Born in Blood



Making a spell for his chaos was much harder than Liam imagined.

It was a mere Rank 0 spell, yet it took Liam nearly a month to complete.

In reality, Liam was being extremely arrogant with his expectations.

On average, even Rank 0 spells took several months to make.

Of course, this wasn't considering the experience an inscription master was supposed to have to even attempt making one.

For someone who had been inscribing for more than two to three years, Liam's accomplishment was important. Grand.

He had broken world records, and he was completely oblivious. Only discontent with his progress.

Liam hadn't forged anything during the one month period. 

He put all his efforts into spellmaking. Only cultivating, training and studying in between.

Throughout the whole month, booms and bangs of every kind rang out from his quarters.

It got bad enough that Elder Jane had to investigate and ask him what it was.

Liam simply told her he was working on his forging abilities, and the Elder shook his head before flying away.

Liam rigorously had to practice his chaos in order to understand just how it worked.

That involved repeatedly using it in varying ways, and testing it on various subjects. 

Liam was already done with the Conceptualization/Visualization stage. He knew what he wanted, and he worked on making it a reality.

Even after his chaos transferred to the pearl from his core, Liam could take it out and use it with his Half-Human form. 

Just as he was half a human, he was half an Ashura.

Both of those abilities coincided with one another.

In fact, his control over the element had become stronger.

As Liam had consumed humans and Spirit Beasts alike, his chaos had gotten much more destructive and unstable. 

As long as the Chaos Pearl continued to expand, Liam's chaos would also grow more powerful.

'Controlled Chaos' was what Liam named his Rank 0 spell.

Of course, Liam's chaos wasn't controllable in the least.

It was destructive and wild, and any attempt to hold it down resulted in a loud boom that made his ears ring momentarily.

Liam merely found a way to delay the exploding effect.

Currently, Liam was standing in his room without a shirt covering his pale, muscular body.

Both his eyes were bloodshot, and his hair was unkempt and filthy. 

There was a large crater on the wall furthest to him, and similar dents covered his floor and ceiling.

In his hands, was a large parchment paper that was as big as his chest. Its surface was riddled with glowing, blood-red writings.

Liam heaved a short sigh.

Making a spell was no easy task. 

Liam had to absorb more blood than normal to make up for his lack of comprehension, which was why the parchment paper was so big.

'This better damn work.' 

Heaving another sigh, chaos gathered around the tip of Liam's index finger, creating a churning noise like that of condensing wind.

The space around Liam's fervent chaos bent outward. 

Like a reverse black hole that pushed away the light instead of absorbing it.

That effect was due to the sheer density and weight of Liam's bright-red chaos. 

…Probably.

Obviously, there were elements of his Primordial Essence that Liam really didn't know much about.

After all, Raast mentioned something about the whole world wanting it. 

All Liam did was make it explode on things.

He wasn't able to bring out its true potential. Not unless he understood it on a deeper level. 

Before the chaos exploded on his finger tip, Liam flicked it forward against the wall.

One second passed.

Two seconds passed.

BOOM!

On the third second, the small mass of chaos imploded, sending a shockwave throughout the space that made Liam's long hair and leggings flutter.

Liam nodded to himself in satisfaction.

All Chaos Control really did was delay the explosion of Liam's element for a few seconds. The more more chaos Liam used, the weaker the delaying effect would be.

That was the limit of Rank 0 spells. They only provided a bit of support or utility to the cultivator. 

'Delaying my chaos' explosion by three seconds might seem like less, but it's quite useful during battles. With it, I can throw it further distances and take people by surprise.'

'I won't have to get closer to Rank 4 beasts in order to damage them, either.'

The way Liam inscribed the spell was by combining aspects of other techniques.

With the King's Eye, he could see the meanings through the diagrams of other techniques and spells. 

However, that didn't mean Liam could instantly copy every spell he wanted and make it his own.

The Meanings, Links and Ink were separate parts, yet all three components were crucial for a technique to function properly. 

Liam could only vaguely sense the Meaning. The rest depended largely on him and his blood.

'Of all the spells I have, Surging Burst has the most potential to help me make a spell. It has destructive qualities similar to chaos.'

At first, Liam tried to condense his chaos and give it a sharpness or piercing quality, taking inspiration from Lethality Mantle and Umbral Needles.

He wasn't able to do so.

His element was just so abrupt and unstable, that Liam simply gave up on making something like that at his current level.

'Only, Surging Burst is a Rank 4 spell. I'll take inspiration from lower spells for now.'

Liam felt like an entire world of possibilities had opened up for him after successfully making a spell. 

'Nothing is impossible,' Liam smiled. 'But I can't afford to be tunnel visioned. I'll work on making an enhancement inscription in the third Rank next.'

'That way, I'll be ready for the Temple's assault.'

The Temple was planning an attack on a small-size Sect towards the borders of the island.

It was the Verdant Warrior Sect, consisting of nothing but brutish martial artists that fought with their bare bodies. 

They didn't believe in using external martial arts to fight. 

For this reason, they had cut off all communications with the surrounding Sects and became enemies with them, isolating themselves from the rest of the gangho.

This meant that, even if they were under attack, they would have no one to call for support.

That made them the perfect target for the Temple.

Another week passed, and it was time for Liam to apply his Shadow Tattoos.