Legacy of Hatred-Chapter 88: Invisible

Liam smelled the flask, savoring its fresh smell, before gulping down its contents. Melissa soon did the same, but he almost missed that due to the surprising effects spreading inside his body.

The elixir had a refreshing effect, quickly washing away Liam’s tiredness before filling his core with a strange vitality similar to when he consumed poison.

Liam’s core immediately started producing more Qi, and the process didn’t stop there. Even his circulation technique’s pace increased, refining more energy for his body.

’Whoa,’ Liam couldn’t help but exclaim in his mind at those tangible effects. The elixir boosted his recovery by almost half its original speed, confirming once again the value of alchemy.

Of course, the boost wasn’t miraculous. It didn’t immediately get Liam ready to fight at full power. Still, it remained a welcome advantage in that troublesome situation.

Liam guessed that the previous collapse had sent the packs into hiding, but that temporary safety dwindled with each passing second, especially with the four corpses spreading their bloody scent everywhere.

The sooner Liam moved, the higher his odds of avoiding a fight would be, which was a preferable outcome now that the injured Melissa had returned. Also, if the powerful snake or something as strong as it were to appear, a new collapse might unfold, and Liam didn’t know if he could survive it a second time.

So, Liam only sat cross-legged for a few minutes before standing up, properly inspecting the chamber. He could smell from which tunnel the red trio had come from, but his attention also moved to the other holes, unsure about what to do.

’We could leave,’ Liam considered. ’Melissa must know the way through that tunnel, and I can break the spikes before the hall, but ...’

The mission was theoretically over. The bright, yellowish mineral in the chamber had to be what Joel had been looking for, so Liam and Melissa only needed to bring it back to the surface to accomplish their goal.

However, Liam hadn’t decided to face those dangers just to do his Senior Brother a favor. He had ventured down there to get rewards for himself, and that desire had only grown stronger after discovering the affiliation with the Divine Cult.

’Am I being greedy?’ Liam wondered. ’Should I be satisfied with Neil’s magical weapon?’

If Liam had to be honest, he was far from satisfied. He wanted to seize something directly from the Divine Cult as compensation for what he had suffered. It would only be fair, but also potentially deadly.

’I have two good Seismic Palms left in me,’ Liam calculated. ’Three soon, thanks to the elixir. I could probably get to four in half an hour, but that’s too much dwelling in one place.’

"Say," Liam called, since his calculations alone couldn’t show the best option. "Is the place where you found the Water Shield nearby?"

Melissa had never dared to relax, both due to the place and Liam’s presence, so she was ready to nod at the question.

The news was more than welcome, but Liam suddenly noticed something odd. He hadn’t thought much about it earlier, but it sounded like Melissa knew exactly where they were, and not because she had just arrived at the place.

"You found this mine the last time, too," Liam realized.

Melissa’s expression grew even more emotionless, as if a detached resolve had invaded it, before performing a nod.

"And you didn’t bring anything back to Senior Brother Joel," Liam continued, only for Melissa to shake her head in confirmation.

"You didn’t even tell him about its existence ...," Liam added, partially talking to himself, "Because you wanted to be sure to come here again."

Melissa confirmed that reasoning with a serious nod, forcing Liam to consider the implications.

’But if she had told him ...,’ Liam thought before understanding dawned upon him. ’No. If Joel was certain the mineral was down here, he might have risked coming here himself.’

Melissa was ready to face Liam’s judgmental eyes. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She had looked out for herself like every cultivator should, but Liam was bound to see her differently from a simple ally in need after catching a glimpse of her cynical shrewdness.

Yet, to Melissa’s surprise, Liam couldn’t stop existing far outside the norms of her lived experience.

"Senior Sister sure is smart," Liam praised, feeling as if he had learned something new, only for his following words to go against that teaching, "But I don’t feel like tricking Senior Brother."

Before Melissa could say or gesture anything, Liam went to a hole he had spotted earlier that featured a particularly bright corner. Cracks also ran through its insides, allowing Liam to grab their edges and pull with all the strength he could muster.

The corner initially didn’t budge, only to suddenly detach itself from the wall, together with a few pebbles. Liam ended up with a mostly yellowish chunk the size of his hand in his palm, which he secured in his pouch before moving to a different location.

The previous collapse had opened a copious number of cracks in the chamber, so Liam had no shortage of brittle surfaces he could break with his bare hands. At some point, he even seized his victims’ pouches, stopping when he filled three to the brim.

’This is the most I can carry before it becomes a hindrance,’ Liam thought, weighing the three pouches with a hand before securing them on his back. ’How does one even eat metal anyway?’

That troubling thought didn’t stop Liam from returning to Melissa, who had remained silent throughout the process, seemingly agreeing with Liam’s decision.

"We should move now," Liam declared, offering his hand to the injured girl.

Melissa instinctively thought about ignoring Liam’s hand, but her ankle’s bandaged state told her that ship had sailed, and her detached behavior would only become a burden in that situation. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

However, as soon as Liam pulled Melissa up, he also brought her arm over his shoulders before securing her waist in his grasp, which would have made her jump on the spot if she hadn’t tensed up first.

"Did I hurt you?" Liam asked, feeling Melissa’s tension, only for her to point her wide eyes at him.

"What?" Liam wondered, genuinely confused.

And Melissa truly didn’t know what to make of that. Liam was touching her again. He was even closer than before, far closer than any man had ever been to her, but he seemed unable to see anything wrong with it.

It was almost as if Liam didn’t see Melissa as a woman or had no interest in women in general, which should have felt refreshing to her, but she experienced some annoyance instead.

There was a big difference between being respectful and not caring at all. Melissa seemed invisible in Liam’s eyes, which irked her. Luckily, Melissa could blame her conflicting reaction on the fact that she owed her life to him.

Yet, Melissa’s heart sank again when she recalled how sweaty she was, and Liam was bound to have noticed it, so she quickly lowered her head in embarrassment, focusing on the mission instead.

Liam’s actions were meant to help Melissa walk, but she wasn’t a powerless woman. She summoned her Qi and waved her right hand, releasing transparent vapor that quickly enveloped the two.

And, as Liam’s surroundings grew slightly hazy, Melissa forced herself to voice a short explanation. "In-nvisible."