Born in Blood



Just as Liam threw the needles and stuck his katana into the disciple's spine, he swiped horizontally with his shortsword and formed a nasty gash on the man's neck.

SHING! BOF!

The Umbral Needles exploded into fumes, corroding the other two disciples' Rank 3 bodies like acid. 

It had managed to pierce through their chest, then spread to their faces and marred them beyond recognition.

After Liam's advancement, the Umbral Needles were at the gaseous stage of the second Rank. 

The darkness that oozed from them melted away layers of flesh with ease.

They weren't dead just yet.

Only one was. 

The disciple with the neck wound desperately attempted to scurry away and run, but corrosive chains wrapped around his face and yanked him back.

With another thrust of Liam's sword, a hole formed in the man's heart, killing him.

Liam shifted his attention to the other two.

They had dispelled the wisps of darkness remaining on their figures using their wind and water elements.

Their robes and faces were heavily corroded, and they looked distraught, but pieces of their skin were starting to reform.

To their credit, they managed to fix their bloodshot eyes at Liam and prepare their spells. 

Two mental attacks were shot his way but Corrosive Mind and Thicken brushed them off. They fixed the grip on their swords and assumed a defensive stance.

Liam took slow steps towards them with his blades lowered to his sides. Darkness tightened around his feet, then sprung him forward.

Before they could even think of countering, Liam executed the first form of the Phantom's Way while activating his Dark Wraith body.

'Endless Passage!'

Liam turned into an ethereal, thin streak, while his blades turned into wafer-like black lines.

WHOOSH!

A soft gust of wind blew forth as Liam appeared between them.

SPURT!

Blood sprayed from their jugular veins like water, drenching the leaves below. 

They thumped lifelessly on the ground, leaking bodily liquids.

'I don't understand. They stick their hand into a snake's den and don't expect to be bit.'

Sheathing his blades, Liam moved to their corpses before anyone else arrived.

He took off their rings and put them in his robe pocket, before storing their bodies and putting them into preservation containers. 

'There's something I need to test out. It's disturbing, but if it's true, I've found a way to advance my Chaos Pearl.'

His complexion had become slightly pale after using so many spells at once. 

Shadow Clone paired with the King's Eye was incredibly useful, and his usage of both had gotten better as he practiced by himself. He even gave it swords, albeit weak ones.

Though, he wasn't skilled enough to manipulate the clone's face to replicate emotion, hence why it was expressionless. 

On the other hand, the blades Liam used were the best forged item he managed to make during his time in seclusion. 

After his core advancement, he was finally able to make forged items that reached the Rank 2 middle-tier threshold. 

Blood Weaving only increased its sharpness and potential, but it was thanks to his Primordial Forging that it reached that level.

Liam ventured further into the forest, eventually coming across his first Spirit Beast after two whole hours.

It lived inside a hill cavity – a large cave with an arched entrance veiled by pieces of leaves and vines.

It was a Rank 3 bear-type Spirit Beast with vibrant blue and red fur, gently resting on its nozzle as it slept. Its cubs were there too, of a lower Rank.

It was more than 4 meters in width and height, with dangerous looking claws and a maw bigger than Liam's chest.

Studying it for a few minutes, he realized it was a fire type Spirit Beast… except its aura was blue instead of a fiery orange.

'So they're just variants of what normal magical beasts can do.'

It made him curious.

What about darkness beasts?

Having examined it enough, Liam unsheathed his blades and burst through the entrance, hurling five needles at the beast's mouth, chest and limbs followed by one at each of its cubs.

The cave instantly filled up with black smoke, but Liam purposefully didn't use most of his spells. He wanted to see the Spirit Beast's abilities first.

ROAR!

Enraged and pained, the giant beast burst into blue flames, blowing away Liam's smoke with ease and coating its giant body with burning armor.

The heat radiating from the beast was much hotter than normal, but didn't actually smoke.

Noticing its cubs dead, the bear let out another cry, then fixed its bloodthirsty eyes to Liam who gave it a blank look.

It roared again, then charged with a flaming swipe of its claws.

Liam dodged with ease, yet purposely let some of the flames singe his skin. 

Instantly, he realized how much hotter it was compared to regular flames, leaving a black burn mark on his semi-hardened arms.

Within the next moment, the beast roared and spewed wild flames from its mouth like a dragon.

Liam raised his brows in amazement as he instantly sidestepped. 

'Are all Spirit Beasts like this?' Liam thought.

Although its abilities weren't exactly the strongest, Liam was surprised by how the properties of their element was changed. 

Somehow, their innate fire abilities had managed to sacrifice its destructive properties for more heat. 

Liam questioned how deep those abilities could go.

Changing the core properties of an ability was something Mortal Ranked cultivators couldn't do. 

Presumably, Zenith and Celestial Ranks could do something like that. Even the academy didn't provide much knowledge in those areas.

Still, how a Rank 3 magical beast to have that skill was something Liam was going to study.

Eventually, he had enough of the beast's antics.

Dodging another swipe and ducking under the beast, darkness surged around Liam's fist and compressed. 

BOOM!

The explosion made the beast recoil and blew away his flame-made armor, creating an opening for Liam to thrust his blades through and tear apart the bear from within.

Eventually it lost enough blood and strength for Liam to kill it with one last slash.