Born in Blood



Liam inspected the naked blade.

It looked terrifying and simultaneously beautiful.

Sort of like Liam's Ashura Form.

Liam didn't put the cart before the horse. 

There was still the matter of inscribing it.

On its own, it was a Rank 2 upper-tier item!

And it was just one blade.

There was one more that he needed to make with the remaining tusks… but it was still a hard-earned success.

A tired smile appeared on Liam's pale, bloodshot face.

In the next instant, drowsiness washed over him like a gentle wave, forcing him to sleep.

A full day of rest later, Liam woke up and resumed his work.

He absorbed blood equal to the size of a small child's fist. 

He let it ravage his mental sphere for hours, since the cook method also worked with blood. 

Now that Liam's ichor was purer, it naturally put a greater pressure on him. 

There wasn't much Liam could do in the meantime besides grit his teeth and enlarge his core and Shadow.

Eventually, Liam began conjuring the meanings. 

'Charge, hold, discharge.'

Liam repeated the same three words over and over in his head. 

The blade had to do exactly that.

Charge his chaos, hold it, then discharge it in one continuous process.

It was difficult.

Very difficult.

But thanks to the width of the blade, Liam could add supporting Links that could pin down his destructive Primordial Essence. 

For charging, Liam imagined a firework rocket being lit, then shooting into the sky.

For holding, Liam imagined a boat being tethered by a heavy anchor.

For discharging, Liam imagined an atom bomb exploding.

With that, Liam carefully began putting down his Links on the vicious looking blade.

With each character written, Liam made several revisions of the entire edifice, checking for any errors he might have made.

Blood-red characters now covered the Dusk Blade, which just so happened to be what Liam named the brutal weapon.

After so much blood, sweat and pain, Liam picked up the Dusk Blade and gripped it in his hand, tightly coiling the black chains around his arm.

It felt just right in his hand.

The chains themselves could extend a full 9 meters, which was more than enough for a long-ranged weapon.

Now that it contained a Beast Will, the Dusk Blade oozed with a threatening aura. 

Everything from tip to hilt – except the blood-made Links on its surface – was a deep, umbral shade of black.

Liam took a deep breath, then heaved.

Chaos churned at the base of the Dusk Blade.

The chains, which were a deep shade of black before, slowly intensified with a bright red glow, transferring from one link to another.

Liam half-expected them to suddenly explode, but as he continued charging it with chaos, the crimson energies ran from the pummel then spread to the writings on the blade.

VVVMMM.

The Dusk Blade buzzed as it surged with violent chaos. 

It was as though the red energies wanted to escape, but the writings kept a loose rein on them.

But those reins were coming loose as Liam continuously supplied the weapon with chaos.

Just as it was about to explode, Liam hurled the Dusk Blade towards the furthest wall.

The chains rattled with a clinking noise as each section collided with the other, before the entire blade pierced through the stone wall.

BOOM!

Stone shrapnel flew in every direction, but failed to cut through Liam's skin or bruise him as it shot past. 

Liam yanked back the chains and inspected the Dusk Blade with the King's Eye.

The writings remained sturdy, and the blade was unscathed.

'Rank 3. Around the middle of the lower-tier,' Liam assessed with a growing smile.

Finally, Liam had made a Rank 3 item!

Whether or not it was something he had originally planned didn't really matter.

Once he dipped his toe into the pool of inventing higher Ranked items, it wouldn't be long before better and improved ideas naturally came to him.

That said… there was still another blade to make.

Liam cursed, sighed, then started from scratch.

///

Liam was done with making yet another Dusk Blade.

It was slightly faster than before, since he had the added experience, but it still swallowed weeks of his time.

It took him a total of 4 months.

Liam practiced a bit with the new weapons.

They were devastating.

With each swing, entire pieces of his spacious triangular accommodation were ripped and chipped. 

It retained both sharpness and durability, and would probably last years even if Liam used them heavily.

After everything was over and done with, Liam left his quarters.

Liam exhaled a heavy breath as soon as he left.

Both his eyes had been tainted by heavy shades of red, but his skin was dangerously pale.

He hadn't left for a long time.

But he still didn't plan to rest.

After all, one month earlier, more Royals had been spotted coming to Ilali. 

By now, most of the Main Lands were aware of a fugitive darkness cultivator in hiding. 

That, and a giant bounty of three million 'Ora' Stones for whoever took his head.

They weren't given a name, but a general description.

Name and appearance could easily be hidden.

But not abilities and personalities.

Liam's bounty had described him well.

'Extremely dangerous, self-serving individual capable of mass murder. Short to average stature. Sword duel-wielder. Has illusionistic abilities. Has one golden eye. Rank 2 cultivator, presumably higher. Soft-spoken, but no words of his can be trusted.'

And that was just the excerpt.

Liam could only curse at the Royals for their annoying persistence.

When the bounty was released, the Ravenous Leash Sect began to organize hunting groups.

There were even talks of Zenith ranked cultivators combing the giant island, but as of now, there was no such thing.

Three million wasn't a small number by any means, and could easily raise a small-sized Sect into a big one.

For that reason, the Elders of the Temple of Shadow had contacted the Patriarch – Unforgiven Shadow.

Liam was a bit on edge on what the man would say.

Despite all the months that he'd spent under the Temple's rule, he didn't even know what Rank he was.

Eventually, his response came.

"Make the necessary preparations."

"Attack larger Sects."

"The Temple will soon claim the Leashes."