Chapter 543: Foothold

Liam didn’t need to ask. Building a force had always been an option. It was the only one at that point, and Grace had all the right cards despite his absence.

Actually, the cards couldn’t have been better even if the couple had tried. The common enemy and near-death experience had brought many powerful experts together, unifying them under a single banner. Grace only had to transform them into a true force now.

’A Patriarch, huh,’ Liam thought. ’Like Sect Leaders.’

Honestly, Liam didn’t care for leading, but that indeed was a requirement to steer the eventual force in the direction he and Grace needed to fulfill their goals.

However, even if Grace hadn’t been set on putting Liam in charge, his view on the matter wouldn’t have changed. Underlings were an extension of teammates in his mind, meaning he had to protect them, meaning he had to be strong enough to do so.

Strength would also be the greatest deterrent against enemy attacks. It was a requirement to allow the eventual force to exist, reinforcing Liam’s idea to use the time until the reunion to transform into a creature that couldn’t be defied or suppressed.

The mental conversation wasn’t over. Flirting and updates aside, Liam planned to double-check things with Grace often. No matter how young she had been, she also had knowledge of the southern region, which Liam would benefit from, but all that could come later.

Liam might be alone now, but he had graduated from the Grace Academy to the point where she welcomed his counsel. He was in foreign territory, having little to no knowledge about it, but he knew exactly how he had to move.

The mental conversation ended despite neither side mentioning it. Liam stored the black jade, his smiling, more relaxed expression making way for the all-devouring predator as he refocused on the beauty in his grasp.

The woman had tried to trick Liam, which meant death in his vocabulary. Yet, she had also cooperated after understanding her place, meaning Liam could use her to establish his first foothold in the southern region.

Liam had even heard the shouts during the chase and seen how the two he had killed had behaved. Such arrogance was foreign to lone cultivators. He wasn’t sure how Tribes fared in the cultivation world’s political landscape, but they had to be at least important enough to be useful.

"You," Liam called, lowering the woman to his face. "Do you want to live?"

The smiles Liam had shown during the mental conversation had eased his terrifying presence, allowing the woman to catch her breath, but the fiend had returned.

"Y-yes!" The woman stammered through her entrapped throat. "Big Brother, this little Sister was wrong. If you forgive her, the Dark Heaven Tribe will undoubtedly compensate you and welcome you as an honored guest."

Liam didn’t show it, but his presence grew heavier at the last part of that statement. His questions had exposed him, but the woman had also been smart enough to understand what he needed and likely sought.

’Parents,’ Liam recalled key details from the shouts. ’Daughter of the Dark Heaven Tribe. She might be the princess Grace didn’t have the opportunity to be.’

Liam had inevitably drawn parallels to Clans or the important families the Enforcement Guild seemed to have. The woman’s apparent high status could mean that he had struck gold, but there was a dark side to that coin.

Establishing a connection with important people was the best possible first step in a foreign environment. Yet, it could also open Liam to ploys and retaliation.

Liam might use the woman as a hostage, only to be betrayed once he released her. The Tribe’s infighting could also make her disposable. That force could even have a leafing expert, rendering any negotiation pointless.

Still, asking would reveal more of Liam’s ignorance. He believed his senses could catch any lie, but the woman might simply not know about her Tribe’s true power. After all, she was just a rooting expert.

To make things worse, Liam didn’t plan to drag the woman to her Tribe. He had to do something first, and he had to be alone and untraceable. He couldn’t risk distractions or people trying to free his eventual hostage.

A flask with a pale-yellow liquid materialized in Liam’s hand, and he brought it to the woman’s mouth, uttering a cold order. "Open."

The woman couldn’t even think of refusing. She opened her mouth, and Liam poured the Qilin’s Idea down her throat, relaxing his grasp so that she could swallow.

"Only I have the antidote for this," Liam said. "So, don’t even try to run."

That was the absolute truth. The Qilin’s Idea had been the greatest beneficiary of the period in the battle cages. Its first iteration’s antidote didn’t need Liam’s blood due to its weaker intensity, but it had now become a crucial ingredient, the only thing that could work.

The woman nodded slowly, and Liam released her on the silver spear that had continued to hover nearby. He headed for the ground afterward, planning to loot the two corpses, only to be interrupted as soon as he had started undressing them.

"Big Brother, I wouldn’t do that," The woman warned, having followed Liam to the ground. "All cultivators with status in the Great Quiet Desert carry multiple tracking methods. Even a native like me wouldn’t be able to spot them all."

The warning had been serendipitous. Liam could feel when he was being watched, but Whispering Wind had already proven how his superhuman senses couldn’t protect him from everything the cultivation world possessed.

Even if Liam eventually noticed something, the warning might have arrived too late for him to escape eventual encirclements or worse.

Liam was beyond what rooting experts, even wealthy ones, could offer. Even looting Guild branches couldn’t satisfy his needs anymore, so he didn’t mind avoiding scavenging.

Instead, the warning brought Liam’s feral gaze back to the woman. She could have easily said nothing after all.

"Why did you tell me?" Liam asked bluntly.

Despite the danger the woman felt, she wore a bitter smile, glancing at the fan hovering next to Liam before refocusing on him.

"I do not wish to bring death to my Tribe," The woman explained.