Chapter 545: Breakthrough

Grace got the chance to share everything she knew about the southern region during the seclusion. Liam also resumed his sword training and did a much-needed inventory, even reviewing the escape from the Church.

Yet, all that was merely complementary to the main task. Liam almost never stopped smoking, single-mindedly prioritizing completing the rooting stage.

There were only four minor roots left, but Liam’s growth had slowed down to a crawl despite how many nutrients he absorbed, and the trend worsened as days and weeks passed.

But Liam had nutrients and time. Price wasn’t an issue, and cutting sleep to make it by the deadline quickened his pace, eventually leading to what he had been waiting for.

The air around Liam suddenly twisted. The surfaces in that underground room couldn’t creak, but pressure landed on them. Something had happened, and he only had to send his mind to his reddish canvas to confirm it.

It had taken a little over two months, but the job was done. Liam’s cultivation didn’t have incomplete protuberances anymore. One hundred fully developed minor roots now quivered with power.

And Liam felt superiority, far more than when he had crossed eighty-one minor roots. The world began to bend at his gaze, as if he were a higher being unshackled by its limits. He wasn’t where he had seen branching experts be, but he was on the very verge.

The quasi-stage truly took meaning there. Liam could feel in his bones the threshold only available to him, but he limited the experience to a quick recording into his green jade before going to sleep.

Things had changed greatly since Liam’s previous breakthrough, be it in confidence, skills, or sheer preparation. Once he woke up fully rested, he only had to take out two items to be ready.

One of the items was a classic rank 2 healing pill. Liam had wasted many during the Church’s encirclement, but the remaining stashes were more than enough for himself.

Instead, the second item was something Liam had created while flying through the northern region. He had used some of the Demoness’ rank 3 ingredients to concoct the rank 3 version of the Boar’s Touch, preparing in advance for the breakthrough.

’What will happen now?’ Liam wonder. ’Will I see the Ancestral Snake’s memories again?’

The thought ended there. Liam didn’t waste time admiring his growth or guessing what unique surprises the breakthrough had in store. He directly placed the healing pill between his teeth before gulping down the Boar’s Touch.

While rank 2 resources had lost effectiveness inside the quasi-stage, Liam had never dared to use rank 3 poisons as nutrients. He could close that gap while fighting by deploying multiple strategies and weapons, but he knew his being wasn’t there yet.

The experience that followed proved Liam right. It was the third time in his life ingesting the Boar’s Touch, but everything was instantaneous now.

There were no delays, phases, or whatnot. Liam’s torso immediately fell prey to a deadly paralysis, his organs shutting down as a substance even his cultivation couldn’t process invaded his body.

Liam barely had the time to crush the healing pill between his teeth before even his throat fell prey to the paralysis. His body became an unresponsive cage so quickly he didn’t even feel the pain of the poison corroding his insides.

Despite the healing pill, the paralysis or inability to breathe didn’t wane. Liam suffocated while that product bought his cultivation time to process a poison far beyond its status.

And it soon became clear that Liam’s cultivation couldn’t succeed. No matter the quasi-stage and the unheard-of affinity to poison, his body just couldn’t keep up with that deadliness. Some of it would remain even once it reached full capacity.

Still, Liam didn’t panic. It really didn’t matter in his mind. That was the only way for him to reach the higher stage, so he had ingested that poison knowing that the breakthrough would be do or die.

So, Liam waited until the glassy representation of his cultivation was ready to burst due to how much energy it had accumulated. He almost fainted due to the banging pain in his mind, but his remaining sliver of awareness succeeded in sending all that power toward the barrier he felt.

Chaos followed, albeit Liam missed its most intense phases. He actually fainted, only for the storm inside his body to awaken him, his mouth snapping wide, releasing a monstrous hiss.

Something changed, but Liam wasn’t in the right mind to inspect it. He felt his cultivation grow, energy deeper than anything he had ever wielded flooding his core and replacing the weaker one in his meridians.

The hiss Liam shouted had also come from the depths of his mind, filling it, carrying the Ancestral Snake’s voice, generating an explosive reaction.

As soon as new Qi filled Liam’s meridians, he unleashed it, blowing it out of his figure. Rather than whips, dense black tides exploded outward, and the underground room crumbled before their violence.

The night sky appeared, but tides of sand tried to cover it, only for nothing to arrive. The room’s destruction should have buried Liam, but the Qi that kept blowing out of his figure fended everything off, transforming it.

Every surface, be it the remnants of the underground room or the sand, melted, turning into a toxic slime that started releasing dark fumes.

Yet, Liam couldn’t watch those changes. He had somehow ended up on all fours, his tissues twisting and wriggling, his bones creaking, his mouth replacing the deafening hiss with a blinding pain.

There was some discomfort, too, which Liam forced himself to look at through his teary eyes. His skin had darkened due to the smelly impurities the breakthrough had expelled, but they seemed flattened, as if stuck to him.

Liam reached for his arm, wanting to wipe the impurities away, only for his hand not to touch them. He rubbed the same spot multiple times, increasing his strength, until his skin broke.

A tear had opened, running over most of his forearm, but there was no blood. The impurities even leaked from that opening, and Liam understood what was happening only after he grabbed one of the apparent wound’s edges.

That was Liam’s skin, but it was too thin, and pulling it was even rather easy. Besides, the tear was no wound. His actual flesh was under the layer of impurities.

’I’m molting?’ A thought broke through all the pain Liam felt, but that wasn’t the end.

Liam’s body slowly stabilized, but something wouldn’t stop hurting. His mouth, specifically his teeth, kept being on fire, and bringing his hand there delivered answers.

Behind all four of Liam’s canines, new sturdy, thin, curved, and sharp teeth had grown, dripping with the yellow venom his glands produced.

It seemed Liam had been right on the mark. He had truly grown fangs.