Chapter 560: Underground

’Did something resonate with him?’ Liam wondered as his superhuman senses captured every aspect of the sudden attack.

Uriah hadn’t moved, but the world had still reacted, at least one element of it. It had taken but a tinge of his Qi to generate such a massive, destructive reaction.

Liam had already seen that ability. Dominic had been able to interact with the ground to some extent. The same went with Jessica and air, and Melissa and Lancelot had achieved something similar with water and fire, respectively.

There clearly were ways to interact with fitting elements. They wouldn’t be as strong as spells, but the results could still leave deep marks on the world for obvious reasons.

Branching experts were forces beyond the world. Just like Liam’s mere intentions could flatten the sand, he could achieve far greater results with poison, at least in theory. The issue was how.

As expected from a branching expert, mere rocky debris couldn’t be classified as an attack. Tides of dense, colorless Qi blew among the falling rocks, pushing them away before they could submerge the army, even fending off the dust in the air.

That revealed the rocky formation’s new state. A massive, horizontal groove scarred the slopes, and anger replaced the old woman’s submissive behavior when she looked at the damage.

"You think the Red Sandstorm Tribe won’t retaliate against blatant bullying?" The old woman cursed. "Attack!"

Battle cries resounded as the rooting and foundation experts charged. Uriah snorted and lifted his arm, triggering a similar reaction from his underlings.

Liam watched the allied experts rush past him despite being outnumbered, soon creating a vast battlefield at the area’s center. The rocks instantly shattered. Dust rose everywhere, only to be blown away by the following shockwaves. Chaos ensued, but he didn’t move.

Even before becoming a branching expert, Liam had surpassed that level. The battlefield’s size could have worried him back then, but he was far beyond it now.

Still, the weakness reflected in Liam’s eyes couldn’t distract him from the real threat. The old woman, Uriah, Amber, and even Rachel had yet to move, albeit the latter seemed eager to join the chaos.

The old woman eventually moved. The giant centipede she was riding quickly crawled past the battlefield to reach the married pair, lifting its body over two meters off the ground once it stopped.

"Stop this madness," The old woman requested, half-begging, half-cursing, staring down at the couple from atop the centipede’s head. "I mean no offense, but you know your daughter is more difficult than a beast tide."

Liam would have glanced at Rachel if something else hadn’t claimed his attention. He couldn’t sense it from the Qi, but his skin captured tremors, albeit they were too faint for him to calculate the distance.

’Is there a cloaking technique at work?’ Liam wondered as the conversation between leaders continued.

"So what if she is?" Uriah said. "As long as the Tribes even dare to think about enslaving her, they remain in need of correction."

"Blame my foolish son," The old woman argued. "And the company he entertained."

"Laurel, the Invincible Oasis Tribe is next," Amber interceded. "Are you willing to repeat this there?"

The old woman’s face grew grim. What the married pair wanted from her was obvious. Their decision to come to the Red Sandstorm Tribe first had also been part of their strategy.

Basically, by siding with the Dark Heaven Tribe against the Invincible Oasis Tribe, the Red Sandstorm Tribe would show its honesty. However, things probably wouldn’t end at that.

Of course, it didn’t help that Uriah wasn’t willing to listen to reason. The silver lining his wife had offered probably was Laurel’s best possible deal.

That possibility vanished as quickly as it came.

"She is lying," Liam announced.

Amber, Uriah, and Laurel suddenly turned toward Liam, showing the same surprise that had already afflicted Rachel. A giant chunk of dark metal, somehow equipped with a handle, had appeared in his hands, and he waved it left and right, occasionally slashing the air.

Liam hadn’t spent long adjusting himself to his new power. He had dealt with alchemy, which was the most important aspect of his journey. Through it, he had also achieved confidence in his superior energy, but his arsenal had much more.

’I can probably do it,’ Liam calculated. ’This won’t break that easily, will it?’

Rachel didn’t know what to think. Instinctively, she believed that hulking mass of metal couldn’t be that heavy given how Liam was juggling it.

Nevertheless, minerals were one of the southern region’s main trades, and Rachel had learned much about them as her parents’ daughter. Her knowledge provided impossible results, but what came next forced her to accept them.

"Don’t be near me when I fight," Liam warned, lifting the greatsword above his head.

Rachel gulped but stepped back under those feral dark eyes. She even jumped on her spear, retreating further in the air, before all her senses screamed in fear.

Liam didn’t have access to the body-enhancing pill, but his superior Qi still improved his physical prowess, and the breakthrough had raised it even further.

Black Qi escaped Liam’s figure as he poured all the strength he could muster into his arms. Rather than whips, entire clouds of dense, deadly energy expanded, enveloping him, before moving alongside his intentions.

The ground barely had the time to start melting before everything shattered. Liam brought down his weapon, and the world opened, unleashing apocalyptic shockwaves in every direction.

The branching experts on the scene endured the shockwaves, not even flinching. It still surprised them how Liam could unleash such destruction without using specific techniques, but the outcome was far more eye-catching.

A massive cavity had opened under Liam, his figure hovering above it, fighting against gravity. Still, the hole had less debris than expected, instead revealing a widespread array of underground tunnels.

And, among those tunnels, black centipedes were crawling, seemingly in the hundreds. They were level one and level two magical beasts, but their destination was obvious even from the ground’s ruined state.

Those creatures had been aiming to take the group by surprise, and that wasn’t all. Rachel was the only one who could have truly suffered from that attack, and the cry that followed showed that Uriah had understood that part.