The Abyssal Needle entered through the eye socket and simultaneously exploded.
It gushed with dark flames and covered the head of the crane with a cloud of smoke.
The Zenith inside fumbled wildly.
By extension, the crane trashed all around and lost control. .
Flames spewed through its beak and sputtered, but that stream of fire didn’t have a target.
Defensive membranes of water gushed in and out through random parts of its exterior, even though there weren’t any attacks aimed at those areas.
It fell back and waved its wings like it was performing a shoddy dance, hitting only air.
The Elders didn’t wait a single second to exploit its wide openings.
All six of them targeted different areas of the giant crane, but they weren’t as harsh as expected.
Why break down such a powerful asset?
They were going to claim it for themselves!
Meanwhile, Liam was rapidly plunging to the ground.
A pained grimace was on his face, and his right arm was charred to a crisp.
He got too close to a battle between Zeniths for merely a second and paid the price.
His head felt drained of mental energy due to the pressure exerted from the various auras.
If Liam’s Ashuran body didn’t numb mental waves to a certain extent, he wouldn’t have been able to land the needle at all.
‘That was close.’
Despite plunging from such a high altitude, Liam had a nonchalant look.
Just below him, the Shadows were prepared to soften his blow as he landed, which he did without issue.
Liam heaved a slight breath as he got up.
He ignored the shocked and amazed looks shot his way and watched the battle.
The crane still trashed left and right, attempting to shake away the dark smoke.
But the Berserker Hound ignored the noxious gasses and lurched at the crane’s head like a beast, his hand reaching inside the eye socket and yanking out the person inside.
The golden-robed Zenith coughed violently, his eyes squinted in pain.
His long blonde hair had been reduced to ugly clumps.
His skin had turned red and bloody, but no bone or deep muscle tissue was visible.
When the Zenith finally opened his eyes and stopped coughing, he sucked in a cold, fearful gasp.
The Berserker Hound’s enraged face was an inch away from his.
Ryu tilted his head back, before striking his forehead against the Zenith’s.
BOOM!
And again—
BOOM!
And again—
BOOM!
By the end, the man’s face didn’t resemble a face anymore.
The other Elders pulled out the five Golden Cranes hiding inside the golem’s body.
Something as powerful as the crane golem used massive amounts of mental energy and ‘Ora’.
They had been siphoned of all their strength and couldn’t retaliate.
However, they weren’t executed, but subdued.
Even the one who had his face crushed by Ryu, the Patriarch, was left alive.
Not only that, a large group of Golden Crane disciples weren’t killed.
They were talented inscription masters, after all.
With a bit of torture, they could be made into assets that worked for the Temple.
No Sect Elder or Patriarch would want their disciples slaughtered in front of them.
Still, they were thoroughly “subdued”, which was awfully similar to what Ryu did to the Patriarch.
By the end of it, the two battles were over and done with.
Liam heaved a long, tired sigh.
The refreshing light of dawn started to shine over the horizon, painting the skies a gentle amber.
Finally!
Now, the Temple owned more than 40% of the island!
Now, they could attack the Ravenous Leash Sect!
…However, they lacked manpower and numbers.
Large-size Sects had numbers up to the ten thousands.
They owned a massive chunk of the island after all.
They could facilitate that kind of growth with the resources available.
Even with the Raging Wolf Sect joining the Temple, it wasn’t nearly enough.
Pretty soon, the bounty hunters would spread to major islands and start sniffing every corner.
But there was a deeper reason why the Golden Crane was the next target, and why so many of them were kept alive.
If the Temple couldn’t overpower the Ravenous Leash with their numbers… they could overpower them with preparation!
Inscribed items, Formations, armor, weapons, everything.
This was the power of preparation!
‘When is this damn Patriarch going to come out? Why are we so confident in his abilities anyway?’ Liam thought, annoyed.
Liam knew too little about the Unforgiven Shadow. Not even his Rank or name.
The Elders were strangely quiet whenever Liam tried to probe for info.
Not out of mistrust, since everyone else was as clueless as he was about the guy.
Nevertheless, the Unforgiven had to be strong enough for the Elders to put so much trust in him.
As he took himself out of his thoughts, Liam looked around.
Acolytes that watched Liam’s craziness unfold gawked at him blankly, but Liam already began salvaging the remains of the Sect.
///
Several things happened over the next few weeks.
Firstly, the Temple was given a deadline until the Ravenous Leash’s attack.
One and a half months.
Until that time, every single acolyte had a duty to accomplish.
Martial arts were learned, strategies were written down, inscribed weapons and armor were made, and more.
The Golden Crane Sect was way more compliant than the Temple initially thought they were.
It helped that the Elders threatened to slaughter the disciple’s one by one, but still.
Liam, on the other hand, focused on making Abyssal Needles in exchange for pills and elixirs.
Merit points basically weren’t applicable to him anymore due to his status within the Temple.
The Elders absolutely loved his morbid and cruel invention.
Especially since they won the battle against the Golden Crane Sect because of it.
Obviously, it wasn’t as powerful as Elder Aki’s explosive items.
But one was a Zenith.
And the other was a Mortal.
Even replicating that effect was extraordinary.
And exactly one month later, something amazing happened.
Liam’s sea of consciousness was undergoing a change.
