Chapter 548: Armed

After the breakthrough, cultivators had to go through a secluded training period to master their new power, and Liam was no exception. Actually, that rule applied to him even more.

Just like everyone else, Liam had to get used to his new Qi and its capabilities. However, his body was unique, carrying the exceptional traits only the children of the Ancestral Beasts possessed.

Be it perception, physical prowess, or sheer resilience, Liam had to learn what his new body could do. He had to repeat what he had gone through in the battle cages, albeit not in such a lengthy manner.

There was also Liam’s main advantage, both as a cultivator and an alchemist. He was a branching expert now. His body was a rank 3 material, and it now produced rank 3 venom.

With rank 3 resources being so rare or difficult to acquire, Liam’s starting point in the branching stage was nothing short of absurd. He couldn’t use his new venom to strengthen his cultivation, but he would never lack weapons thanks to it.

Also, alchemy acted as a mirror of Liam’s standing in the world and life. By focusing on it, he could clear most of that adjustment period.

Liam started with rank 1 and rank 2 concoctions, using them to experiment with his new status.

Utmost perfection was at the core of Liam’s alchemy, so the recipes themselves didn’t change. Yet, his senses spotted far more variables now, and the new pace at which he lived allowed him to react to them all, even dealing with them before they could appear.

Having access to superior Qi even enabled a form of domination. The mental filters couldn’t stop Liam’s new energy from surpassing those weaker ingredients, influencing their behavior without altering the alchemical flame.

It was an expansion of the lack of shackles the world had on Liam. He could defy gravity and flatten sand with his mere will, his very existence applying pressure on those inferior pieces of the Heavens’ creations, and ingredients were no exception.

Particularly resilient ingredients that would have normally taken a whole hour to melt lost their structural integrity far sooner under the intent Liam expressed through the alchemical flame.

Uniquely brittle ingredients that required exceptional care remained in one piece far longer under Liam’s influence. He could force them to do so because his superiority as a living being allowed him to see and touch upon their intrinsic nature.

Mortals could change the flow of rivers by digging channels. Instead, branching experts could directly force the water to behave differently.

That godlike prowess turned out to be necessary once Liam moved to rank 3 concoctions. He had already completed a few of those through his great Master’s invention, but the breakthrough had opened his eyes to a requirement he had been blind to in the past.

The compound concoctions relied on Liam’s Qi reserves and his dantian’s unique affinity. It was why he could only apply them to poison-related products.

That turned out to be a sort of shortcut to what rank 3 ingredients truly demanded. They were also beyond the world, possessing natures resilient to external influences. Weaker beings couldn’t affect them, but Liam now could.

The influence Liam could now express was a key element in lowering the rank 3 ingredients’ resilience, their natural barriers, allowing him to refine them beyond the utmost toxicity his core enforced.

Horace Rauret had described as much in his inheritance, but Liam could finally see what he was talking about. Alchemy had gained a new layer, an additional aspect that Liam could only work around before.

’Alchemy is the art of harnessing, rearranging, and enhancing the properties the Heavens’ creations possess,’ Liam found himself thinking that line often between his concoctions, the description making far more sense now.

Instead of just alchemical flames of specific nature and skills, alchemy also needed a will capable of bending the world at that superior level. Higher beings wielded more profound powers, and they were a requirement to defeat the intrinsic barriers of higher ingredients.

That was a totally new field for Liam, like learning to wield a new limb enough to use it in alchemy, but training had always been his strong point, and his devotion to his great Master had strengthened it.

After almost three weeks of endless repetition and failure, some on purpose to strive for utmost perfection, Liam finally stopped concocting, having achieved confidence in that new requirement, as well as tangible results.

Liam heaved a tired sigh as he brought an empty flask to his mouth, pouring venom into it, placing it among the neatly arranged items at his side once it was full.

The rate at which Liam’s glands produced venom hadn’t changed. He could barely fill a few flasks every day, but each now carried a deadly rank 3 substance. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Nevertheless, the cauldron was the first item that stood out now that Liam had stopped to review his results.

The rank 2 cauldron had been spotlessly white, carrying the Church’s colors, as expected from Archbishop Ignatius’ inheritance. Yet, it was darker now, not grey, but darker nonetheless.

’With how intense my Qi now is,’ Liam thought, ’Influencing weaker items is unavoidable.’

Items could gain special traits and even proper wills after constant use. Branching experts could influence the world with their presence alone, so direct exposure to their Qi was bound to enhance those effects.

It might come a point when Liam’s cauldron would also gain unique properties, forcing an equally unique approach, which wasn’t ideal.

’Master’s cauldrons only gained his grumpiness,’ Liam paraphrased some teachings in his Master’s inheritance. ’I have my black Qi to watch out for.’

Liam could turn anything poisonous, and his cauldrons would be the main targets of his Qi. They would eventually gain that trait, tampering with every concoction.

Even classic healing pills could gain poisonous traits if the cauldron applied them. Liam wouldn’t be affected, but others would, and the alchemy his great Master had taught him couldn’t allow such flaws.

’A rank 3 cauldron would be more resilient to change,’ Liam considered. ’But nothing can resist my Qi. It will eventually affect it.’

The unavoidable issue only had one solution, one that added another headache to Liam’s already impossible journey.

’I need three cauldrons,’ Liam concluded. ’One just for poison, another for everything non-poisonous, and a third for the compound concoctions. Though the last will become poisonous, too, eventually.’

Liam had more cauldrons, but they were rank 1 items. Considering the branching stage’s length, he needed replacements that could last him a long time and that he could assign to specific purposes.

’At least two rank 3 cauldrons,’ Liam decided. ’This one will eventually be unable to produce anything non-poisonous, so I’ll keep it for the compound concoctions.’

As for where Liam would find those cauldrons, he had no idea. He simply knew he needed them if he wanted to continue doing general alchemy.

Liam moved his attention to the neatly arranged items at his side next, and that sight was far more reassuring.

Grace had refilled Liam’s stashes during the alchemical contest. However, he had given her everything else before the clash with the encirclement.

It wasn’t just to protect Grace. Since she would have been invisible during the fight, the goods were safer with her.

Except for alchemy-related and daily tools, Liam only had the fan, the greatsword, one copy of each martial art from the inheritance, and the rank 3 items the representatives had left him as insurance.

Such wealth was by no means small, especially considering Liam’s finances and the fact that he now had the mental capacity to bind the representatives’ items. Still, he had multiplied all that after three weeks behind a cauldron.

Through the Demoness’ remaining ingredients, Liam had concocted a batch of rank 3 smoking powder that would last him six months, but that had only been the beginning.

The dark-green rank 3 Poisonous Cloud pill Liam had made in the past was still there, albeit fifteen yellow ones with similar power now surrounded it.

Three rank 3 versions of the Master’s Pride were also there, surrounded by a handful of flasks full of the rank 3 venom.

That put the number of poisonous tools worthy of a branching expert over twenty, creating an unfathomable arsenal for someone who had just gone through the breakthrough.

Liam was basically armed to the teeth, and that wasn’t even the end. He had just done what his glands’ venom production had allowed him to, but more would come, and his stashes of complementary rank 2 ingredients weren’t empty yet.

’With my current stashes,’ Liam calculated, ’I can concoct ten more rank 3 Poisonous Cloud pills, but it’s almost time.’

The deadline had arrived. Liam had to go to the Dark Heaven Tribe to establish a foothold and a new channel for ingredients. He also had less than six months to secure another rank 3 poison for his core, and it was never too early to start working on that.

So, Liam stored everything back in his ring, putting alchemy on hold while summoning a long, greenish pipe made from a rank 2 alloy.

With so many inscription masters at the alchemical contest, Grace had taken care of that necessity, allowing Liam to smoke rank 3 poison right away without issues.