a solemnity capable of taking over the entire area.

The Alchemy Elder obviously didn’t miss that, and his grumpiness took the backseat. As angry as he was, he could only imagine what his disciple had gone through until now.

After all, for someone as genuine as Liam, keeping that secret must have felt like torture, especially from his Master.

Also, there was some praiseworthiness to the whole matter. Liam could be weak, clueless, and foolish, but his heart was in the right place. His loyalty was so admirable that the Elder might almost forget his anger, with almost being the key word.

"Stand up and don’t look so pathetic," The Alchemy Elder snorted, his grumpiness taking control. "Now that I know that you can endure more, I’ll work you like a horse. You’ll have plenty of time to look pathetic after my new training sessions."

Liam didn’t really know what horses had to do with anything, but his mind was too full of drive to dwell on that confusing point. He complied, standing up and taking a puff from the basically-empty pipe, his resolute eyes fixed on his Master.

There, the Elder saw a dangerous glint. Liam’s black eyes boiled with bottomless, feral determination that bordered on craziness. He was a man ready for war, and the Elder should stop him, or at least pull the brakes of sanity.

Except the Elder didn’t say anything. There was danger in that crazy drive, but the truth was that Liam needed at the very least that to hope to survive what could come for him.

After all, if the legends were to be believed, Liam was the Dragon King’s promised enemy, and the mere idea of overcoming that rule needed all the insanity he could summon.

"You need to study more," The Alchemy Elder declared, "Far more. You must familiarize yourself with enough recipes that devising new ones won’t take countless, wasteful attempts."

"So," Liam muttered, "Lists of ingredients."

"Correct," The Elder confirmed. "I’ll guide you, but it’s paramount that you understand for yourself. You must be able to replicate it on your own."

The implications were obvious, and the Elder had already hinted at them. Liam had even considered them already. Chances were the issue would repeat itself at each bottleneck, so Liam needed a reliable method rather than a single miracle.

"Also," The Elder continued, lifting his cane at Liam’s face again, "Don’t focus solely on poison anymore. You need to get far better at general alchemy so that difficult concoctions won’t be so demanding anymore."

Liam nodded. He already had a plan for that, one he had discussed with his Master before attempting the breakthrough, but that gained new meaning after the experience.

Concocting the Boar’s Touch had left Liam mentally drained, and skill could ease that burden. He needed that if he had to add a whole rank 2 ingredient to the recipe.

’Mastering the healing pills will award general experience quickly,’ Liam calculated. ’It will waste more resources but will also fix my biggest weakness, making me better at everything else.’

It would be expensive, probably demanding months of training and most, if not all, of what the cave still contained, but Liam saw it as a necessary investment. He had no other option anyway.

Besides, there was a silver lining to the expensive strategy. Since Liam would work on side-projects just to improve, he could add what Melissa needed for the breakthrough to the list.

The idea actually sounded natural to Liam now. As shy as that made him feel, Melissa belonged to him. She was his, so he had to take care of and provide for her rather than just protecting her.

That was an instinct Liam didn’t need to ponder over to accept.

"The problem is the rank 2 ingredient," The Elder muttered, lowering his cane to start pacing around. "Even with a high-grade circulation technique, your Qi remains unsuitable to process it on its own, let alone inside a whole recipe."

"Master, can’t I compensate with quantity?" Liam questioned, choosing his next words carefully. "Since I have more Qi than others."

"A rooting expert Qi isn’t something that quantity can match," The Elder said, shaking his head. "But if it’s just about one ingredient, there are ways, especially with that affinity of yours."

The Elder turned, inspecting Liam from head to toe, seemingly calculating something.

"Yours is more than affinity, disciple," The Elder revealed. "It’s an unnatural compulsion. You can probably turn anything into a toxic substance. The issue is whether it will be suitable for the recipe."

What had once surprised the Elder, even being the deciding factor in his decision to give Liam lessons, now felt obvious. The ancestral bloodlines existed beyond the realm of the Heavens, so they could twist the latter’s creations in ways that could only be described as unnatural.

"Of course," The Elder continued, "You’d still have to do that while performing a concoction. No matter how vast your foundation is, you don’t have enough Qi for both."

Solutions for that existed. Elixirs and Qi-storage pills could refill Liam’s reserves, but they weren’t quick enough for a concoction’s variables. He even frowned at the painful pounding that his headache sent as he considered the issue, only for the cane to hit his head.

"Fool, don’t waste time searching for solutions you lack the knowledge to devise," The Elder snorted. "This alchemical conundrum is for Horace Rauret to solve. You only have to rest, master the technique, and improve."

Liam was indeed out of his depths. He couldn’t expect to create a new alchemical frontier as a mere apprentice, but that schedule just wasn’t enough for him anymore.

"Master, more," Liam said, suppressing the painful groan his headache tried to trigger. "I can endure more, right? Master, push me more."

Liam should truly rest. Failing a breakthrough was no small matter, especially in such a nasty way. He might have the sturdiest foundation in the world, but abusing it would only lead to chronic weakness.

Yet, the Elder saw some of himself in his disciple’s crazy drive. Nothing extraordinary could be achieved through ordinary methods anyway, and uncovering Liam’s secret made the Elder wonder whether he should fan the flames of that recklessness to see exactly how tall they could grow.

"Disciple, start with the ingredients," The Elder ordered. "I don’t care if you fall asleep on tomes. I want a hundred ingredients and their matches memorized by the time you are healed."