Liam snapped back to reality with a loud gasp, inhaling deeply as his eyes recognized the circular underground chamber, the green pool, and the old man standing at its edge.
Yet, Liam's surroundings failed to retain his attention since a warm, almost scorching sensation spread from his lower waist, filling his body and pressing against his skin.
The process was uncomfortable and painful. Liam felt as if the warmth was digging through his body, carving something from his very flesh to push it out.
And something did come out. Liam's eyes went wide when black spots expanded all over his body, assaulting his nose with their disgusting stench. All his pores were expelling a goo-like substance, immersing him in its terrible smell.
Just like Liam's ears, his nose was incredible, prompting him to dive into the green liquid that still surrounded him. Anything sounded better than the goo, but the pool betrayed him.
Liam barely had the time to immerse his head before the liquid's level fell. Whirlpools and waves formed as something sucked that green substance away, soon leaving Liam half-crouched over the pool's dry rocky bottom.
That sudden disappearance left Liam shocked, but something else soon occupied his mind. A hiss that spoke human words resounded in his ears, replacing the entirety of his thoughts.
'Kill them all,' The deep, ancient hiss said, triggering a far more painful reaction inside Liam.
The itch from the burn mark flared as Liam's body rebelled against its shape. His bones creaked, his muscles condensed, and his skin squirmed and stretched, sending him to his knees.
Liam screamed, only for an inhuman hiss to escape his mouth, silenced by the traumatic memories he had burned in his brain. His family's screams and the butchers' voices echoed in his ears to no end, threatening to split his mind.
Soon, Liam's knees also gave in. He crashed to the pool's bedrock, wriggling like a worm, stretching his limbs and arching his back to follow whatever process was afflicting his body.
"What is happening to me?!" Liam screamed again, this time managing to utter human words. He even heard his own voice despite the auditory hallucination in his ears.
"And so," Crazy Uncle muttered, "The Ancestral Snake shall be born once more."
Liam heard Crazy Uncle clearly, but his words made little sense to him. He knew the Ancestral Snake had led the battle against the Ancestral Dragon's side, but was also too in pain to focus on that connection.
"For the son of the Dragon has disrupted the balance in his pride," The old man continued, "So the Heavens delivered the Snake of Hatred's son as retribution."
Crazy Uncle lost Liam at that point, but the latter could start to relax since his painful symptoms were slowly fading. His writhing body was calming down, signaling the completion of that apparent transformation.
The auditory hallucination and itch didn't follow that trend, but Liam forced himself to inspect his state anyway. A splitting headache was afflicting his mind, blurring his vision. Still, he could confirm that his body carried no meaningful changes under the goo stains all over him, at least superficially.
Instead, Crazy Uncle did change. A trace of confusion leaked into his eerie gaze, making him inspect his surroundings, gradually taking over his whole demeanor. His straight stance faltered, and the same went for his feet. He stumbled, falling to his knees, slouching down once he looked at Liam.
"Was this my purpose?" Crazy Uncle gasped, distress and desperation surging in his expression as he looked at the moss-covered ceiling. "Oh, Wise Turtle, why have you condemned me to enable such horrors?"
Needless to say, Liam grew even more confused, but his body seemed to have recovered enough, too. He got on all four, fighting off his splitting headache and the voices in his ears, glancing past the empty pool's edge at the only man who could give him answers.
"A huge snake ate me," Liam explained, spitting out some of the disgusting goo that had accumulated in his throat. "It called me its son."
Crazy Uncle lowered his gaze, inspecting Liam through a mixture of helplessness and pity.
"We are all the mighty Ancestral Beasts' descendants," Crazy Uncle explained, "But on different levels. Their sons and daughters are the closest, acting as sole heirs of their nature and legacy."
Liam began to understand something at that point.
Each Ancestral Beast had multiple unique titles. The Ancestral Dragon was the Dragon of Perfection and Pride, just like the Ancestral Snake was the Snake of Envy, but also Hatred, which was what Liam had heard at the end of his dream-like experience.
"Ten years ago," Crazy Uncle continued, "I foresaw the Ancestral Snake's son's awakening and urged the Dragon King for restraint."
'Was the story about the Dragon Palace true?' Liam wondered but remained silent.
"But the King is the Ancestral Dragon's son," Crazy Uncle added, lowering his face in shame, "And his pride in his perfection turned into arrogance, mandating the Bloodline Screening to flush out the seed of Hatred."
Crazy Uncle's way of speaking wasn't exactly understandable for a mountain boy like Liam, but something clicked at those words, prompting an instinctive reaction.
Liam darted ahead, leaping over the empty pool's edge, the hatred he had carried since the tragedy from ten years ago exploding in ways he had never experienced. That single jump brought him directly to Crazy Uncle, slamming him on him and pushing him down.
"Is the Bloodline Screening your fault?!" Liam shouted, pressing on Crazy Uncle's shoulders, keeping him down.
The sudden assault didn't faze Crazy Uncle. His eyes started to wander, losing focus, while his mouth muttered an answer. "I trusted the Dragon's son as the Wise Turtle did during the clash among the Ancestral Beasts."
Crazy Uncle's words were once again unclear, but enough to push Liam over the edge. The details were blurry, but the old man seemed to have admitted to having caused the process that had led to Liam's family's death.
'Kill!' Another human hiss resounded in Liam's ears, clearing his mind of every hesitation, urging him to let his foul feelings take control.
Liam didn't ask questions anymore. His fists began to speak for him as he slammed them down, repeatedly hitting Crazy Uncle's face with all the strength he could muster.
Nevertheless, Crazy Uncle didn't move at all. His face seemed made of unbendable metal as it endured and ignored punch after punch, his gaze stopping to point at the mossy ceiling to look at something far beyond it.
"Oh, Wise Turtle," Crazy Uncle called, the punches not affecting his voice at all. "What new madness have you compelled me to unleash? Are humans nothing but pawns in the eyes of the Ancestral Beasts?"
"It's because of you that my family is dead!" Liam shouted, his punches growing heavier, discovering new strength he didn't know he possessed.
Tears started streaming down Crazy Uncle's eyes, but not due to the incessant barrage of punches. His mind wandered, and the same went for his gaze as terrible memories filled his brain and leaked out of his mouth.
"All those children …" Crazy Uncle wailed. "Countless dead, and even more branded for life to search for the promised enemy I was destined to awaken."
Liam felt no pity at that wail. The foulness inside him only intensified, drawing warmth from his still-hot lower waist, granting even more strength to his punches.
"Could I have avoided this destiny had I remained by the Dragon's son's side?" Crazy Uncle asked to no one in particular, the skin on his face finally showing signs of breaking. "Or was this madness necessary to create the demon who could restore balance?"
"What destiny?!" Liam shouted. "Who cares?! Look at me! We didn't have much, but we were happy!"
"Oh, Mad Turtle," Crazy Uncle muttered, continuing to ignore Liam. "Curse you and all the Ancestral Beasts. May your fate be worse than the Dragon Kingdom's."
Small red spots formed all over Crazy Uncle's face as the barrage continued, but no blood spilled out. Liam truly couldn't understand what that old man was made of, but didn't care. He seemed possessed. Even if his hands broke, he would crush that skull.
But Crazy Uncle's gaze finally focused and pointed at Liam, a trace of mad resolve seeping into it and his following words. "Come on, son of the Snake. Is this all the heir of an Ancestral Beast is capable of?"
The challenge plunged Liam's mind deeper into the hatred that had submerged it, drawing even more warmth from his lower waist. He halted the barrage, only to join his fists and resume slamming them down repeatedly.
"Harder, child," Crazy Uncle urged. "I forsook my defenses and withdrew my Qi. If you can't kill me like this, you can forget about your revenge."
Liam didn't know how, but his joint punches grew even heavier. He kept getting stronger, shouting in anger, reaching the point when his body failed to withstand it.
The skin on Liam's hands broke due to his blows' might, spurting blood everywhere, but also leading to results. Faint cracking noises and sensations spread in the air and through Liam's arms. The rocks around Crazy Uncle's head had begun to break, and the same went for his skull.
"Good! Again!" Crazy Uncle shouted. "Kill me! Make me pay for what I've done! Stay true to the seed of hatred the Ancestral Snake planted in you!"
Liam lifted his arms higher than ever, launching a primal shout, before slamming them down. His joint fists finally broke through Crazy Uncle's metal-like skull, digging into his head, squashing his brain into a pulp, and sending his gory insides everywhere.
Yet, before Liam could realize what he had done, Crazy Uncle's voice resounded once more, this time echoing through the air instead of coming from the mangled head under him.
"I wonder, young Snake," The voice said, "Will you follow the Ancestral Beasts blindly and lose yourself as I did, or will you find the strength to be more than a pawn?"