Liam didn’t linger in the inspection of the boundless presence above. He had limited it to a glance, heading out right afterward, too used to the sight that awaited him in the corridor to give it any thought.

"Master," A foundation expert, a voluptuous young woman who didn’t hide her curves, greeted Liam with a deep bow. "Excellent fighting today, too."

The woman was a trap that no amount of jealousy from Grace could fix. She had no power over it, the decision being up to the branching expert in charge of the operation.

The trap was actually multilayered, giving insights into why the battle cages’ fighters became the mad dogs Lucas had mentioned.

The fights depended on the audience’s demands. It was entertainment after all. The match-ups were rigged to have as much shock value as possible.

There were also multiple fights a day. The cultivation world had no shortage of desperate souls, but the slots to fill remained plentiful. It wasn’t unusual for the same fighters to battle all the time. Liam himself had weeks where he had to go through multiple rounds without resting.

The strain and the cumulative injuries, coupled with the lack of proper rest and healing items, could weaken any mind, making it more susceptible to the traps.

With prostitution, booze, products specific to dissolute purposes, and healing devices as services, almost everyone ended up indulging in much-needed respite from the debilitating consecutive battles.

Naturally, the battle cages didn’t offer any of those services freely. With how little money the fighters earned, indulging in respite created a debt that would take years to pay off with wins alone.

It was a vicious cycle that became inescapable shackles, basically trapping the fighters inside the battle cages forever, at least until their dwindling sanity and injuries killed them.

Of course, none of that had worked on Liam.

Liam didn’t lack money. His finances were actually increasing due to everything he did while he wasn’t fighting.

Healing was of no issue, either. Liam had long since filled his stashes of recovery-oriented products. Moreover, it had been months since his last injury.

Booze and other substances didn’t have any effect on Liam. What he smoked on a daily basis was far worse, and he welcomed any tampering with what he ate or drank since it worked toward improving his cultivation.

As for the pleasures of the flesh, Liam’s brain didn’t work like that. Even when the leader kept Grace away for prolonged periods with some excuse, Liam had so much to do that his carnal desires never took priority.

Besides, since Grace was aware of those ploys, she never once failed to give Liam his fill when the opportunity presented itself. It had honestly gotten to the point where Liam looked forward to delays to enjoy how worked up Grace got.

It didn’t take long for Liam and the woman to arrive in front of the symbol that marked his cave. He sent her away with a glare before summoning a wooden token that made the wall move.

A big, furnished cave expanded in Liam’s view. The battle cages had long since upgraded his living conditions. He had earned as much, and he needed more space for logistical reasons.

Grace happened to be in the cave, sitting among piles of sheets, a long, flat piece of black jade with several symbols in her hand. The item was a communication device that could host multiple channels, a way to unite all of them into one.

Grace had collected almost a hundred by then. Liam couldn’t even imagine the constant buzzing in her mind, and didn’t envy her one bit. Despite that, she still threw a glance at him, checking for injuries before resuming whatever mental conversation she was having.

After six months, that had become routine. Liam removed his broken mask, closed the cave, and went for a board on his left, reading the lists pinned to it. Those were alchemical commissions, the reason why leaving had become a problem.

Alchemists truly were a rare breed, especially in an environment like the border. With ingredients flowing again, Liam had been able to concoct all the time, achieving something even the battle cages hadn’t expected.

Liam’s output was so plentiful that the battle cages had to expand their export multiple times, eventually reaching every criminal force on the border, creating a monopoly of rank 1 and 2 alchemical products.

It was exactly what Horace Rauret had done in the Pale Moon Sect’s neighborhood, just limited to Liam’s cultivation stage.

Initially, Liam hadn’t cared much about the matter. Money was coming in, and his skills were improving.

However, Liam had now mastered every rank 2 recipe and many experimental ones to perfection. Also, calculating the cut the battle cages took suggested a troublesome truth.

The battle cages were making mad money, meaning they would never let go of the treasure trove that was Liam. It was what the Roaring Thunder Sect had wanted the couple to become, just in a more veiled manner.

Liam and Grace hadn’t actually requested to leave, but the predicament was obvious. They had chosen to cooperate with an organization far bigger than them, and it would do anything in its power to trap them there.

’There should be plenty of envious parties,’ Liam thought, memorizing the items on the lists, ’But they are more likely to kill us than to help us leave and risk the enmity of branching experts.’

Receiving help from a different powerful force might also only amount to trading a jailer for another. Liam would have to handle the departure on his own, and plans had long since started forming in his mind.

Liam glanced at a corner of the cave with a series of shelves. His personal stashes of ingredients were so plentiful that his rings had run out of space months ago. He had more than enough to fulfill the new commissions, but his calculations were of a more ominous nature.

Afterward, Liam headed straight for Grace, slipping a hand on her waist while she was still conversing with one or multiple parties simultaneously.

Grace’s reddish canvas filled Liam’s mental eye. Her cultivation still had twenty-five colorless minor roots, but they were far brighter and sturdier now, strong beyond their natural state without growing any heavier.

Liam placed his ear on Grace’s chest next, closing his eyes. Her heartbeat resounded in his brain, but he also heard fainter sounds of far more ethereal nature.

A picture of the Qi circulating through Grace’s body formed in Liam’s mind. His senses had sharpened so much that he could recognize that movement, but that alone wouldn’t have been enough to spot details.

Liam had needed to memorize everything about Grace and multiple check-ups to learn to hear the changes in her meridians. They were improving steadily, gradually enabling smoother Qi circulation, their capacity having slightly expanded, too.

’She should be able to process an increased dose now,’ Liam decided, withdrawing himself, only for Grace to reach for his face, giving him a quick kiss before refocusing on her mental conversations.

Liam had to hold back a sigh as he left Grace to her tasks and retreated toward the shelves.

As busy as Liam was, his duties were relatively straightforward. He only had to fight and concoct. Sure, the latter demanded much thinking when it came to experimental projects like enhancing Grace’s cultivation, but everything still fell under alchemy.

Meanwhile, Grace had a central role in managing countless connections to various parties, a job that had become increasingly demanding the more the battle cages’ export expanded. She basically lived with that communication device in her hand and attended meetings every few days.

To make things worse, the couple was truly losing a lot of money due to the battle cages’ involvement. They needed that force to do business safely and with such a vast reach, but their earnings had suffered greatly.

Liam and Grace’s finances always increased. They never incurred any loss. It was mathematically impossible with how much Liam concocted and the nature of their business, but what they had earned on their own was far, far superior.

Those six months had netted the couple around two hundred thousand spirit stones each, which was an absurd sum, but barely a quarter of what Mairis had provided when they didn’t have additional cuts.

Such was the price of protection, of serving inside a force and benefitting from its established systems, and it had now become a limit, especially for Liam.

Liam got to smoking, barely experiencing anything. He had improved his poisonous powder multiple times in that period, even throwing away weaker stashes to maintain a speed of one root per week, but he had hit a barrier imposed by the very world.

At eighty minor roots, Liam was one root away from the utmost limit sanctioned by the Heavens, what nine spiritual roots could give birth to, and that without accounting for what his incomplete produberances already provided.

Liam stood on the threshold of what should exist under the sky. The world literally didn’t have anything suitable for him beyond that point. There was no more powerful rank 2 recipe. Anything better was in the third rank.

After the following minor root, Liam would go beyond the realm of the Heavens, with the only factor working for him being the unnatural compulsion caused by his core’s nature.

Still, even by creating powders with black alchemical flame alone, the growth would remain slow, consuming an unthinkable amount of resources. Liam simply couldn’t appease that hunger while suppressed by the battle cages.

Even if Liam took it slow and invested years in a safer approach, he risked incurring additional suppression. He was already facing it, too. His orders for poisonous ingredients were being delayed more and more every month, as if the battle cages were worried he might strive for the breakthrough.

Liam becoming a branching expert would enable rank 3 concoctions, but he would also be harder to control, so there was value in keeping him in the rooting stage.

’Yes, it’s time to leave,’ Liam decided unilaterally, checking his space-rings’ contents.

Despite the veiled suppression, the battle cages had made several miscalculations, the first obviously involving the fact that Liam needed rank 3 poisons for his breakthrough.

The second was that Liam produced his own venom. He might not use it as a nutrient, but he would never lack poisonous ingredients to concoct weapons.

As for the third miscalculation, Liam had actually already created a rank 3 poison, and the battle cages were becoming more of its target with each passing day.