Legacy of Hatred-Chapter 184: Bloated

Studying was a dull practice. There was no way around it.

As driven as Liam was, memorizing lists of ingredients, their descriptions, and their matches couldn’t be compelling. It was even rather tedious, but he kept at it more than he had ever done in the past, his stance bordering on obsession.

Studying alone couldn’t make Liam a master, but he needed that theoretical foundation so that practice could build proper skills on top of it.

Grooming alchemists wasn’t cheap, and solid knowledge would prevent avoidable mistakes, waste fewer ingredients, and streamline training into a more affordable shape.

Moreover, Liam knew how much he needed that foundation in his case. His unique talent demanded a new alchemical frontier just to hope to fulfill his potential, and those practices were extremely expensive to pursue.

Entire batches of ingredients would go to waste merely to cross options off a vague strategy, each mistake perfecting it until it gained a solid, reliable shape.

Liam had faced that with the Boar’s Touch, but he had to expand it to the entirety of alchemy now, even pushing it beyond the mere modification of an existing recipe. He had to create entirely new ones.

That demanded awareness of trends among ingredients, knowledge about how they interacted with each other, and why. It was about learning the rules of the world and applying them to uncharted territory, checking exactly how much they could be bent.

Naturally, despite preventing some trial and error, the expensive phase still had to happen, and Liam knew he was poorly equipped for it. Both his expertise and stashes were unsuited for a practice that only accomplished alchemists who had prepared accordingly should consider facing.

Liam couldn’t succeed. It was just too soon for him, but that had never been the goal. His Master would guide him this time, compensating for his inexperience, but he had to learn as much as he could nonetheless.

After all, the next bottleneck promised to feature the same hurdle, and Liam didn’t know whether he would have his Master guiding him at that point in his life.

The headache didn’t make the pursuit that only established alchemists had the tools to accomplish easier. Yet, by the second day of rest and obsessive study, Liam fully healed, enabling another, far more compelling practice.

Liam hadn’t spent his recovery only focusing on memorizing ingredients. The high-grade circulation technique was another requirement for the impossible feat, and the return to a healthy, quivering foundation finally gave him the chance to learn it.

In general, circulation techniques weren’t complicated. At least, Liam believed so after comparing his past one to martial arts.

Those techniques were merely a matter of summoning Qi from the foundation and spreading it inside the body, repeating the process until it became an automatic habit.

Nevertheless, there was a huge gap between low and high-grade techniques, which involved every process they consisted of.

The breathing pattern to connect to the Qi that Liam hadn’t used in forever returned, featuring long, specific cycles of deep and short breaths that had to be performed in a precise order.

That obviously wasn’t to connect Liam’s awareness to his core. It worked as a forceful suction, compelling his dantian to release more Qi than it normally would, stressing it and threatening to empty it.

The phase at the chest level also demanded far greater attention. Instead of applying additional mental filters, Liam had to employ a bigger one to refine that more abundant tide of Qi, one suitable enough for its size.

Then, there were the meridians. Liam had to push that more abundant energy through his body, circulating it so that it would be ready to use, but his channels struggled to withstand the higher internal pressure.

Luckily, the experience with the low-grade circulation technique helped clear the high-grade one’s additional challenges to performing it.

Liam was also more of a cultivator than he had ever been before, possessing true experience with Qi manipulation that alchemy had deepened, allowing him to be successful on the dawn of the third day after his failed breakthrough.

’This is ...,’ Liam internally groaned as his eyes opened, ’Uncomfortable.’

More Qi than Liam had ever summoned in a single instance was now circulating through his body, stuffing him to the point of cumbersomeness. He felt bloated, but from somewhere deep inside him that had no tangible shape.

Liam began to stretch, only for the slightest movement to risk releasing his contents. He felt like a container filled to the brim, his faintest gestures generating enough pressure to make him overflow.

The container was also brittle, struggling to withstand the internal pressure on its edges. Liam felt on the verge of bursting, worried that something might puncture his meridians and deflate him.

The high-grade circulation technique had stuffed more energy inside Liam’s body. Still, it hadn’t affected the available space, condensing his Qi to the point where it challenged his meridians’ structural integrity.

Yet, Liam’s meridians held strong, albeit barely. His body was indeed more suited for cultivation. It just wasn’t mature enough to feel comfortable with that higher quantity and density.

If anything, Liam felt that to be his absolute limit, at least as a foundation expert.

The Alchemy Elder’s warning rang true. That state wasn’t something the average foundation expert could endure. Even the so-called divine ten spiritual roots were struggling, but the discomfort receded with each passing second.

Liam’s meridians were slowly growing used to that pressure and inflation, gaining much-needed flexibility, eventually allowing him to stand up without leaking anything.

As more seconds passed while Liam was on his feet, he began to feel the advantage of what filled him. At first, he only tensed his muscles and squeezed his fists, but the new sensation was undeniable.

Liam felt stronger, as if overcharged. He had so much power at his disposal that he worried his mere steps would crack the floor, but drawbacks also became evident.

That denser, more abundant Qi was harder to control. The limited space made for poor maneuverability since Liam had to fight against the internal pressure to release only what he needed and prevent unnecessary energy from bursting outward.

Moreover, Liam’s foundation had used a lot of energy to fill his body like that and needed time to produce more. The high-grade circulation technique had given him access to more of his Qi reserves immediately, but he risked exhausting himself earlier than usual if he wasn’t careful.

Nevertheless, that was exactly the Alchemy Elder’s intention. Instead of waiting to refine Qi for the body to use, Liam now had far more at his disposal right away, enabling him to concoct for far longer without breaks.

’I need to master this,’ Liam concluded, ’Both for alchemy and for battle.’

Liam instinctively glanced at the cracked cauldron still in his cave. The item was useless now, so he slowly approached it, careful not to leak any unnecessary Qi until he could wrap his hand around its edge.

There, Liam tried his best to control it, but using his Qi opened the floodgates, releasing far more than he had planned or needed into his fingers, accompanying his gesture.

Liam squeezed, and the metal screamed, bending before giving in. His fingers pierced the cauldron, digging five holes into the tough surface meant to endure thousands of concoctions.

Still, soreness and wetness accompanied the achievement. Liam pulled his hand out, bringing it under his gaze, not surprised to see that his skin had broken in a few spots that leaked blood.

Just like the Seismic Palm, releasing more Qi than a body could endure would lead to self-inflicted injuries. That danger shouldn’t have existed with the Metal Hand, but Liam had lost control of his energy, exerting enough strength to overcome his flesh’s structural integrity.

Much worse could have happened and could still unfold in the future. Liam risked breaking his fingers again or worse, but he only felt a feral calm at the sight of his bleeding hand.

That power was dangerous, but also superior. Liam could release more energy at once without risking running out right away, enabling attacks and moves that would break ordinary foundation experts who attempted them.

’This is nothing compared to the Primal Urge’s drawbacks,’ Liam thought. ’If I fully synchronize it with my muscles, how much power would I be able to unleash?’

Liam had already guessed that his upper limits were higher compared to his peers, and his new technique could allow him to push them a bit further, using them in ways that would have left his body drained in no time in the past.

’Mastery to push myself to the very limit,’ Liam pondered. ’Mastery to remain at the very edge of what I can exert without breaking. Mastery to break myself if necessary.’

In a way, Liam felt as if he had gained access to a weaker but controllable version of the Primal Urge, and his mind didn’t hesitate to accept self-damaging scenarios as potential trump cards that wouldn’t leave him writhing on the ground.

If Liam could gain an edge from the fact that he didn’t break easily, it only sounded reasonable that he would make the very verge of the critical point as his new normality.

After all, that was what maximizing inborn traits was. Just like wolves had claws and fangs, Liam had his upper limits, and he had to use them to survive and grow so that one day he might reach the top of the food chain.