Born in Blood



Since circumstances forced him, Liam now sparred seriously with the Zeniths of the Temple. 

Mostly, it was Ryu, since his muscular body was similar to the Unmoving Mountain's.

At that point, Liam simply stopped hiding his real prowess. He began incorporating his Blood Bonds and Blood attacks into his fighting style. 

And if he said so himself, Liam was doing pretty well against the Berserker Hound. 

There really was no need to hide his true strength anymore.

The Temple Elders had already figured out his corpse devouring 'predicament'. 

Elder Aki and a few others literally brought a Zenith's dead body in front of his temple door and gave him a knowing wink, before making a half-hearted attempt at spying at him from a distance. 

Liam couldn't be annoyed and simply accepted the body, closing the door and letting their imagination fill in the blanks.

Other than that, Liam was still devouring Wild Fang's corpse. Now that his Blood was in the third Rank, it progressed at a snail's pace.

If Liam had to guess, he had to devour at least 20 Rank 5 bodies to reach the fourth Rank…

Or, its Rank 4 equivalent of roughly 250 Rank 4 bodies. 

…Tough luck, really. For someone like him to get that many bodies was pretty much impossible. Rank 5's aside, no Sectors had more than 250 Zeniths in their ranks.

The Seven Clans came close, but their numbers differed. 

Some were strength focused, like the Luminous Light clan, while others like the Cerulean Dragons were number based due to their fighting style.

'This makes the tournament so much more important.'

'If Usan becomes a powerhouse, he'd easily be able to grant me a supply of Rank 5 bodies.'

Who knew how long that would take, Liam thought. The Miracle Fruit wouldn't make him a Rank 6 straight away, but give him the necessary boost to become so.

Liam sighed.

'They've given the fighters 2 weeks this time to recover their strength.'

'I really need to make that Black Hole into a real spell, too. It's too valuable just to let it gather dust,' Liam thought. 

Liam had a bit of an egregious plan.

For a while now, he'd wanted to suppress a Rank 4's Beast Will. Circumstances didn't give him the chance, but 2 weeks were more than enough time.

Two things were needed for this process.

First was increasing the size of his Blood Shadow. Even before he attempted to contain a Rank 4 Beast Will, he'd have to prepare the materials.

Entering his Inner World, that was what Liam did for a week straight. Supplying gobs and gobs of his Blood to transfuse with his Blood Shadows.

Once it grew to a satisfying amount, Liam finally moved to the exciting part of it. The Beast Will itself.

Having fought with the three snakes, Liam realized how deadly toxins could be. Darkness was pretty much the perfect element for it, too. 

Usan had explained that Miasma Queen lamented over not having a darkness element. If she did, there was no doubt in his mind that she would have gotten stronger than the Luminous Light clan.

With all of that taken into account, Liam chose a certain… arachnid to take over. 

Since their bodies weren't the largest, they wouldn't take too much Blood Shadow from him, even saving some of it for a second or third Blood Bonded beast.

He honestly needed all the help he could get.

A week quickly passed.

***

It was time for his bout.

Liam had just about finished up with his training and nourished his body to its peak. With his powerful Blood, half a day was more than enough to get him going.

Liam looked at his shadow. If one paid close attention, they would see a mass of varying crimson irises peering through the sheet of darkness. 

Of a wolf, a twelve-eyed spider, and a hawk.

Liam smiled.

It was a success.

Suppressing a Rank 4 Beast Will put a significant strain on his mental sphere. Even with his incredible recovery rate, it took him 3 days just to regain the strength to cultivate.

But the result was more than satisfactory. 

Cheers and roars entered Liam's ears. The privacy wards for the Temple had been removed.

It was time to fight. 

Liam left the Temple, spotted the Monolith Lion, blurred forward, leapt incredibly high, then perched atop the beast.

As they arrived at the main field, Liam spotted who his opponent was. A severe, broad shouldered, short-haired man with a sturdy build.

His moniker was Shard of Earth. 

The man looked pissed for several reasons. Nobody wanted to look like a bully to others. At least, not in public. 

Having to fight a Mortal ranked cultivator made him and the clan look…shameless, for lack of a better word. 

He quickly wanted to get the battle over with and then hide from the public.

Liam's piercing eyes connected with him, and Shard of Earth grew stern.

[Don't be afraid to go all out. The Binding Oath is air-tight. Not even I can remove it, and I'm the one who put it there in the first place,] Usan transmitted to Liam.

Liam still didn't feel comfortable using his Ashura Form. Unless his life was in absolute peril, he wouldn't use it.

The Myriad gestured for the Secondary Fighters to approach.

Liam and Shard of Earth came face to face. Despite his taller stature, Liam had to look upwards to meet the man's hard gaze.

Surprisingly, Shard of Earth cupped his hands in respect to Liam. Zeniths didn't do that to Mortal cultivators.

"I'm sorry about this," the man said. Almost sounded genuine, too. "I honestly do not wish to fight you… but the Myriad Brush has put us as equals. Isn't that strange?" 

Shard of Earth narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"Indeed," Liam deadpanned. "Maybe you're just weaker than everyone else?"

Instead of bellowing out a curse word or two, Shard of Earth simply laughed.

"You're funny."

"Choose your rule," Myriad Brush announced.

Liam pursed his lips.

'Maybe that could work…'