A mark burned into his soul, searing with an unnatural heat, branding him with an energy so foreign that he was able to instantly sense it. Liam's eyes widened in surprise. This was the first time he experienced a unique soul attack that escaped his defenses.
The technique was quite good but unfortunately, he was the target. Looking at the man's confident smile indifferently, Liam proceeded to simply burn the mark right then and there and consumed the little soul energy that came along with it. Something precious like soul energy shouldn't be wasted.
To Liam's surprise, the mark once again showed up in his soul the next second. "Hmmm…" He hummed as he proceeded to burn it again and integrated the new bit of soul energy with his own. Sure, enough there was the mark again.
Everything happened too fast and by the time, the other person realized something was wrong, Liam had already consumed twenty such marks. "You? Who are you?" The man stuttered as he started taking steps back involuntarily, his hand reaching suspiciously close to the token.
Liam's figure instantly blurred as he appeared behind the man. Then without hesitation, a weak sword aura materialized in his hand. The sword aura sliced through the air, impossibly sharp, its edge gleaming with killing intent. It was weak in appearance, faint and almost translucent, yet the power it carried was anything but ordinary.
The man barely had time to react, as his body tensed, his hand reaching for the token. He did not think Liam would act so decisively. Usually many hesitate to act in system events hoping to not create an enemy out of a big clan. Who was this madman? Did he not know the etiquette?
He was completely shocked that his mind was still thinking of random thoughts as he reached for his exit tattoo. But Liam was faster. The sword aura descended, severing his hand cleanly. The man's eyes widened, his mouth opening in shock, but no words came out.
Time seemed to freeze and a new exit tattoo started appearing on the man's forehead. "I figured as much." Liam then proceeded to swing the sword again and this time a thin line appeared across the man's chest, a clean, precise cut that ran from his shoulder to his hip.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then, his body split apart, his torso separating from his legs, blood spraying on the desert sands.
Liam let his body fall and grabbed his soul. Just like the one before forging this one as well came quite naturally and he did not have to put too much effort into it.
He then reached for the body and lo and behold, he found ten system-sanctioned storage pouches. "Hmmm.. Rich guy. Thank you very much."
He bound the pouches and then looked inside to be pleasantly surprised. There were all sorts of herbs and basic system cauldron and other small ingredients required for potion making. So the system allows these?
The memories he was able to retrieve from this soul minion were quite vague. Liam had a feeling that the man had practiced some sort of soul memory-erasing technique. Considering that he was able to place a mark on his soul, this wasn't far-fetched.
He did recover some tidbits of information about how one could bring in many system store items into the event and about the tribulation lightning curse. Basically, the tribulation lightning attacked anyone who had claimed an artifact from these worlds.
And just like he had guessed, this wasn't about a single world. There were thousands of worlds in this particular event and somehow many clans including this guy knew about this event beforehand.
It was a random chance for a system event to turn golden and yet many clans had the ability to predict it. There were more memories about the two worlds this guy had visited but he had run away from both worlds without having explored anything.
Apparently, the world they were currently in was one of the 'major' worlds and he was waiting for one of the major worlds to jump into action. Lastly, there were a lot of details about the three wives he had. It looked like the poor chap loved them a lot.
Or at least he was horny as hell to spend a lot of time with them in bed. Most of his memories were filled with images of these women. It played out like a cheap porno in his head. Liam cringed and tried to quickly skip that part.
After some time, Liam allowed the soul minion to rest. He could always analyze it again at a later time. This way the soul would be more malleable.
And he was still confused about the rules but there was no point in thinking about this now. He had what he had and what he had was a decent variety of herbs. His eyes shone as immediately some ideas popped up in his mind.
Combined with his new alchemical knowledge, he knew exactly why this pervert had brought along these herbs and what they could be best used for.
After collecting everything including the dead body, Liam fled the scene of the crime and only stopped when he was several miles away. He then sat down comfortably to start his plan.
He was about to take out the system-sanctioned cauldron when he stopped. His hand went for the tattoo on his chest but a cold harumph stopped him. System-sanctioned cauldron it was!
He set up the cauldron and tossed some flames to ignite it. He then started throwing herbs one by one into the cauldron. Only when they were inside, he started separating out the essences. This way he was able to get more out of it. This was a technique he had picked up from the two transcendent souls.
He then proceeded to carefully mix the herb essences and tossed in a catalyst, the last part of the process. A very simple and straightforward method that was completed in a matter of seconds.
Now only the end part remained and for this he needed something from this world. Just as Liam was thinking about this, clouds started gathering over his head. "About time." He smiled.